Heaven and Hell

4th Chapter - Forte and Weakness

(September 1971)

The first day of school had come and flashed by, and the second day had followed suit quickly. Serena was in high spirits. She'd fallen in love with Hogwarts the very first school day. The lessons were interesting and there was so much to learn that it perhaps was even enough to gratify her tremendous thirst for knowledge.

She contrived to hang on Professor Binns' words all throughout the lesson while he droned about History of Magic. Most of the other students had fallen asleep out of boredom after only a couple of minutes.

Transfiguration with Professor McGonagall was her favourite subject. The professor had transformed both herself into a cat, and later her desk into a pig. Serena had been extremely impressed and craved to learn to do the same as soon as possible.

But after taking a lot of complicated notes, the students started with something easier. Their first task was to transfigure a match into a needle. It turned out to not be nearly as easy as it had looked when Professor McGonagall had demonstrated it. Many students tried in vain. The first one who managed the transfiguration had been her brother, James. Serena had overheard him whispering to Sirius that it was only a matter of concentration - to imagine a needle and to firmly believe that the match would turn into one. She had taken James' advice and a few minutes later she had a silver match lying on her desk, and the similarity to a needle increased with every new attempt. There had been only two other pupils besides Serena and James who had made any progress until the end of the lesson and who hadn't been incredibly frustrated. They had earned five points each for their Houses.

When the Sorting Hat had made Serena a Slytherin, James had been outraged. Not until today, three days later, had he overcome his initial shock and spoken to her again. Albeit she wanted to keep some distance to him, he was her brother and she cared a lot about his opinion of her. So she was very relieved when they had talked things out after breakfast. She had been able to convince him that she certainly wouldn't mutate into a Dark witch all of a sudden just because she was in Slytherin House.

And last but not least, Serena's supposition had been confirmed. Most of the Slytherins were indeed better than their reputation. She stood especially well with Severus, the boy from the train. She didn't care if and what the others rumoured about his family. They had made close friends within a very short time and were seldom seen without the other.

'If things continue to develop so well, I'll be in the clouds at the end of the week,' Serena thought blissfully while climbing the stairs to the Potions classroom.

The classroom was located in a small tower at the south side of the castle. It was circular, and huge windows were set into the white walls all around, so that the sunlight could come in and make the room bright and warm. The space between the windows was occupied by high shelves that bore all sorts of bottles, vials, test tubes, beakers, and jars, except for the wall behind the teacher's desk, which was covered by a large blackboard.

Their teacher, Professor Godpot, was a small, old wizard with lots of wrinkles and short, snow-white hair, which was almost as white as the headmaster's. He walked with a noticeable stoop and was never seen without his gnarled stick, which he supported himself with.

"He looks as if he was here only because he's forgotten to retire," Severus whispered in Serena's ear shortly after the lesson had begun. Both snickered quietly, but Professor Godpot had still keen ears despite his old age, and he deducted five points from Slytherin.

It was their first Potions lesson and Professor Godpot wanted the students to start with something easy (as they were told in each class so far, Serena noticed) - a potion to cure boils. While weighing her dried nettles, Serena could suddenly feel an increasing tickle in her nose. Before long, it reached the point where she couldn't suppress it any longer and gave in to the urge to sneeze. The nettles, a neat heap on the scales beforehand, were blown away in filthy green billows. When she crawled under the table on all fours to pick them up she heard half-suppressed laughter ripple up, primarily from the side of the classroom where the Gryffindors sat.

'Well,' she thought stubbornly, 'Shit happens. But I won't let it spoil my good mood.' Trying to ignore the snickers, she collected the nettles with a stony face and as much dignity as she could muster.

But Potions simply wasn't her field. Only a few minutes after spilling horned slugs all over the desk, Severus could only just prevent her from throwing a frog toe into the cauldron.

"Can't you be more cautious!" he snapped. "You have to take a salamander toe. Frog toes reverse the effect of most potions. Or do you want to get boils?"

Serena was taken aback. "How do you know? Did you already try?"

"My father works for the apothecary in our village. He brews potions at home for the apothecary's customers for a living. I've had to help him ever since I was six."

"Wow! I'm totally inept with potions. Two years ago, I wanted to help my mother with an easy Sleeping Draught. The end of the story was that the basement had to be renovated. I was never again allowed to help her."

"Really?" Severus asked in disbelief, "There's actually a subject which the amazing Serena is bad at?"

She gave a hollow laugh. "Bad is an understatement. You should better say disastrous."

* * *

It didn't take long to convince Severus that Serena hadn't exaggerated. Ten minutes later he could hear her grumble, "What a bloody nuisance! I hate this blasted subject!"

"What is it now?" he asked, looking at her. Seeing the answer made him groan inwardly. Serena had tried to grind snake fangs. Actually that ought to result in white powder, but Serena's powder was stained with red blotches.

"My finger got too far into the mill. I'm afraid I've rasped off some of my fingertip. Damn it!" She held up her left index finger and collapsed into her chair.

Finger pads are very well supplied with blood, and so it gushed from the wound like mad, making the injury looking far worse than it really was. Quickly wrapping his handkerchief around Serena's finger, Severus lectured her, annoyed, "My goodness! It can't be that difficult to use a mill! Not to mention the fact that you weren't supposed to grind the fangs, but to crush them in your mortar! Maybe you should pay a bit more attention!"

He wasn't sure if she really had heard what he'd said because she stared with wide eyes at his handkerchief that was turning crimson red at a frightening speed, and didn't answer.

Professor Godpot, who had overheard their exchange, stepped to their desk. "Miss Potter, come along! I'll take you to Madam Pomfrey. She'll heal your finger in a minute... Miss Potter, aren't you well?"

Serena looked quite sick indeed. Her face had become whiter than the limestone wall of the classroom. "I'm ok," she answered with a voice that betrayed her words, "It's just that I can't stand the sight of -"

She didn't get her sentence finished. Instead, her eyes rolled into her head until only the whites were still visible. A second later her head tilted forward and landed with a dull thud on the tabletop, narrowly missing the bowl with ruined snake fang powder.

"Serena!" James cried, jumping up and trying to get to his sister.

But the professor stopped him, "Sit down, Mister Potter! She's only fainted. I'll take her to the infirmary." And speaking to the whole class he continued, "Listen: you'll be very sorry if one of you causes commotion meanwhile. Mister Potter, Mister Snape, you're responsible for keeping everything quiet."

Professor Godpot conjured up a floating stretcher, laid Serena down on it, and left the room with the stretcher in tow. Ten minutes later he returned alone, and the rest of the lesson passed without further incident.

* * *

At noon Serena resurfaced. She had got some colour back on her face and her finger was as good as new. While she sat down at the Slytherin table next to Severus a plate with lunch appeared in front of her.

"Hey, everything well again?" Severus asked between two bites.

"Yes, I feel wonderfully well. Madam Pomfrey gave me chocolate. It was sooo delicious! And she'd healed my finger even before I woke up."

At that moment she caught a glimpse of Sirius at the Gryffindor table. He stared horrified at his finger and then pretended to pass out. Some students around him laughed. James gave him a smack at the back of his head and looked over at the Slytherin table with concern. Serena's expression darkened considerably.

"Don't take it to heart," Severus said, trying to cheer her up. "Tomorrow at the latest, there will be another earth-shaking incident, which these silly fools have to laugh about. By the way, here are the notes from the lesson. I've also gathered your stuff and brought it with me."

"Hey, that's really nice of you! Thanks, Sev."

"Never mind. And my name is Severus."

"I know."

"Then don't call me Sev!"

"Oh, come on, Severus is so awfully long. I always abbreviate the names of my friends. I suppose you'll just have to learn to put up with it."

"No, I suppose you'll have to learn to use my correct name," Severus answered back.

"As you wish, Sev," Serena replied distractedly, occupied with glaring daggers at Sirius.

Severus grumbled something, which sounded like 'never' and 'ridiculous'. Miffed about being ignored, he polished off his lunch, stabbing at his potatoes with a bit more vehemence than necessary.

* * *

Like the sun, Serena's great spirits of the morning had gone down completely in the evening. She'd got the impression that everyone had heard about what had happened in Potions. Students whispered and giggled when she walked past them. When she took her books out of her bag, intending to do her homework with Narcissa and Severus, Lucius Malfoy, an insufferable second year git, approached her.

He hid one hand behind his back and started to mock her, "Hey, there she is, our little baby! Passes out as soon as she sees some blood! And you call yourself a Slytherin? The Sorting Hat must've made a mistake there, as far as I know all weaklings go into Hufflepuff!"

Obviously he had also heard about the little incident. But Serena resolved not to let him provoke her. "Shut up, Malfoy. And sod off!" she snapped.

Instead of deferring to her request, Lucius took his arm out from behind his back. He had pricked his finger with a needle and a small drop of blood had welled up. Lucius held his finger close to her face and laughed.

"Do you see that? Blood! Does it fill you with nausea? You'll probably keel over in a second!"

Serena avoided looking at his finger. But surely she wouldn't let him ridicule her, would she? "That little bit?" she spat at him, "No, there'd be a tad more necessary. So why don't you slash open your stomach? I promise, when your guts gush out, I'll faint."

She heard some other students in the common room laugh. Lucius darted an angry glance at her. But when he noticed that Severus had risen from his armchair and now two pairs of eyes glared daggers at him, he turned and moved away, muttering about 'not finished' and 'revenge' under his breath.

"He's such a stupid idiot. Just ignore him," Severus commented in a derogatory tone and applied his attention back to his homework.

* * *

Thursday arrived, and Gryffindor and Slytherin had their first Flying lesson together, which Serena and James had been looking forward to immensely. Their father had taken them to a game at the Quidditch World Cup that had taken place during the summer. They had watched the game, fascinated, and had been highly impressed with the players and their breakneck stunts. At the end of the match, their father had introduced them to a Chaser of the English team. Ricky, as their Dad called him, had been a schoolmate of their father's. Both used to play Quidditch on the Gryffindor team. But far and away the best part had been that Ricky had brought along with him broomsticks, which belonged to his teammates, and had given them a flying lesson on the Quidditch pitch.

Before that, neither Serena nor James had ever sat on a broom. They lived in an ordinary town, surrounded by watchful Muggles. In addition, their mother didn't like the idea of her children flying around on broomsticks. She could still clearly remember how often her husband had hurt or injured himself in the course of a Quidditch match when he'd been a student in Hogwarts. So never had an opportunity arisen to do some discreet circuits on a broom.

It turned out that both James and Serena had inherited a lot of their father's flying talent. They knew almost instinctively how to handle the broomsticks and learned fast when Ricky showed them some easy manoeuvres.

When Ricky finally said goodbye he told their Dad, "You've put two naturals into the world there. I bet they'll become two excellent Quidditch players someday."

Serena and James had blushed and grinned madly with so much praise. That had been six weeks ago and they could hardly wait to mount a broomstick and lift off again.

For days now, Serena had gone into numerous raptures over it. Severus had only given a weary gesture of refusal. He didn't deem the prospect of Flying lessons very thrilling.

"I'm able to fly as well as a hippopotamus. I prefer other kinds of transportation by far. And Quidditch - I wouldn't touch that with a bargepole. I really don't understand why people think it's exciting to hunt flying balls," he had commented dryly.

They arrived punctually, at half past three, to the meadow behind the castle, where they were to have their lesson. Second year Gryffindors and Slytherins were present too. The Flying teacher, Coach Sherman, had had a terrible accident the year before, which resulted in him being ill in bed almost all through the year and a lot of cancelled Flying lessons for the first years. So they were making up for it this year.

Sherman had planned to give up teaching altogether, but Albus Dumbledore had been able to talk him into coming back for one year and training his successor. The Headmaster had hired a young witch named Hooch who was supposed to learn all that was necessary from Coach Sherman to succeed him in his job. While she had already taken over the second years under Sherman's supervision, he himself taught the beginners from the first year.

The school brooms were already lying in two lines on the ground and the Coach didn't idle. "Get a move on!" he barked, by way of greeting them. "No dawdling here! Stand beside a broomstick! Hurry up!"

Serena rather had wanted to lift off immediately, but many of the other students had never ridden a broom before. Sherman took his time to explain the basics of flying and how to handle a broomstick. Their first exercise was to get up the broom from the ground. When the students held their hands over them and shouted "Up!", James' and Serena's broomsticks jumped into their hands at once. But Serena wouldn't have expected any other reaction, because Ricky had let them try this exercise too. The fact that the other students had more difficulties surprised her. Their brooms moved only a few inches or not at all. Severus' broomstick didn't decide to rise slowly into his hand until the tenth demand.

After most of them had managed to get their broom up at least once, Coach Sherman showed them how to mount a broom, how to sit right, and how to hold on correctly. It took yet another half hour for him to give the order that Serena had longingly awaited.

"Ok, now let's see how you cope with flying. Push gently off the ground and hover a while. When you get the feeling that you're able to control the broom, you can start flying around and try out some manoeuvres. For landing, push the broom a bit downward. But only a bit, or else you'll do a nosedive!"

James shot into the air immediately, closely followed by Serena. As soon as she lost contact with the ground, she was filled again with a feeling of freedom and lightness. This sensation had already come over her in her first flying lesson with Ricky. Apparently feeling the same and enjoying it as well, James gave a loud whoop of delight, immediately answered by Serena. The other students ascended into the air too. Even Severus, with a slight trace of green in his face, lifted off and flew some circles slowly.

The second years were already in the air and started to give their housemates tips how to handle the broom, as well as showing them a few stunts.

While Coach Sherman attended to those who couldn't get their brooms into the air, Serena and James started to chase each other. After a while Serena stopped to look after Severus. At that moment she felt something yank hard at her head and a moment later her long hair was blowing about in the wind and obstructing her view. Smoothing it back from her face, she was looking for the cause. When she recognized Lucius Malfoy, she scowled angrily at him. He had approached her from behind and torn off the hair slide, which had held her hair out of her face. Laughing madly and holding up his haul, he bolted away from her on his broom.

"Give it back at once!" she yelled and started fly after him. Of course he would have to take her favourite, the butterfly shaped hair slide! Well, she would make him regret this for sure!

Lucius started to turn between a couple of trees, apparently trying to outmanoeuvre her. But soon enough he realized that Serena's small size and low weight had a beneficial effect on the manoeuvrability of her broom, and she came constantly closer. So he flew into open air again and finally stopped over the lake.

There, he waved around her hair slide and shouted scornfully, "And what's now, hey? Your sidekick Snape cannot help you out here. So what are you going to do now?" Laughing, he threw the small yellow butterfly in a high arc.

Serena felt hot rage rise within her and oust everything else out. "You are throwing my hair slide into the lake?" she howled furiously. "Then you will personally fish it out of the lake again!"

She accelerated her broomstick and headed directly towards him. Lucius' derisive grin became stony when he saw Serena approaching.

'She's only trying to give me a scare,' he thought and remembered that she had rushed towards her brother exactly the same way a while before. But then she had stopped at the very last minute right in front of him. James had obviously known what she had had in mind and hadn't moved one inch.

Serena came shooting towards Lucius faster and faster. When he drew the conclusion that perhaps she wasn't bluffing this time and maybe he should get out of the way, it was already too late. She crashed into him with full speed and watched pleased how he was pushed off the broom and fell down like a stone. He hadn't much time to cry before he plunged into the water with a satisfying splash.

Coach Sherman, who heard a cry coming from the lake, looked up and saw two things: firstly, Lucius Malfoy, wildly thrashing his arms around and finally falling into the lake, while Serena Potter hovered above him and held his broomstick. Secondly, and this was much more frightening, he saw James Potter doing a hazardous nosedive with his broom at the same time. When Sherman thought the boy would hit the surface of the lake and break his neck, James pulled his broom round at the very last moment and held something triumphantly in the air.

Seeing that neither Serena nor James made a move to help Lucius, the Coach grabbed a broom, flew as fast as he could over to them, and fished the shivering boy out of the cold water. After he had given them a good dressing down and a deduction of five points for both Serena and Lucius he drew James aside.

"That was very impressing how you caught your sister's hair slide before it could vanish in the depths of the lake forever. Reckless and dangerous, but still impressive. As you maybe know, one of the Gryffindor Chasers is in the seventh year. I expect you to apply for his position next year."

* * *

When Severus entered the Slytherin common room that evening, he found Serena sitting by the window and staring forcedly at her hand. Approaching her, he noticed that her face was white as a sheet and her expression was a mixture of defiance, resolution, and fury.

Worried, he asked her, "What's wrong with you? Did you clash with Malfoy again?"

"I won't faint! No, I won't!" she muttered ferociously through clenched teeth. "I can stand it. I'm not a weakling!"

She seemed to speak to herself rather than answer Severus' question. Curiously, he made another step towards her to see what exactly she had done. What he saw made him cry out, "Merlin's beard, have you gone mad! What's that supposed to be?"

Serena had cut across her palm with a knife. Crimson red liquid had welled up from the gash and some drops of blood had already fallen onto the windowsill. Shaking like a leaf, but filled with fierce determination, she forced herself to watch the bleeding hand.

"I can stand the sight of blood! I don't keel over. It's a pure matter of willpower," she answered grimly.

Severus wiped the windowsill clean and urged Serena, "Come on, I'll take you to Madam Pomfrey. Bloody hell, I really don't want to be in your skin right now! You'll get into so much trouble when a professor hears about you injuring yourself intentionally. Maybe they'll even get some therapist from St. Mungo's to speak to you..."

"You won't take me anywhere," Serena answered with a voice as cold as ice, and wrapped her own handkerchief around her hand. "And if you tell anyone about this, I'll test how much of your blood I can stand the sight of. Got it?"

Severus stared at her in disbelief. Slowly he nodded. The flickering in her eyes made him nervous.