I'll Stand Alone

Part 5: Magically Made

-"A snake!...and it passes
but eyes that had glared at me
stay in the grasses."-
Takahama Kyoshi

She was in the middle of a deep and happy sleep when something began prodding her from the outside of the bedclothes.

"Go'way," Lilika muttered and tried flipping over to escape.

The thing merely followed her to the other side of the bed and began poking once more.

"Give me five more minutes," Lilika pleaded, eyes still squinched shut. If she didn't see what it was or what it wanted, she wouldn't have to get up.

The prodding ceased. Silence for a few moments.

Two icy fingers slid inside the blankets and wrapped themselves firmly around her big toe.

"Kooraaaaa!" Lilika yelled as her toe went numb from the touch. She bent forward, cradling her abused toes and glared at her visitor. "I didn't know you also functioned as an alarm clock."

The Grey Lady was as serene as still water and perched right on the end of her bed. "Awaken. I don't think you wish to be late for your students. Or did you forget today was Monday?"

"Monday morning, first period, Slytherin fifth years. Naturally, the first thing I want to see after a hangover is Draco Malfoy's blond rat face," Lilika grumbled. "Halloween parties serving alcohol on Sunday nights before classes should be outlawed."

"The solution is not to become drunk in the first place."

Lilika was over in the bathroom splashing her face with ice water and pretended not to hear that.

"Whilst we are on the subject of Slytherins," the Grey Lady said, in a tone that was far too casual, "the Bloody Baron informed me that Professor Snape was thrashing about his rooms last night, making quite a racket. And swearing-swearing dreadfully and quite audibly to anyone within a thousand feet."

She was struggling with the fastenings of her favourite black robe and therefore was able to remain silent for several seconds. When she finally pushed her head through the opening at the neck, the first thing she saw was the Grey Lady looking at her quite pointedly.

"I thought the Bloody Baron doesn't talk," Lilika mumbled, pinning the seal onto the white ruffle that decorated the front of her robe. The Grey Lady did not change expression.

"He does when he wants to," she replied.

"I didn't do anything. Anything serious, anyway."

The Grey Lady exhaled a surprisingly long time for someone that didn't breathe. Her face wore the look of a weary mother questioning a child who frequently told tales. "Why must you goad him?" she asked quietly, and Lilika flinched from the soft disapproval in her tone. "He is the one with the power here-not you. The Dark Arts professors are expendable. Heads of Houses are not. By taunting him you invite his retaliation."

"I knew you wouldn't understand," Lilika snapped. To her extreme displeasure and humiliation she felt tears rising in her eyes. "He was the one who started this whole mess, not me. I am perfectly innocent. When someone attacks you first, you are entitled to attack in return. He hated me right from the start, wants me gone. I can't go-I have nothing." She sat back down on the bed and huddled, drawing her head to her knees. "If I go, I die. I may be a genius with curses, but Voldemort's out of my league at the moment. Or I can bury myself away from people once more. Live out the next hundred or so years completely alone. Is that what you want?" A tired, sick feeling rose in her throat and her chest felt as if she'd been jabbed hard in the heart.

An icy shock rippled down her arm and she looked up to see the Grey Lady hovering behind her, a silvery hand on her right shoulder. "Dumbledore would never turn you away if that is the case," the Grey Lady whispered. "You know that. You misjudge me. I merely want you to walk softly around matters like these. Don't trip yourself up because of misplaced pride."

Lilika rolled her eyes slowly to the ceiling. "I can't help myself," she replied just as quietly. "Because of what he is."

The Slytherin fifth years were chattering loudly back and forth as they waited for their turn on the golem. The Slytherins were the one house who never had any trouble or hesitation with hexes and curses-they positively gloried in them. The few who weren't that proficient were goaded and hounded by their more talented classmates until they gained more skill. Just breathing the same air as a large group of Slytherins made Lilika feel queasy. They were just all so eager to run off and become Junior Death Eaters. It fairly stuck out of their eyes.

And of all the Slytherins from first year to seventh, none had more skill or enthusiasm then Draco Malfoy.

The first day, when she had read his name off the register she'd had to go back and read it again twice to make sure it was the same name. Of course it was; Lucius would have had a child at some point, to carry on the precious Malfoy bloodline. The big joke was that the truly old families, her own among them, considered the Malfoys a bunch of pretentious upstarts and too noveau riche to be giving themselves such airs. "After all," people would mutter together at parties as she lurked nearby, "that family's only two hundred years old and carrying on like they're a thousand!"

What was surprising was that the child was Hogwarts; based off all the times she'd heard Lucius ranting off to her father about the "old fool", or how children of their kind should either be privately tutored or sent to Drumstrang. A Malfoy in her class meant she had to walk very, very carefully around him lest he mention the new Dark Arts professor offhand at the dinner table -"a really short young thing with black hair and blue eyes"-and then have Lucius think: "Hmmm. That sounds like Andrew's youngest, the little runt that tried to kill me. I really must go and pay a visit."

It certainly wasn't out of any concerns for spoiled Mister Malfoy's sensibilities and several times she'd had enormous difficulty restraining herself from hexing him into a frog and giving him to Snape to make potions out of.

Oh yes, he just happened to be Snape's pet as well.

Today the class was practicing a mild version of the Metamorph curse, that interesting spell that let you turn your enemies' body parts into something entirely different-like a fish for a example. Of course the curse wasn't permanent (although she had found a way to do that) but the trauma factor of seeing your arm turn into a gasping cod couldn't be denied.

She was sitting on a desk at the back, watching the giddy group cast it in turn. The golem roared loudly every time it was correctly hit, which added to the students' enjoyment, although watching it sprout tentacles was just as fun.

"Miss Parkinson, that was interesting. Not just anyone would have thought of a garden hose. Mr. Crabbe, you are next."

Crabbe lumbered up to the golem and she drifted off again. Crabbe and Goyle together weren't worth a single Sickle in her opinion, and would most likely spend the rest of their lives toadying to Malfoys. And so would their sons and their sons after them...

Lilika blinked and came back to reality upon hearing the golem's roar. Crabbe had managed a goldfish. Ummm...

The line was growing shorter by the minute when she finally realised Malfoy hadn't yet taken a turn. His pallid little self was still over at a desk in the far corner, his chin planted on his hands. He didn't seem to be watching the rest of the class.

Usually he was the first in line. How peculiar.

She took a stroll over to him, stopping in front of the desk. "Decided not to work today, Mr. Malfoy?" she asked.

Malfoy didn't lift his head. He muttered something indistinct into his cupped palms.

"What was that? I didn't quite catch it." Lilika leaned forward on the desk until she was nearly level with his face, her eyebrows raised. "You are to look at me when I ask you a question, Mr. Malfoy."

"I said I'm not feeling well, Professor Jardin," he spat. There were dark blue circles rimming his eyes, and his skin had a nasty greyish white tint to it, like something that had been grown underground, never seeing the light.

Lilika straightened up slowly, folding her arms across her body. What was that? Draco had always been snarky and slippery, whispering when he thought she didn't notice (and sometimes when she did) but never outright rude.

"It's true, you do look unwell," she affirmed, tilting her head to study him better. "And you are usually much more attentive to your work then this, so I will let that pass." She paused. "However, that doesn't excuse your rudeness. I will not be spoken to like that. Ten points from Slytherin and if you are ill, you will go and see Madam Pomfrey immediately."

He sprang up from the chair; shoving it backwards so hard it splintered against the desk behind it, and left the room quickly, walking with a heavy tread. The Slytherins watched him go in mute surprise.

She looked at them.

"Well, what are the rest of you waiting for? You still have work. The faster we get this done, the faster I can take a nap. I have a splitting headache."

Finally free of the Slytherins, she began the long climb back to Ravenclaw Tower, where her bed, pillows and extra-large bottle of aspirin waited patiently. Her head had been bothering her from the instant she'd gotten up, making her exceedingly crabby. Lilika gritted her teeth and pressed on.

Yes, getting lectured by the Grey Lady and then watching Future Death Eaters Anonymous is great for one's mood. Mondays suck.

Three steps away from the door into Ravenclaw she was attacked.

Knobby hands grabbed her bun and yanked, sending hairpins skittering down the corridor like metallic rain. Lilika shrieked, clutching her head defensively as all of her hair swung down into her face, leaving her blind. "WHAT the HELL?"

"Hehehehee!" a voice chuckled gruesomely from behind her. "Hello little mistress, hello hello! Didn't think old Peeves was gonna leave you alone, eh?"

"Peeves?" Lilika said, trying in vain to work her way out from underneath the curtain of her hair. When she'd finally gotten it all out of the way, she saw a squat and bent grey fellow smirking at her from midair. "What a pleasure."

The misshapen little man just grinned long and nastily at her as he flipped upside down and peered at her from between his legs. "Ickle Dark Arts girl. Thought she could get away from Peeves, did she? Ahh, but Peeves has something she'll like."

She stared at him. He thumbed his nose at her.

"What does that mean?"

Peeves closed one eye. "That would be telling." He smirked again, did a double back flip and vanished, leaving her staring at empty air.

Now I can add being molested by Peeves to my list of ways not to start a morning.

Finding all her hairpins seemed to be a lost cause, so Lilika yanked her hair into a ponytail, entered Ravenclaw and threw herself on her bed.

She was asleep in minutes.

The Hufflepuffs were just cleaning up when they heard the noise. Most of them stopped and stared at each other, uneasy, leaving their dirty caldrons and vials on their desks.

"What is this? Why aren't you cleaning?" Snape snapped, coming out of his supply room with a fresh batch of deathwatch mushrooms. He sat them down with a violent thump on one of the tables set against the wall and turned to glare at each one of them. "Hufflepuffs shirking their duties-I believe it must be a sign of the Apocalypse."

"Sir, we heard something," one of the girls ventured timidly, clasping her hands in front of her as if they could give her protection.

Snape fought down an overwhelming urge to yell. Yes, I need more problems in my life. "Unless the noise you heard is that of the dungeon roof collapsing," he ground out, slowly and distinctly, "you are to continue doing what you have been told."

A low and distant rumble came from above. The cauldrons rattled slightly.

Everyone except Snape jumped.

"There it is again," one of the boys whispered.

Snape stared at the ceiling along with the students, ears straining to make out the noise. Well, standing around staring wasn't going to help anything, he decided and calmly pulled his wand out, aiming it at the ceiling.

A burst of sparks glanced off the dungeon roof as the room of students shrieked and flung themselves en masse under the desks and tables. He alone stood unmoved and unafraid in the center of the room.

"Well, it certainly isn't my ceiling," he said, feeling satisfied, but his satisfaction promptly faded at the sight of his pitiful charges cowering around him. Some had even put their cauldrons over their heads like helmets. He slid his wand back into his sleeve, grimacing as he felt a resurgence of his usual impatience. "Fools. GET up, all of you!"

The students had just started to tentatively rise to their feet when the rumbling came again, louder this time and accompanied by a new sound.

Screams.

He took out his wand again.

"You are all going to the Great Hall," he said quietly. "Move."

Overheard in the hallway:

Pure chaos. It made one's blood sing.

"How could you do this to her? To me? Goddamn you to everlasting hell woman!"

"Mein Gott, help me. Protect my lady mistress," Clara had whimpered, hands over her mouth.

"Crucio!"

Lilika was in the middle of one of her old familiar nightmares, so it took her a moment to awaken groggily and realise the screaming was not part of the dream this time. She pushed up on her elbows, still half asleep. Where's the noise?

Her ears told her downstairs, away from Ravenclaw. Students are screaming...

She jumped out of bed and tripped over her shoes. Tugging them on with a stream of curses, she ran out the door past a huddle of scared-looking Ravenclaws that had gathered in the common room.

"Nobody leave!" she yelled as she dashed past, racing for the door out of the Tower. "Unless the castle's on fire," she added as an afterthought as she was hanging halfway through the door.

The screaming was growing ever louder as she turned the corridors and by the time she was nearing her office, a panicked rush of students almost overwhelmed her trying to get away from whatever it was, forcing her to cling to a suit of armor to keep from being trampled. "What is it? Where is it?" she yelled, but the students were too busy trying to get away. They were white with terror, their eyes almost bulging out of their faces. This can't be too good.

Lilika finally managed to push her way through the horde, ending up in a corridor that opened up just past her classroom.

"Oh, holy fucking shit," she whispered.

It moved forward, slowly and easily and quite independently. Her golem was walking down the hall with deliberate, purposeful steps. Behind it were large holes smashed into the stone walls where the creature had clearly run its' fists and it was raising those fists again to smash a statue of a humpbacked wizard. Stone flew everywhere and dust with it, blinding her and making her cough.

Students were still visible in front of it-mostly their backs as they were all running away. Thankfully the golem was too slow to catch them, but it definitely looked as if it was trying to follow them. "Hey!" she yelled, trying to distract it as she fumbled for her wand so she could cast a Freezing Charm. That should get it...

"Help!" a voice called from not that much further up, high and wavering. "Please help!"

The golem's head turned and Lilika realised with a dull sense of terror that it was looking for the students. Just visible under the golem's left arm, only a little ways down the corridor was a blond, pigtailed First Year girl, shaking so rapidly it seemed she was vibrating.

"One of those rocks struck my leg!" she shrieked, voice rolling with fear. "I CAN'T MOVE!"

Lilika was already ducking under the golem's arm, bile in her throat from fear. She snatched at the girl, her hands slick and managed to grab a handful of the girl's robe and yank her backwards. The golem roared, in what sounded like disappointed fury and continued after them, fists raised.

She managed to swing the girl up in her arms and tried to run as fast as she was able. It wasn't easy; the girl was almost as large as she was and though she'd spent hours hauling very heavy books around, books did not generally wriggle or weigh as much as you did. They weren't going to be able to outrun that thing by much.

"I should have...paid attention...to all those stories...about scientists who are destroyed by their creations," she panted. "Too...late...now."

"Professor, it's going to catch us," the girl screamed, staring over Lilika's shoulder. Lilika risked a quick glance back herself. The golem was definitely gaining on them and she was tiring. Her legs ached terribly and soon she would be too exhausted to run. The little girl, seeming to sense this, shrieked once more in panicked fear, went limp and passed out. Lilika staggered under her dead weight and knew with calm certainty that they weren't going to make it.

"Sweetling, I'm sorry I dragged you into this," Lilika gasped as she stumbled a little further, feeling her chest constrict from lack of air. She dropped out of her run to lean against a wall, breathing in great gulps of air so she could gain a few more seconds for them both.

"As am I," a voice snarled from directly behind her. Hands grabbed her around the waist and she and the girl were hauled backwards into the wall. Lilika shut her eyes, expecting to impact on stone. "Kyaaa!"

The wall slid shut in front of her eyes and she blinked twice.

"...Oh, a secret passage," she said weakly, clutching the little girl more firmly against her. The girl was still unconscious in her arms, face pressed against the front of her robes, which were very wet, sticky and unpleasant from the girl's tears.

She didn't have to turn around to see who her rescuer was. The bony hands grasping her around the waist and the black robes covering the arms attached to those hands belonged exclusively to Professor Snape.

"Are you happy?" he hissed into her ear, tightening his grip until she winced from the pain. "Are you satisfied now? Are you? And you managed to kill someone while you were at it."

"She just passed out," Lilika said, showing Snape the girl's body, letting him feel her pulse, which still beat against Lilika's hands. Once he proved to himself that she wasn't a murderer, he pried the girl away from her and set her down not too gently on the stone floor of the secret passage, one hand staying on Lilika's waist the whole time. Once he finished, the icy look he gave her told her at once that she was nowhere near off the hook.

"I had nothing to do with this," she protested, then realised how stupid that sounded. Well, this wasn't exactly a clear thinking sort of situation.

She heard a horrible choking sound and took a minute to realise Snape was laughing. "Lies, lies and damned lies," he chanted, grinning hideously. His black eyes were fixed right on her face and burning with malevolent fire. "You look me right in the face and lie."

"Snape..." His eyes looked wild, the pupils contracted to pinpoints.

His hand came up and covered her mouth, cutting off her voice. "You," he said very softly into her ear, pulling her down to sit with him on the low steps of the passage's staircase, "are going to tell me how to destroy that thing. Then we will sit here until it passes. I will get behind it to destroy it before it gets to the end of the passage, where the other professors are waiting for it. And then," his hand tightened even more on her mouth, probably in response to her attempts to bite him "the Ministry is going to come and deal with you."

No.

Snape's smile was the most terrible thing she had ever seen in her life.

They sat on the steps wordlessly. The only sounds were Snape's even breathing, and the golem heaving itself along the hallway. Lilika, pressed right up against Snape, practically in his lap and not enjoying it one bit, made a few feeble attempts to get away, but Snape's grip tightened and became more and more painful each time she did. She stopped trying, letting him clutch at her.

"That's the right way to do things," he murmured and his hand slid off her mouth. His heart was beating very quickly for someone who seemed so outwardly calm. "Now talk."

"I don't know how to stop it, because I don't know what started it," she growled.

Lilika felt him shrug, a slow, sharp movement against her back. "So you say. It doesn't matter. I'll find some way to do it."

The golem's thudding footfalls were right outside the wall. Then they passed on.

Snape rose, setting her back on her feet and strode forward. "You watch the child," he commanded, running his hands over the wall. He found the catch, released it and stuck his head out little by little to see what was going on.

Snape was cautious, but not cautious enough. Lilika tiptoed past the girl and crept up behind Snape, quiet as a Lethifold. Just as he began to step out into the hallway, she caught his shoulder and in one movement shoved him aside and drove her fist into his stomach.

He doubled over and she heard him gagging on a gasp. "YOU watch the child," she spat, easing past him into the hall "and I'll deal with my problem." She caught a small glimpse of his face, livid and blotched with fury, before she slammed the passage door shut on his cursing.

Finally, a little quiet.

The golem was still moving forward, it's massive head turning first one way, and then the other as it scanned for prey. "Matte! Who's commanding you now?"

It stopped; began to rotate so it could face her. Lilika gripped her wand and waited, sweat dripping down her sides.

The golem had completed its turn and she saw the control gem on it's forehead was no longer reddish, but a black so deep it made the night look pale.

Someone else's hand in this. Lovely. What problem will the universe throw at me next?

"Remove the gem and you lose your power," she muttered. "I so hate to do this, but... Ugokimawanai. "

It stayed utterly still as she walked up to it, stayed still as she levitated a few feet and reached for it's forehead. The edge of the gem was cool against her fingertips and she wiggled the stone, trying to pry it free.

The golem's massive hands shot up, far more quickly then she could have anticipated and crushed her between them.

Lilika screamed, but not for very long as the golem was squeezing all of the air out of her lungs.

Her fingers scrabbled at the gem, unable to get a hold on the slick surface. Kicking the golem was not helping the situation either. The pinpoints of light in front of her eyes grew larger as her sight dimmed.

I will not die like this. Not only is it ridiculous and humiliating, it would mean Snape was right. I won't let him be right.

Her wand hand still had enough strength left to point her wand at the golem's throat and she had just enough breath to cast a Banishing charm. It came out in a croaky whisper, but it was the thought that counted.

The golem shot backwards, sending her flying out of its grip with the gem in her fingers. Lilika hit the floor very hard and laid there for a few minutes with her eyes closed, quite happy to breath again.

The enormous crashing sound that came a few seconds later told her she'd been successful and the floor shook as the golem smashed into it. She didn't care.

When she opened her eyes a few seconds later, Snape was looming over her, his eyes full of black fire.

"Severus?" she heard Flitwick call from a great distance. "Is it dead?"

His hands hooked themselves under her arms and yanked her to her feet. Dizzily, she managed to stand, slumping against him, as her feet didn't seem to want to support her weight.

"Everything's under control," she heard Snape call back. "I'll join you shortly."

He turned her so she was facing the way she'd come. "What are you doing?" she mumbled.

"Walk," he hissed, shoving her forward. His hands were gripping her shoulders like iron claws and Lilika realized with a dull throb of horror that he was arranging things so the other teachers couldn't see her or what he was doing. "I told you what was going to happen."

Lilika felt as if an electric shock was ripping down her spine. "And you don't care that I wasn't the one who did this?" she asked, her throat very tight.

"You endangered Hogwarts and its students because of your stupidity," he said coldly. "You also made quite a point of how no one else could control that thing except you." He bent down for the express purpose of hissing in her ear. "I think the solution is obvious."

"I didn't!"

"Are you trying to suggest one of the students did this?" he said with another of his horrible, thin smiles. "Tsk, tsk. Shifting blame-you should be more honourable. How very like your family."

"Judge, jury and executioner all in one, are you?" Lilika squirmed in his grip, trying to get away, to catch someone's attention. "Hey!"

The point of his wand dug hard into her throat, against her pulse, making her choke. "Don't make me do this," Snape said quietly. His long fingers dug into her shoulder a little more.

She managed a nod.

He pushed her forward again, and they began to walk, their footsteps silent on the stone floors.

"Where are we going?" she finally whispered after a few corridors, her voice thick with the cold hatred now running fast through her blood.

"To my office to await the Ministry," he said, quite calm. "Which reminds me-I'll also be taking this." His thin hand closed on the ruby at her throat.

She immediately clamped both hands over his and dug her nails into his skin, feeling his blood welling between her fingers. He gasped in pain-a ragged sound like tearing cloth-and jerked away from her, his hands dropping.

Lilika was able to stand free for one second, savoring her victory before the point of Snape's elbow slammed into her stomach.

"Turnabout is fair play," she heard him say through the rushing sound of blood pounding through her ears. She dangled limp in his grasp and he pulled her upright once more, letting her head hang down. His fingers were at her throat, tugging and he fumbled the ruby out, leaving the setting pinned to her robes.

Despite the pain, Lilika gave a small, inconspicuous sigh of relief. If he'd taken the ruby and the setting, her robes would have fallen open to the waist and she wasn't keen on the thought of Snape seeing her in her chemise. And by only taking the ruby he'd just proved he really didn't know as much as he thought he did.

Only the floor saw her smile.

Lilika now allowed him to direct her down the hall, playing obedient. Do you honestly think I'd let you just do what you want with me? Let you get away with this, Snape? More fool you.

Now, if she could just get her wand out without him noticing...

Snape came to an abrupt stop and grabbed her elbow, jerking her to a halt as well. She looked up.

"Mr. Malfoy," Snape said in a voice of obvious forced calm. "What are you doing here?"

Draco was standing at the end of the hall, his pale hair the only spot of brightness in the shadows. He was alone, clutching his elbows close to his body.

"Looking for you, sir."

Saved by a Malfoy. This was really too much. She just wanted to go back to bed.

Snape had allowed her to straighten, obviously trying to make it seem like they were walking together. His beetle black eyes were fixed on Malfoy, giving her just opportunity enough to draw her wand and poke it hard into his side.

He sucked in his breath, but made no other sign he'd been jabbed.

"Why did you want to see me, Mr. Malfoy?" Snape said, eyebrows raised. Whilst speaking, he'd wrapped his right arm a little more firmly around her and pointed his own wand into her back, his wide sleeves keeping the motion hidden from Malfoy.

She pushed her wand a little further into his side. "Let's see how much you like it," she hissed under her breath.

His wand dug a little more painfully into her back in response. "Try me," he growled out of the corner of his mouth.

If Malfoy noticed any of this, he made no sign. "I'm not the one who wants to see you," he said, in a very quiet little voice.

"Then why are you wasting my time?" Snape snapped, using his arm to give her a little shake. Her wand remained steady despite his efforts. "I'm in the middle of something very important."

Draco's flat grey eyes wandered over to focus on her. "What does she have to do with it?"

"None of your business," Snape said acidly, his eyes flashing. "Now, who_is_it that wishes to see me?"

Malfoy's eyes shifted back to Snape. "Professor Dumbledore, sir."

"The Headmaster?" Snape gave a little snort of disbelief. "I would think that if the Headmaster wanted to see me, he would come find me himself."

"I have, Severus," a voice said quietly from behind them.

Snape immediately released her, his hands falling to his sides. "Headmaster..."

Dumbledore merely stood there and looked at them, the shadows falling into every crease on his face.

"Severus, Liliana. Both of you in my office. Now."