Hunted

Chapter 13: Cupid's Arrows

Valentine's Day had arrived at Hogwarts with an unexpected treat for Ravena. She opened her lesson book for her first Defense Against the Dark Arts lecture of the day to find a love letter tucked among the pages. She stared at the untidy, microscopic scrawl for a moment or two. Then a smile slowly crept over her lips. She recognized the handwriting. Who would believe it? Severus Snape had sent her a love letter?

Her fingers folded the missive with care and tucked it away in the pocket of her robes. Reading the note was a delight that would have to wait. The lecture could not go fast enough for her.

As the last student filed from the room, she whipped the letter from her pocket. Her hungry eyes devoured its contents. He desired an assignation. Would she be so kind as to meet him in his dungeon office this evening after hours? There was no need to reply. He would be waiting for her.

She tucked the letter down into the bodice of her dress for safe keeping. A blithe smile appeared on her face. Of course she would meet him with bells on.

Meals in the Great Hall provided the only occasion for casual contact between Ravena and Snape that day. To openly acknowledge his invitation surrounded by students and faculty would be unwise. So during lunch and dinner, Ravena had to settle for more subtle methods of communication, furtive glances and sly smiles. As she sat at the High Table with the other professors, she took every opportunity to glance his way. She was pleased to notice that he did the same.

As the hour of their tryst approached, Ravena primped in front of her mirror. She selected a sexy black dress for the occasion, which she hid under her academic robes. Instead of her usual simple bun, she coifed her hair in an elegant upsweep. Wispy, ebony tendrils framed her face. A dab of perfume applied to her pulse points completed her preparations. Just before she left, she extracted a Chateau le Fête Bordeaux from her wine cabinet, her most cherished bottle. She had been saving this red wine for a special occasion.

The journey down to the basement dungeons seemed endless. Ravena crept through the dimly lit halls, taking care to avoid prying eyes. She even took the precaution of putting a Silencing Charm on her shoes, so that the click of her high heels on the stone floors would not betray her presence. Thus she slunk to the basement dungeon for her much-anticipated rendezvous with Severus.

As she descended the last staircase, she caught a glimpse of Snape's office. The door stood wide open, light flooding the adjacent hallway. Mingled voices and girlish laughter spilled out into the silence of the halls. Ravena froze, a puzzled look on her face. What was this?

With silent tread, she crept to the open doorway and peered inside. She could not believe her eyes. The Potions Master sat at his desk with Candi in his lap and Barbi hanging over his shoulder. Both women fawned over him, smothering him with their kisses. And he did not resist in the least.

Ravena's lip trembled. Her cerulean eyes stared in unbelief and filled with tears. What was this jest? How could he be so cruel?

The wine bottle slipped from her grasp, fell to the floor, and smashed. Glass and the sweet Bordeaux splashed everywhere, staining floor, wall, and robes burgundy. Ravena turned and fled up the stairs. Exclamations of surprise and the sound of footsteps resonated in the dungeon corridor behind her. But she did not turn around nor stop to look.

Ravena sprinted through the corridors of the school, half-blinded by her tears. She did not take time to disguise her presence now. She only wished to escape the memory of what she had just seen.

When she reached her private chambers, Ravena threw herself down on her bed and lay sobbing into her pillow. She drowned herself in her sorrow and vowed that tomorrow she would exact revenge.

* * * * * * * *

The next day, Ravena stood in front of the Dark Arts classroom, awaiting the arrival of her seventh year students. Her academic robes hung open to reveal a pair of trousers and a silk button-down blouse underneath. Her eyes were puffy and red from her previous night of tears, but they flashed with a fire fueled by thoughts of payback.

Students filed into the classroom with bewildered expressions on their faces. The room had been cleared of all the usual furnishings, save the bookcases that lined the far wall and the cast-iron chandeliers that hung from the rafters. Ravena watched as the students fidgeted with their belongings and exchanged puzzled stares.

"Leave your satchels near the doorway and gather round," Ravena instructed. "Today, we begin our final and most challenging unit. Wizard dueling."

Ravena surveyed the faces of her students. Ron nudged Harry with a grin on his freckled face. Draco arched an eyebrow and smirked. Crabbe and Goyle jostled each other in anticipation and pulled out their wands. Ravena gave them all an indulgent, motherly smile.

"Wands away," she continued. "You will all get your chance at the next lesson."

The students groaned. One by one, wands disappeared in backpacks and back pockets.

"Today, you will witness a demonstration." Ravena glanced down at her bejeweled watch with an impatient stare. "Professor Snape should be here shortly to assist me. I can't imagine what's keeping him." Her voice dripped with contempt.

Just then, the Potions Master burst through the door. He strode to the front of the room, his black robes billowing in his wake. His dark eyes glistened, barely concealing his pent-up fury. Ravena eyed him with a curious stare. What right did he have to be angry? She was the one that had been ill-treated?

Ravena nodded a curt greeting to the Potions Master. He sniffed, shooting her a withering glare. Ravena turned back to the class.

"We shall begin with simple sparring," she instructed. "Dueling limited to a few relatively harmless hexes. A Stinging Hex for attack, a Shielding Charm for defense, and a Disarming Charm for the coup de grâce. Your goal is to disarm your opponent, while avoiding their attacks. In our next lesson, we will review these basic techniques. As the course progresses, we will add increasingly advanced spells to your repertoire."

Ravena turned toward Snape. He stood facing her with his arms crossed over his chest. A sneer worked on the corners of his thin, white lips.

"Normally, I would begin with a demonstration of basic sparring." Ravena cast Snape a challenging glare. Her thin eyebrows arched. "Severus, what say you to a more advanced demonstration?"

"With pleasure," he snapped, his black eyes glittering with malice.

"One round," Ravena said. "Standard tournament rules?"

"As you wish," Snape replied in a threatening whispered tone.

Ravena turned back to the students. She noted that Harry's brilliant green eyes were fixed on Snape, his brow knitted in a look of concern. Neville's face had turned ashen. His frightened stare was also trained on the Potions Master.

Her own gaze flicked to her opponent's sallow face. She could see the tension suppressed in every taunt muscle and line. Should she be worried? Of course not. Today he would feel her wrath.

"Kindly assemble at the front of the room." Ravena waved the students back. "I would not want anyone injured by a stray hex. And we will need room to maneuver."

Then Ravena took off her outer academic robes and tossed them in the corner. She smoothed her blouse. Her fingers gripped her wand, as she strutted to the middle of the room. Her face wore an expression of confidence.

Meanwhile, Snape stripped off his academic robe to reveal the black tunic and trousers that he always wore underneath and strode to meet her. Ravena and Snape stood back to back in the middle of the vast classroom. They counted out ten paces as they marched. They spun around to face each other. The duel began.

Shouted spells rang from the rafters of the room. Flashes of red light flew from the tips of the two wands in rapid-fire succession. Ravena's body moved in a well-choreographed dance of parries and counter attacks. Beams of light soared and collided in midair, as hex met defensive charm. Ravena expertly disabled Snape's spells. He did the same to her hexes. Ravena had met her match.

For several minutes of dueling, neither one gained advantage. Then Snape managed to sneak a hex passed Ravena's defenses. "Tarantallegra!" Ravena's legs flew out from under her in a manic dance, a highland fling. As her feet flicked and kicked, Ravena aimed a hex at Snape. "Petrificus totalus!" Snape's arms and legs snapped to his sides. He toppled to the floor, stiff as a board.

Recovering, Snape pointed his wand at the chandeliers and uttered a curse. The cast iron fixtures lowered themselves to the ground, gigantic spiders descending on their gossamer threads. Then the mechanical arachnids scuttled across the floor toward Ravena. Their iron legs clicked a menacing rhythm against the stone floor. She recoiled in alarm.

Ravena aimed her wand, stopping the chandeliers in their tracks. Now they lit themselves and levitated in the air, whirring and whizzing like so many lethal Catherine wheels. They reversed direction and flew back toward Snape.

He uttered another spell. A huge fireball flew from his wand. Flying inferno met metal wheel in mid air. Flames consumed the chandeliers, turning the metal a fiery crimson. A stream of molten iron, the remains of the light fixtures, dropped into a puddle on the floor. In the next instant, a violent hiss of steam rose from the puddle, obscuring Ravena's vision. When the mist cleared, a solid hunk of twisted metal lay in the middle of the singed floor.

Ravena spun to face the bookshelves now. Her wrist flicked her wand. A swarm of books flew off of the shelves, their covers flapping to sustain their flight. The literary flock soared toward the Potions Master and attacked.

Through clenched teeth, Snape hissed a countercharm. The flock was swept up in a swirling whirlwind. The conjured tornado spun, book bindings and pages whipping in the interior of the vortex. The twister turned wildly and sped toward Ravena. She watched the tornado's approach with horror.

She pointed her wand and muttered another charm. The twister exploded with an ear-shattering bang. The air filled with tiny pieces of parchment and shreds of book covers. The room resembled a ticker-tape parade, as scraps of paper rained down on both professor and student alike.

Then Ravena spotted the Potions Master through the hailstorm of white. A triumphant smile crossed her lips. "Expelliarmus!" Two voices shouted the charm in unison. Flashes of red light rocketed from both wands, aimed straight at each other. The two hexes met in midair and rebounded with equal and opposite force.

Without loss of momentum, Ravena's own charm came hurtling back at her. The spell hit before she could react. The curse slammed into her chest and sent her sprawling backwards across the hard stone floor. Her wand ripped from her grasp and hurled through the air. It landed in the middle of the room far from her reach. From somewhere above her, a chunk from a book spine descended and pelted against her left eye, a heavy bruising blow.

Ravena pulled herself to a sitting position with a groan. She cupped her hand over her throbbing eye. Every limb on her body ached. She was covered with bruises. Her fingers swiped the ebony masses of hair from her face. She glanced across the room with her one good eye, expecting to see the gloating face of the Potions Master.

Snape, however, sat on the floor on the other side of the room, his hand clamped over his bloodied nose. An ugly gash cut across his forehead over his left eye. Blood dribbled down the left side of his face. He wore a look of shocked surprise.

They had been disarmed simultaneously. The match had ended in a draw.

Ravena scanned the faces of the students, huddled in a cluster at the far end of classroom. Every face stared at both professors in stunned silence, mouths hanging agape. As Ravena struggled to her feet, she heard a single clap that erupted into a chorus of thunderous applause. Cheers and whistles followed.

Ravena hobbled to the middle of the classroom, stopping along the way to collect her wand. Snape had risen to his feet as well and joined her. She faced the students and avoided the stare of the Potions Master. But she could feel the heat of his gaze, sizing up her injuries.

"Thank you, Professor Snape," Ravena said without looking at him. "That ends our demonstration for today. We begin sparring in our next lesson. Please read the chapters on basic dueling spells in preparation. That concludes our lesson. Class dismissed."

The students filed from the room. They chattered in excitement, as they gathered up their belongings and funneled into the corridor. When all the students had left, Ravena turned toward Snape.

The Potions Master dabbed his nose with a bloodied handkerchief. His face was still white with suppressed fury. His hand stuffed the handkerchief into the pocket of his trousers and extracted a folded piece of parchment.

"What is the meaning of this deception?" he hissed, thrusting the paper into her hands.

Ravena unfolded the parchment. Through astounded eyes, she scanned what appeared to be a love letter written in her own handwriting. The letter contained an invitation to meet the Potions Master for a rendezvous at the top of the Astronomy Tower. Ravena shook her head.

"I've never seen this before," she insisted, casting him a look of bewilderment.

"Do you really expect me to believe that?" he spat. "This is your handwriting, is it not?" His finger jabbed at the letter in her hands. "Imagine my surprise when I climb the Astronomy Tower to meet you and find myself trapped out on the parapet in the cold for nearly an hour," he hissed through clenched teeth.

"I had nothing to do with that. I swear." Ravena pulled his letter from her pocket and jammed it toward his chest. "And isn't this your handwriting?"

Snape took the love letter from her hand. He read the note. An incredulous sneer appeared on his lips. He shook his head.

"I assure you that I would never write that."

Ravena's mouth fell agape and then snapped shut. "Of course," she huffed, her blue eyes melting into misty pools. "How could I believe that you would ever write anything so tender to me? What a fool I've been. Clearly, this was all a cruel hoax to lure me down to your office, where I would find you in the arms of those twin trollops."

Snape's eyebrows rocketed upward. "What? I have never laid a hand on those two harpies."

"Don't lie to me," Ravena snapped, her voice trembling with emotion. "I've seen the way they shamelessly flirt with you."

"Those two transform into a couple of vampires whenever your back is turned," Snape snarled. His eyes narrowed. "And what about that assistant of yours? Link, is it?"

"Lance," Ravena corrected. "Our relationship was purely professional. And anyway he's gone." Her hand flicked a perfunctory wave. "I caught him giving private 'lessons' to a fourth year student on the divan in my office of all places."

Snape's eyebrows shot up in a look of surprise.

"Well, I cannot in good conscience condone fraternization between faculty and students," Ravena explained. "Especially underage students. It is grounds for dismissal. So naturally, I sent him packing."

The arrival of Minerva McGonagall cut short their conversation. She bustled into the classroom, a stern look upon her face. Her eyes stared with amazement first at the state of the classroom and then at the condition of her two colleagues. Her lips pursed into a fine thin line.

"Severus," she said, "the Headmaster wishes to see you in his office immediately."

Snape's eyes widened. His fingers stuffed the letter into his pocket. He gathered his robe and strode from the room.

McGonagall surveyed Ravena with a severe look of disapproval. Ravena tucked away the note that she was holding. Then her hands worked to smooth her hair back into place.

"We have just given a dueling demonstration," she explained with a sheepish grin.

"From the looks of you two, I would say it was more of a Muggle brawl," McGonagall remarked, frowning. "You might wish to see Madam Pomfrey about that eye."

"Yes, Minerva," Ravena replied.

McGonagall gave her a curt nod, then turned and exited the room. Ravena sighed. Her fingers dabbed her eye, now tender and swollen. She winced and imagined that she must look quite hideous. But her injuries could wait.

Ravena now turned her attention to her classroom. She waved her wand. The shreds of paper that littered the floor reassembled themselves into books and soared back into place on the shelves. She was about restore the chandeliers, when a conversation in the hall caught her attention.

She edged closer to the doorway to listen. Two female students gossiped and giggled in the adjoining hallway. Her ears caught snippets of the discussion.

"It's true," the voice of a young girl said. "Pansy Parkinson saw him with her own eyes. Professor Snape was snogging with those two assistants of Professor Ashbury's."

"Snape?" The second voice tittered. "Eewwww. Who would want to snog Snape?"

"I know!" the first said. "Disgusting! Anyway, Pansy went and told Headmaster Dumbledore what she saw."

"Good," the second voice said. "Maybe Dumbledore will sack him or something. It would serve him right. Just last week, he gave Seamus Finnigan and Carol Bell a week's detention when he caught them snogging in an empty classroom. The big hypocrite."

Ravena's mouth dropped open. Her hand extracted the letter from her pocket. She stared at the forged invitation in her hand. If the perpetrator of this deception was able to imitate her own handwriting, then perhaps the letter that she had received was a forgery as well. Perhaps Severus was telling the truth after all. But if Snape was not in his dungeon office last night, then who was the imposter? Why had he lured her there, if not to cause trouble for Snape? And who but Ashbury could entice those two floosies to do his bidding?

Unfortunately, this was all guesswork. Accusing a colleague was a serious matter. She hadn't been circumspect about her disdain for Ashbury or his two assistants. How she regretted that now. To malign his character without proof would only bring into question her own motives. And she had no proof of his involvement, at least not yet.

Ravena's teeth clenched with determination. She clutched the letter and sprinted from the classroom. Minutes later, she mounted the spiral staircase to the Headmaster's office. Her fist pounded on the door. She burst into the room and bounded toward the Headmaster's desk.

"I don't know who or what the students saw last night, but it was not Severus," Ravena blurted out. She panted, struggling to catch her breath after her sprint up the stairs. "I can vouch for his whereabouts."

Snape spun around, his eyebrows raised in a look of surprise. Minerva McGonagall, poised at the Headmaster's side, surveyed her with a look of stern reproach on her face. Dumbledore sat behind his desk, his piercing blue eyes gazing over his half-moon spectacles.

"Go on," Dumbledore prompted with a nod.

"Severus was with me last night," Ravena said, staring at Dumbledore with an unflinching gaze. "Up in the Astronomy Tower. My fault entirely."

"Severus claims that he was alone last night," Dumbledore countered.

Ravena faltered for a brief moment. She dropped her gaze. Her mind raced, searching for a convincing answer. Then she spotted the letter still clutched in her hand.

"How gallant," she replied, facing the Headmaster with what she hoped was a look of sincerity. "He is obviously protecting my reputation." Her fingers smoothed the crinkled letter in her hands. She placed it before the Headmaster. "He was with me. Here is the letter to prove it."

Ravena heard Snape gasp, but she did not look in his direction. Dumbledore studied the love letter. Without expression, he looked up at Ravena.

"I see," Dumbledore replied.

Ravena now saw her misstep. In her reckless attempt to cover for Severus, she had just placed them both in trouble.

"A regrettable mistake, I admit," Ravena continued, a hint of desperation in her voice. "Severus convinced me of that, when we met in the Tower." But then she turned to Dumbledore with a brazen look. "You must believe that nothing happened between us last night. That is the truth."

"If I may," Snape interjected. He spoke, enunciating his words carefully. "There were no witnesses to my rendezvous with Ravena last night. And if there had been, they would have seen nothing unseemly pass between us."

Dumbledore studied both Snape and Ravena over the half-moon spectacles. His snowy mustache twitched, as a slight smile worked on the corners of his mouth.

"While it is not encouraged, I do not believe that there is anything in the school's bylaws that prohibits fraternization between faculty members," Dumbledore said. "As long as it is carried out discretely, I have no objection."

Ravena breathed a sigh of relief. She flashed Snape a hopeful look. Then she caught a glimpse of Minerva's disapproving glare and averted her eyes.

"I myself once had a dalliance with a certain Astronomy professor in my youth," Dumbledore continued. His blue eyes twinkled. "Mildred Middlemarsh, if I recall. Minerva, don't look so shocked. I am not so old that I have forgotten what it is like to be young."

Ravena's eyes flicked to the face of the Deputy Headmistress. She had never seen McGonagall's eyes open so widely nor her lips drawn so thin. Ravena dropped her gaze to hide her expression. She was unable to disguise the smirk that now graced her ruby lips.

* * * * * * * *

Later that afternoon, Ravena was putting her classroom back in order, when Severus Snape dropped by. She noticed that he did not walk with his usual confident stride. An uncharacteristically subdued Snape stood before her.

"I am indebted to you for what you did for me upstairs," Snape said, avoiding her eyes. "And I owe you an apology."

"None required," Ravena replied.

"Why would you lie to cover for me?" He met her eyes, now casting her a quizzical stare.

"Simple," Ravena replied. "Because someone set us both up and wanted you to take the fall. I could not let him succeed."

"Ashbury?" Snape's eyebrows shot up. A scowl of hatred formed on his lips.

"Who else could it be?" Ravena answered. "But I can't prove anything. And I don't know what he's up to." She flashed Snape a hopeful stare. "But I thought that perhaps if we work together, we could figure it out. Will you help me?"

"Of course," Snape hissed through clenched teeth.

"A clever ruse," Ravena commented with a half-hearted chuckle. "Imagine my thinking that you would send me a love letter. How ridiculous."

"And you one to me. Preposterous." Snape rejoined with the slightest hint of a smirk.

Ravena averted her gaze, now studying the patterns of the stone tiles on the classroom floor. She swallowed, trying to dislodge the lump in her throat. She noticed that Snape had shuffled his feet and edged closer to her.

"That was an excellent exhibition of dueling skill," she said, a shy smile forming on her lips.

"Thank you," Snape remarked. "And you as well."

Ravena looked up to stare into the Potion Master's face. A jagged streak of red marred the pale flesh of his forehead above his left eye. Strands of straight jet-black hair fell in disarray around his face. She gazed into his dark eyes, blacker than a moonless midnight sky. Those eyes stared back at her, the fire hidden within them aflame.

"That eye is quite an interesting look on you, Ravena," Snape whispered.

"Is it?" she said. Her eye was nearly swollen shut by now. She imagined that it must have turned a hideous shade of purple. Her gaze flicked to his scarred brow. "And that cut on your forehead lends you a rather rakish charm."

She reached for his forehead and brushed his brow with the gentlest touch. He grimaced and jerked his head. Then his hand reached for her shoulder. She winced, as a sharp twinge of pain shot down her arm. He pulled his hand away.

"Is there any place on you without a bruise?" he queried.

"Only one," Ravena whispered. A slender finger tapped her lips.

An appreciative smirk appeared on Snape's face. He edged closer, taking care not to touch her anywhere that might trigger a pained reaction. With his hands held at his sides, he leaned in. She felt the tip of his hooked nose skimming her cheek. Then she closed her eyes and surrendered to a tender kiss.