Destiny of Souls

Chapter 8: Prixel Love

Snape was at breakfast Monday morning, the cuts and bruises still on his face and he was limping. It was real pain, not feigned at all and this is what he had wanted. Several of his students whispered constantly at breakfast, one of them was Malfoy who no doubt was aware of the situation.

Kara hadn't recognized any of the names the Daily Prophet mentioned; Avery, MacNair. Draco's father was not one of them though, and for that Kara was disappointed.

She and Snape didn't speak but he showed up to her Wednesday Slytherin class as usual and that evening he knocked on her office door as she read through third year essays on vampires.

"Come in," she said as she opened the door.

He came in and sat down in one of the chairs. She sat opposite him.

"You're feeling better?" she asked

"Yes. That was a good batch of Dresden lotion. Those are completely healed," he said

"You're just going to let the others scar?" she asked. Some voice in the back of her mind said to her the he would be less attractive with scars. She shut the voice up quickly.

"I am making some Dresden lotion now and will use it in a few days," he replied

"You could have used mine. I made it myself." she said

"Yes, but as you pointed out Professor Lynch, I too like to make my own remedies."

"I did say that didn't I."

"The Headmaster and I have solved the Malfoy problem. I wanted to inform you that it was being dealt with, although I am not permitted to tell you how," he said.

His usual demeanor had returned and he was looking straight into her eyes. She internally cowered, but was resolved to return his gaze.

"I see. Thank you for informing me."

There was a pause and she took the opportunity to pace the room a bit to give off the appearance she was thinking. She knew her eyes were giving away her nervousness.

"You are aware students are not permitted to possess Rings of Epa?" he asked finally.

Dumbledore must have told him. She thought about her answer carefully.

"Under the circumstances, I decided it was better than him wandering the halls alone at night," she said with a firm tone.

"He should not be out at all. No other student would receive such treatment."

She sat down opposite him again. At least now she had a worthy cause to be righteous and firm about.

"No other student is living through what he is Professor Snape. Were this Neville Longbottom I would not have done this. Neither you, nor I, nor Dumbledore can reverse what has happened to Harry Potter. The least we can do is make sure he wont get killed attempting to deal with it."

He seemed to be pondering a response to this, but could not come up with one. After a few tense moments of staring at one another with forced faces of calm he finally broke the silence.

"I am pleased to see that my classes are not behind and that they completed their lessons last week. Thank you."

"Anytime Professor Snape."

* * *

Several weeks passed and as Christmas approached, the students signed up to stay at Hogwarts over the holidays. With Voldemort's return, Kara anticipated most of the students would elect to go home to their parents, but with the Yule Ball happening Christmas Day she turned out to be wrong. Regardless, there was an uproar over the events at the Ministry. Several people had gone missing in the last few months and there was fear that the Dementors at Azkaban would be called upon by Voldemort at anytime.

Two Saturdays before the beginning of the Christmas Holiday, Snape was absent at breakfast, lunch and dinner. He was not in his office or private quarters. She pondered approaching Dumbledore about it, but when Snape returned the following day she dropped the issue.

When she returned to her office on Monday after classes there was a package wrapped in white paper laying on her desk. The note attached said.

Kara - I picked this up while on a trip. I believe you will enjoy it. Consider it a thank you for all you have done for me. -Severus

She tore the white paper off the package. It was a leather-bound book with no title on the cover. She opened it and on the first page there was a note scrawled.

Professor Lynch,

I hear France misses you. Enjoy the contents.

With Respect, Joachim Prixel.

Her heart began beating quickly. Prixel, the author of her favorite text and one of the most revered Potions Masters in the world had autographed a book for her. This was unheard of. On top of that he knew who she was.

Leafing through the first few pages she arrived on a title page. It read.

"Unreleased Works of Joachim Prixel on the Prixel Bush"

"Oh Severus," she said out loud in astonishment.

Each page was handwritten and all of the drawings were sketched with beautiful accuracy. It was a one of a kind book. How on earth had he come by it, let alone get it signed?

She couldn't put it down. She read each chapter, each Potion recipe carefully. She read right through dinner without realizing it. She had just stumbled upon Prixel's notes on an unreleased antidote for Prixel Fury when there was a knock at her door. It was Snape. He had a plate of food in one hand and a goblet of pumpkin juice in another.

"I had a feeling I wouldn't see you at dinner Professor Lynch." A slight smile came to his face. She couldn't speak. Her eyes were wide open as if she had just seen the most surprising thing she had ever seen. She had the book clutched to her chest. Her hair was falling all around her. She looked visibly flustered and deranged.

"Well, can I come in?" he finally asked.

"Oh! Of course. I'm starving. Thank you for bringing me dinner," she said. She carefully put the book down on the desk and sat down to eat.

"You don't mind if I eat in front of you?" she asked.

"Not at all."

He sat down in one of her leather chairs.

"Severus, there is an antidote for Prixel Fury in there, she said as she cut up the steak into tiny pieces.

"Yes, I am aware. That is why I went to see Prixel yesterday -- to retrieve the recipe from him. He is on his deathbed. He told me to take the book. I told him you would be more interested in it. He was delighted to hear you were a fan and signed it," he said

"How did you know I was a fan? And how did he know who I was?" She asked.

"I knew because your face lit up in my office that first night, and you knew exactly what page Prixel Fury was on, as if you had read the book a thousand times. He knew who you were because of Polishnikov."

She was amazed at his ability to read her.

"I can't think of enough things to... This is beyond..." Her words trailed off. She just looked at him fork in hand.

"You need say nothing. Like I said, consider it a thank you."

She ate her dinner extremely quickly and when she was finished she got up to sit opposite him.

"In the last few pages of the book there is a vaccine for Prixel poisons. I had no idea it existed until he gave me the book yesterday," he said as he watched her reaction closely.

Her eyes widened and she jumped up to grab the book. She carefully flipped through the pages until she found it. She had the deranged look on her face again.

"Severus..." her voice trailed off. "You realize what it would mean if the Ministry had this?"

"Yes," he said "Which is why I am here. Prixel swore to me that I would not give the recipe to anyone else and I am to make you swear the same thing."

"But... doesn't he realize..." she didn't get a chance to finish.

"However. He made it clear he intended the recipe to be put to use. This means you and I will have to make it and provide it to the Ministry."

"Severus, this isn't a difficult Potion. You are perfectly capable of this on your own." She wasn't sure why she said this. It was obvious he wanted to spend time with her.

"There are several reasons you need to be involved. The first reason being that you own the recipe. The second reason is it needs to appear as though the vaccine is coming from you since the Dark Lord has been seeking it from Prixel directly. If Prixel is interrogated, he will say he gave it to you. Certain... people... in this castle will observe you working in my laboratory on it," he said

Had Voldemort sent Snape directly to Prixel on his behalf? Is that how Snape knew all this? Instead of giving it to Voldemort, Snape turned the book and recipe over to her. "Dangerous game Snape." She thought to herself.

"I see. Yes that makes perfect sense."

"And. Well I think you know the other reasons Kara," he said in a soft voice

She knew what he meant. She just looked up and gave him a small smile.

She read over the vaccine again. "We will have trouble obtaining good soda squash. Pritchard's always carried the best I could find. I can make a trip this weekend. I need to get to France for Christmas shopping anyway. I will pick up the Dragon liver..." her voice trailed off as she read. "It calls for Peruvian Vipertooth Dragon liver. That will be a problem as it's outlawed in Britain. I can always get it from France of course."

"The Ministry has given Dumbledore leeway with this, it should not be a problem," he replied.

She nodded and continued. "The rest of this isn't difficult to find. I will pick everything up on Saturday. I will get some test subjects too."

She would get mice no doubt. She always hated shopping for test subjects. Magical creatures shops always knew what it meant when you bought multiple non-magical mice at one time. The daughter of the woman that ran the shop near Pritchard's always cried when Kara left the store, knowing the mice were going to suffer horrible deaths. She would get them from Hogsmeade if possible.

"We will need to make the poisons also, unless you have some available."

She looked at him. He seemed reluctant to answer.

"I do. I do not have Prixel Fury however. We will need to make that."

They spoke for a while about arrangements, security in the laboratory, how to get the vaccines to the Ministry, and just how much testing they would need to do before it was given to humans. It was nearly 10pm when she made her way back to her quarters. She took the book with her and slept with it under her pillow in case someone attempted to steal it.

Her dreams were pleasant that night. She was in a laboratory at Durmstrang and Polishnikov was overseeing her work on Prixel Fury. She completed it successfully the first time, and her test subject died instantly. It was a relatively painless death, she thought. She was just stirring in dried Prixel to another potion when a loud song broke out. In her dream she searched the room for an hourglass, but there was none. Consciously she woke up and the song was still playing. It was a loud fast American tune... Yankee Doodle Dandy. Potter was summoning her.

She hopped out of bed quickly and threw on her cloak over her dressing gown, put on her shoes, grabbed her wand and ran for the door. As she sprinted towards Gryffindor tower she threw her hair up in a bun. When she got there Potter took the Invisibility cloak off. There were tears in his eyes and he was clutching his scar barely able to stand.

"Dumbledore," he muttered.

"Can you walk?" She asked.

"I don't think so," he said as he collapsed to his knees.

Absentmindedly she levitated him off the ground and right before he looked up she was able to pull out her wand. She guided him quickly towards Dumbledore's office. She spoke the password and they glided upstairs. Dumbledore was waiting for them.

"Harry, sit down. Tell me what happened."

"It was a dream," he said, still rubbing his scar. It had apparently stopped hurting him so badly. "I dreamt that Voldemort was killing two people. They were both wizards I think. One was old and very sick. The other was a woman about the same age."

Kara was startled as a loud rush of feathers emerged from behind her and onto Harry's knee.

"How did he kill them?"

Harry reached up and petted Dumbledore's Phoenix.

"It was a potion of some kind. It was green and was in a bottle," he said.

"What color green Harry? Can you remember?" she asked without thinking.

"It was dark, like an emerald," he said

"Did they die instantly?" she probed.

He turned torwards her, just slightly left.

"No. It was a few minutes. They were still talking after they took it. Then it became very painful and they started screaming... and then..." he couldn't continue, but he didn't need to. She knew what this was.

"Was there blood in their eyes Harry?" she said, with a soft voice and obvious concern.

He simply nodded.

She looked at Dumbledore "Probably a second-class Prixel poison. Not easy to make."

Dumbledore nodded.

"Did you see anything else? Was there anyone else there?" Dumbledore asked.

"Malfoy, Pettigrew were there. I didn't see any other Death Eaters."

"Did you hear what they said?" Dumbledore asked.

"Um. Voldemort said something about finding a recipe. I couldn't hear anything else though."

Kara froze. Did Harry just see Prixel's death? Where had Voldemort obtained a second-class Prixel poison? You couldn't buy them in shops. Maybe he had used some from Prixel's own stores.

Harry was completely calm now and was staring at Fawkes. Fawkes was staring back at him letting Harry pet him. Kara had never known a Phoenix to be this friendly.

"Professor Lynch, would you fetch a nice dreamless sleeping potion from Madam Pomfrey?" Dumbledore asked.

"Yes Headmaster."

She left, and when she had returned to Dumbledore's office she escorted Harry back to Gryffindor with the Potion.

"Thank you for coming Professor Lynch," he said as they reached the tower.

"Anytime Mr. Potter. This is precisely why I gave you the Ring of Epa," she said

"Oh. It has a name?" ge asked. "I thought it was just something you had bewitched."

"No. It is actually a very rare item that was given to me by a mentor. In all honesty, it is considered to be an item associated with the Dark Arts. However I find many of the items that are useful tend to be. "

He looked at the ring around his neck as if he was looking for some sign it was a Dark Magical item. He couldn't find any and eventually tucked it back inside his pajamas.

"Now get to bed. Take this before you sleep and hopefully I wont see you again until class tomorrow afternoon."

"Goodnight Professor." he said as he took the goblet and gave the Fat Lady the password.