Nocturne Grim

Nocturne Grim

Chapter Four

Notes: *cries* Too many fics...head...imploding...too many crossovers...brain turning to puddle of curdled mush...and on top of everything...bloody dissertation. Who gave the uni the idea that we actually ought to WORK for our degrees? Gah...

On a sidenote, sorry for taking so long with this chapter. With some characters, I have to be in a certain frame of mind to write them and Faith is definitely one of those kind of characters.

However, on a nice note, people have remarked on this being an `original´ crossover, because of the lack of `going to Hogwarts and meeting the trio´-ness. *le shrug*

I just liked the idea of putting Snape and Faith (two of my favourite characters ever!) in the same room ;) It never struck me that I was doing something original, but since it has been pointed out, I got ooshy-gooshy feelings :)

I am, however, on the lookout for a way to do a Lucius/Anya or Snape/Anya romance, because personally, I think it would be downright hilarious.

Anyway, shutting up now.

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Standing by the window of the motel, the lace curtains drawn back, Faith gazed out on the city street, her arms folded over her chest. Beyond her line of sight, the sun was edging down over the horizon, the sky turning a rich, burnt orange.

Behind her, sitting on one of the beds, she could hear the quiet scratch of Sev writing in his book. He used a feather quill, which looked wicked cool, instead of sticking with a pen like any normal person.

He had informed her that they would be leaving that night to arrive in the morning in Scotland, where - if she could really believe every word the guy was saying - she would be living in a castle.

They would use something similar to the card that he had used to get her out of jail the night before, only this one would take them straight to the school-castle that would be her new home.

It was necessary to wait to a certain time, he had said, because in a matter of a split second, the school´s defences against invasion by portkey would be lowered, so they could be transported directly to the grounds.

Something about knowing that this school-castle had defences against invasions of all kinds was kinda frightening to think about, to know that something had to be under the protections of so many kinds of magic.

It was crazy, but some part of her knew it was just crazy enough to be true.

And Sev...

He was okay.

He hadn´t tried anything.

He hadn´t even tried to touch her without her permission, which had definitely been a first, guys usually crawling over each other to grab her and touch her up, whether they were wanted or not.

Shifting slightly, Faith leaned against the glass, her forehead resting against the cool pane, to peer around the window ledge for a last glimpse of the sun as it disappeared down into the sea.

It was the first time she had been able to watch a sunset for months and even seeing it from a motel window beat not seeing it at all, the colours brighter and more vivid than she remembered them.

"Faith," Sev´s voice cut in on her thoughts.

"Mmm?"

"Perhaps you ought to move away from the window," he suggested quietly. "There may be enemies on every street corner and it would hardly be polite to have yourself killed, when Professor McGonagall is expecting you."

Faith´s lips curled up a little.

If anyone was going to see her, they would have seen her in the last half hour. She had been pressed against the glass since the sun had started to go down, watching the colours spread across the sky with a wonder she hadn´t felt since... well... ever.

He knew she needed to see it and he´d let her, only adding the warning on as a casual disclaimer, so she was aware of it.

Not that she needed the warning, every single face that glanced towards the third-level window making her instinctively pull back, out of sight, just in case something or someone recognised her.

No one did, of course.

She didn´t look anything like she remembered.

When she had showered that morning, she had been able to look herself over in the mirror, which wasn´t cracked or graffitied like the ones in jail, and she had barely recognised her own face.

Sev had been right when he said jail was killing her.

She hadn´t been able to see it while she was there, feeling it more than witnessing it, but when she saw her face...

The only time she´d looked that bad was when she had been in a coma for nearly a year, her face pale, deep, dark shadows under her eyes that looked haunted. She was a lot thinner too, too thin really.

She was wearing the grey T-shirt and black pants he had brought for her. They were her usual size. Or, at least, they had been her usual size, before she went to jail. Now, they were far too big and she had to use a belt to hold her pants up.

Stepping back from the glass, she watched the ripples of fabric as the curtains fell back down in place, then slowly turned around to face Sev, where he was sitting, his attention apparently fully on what he was writing.

Not that it fooled her.

He always had an eye on her, just making sure she was comfortable. Several times, without warning, he had asked her if she was all right, the second she changed her posture and expression at the same time.

He noticed everything.

Everything.

This guy was a Master of the Sneaky.

He had given her a few more details of his past during the day, telling her a little of his time as a spy for the forces of good, though not much. She had learned enough to realise that he was way smart and kinda like an uber-Bond in a dress.

Robes, she mentally corrected herself.

Carefully sitting down on her bed, she pulled her legs around and crossed them in front her, folding her hands in her lap and watching him as his hand continued to glide across the page.

"Whatcha writin´?" she finally asked, when his hand stilled.

Black eyes lifted to her face. "I thought you might wish to inform some friends and allies about your change in circumstances," he replied. "And I am writing a letter to provide an explanation from a formal source, should you desire to send something."

"Send somethin´? You mean like a letter?"

"You have friends here, do you not?"

Faith wet her lips nervously. "Yeah..." She nodded, squeezing her interlocked hands between her thighs. "Yeah, there´s Angel. He... he was helpin´ me and I kinda... I do kinda want B to know what´s the what..."

"B?"

"Buffy," she explained haltingly. "The other Slayer..." She looked down at her hands, then back at him. As far as she knew, he didn´t know the full back-story with B, how they had loved and hated each other in equal measures. "Don´t want her gettin´ any crazy ideas that she´s gonna get a new baby sister to cause trouble for her."

Sev gazed at her, lowering his quill. "In spite of everything, you know that word of your demise would cause her pain," he said quietly. Faith stared at him. How in the hell did he have her worked out so easily? "You would not wish to hurt her anymore than you already have."

"Uh... yeah... yeah, I guess that´s it."

One side of is mouth crooked up. "You still have trouble believing I have been in the same boat as you have and that I have experiences far too similar to your own," he remarked, tugging a few sheets free from his book and holding them out to her. "Write whatever you feel and I will see they are delivered as soon as possible."

Faith looked down at the paper, then back at him. "What am I meant to say?" she asked uselessly. "I don´t do letters. Hell, I don´t do goodbyes or reasons. What do I write? `Hey, B and Angel, thanks for having me. Sorry I was a bitch and for almost killing you both. A lot. Oh and hey! I got out of jail to live in a castle in Scotland, because some freaky guy called Sev thinks it´s gonna be better for me. See ya, Faith´? I don´t think that´s gonna go down real well with the Watcher guys. They want me to earn my way out..."

"And so you shall," Sev said calmly. "As for what you write, what you just said would suffice, although I would prefer if you would remember that my name is not Sev, but Severus. Three syllables. Surely that is not too complicated."

There was a gentle teasing tone in his voice that made her grin at him. "Sure, Sev," she retorted. "And you´re not wearin´ a freaky-ass dress."

"Actually," he said, his expression dead-pan, but for the glint in his dark eyes. "At the moment I am, but I would greatly appreciate it if you kept my cross-dressing tendencies between us for the moment."

Faith blinked at him. She had been really trying to work the guy out since that morning, but he kept on surprising her. Shaking her head, she tried to smother a burst of laughter unsuccessfully.

Something about him was... wicked creepy, but he was so damn cool and had been so great to her already. He had such a dry, sarcastic sense of humour that she couldn´t help laughing at pretty much everything he said in that tone of voice.

"You have gotta be joking, right!"

Sev gave her an implacable look. "I never joke," he replied, expression serious.

Trying to force her mouth down to hide a grin, she failed miserably, her shoulders shaking with silent laughter. His eyes caught hers and she was sure she saw one side of his mouth lift again.

Coughing, to hide the laugh that bubbled up inside her, she reached over to the desk drawer and opened it, grateful to find a motel-provided pen lying there, a little gummy and dirty, but still in working order.

Sev made a clicking sound of disapproval with his tongue.

"What?"

"People wonder why the wizarding world is superior to the muggle world." he sighed, shaking his head. "When you use plastic tubes to write, I feel the urge to mourn the loss of civilisation."

"Old-fashioned guy, huh?"

He gave her a look that said more than a hundred words, one brow rising.

"Call me modern," she replied, equally seriously, although she was having a lot of trouble keeping her face straight. "But I kinda don´t like the idea with something that was pulled outta a bird´s ass."

This time, it was Sev who was forced to smother a snort of laughter, Faith fighting to hide a grin of glee at the fact she had managed to trigger that reaction in a guy who looked like he didn´t laugh much, if ever.

***

"Whoa!"

Landing heavily on her knees on the grass, a hand spreading to balance herself, Faith swayed unsteadily for several seconds, the ground taking a few moments to stabilise beneath her feet.

"Are you all right?" Sev asked, touching her shoulder.

Nodding, she raised a hand to acknowledge him, swallowing down the feeling of motion sickness that the Portkey made her feel. How Sev could deal with the weird spinning, land on his feet and look as if nothing had happened, she didn´t know.

Inhaling slow breaths, she managed to regain her focus and raised her head, shaking her hair back from her face.

And immediately was convinced that her world was spinning again.

To her far left, there was a dark woodland, but it was the view in front of her that made her stare. A broad expanse of grass spread out in front of her leading up towards the most amazing building she had ever seen in her life.

It was a castle!

It was an honest-to-mother-of-God castle!

Tall, round towers and turrets rose from oblong off-white stone buildings, windows lining the walls and glinting in the early morning light. Archways and statues provided elaborate decoration for the walls.

In the light of dawn, it seemed to take on an ethereal glow, the whole place radiating an incredible power and... safeness that Faith had never felt anywhere else. It was as if the whole place was a home, instead of just a building.

"Holy shit..."

"Most eloquent," Sev sounded amused as he bent closer to her. One hand under her left elbow, he drew her back up onto her feet, his light but firm hold preventing her from falling. "Welcome to Hogwarts."

Staring in awe, Faith found herself wondering if it would be a kinda bad thing to take pictures and send them to Angel and B. They would have loved it, she knew, even just looking at it from the outside.

It just felt so welcoming.

"We had best meet Professor McGonagall, before the student body emerge..." Sev said, propelling her forward gently. "Unless you have a sudden odd compulsion to be surrounded by a thousand excitable children."

"I´m kinda thinking not on that," Faith replied with a shudder.

It was gonna take long enough adjusting to having one guy around her. A thousand kids wasn´t gonna be the best thing to make her feel right at home, right away, when she was used to being alone.

"And you recall..."

"That I´m not allowed to let anyone know that you do actually have a sense of humour," She started marking the list off on her hand. "A personality and a thing for wearing chick´s clothes."

"Particularly?"

"The sense of humour?"

He nodded. "That would be accurate."

"Y´know, most guys would be more... I dunno... spazzy about their students figurin´ out that they wear dresses."

Black eyes looked down at her as they approached the immense archway. "I hope that reminds you that I am most certainly not `most guys´, Faith," he replied, a chuckle escaping him as she swore again, using words that no normal teenager should, at the sight of the staircase leading into the actual school.

Shaking her head, she stared around at the massive buildings, arches and everything around her, awe etched on her face.

"You approve of the school?"

"This is awesome! I´ve never seen anything like it!"

She was still trying to drink in everything around them, as they slowly ascended the staircase, almost tripping on her face a dozen times on the way up the flight, too busy looking elsewhere.

"Good morning, Severus. And would I be right in presuming this is Faith?"

Faith turned from staring out at the grounds to find a tall - and kinda scary-lookin´ - witch standing in front of them, her hands folded in the voluminous sleeves of deep green robes.

She looked like she had been sucking one too many lemons, her lips pursed and her expression serious, suggesting that she had been through a lot and was still trying to deal with everything and more.

Black hair, liberally streaked with grey, was pulled back in a tight knot at the base of her skull, which was visible underneath the wide-brimmed, pointed black hat.

"Wicked cool..." Faith couldn´t help staring. The witch´s green eyes were full of energy and fire, which totally undercut her severe looks. "Sev, she looks just like a real witch...I mean, without the warts and everything..."

"That," the witch answered in a slight Scottish burr, a slight twinkle in her eyes. "Is because I am a real witch, just as Severus is a real wizard. He simply refuses to wear his pointed wizard´s hat."

"Damn, Sev," Faith shook her head mournfully. "And there was me thinkin´ you knew when to accessorize." She looked at him expectantly, hoping she hadn´t just earned a glare.

His eyes glittered with amusement, but he looked deadly serious. "Faith..."

Raising her hands defensively, she gave him a tentative smile. "I know, I know. Keep fashion and clothes and everything else out of the conversation. Right. Got it. Won´t mention hats, dresses or those itty bitty thongs I saw in your bathroom."

The witch in front of them had one hand pressed against her mouth and looked like she was hard-pressed to smother a grin. Sev, on the other hands, was trying to look pissed, but was failing miserably.

"Perhaps," Sev remarked, his voice heavy with sarcasm. "I ought to introduce you to one another, then leave this school permanently, before my reputation is shot to ribbons in a matter of minutes."

"Too late," Faith smirked at him, receiving an arched eyebrow. "Hey! You brought me here, Sev! Not my fault!" Turning to the witch in front of them, she tilted her head in question.

"I am Minerva McGonagall," the witch said. "Head Mistress of the school."

The former Slayer looked her up and down. "When Sev said they had a Head Mistress here, I figured she would be way old. You look wicked glamorous for a Head Mistress and those robes... wicked cool."

"Thank you, Miss...?" McGonagall actually looked flattered, although not totally convinced. She extended a long, bony hand to the Slayer.

"Just Faith," the girl replied with a shrug, shaking the Head Mistress´s hand. "Never knew my dad´s name, never wanted my mom´s, so Faith is good enough for me. It´s real nice of you to have me here."

"You have Severus to thank for that," McGonagall said warmly. "He has assured me that he intends to take care of you, while you choose to remain here."

Faith shot a look at Sev, who was looking emotionless. "Yeah... he´s a good guy."

"Severus," the Head Mistress directed her words at him. "Would you prefer to rest for today and resume teaching next week to allow you time to settle and perhaps show Faith a little of the school?"

Sev dipped his chin slightly. "I think that would be best, Head Mistress," he replied, his tone nothing like Faith had heard it before. He sounded so... formal and proper, nothing like the guy she had spent time with. "Also, Faith would prefer to remain discreetly out of the way at present, until she is familiar with social interaction again."

"I´m sure that will be fine, Severus," McGonagall replied, folding her hands in her sleeves again. "We have taken the opportunity to have the room near yours vacated and refurbished for Faith´s arrival."

"Re-refurbished?" Faith interrupted. "You didn´t need to go to any trouble. I´m good as long as I got a roof over my head. Spartan is fine by me."

The Head Mistress gave her a small smile. "Unfortunately, my dear," she said with a heavy sigh. "It´s far too late now, so I suppose you will simply have to deal with the room we provided. I do hope it won´t be over-done."

"Sarcasm is a way British thing, right?" Faith muttered to Sev, who just chuckled.