The Revenant

I own nothing.

Chapter 5: Collision and Conversation

Draco Malfoy couldn't sleep. He went to Dumbledore and told him everything, except for the part about Snape killing his father and bringing the prisoner, figuring Snape could tell the old man that part himself. Dumbledore seemed to know that Draco didn't tell him the whole story, but he didn't say anything. After their 'meeting,' Dumbledore had directed him to his normal dormitory and said he could stay there. Except now he couldn't sleep.

He was sitting in the Slytherin common room, staring at the blazing fire and trying to take into account all that had happened. His father was dead. Snape had killed him. His mother was left alone in the house. What would she do when she woke to find her husband dead, and her son missing in action? Draco didn't kid himself - he doubted Narcissa would care much. Lucuis hadn't been the perfect husband (or father for that matter) and Narcissa wasn't exactly a caring mother herself. Because of this, Draco found it was hard to give a damn what happened to either of them.

He was concerned about one thing, though. That thing was called Voldemort. Draco shuddered unconciously when this thought entered his mind. His father, of course, had expected him to follow in his footsteps. Draco had other plans, though. Being a DeathEater wasn't exactly on his action item list. He wasn't particularly -against- the Dark Lord, but being a follower of anyone wasn't something he saw himself doing. People followed him, not the other way around. Be this as it may, he didn't doubt that Voldemort would be on the look-out for him. Hell, he might even be convinced that Draco had killed his father instead of Snape. Wouldn't that be pleasant.

Sighing, he rose from the plush green couch in front of the fire. He needed to take a walk to clear his head. Stepping out of the common room, he found the castle was dark and foreboding. This was a side of the castle he didn't see much, the night gave him a whole new perspective. Night-time adventure was Potty and the Weasel's thing, not his. His parents would have been less than pleased to get a letter finding out their son was causing trouble in school. And when they were less than pleased, bad things happened.

Draco found himself in a long, dark corridor that he didn't recognize. Paintings looked down at him from their frames, sometimes whispering to one another. Pulling his arms around himself, he wished he'd brought a cloak of some sort with him. It was rather cold in this castle at night, even in summer. Suddenly he heard the sound of footsteps somewhere down the corridor and instinctively moved into the shadows.

They wouldn't get mad at him for moving around the castle after all that had happened, would they? He was on vacation afterall. Well, it was a good time to find out. He made his way out of the shadows and continued down the hallway as the footsteps got louder. Being as dark as it was, Draco didn't see the other figure until it collided with him and he was knocked onto the ground.

"Oof!"

The other person had obviously fallen down, as well. Draco got himself to his feet, and pulled out his wand.

"Lumos."

The prisoner girl Snape had brought with him came into view, standing and dusting herself off.

"Hey, sorry kid," she said. "I wasn't looking where I was going, I guess."

Draco nodded. "It's all right. It is pretty dark in here, anyway."

She smirked like she had a secret, but kept quiet. Draco looked her over suspiciously.

"What are you doing out here, anyway?"

Lye's mood turned sour unexpectedly. "What do you care? Just cuz your father kept me prisoner for god knows how long doesn't mean you have any power over me."

"Oh, no, I didn't mean that...I just meant, well, I thought you'd be staying with Professor Snape or something."

"Not fucking likely," she snorted derisively. Then, changing tone, she asked,"What're you doing out here?"

Draco shrugged. "Needed to clear my mind, I guess. Just walking."

"Well, I guess we're kind of on the same boat then."

Without any verbal exchange, they started walking together. The silence lasted for a while, until Draco finally spoke.

"So, uh, who are you, exactly?"

"Oh, I figured you'd know that," she responded. "Being as how we were in the same house for quite some time."

"Father never really talked about his...er, prisoners," Draco said, proceeding with caution. He wasn't looking forward to setting her off again as she seemed to have quite a temper, if the exchange in Snape's rooms was any indication.

"Well, my name's Lyeta. I kind of prefer Lye, though."

"You mean like the caustic alkaline solution lye?"

She laughed faintly. "Sort of like that, I guess. So what's Severus doing saving your ass?"

"Sever...oh, Professor Snape," Draco said. "Uhm, I don't know really. I always sort of thought he was in league with my father, you know, a Death Eater and all. But I guess he's a spy for Dumbledore," a beat, then. "Why'd he save you?"

Lye shrugged. "I'm not going to pretend to know the inner workings of Severus, er, Snape's mind. If you ask me, it was a complete lapse of good judgement. Especially killing Lucius."

"Why? Father would have killed you if he hadn't killed him first."

"He would have tried," she muttered. "But I don't know. Maybe he wants to relive the past, or something."

"The past?," Draco questioned. "You and Snape used to know each other?"

"Yes, used to being the key words. He must've realized after what happened, that things had changed," Lye seemed to get reminescent for a moment before shaking her head and continuing. "So what are you going to do now?"

"It's not really up to me, for now anyway. Dumbledore seems to know what he's doing, I guess I'll wait until he decides something."

They stopped walking, and Lye nodded.

"Well, uh, this is my room," Draco said, somewhat awkwardly. "I guess I'll try to go to sleep."

Lye nodded again. "All right. I should probably find somewhere to camp out for the day as well," she said, then almost as an afterthought. "It was nice talking to you."

"You, too," Draco said. Then he disappeared behind the painting of a rather formidable looking man who scowled down at Lye as the painting-portal closed.

Lye didn't notice as she wandered off, not knowing where she was going. Somewhere dark, she imagined. Now that she'd fed she was rather tired; sleep came easy on a full stomach. Or full veins, as the case may be.

Her thoughts turned to the young Malfoy she'd just parted ways with. She was predisposed to hate him, of course, as he was his father's son. After talking to him, however, she could sense that he wasn't so much like his father as she had expected. In fact, the boy seemed to harbor a definate dislike for the man. Could Lucius have treated his own family as bad as he had treated her? The thought didn't seem too unbelievable. A mystery for another night, she decided. She decended back towards the dungeons, but definately not towards Snape's rooms. That was definately something to deal with another night, as well.

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Chapter 6: Explosion and Subjugation

Severus Snape rose a short time after eight AM. It didn't take him long to get to sleep, thanks to the tiring night's activities. Knowing there wasn't much to do but wait for Dumbledore's orders, he took his time waking up. He stretched and pulled back the dark green silken sheets from his bed, then moved to the dark oak wardrobe. Extracting clothes for the day - black, of course - he dressed and headed towards his main room for a morning cup of tea and perhaps a read of the Daily Prophet. His thoughts were interrupted by the sleeping form on his couch.

Short, messy red hair. A small and fragile-looking form. Arms wrapped around itself and knees drawn to it's chest. What was she doing here? He was sure after her display last night that she would have taken the opportunity to flee, but here she was, asleep on his couch and looking for all the world like an angel. Snape shook his head to free his mind of these thoughts. No need to go -there- again.

After preparing the tea, he decided to go for a walk about the castle. There was no way in hell he could stay in the same room as her and keep his sanity, at least not right now. Give him a couple days to get used to it, yes, that's all he needed.

Escaping the mental torture that oozed from his dungeons, he started towards the Great Hall, which for the summer was more like a teacher's lounge. The only people there this morning were Dumbledore and McGonnagal. Snape took his regular seat at the table and tried to look like he wasn't worth disturbing. Dumbledore, however, wasn't falling for it.

"Ah, Severus," the older man greeted him. "Nice to see you. I trust the operation last night went well?"

"Er," Snape started. Just how much -had- Draco told him. "As well as could be expected, I suppose."

Dumbledore smiled, that familiar twinkle back in his blue eyes. "Nothing unexpected, then? No extra guests staying in the castle? In your dungeons, even?"

Snape gritted his teeth. How was it that this man seemed to know -everything-? "Yes, well, I don't suppose she'll be around for very long. Not a problem, really."

"Oh, I quite agree," Dumbledore said, still smiling. "Quite a charming young lady if you ask me."

At Snape's look, the Headmaster's smile widened. "We had a conversation after you and her parted ways," Dumbledore explained.

Snape groaned inwardly. The last thing he needed was Lye telling all of his collegues about their younger days together. It could very well ruin his reputation which he'd worked so hard to get. Rethinking his course of action, he stood.

"Well, that's lovely. Now if you'll excuse me." Snape left the Great Hall in a flurry of black robes. The day was decidely -not- looking pleasant.

-------

Snape was right. Although the day wasn't pleasant, it wasn't particularly eventful either. He had returned to his study (despite the obvious dangers involved) and read through a well-worn potions book for a good part of the day. After picking a potion to make, he relocated to his classroom and started adding together the first stage of ingredients. The only disturbance came, quite expectedly, after the sun had sunk beneath the fringes of the Forbidden Forest.

He was in the process of chopping Mandrake root when the adjoining door from his study flung open, causing a few bottles which were on the shelf concealing said door to come crashing to the ground. He was willing to let it slide if she didn't look at him. He begged Merlin not to let her look at him.

"Pity," her voice, completely void of remorse, cut through the air. "But I guess you can fix that, huh?"

Her gaze moved from the mess on the floor, which was being eaten away as a silvery liquid met with a blueish powder, and came to rest on the lank, darkly clothed form in front of her.

'Ah, shit,' Snape thought. 'She's looking at me.'

"Not a problem," he managed. "Carry on."

"Carry on?," Lye scoffed. "Carry on -what-? It's not like I have a fucking purpose here."

"I'm sure you can find something to do," Snape replied, keeping his eyes on the root and trying his best not blanch at the horrible smell eminating from the mess on the floor. His insistence on looking down did not go unnoticed by the vampire. Irritating always had been one of her specialties, and it seemed to resurface with a vengeance now.

"Whatcha making?," she hoped onto the table he was working at carelessly, although careful enough to not make a mess on the table resembling of the one on the floor. Or perhaps that was coincidence.

Snape sneered. Her irritating ways had never gotten to him before, but then, he never wanted her to leave him alone before, either. "What happened to 'I fucking hate you'?" His tone mocked hers from the night before.

Her laugh was like acid to his cold shell. None of the malice from last night, and more than a hint of the way he remembered her laughing. His blackened heart swelled for a minute, but diminished again with her words.

"Don't worry, Severus, I still fucking hate you. You just seem to be the only entertainment for the time being," she told him, swirling a finger through the powdered unicorn horn that was in a neat pile on the table. The movement caught his eye and he reached out.

"Stop," he hissed as he grasped her invading hand with his. Invading. That's what she was. Invading, irritating, and horribly intriguing. And he would have none of it. He was the feared, respected and perhaps loathed Potions master and there was no way in Hades he would let her get to him now.

"In case you haven't noticed," he spat venomously. "I am trying to get something accomplished here. While your life may have no purpose, mine does, and I'd appreciate if you would relinquish control of my solitude and make yourself scarce."

She raised an eyebrow coolly. "Well fucking forgive me." She hopped off the desk. "It's not exactly easy to have purpose in one's life when the last eight - no, make that twelve - years have been wasted all because I was naive enough to believe that I was in love - " another sneer " - with an unlovable fucking bastard such as yourself. Nor is it a pleasant revelation when that unlovable bastard comes to one's rescue, quite belated I might add, and shows his true colors yet denies freedom just the same. You're no better than Malfoy was."

Snape snarled, despite the insult or perhaps due to it. He raised his wand from it's place on the table, and Lye had seen enough of those to have the sense to wrench her hand from his grasp and step back a couple of paces. Snape marked a mental point for himself at the horrified look on her face, and swung his wand to the left. The spilled jars reassembled themselves and the mess on the floor was gone, the only evidence of it's existence was the now large crater in the floor of the dungeon. Silence prevailed for the moment while Lye regained her composure. Snape redirected his attention to the potion he was trying to create. He looked at the bubbling cauldron. How long had it been since he added the wormwood? He wasn't quite sure, and this particular potion required undivided attention. He thought for a moment, then his mounting anger got the best of him.

"FUCK!," the cauldron went crashing to the floor with a clank, the failed potion spilling across the tiles and filling the hole caused by Lye's interruption, followed by a flurry of powdered unicorn horn, chopped Mandrake root, and a few other indiscernable ingredients. Lye stood still as a statue, not fleeing despite her intuition telling her to get as far away from the enraged man as possible. Incogitancy won over.

"Well, glad to see you're not trying to get anything accomplished anymore."

Snape glared up at her from behind a curtain of now-tousled, lank, dark hair. He seethed. If she had been a student, she would have been berated, given detention for a week, and had 50 points taken from her house. Unfortunately, she wasn't a student, only an inconvenience to his structured way of life, and he was at a loss for appropriate punishment.

"Why didn't you leave last night?," his voice was low, silken, and dangerous as he addressed her.

Lye debated. It was, in all respects, a very good question. She -should- have left.

"I...I have no idea where we are," she stammered.

"Certainly you could have found some cave to crawl into to await the dusk."

"I wasn't sure if, I mean...it might not have...been safe," she floundered now. His gaze was directly penetrating her sheild of bravado, peircing straight into her like a heated needle.

Snape shook his head, a ghost of a smirk appearing on his lips. "Stupid girl."

Anger flashed briefly in her eyes, and her jaw clenched. He had a wand at hand, but surely there would be some retribution if he were to kill her with it? They had a whole ministry for stuff like that, misusing magic and all, and to the best of her knowledge there was no law forbidding vampires to kill, especially when provoked or threatened. All this went through her head as their stare-down continued, but she wasn't really considering killing him. Killing never held much interest in her case, and she was rather enjoying this little match of wits - even if she was losing. It was exciting. She decided to attack a more personal area, rather than appease him with a childish retort.

"I wasn't even angry at you for killing people in the name of fun. I wasn't mad at you for what you chose to do," she stated in a tone that, in it's own way, matched his low and dangerous one. "You washed your hands of me simply for being what I was."

Snape paled slightly, but did not alter his harrowing gaze nor did he appear to become angry or remorseful. "You weren't honest with me. Perhaps if I'd known what I was dealing with, that whole mess never would have happened."

"One minute I'm the love of your life, the next minute I'm a mess," Lye kept likewise still, standing her ground. "I didn't know blood held such high priority. You and Malfoy are looking more and more similar by the moment."

Again she compared him to the man he had killed not 24 hours ago. A man she must have known he loathed, although he doubted she could fathom just how deep that hatred ran. If it were not for Malfoy, he would not have become the vile creature he was. If it were not for Malfoy, his life would not been in very serious danger at this second. Then again, if it were not for Malfoy, he would not even be having his discussion right now.

"You spoke earlier of naivety," he said. "I guess we were both naive."

The lock between their eyes didn't falter, but confusion was apparent in the female's. Was he giving up, admitting he was wrong? It seemed impossible, but there it was, clear as day. Or night, since she couldn't quite remember just how clear day was.

"You weren't naive," she said. "You were wrong."

Snape laid his hands flat on the table before him and dropped his head. Black hair obscured the eyes completely from view, and this small gesture finalized his defeat. His voice dropped noticeably from it's earlier tone, and loss any danger it once held as well. "I was wrong."

Lye wasn't sure what to do about this. No sense of triumph overcame her in his admittal of guilt. Not at all what she had expected, and certainly nowhere near pleasant. He was wrong, and he was remorseful, and although she should be basking in this, she only felt worse.

She bit her tongue and blood coursed into her mouth. Not her blood, she reminded herself. His blood. Realizing this was not exactly the consolation she had been looking for. With another glance at the defeated man before her, she turned on her heel.

And she fled.

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Chapter 7: Descension and Reconciliation

She fled, and she had no idea where she was going. For some reason she stayed in the castle, even though the doors leading outside would be easy enough to find. She was thinking hard, and not really paying attention to her course or destination.

As she ran, she tried to grasp the facts that she knew, without a doubt, to be true. Severus was wrong; she knew it and he admitted it. Severus was also the reason she'd spent the past 8 years in Malfoy's dungeon. Alternately, he was part of the reason she even entertained the idea of going on for those 8 years. She was no longer a prisoner to anyone, but she still remained in this fucking castle with it's spooky pictures that whispered as you ran past and creaking suits of armor that seemed to watch you and stairs that grabbed your feet and sucked them into their depths -

A thud resonated through the surrounding area as Lye landed flat on her face. Any thought she'd had stopped immediately as she sat up and rubbed her head. She squirmed around, trying to free her foot from the offending stair, even grasping it with both hands and pulling feircely. All she accomplished was pulling a few muscles, however.

"Fuck," she muttered. "This is ridiculous."

"That one gets them all the time," a rather prestigous looking gentleman in a white-powdered wig told her from a painting nearby.

"Yea, well you could've warned me beforehand," she sneered at it.

"No need to get crass, dear," another painting, this time a gaunt woman in a hideous salmon-colored dress told her. "If you were condemned to a life of watching the living, you'd enjoy any bit of entertainment you got, too."

Lye sighed loudly, still not resigned to her fate. "All right, so what's the trick? You've had your fun, now tell me how to get my foot out of this fucking thing."

"No trick," the man in the first painting said. "You just have to wait for someone to come by and help you out."

Grumbling and pouting, she lay back against the stairs and waited.

------

Severus Snape looked up when he heard the door to the classroom close. She had left. Now, after everything, she had left. Was that what she had wanted, is it why she didn't leave last night? She wanted to hear him say he was wrong? Well, if that was indeed what she wanted, then she had it. He cursed slightly under his breath and directed his attention to cleaning up the mess he'd made by splattering the simple, yet elaborate Cold Cure Potion. His thoughts would not obey being distracted.

Why -had- he admitted that he was wrong? What was he trying to accomplish by telling her? Surely, he wasn't hoping for some sort of romance to spring up between them. First off, Snape had long since lost any respect for people who believed in true love and did not see himself anywhere among those ranks. Secondly, she hated him. She had said so herself, in a quite convincing tone. But there was something else - she had said she was in love with him for 12 years. That would make the two and a half which they were together, the one and a half after he jilted her, and the eight that she had spent after meeting Voldemort and spent in Malfoy's possession. Surely she didn't hold her affection for him that long. And she most positively didn't now. The very idea was ludicrous. Wasn't it?

After the mess was cleaned, he had no interest in staying in the classroom so he left. He started off towards the Astronomy tower, a place which over the years he'd come to enjoy. Not only did he often find students lurking there for late-night duels or intimate contact, looking up at the stars reminded him that no matter what happened to him, it would very doubtfully be of any consequence to the universe. It was relieving to realize the world didn't rest on his shoulders.

Turning a corner, he heard voices. He paused in his expedition to listen. An unrecognizable voice, female, high pitched and rather arrogant sounding, spoke first. This was followed by an unmistakeable voice, the one of the girl who'd just left his classroom. Judging from their conversation, Lye had fallen victim to one of the trick stairs that appeared frequently around Hogwarts. Snape allowed himself a slight snicker before continuing on his way.

He made his way up the steps, cloaks billowing in their typical fashion, and pretended that he couldn't hear Lye as she pleaded and cursed at him.

"Hey," she was saying. "Hey! Hey, you fucking pompous asshole!"

Snape found himself sprawled on the steps above her as one of her hands latched around his cloak. He sneered and looked down at her, pulling himself into a sitting position.

"Yes?," he drawled.

"Help me out of this fucking thing."

She motioned to the stair that her foot had disappeared into. He smirked.

"Perhaps you'll do better to watch where you're going next time," he said, standing and brushing himself off. He turned to leave but was disappointed when she once again grabbed ahold of his cloak. Perhaps he should consider something less... billowing.

"Severus," she near-whined. "Please don't be an asshole, for once."

He groaned resignedly, then turned and wrapped his arms firmly around her waist. With a swift tug, he set her on the step above the tricky one and looked at her expectantly.

"Thank you," she said curtly.

"As I said, perhaps you'd do better to watch your step around here," he repeated and headed off towards his initial destination. She followed, much to his annoyance. He made his way to the next hall before speaking again, and didn't turn to look at her when he did.

"Why are you following me? You've gotten what you wanted."

"What I wanted?," she said, still keeping pace with him. "What makes you think you know what I want?"

"I admitted I was wrong, you won, now you can go on your merry way," he waved a hand dismissively.

Lye snorted. "Whatever way I go, I can assure you it won't be merry. Besides that, I didn't win just because you know you're wrong."

"Oh?," Snape turned to look at her and she had to halt quite suddenly not to run into him.

"Yea," she told him, once she had regained her footing. "If you ask me, we both lose."

Snape looked her over carefully. Her eyes and stance revealed nothing and he wasn't exactly sure what to make of her words. He pressed his lips together. "Be that as it may, I'm not one to hold onto the misgivings of the past."

He made to turn again, but she grabbed his arm. "And I'm not one to hold onto grudges from the past."

His eyes searched her form again but he still wasn't sure what she was insinuating. He figured asking outright would be the quickest way to a conclusion. "Meaning?"

"Look," she started. "You're a vile, horrible, despicable person and you fucked me over worse than anyone else ever has." He nodded and she continued. "But you're also the only person I've related with on anything more than an aquaintence level, and you did sorta save my ass, so..."

"So?," he prompted when she didn't continue.

"So I guess the good cancels out the bad, and what it means is that, I forgive you," she told him.