The Dream of One Night

CHAPTER THIRTY-ONE

Avrille

When I woke up the next morning and saw by the light of the single flickering candle that I still alone in the bed, and Severus' wand was still beside me, I knew something was definitely wrong. This morning I could actually feel it, as though the love between Severus and I connected us almost telepathically. I could sense for sure that he was in some sort of trouble. I didn't know what it could be, but the fact that Severus could be gone for at least twenty-four hours and not return for his wand boded ill in itself. I deposited Caligula in my rooms once more and walked down to breakfast with the faintest shimmer of hope in an otherwise heavy heart. But, as I had expected, Severus was not in the Great Hall.

His disappearance still seemed to be going unnoticed; no one took a second look at his empty place at the staff table. I wondered how many missed meals it would take to arouse Professor Dumbledore's suspicion. Perhaps it was common for Severus to leave the castle during breaks, and everyone was just assuming that someone else must know where he was.

Worries about Severus so consumed me that I nearly forgot about the study session I had promised a group of seventh year Ravenclaws after lunch. Even though the group consisted of some of the highest ranking academic performers in the school, they hadn't trusted their own study skills to be enough to guarantee straight O's on the exams. The girls had openly begged me to help them review for their Potions N.E.W.T., knowing Severus would never agree to assist them himself. The Ravenclaw boys had decided to join up later, perhaps too shy to ask me themselves. So, for a good four hours, I sat in the library and reviewed all of the most random and complicated potions formulas I could think might be on the exam. Normally I loved spending time like this with the kids, but I was incredibly distracted with worries about Severus and more than once had to ask a student to repeat a question to me.

Once the students had had enough studying to liquefy their brains, they packed up their belongings and left me behind in the library. I felt completely brain-dead as well, and for a while I just stared blankly out one of the library windows. I was so absorbed in my own thoughts that I didn't even notice the approach of someone else until I felt a gentle tug on the sleeve of my robe. I looked over and was surprised to see it was Nan Cobble.

"Hi, Nan," I said quietly. "You didn't go home for Easter?"

"Uh uh," Nan replied, shaking her bouncy curls. Tightly against her chest she clutched a large picture book with an enormous squid on the cover which kept shooting out jets of ink across the dust jacket. "Luna stayed here, so I didn't want her to be all alone. But, Mistress Asphodel, I have to tell you something really important!"

Oh not again, I thought, then felt badly about it. Nan might be a little bit dotty, but she was still one of the sweetest girls I had ever met.

But instead of blurting out some random factoid about cephalopods, Nan said, in a strikingly serious, mature voice that completely threw me off, "He's going to be ok."

I laughed slightly, in an effort to hide how her words had made me feel like someone just dropped a rock into my stomach. "What are you talking about, Nan?"

Nan, her brown eyes round and dark like two acorns, simply repeated, "He's going to be ok." Then, dropping her book onto the table, she wrapped her arms around me and whispered into my ear, "I promise."

Before I could respond at all, she picked up her book and skipped away from me, calling over her shoulder, "Ok, bye!" and was gone.

Nan's sentiments, though they utterly bewildered me, snapped me into the realization that too much time had passed without me taking some sort of action. Leaving the library behind, I took a quick walk down the castle path and through the main gates. Stopping just past the great winged boars, I took a minute to catch my breath. It would have been preferable to do this in Severus' bedroom, the last place I knew he had been, but the magical protections on the castle prevented me from Apparating there. I had no choice but to make do with where I was now. Concentrating hard on recalling the exact flavour of Severus' magic, I turned on the spot, trying to trace him like I had the first time I had ever Apparated. When I fell to my knees, still next to the gate, I nearly broke down and cried. Wherever Severus was, I couldn't follow him there.

After Severus missed another dinner, I began to grow panicky. The growing feel of need to alert Professor Dumbledore waged war with the worry of getting Severus in trouble for being involved with me. I decided I still had one option left to me. If it completely failed, and Severus was not back in the morning, then I would go see Professor Dumbledore and tell him of my concerns.

Knowing I would need complete peace and quiet, I left Caligula behind for the night and returned alone to Severus' rooms. Mentally exhausted from worry, I got ready for bed earlier than usual. Once I was prepared, I laid between the sheets of Severus' bed and closed my eyes. Taking deep, slow breaths, I forced myself to calm down and focus all of my will on finding out where Severus was. I had never done this before, and didn't know if it would even be possible, but I had nothing to lose.

I was going to try and make myself have a vision.

I slept dreamlessly for hours then awoke several times, checking the clock and growing more and more frustrated. The fourth time I fell asleep, I was furious at myself. Yet, somehow, that anger and iron determination ended being what I seemed to need.

I suddenly found myself walking through the airy hallways of a large, grand house. Expensive-looking paintings hung from the pale cream walls, and along the passageway stood several small decorative tables, each displaying a single small figurine or vase. Directly in front of me were a set of French doors, open wide to blindingly bright sunshine. As I stepped through the doorway, and my eyes adjusted to the light, I saw that I was not outside, but in a large, glassed-in conservatory. Asian vases large enough for me to climb into overflowed with tumbling jasmine and exotic ivy, boxes of polished mahogany held bushes of white and pink roses, and potted fruit trees stretched to high above, the sounds of birds hidden in their branches filling the room with gentle music. At the far end of the conservatory was a white, wrought-iron table at which a young girl was sitting, drinking tea and sketching. Unable to see anyone else in the room, I walked toward her. As I approached she looked up from her drawing and smiled.

"I knew you'd be able to find me eventually!" she said excitedly in a posh British accent and motioned for me to take the empty seat across from her at the table. As I took my seat warily, the girl poured me tea into a cup of bone china so fine it was nearly translucent in the brilliant sunshine. She handed me the cup on a similarly fine saucer painted with a delicate motif of violets, on which a tiny silver spoon rested. I took the tea, in the back of my dreaming mind wondering what on earth this might have to do with Severus, and took a small sip. The flavour of the black tea was unfamiliar to me, though I found its sweet spiciness to be interesting and pleasant. As I slowly drank a few more sips, I studied the girl over the rim of the china teacup.

She was definitely much younger than me and seemed to be around the age of the sixth year students at Hogwarts, placing her at sixteen or seventeen. She had curly blonde hair the colour of autumn wheat which fell in a shimmering cascade down her back. Her skin was almost as pale as the china, and from her face gleamed the greenest eyes I had ever seen. They were not the more common hazel, but deep and brilliant like emeralds. Her facial structure was delicate like a bird's with high cheekbones which made her green eyes slant slightly upwards at the corners like a cat. Her petite, slender frame was swathed in a light summer robe of flowing white silk with lace dripping from her elbow-length sleeves. She was by far the most beautiful girl I had ever seen in my life.

She watched me for a moment with a cheerful smile, then turned back to her drawing. She was holding her pad in the crook of her left arm while she sketched with her right and occasionally glanced up at me as I finished my tea; it was such a rich and grand atmosphere that I felt it would have been extremely rude not to.

Once I was done, I asked, throwing all caution to the wind, "Do you know Severus?"

The girl nodded distractedly, but didn't look up from her drawing. "Oh, yes, I know him quite well."

Before I could respond to this, the girl ripped the piece of paper she had been working on from her sketchpad and held it out to me. "Pretty good, don't you think? My mother thinks I might have a real talent for it." I took the paper from her and gazed down at a perfect charcoal reproduction of my own face. The girl must have started it hours ago, long before I even arrived, but since it was a dream, I knew that the flow of time was completely irrelevant.

"Yes, it's quite good," I replied, and continued hopefully, "but, if you know Severus, do you know what has happened to him? He's missing."

The charming smile melted from the girl's face, and her eyes were suddenly two orbs of sorrow. "He is in great danger," she said solemnly. With a sigh, she placed the sketchpad on the table. "I am protecting him now, but my strength is fading. You must hurry."

"But, where is he?!" I asked desperately.

The girl studied me for a moment, her sparkling green eyes squinted in a way that was strangely familiar to me. She seemed to be waging some sort of inner battle, and when the outcome was decided, she shook her head sadly and said, "I cannot tell you. He won't let me."

"He? You mean Severus?"

The girl shook her head again and, with a trace of anger, repeated, "No, I cannot tell you." She bit her lip and fingered a curly tendril of blonde hair, pulling at it in frustration. Suddenly her face lit up with inspiration.

"You must come see me," she said emphatically, reaching across the table to grab my hands with hers. Her hands were soft and her fingertips blackened from the charcoal pencil. She bored into me with her eyes, as though trying to communicate something extra. She squeezed my hands tightly and whispered with urgency, "You must hurry. Severus can't last much longer... Please come see me, Avrille!"

"I will. I'll come straight away." Though how I would be able to find her or this place in reality, I had no idea.

"Good," the girl said with a decisive nod. "You had better go now. I wish we could talk some more, but there's no time."

Agreeing with her, I stood up from the table and bid the girl farewell. As I was just about to leave the conservatory the way I had come, she called out after me, "Avrille, take good care of my grandson, alright?! Give him my love!"

"Oh, sure," I said automatically, though I had no idea what that was supposed to mean. It would be a good forty years until that girl had a grandchild and, even then, how was I supposed to know who he was when I didn't even know who she was?

As soon as I passed through the French doors, they slammed shut behind me, and the dream faded into nothing.