The Last Sanguimagus

Severus calmly ignored Aurora during breakfast. And lunch, for that matter. She was behaving foolishly, he felt. After all, if she knew the real reason that he was visiting Sarah she probably would have retched.

Thank Merlin the Headmaster sat on his other side, or he would have gotten an eyeful from Minerva as well. The students were rambunctious as ever, especially because it was a weekend day. He scowled at some of the noisier ones.

He really did need to collect his cauldron and his notes from Sarah's room. As much as he needed to mark a week's worth of assignments, he still wanted to revisit the latest experiment while it was fresh in his mind.

"How did your research go yesterday?" asked Aurora brightly.

He turned and sneered. "I'm sure you'd like to know."

"Of course," she replied, trying not to laugh. "I wouldn't have asked otherwise."

"It's private research and none of your affair." He turned back to his plate.

She did laugh at that, though she had the good sense to do it quietly. Pomona was giggling as well. His scowl deepened. Hexing them, unfortunately, was likely to be frowned upon by the Headmaster, so he had to make do with stalking out of the Great Hall after fixing them both with a particularly evil glare.

Sarah's door opened before he even knocked, and he entered her office. It was untouched. The door to her private room was closed, and he knocked softly. Her voice rose up from within. "Come in."

Entering, he noticed her sitting on the bed. The windows were open, and cool September air filled the room.

"I assume that you are here to retrieve your things."

"Yes," he said. The cauldron with its multihued mess still sat on the nightstand, and next to it his notes and samples. He evaporated the last of the potion and shrank the rest of his items, putting it all in a pocket of his robe. "About the next application..." She looked up at him, and he was struck by how emotionless her face was at that moment. She could have been a doll, like one of those animated horrors Crabbe preferred. He nearly shivered. "There is a staff meeting on Friday, and I will be...unavailable on Saturday. Sunday?"

She considered it for a moment. "That might not give me enough time to recover."

"Perhaps...I could suggest something to help," he offered. Her expression did not change. "Fond as you are of your Strengthening Solution, there are other ways to deal with pain."

"You needn't concern yourself with my recovery."

"I will when it impinges upon my research. I would like to finish this process as soon as possible, as it is taking up a good deal of my time," he said, with a touch of acid.

"Certainly you must know that Strengthening Solution is not a pain reliever. Perhaps I have other methods already."

"I doubt that highly, considering your expression during the application process," he said dryly.

She fixed him with her blank, cold eyes. "I have, in fact, managed sixteen years without your help, and doubtless would have managed quite well in the future as well. You are presuming that you can help me. You are presuming that you know all of the parameters of my condition, and that you alone know the best method of treatment and pain relief. You are presuming a great deal."

Though her words were spoken in a flat tone, he could feel the anger rising within him. "Of course I know 'the parameters of your condition'," he spat. "I created your condition. I am the one who found the original potion and modified it to become the horrible piece of work that it became. I am in the unenviable position of knowing exactly what it is that arrests the healing process and how it accomplishes that. I understand all too well the pain levels involved, the resistance to traditional Healing spells--"

"But you have not lived with it," she said simply.

"No," he said angrily. "I have not, but I have seen countless suffer with it. I have researched it exhaustively." He forced his voice to grow quiet. "I am offering you a way to recuperate quickly, to take the edge off the pain. You cannot possibly be opposed to this."

"I have told you before that I have experimented with every potion possible..." she began.

"But not my potions."

"You do not seem to understand," she said dispassionately. "I took some of the strongest pain-relieving potions ever created. I took many of them for years. Their...effectiveness has been greatly reduced because of this."

He stopped. It had been known to happen. Many of the pain potions shared a common base, and eventually, after tremendous usage, they would be rendered ineffectual for that individual. "Merlin..."

"If you can apply the solution on Sunday morning, then I will concede."

"Sunday morning..." No, it was not possible. There was no way to know how long the Death Eater meeting would last. There was no way for him to brew it through the night unless he resorted to several gallons of Pepper-Up Potion. "I cannot," he said.

"Then we will have to skip a week. Good day, Severus."

He left, unsettled. She had been completely emotionless in her conversation with him again. Despite the words she had chosen she had been flat in her speech. And yet...at other times...she did seem as if there was something else there, some spark. His observant Slytherin nature carefully turned the puzzle over in his head. She had seemed most remote and distant after the applications of the potion. And she had implied that she might have some alternate form of analgesic. Was she using some pain relief with a mood-altering side effect?

Silas was standing at the entrance to his classroom. Severus nearly snarled. "What do you want?"

"I was hoping to have a chat with you," said the ginger-haired man innocently. "In private..."

Severus opened the door to his classroom and shut it behind them, looking at Silas expectantly.

"Don't you ever offer your guests a drink? Someplace to sit?" said Silas, peeved.

"I don't have guests," said Severus in his coolest tone possible.

Silas looked around at the dreary classroom. "I can see why."

"Do you have a purpose in speaking to me that does not involve my lack of hospitality or the perceived ambiance of my classroom?" His voice was soft, but he could not hide the steel in it.

"Straight to the point, eh, Severus?" He grinned.

"If you don't mind..."

"It has come to my attention that you have disregarded my warnings, unsubtle as they were, about helping this so-called Professor of Talismans." He wandered farther into the classroom, absently rubbing at a spot on one of the desks. "You needn't ask my source, I won't reveal them."

"And?"

"And you must understand that you are getting into some very hot water. The Ministry would be very interested to know of two teachers with ties to the Dark Arts here at Hogwarts. And they would be even more interested to find out that these two are seeing each other privately..."

"There is no proof that anyone here at Hogwarts has ties to the Dark Arts," growled Severus. "They would have been sacked soon enough."

"But these individuals are cunning," said Silas. "I've been hearing things about you for years, my boy. Things that would curdle milk. And your friends...a veritable roster of Dark Arts wizards."

"I need not defend myself or my friends to you," said Severus. "You like to chase shadows...you play at being an Auror." He riveted the annoying man with his best glare. "You are nothing but a sad little man who has always wished for your life to be more interesting than it is. Go back to your office and entertain yourself with your Dark Detectors. I have nothing further to say to you."

"Really?" said Silas, bemused. "Have you forgotten our little bargain so easily? A slip of my tongue, and the Aurors will know whose poisons they found at Burgin and Borkes..."

"Ah, but those poisons were lost..." Severus smiled in a menacing way. "Or didn't you hear? It was in the Daily Prophet a few days ago."

"What?" said Silas, suddenly off-balance.

"I fear that there is no way now of proving who actually created any of them," said Severus, thoroughly enjoying this. There were considerable perks to being the friend of Lucius Malfoy, after all. "They would have only your word, and I'm not certain that it would be enough to legitimately sentence anyone." He crossed his arms. "After all, you are not an Auror yourself, and your information is third-hand at best..."

Silas narrowed his eyes. "Apparently I underestimated you...and your friends." He stepped closer. "It is not my own aggrandisement, or fame, that drives me," he said. "It is only concern for the children. It is wrong--and morally reprehensible--for a Death Eater and a Dark Arts witch to teach students here at Hogwarts. Durmstrang, certainly, but not here. And I will not rest until I have scoured this place of you and your Dark little paramour."

"You are casting dangerous aspersions," said Severus softly. "Your slanderous tongue is quite out of line."

"I speak only the truth," said Silas stubbornly. "And I will take my concerns to the Headmaster."

"See that you do," said Severus coolly. "I will be most interested to hear his opinion on the subject."

Silas looked at him again, his blue eyes full of righteous determination, and strode out of his office with conviction.

Merlin, Severus seethed. Yet another problem. For a brief second he wished that Sarah Tanner had never come back to Hogwarts, even though she could mean some small piece of redemption to him.

***