Rigel Black Oneshots

Answer My Whirlwind

"Sir?"
 
Severus was definitely suppressing a smile now.
 
"However much I find your skill at secrecy and dissembling amusing, Rigel Black, I believe we have some matters to clarify."
 
The girl gulped and something like horror captured her features for a brief moment before her face smoothed into something impassive, "Sir, I-"
 
"Spare me your misdirection." His features softened ever so slightly, "I must say I'm impressed."
 
In truth, his mind was a whirlwind of hurt and relief, wrapped together with disbelief and acceptance. From what he'd seen of the girl just now, she'd been cursing herself silly with guilt and worry of an exaggerated version of the same.
 
Her eyes got glossy, "Sir-"
 
He held up a hand, "Before you do say something, is there a way you can ensure my silence?"
 
She looked at him, dumbfounded for a moment.
 
"Really, now?" Severus felt something inside him relax as he continued to portray the unconcerned mentor. He was enjoying this, he realised. What had the girl done to him? "I assumed you'd have such things in place, Miss Potter."
 
A slow, small smile crept up her features, "Of course, sir."
 
Severus waited for her to continue.
 
"A sealing curse" she said, "It-"
 
"Is self-explanatory, yes." He finished, "I do hope no situation so dire forced you to have already used this?"
 
His eyes glimmered knowingly.
 
"Marcus Flint." She said softly.
 
The rest passed unsaid.
 
After a pause, he said, "Even with the threat of Azkaban hanging over your head, it is astonishing that you completed a fifth year's work in your first year, a sixth year's in your second, and NEWTs' worth of work in your third year. Everytime I think I have a grasp of who you are, I realise I underestimated you yet again, Rig-Potter."
 
She winced, "Harry, please, Professor"
 
"It is inconceivable for me to use a nickname for you at this stage of your apprenticeship, Miss Potter."
 
She nodded, then said softly, "I owe you an explanation..." she hesitated, "It all started with..you."
 
Severus had expected as much, but still felt his eyebrows rise of their own accord.
 
"You were my idol." Harriet said, and he snorted, "I- Potions was never something my family understood, but it was so real for me, and it meant more to me than anyone could ever imagine."
 
And so she told him of how, in their first year, she and her cousin Arcturus- and wasn't that a strange thought?- stole Polyjuice from her father and switched places and belongings. Of how Flint knew her cousin and they made a deal.
 
"You have a knack for making the strangest of deals." He said dryly.
 
She paused and offered him a smile, "I guess I do."
 
The story progressed and once her tale of the second year began, Severus had to interrupt.
 
"Only you could have modified Polyjuice for keeping up a blood identity theft pretense for schooling ."
 
Harriet ducked her head, but it didn't do much to disguise a smile, "You can't be sure, sir. Who knows how many halfbloods are galavanting about Hogwarts at this very moment?"
 
The joke fell flat.
 
"None." Severus said surely, "After your… spectacle, everyone was tested using ancestry potions, and the same will be done for every first year now onwards."
 
There was a pause.
 
"In your third year, during the Quidditch match, I saw your features blur, once." He said neutrally, gauging her reaction, "You did not brew the Polyjuice with the intent for it to last so shortly, of course, so-why?"
 
She looked at him sheepishly, "I might have… no, I surely, uh, overused the time-turner. A little bit."
 
He has suspected it, of course, but to hear it…
 
"A compressed year in four and a half months?" Severus couldn't quite believe it. She'd been so casual at the ministry psychology evaluations. Children ran themselves ragged just following the school required use for a time-turner- to think she had-
 
"Yes, sir." She said.
 
"I ought to have checked what you carried in your potions kit," he grumbled, "To think you had a modified Polyjuice potion lying there all along-"
 
"No, actually," At his involuntary flash in his eyes at having been interrupted, she added, "sir. My version of Polyjuice can't be stored for long. That was, of course, before we came up with the preservation oil. So I used the time-turner."
 
To turn back a week four times. How had she avoided running into herself?
 
"Stupid child," He growled, "Where did you go?"
 
She gave him a small, helpless smile that she always gave when she knew he wasn't going to like what she said, "The leaky cauldron, for the first week. Next I rented another apartment as a French lady somewhere down Craftsman Alley."
 
"You say another apartment, because the first was for an alibi?" He stated more than asked, then frowned, "It would have given credibility to your cover story had you gone there."
 
"I did," the girl said, "for the last week. Then I came back to hogwarts-"
 
"No. You have not yet told me of your third stop." He had not missed Rigel's fake nonchalance. Now that he knew of the sheer idiocy his student had started, he wasn't going to let any point go.
 
Harry sighed, "Lamia Lodge."
 
This brief answer was said in hope that he would just consider it another, random, lodge, but Severus knew all too well who resided there, " Vampires ?" He said, frustration thriving in his voice, "Of all the-"
 
"I've done worse." Harry said shortly. Her eyes glazed over as though she were listening to something, and she choked out a laugh.
 
Severus's eyes narrowed, "You may not be a student at hogwarts anymore, Miss Potter, but believe me when I say you are in for uncountable detentions as my apprentice should you do something so stupid and reckless again."
 
She turned slightly more tense and nodded, then went on with her story. Something told Severus it was more the fact that now she would have to talk about her experience with Pettigrew than detentions that was the reason for her tense behavior. Once she reached the part of her imprisonment underground, he said gently, "I already know what happened."
 
Harry grimaced, then said, "You don't. Not fully. I'm sorry Professor, but for the sake of the ruse I couldn't tell anyone besides Archie the full story."
 
"Is this about his wish to steal your magic?" Severus asked, "I know you did not highlight that in your session with the aurors now for obvious reasons."
 
"Yes and no. P- Pettigrew kidnapped me for my magic rather than disbelief of my innocence on his part, but… Do you remember what I told you of the Dominion Jewel?"
 
Severus straightened. She hadn't told him much, in truth. He said so, and Rigel laughed softly, as though a weight was momentarily lifted from her shoulders, then said, "I'm sorry, Professor. I didn't mean for it to turn this way, but the Jewel wasn't destroyed the way you think it was."
 
There was deadly silence.
 
"I-It kept asking me what I wanted, " Rigel said quietly, "After Pe- after he was dead I was the only other mind in the room, and it wanted to control me. I told it I didn't want anything, but some traitorous part of my brain said that I wanted control over myself, and..."
 
She took a deep breath, "During my second year, I got the idea from Ginny of setting a guardian for my mind for it's protection."
 
"You made a construct. " Snape spat. Had the boy- girl- really been so foolish?
 
"I suppose, but it didn't work." Harry said carefully, "It was nothing even close to what the diary was like, just a semi-sentient construct that would, only if the need arose, activate and protect my mind. I set well-worded restrictions and everything, and even made a body for it in my mind, but couldn't imbue it with semi-sentience."
 
Severus realised with horror just where this story was going.
 
"The Jewel entered my mindscape, and I couldn't hold it back for long no matter how hard I tried." Her voice was pleading for understanding, "I had a sentient jewel which refused to leave and a body full of restrictions that would work to my command. I managed to trap the jewel in the empty construct and ended up with a megalomaniac construct in my mindscape."
 
Severus just stared, and she looked back at him, her head dipping ever so slightly in acceptance, "Be careful, though, sir. Dom doesn't like intruders. Sphinxes will be the least of your worries. I'll soften our defenses as much as I can."
 
How true that turned out to be.

Dom was disturbed rather rudely from his experimental tea session by a friendly attempt at legilimency.
 
Quickly reinforcing Harriet's Occlumency shields, he went to check on their other defenses.
 
That was until he received an infuriating message.
 
Dom, Let Professor Snape in. Harriet told him.
 
What? Dom growled, He finds out about the ruse and you just let him in?
 
I'm not going to give him access to all my memories, Dom. He could imagine her rolling her eyes. Just let him in. I want him to meet you.
 
That stopped all his protests. This was going to be fun.
 
He made the resistance lesser, but didn't stop it completely. Harriet's idol would have to prove his worth.
 
A moment later, he felt a niggling presence within the mindscape, and assumed Snape had gained access. Not hopeless, then. Dom set about making the place look even grander than usual, waiting for an overdue introduction. 

Harry's shields were unbelievably strong, and after a moment of a struggle he would never admit to, the resistance lessened considerably, and Severus pushed his way into her mindscape.
 
The first thought that came to him when he materialized within her mindscape was that of her weak, delirious words.
 
"The jewel used to belong to the ancient Egyptians, you know. Do you think it…mummified all of them?"
 
He pushed the dark, helpless memory aside and focused on the sandstorm pushing against him. Harriet appeared next to him, then vanished with an apologetic look. He focused with a calm few could summon, and it still took him about a dozen minutes before the storm turned to a subtle breeze as he found himself facing winding city streets.
 
After a lot of navigation, he made it up the stairs of a stunning pyramid and found himself immediately attacked by a sphinx.
 
He conjured a mental shield just as someone said, "Stop."
 
The sphinx froze, and at her signal, came back at Harriet's feet. Seveus noticed another just behind her, calmed by her hand at its forehead.
 
"Are they sentient?" Severus asked, not quite sure what he was supposed to think.
 
"No." Harry smiled, "Just protective."
 
Severus wasn't quite sure how that worked, but after extending his magical awareness more firmly, he realised that they were imbued with some of her magic.
 
Before he could continue forwards, Harriet asked him to wait.
 
"Dom, please be nice to him and just let us through." Sne grumbled under her breath, "You don't have to brag about every illusion and trick, he's already impressed, okay?"
 
So the construct had done at least some of this, then.
 
After a minute of so and so, they were back in the entryway to the pyramid. Now he could see light coming from the doorway behind them. A number of torches ignited on sconces before them, leading the way down a long corridor. They walked until the passage ended with a golden door. 
 
Instead of reaching for the door, the girl drew a single rune on the wall to the right of the golden door. The wall rumbled and a section of it sank into the floor, revealing another corridor, this one with steps leading up. It led to a labyrinth.
They climbed through well hidden stairways and paused when they reached a landing.
 
Severus was taken aback by the unbelievable amount of magical and mental effort that would have gone into making such a landscape, not to mention the time. This only confirmed his suspensions- There was no way his protégé had done this by herself.
 
Another door opened, this time in the low ceiling. When the stone above their heads moved aside, a ladder descended just enough for Harriet to reach the first rung and hoist herself up. Severus climbed up after her and emerged in an enormous square hall with a steep tapered ceiling.
 
In the center of the grand space was a raised pedestal on which sat the carving of a woman with a lioness's head. Sekhmet, if Severus had guessed right. A poised cobra sat atop her brow, and a disk of gold illuminated the statue's head from behind. Opposite were two grand looking thrones set side by side, upon one of which rested a boy that looked surprisingly like Rigel.
 
"Hello, Professor," The Construct said, somewhat cheekily, "Welcome to my mind."

"Dom!"
 
"Just kidding!"