𝐒𝐀𝐂𝐑𝐈𝐅𝐈𝐂𝐄 || Severus Snape x OC ||

22. THE NOBLE & THE BLACK

*.·:·.☽ ✧ ☾.·:·.*

"I'm not like him," Alice cried out in Dumbledore's office, her world shaken by the revelation of her origin. Her heart hammering in her chest, her mind roaring like a castaway amidst an ocean, desperately reaching out for something to hold on to before the abyss consumed her completely. "I don't want to be like him..." she nearly whispered as one by one, the pieces of the puzzle of her past were coming together. The dreadful beast she hid within, the coal-black hands, the nightmares, the burning scar, the pale skin, the flashing memory of the skull-like face a second before going through the gate on the Platform 9 ¾, and the loss of her mother...

She looked at the scar on her wrist. Her jaw clenched, her brows furrowed, and she hoisted her gaze to the headmaster who stood away from her. His calm demeanor spiked the serpent of her anger and desperation. "I've spent a whole year hiding here. If you say that a Death Eater was at the train station before I got on the train to Hogwarts, does....does that mean that he knows about me? Voldemort knows of my existence?"

"Yes. He does, Alice. And it is why I've insisted you remain in Hogwarts all this time."

Something sparked in her pagan eyes. Her pale, soft features  hardened by the storm swirling in her mind. Dumbledore watched her rise up, her raven locks cascading down her shoulders to the small of her waist like hissing snakes. The eerie serpent of fear and doubt curling away from her heart as the little sprout in her chest grew thorns. Small, weak in the infant state, but thorns, nonetheless.

"I won't hide anymore, headmaster".

"You were sorted in Ravenclaw, Alice. Where those of wit and wisdom are. Abandoning safety at this time would be unwise...." Dumbledore's words didn't change her mind and he could see as he looked into her dark eyes, the frightened and lost girl that had arrived a year ago. She was still scared, still lost, still frightened. Now, perhaps more than ever, but there was something more there, deep behind the veil of her dark eyes. Something that made Dumbledore wonder where it was coming from, better yet, what had brought it to the surface. A determination, a rebellious storm behind the shadow of her fear. A storm that wasn't there the last time he had seen her before the summer. Alice was changing. Or perhaps she was finding herself, rather than keeping it buried beneath fear and ignorance. How deep she'd delved he was yet unaware, but those dark eyes seemed terribly familiar for a sliver of time as he looked at her.

The old wizard considered his choices. Left unattended, unsupervised, the young witch would either end up dead too early or worse she'd be susceptible to joining the wrong side. He knew that spark in her eyes. He'd seen it once before. To a child that seemed scared, lost, and misplaced with no way out; a child he had taken from an orphanage many, many years ago...

No, he couldn't risk such a complication. Alice was of pure heart but what lived in her, and in her blood, could steer her towards a direction that would have no return. He could see in her eyes that the young witch was in need of a cause. A cause to fight her way out of her helpless state. He couldn't cage her within the walls of the castle forever. And he couldn't risk allowing the growing power of the Death Eaters to lure her away from his plan, from where he needed her to be. Not with what he was expecting to face due to the issues with the Ministry that would no doubt render him unable to influence things at least from a point onwards. So, he morphed his plan carefully.

"There is another way, Alice. If you wish to truly leave these walls and fight, then perhaps there are some people I want you to meet..."

*.·:·.☽ ✧ ☾.·:·.*

The streets were still soaked by the passing of rain, but the skies were clear and clouds gave way to the faintly glimmering stars. They were not as many as Alice could see from the Astronomy tower. The lights and fog of London had brushed the stars off the sky, letting a mere few there, watching over the muggles.