The Art of Secrets

Chapter Twelve: The Duelling Club

In the second week of December, as usual, Severus came around collecting the names of those who would be staying at school for Christmas. They all signed his list, Hermione, Ron and Neville doing the same when McGonagall came around, and they heard that Nott would be staying as well, as were their other targets, which struck them as strange. That made the holidays the perfect time to use the Polyjuice Potion and try to worm a confession out of them.

She used the chance to ask Severus about the Occlumency lessons she had agreed to, and he had readily agreed, much to Hermione's relief and Erica's frustration, setting a date for later that afternoon after he had finished tracking down the other Slytherins and marking a few practice papers he'd given his OWL students to complete.

She'd already given Hermione the Bicorn horn that she'd retrieved from her vault after several letters to Gringrotts and a seal of her blood to prove her identity, but the potion would remain only half-finished until she could get the Boomslang skin, and the only place to get that would be Severus' private stores.

So it was that later on that afternoon she made her way to his private chambers after a small pep talk from the others, who had crowded into the second-floor bathroom to keep an eye on the potion and wait for her return.

"You'll be fine, Erica," she muttered to herself as she trudged along, "He's the least likely to kill you out of anyone if you get caught, anyway."

She took a deep breath when she reached his door before raising her fist and knocking gently, not waiting for his reply before heading inside. The entrance way was empty, but she quickly located him in his office, packing away the last few papers yet to mark.

"Erica," Severus greeted her with a small nod as she entered, moving out from behind his desk and coming to meet her in the centre of the room. "Thank you for agreeing to do this, and for seeking me out. I had quite forgotten about our conversation at the beginning of term."

"You would have ended up forcing me eventually one way or another anyway, once you remembered" she sighed, lifting one shoulder in a half-shrug but smiling back at him anyway, too tired to fight, and too on edge about what she had to do. "So what exactly will we be doing?"

"I will be forcibly trying to enter your mind whilst you employ the techniques we have been over in the past," he paused, and it was then that she noticed his wand in his hand, his pale fingers tight around the grip. "You are to block me out. I will be trying to go for the worst memories you have, to act as an incentive of sorts."

Oh Merlin, she shook her head, what if he saw their plan with the Polyjuice Potion? Or Nagendra? Both weren't particularly pleasant memories, but if he found out that she knew where the Chamber of Secrets was located, and that she had even been in it... even last school year, when Nicolas used the Draught of Living Death on her and spirited her away to France after the fiasco with the Philosopher's Stone... Each and every one of them weren't what she would call happy memories, and the secrets weighed heavily on her as she looked up into Severus' eyes.

"Okay," she breathed out slowly, trying to clear her mind of any clutter in the way that he taught her, letting her eyes fall closed as she retreated inside of her head, picturing the familiarity of her father's study with all her thoughts tucked inside as she rolled back her shoulders, stretching her neck from side to side. "When do we start?"

She didn't receive a verbal answer, but the splitting pain that began in her temples and travelled further into her head was answer enough, though she tried not to focus on that. She could feel him prodding around in her thoughts, opening up drawers and turning pages of her memories as shaky images were brought to the forefront of her mind.