Of Doves and Dragons

Chapter Nineteen: Brewing Disaster

"So thank you for the grave, I needed me a place to sleep."

-Post Malone, A Thousand Bad Times

Severus had shifted tactics upon the resuming of the year. Ember returned to him with new vigor and unwavering resolve. Where she had always been a sponge for any readily available knowledge she was now a parasite. Gone was the wistful, innocent, girl. Ember was determined. She carried herself with as much grace as she ever did, but her eyes that had always shied away now remained unmoving and calculating. He wasn't sure what took place during the holidays except for the fact her arm now brandished a symbol not unlike his own.

She had confidently rolled up her sleeves to her elbows before attempting to recreate a sleeping potion at the restart of term and he immediately took notice. It was the only thing that outwardly explained her change in attitude. They had yet to speak of the implications.

While he was concerned, and uninformed over her recent encounter with the Dark Lord, he was not overly surprised at the outcome. He immediately thought about taking a glance into her mind again, to try and pinpoint the change, but thought better of it. In fact, within his own thoughts, it then occurred to him that he needed to train her in occlumency. He hesitated due to how dreadful his experience with Potter had been the year before; but Potter had always been a bad student and Ember had always been his perfect interpretation of what a student should be.

Therefore, he changed his approach in her unorthodox education. He began to add occlumency lessons to her agenda. She had been surprisingly receptive when he had explained and demonstrated.

"It's mind reading." She surmised.

"It's deflecting mind reading."

She frowned, "I want to learn how to mind read."

That caused for concern. They had always focused on the defensive forms of magic; so, that she may remain useful and safe. Never had she shown interest in offensive magic.

And even disconcerting still after he had pushed into her mind once more, with her in the know. It was still a disastrous mangled mess of thoughts that couldn't be coherent and when he pulled back she looked at him accusingly.

"You've done that before."

"Yes. I thought it would help to be in your mind when you produced your patronus; thought it might give me more useful information."

"And did it?"

Yes, he thought, but not in the way it was intended.

"No." He answered briskly.

"He's done it before too."

"Who?"

"The Dark Lord."

Her unburdened admittance of such a concerning interaction burdened his conscious enough for the two of them. Was that another reason for the shift in her demeanor? Had something more sinister taken place?

She picked up occlumency fast. Ironically fast due to the state of her mind; but perhaps it was also a form of healing and therefore she could draw from the healing magic in her core. She even excelled in legilimency, when he gave her the chance.

Like most people, he didn't appreciate others invading his mind. He offered her his mind so that she wouldn't go off and try it on her own. She greedily took every opportunity he gave her.

She had pushed through his barriers swiftly and flipped through memories like files in a cabinet. She had gone from pre-pubescent Severus, to a graduated Severus, to his own branding, and his first day as potions-master like the dripping flames of a lit match. She stopped longer on his worst memory, caressing it longer than the others. It was the one that haunted his nights to this day, of a dead Lily Potter and a screaming baby.