Of Doves and Dragons

Chapter Twenty-eight: Obliviate

"Will you see the same me if I showed you all of the pieces that don't fit?"

-Katelyn Traver, Feel Bad

Thursday, after a calming bought of uninterrupted tea with Narcissa, Ember apparated to Hogwarts on her own. She landed in the courtyard she had always frequented when she use to live in the castle and took the long way up towards the tower that would never truly be Snape's.

She was surprised that when she knocked on the door, it opened wide and revealed a ragged looking Snape. She had never seen him out of his black robes, but he was sitting at his desk, his hair looking like he had been constantly raking his fingers through it, in a simple black tunic and slacks. He contradictorily looked ten years younger in ensemble but ten years older in the face.

She approached him hesitantly. "I can come back if this is a bad time?"

He gave her a wearied look, swirling a glass of firewhiskey. He rolled his eyes at her cautious look and magically shut the door behind her. "Now is as good a time as any."

"Are you alright, professor?" She inquired. He was hollowed and grumpy as if every time he had been irritable in that past was nothing but a slight inconvenience.

"I hardly think it's necessary that you call me professor anymore Ember." He said off the cuff with a wave of his hand. "Call me Snape. Hell, call me Severus. I don't care." He began rubbing his temple languidly.

"Really, I can come back." She insisted, already inching back towards the door. The last thing she wanted to do was find herself on Snape's bad side just for the sake of a few memories.

He glared pointedly at her. "Please don't let my ungentlemanly state deter you." He stood up from his desk and staggered around to her. He flicked his wand and the pensieve revealed itself from a cabinet to her right. Suddenly, he was right in her space and placing his wand to her temple. Before she could stutter out a hesitance, he had plucked a memory from her mind and dashed it into the liquid of the pensieve.

He floundered back into his chair and poured another shot of firewhiskey into his glass. "You'll go alone this time."

She stared at him dumfounded that he would trust her to go alone when in reality there was no real reason for him to follow her. If she uncovered anything that she might need his input in they could always revisit the memory.

Without giving much more thought to the deteriorated Snape, or the reason why he was so, Ember dunked herself into the swirling liquid.

She was immediately thrown into a place she didn't recognize. It was dark, late in the night by the looks of the windows, but she recognized the younger version of herself tiptoeing down a dark corridor. Ember paused before cautiously following her former self. She had never been one to go looking for trouble, or at least she had been convinced that she had never been one to go looking for it.

Hurried whispers sounded from the last door of the hallway that had been carelessly left cracked open. Ember leaned forward, trailing behind her younger self, and strained to hear their words.

"You can't be here." A woman, who she thought might be Miss Georgina, implored. A certain hysteria trickled into her voice causing the small hairs on the back of Ember's neck to stand at attention.

"I can't stay away for another month." A distinctively male voiced pleaded.

"You have to. If anyone, especially Mrs. Cornetta, catches us I'll not only be terminated but I'll be whipped in the streets. You know who governs the school."

"Georgie, last time was a fluke. I would never let them hurt you, I promise." His voice was soft, assuring.

"If you mean it you'll leave this minute."