The morning after the Halloween incident, Arielle could be found still sleeping in her bed, being watched by professor Snape. It wasn’t until she woke up with a scream that she noticed that she was being watched. She was still trembling when she felt two arms pick her up and deposit her on someone’s lap. She opened her eyes looking frantically around herself. She relaxed, however when she heard his voice asking her if she was all right. She nodded, rather weakly, as she put her throbbing head on his shoulder. She closed her eyes again, remembering the nightmare she just had. Professor Quirrell had been talking to someone in his classroom. She couldn’t see who it was, though. But the voice she heard was very creepy. It was cold and menacing. She remembered professor Quirrell saying something about not being trusted by the headmaster. He also mentioned that professor Snape suspected him of letting the troll in the school. So, it was professor Quirrell who left the troll in after all, thought Arielle, before she was brought back to Earth by professor Snape who shook her shoulder frantically. It seemed that she was thinking too long. She quickly told her professor about the dream she just had.

He raised his eyebrow at the dream she had, not really knowing what to think about it. Of course, he knew that professor Quirrell had let the troll inside the school as a diversion, being the one to stop him on the third floor and getting almost bitten by that bloody three-headed dog of Hagrid’s. Arielle suddenly leaned forward and touched Severus’s knee, trying to get his attention. He looked over at her and saw that she wasn’t finished yet. She fumbled with her blanket that was still wrapped around her lithe body as she told him about her scar burning every time she looked at professor Quirrell, especially if she looked at the back of its turban. His eyes widened fractionally at the revelation. She suddenly opened her eyes wide, coming to a conclusion of sorts. She grabbed his shirt to steady herself as she breathing went out of control. He hugged her closer to him as she whispered, “What… What if it’s Voldemort? What if that creepy voice I heard in my dream was Voldemort?”

His arms tightened around her almost to the breaking point as he stared down at her pale face. “What?” he breathed out. She trembled as she buried her head in the crook of his shoulder. He quickly put some walls in his mind to calm himself down. Letting go of his emotions, he turned his attention to the girl that was shaking in his arms. He awkwardly petted her on the back, trying to calm the shaking down. Under the walls, his mind was in turmoil. The Dark Lord was here? At Hogwarts? He knew he could believe Arielle, because he had seen her flinch every time she looked at professor Quirrell. His Dark Mark burned every time he looked at him as well. Why had he not seen it before? He needed to talk to the Headmaster.

“Elle?” he asked the still trembling girl in his arms. She turned her head up a bit so that she could see his face and looked at him with a question in her eyes. He pushed her away from him a bit so that he was holding both of her shoulders. He didn’t want to do this, but he had to. He cleared his throat and asked her softly, “Would you allow me to enter your mind to see the dream?”

ooOoo

Severus Snape was shaken to the core, and it showed. He hadn’t taken points off the students he walked by in the corridors on his way to Dumbledore’s office. When Arielle granted him permission to enter her mind, he had softly said the words of the spell and tried to enter her mind with as little pain as possible. He had watched the dream – or should he say ‘vision’ – and shuddered at the voice. It was His voice. There was no doubt about it.

He told the gargoyle in front of professor Dumbledore’s office the password and entered. With quick steps he was up the staircase and opening the doors to the office, ignoring the kind “Come in, Severus,” from professor Dumbledore. He banged the doors open and just stared at the headmaster as if he had seen a ghost. He couldn’t believe that Dumbledore could know whom he had hired to teach. But he knew that Dumbledore knew. He just did.

“Why?” he asked with a hoarse voice. Professor Dumbledore looked at him with surprise in his eyes as he offered him some sherbet lemons. Severus didn’t answer but stalked to the headmaster’s desk and dropped both of his arms on it with so much force that he couldn’t believe that the desk survived it.

“Why did you hire the Dark Lord’s lackey when you knew exactly what he is?” he asked again. He saw his mistake at once as the headmaster paled and stopped sucking on the sherbet lemon he had offered to himself after Severus declined. So… the headmaster didn’t know after all. He sighed in a resigned way and sat himself in an armchair in front of the headmaster’s desk, watching his mentor apprehensively.