"A freezing spell is too simplistic!" snapped Snape and as Professor Grailing scowled deeply at him from under his skullcap, he sighed in exasperation. "My apologies, sir."

Grailing's scowl vanished and he shook his head. "No, no. You are quite right. A freezing spell is too simplistic. I am beginning to grasp at straws here, Master Snape. How is one to harness something that refuses to be tamed. It would be horrendous if we sent you into the void."

Snape rubbed the bridge of his nose as he felt a migraine rising. "I think we must put away theory and speculation for today, Professor Grailing."

"I quite agree. I have classes to prepare for tomorrow." The elderly wizard rose to his feet. "Do yourself a favor, Master Snape, and be soon in leaving the library yourself. Good afternoon."

Snape watched the man leave the restricted area and then sat down in a nearby chair. "One day of useless arguing on that damned forbidden corridor," he muttered. "We'd be lucky if we all got splinched down the middle." In sudden frustration he rapped his fist down upon the table. "Merlin's teeth I am destined to be wet nurse to a bevy of prats!"

Hermione was just about to round the corner into the restricted area when she heard Snape's outburst. She flattened herself against the wall and peered cautiously toward the wrought iron enclosed area.

"Hermio...!"

"Shush!" Hermione grabbed Draco and pushed him back the way she'd come. She hissed into his ear, "Snape's in an awful state. Let's leave him be."

Draco, no more eager to encounter an angry potions master than anyone else, jogged quickly after Hermione. He smiled smugly. He didn't want to do more research anyway!

Harry was showing Ron how to do a fancy roll and spin when Ron began to slowly circle him. "Ho! Do you see what I see comin' for us, Harry?"

Harry squinted into the sunlight. "That's looks like Dumbledore!" Ron and Harry curtailed their flight path until they were closer to the head boy. Dumbledore motioned for them to land and they quickly did so.

"What's going on, Albus?" asked Ron as he dismounted from his broom.

"There's been an accident!" exclaimed Albus.

"What's happened?" asked Harry breathlessly.

"Not sure. The headmistress just told me to fetch you two and send you to the infirmary."

"Who was hurt?" demanded Harry as Albus took their brooms.

"Your uncle. I don't know what happened, just go!"

Without need for the last command, Ron and Harry sprinted all the way back to the castle. They did not stop until they'd reached the door of the infirmary where they were met by Draco and Hermione.

"Snape?" asked Harry.

Hermione filled them in. Snape had returned to the forbidden corridor. He had made an attempt to cast a spell that would cause the portal to be seen when all the gargoyles exploded simultaneously. He had protected his face with his arms, but his hands had been badly cut by flying marble. He'd also fallen and was currently unconscious.

"What the hell was he thinking?" Ron hissed. "Even I knew that place was bleedin' dangerous."

"Fool!" muttered Draco. "What's going to happen to us if he gets himself killed."

"He's not dead, Draco," Hermione spoke firmly.

The door to the infirmary opened and they were all face to face with the tallest, skinniest mediwitch Madam Aisling. She had a look that made all of them feel like they ought to take their medicine. She scowled down at them as though the accident was entirely their faults. Madam Aisling declared softly, "You may have five minutes to visit your uncle and then you must return to the guest wing." Long spindly fingers at the end of a dangerously thin arm ushered them through the door and over to a nearby bed where Snape lay.

The four circled his bed and looked down upon the pale face of their potions master. "He looks dead," remarked Malfoy.

"Thank you for that... assessment, Mr. Malfoy."

"Augh! You said he was knocked out!" Draco shouted and was promptly shushed by Madam Aisling.

"Sir, what happened?" asked Harry.

Snape slowly blinked his eyes and stirred uncomfortably upon the cot. "I underestimated the properties of the wild portal. It is far too dangerous for us to consider for our..." he cast a wary glance at the mediwitch who was watching them with one eye while she prepared a potion. "We must look for another solution."

They stared at him for a few minutes and Snape raised himself slightly. "That's more than enough pity, thank you. Go to your rooms. I shall be back on my feet this evening." A snort came from the mediwitch and Snape cast a glare at her. She stopped what she was doing and shot a look at him that made his insides shiver. He waved them out and they said goodbye as they filed through the door.

The mediwitch handed him the potion she'd been working on. "You're a terrifying woman, matron," he muttered as he drank down the bitter concoction.

"Aye, that I am, but I am also a very good mediwitch. Here, eat this." She handed him a piece of chocolate. "Ah, here's the headmistress!"

"Lyrica..."

The headmistress looked glorious in robes of rich purple; a color she pulled off much better than did Albus Dumbledore. As she seated herself next to him, her unfettered hair spilled over her right shoulder and he was caught by the way the last bit of sunlight coming through the dormer windows glinted on the strands. It made him dizzy and he closed his eyes half way.

"I'm glad to see you are conscious, Severus. I was rather afraid of what I might find."

"It is no worse than when Neville Longbottom blows up his cauldron in my potions class. I believe my head is worse than my hands. The concussion of the explosion has given me a rather severe headache. I should be quite healed by this evening, though." He glanced at the mediwitch that had moved to a far corner of the infirmary. "Thanks to Madam Aisling."

"She's a stern thing, but the woman knows her job." Lyrica leaned closer and put a hand upon his arm. "Are you really all right? She brushed a strand of hair out of his eyes.

"I am fine, Lyrica." He allowed himself the smallest of smiles and then grimaced. "I was a fool for what I did." He then explained to the headmistress that one of the theories he and Grailing had come up with he had decided to try. "It was a simple reveal charm. What I did not anticipate was the magical feedback it would cause. I am fortunate that my stupidity did not kill me."

Lyrica took one of his hands into hers. She was careful about not putting any pressure on the bandages over the wounds. "But you learned something."

He nodded and immediately wished he had not. For a moment he shut his eyes tightly and took a deep breath until the pain and dizziness passed. The healing potion he'd been given would be taking effect very soon. "I did. The corridor portal is far too dangerous for us to experiment with. We will have to discover another way home." His eyelids fluttered as the soporific in the healing potion took effect.

"Go to sleep, Severus. I'll let the children know that you'll be fine very soon." His eyelids stopped fluttering and he was very quickly asleep.

Madame Aisling was at the bedside without having made a sound. "He'll be able to leave in a few hours, Headmistress."

"Thank you, Madame Aisling." Lyrica rose and left to go to the Gryffindor guest wing.

Severus Snape slipped deeper into the sleepy warmth of the potion and he began to dream.

Dreams were dangerous. Dreams left the mind unprotected; vulnerable to a highly skilled Legilimens.

The sun shone brightly across a clear, blue sky as he made his way through the village of Hogsmeade. He nodded politely to those that greeted him. His stride was relaxed and there was no slouching of his spine, no furtiveness in his movements. The chains that had bound his heart, his mind and his soul, had fallen away years ago. He had an errand, but as the day was so beautiful and there were no Potions classes today, he allowed himself the time to glance into windows of various shops he'd normally ignore.

There was a new herbalist on the boulevard and he paused to review the display in the window. The cold breeze caught up to him, and like a serpent moving in speed and silence, it rushed down his spine. Ice wrapped around his heart just as the sun was covered by heavy, dark clouds. Every nerve in his forearm burned with intensity as the Dark Mark was called to life. Behind him the screaming began. He could do nothing but watch as the inky night was lit up by the ghastly green of the killing curse.

"TRAITOR!"

The voice thundered through his bones and he turned to meet his fate. . .

The fearful beating of Snape's heart woke him. His hand began searching for his wand, instead he felt a softness of spilled silk under his shaking hand. Reality was doing its best to push aside the dream. He was in the infirmary. The lights were dim. Reality was losing. Looking down for the source of the silk at his hand, he saw a head, a slumped over body. Someone had fallen... someone had fallen at his side.

The crack of thunder and the sudden burst of lightning outside the window brought back the screams. His vision tunneled to the cobbled streets of Hogsmeade as his mind heard the maniacal laughter of a monster. He jerked away from the body at his side and tumbled from the bed tangled in the sheets. As he wrestled to extricate himself, a white swath with the face of a skeleton approached him.

"Repellere!" he shouted as his arm extended, focusing his magic toward his enemy. The creature in white was forced backward and crashed to the ground.

"Severus!" The body had come to life. Green eyes he'd seen before. Green eyes that laughed, that wept at his thoughtless slur... she died.

Ghosts. He was being haunted by ghosts. He finally pulled free from the tangle of bedsheets. He sprinted out of the infirmary and ran on bare feet out into the storm. Rain poured from the sky and the thunder cracked overhead like a thousand thestrals stampeding. He ran faster as he desperately tried to escape his demons.

Lyrica had come back to the infirmary after having dinner with Ron, Hermione, Draco and Harry. Snape had been deeply asleep and it wasn't long before she had laid her head down at his side and fallen asleep as well.

The headmistress had been unprepared for the violent waking. As soon as she'd seen his use of wandless magic, she had cried out to him. He had run. Lyrica would follow but not before checking upon the mediwitch, Madam Aisling. The healer was only knocked out. Lyrica turned and followed Snape out into the rain.

Snape ran toward the Forbidden Forest and just reached the edge of it when the Dark Mark pulsed with fire. In silent agony, he gripped his forearm and fell to his knees.

"SEVERUS!" Lyrica ran to the man's side and dropped to her own knees. She reached toward his arm, the one with the Dark Mark, and he thrust her aside.

"No!" he snarled. His eyes blazed with a myriad of emotions, anger, hatred, fear.

Without hesitating, Lyrica slapped him, hard, across the face. She did so a second time. His expression of agony and anger fled his features and he froze, caught in a waking nightmare. Lyrica raised her hand to slap him a third time, when he caught her hand by the wrist.

"No," he whispered. "He's gone." He bowed his head, ashamed to look into her penetrating green eyes.

"Severus, what happened? You were as a man possessed." He dropped her hand and covered his forearm. "Are you injured?"

Before Lyrica could reach for his arm and move the sleeve that hid the dark mark, he pulled her into a tight embrace. He buried his face in her hair and whispered her name several times. She felt a tremor go through his body and after a moment he pulled away and held her shoulders.

"I am sorry, Lyrica. Did I? ... are you all right?" he asked, concern in his voice.

"You did not hurt me, Severus," she said softly. "Please tell me what happened?"

"A nightmare from the future... "