Always For You. [Snape Romance] [Harry Potter]

Arc 3: Chapter 8: What Are Sacrifices

I explained to her the situation of us trying to finish the Amulet of Ylgind in order to get answers regarding my mother. Her arms once again folded and she inclined her head in understanding. 

"I do wish you had told me this earlier. I could've helped you more. You do owe it to me considering you wouldn't even have started this journey without me." she sighed deeply. 

"Patricia-"

"I don't care to hear it. As for trying to convince you to not kill me, I got knocked off course during training once and when I crashed, I found it in a clearing in a forest. Waterfall and everything, crazy. That enough to clear me or are you going to accuse me of hiding things from you as you did me?" She refused to make eye contact with me for the entirety of her speech.

I knew she had a point but her wounds cut like knives into my heart. 

Finally, I moved over to Trelawney. She had pulled herself together so finely that she was as thin as a needle while she tried her best to avoid the flames. 

"Sybill..." Her eyes shot up in fear as I spoke her name. She was truly terrified I would choose her. "Why did you make my father the Prophecy?"

Her body was shaking so much that her ornaments were clacking together like an instrument. 

"Y-Your father approached me one day. He-He asked for a Prophecy re-regarding your future together. I tho-thought you were on acceptable terms so I did-did not question it." she stammered horribly.

It was a half-reasonable request. As she did not know the state of the relationship between my father and I, and we were friends, what reason did she have to reject him? Even if she did know, it may have been her strange way of trying to make me happy. 

"What did the Prophecy say?" I asked.

"M-My Inner Eye was somewhat c-clouded. It sho-showed you making a cho-choice at the end of your journey. The retro-retrograde of Mercury made it difficult to-to get a proper reading."

"But what kind of choice?" I interrogated further.

"I-I cannot tell you. It was im-impossible to see." she stuttered and from the looks in her eyes, she had no more she could say. 

It was at this moment I realised I was no closer to determining the traitor than I was at the start. Patricia now despised me and Trelawney was about to burst into tears. 

"Perhaps," Severus said as he saw me struggling. "you ought to think outside the box."

Hold on, did he know something I didn't? If he did, why wasn't he telling me? 

The flames inched ever close to the trio. "Now would be a good time to hurry up, Cassandra." Patricia spat angrily. She was done with the nicknames...

Think, Cassandra, think. The other challenges were all provided by the professors. This one would not be here for no reason. It was placed here. Though, if Severus was aware of its existence, he would have warned against it. He knew of his challenge. His challenge was a riddle of potions and poisons. The infiltrator, if they did not know how to solve the said riddle, had a one out of seven chance of succeeding through guessing. Could this be the result of us not actually solving the riddle?

Could the original riddle, as perplexing as it sounds, be offended that we did not solve it? Then... if this is punishment for not solving the original riddle, what if it was a riddle that forced your hand? It gave the illusion that I had to make a choice but... what was actually forcing me? Some voice from nowhere? There was a punishment for not choosing: the flames kill all three. There was a punishment for choosing: the flames kill the traitor. For all riddles, there has to be a perfect option.