Complications // Severus Snape

• Ch 24 Fear •

Recap because I'm awful and haven't updated in four months: "Who are you?" said Snape, firing a line of spells at me. "I'm—I'm Amarina, of course—" I said, too confused by Snape's words to deflect his spells. One spell hit me that felt as though a sword had slashed across my face. I stumbled to the ground, putting a hand to my bleeding face and looking at Snape in horror. "If you're Amarina," Snape said, removing his wand from my neck and standing up from the ground, "—then who is that?" I sat up, and looked over to where Snape was pointing. There, lying dead on the ground of the Forbidden Forest, was me.

* * *

I nearly fell back over in shock. I looked from the body – my body – to Snape, whose scowl had softened slightly upon seeing my corpse.

After shakily standing up, I withdrew my wand and cautiously began to approach the body in the snow. As I closed the distance between myself and – myself – the corpse vanished.

Utterly perplexed and horribly frightened, I knelt in the spot in the snow which my corpse had previously occupied. Examining the snow, I realized that there was no imprint left that would indicate that the corpse was ever there.

"What – ?" said Snape. I looked up from the snow, and in doing so realized that my surroundings were increasing in size – or perhaps I was decreasing in size – rapidly. Trees shot up to record-breaking heights, and the snow surrounding me began to pile higher and higher. I looked over in Snape's direction to see his reaction, and was horrified to see that Snape was around one-hundred times my size.

This isn't real, I thought. This is just a dream – just like the dream I had when I was little – the nightmare –

Then it hit me. Nightmare.

"Riddikulus!" I said, pointing my wand up at the trees towering over me. The trees, snow and Snape all stayed colossal for a moment; I thought that I had been wrong. Then, my surroundings – and Snape – took on the brief appearance of a stretched Slinky. Then the Slinkys folded up, reverting everything back to its original size.

I fell back in the snow where my corpse had been, breathing heavily. A warm trickle of blood began to gush out of my wound from before, flowing steadily.

I heard the sound of snow crunching under boots, and saw a wand-light bobbing towards me.

"Are you all right?" said Snape, taking a place beside me in the snow.

"It was a Boggart," I said, wincing as I tried to adjust my position.

In the dim light of Snape's wand, I couldn't quite make out the expression on Snape's face – but I could easily imagine the sour look which was likely plastered upon it.

Rather than dignify a response to my previous statement, Snape pointed out the obvious: "You're bleeding again."

Nothing else was said before Snape cast the orb of light emitting from the tip of his wand into the air above our heads. Then, he began to chant the same incantation from before, waving his wand in a cross-stitch pattern over the wound which had now grown to stretch from my hairline to the beginning of my ribcage: "Vulnera sanentur, vulnera sanentur..."

Aside from the low hum of Snape's voice, the Forest was eerily quiet. I held my breath as I felt my wound attempt to stitch itself together, with the aide of Snape's healing charm. Snape avoided looking at my face while he was healing me, though I watched him closely. Snape's expression grew increasingly vexed, and he began to chant the incantation more quickly.