"That certainly clears up a lot." The headmaster finally said. He had been silent for a while after the pensieved memories.
"I didn't want to help him. Honest!" She said. "He said he'd hurt Hermione if I didn't."
"I see." She slumped on the chair. This was it. Dumbledore would see that she was a threat. She actively helped Voldemort. She'd go to Azkaban where she belonged.
"I am not going to send you to Azkaban." It was as though he was using legilimency. She knew it wasn't possible. Her Occlumency shields were up. Dumbledore was certainly very powerful, but she'd be able to sense if he got into her mind.
"Of course not!" Snape said. She wasn't sure, but she might have even detected a hint of outrage in his tone.
"I don't-"
"You weren't wondering if I'd send you straight to prison?" Dumbledore asked. "My dear, it's written all over your face. You've even asked before if it'd be your fate."
"But I helped him. I killed for him. You saw that!" A look of understanding crossed Snape's face.
"You think you deserve Azkaban." He said.
"I do."
"Because you were manipulated, threatened and coerced into committing his will?"
"Because I did do his will. For months, I was by his side and I tore into real life human beings as though they were paper wrapping."
"Miss Weasley-"
"Albus." Snape cut Dumbledore off. He turned to Alex. "Why don't you go for a walk? Just be sure to come back in time for your detention."
"Yes, Professor." She left.
"I trust you have a reason for sending her off?"
"Telling her she has nothing to worry about won't help her." Snape said. "If anything, it'll drive her away further."
"What do you propose?"
"I'm not sure exactly how to help her. I'll write to healer Ashburn. He's a rather gifted mind healer and alchemist."
"Ashburn?" Dumbledore repeated.
"Yes. I've come across him once or twice after I graduated. The last I heard, he was in Japan, looking to be situated as the head alchemist at JWH."
"When was that?" Snape narrowed his eyes at Dumbledore suspiciously.
"Why are you so interested?"
"Ashburn was in her memories." He said, turning to banish the duplication of Alex's memories. "He was the healer who patched up her shoulder, ensuring she wouldn't become a werewolf. He's also the one who came up with the potion to bind her to Voldemort's will." Snape's eyes hardened. "I wonder, if perhaps you could reach out to him. If he still has ties to his master, a friendship forged between the two of you might be beneficial."
"You want me to befriend him? He experimented untested potions on her. Potions that were hardly theoretically sound. She thinks herself a monster because of him, Albus."
"It is regrettable, and I do sympathise, but we have an opportunity. At the moment, he has no idea you know of his existence. As far as Voldemort is concerned, Alexandra has not and will not speak of her past."
"It'll still be suspicious."
"Will it? Had I not told you of Ashburn now, you would have written to him of a troubled student, correct?"
"Troubled?" Severus repeated. Dumbledore walked over to his chair and took a seat.
"Write to Ashburn. Reign in your temper, Severus. Be careful with what you say. I've no doubt word will get to Voldemort. You might even be able to use it as evidence of your allegiance to him."
"You want to use Alex, when he comes back." Snape realised. "Absolutely not!"
"This is the role you asked for, Severus. You vowed to help the light in honour of Lily. This is how you do it. You can do what he failed at. You have her trust. You have her loyalty."
"Precisely. I'm not going to take advantage of it." Snape said coldly. "Ask whatever you want, but you will not involve Alex in this war. That is when I bow out." He turned and walked out of the headmaster's office, robes billowing dramatically behind him.
Alex managed to make it to the potions lab just in time. She was panting by the time she reached the classroom, ignoring Snape and Malfoy's curious look. She flung herself onto a chair.
"Bloody hell. What'd you do? Run all the way from the Hufflepuff commons?" Malfoy sneered.
"I was outside, actually." She said. "And a run every now and then is healthy. You should try it sometime."
"Ease off the insults, Alex." Snape warned. She rolled her eyes.
"Or you'll take away points?"
"Or I'll extend your detentions." She snapped her mouth shut. She'd have to be careful.
"That would be harsh."
"Would it?"
"Yes. I barely have enough time on my hands as is." She said pulling on her dragonhide gloves.
"Then you'd best learn to behave." Malfoy grinned as Snape berated Alex.
When detention was over, Snape called for Alex to stay behind a little longer. Once Malfoy had left, he cast some privacy charms and told her to sit.
"Am I in trouble?"
"No." He told her.
"Is this about earlier? My memories?" She asked and he nodded.
"I think it'd be beneficial for you to talk about it. You seem to think you deserve the worst sort of punishment there is."
"And it'd be safer."
"You think being surrounded by dementors is safe?"
"It means he can't get me back. It means I won't hurt anyone else."
"He won't ever get a hold of you again, Alex."
"He's not dead. He's going to come back and he's going to want me by his side. The only other person who managed to get away from him died in the process."
"You are away from him, and we'll keep you out of his grasp. We'll keep you safe."
"I appreciate that you mean it, but you can't promise me that. No one can. I'm his granddaughter. He thinks I can come to see things the way he does just like my mother did. Some twisted part of him deep down actually believes he's right and that he can sway me and my beliefs."
"He can't."
"Can't he? What if he can? All those awful things he made me do. All those people he made me kill and torture- all these petrifications. Some part of me, no matter how small clearly doesn't object. An imperius is the most powerful type of mind control, and even that can't make someone truly good do things so evil." She said.
"And you think that some part of you wants to harm muggleborns in this school and that some part of you reveled in what he made you do?" She fiddled with her fingers, ashamed. "Alex, your best friend is a muggleborn. And the idea of seeing any kind of creature hurt is enough to turn your stomach. You are the last person to ever want to hurt anyone or anything."
"But I did. Nothing will ever change that. Can we please not talk about this anymore?"
