~Chapter Eleven~
"Absolutely not. There is no way in hell you are putting my-her through what you've put me through all these years." Severus screamed in rage. I had never seen him like this. I've always known he had a dark side but seeing his temper unleash like that scared me a little.
"Severus please sit back down and let me explain." Dumbledore tried to calm him down but Severus slammed his fist onto the headmaster's desk. Even he flinched back slightly when he did that.
"I have learned to deal with being tortured, watching people get tortured and the worst of all torturing someone yourself because it is what you were ordered to do." The idea of Severus being tortured made my skin crawl.
"She doesn't feel pain, she has so much power with her family spells and she's brave." Dumbledore did have a point there.
I was confused that if we were discussing the future of my father then why wasn't he here? He should know what could happen to him and to me. This time I'm not going to take no for an answer, I need an answer as to why I can't feel pain.
"Expecto Patronum." A small unicorn came galloping out of my wand.
"Go fetch my father Igor Karkaroff and ask him to come to the headmaster's office." I smiled to the unicorn, so pure and innocent.
I taught myself how to produce a patronus charm when I was quite young. I remember asking my father to teach me but he couldn't because of how absorbed he became by the darkness after being a Death Eater and being locked away at Azkaban.
Severus and Dumbledore looked shocked. I guess they didn't expect someone with as much darkness inside of me to be able to produce a patronus charm. It's the one thing that assures me I still have some light even if it continues to fade.
My patronus came back shaking her head. Something was wrong with my father. He would never ignore my patronus. I ran out of the Headmasters office with Severus and Dumbledore hot on my heels.
Students stared at us as we raced through the halls. All sorts of thoughts were running through my head. Being the daughter of a death eater, when you have a bad feeling about your parent it never ends well.
When we reached my father's chambers what I saw was not pretty. He was curled up in a ball in front of the fireplace shivering uncontrollably. I went to touch him but even without touching him, I was able feel how cold he was.
The room felt dark, darker than my magic and darker than my father's. Almost like my grandmothers, I haven't felt that kind of darkness in a long time. But I could tell it wasn't from someone's presence, it was from a spell being cast.
"Katrina." Severus came up from behind me and took my hand.
"I've felt this kind of magic of magic before; I don't know how to help." I know how Severus hates to feel useless, he's always had the answers but I'm the only one who can help in this situation.
I turned to face him and Dumbledore. "I know what to do but you can't stop me, swear to me Severus."
I didn't wait for him to answer because I could hear my father's teeth chattering from where I was standing. I ran to the kitchen and grabbed a knife from the draw. When I came back in the room Severus was making the room a hotter temperature but it wasn't making any difference.
I crouched down in front of my father. I looked towards Severus and gave him a small smile before I dragged the knife across the palm of my hand. It obviously didn't hurt but out the corner of my eye I saw Dumbledore stop Snape from intervening,
I grabbed my father's hand which felt like ice and made a cut the same as mine on the palm of his hand. I held his cut hand in mine and started the spell.
"Sanguinem Sanabo." I could feel the magic surrounding us. As his hand started to get warmer I became slightly light headed.
When the spell had finished my father was gasping for breath while clutching his hand. I had to steady my breathing as well but it wasn't working, Severus came rushing over just in time to catch me before I slipped face first into the fireplace. That wouldn't have been pretty.
"Not Madame Pomfrey." I whispered before blacking out.
"It's nice to see you again my sweet girl." It was my grandmother again. I hope this doesn't happen every time I'm distressed and unconscious.
Yet again her voice was sweet. I never understood how she could be so dark but make me feel so safe. She always held my hand when she performed dark spells at home. She said it was because she didn't want her heart to turn dark so I became the light that she needed.
"Grandmother, why don't I feel pain?" I needed to know. I've tried to conceal it but I don't think I can anymore.
I know that we are supposed to embrace our differences but I can't when it comes to this. If someone were to literally stab me in the back while I was duelling someone, I wouldn't be able to feel it so I would carry on duelling unaware of the fact that I could bleed out and die. Whatever this is, it is actually dangerous.
"Sit down Katrianna." Her voice remained calm even though I bet my face projected panic.
My father told me stories on how her voice even remained calm during her many interactions with Voldermort.
"You've always been a special child my sweet." She smiled pouring me a cup of tea.
"That's not an answer to my question." I stressed.
"Did you just sass your grandmother?" she questioned. Her voice rose considerably. She can be very nice and calm but every so often she slips up. I guess I'm more like her than I thought.
"Absolutely not Grandmother, It's just been a very stressful day." I sighed rubbing my temples.
I still need to find out who exactly hurt my father. Or in better words who exactly I needed to get my revenge on.
"Now that I'm dead I am sure that your father will go behind my back and tell you but I will not. Now Katrianna it is time for you to wake up and kill the person who tried to hurt my son. I know you can do this, it is the first step my sweet girl." I didn't have time to reply before my mind was made aware of voices talking around me.
"What did she do Albus, just tell me." I wasn't out for long so when I heard Dumbledore and Severus start talking I pretended to still be unconscious. It's not weird I just wanted to know what they were saying.
"Very dark blood magic Severus. I know she's brave but with this much darkness, I would have thought the hat would have placed her into Slytherin." Dumbledore wasn't the first and won't be the last to comment on my high level of darkness and he won't be the last if I do what my Grandmother told me to do.
"She's got more light in her then you will ever know." Severus whispered. I could feel him coming closer to where I was laid. Not that I knew where exactly I was.
I felt his delicate fingers move a strand of hair away from my face. My act was given away from the shiver that danced across my whole body. "Rise and shine sleepy head."
I moaned and rolled over to the other side of the bed. I just saved my father from dying of hyperthermia I think I should be able to milk a sleep in for all that its worth.
"I'll leave you two alone." I heard Dumbledore walk out of the room so I took that as my cue to open my eyes.
"I'm sorry if I scared you." Severus was still standing so I took his hand and guided him to the empty side of the bed.
He took of his shoes and climbed under the covers. "You did scare me. The fact that you know about such dark magic scares me." He sighed.
I kissed his cheek and he wrapped me in his arms. We've been close before but this feels like so much more. Being in his arms and feeling weak and vulnerable is something I've never experienced before. I trust him and that scares me because if I trust him that means I could end up falling in love with him.
"The only books around the house growing up where Dark Arts books, they were basically my bed time stories." I snuggled in closer to him.
I don't like talking about my childhood with anyone apart from my father. It's different with Severus though, I want him to know me and I don't want to have any secrets from him.
"When my parents were arguing I found peace in reading, it was the ability it gave me to get outside of my head. But all during my childhood I was so drawn to the Dark Arts, I still am now but I've learned from my mistakes when it comes to dark magic." I wanted to know what mistakes but I didn't want to push him so much he puts his walls back up.
I was almost on my way back to sleep because he was stroking and playing with my hair until a thought popped into my head. "Severus what are we going to do about the Yule ball? We can't go together."
He sighed and held me tighter. "A student will ask you to the dance, you will accept and I will torture him until he graduates."
I laughed and turned to face him. It felt weird being in bed with clothes on but I liked having half my body resting on Severus while he had his arms wrapped around me.
"Do you want to talk about what Dumbledore said?" I tried to tread carefully around the subject but there was no easy way to bring up the conversation.
"It's not going to happen and that's the end of it." I could feel the vibrations of his chest under my fingers.
I have to do it. I have to take the dark mark for my father. If anything happened to him I don't know how I'd be able to cope especially knowing that I could have helped him, that I could have saved him.
My grandmother was calm in front of Voldermort so it should be in my blood and I'm in Gryffindor so I think with Severus there everything will be alright. My father comes across as strong to other people but in front of Voldermort he can be a bit of a wimp as my Grandmother used to say. So if he can face Voldermort so can I.
I just have to find a way to get Severus to understand and maybe even help me. It would be good if he could help me with some extra occlumency lessons. I'm good but not at the level needed to be able to protect my mind and my thoughts against Voldermort.
I know that Dumbledore will want me to become a spy and I do want Harry Potter to win the war but I will not do anything that could risk the safety of the people I care about. But that has become harder recently because of my friendship with Hermione.
Hermione is one of Potter's best friend and is also the brightest which of her age, she's going to be in danger all of the time especially from Death Eaters. If well, when I become a Death Eater I'll protect her I'll just have to work out the best way to do that without putting my father or Severus in danger.
This isn't going to be easy and I'll probably never get back to being myself after the war. The task that has to be completed to become a Death Eater is to kill someone. After I do that I'm scared no one will be able to bring me back from the dark, I'm scared I'll become a real Death Eater.
I gave Severus a lingering kiss on the lips before snuggling deep into his arms and closing my eyes. No, I won't become a real Death Eater, I'll have the mark but I won't enjoy torturing people. Severus will be my light and everything will be alright if I have him.
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Hi everyone!!
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