Talon Black and the Sorcerer's Stone

Chapter 16 Blood Ties

Talon woke up and the memories from last night in the Forbidden Forest came rushing back to her. Sure, she was definitely concerned about the thing that knocked her out, but she couldn't stop thinking about the centaurs. Bane knew her mother and she couldn't wait to get back to the forest, but she also knew that it would be difficult to slip past Snape after last night's incident.

She let out a deep breath and stretched her aching body; it had been so long since she had had a good nights sleep and Talon relished the feel of the cool sheets on her body. She rolled over onto her side and pulled the covers up over her head and snuggled into them. That's when she smelled it. Burning leaves and sage. The very same scent that had been swirling around in her head and distracting her in class for years. She bolted upright, kicking her legs and flailing her arms to try and untangle herself from the mess she had made of the bedding.

Talon got herself free and found that it wasn't just a blanket that she had snuggled up with; Snape's long black cloak was tangled in with the white bedding. She gingerly picked it up and paused. Dear Merlin... She brought the soft cloth up to her face and sniffed. The sudden onslaught of such a potent whiff of her favorite person had her reeling. Her eyelids fluttered and her eyes rolled back slightly into her head.

"I am glad to see that you are finally awake, Miss Black. But, if you are seizing then maybe I should alert Madam Pomfrey."

"Oh! H-hello professor!" Talon sputtered as she, not so subtly, shoved the cloak beneath her pillow. "Lovely to see you this fine morning! How are you?"

He abandoned his position by the curtain around her bed and instead came to stand by the nightstand. He gazed down at her rumpled form with an unreadable expression. Her hypnotic blue eyes met with his emotionless black ones as he reached down towards her face.

"How are you feeling?" he asked. His thin, calloused fingers brushed a lock of her dark hair off the corner of her mouth and behind her ear.

"Quite well, actually, considering I was thrown around like a stuffed dog last night. What was that thing anyway?"

"Professor Dumbledore has requested that you come to his office to discuss that, among other things. If, you are feeling up to it that is."

"Oh yes of course. I'll be there as soon as I can."

"Very well." Professor Snape wasted no time in leaving the hospital wing.

*****

"Severus, how many times are you going to come to me with the same delimma and expect me to give you a different answer?"

Albus Dumbledore was sitting behind his desk in the Headmaster's office calmly sipping tea from a baby blue teacup. His companion, however, was pacing angrily in the middle of the large room, occasionally throwing his hands in the air, and going off about a certain Slytherin student.

"I don't know!" He shouted. "As many times as it takes!"

Dumbledore watched his friend from over the rim of his cup for a few moments before responding. "You care for her."

"Hippogriff shit! She is infuriating and it's all I can do to not wrap my hands around her pretty little throat and-"

"Now, Severus," he began. "if she's so infuriating, then why do you have those little after dinner chats with her? And what was stopping you from putting hands on her, of course I mean choking, last night while you watched over her during her stay in the hospital wing?"

Snape stopped pacing to stare at the white haired wizard in front of him. "I was concerned about her as if she had been any other student. She was hurt while she was under my supervision; I did not want to deal with the repercussions of anything else happening that could have been detrimental to her health."