The first thing Severus did when he got up was to try to summon his doe again, but he failed once more.
The second was to lock himself in the bathroom, wash his face and look at himself in the mirror. It was something he tried to do as little as possible; he hated the face staring back at him. He did it to punish himself.
The third was to carefully leave the bathroom and hope that Omegas was still asleep. He was scared. More than once he had tried to hide his thoughts from her and had failed. The idea that she could even vaguely sense what was going on in his head at that moment terrified him to the point that he was convinced that if he had faced a Boggart right then, it wouldn't have turned into Voldemort at all. He would have seen a pair of disgusted violet eyes and a cloud of black hair turn away and never return.
Of course, as always, Omegas had decided to be inconvenient that day, and had woken before him. She was standing, two large bags under her eyes and the same vacant look as the night before. Severus wondered why. It must still be Tonks, he told himself. He wished he could read her as she read him.
"Good morning," she greeted without looking at him.
"Good morning," he replied.
"I think they're going to do it today," she said.
"Do what?"
She turned to him and frowned. "The snake retrieval, obviously."
Severus wished he could disappear under the carpet. He'd completely forgotten about anything that didn't involve silvery does and snakes. He swallowed awkwardly and gave a weak nod.
"Is everything all right?" she asked, her eyes narrowed.
"Of course," he replied immediately. "We'd better go."
He walked past her and out of the room without saying another word.
When they reached the Great Hall, they found that the four long tables had been moved, two to one side, two to the other, and that the large stone Arch now stood in the centre of the room.
"Ah, so this is where it all happens, then," said a voice behind them.
Sirius Black had just passed through the doors.
"What makes you think that?" Omegas asked sarcastically.
Sirius chuckled. "Well, they'd better let us have breakfast first."
He walked past them and reached the Gryffindor table, which was now set aside along with the Hufflepuff one.
Omegas watched as he sat down and gave Severus a satisfied grin.
"You know what? I like this new arrangement," she said, quickly walking over to the two tables at the opposite end of the room.
He smirked and followed her.
"Someone broke into your office, Severus," she noted as she sat down. "They took the Arch."
"Indeed," he nodded. "It must have been the Headmistress."
"Mhm," she murmured, her mouth already full. "About that… is it true that you've been Headmaster for a year?"
He raised an eyebrow. "Don't you read the papers?"
She chuckled. "Not really, no. I've been busy. I tried to catch up with everything, but I only managed to get as far as Agon Epsley's arrest."
"Busy with what?" he asked curiously.
"Oh," she grinned. "Well, you know… there was this Spanish wizard, looking for—"
She stopped abruptly and looked around cautiously.
"You know what? I'll tell you tonight," she whispered.
Severus smiled faintly. For a terrifying instant, he had feared that things were going to get awkward between them. Instead, the conversation flowed as smoothly and interestingly as it always had.
They finished breakfast and all went well that morning. Professor McGonagall's idea turned out to be a very good one: Sir Nicholas entered the Arch and, following Omegas' instructions, found the snake within a few minutes.
He reappeared a quarter of an hour later, assuring everyone that he had managed to give the snake the Thestral Blood that Hagrid had provided, thanks to the spell that Professor Flitwick had put on the vial. Everyone held their breath in anticipation.
No more than ten minutes later, the snake shot out of the Arch like a bullet. A spell from Professor McGonagall caught it in mid-air and petrified it. She handed it to Harry who, along with Ron, Hermione and Draco—who now seemed to be an honorary member of the group—made their way to the Room of Requirement.
Everyone sighed with relief and proceeded with the rest of their morning in high spirits.
Everyone but Omegas.
She continued to stare blankly ahead, her gaze distant, lost in a silence that was not her usual casual one. It seemed melancholic; sad, even. Severus considered asking her why, but he thought that if their roles were reversed, he'd rather she didn't, and finally decided to keep his quiet. He didn't mind spending time with her in silence anyway.
Once in his office, the two of them resumed the preparation of the Polyjuice Potion they had put aside some time before. For a while everything went as smoothly as usual.
Then, Omegas' eyes went to the other end of the desk.
"I think your galleon has warmed up, Severus," she noted.
Severus froze.
He couldn't do it. He would never be able to do it again. If anyone had happened to see his Patronus… if Harry, who knew his story, happened to see his Patronus… or worse, if Omegas—
No. He couldn't do it. It was out of the question.
"Sir?" a voice suddenly woke him.
He raised his head to see Draco standing on the threshold. "Hm?"
"Sir, Harry sent me to tell you that he's ready to take Miss—"
"Oh, for Salazar's sake," she huffed. "Please, don't call me that."
Draco looked at her, stunned. "How… how am I supposed to…?"
"I have a name."
He frowned. He looked at Severus for help, but he just shook his head vaguely.
"Sorry, I… can I call you Omegas?"
"Call me whatever you like, just not 'Miss'," she spat.
"Oh… all right," he murmured.
He hesitated for a moment, still looking at her curiously.
"So… can I come with you? I really want to see the chamber."
She looked up at him. "Why?"
He scoffed. "Why? The Chamber of Secrets, built by Slytherin himself to house a giant snake? I have no intention of missing it."
Omegas ran her eyes over his pale face a few more times. She smirked and turned to Severus.
"I like him," she announced.
Draco gave her a grin and leaned against the door frame.
"Are you going to ditch your shift and come with us?" she asked.
Severus, who had been waiting for a good reason to avoid his duty anyway, nodded and walked briskly out of the office.
Hence Harry Potter, Draco Malfoy, Severus Snape and Omegas Grindelwald—a quartet that Severus thought was one of the most unlikely in the world—made their way to the girls' bathroom on the second floor.
"Hello, Myrtle," Draco greeted as soon as they entered the bathroom.
The ghost of a girl with a pair of large glasses darted out of a cubicle, whirling around and sobbing loudly.
"Draco!" she squeaked. "Today isn't Thursday. Have you come to see me early?"
"No, I'm just passing by."
"Oh…" she mumbled, looking as if she had just received a death sentence. "I see…"
She sobbed some more, then burst into desperate tears and slunk back into one of the cubicles.
All eyes in the room were on Draco.
"What?" he said sourly. "We're friends. Can't I have a friend?"
Harry shook his head in amusement.
"Can we get on with this, please?" asked Omegas. "I'd like to get back to my cauldron."
"It's right here," Harry said, pointing to one of the sinks in the middle of the bathroom.
Omegas approached it and traced one of the snake-shaped taps with a finger. "What shall I say?"
"I don't know," Harry replied. "Last time I just said 'open'."
"Hm…" she mused.
She stepped back and stood right in front of it. She opened her mouth and whispered what Severus perceived as nothing more than an indistinct hiss.
The pillar supporting the sinks began to open slowly. The four of them leaned closer to take a look at the large, ominous-looking tunnel that had appeared where the sink had been a moment earlier.
"Yes, that's it. Just like the last time," Harry remarked.
"Thank Merlin," Omegas chuckled. "Can you imagine if there was another creepy tunnel under the same sink?"
"It looks quite deep…" noted Draco, swallowing audibly.
"Yeah, but it gets smoother as we go," Harry replied.
The words seemed to do nothing to ease Draco's poorly concealed panic.
"I can go first if you want, so you know there's no danger," Harry added.
Draco turned to him. "Can you now?"
The question, Severus guessed, was supposed to sound like a provocation. What it sounded instead was breathless and slightly cracking.
Severus rolled his eyes and Omegas huffed her annoyance.
"All right, I'll go," she announced.
Without a hint of hesitation, she darted down the tunnel. Then, one by one, Harry in front, the other three followed.
When Severus landed—he was the last to do so—he found himself in front of an enormous snake skin. It seemed old and untouched by both human hands and time.
"Amazing!" Omegas breathed, fiddling with some glass jars. "You've got a gold mine under your feet!"
She grinned as she collected as much skin as possible and put it into the jars.
"Slughorn doesn't know this is here, does he?" she asked, turning to Harry.
He shook his head.
"Thought so," she whispered. "Don't tell him."
Severus walked past the boys and towered over her. "Weren't you in a hurry?"
She raised her head and met his gaze. She had the exact same ecstatic wonder on her face she had had when she first stepped into his storeroom. Severus had to make a significant effort to maintain his sardonic expression.
She got to her feet, still staring at him. She gave him a half annoyed, half amused grimace and walked past him into the stone gallery ahead of them.
It wasn't long before the four of them were forced to stop again: a large pile of rubble in the middle of the tunnel blocked their path.
"Right…" Harry muttered. "Yes, well, that's… er…"
Severus, who knew that hesitant tone all to well, slowly turned to him, silently demanding explanations.
"The… the ceiling collapsed when… you know, Ron's wand was broken, so when Lockhart tried to erase our memories with it, the spell bounced on him, and—"
"And you didn't tell us?" Severus asked quietly, taking a step closer. "We could have come prepared, Potter. Why didn't you tell us?"
Harry swallowed. "I… I didn't think of it, sir."
"You didn't… think of it," he echoed sourly.
The boy lowered his head. Severus maintained his eyes fixed on him until his obvious shame eased at least part of his anger.
He turned to Omegas and approached her quickly. She was looking at the pile of rubble the way you look at a game of chess when it's your turn to move.
"Any brilliant ideas?" he asked bitterly.
"Three," she said softly.
Severus raised a sceptical eyebrow. "Three, really?"
She turned to him with a smirk. "Three," she confirmed. "One I don't like, one you won't like, and one nobody will like."
She took a few steps towards the rubble to examine it closely.
"The one that I fear no one will like is that we levitate them one by one until we clear the passage."
"That would take hours!" Harry protested.
"Days," she corrected. "Which brings me to the second idea, the one I don't like: we blow up the passage."
"Hm…" Severus murmured. "I suppose you don't like it because it would risk endangering what's on the other side."
"Precisely," she nodded. "But there is a solution to the problem."
He looked her up and down. "Which is?"
"That someone goes to the other side and stops the explosion with a shield so it doesn't spread too much," she whispered.
Severus' sceptical frown deepened. Omegas returned it with a cheeky smile; then she lowered her gaze. He followed it to a tiny gap at the bottom of the pile of rubble. That gap was obviously too small for any of them to pass on the other side. Unless…
His eyes darted to her sharply. "No," he commanded.
"Well… I told you you wouldn't like it," she murmured.
"What is it?" Harry asked.
Neither of them answered. They continued to look at each other, he grim, she cunning.
"Come on, you have to admit it's a good idea," she said teasingly. "Feasible. Quick…"
He kept glaring at her in silence.
"What is a good idea?" Draco tried.
They kept not answering. They had another sort of telepathic conversation, but this time was different. He gave her all kinds of threatening looks, and she kept giving him increasingly irritating smirks that clearly meant, 'I'm going to do it whether you like it or not'.
Severus' nostrils flared as he was finally forced to break eye contact. He turned sharply to the two boys; he found them staring at him with identical puzzled expressions. He approached them with measured steps and raised an imperious finger.
"If either of you," he hissed, "dares even think of mentioning to anyone what you are about to see…"
He didn't continue, rightly assuming that his tone had said enough. Draco swallowed and shook his head quickly.
"What are we about to see?" asked Harry curiously.
Severus gave him one last icy look before turning back to Omegas.
"I'll give you your clothes when you're there," he said coldly.
"Good," she replied.
She slid the bag off her shoulder and handed it to him with a broad smile. He took it, slung it over his shoulder with an annoyed grimace and turned his head.
"What are you doing?" asked Draco.
Omegas turned to him and blinked. She spread her arms and wrapped them around her body, hugging herself in a tight grip. A moment later, her arms began to stretch and the rest of her slowly disappeared. Her pale arms swiftly transformed into one long, scaly black body.
A black snake fell upon the purple dress at Severus' feet. It hissed softly in his direction, then slithered towards the small gap between the two stones. He gave it nothing more than a disapproving look and an annoyed grimace.
Meanwhile, in his head, all the thoughts that had kept him awake the night before resurfaced. He looked at those vertical pupils, at that triangular head and at that hissing forked tongue. He didn't like the sight at all. He followed it with his gaze until it disappeared behind the pile of rubble.
He turned to Harry and Draco and found them staring at the scene incredulously and, in Draco's case, with an amused grin on his face.
"Not a word," he warned.
They nodded in unison.
"I'm waiting," Omegas said from the other side of the pile.
Severus picked up her clothes and struggled to fit them through the small opening until he felt her hand reach out and pull them through.
"So…" Harry whispered. "That's how she knows Parseltongue?"
"Yes," Severus replied.
"Why did she lie, sir?"
He gave him a sideway glance. "I imagine she didn't want you poking your nose into her private affairs, Potter," he lied.
"I'm ready!" Omegas announced.
Severus stood in front of the pile and took out his wand.
"Stand back!" he warned the boys.
They took a step back as he pointed his wand at the stones.
"Bombarda Maxima!"
The wall of rubble in front of them exploded with a loud bang, sending dozens of pieces of debris flying into the air and crashing into an invisible wall. On the other side of the explosion, Omegas held her wand in front of her and raised a Shield Spell.
When the last stone had fallen, Severus, Harry and Draco walked past the now broken wall and reached her. Severus handed her the bag, and she took it with a smile.
"That went well," she remarked.
Severus scowled at her.
"That was amazing!" Draco exclaimed.
Omegas' smirk returned in its place. "Hear that, Severus?" she murmured, taking a step towards him. "That was amazing!"
Severus' glare of disapproval shifted dangerously into an angry one.
She chuckled and turned towards Harry. "Lead the way."
The four of them resumed their walk. They passed a labyrinthine corridor after another, until they reached a long hall—eerie in its dim light and the large black shadows cast by stone pillars with entwined serpents. In the centre of the room lay the biggest snake Severus had ever seen, its eyes lifeless and its mouth still wide open.
"Woah," Draco breathed.
Harry walked briskly down the corridor with an ostentatious and, in Severus' opinion, quite arrogant indifference.
"This is it," he said, pausing in front of the Basilisk's open mouth.
Severus turned to look at Omegas. She was watching the beast with a sombre expression, a couple of glass vials in hand. He waited for her to step forward, but she seemed to be frozen. Growing impatient, Severus snatched the vials from her hand and walked towards the animal.
The venom, he noticed, was still dripping from the snake's long, sharp teeth. He positioned the vial underneath and began collecting it. Omegas, meanwhile, had approached him, never taking her eyes off the Basilisk's head. When she finally reached it, she gently placed a hand on one of its scaly cheeks and stroked it.
"Extraordinary creature," she whispered.
Severus thought he heard a catch in her voice. It surprised him. He had seen her administer the Anaesthetic Potion to a cursed and agonising boy without showing the slightest sign of distress.
Omegas noticed his puzzled glance, then turned to the two perplexed boys.
"What?" she asked.
"It was a monster," Harry noted. "It could kill with a single look."
Omegas continued to stroke the beast's head. Severus had never seen her touch anything so tenderly.
"It wasn't its fault," she replied softly.
"It killed a girl, years ago," Harry protested. "Myrtle, the ghost in the bathroom up here."
"Because it was ordered to," she objected.
"By Voldemort," he retorted. "And it obeyed."
"Oh, of course it obeyed!" she snapped. "Imagine being a millennia-old creature, alone, locked away for centuries, when suddenly a boy, the only one who has been able to communicate with you in all that time, asks for your help. What would you have done?"
She locked eyes with him for a long moment, then turned back to the Basilisk. Severus saw Harry open his mouth to reply, but he also saw the look halfway between angry and pained on Omegas' face.
He stood and stepped between them, both vials filled to the brim. He gave Harry a dangerous glare.
"Let's go," he commanded.
The boy seemed to be considering to argue, but finally decided to let it go. He turned and walked silently down the corridor.
For the rest of the day, Omegas refused to speak. She didn't say a word to any of the boys, not even when it was time to say goodbye and go in different directions. She simply walked to his office and resumed her work as if there had been no interruption.
When lunchtime came, she didn't give him her usual, "Hungry?"; she just pretended not to notice and continued working.
Severus watched her for a long time, the cauldron beneath his hands long forgotten. He studied her face, trying to make sense of that pain for so long, that by mid afternoon he told himself she must have noticed. But she continued to pretend otherwise.
Finally, when they had both reached a point in their preparations where there was nothing more they could do that day, he dared to speak.
"Shall we have dinner?"
It was the first time he had been the one to suggest it.
Omegas turned with a hint of surprise on her face. She gave him a weak smile and shook her head.
"I'm not hungry."
Not hungry. Whatever it was, it must be serious. For a horrible moment, Severus feared that she had found out. She couldn't really be that upset about a dead Basilisk, could she? He considered not speaking to her again until she decided to give him an explanation, but his concern for Omegas' state of mind quickly overtook his concern for himself.
"Are you going to tell me what the hell is wrong with you?" he asked.
She turned to him again, but did not answer. She gave him another sad smile, then pulled a second cauldron from her bag.
"I was thinking of making some more Anaesthetic Potion."
"More Anaesthetic Potion is not necessary," he replied.
She shrugged. "There's never enough, is there?"
Severus leaned closer to her and forced her to meet his eyes: they were glistening. He froze. He had no idea what to do. He quickly looked away and found his sarcasm.
"Is this what you do when you're in pain? You brew potions?"
She let out a small laugh. "Don't you?"
Severus opened his mouth to reply, then closed it. He paused for a moment and followed her movements on the work table. Finally, he pulled out his own cauldron and ingredients and settled beside her in silence.
There was a long pause, punctuated by the occasional grinding or clinking of a ladle. After a silent quarter of an hour, Severus found the courage to speak again.
"I have seen you more affected by the death of that creature than by the deaths of dozens of humans," he remarked.
She shook her head, not taking her eyes off her work. "It's not its death that pains me."
"Then what?" he asked, betraying a hint of annoyance.
Omegas looked at him and her eyes seemed to double in size. When she spoke, her voice trembled slightly.
"It has known nothing but abuse since it was born, Severus," she murmured. "It died lonely, cruelly, violently. It will be remembered as nothing more than a monster capable of killing with a look. Without anyone bothering to stop and try to understand, not even for a second."
She paused and bowed her head.
"It's not its death that pains me, it's its life. And the memory it will leave behind."
Severus watched her for a long time. He watched her chop the roots and add the powder to the cauldron, calm and elegant as always. He watched her turn and reach for a jar of Black Beetles on a shelf, her purple dress fluttering across the room. He watched her float across the table as if gravity had no effect on her movements—unable to say a word, unable to move a muscle. The words came out of his mouth without him being able to stop them.
"You are… so odd."
It wasn't said in his usual rigidity, nor with his trademark impassivity. It didn't sound like a reproach or a cold statement.
That was a compliment.
She certainly took it as such, for when she looked back at him, she gave him a smile he had never seen on that face before.
"Thank you," she replied softly. "You are quite odd yourself."
Fear left him completely. To understand how to ease her suffering became more important than anything that had held him back before.
"This is not about the Basilisk," he said quietly. "There is something else."
Omegas suddenly stopped what she was doing and turned towards him. Severus feared the nightmare of her violet eyes staring at him in disgust was coming true.
Instead, she huffed and slammed the beetles she had just removed from the jar onto the desk.
"Whatever," she muttered. "You're going to find out anyway. You always end up knowing everything. It's practically impossible to have secrets around you, you know that?"
He frowned in surprise. He was enormously pleased, but kept it to himself.
"So?" he prompted, regaining his usual manner.
She sighed and leaned forward. "I spoke to her, Severus," she whispered.
Increasingly confused, he narrowed his eyes and ran his gaze over her grave expression.
"You spoke to whom?"
"Nagini," she explained. "While I was in the Arch. That's why it took me so long."
Severus found back his scowl. "You risked dying of poisoning to stop and talk to a snake?"
"Yes," she replied calmly. "But that's not the point."
"Then what's the bloody point?" he snapped.
"The bloody point is that it's not a snake!" she shot back.
He raised an eyebrow. "Not a snake?" he sneered. "Interesting theory. Are you sure you observed it closely enough? Because when I had its teeth sunk into my neck, they looked very much like snake fangs to me. Of course, I may not be as much of an expert on the subject as you are…"
Omegas gave him a cold look, then she shook her head and let out a quiet laugh.
"Of course it's a snake. I mean, she hasn't always been one," she clarified. "She's a Maledictus.[1]"
Severus widened his eyes. He had never encountered a Maledictus in his life, or so he believed.
"Is she?" he asked breathlessly.
She nodded. "Nagini was a woman. She was born in the early 1900s and became what she is when she was about thirty. That's all I know."
She paused and fiddled with the beetle on the table.
"Sometimes she is lucid," she continued. "Not always… most of the time she doesn't remember, but… well, when she does, she… she doesn't know what she's done. Nagini, when she's herself, doesn't know who Riddle is. She doesn't know she's obeying him, she has no idea…"
She hesitated and turned back to him.
"She is innocent."
A fresh wave of anger rose in Severus. He remembered every agonising moment he had spent writhing in pain on the filthy floor of the Shrieking Shack.
"Innocent?" he hissed. "Do you have any idea—"
"Not the snake Nagini, the woman Nagini!" she cut him off. "The woman Nagini is innocent. The woman Nagini will die and nobody will care! Someone will celebrate when she is dead, more than just someone. Everyone will celebrate. Not one person will suffer!"
The lump in her throat was now clearly audible.
"It's not fair… it's not—" She slammed the beetle she was holding down on the desk, and it splattered. "When someone dies, at least one person should suffer. If no one is going to suffer for her, then I will."
Severus fell silent. The anger left him, and everything else surged with such force that it seemed impossible that his feelings weren't hovering around his face, obvious and glaring. He stared into her eyes for so long that breaking that contact physically hurt.
He swallowed quietly, kept his head bowed for a moment, then turned. He reached a bottle from the shelf behind him and placed it in her hands.
She frowned. "What is this?"
"Animagus Potion," he murmured. "I started it a while ago, in case your ritual didn't work. When given to a Maledictus, it should make them human again, for a while. Not for long, but… long enough."
"Long enough… for what?" she asked.
"For you to talk with her," Severus replied. "The woman Nagini. If you want."
Omegas parted her lips. She swallowed thickly, and for a brief moment Severus thought she was about to cry. She turned the bottle over in her hands and clutched it to her chest.
"Why?"
He miraculously managed to maintain his impassivity. "Isn't this what you want?" he asked.
"Yes," she replied. "But why?"
Severus didn't answer.
"I think they intend to kill her tomorrow," he said softly. "The Animagus Potion must be finished. It will take a few hours. I still have the venom, I can tell the Order that I need time to make it effective. I can tell them it has been out of the Basilisk's body too long and needs to be combined with other poisons to work best. Potter will believe it. He's never paid attention in a Potions lesson in his life."
"Would you… lie for me?" she breathed.
Severus turned back to her. Before his eyes, he saw a flashback of a teenager Omegas asking her Venoms professor that very question. He considered giving her the same answer he had given her. He thought of saying, 'No, I actually do need time to make it effective,' but he knew she wouldn't believe it. She knew poisons as well as he did. Better, perhaps, but that was something he wasn't ready to admit yet.
"Yes," he replied.
She kept her eyes locked with his and clutched the bottle to her chest with even more conviction.
"Thank you."
Severus nodded. "Tomorrow morning we'll finish the potion and tomorrow evening we'll go to the Room of Requirement. I'll get Draco to tell me the exact words they came up with to make the right room appear. I don't think he will suspect—"
"Thank you," she repeated.
He paused. They stared at each other so intensely that it eventually became awkward and vaguely painful.
Then Omegas found her usual nonchalant air, hugged the bottle one last time, and began to put away the ingredients she had taken out.
"Hungry?"
He furrowed his brow. "I thought you wanted to make more Anaesthetic Potion."
"More Anaesthetic Potion is not necessary," she remarked. "I am in the mood for dinner."
She looked at him and smiled gently.
Severus, absolutely certain that the decision he had just made was stupidly dangerous, senseless and potentially fatal, put his ingredients away and headed for the Great Hall by her side, telling himself that it had been the best decision of his life.
[1] In case you're not familiar with it, Nagini is revealed to be a Maledictus in the Fantastic Beasts saga. A Maledictus is a witch afflicted with a blood curse, passed from mother to daughter, that causes her to gradually and permanently transform into an animal.