The Gift

Summary: In which Demetrios gives Severus something he didn't know he wanted. Of course, he's oblivious. Mostly.

A/N: In honor of Ana's birthday, words. (Sorry it's been so long - in addition to teaching full time, I'm now in school as well. I miss you!)

~ Ari

Severus, in the present:

Severus heard a plaintive "Meee" from the kitchen and, leaving the wardrobe fully expanded, joined the kitten by the table.

The cereal had moved.

"PRFSSR?" it read.

"SRY 4 BUBBLZ."

... excepting, of course, that he was her professor, and she was his fourteen-year-old student.

-----

"Meee?"

"Forty-seven... forty-eight..." Without pausing in his brewing, Severus glanced at the table, where the kitten had been amusing herself for the last hour alternately washing her ears and batting the damnably uncommunicative cereal about with her paw.

She was sitting, her paw arrested in mid-air, staring at him.

"What now?" he muttered, completing the fiftieth spiral stir this phase of the potion required. He removed the stirring rod, careful to disturb the liquid as little as possible, and wiped it on a clean tea towel.

"Meee!" she announced, hopping lightly off the table to twine once around his ankles before trotting into the living room.

Making a mental note to check the potion just before sunrise, he followed, wiping his fingertips lightly on the towel.

Mimi had leapt up to Hermione's chest and was peering at her face curiously. "Meee? Meee?!"

Severus dropped to one knee by the lounge. "What did you see, little one?"

Mimi stared at him imploringly, then went back to her inspection of Hermione's eyebrows.

As Severus watched, a shallow, almost imperceptible furrow appeared between them. He had barely time to wonder if he were seeing things when the memory of her Summoning the Veritaserum off his shelves, of damn near knocking him over with the strength of her Shield Charm, hit him full force.

Automatically cautioning his younger self to hold steady, not to show that the strength of her Charm had him off-balance, he reached for the armchair as more memories exploded into his mind. He'd thought her possessed by the Dark Lord. Watched, dumbfounded as she drank the Veritaserum. Wondered what she might be, this creature who could hold a Shield against him, bandying words as well as... no, better than Dumbledore.

In her flat in London, seeing in his mind the raw force of her personality blaze in her eyes behind the rippling, luminous Shield, his chest tightened as his desire rekindled.

"What are you?" he remembered asking, and he closed his eyes.

"Your student, you fool," he muttered.

Mimi turned and regarded him with questioning eyes.

He raked through the onrushing memories of the subsequent interrogation, hearing her past answers in full, uncensored by history, able to judge what his past self heard only from the content of his subsequent questions.

Frowning, he puzzled through their conversation, his chest constricting when she dared utter things no student should say and no teacher dare hear, relaxing only slightly when he remembered contacting Demetrios through the Floo.

As if on cue, Hermione's fireplace flashed green.

"Potions Master?"

"What's left of him," Severus confirmed, not moving from the armchair.

"Quite, quite..." Demetrios said airily. "Tell me..."

"Anything," Severus muttered darkly.

"Oh, my boy, I can't begin to imagine –"

"You most certainly cannot."

The flames flickered, startled, and Severus was just quick enough to intercept Mimi as she skittered toward the fire.

"Meee!" she protested, clawing his arm.

"Cat, for reasons I cannot fathom, I would prefer that you not disappear into that ark of antiquities."

The flames flickered patiently.

"Well?" he shot toward the Floo.

Demetrios responded amiably, "My memories of our conversation interrupted a most pleasant concern just now – I assume your memories arrived as well?"

"They did," Severus said shortly.

"I confess to curiosity."

Severus snorted, and Mimi twisted in his arms to sniff his nose.

"Ridiculous cat. Try, Librarian, to contain yourself lest my familiar injure herself in the flames."

Laughter from the Floo, but the flames stayed still.

"Meee," Mimi lamented, butting Severus's cheek.

Severus ignored her. "I believe you were curious..."

"Quite, quite, my boy. More than that; astonished, really, that your even younger self heard her mention... well, surely she must have inquired as to your knowledge of my little owl?"

Wincing at "even younger," Severus nodded.

"And you heard her."

"Obviously."

"Intriguing... oh, my, yes, how intriguing, how memories multiply... I've never been on this end before... hmmm..." Demetrios's voice trailed away.

Severus tapped his boot audibly, only to cause a burst of laughter from the still-quiescent flames.

Mimi butted his cheek again, and he rubbed his fingers into her fur to quiet her.

A loud purr filled his ear, and the corner of his mouth twitched.

Demetrios continued, "I rather imagine she's been asking you about my owl for days now, from her perspective."

"So why should I hear her then, at that moment?"

"Isn't it obvious? You were finally willing to hear her... hm, well... perhaps not her, precisely..."

Severus swallowed at the word "willing," but, hearing a frown in the librarian's voice, remained silent.

"No... not 'her'... not quite yet, I think... but you were perhaps more, hm, open."

"Open," Severus repeated.

"Yes. As it is unlikely that you were ready to hear her, you must have been open to – more to say, in need of the truth."

"The truth," Severus said, a low snarl growing in his throat.

At the sound, Mimi twisted out of his grasp and leaped to the floor.

"Potions Master?" the flames inquired softly.

"Truth," Severus said again. "What truth could I have ever 'needed' from a student?"

"She's not a student, Severus," Demetrios said quietly.

"I know that," Severus spat. "But my former self doesn't."

"Not quite yet, perhaps... but you will. It's probably inevitable; oh, my word, yes, unless..."

Severus exploded. "Merlin help me if Dumbledore discovers–"

Demetrios's tone was uncharacteristically harsh. "Yes, well, he's proven himself adequately blind by now, hasn't he? Had proven, that is, by then. Oh, my, how limiting language can be.... Regardless, she cannot change history, and your losing place at Hogwarts...."

Severus made a strangling noise. "How are you in a position to judge Dumbledore's blindness?"

"I can read, my boy, even if contemporary accounts are somewhat more... well... more epic than can possibly be accurate. I have seen history sift itself out from written record once or twice in my time. I have a first-row seat; season tickets, as it were. And... well, I have of course had my little owl at my disposal until very, very recently," Demetrios finished gently.

"You've been there – Hogwarts – before now?"

"Many times, my dear boy. Many times. It was for many years the... how does the current expression go? Ah, yes. 'The biggest game in town.'"

Severus said nothing.

"Albus Dumbledore was an Olympic-class liar – the best only ever omit, as you well know. And as for his nemesis..." Demetrios swore softly in Ancient Greek, and Severus's eyebrow lifted. "Well, you out-classed them both, didn't you? Albus by only a hair, perhaps, if that much... but thus you, Potions Master, lived for many years more profoundly, more devoutly in need of Truth – her truth, I now perceive – than anyone in history. And believe me, my boy. When it comes to history," the flames breathed, "I would know."

In the silence that followed Demetrios's outburst, Severus stood, unmoving, before the fire, invisible nostrils flaring.

"So you see," Demetrios continued after several moments had passed, "you have nothing to fear."

Severus coughed.

"Really, Potions Master. Whatever you begin to perceive through your acquaintance with our good Doctor, however you begin to perceive her – my boy, you were human, swathed as you were in impenetrable black - you cannot lose your place at Hogwarts because you didn't. History required that much of you. But your heart?"

"My heart was beside the point."

"So you say. It is assuredly none of my business."

"It seems to be the only thing that bloody well isn't your business."

Demetrios sniffed. "I am capable of discretion."

Severus didn't bother to hide his disbelieving laugh.

The flames sparkled at him.

"Spare me your sparkling, dead man."

"As one to another," Demetrios agreed placidly. "Regardless, rest assured – however champion an omitter Albus Dumbledore may have been, he was never a match for Athena."

"Merlin help me."

"Nor him."

"Meee?" Mimi yowled from the kitchen, and Severus heard the tell-tale scratching noise that indicated that his long-ago detention must be over.