Compulsion

The dream started like many she had after the diary incident. She felt cold, alone and frozen like stone. The image was dark and only red eyes were visible in front of her. She could hear movement like a snake scraping across the stones. Suddenly she was looking through the red eyes, watching as her own life was taken by the killing curse. Her heart was racing but she couldn't wake. She could feel the body she was in moving towards her own body, a sword in hand before it slashed down, and through her neck. The body she was in, moved forward even more, touching her severed neck before bringing the bloody fingers to it's mouth. She could taste the coppery blood.

Ginny sat upright with a gasp. She quickly touched her neck and sighed in relief before grabbing her journal and with a shaky hand, she wrote down what she could remember.

***

Snape had noticed that Ginny was sullen and despondent all morning. She had barely made it through her training kata, looking for all the world like she was about to fall asleep where she stood. Buffy had noticed as well and she looked towards Snape as if asking if he was going to do something about it. He nodded once in response and followed Ginny as soon as Buffy had dismissed the girl from training.

“Ginny,” he called as she headed to her room. She paused and waited for him to catch up. He rushed forward and placed his hand on her shoulder. He was surprised to fell her shivering.

“Are you unwell?” he asked softly as they continued to her room. She shook her head and found her journal. She opened it to the right page and then handed it silently over to him. He skimmed it, his face paling as he read. He reread the date at the top of the page and then flicked it forward a couple of pages, the same dream was on each page.

“Why have you not come to see me?” he pried gently.

“I... I don't know,” she whispered. “Something was telling me not to.”

“Like Riddle's Diary?” he asked trying to work out what was happening.

“Exactly like that,” she replied. “I knew I should tell someone, that's why I wrote it down but every time I went to approach you or Buffy... even Faith, I just stumbled over my words and asked for more training in something.”

“And today?” he asked.

“Why do you think I didn't say anything as I handed it to you? I figured if I tried to say something it would stop me. I think I'm able to talk about it now because you know the truth.”

“Do you want to test this theory?” Snape queried.

“How could I do that?” she replied anxiously.

“I'll ask Buffy here,” he explained. “Faith and Giles too, I won't say what is happening, I'll leave that for you to try to explain. And if it stops you from explaining, well I'm here to fill them in.”

***

Before long, Buffy, Faith and Giles were waiting in her room to explain what was going on. Snape had told them they were trying an experiment but hadn't said more than that except he would explain once the experiment was through.

“I've been dreaming,” Ginny started and Snape felt relief that the compulsion was broken, until she continued. “Dreaming of learning how to do the spin kick you used Buffy against Faith in one of your sparring sessions. Could you teach me?”

The three looked confused as Ginny groaned and wildly looked at Snape. He pulled her into a hug while he explained about her dreams and the compulsion she was feeling.

“We had hoped that now one person knew, she could speak to you about it. Unfortunately, whoever cast this spell on Ginny was very strong.”

“Ginny, I know this may be hard for you to answer but I need to ask this,” Giles began. “Has there been any other times you have felt this way since Voldemort found out about you being a Slayer?”

“I don't think so,” Ginny said after a moment. “And it doesn't feel like I'm being forced to say something different like it did with the dream.”

“Severus, do you know of any spells that would show if a spell was currently in place on a person?” Giles asked, quickly crossing off the spells he knew and mentally calling for Willow.

“I believe I do,” Snape replied while thinking. It was a little used spell but he knew of it because of how many times James Potter had tried to catch him unaware.

“Ostendo sum incompertus,” he cast as he swished his wand in front of Ginny. She glowed a pale red. He followed that quickly. “Perago coactum.”

“And for those of us who don't speak weirdo?” Faith asked.

“Faith, that was Latin,” Giles admonished.

“Yeah, still sounds weird to me no matter what you call it, right B?” Faith shot back.

“Hell yeah,” Buffy agreed.

“I asked for the spell to reveal the unknown to me, it showed as the pale red. I then told it to finish the compulsion, to literally complete the force,” Snape explained more for Ginny's knowledge than Faith or Buffy's.

When Willow arrived moments later, Ginny was learning the spell enunciation for herself. Giles filled Willow in on what was happening and Willow offered to check Ginny again, but this time for Wiccan magic.

Ginny quickly agreed and suddenly she was enveloped in a warm sensation. She could see Willow's hair blowing around although there was no wind. She could feel a light touch moving across her body before the warmth faded away.

“It looks like whatever was cast on Ginny was fixed by Snape's spell earlier,” Willow confirmed with a smile. “However... compulsion is easy to be cast back on someone its been cast on before. I'm going to talk to the coven to see if we can come up with a way to ensure this doesn't happen again. But in the meantime, I think Snape should check in a couple of days time to make sure it's not back again before we come up with a solution.”

“I agree,” Snape said quickly. He looked at Ginny who nodded her agreement too.

As the others were leaving, Buffy rested her hand on Ginny's shoulder for a moment.

“Did you still wanna learn the spin kick?” she asked with a smile.