In the Great Hall Severus almost started walking towards the head table, and it was only a curious frown from one of the other Gryffindor students, the infernal Longbottom, that stopped him. The former Potions Master slunk back to the table embarrassed and had to remind himself to try and be like the boy. He bit into his toast reluctantly. Harry wasn’t at the head table yet, for some reason Severus felt a grim sense of satisfaction at this. At least Potter was doing as he was told.
Minutes passed and Snape listened in to the conversations around him. They were so puerile, so ridiculous. Not that most of the staff was any better, always wanting to discuss the most mundane things, but Severus’s level of agitation was intensified by the constant inane banter.
“You finished, Harry?”
“Uhhh, yeah.”
“Great, let’s get going then,” Weasley said whilst standing up. As they left Hogwarts, Severus saw Harry walk into the Great Hall. He already looked exhausted. Severus followed Ron mutely. He was trying to think of things to say to the other boy so that he wouldn’t notice he was inordinately quiet. Ron hadn’t appeared to notice anything out of the norm, however. They walked to the Quidditch Pitch, Severus doing his best to pay attention to the constant ramblings of Weasley. A dreaded Chudley Cannons supporter, didn’t the boy know that team was useless? It was the Wimbourne Wasps all the way.
“I don’t have my Broom!” Severus suddenly said, as not only did he remember that Potter’s flying device was still safe and sound in the Dormitory, but painful memories of flying came back to haunt him. He had never been especially good. In fact, he had always been rather terrible. The other students had laughed uproariously at his inadequecy during their first lesson few flying lessons. Black had never stopped tormenting him over it.
“That’s okay Harry, you can fly on one of the school ones,” Ron replied with a skeptical look, “I mean, you usually do when we’re just practicing. You did say you didn’t want to have a similar accident as the one you had with your Firebolt.”
Severus blushed slightly and murmured, “Yeah, but… I really wanted to go fast, you know, the school brooms fly like, uhhh, snails.”
“Yeah, but it’s just practice!” Ron rejoindered. They were at the pitch.
Ron went into the changing rooms and retrieved two of the school brooms. Severus simply stared. He hadn’t been on a broom for years, and he really didn’t want to start now. Ron got on his broom and Severus followed suit. The broom was unsteady in his hands, lifting off from the ground he felt all his courage waning. He seriously did not want to fly at this exact moment in time. As he rose higher into the air, he tried to calm his breathing.
He moved forward in the air, trying to keep steady and balanced, and attempting to go faster than the slow pace he was going now. He felt sure that if he could only go faster he would find balacing easier. He pushed forward, urging the broom to pick up speed. He started to go faster, eventually, but flying wasn’t easier at all. He dipped and swerved, did a loop-de-loop, and started veering off to the ground at an alarming rate.
As he did so, Ron called out, “Are you okay, mate?”
“I’m fine!” Severus called back, his voice treacherously belying his absolute terror. Any second he was going to fall off, he could feel it. “Actually, you know what? I’m not feeling well. I think it may be, uhhh, food…” suddenly he fell off the broom, as predicted, spiralling down to the grass beneath him. He landed in a slump. He was half-lying, half-sitting up. He groaned in pain.
“HARRY!” Ron called, worried. He flew down to the ground besides Severus. “Harry, Harry, are you alright?”
Severus looked up into the redhead’s eyes disoriented before bowing over and vomiting all over the other boy’s robes.
***********
Snape stared up at the white ceiling. He had no idea where he was.
“Madam Pomfrey, he’s awake!” a voice yelled to his side.
“Where am I?” he managed to choke out. The taste of bile was present. His tongue was large in his mouth and had the sensation of having been trodden on by a dozen dirty caterpillars. His head felt like it had been used as a target of charms practice for first years. His whole body ached, in fact. The memory of falling off the broom and being sick all over Weasley came back in swirling, glittering colour. The last part held a strange sense of humilation and satisfaction. Severus sat up in bed. His arm twinged with acute pain, worse than the rest of his body. “What’s happened to my arm?”
“You’ve just broken it dear, easily fixed. Lie back down.” Snape scowled. He didn’t want to lie back down. “I’m more worried about this seeming threat of food poisoning,” Pomfrey continued, “broken bones are simple to mend, but stomach upsets are much more difficult!”
“Don’t worry, Harry. You’ll be alright. You’ve battled worse things than a hurt tummy!” said the Granger girl, who Severus hadn’t noticed was standing next to the bed before.
“Yeah, Harry. You’ll be fine. You really had me worried there for a minute, though!” Weasley said. He was wearing a fresh set of clothes but still looked somewhat discomforted.
“Now you know he’s okay you two better get going!” Madam Pomfrey said shooing them away. Snape inwardly smiled. He wouldn’t need to attempt light-hearted banter when all he really wanted to do was rest. The two children left with little complaint, and Severus rested back amongst the sheets.
He had managed to doze off into a day dream about brewing the perfect pot of tea when he felt something touch his hand. Not wanting to open his eyes he pretended he couldn’t feel anything. Something stroked his hand once more, it felt like another hand.
“Poppy?” he asked quietly, wondering if perhaps the Healer knew about the body swap. She had been eyeing him strangely ever since Christmas and had wanted to dance at Easter. Now that he was vulnerable and alone in the Hospital Wing maybe she had decided to make her move? He didn’t like the idea one bit and would have to have a long conversation with her about why it just couldn’t work out. They were colleagues. They depended upon each other to function within the school. They couldn’t just have an illicit affair, what would the others think? Yes, that would work better than telling her she was a dumpy old windbag.
“Who’s Poppy?” a female teenager’s voice asked. He could take it no longer, Snape opened his eyes slowly to see Cho Chang, Ravenclaw, sitting on the bed stroking his hand.
“Uhhh, Cho! What are you doing here?” Severus asked. He tried to pull his hand away but unfortunately she had now enclasped it in her own.
“I heard about your fall and came to see if you were alright,” the girl practically purred.
“I’m fine. Now leave!” Severus said, panicking.
“Harry, why are you acting so strangely around me? Is it because you’re scared?” the girl asked, moving closer.
“Terrified, now go, before Madam Pomfrey finds you,” Snape replied, trying to keep his voice as even as possible. This new voice had a horrible way of going high and raspy at the most annoying of times.
“I’ll only go if you promise to still come out with me tomorrow night!” Cho said, smiling mischievously.
“I’m not well! I have a broken arm!” Severus said, astounded. What did the Potter boy have that made a girl go this nuts over him? In all his time at Hogwarts not one girl had ever been this persistent.
“You’ll be fine by tomorrow, as you well know. Come on Harry, a picnic, like we agreed. Down by the lake,” the girl said. Severus thought he could hear noise coming from the infirmary office. He imagined the scene now. Perhaps the girl would just get told off, or maybe something else would happen. Maybe Pomfrey would ask the girl to help, he had seen her do things like that before. The last thing he wanted was to try and spend an afternoon talking to someone he hardly knew, so of course, the best thing to do would be to use a delay tactic.
“Alright, alright” he hissed, “go now, please?”
“See you tomorrow, Harry” Cho said with a parting smile before turning away. Severus sighed with relief. Before he could close his eyes again and examine just how much trouble he was in, however, the girl came back. She leant over and kissed him on the cheek. “This is to remember me with” she said before turning around once more and departing.
“I won’t have any trouble doing that,” Severus thought.