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Chapter Four: The Aftermath (Severus)
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“Madam Pomfrey?” asked Potter, announcing their presence as he opened the door to Hogwarts’ infirmary.
The school matron bustled into the infirmary from the back room. Recognizing Potter, she placed her hands on her hips and smiled.
"Oh, it's you, is it, Potter?” she asked, as she walked over to a cabinet and started to place some items out of it into a large bowl. “I suppose you've been doing something dangerous again?"
Potter sat down on the nearest bed and grinned at Pomfrey. Severus stepped inside as well, shooting a scowl at Potter.
“I see I have two patients,” she observed. “You hurt your leg?”
“Sprained ankle,” Severus responded.
She reached up and grabbed a bottle.
“Well, get your weight off of it, then!” she said tartly, waving him over to a nearby bed. “I’ll see to you in just a moment.”
“Here, drink this,” she added, handing him the bottle.
Severus lowered himself onto the edge of the indicated bed, and screwed off the top. He eyed it with professional interest and sniffed it experimentally. A mixed potion, for certain, he judged. The main ingredient was a painkilling potion, but something about the smell … he tested a drop of it and rolled it around on his tongue, indignation rising as he recognized the tang of a Calming Draught. He wasn’t going to drink that! He was angry, not overwrought!
His hands trembled as he set the opened bottle down on the table beside the bed. The look on Black’s face when they had met on the landing … a joke, that’s all it was to him. A funny prank. And what had Lily been doing there with Black, he wondered. More importantly, what lies had he told her? Severus imagined wrapping his hands around Black’s neck and banging his ahead against a wall until that false expression he had assumed for Lily’s benefit was wiped off his face.
Anyone would be angry, in his shoes, Severus thought hotly. Which reminded him … he reached down to remove his shoe and sock. As he sat back up, he raised his leg up onto the bed. Madam Pomfrey was just closing up the last of Potter’s gashes with her wand.
“That’s the last of them,” Madam Pomfrey commented. “How you manage to get into so many scrapes, I will never understand. But you’re all set now. You might just want to wipe your face and hands before you leave,” she finished, handing Potter the bowl, now filled with steaming water, and a cloth.
“Thank you,” Potter replied with a grin, hastily sponging dried blood and dirt off with the offered cloth before handing it back.
“Well, I’ll be off then,” he said with a wave as he left. Madam Pomfrey waved back to him before she Vanished the dirty water and approached Severus.
She picked up the ankle and examined it, prodding a few spots with her wand. Then she moved the foot back and forth.
“Quite right. Mr. Snape, isn’t it?” she remarked. “It is a sprain. As you’d the wit to diagnose the injury yourself, I wonder that you nonetheless found it necessary to run as far as Hogsmeade and back on it before coming to me.”
He found himself unwillingly impressed with her professional competence, despite her fawning over Potter. That was rather precisely what he had done, but he did not feel like explaining the necessity of his actions to her. He’d save it for the Headmaster.
“I’ll fix this in a trice,” she said briskly. Her eye fell on the bottle, barely touched, on the table. “But you’ll want to drink up, first.”
“I don’t need a Calming Draught,” he stated indignantly.
“I see,” she said, giving him a long, hard look. “Suit yourself.”
Severus took a deep breath. After she was done, he would be leaving to state his case in front of the Headmaster. He had the facts on his side … but still, it could not hurt to state his case logically and calmly.
Madam Pomfrey grasped the ankle more firmly. “Hold still, now.”
He braced himself as she waved her wand and for a moment Severus’s ankle felt as though it were on fire. He bit back a cry, and then gasped with shock, as it seemed his ankle was being doused in ice water. As she released his foot, he wiggled it around. It seemed back to normal.
“Well, it’s healed now,” she said with a smile.
The door opened, and Professor Slughorn stepped in. His substantial belly was wrapped in a green velvet dressing gown with silver fastenings, and a matching nightcap was perched on his head.
“Wonderful, Poppy!” he said with a smile. “I see you have put my student back to rights.”
“Good evening, Professor,” the matron responded politely, as she refilled the basin for Severus. He sponged off his hands and face and put on his sock and shoe.
“Thank you, Madam Pomfrey,” Severus said as he rose from the bed. Slughorn hooked an arm around his and started to steer him out the door.
“Excellent work, Poppy. Boys will be boys, and Hogwarts is fortunate to have you to fix ‘em up after, eh?” Professor Slughorn commented, before the door shut behind him. Severus reminded himself of his recent resolve. Calm.
“Minerva came by to tell me we’re wanted at Professor Dumbledore’s office, and fill me in,” he said, guiding Severus down the hallway. It struck Severus suddenly how much taller he had grown than his Head of House. Somehow, he had never noticed it before, as he only ever saw the man while sitting in Potions class.
“Severus, Severus,” Slughorn said with a theatrical sigh, “Merlin knows you are a clever student, you even give Miss Evans a run for her money in Potions.”
“But let me give you a valuable piece of advice, my boy,” Slughorn continued. “In life, what matters is not so much what you know, but whom you know.”
Severus walked along with his Head of House in silence. He had no idea why the man had picked this of all times to lavish what seemed to be career advice on him. He wished Slughorn would just shut up, but could not say so.
“It seemed to me at first that you understood this,” Slughorn continued after a bit. “Raised among Muggles, yet you were sorted into my House, Slytherin. As a first year, you did well enough, associating yourself with some older, better connected students.”
A flash of memory rose up at those words. Bellatrix Black, laughing, amused by the effects of one of his spells on one of her followers. For a moment there, on the stairs, Black had seemed his cousin’s spitting image.
“However, this business with Sirius Black …” Slughorn shook his head.
Severus was thrown by the way his thoughts had seemed to be anticipated.
“Such a talented boy, also, just like you. Minerva raves about him, you know. And from one of the best pureblood families, too. I know you’ve had your differences in the past, but in your NEWT years, you’re taking all the same classes. It would really make sense for you to bury the hatchet. I don’t understand …”
Slughorn stopped abruptly in front of a large gargoyle statue that decorated a stretch of wall in the corridor. Severus took the opportunity to jerk his arm free.
“Black tried to kill me, sir,” he said, furious. “Why don’t you save your peacemaking for him?”
“Licorice Snap!” Slughorn said. Severus started as the enormous statue suddenly moved out of the way, revealing a spiral staircase that rotated upwards like an escalator.
“My dear boy,” Slughorn said placatingly, “I am merely trying to point out the advantages to you of such a course of action.”
“Well, I have news for you. If what it takes to succeed is to grovel for the likes of Black, I would rather starve. Or ” or live as a Muggle,” Severus spat out. “You can take your pureblood families, and your best class of people, and ””
“There is a lady present, Mr. Snape,” said a dry voice above him. Severus spun around, to find the Headmaster, his face grave, descending the stairs, which were now moving downward, together with Lily. He snapped his mouth shut.
Lily was trying not to laugh; he could see the twinkle in her green eyes and the dimple that formed in her right cheek when she was amused. However, she kept quiet, as her eyes went from Slughorn to Severus and back.
“And that is no way to speak to your Head of House,” Dumbledore added with a hint of a smile. Lily threw Severus a challenging glance.
“Yes, Headmaster. I apologize,” Severus forced out for her benefit.
“Well, Miss Evans, I thank you for your assistance this evening. I trust that you will keep the night’s events to yourself,” Dumbledore said, as he and Lily reached the corridor.
“Yes, Professor Dumbledore,” Lily agreed earnestly.
As Severus and Slughorn stepped out of the way to let her pass, Potter and Black arrived. Potter leered at Lily as she turned to go. Severus itched to hex Potter where he stood, but was delighted when Lily spun to face him.
"How dare you?" she exclaimed. "You miserable worm, after whatever it was you did tonight, how can you actually have the nerve to stand there and ”" she stopped and took a deep breath. "Why? Why can't you just grow up and leave him alone?"
"If I may?" said Dumbledore.
"Sorry, Professor," said Lily hastily.
"Quite alright," said Dumbledore courteously. "I just wanted to mention that, if my suspicions are correct, Mr. Potter is actually responsible for saving Mr. Snape's life tonight."
Severus bit back a protest. Calm, he reminded himself. He had not yet had his opportunity to speak with Dumbledore.
Lily stood frozen for a moment, staring at Potter, absorbing what the Headmaster had told her. Then her cheeks reddened in embarrassment.
“Oh,” she breathed. For a moment, she looked Potter straight in the eyes, then looked away in confusion. “I’m sorry,” she said with a smile that lit up her face. She had never looked so beautiful, Severus thought, as she walked off towards Gryffindor Tower. Severus watched her retreating form with a sinking feeling, until she disappeared around the corner.
"… after I have had a chance to speak with these young gentlemen," Dumbledore was saying to Slughorn.
“Good night, Albus,” Slughorn responded, and headed off towards his quarters. As Dumbledore stepped onto a stair, the entire staircase again began to rotate upwards. Potter and Black followed him. Taking a calming breath, Severus, too, stepped carefully onto a stair as it rose out of the floor.
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A/N--As always, feedback is much appreciated! :D