Chapter 2 – Once Bitten, Twice Shy
What had previously been a quiet evening was interrupted by someone pounding at the door. Taking her wand, Aisling Weston held it in front of her and peered through the small window to see who her visitor was. To her surprise, it was Severus Snape.
“Open the door! I need help!” Snape raised his voice, he sounded weary and afraid.
Aisling unsealed the magical locks she had placed on the door and opened it, stepping back. She was surprised to see Snape half carrying someone as he passed the threshold.
“Quickly, he’s been bitten,” Snape said to the girl as he helped the still unconscious Draco onto the sofa. “Where’s your sister?”
“Shauna is at the coast. She’s been visiting a Muggle relative. She’s due to arrive tonight or tomorrow, depending on traveling conditions.” Aisling looked at the boy lying on the couch. He couldn’t be much older than she was. “Bitten by what?”
Snape swore softly. Shauna was the healer. Aisling, although a capable witch for her age, was only in training. “I need to be healed also. You will have to help me.”
Aisling glared at Snape. Her older sister, Shauna trusted him. And Dumbledore trusted him. That didn’t do much to sway Aisling, she still didn’t trust him. Once a Death Eater always a Death Eater. Weren’t Slytherins known for their cunning? Well, she’d heard anyway. She had never attended Hogwarts, having been privately tutored by her mother then sister. Sighing resolutely she asked again, “Bitten by what?” She couldn’t help if she didn’t know. Snape was here and he wasn’t leaving until he got assistance. She might as well get it over and done with.
“A vampire,” Snape said as he sank into an arm chair. The events of the last few hours would tax any man, and right now he just needed to catch his breath.
Aisling, who had been looking over the boy on the sofa stopped and took a huge step back. “A vampire? Did he- did he drink?” She lowered her voice at the last word. She looked at the boy again. He looked familiar. His white blonde hair hung down into his eyes and she restrained herself from gently sweeping it off his forehead. Where had she seen him before?
“No, he didn’t. And the vampire was destroyed.” Snape watched the girl. Not as efficient as her sister and not as pretty but she was attractive in her own way. Long brown wavy hair and hazel colored eyes. What would Lucius say if he knew that this half-blood was treating his son? Especially this particular one.
Aisling felt the boy’s forehead. His cheeks were flushed and his skin scorching to the touch. Turning his head gently, she looked at the bite. The two puncture wounds gaped at her and the flesh around them was an angry red. “Infection is setting in.” She had to work quickly. Even if she could help him, his pulse was very weak. He would be unconscious for days. “I know who he is,” she said as recognition slammed into her. “He’s the Malfoy boy.” She had seen him and his parents in Diagon Alley quite a few times. “My sister said he’s been trying to harm Dumbledore all year!”
Snape arched his brows at her. “How does she know what is going on at Hogwarts?” And why would she tell her younger sister? Snape thought.
Aisling sniffed haughtily, “My sister still speaks to Dumbledore. She is still his confidante.” Aisling’s mother, Miranda Weston, had been in the original Order of the Phoenix. She had been a very powerful witch until her death four years ago. As per Miranda’s request, Dumbledore looked over Shauna and Aisling, acting as a pseudo-godfather.
Silently, Aisling continued to tend to her patient. She unbuttoned his robes and tried to remove his arm from the sleeve. That was when she saw it. “The Dark Mark,” she said in a dry whisper. She dropped his arm as if it had scalded her. She whirled on Snape, turning her fury at him. “He’s a Death Eater and you brought him here!”
“He needed help,” Snape began to tell her.
“No! I will not have a Death Eater in my home! It’s bad enough you are here!” Aisling glared at Snape. She hated having to deal with this particular Death Eater. Now she was supposed to run a healing ward for them? “I’m contacting Dumbledore, this is too much! I don’t want any Death Eater, especially him,” she glared at Malfoy, “in my home!”
“You can’t,” Snape said softly.
“You bet I can! Even Dumbledore will understand why I don’t want a Malfoy in my house.” Aisling glared daggers at Snape.
Snape stood up. “You can’t contact Dumbledore because he…” Snape cleared his throat. “because Dumbledore is dead.”
That caused Aisling to pause. “He’s what? No, that can’t be. Dumbledore is the greatest wizard ever born. He can’t… you’re lying!” Aisling looked over at Draco. “It was him wasn’t it? But how? His pathetic attempts couldn’t have worked. Not against Dumbledore!”
“No, it wasn’t really him.” After all, Snape thought, Draco did allow the Death Eaters into the castle. He had some blame in this. “He didn’t do it.”
“Then who?” Aisling looked over at Snape, daring him to lie.
“Me,” Snape said simply.
Aisling stood up and took a step backward, bumping into a table and knocking over some knickknacks. “You?” Her voice was barely a whisper. Then it dawned on her. “The Unbreakable Vow.”
Snape was again surprised to learn just how much someone else knew about his affairs. “Yes, I had to. Dumbledore knew the time might come.” Snape collapsed back into the chair he had been sitting in. “I didn’t want to, but I had to.”
Aisling stood there, staring at him. Dumbledore was dead. She couldn’t believe it.
Then Snape said something he rarely did, “Please.” His voice was weak and low. “I still have much to do and I can’t explain everything right now.” He saw the hesitation in her eyes. “And if you expect me to keep your sister safe, you will help me.”
“My sister?” Aisling asked, skeptical.
Snape nodded. “Your sister. As you said, she’s not here now is she? Therefore, she does not have the protection, the securities that this house can offer.”
“But—”
“The Dark Lord and his followers know Draco and I were in the area. The Mark serves not only as a means to distinguish other followers, but also as a sort of homing beacon. Death Eaters will be here in full force soon, searching for us,” Snape said loudly, cutting in to her objections. ”The house may be Unplottable, but that will not stop them searching the vicinity. I don’t think you want Death Eaters to come across your sister as she is on her way home.”
Aisling paled. “No, I don’t!” she replied vehemently. She looked at Draco on the sofa. “Why did you have to bring him here?” She sounded plaintive and just a tad whiney.
Snape stayed silent for a moment, thinking about his next words. “Dumbledore knew the moment might come that I would have to act against him. We discussed this many times. Believe me or not, I did not want to hurt him.” Snape saw the look of blatant disbelief on Aisling’s face. “Dumbledore held out hope that when the time came he could convince Draco to join our side. If Draco could have been persuaded, Dumbledore wanted to bring him here.”
“Why here? My mother was in the Order years ago, but she’s dead. My sister and I have nothing to do with this,” Aisling told him.
“That is precisely the reason,” Snape informed her. “No Death Eater would look for Draco here; they wouldn’t think about the Weston sisters. The house is Unplottable so they wouldn’t even know it exists.”
“If Shauna were here she wouldn’t agree to letting him stay,” Aisling contended, “no matter what Dumbledore would have wanted.” Surely Shauna would see the folly in allowing this boy, this wanted Death Eater, to stay here, Aisling thought to herself.
“She already did.” Snape pulled a letter out of a pocket in his cloak. “This is a letter from your sister to Dumbledore, and in it she has agreed to hide Draco here when the time came.” He handed Aisling the parchment. “Surely you recognize your sister’s hand?” Dumbledore had given Snape the letter for just this purpose.
Aisling read the letter. According to this, her sister had indeed agreed to house Draco Malfoy. Why, Shauna, why? At that moment Draco moaned softly from the couch. Aisling looked at him, sighing resolutely. “Then I suppose I have no choice.” She turned to her herbs and potions. “Where would you take her,” Aisling spoke, ignoring Snape. She busied herself measuring ingredients to tend to her two new patients. She knew the Death Eaters wouldn’t find her home, after all her mother herself had been the one to place the Unplottable spell on the house. But Snape was right, her sister didn’t have the current protection being in the house would offer.
“Somewhere safe.” Severus spared her a glance. “I will make sure she gets home safely, when the time is right.”
Aisling bit her lip. “And him?” She jerked her head toward the prone Draco.
“He will have to stay here with you.” Snape was too tired for all of this right now. He had things to do if this girl would only help him. “Give me that,” he said as he stood and managed to walk over to her. “You tend to Draco, I’ll make my potions.” Aisling glared at him and he replied, “I still am a Potions Master.”
“You cannot think to leave me here with him, alone.” Aisling reluctantly walked over to Draco and began ministering to him. “He’s not only a Death Eater, but a Malfoy!” Even Snape knew what that signified.
“He won’t harm you.” Snape ignored the last part of her comment.
Aisling bit her lip. She had been raised to detest the Malfoys. She could laugh at the situation. Her, tending to the son of the man who possibly may have murdered her Muggle father. She could laugh, if it wasn’t so distressing. That was why she couldn’t understand her sister’s readiness to allow him into their home.
Roughly an hour later, Snape had finished his potion and Aisling had just finished tending to Draco by applying the plaster to his neck to cover his wounds. He had opened his eyes several times, their molten silver pools not really seeing anything, but sparkling with intense fever. The potion Aisling had made and given to him had lowered his fever and he was now sleeping soundly.
Aisling looked at Snape apprehensively, hoping he would take the deeply sleeping boy with him. “Severus—”
Snape laughed harshly. “You must really want me to take him if you’re calling me by my first name.” He shook his head. “Even you can see that I cannot take an unconscious person with me. I have much to do. I’ll come back for him as soon as I can.” Snape took a deep breath. “In the meantime, be careful.”
Aisling watched him walk over to the door. “Tell my sister to be careful.” She eyed Snape. He knew she didn’t trust him, not that Aisling cared.
Snape arched a brow and didn’t say a word. Aisling shut the door behind him and watched through the window while he walked into the middle of the lane, turned toward her, and Disapparated.
Turning back to her unconscious charge, Aisling gritted her teeth. Whatever amount of time he stays there will be too long, she thought. Merlin, what am I going to do? What can I do, other than help him? Waving her wand she levitated his body up the stairs and into a spare bedroom. After making sure Draco was resting comfortably, she took his wand with her. Only then did she feel safe for the first time since Snape had walked into the house.
Just Breathe by hiversgrrl
Chapter Notes: Thanks again to my beta Bewitcher_SR :)