Comforting and Healing Friends
He lay perfectly still as the wizard above him eyed him suspiciously before leaving the shack, closely followed by Nagini. He waited silently until he was sure there was nobody around before attempting to sit up. His head was throbbing and his whole body shook as he forced himself into a sitting position, leaning against the wall for support. He flinched as he felt the rough wooden wall touching his cut and sat forwards hastily to try and stop the pain. His wand lay broken on the floor and he was in no fit state to apparate, but even if he was able to he would have nowhere to go. His head was spinning and before he had time to steady himself he was knocked out cold on the floor of the shrieking shack.
The door of the Shrieking Shack was opened and a woman pulled herself through the small gap and into the room. She saw him laying there and carefully moved him into a more comfortable position. Then she set abut healing his cuts but after a few attempts he started to wake up.
He opened his eyes slowly and saw her sitting there with a wand pointed at him and immediately tried to back away, hitting his head sharply on the wall and crying out in pain. She moved round him to see what damage had been done and he immediately became much tenser as he could no longer see what she was doing.
She saw a lot of blood pouring out of the back of his head and decided she should try to stop it. She waved her wand and the bleeding slowly ceased. She could see that he was extremely tense and said "Are you okay?"
He jumped at the sound of her voice but quickly gathered his thoughts and quietly replied "Never better. What do you think?" his usual sharpness still present in his voice, even when in agony.
She noticed how sharp his voice was although he was clearly in a lot of pain. She carefully moved round him and asked "Any where more painful than the rest or should I just treat all of the cuts as I get to them?"
He was shocked at her level of co-operation, seeing as he had only ever been unkind to her. He replied "I don't need your help. I can mange fine by myself. I have done for years," as he struggled to stand up and attempt to regain authority over the female.
She also rose sharply and stood next to him. "Severus please let me help? You're clearly in a lot of pain and after everything you've done for Harry you certainly need someone to help you! Just this time?" She held his hand in hers and she saw some of the hard resolve that was always present whenever she looked at him disappear.
He felt all the feelings he had kept inside for years begin to resurface and he started shaking. She guided him over to the bed and sat him down on it. She then began to treat his wounds and he remembered all the times he had been nasty to her in the past. "Tonks..?" he asked quietly.
She looked up from what she was doing at the sound of his voice and noticed the tears welled up in his eyes. "Yes Severus?"
He was shaking harder now and was unable to control his tears any more. He started sobbing and he felt her arms go around him so he put his head on her shoulder and cried.
She held him close to her and stroked his back soothingly until his sobs turned to the occasional sniff and whispered "Everything'll be ok…"
He gently pushed her off of him and looked into her eyes and saw that she too was in pain. "Are you ok Tonks?" he asked her as she stroked a loose strand of hair out of his line of vision.
"I'm fine…" she replied immediately looking away before he used his legilemency to read her mind as she knew he would.
"Tonks if you're here for me I'm here for you. It works both ways. Is it something to do with Remus…?" he asked cautiously, knowing that she and Remus had been having several arguments recently.
She fell against Severus heavily and started crying at the sound of Remus's name. She felt Severus move her head slightly off his wound and she knew he was looking into her eyes, reading everything that had happened but she could look away. He had seen too much already…
He looked into Tonks's eyes and there were the thoughts that were causing her pain. He saw her telling Remus she was pregnant with Teddy and him shouting at her as if she meant nothing to him. He saw the night Remus went missing and how scared and alone she was. He saw the night Remus came home after being missing for weeks and the way he refused to hug her or kiss her. He saw the way he refused to tell her he loved her. And then he saw the worst part of all of it. He saw Remus being attacked by death eaters. He saw him being crucio'd until he was unable to move from the pain, then left to die. He saw Tonks being dragged away from Remus's limp body and heard her screams of protest as she was taken away from the man she loved.
She was crying harder than she'd ever cried before in her life. She was shaking violently and all Severus could do was hold her and do his best to calm her down. She felt his hand gently stroking her back but it made no difference anymore. She could feel nothing but pain.
He whispered "He'll be fine Tonks… Where did they leave him? Where was that place?" as he stroked her back and tried to calm her down.
She looked up at him and asked "Do you think you can apparate?"
"I think so…" he replied, "Why?"
She stood up and pulled him up with her, then held him tightly and apparated. They landed beside the body of her husband. She let go of Severus and knelt beside her husband.
"Remus?" he asked, kneeling beside her. Remus' eyes opened slightly, and then he groaned with the pain and shut them again. She looked relieved that Remus was alive and went to hug him but Severus stopped her. "You don't want to hurt him Tonks," he said before taking out his wand and carefully moving Remus into a more comfortable position. He then began healing him cut by cut, wound by wound, scar by scar until he was just as he had been before the death eaters' attack.
Remus slowly sat up and looked at his healed body. "Thank you Severus! I did not expect anyone to come back, let alone heal me." He then looked and Tonks and said, "I'm sorry for everything I've done to you Tonks. You really do deserve better!"
She glared at Remus before pushing him back onto the floor and kissing him. "I missed you Remus!" she cried, hugging him as tightly as she could.
Severus looked at the couple lying on the floor embracing one another and, as always, knew he didn't belong. He took one last glance at them before disapparating to a far off country where he would never see any of them again. He owed Tonks his life for saving him and he gave it to her through Remus. Everyone assumed he was dead and he was fine with that. All he had ever wanted was a quiet life; something he knew he would never get with constant reminders of Lily around him.