Chapter 2 – The Hospital Wing
Severus felt the sensation that he was moving, however, trying to open his eyes was more painful than at first he thought it would be. Instead he decided to listen as opening his eyes was not an option.
"Bloody hell, he weighs a ton, why did we get landed with this job?" he heard the Death Eater holding his head say.
"It's because we're new and probably expendable," replied the other one, obviously lifting him by his feet. Severus was slightly amused by this. He was amused because the Death Eater who was holding him by his feet sounded more intelligent however, they had yet to realise that they could use magic to lift him up and it wouldn't be any trouble for them at all. As it was they were carrying him to wherever their destination was. He carried on listening however, he was finding it almost impossible to stay awake, in the end he surrendered to the darkness.
The next time he awoke he was lying in a bed, he tried once more to open his eyes, this time however, it was a lot easier and without much pain at all. He looked around him to find the face of Albus Dumbledore staring down at him.
"Good evening Severus."
"More like a bad evening I would say," croaked Severus, his throat extremely sore.
"Hmmm, yes I can see how that would be a more appropriate description of the evening's events," replied Dumbledore.
"A helluva lot more accurate I would say," said a voice to his left. Severus looked around to identify who the other person in the room was. He found himself looking at Harry Potter. He looked confused and Harry noticed it almost immediately, he decided to put the Professor out of his misery.
"I am in here because I saw what happened this evening and hence was taken ill. Madame Pomfrey would not let me out yet," Harry was exasperated as he didn't see that what he had felt warranted a trip to the Hospital wing. Madame Pomfrey herself appeared from her office and immediately went straight to Severus' side. Harry watched in amusement as she bustled around him just as she had done when he himself had been taken to the Hospital Wing. It was obvious that Snape hated her bustling just as much as he did. He looked up when Snape asked Dumbledore how he got to the Hospital wing in the first place. Madame Pomfrey however, refused to let Dumbledore answer him by forcing Snape to drink dreamless sleep potion. Then she moved to Harry's bed and made him drink some of that potion as well. Within minutes the two patients were fast asleep. Dumbledore let himself out of the wing and headed towards his own quarters. Soon the castle was silent.
Severus next woke to the sounds of many students talking. He turned to look and sure enough the so called Golden Trio were nattering away, well on closer inspection Granger and Weasley were chatting loudly, Potter on the other hand was taking only a small part in the conversation. In the end Potter broke up the conversation with "Guys, go on get to classes, you can help me catch up when I finally get out of here, go on," and with that the other two left the wing, with the obviously pitying looks. Dumbledore then strode into the wing, "Ah excellent you are both awake, now I can tell you what happened." Harry looked startled and then looked over to Severus, for the first time noticing that he was awake.
"So what did happen?" asked Severus, still slightly croakily.
"Well, Harry here had the vision of you being 'questioned' and although he didn't say so last night, every time you got hit with a curse he himself was in pain." Harry blushed and looked away, he hadn't wanted to tell the older man of this fact. "Anyway, after you had gone unconscious, Voldemort instructed some Death Eater's to take you back. Harry took this to mean that you would be brought back to Hogwarts. Unfortunately it was awhile before Harry was lucid enough to tell us this. As soon as we heard this information, Minerva and I went to the gates to find you in a heap outside them. We brought you back and here you are now. You really owe it to Mr Potter here, another hour or so and you would most certainly not be here with us today." Again Harry looked embarrassed, yet another thing Harry had not wanted Severus to know. "Right well, now I must be off, I have classes to teach." With that Dumbledore walked out of the room.
"What did he mean, he has classes to teach?" asked Severus.
"He is taking over your classes while you are in the hospital wing," replied Harry "which according to Madame Pomfrey will be for awhile, the damage done to you was quite extensive."
"Potter, I am quite cognizant of that fact," snapped Severus harshly.
"Sorry sir," replied Harry quietly, who then proceeded to turn his back on Severus and look the other way.
Severus knew that he had been too harsh as soon as the words left his mouth. Potter had only been trying to help he knew and it was not Potter's fault he was stuck in the infirmary. However, he knew that he couldn't take back what he had said and that Potter would be ignoring him for awhile now, which although he didn't particularly enjoy Potter's company, there was nothing else for him to do.
Harry was confused and very bored. He had been thinking all morning about Severus Snape. He didn't understand how one minute he would be civil and then the next a total bastard. He realised that there was more to Severus Snape than meets the eye, however, he didn't know how to breach through the outer façade that was always held in place. On the other subject, there was nothing to do in the hospital wing, his friends were in classes and wouldn't be by until the next day to bring him his homework. He decided that maybe finally it would be a good time to turn back over so he wasn't completely ignoring Snape. He found that Snape was staring at the ceiling himself obviously bored. Harry decided to try and open a conversation with the man, so as to understand him better.
"I am sorry sir."
"Sorry for what?" asked Snape.
"That you ended up here," replied Harry.
"That would be my fault, I was the one who insisted on going," again Snape was being civil. What on earth was happening?
"I am sorry also for what happened during Occlumency," said Harry quietly.
"Now that you can be sorry for, what on earth were you doing going into my pensieve?" asked Snape still civilly. Harry really didn't understand, where had all the anger gone?
"I was looking for answers, the Headmaster was ignoring me that year and I wanted to know what was happening, I didn't mean…" Harry stopped talking suddenly and looked ashamed again "and I never…told anyone except Sirius and Remus, who were present anyway."
"Hmm, thankyou I think," replied Snape sarcastically. He was actually glad though, he had thought that it would have been all over the school by now. He was surprised though he never thought that he would be having a long civil conversation with Potter. By the look on Potter's face he was surprised as well, but then it hit him, it was because he no longer had to keep up the mask of the Death Eater, he could never go back to that because Voldemort knew he was the traitor. In a flash his world seemed to come tumbling down on him in that one sudden realisation. He was free; he could do what he wanted (well within reason of course). He then decided there and then that he would give Potter a chance, a chance to redeem himself in his eyes.
"Potter, if you really want to redeem yourself, then you are going to have to come back to me for the lessons in Occlumency. I am willing to give you an extra go if you will come," said Severus unexpectedly. Harry again looked surprised, but knew he would not turn down such an offer, especially as they had gone to being on civil terms for the first time ever.
"Of course sir, I will come," replied Harry.
"First lesson is when we get out of this goddamn hospital wing."
"Yes Sir."
With that they each went back to ignoring each other and both went back to their thoughts about the other.
AN: Thanks to all of you who has taken an interest in this story :)
