Albus Dumbledore sat napping in an under stuffed chair beside Severus' bed. His neck cricked at an odd angle with one leg extended and the other curled underneath him. He had been sleeping no less than twenty minutes when Poppy Pomfrey entered and favored him with a sad smile.

She rested a hand on the aged wizard's forearm and leaned close. "Albus." Her voice a whisper. She shook the man's arm and looked over her shoulder to make sure Severus still slept before speaking again. "Albus, wake up."

The old wizard woke with a slight jump. He blinked his tired eyes and smiled sleepily at the mediwitch as he took his spectacles from his nose and rubbed his thumbs over the sunken hollows of his eyes sockets.

Poppy stepped back and shook her head before turning to Severus' bedside. The potions master was sleeping, no longer unconscious as he had been brought to her, but actually sleeping. His face was pinched with pain and something that resembled exhaustion, even as he rested.

Albus set a hand on her shoulder. "How is he, Madame Pomfrey?"

The witch gazed over her charge; the pallid face, charcoal bruises and crimson stains across virgin linen. She knew there were decades of fish belly-white scars that crossed the man's skin from his neck to the soles of his feet. Even a few that hid underneath his thick hair. She had taken care of many of them, all with the cruel eyes and harsh words that came from the potions master. His words had never bothered her, not when he said them, not even when he said he meant them. It was never the man's eloquent vocabulary, only the horror that played on his flesh.

She turned hardened eyes to the headmaster. "He's suffered greatly this time, Albus. More than anytime before that I've seen." She gently took up one of his thoroughly bandaged hands. "The long bones are all shattered."

"Can they be repaired?" Dumbledore's eyes looked down sadly, already knowing the answer.

"His heart won't take direct healing. The unforgivables cast on him saw to that." Poppy carefully set his hand down on the bedding. "They can be removed when he's feeling better and regrown again."

Her eyes flickered to the gapping wound on Snape's shoulder, and then to his pale face. "He'll need to be watched and waited on. He's going to hate it."

A lopsided smile tugged at Albus' lips. "He will at that."

"Albus." Minerva McGonagall poked her head around the cloth partition that closed off Severus' bed from public view.

The headmaster motioned her in and put a finger to his lips to motion her to keep quiet. She nodded and stepped carefully forward, eyes moving from Dumbledore to rest on the form lying on the infirmary bed. Her face hardened, and she turned back to Albus.

"How is he?"

"It's a struggle I'm afraid." Dumbledore twined a lock of his beard around his finger. "One that he will pull through given time."

Minerva nodded a stiff shake of the head.

A weak grumble came from the vicinity of the bed and both turned toward Severus. Madame Pomfrey was already leaning over the potions master, her stern nurse's face in place.

A shuddering gasp brought Severus awake, blinking blearily at the form that loomed above him. Slowly the blob took shape and the stern face of Poppy nearly made him growl. "Don't move, Severus. I need to perform some tests now that you're awake."

Snape closed his eyes slowly and opened them again, they felt heavy and he was tempted to close them and fall back into slumber again. The pained scream from his latest nightmare echoed in his head and he decided he wasn't quite as ready as he'd thought. He made a noncommittal noise in the back of his throat and grimaced as his throat throbbed.

Above him runes swirled and danced. He closed his eyes and willed the bile that rose to go away. When he opened them again, Poppy was looking quite perplexed and was murmuring to Albus. Minerva didn't seem to be listening to them, instead was watching him with an intense, unreadable expression.

Severus scowled and opened his mouth to ask her what the bloody hell she was gawking at but only croaked painfully. Minerva, for her part, paled and looked away a moment before meeting his gaze again with a neutral look. Snape tried to sneer and only managed to make his lip tick.

"Severus," Poppy spoke to him and drew his attention away from the Gryffindor head of house. "This is going to help your throat." She held a cobalt blue jar in her hand, the smell emanating from it tart but not entirely unpleasant.

A glob of purple lotion was dug from inside and the mediwitch carefully moved Severus' matted hair before smoothing and warming the lotion between her palms and smoothing it over the column of the potion master's neck.

Almost instantly the lotion warmed intensely and felt like it sank deep into the tissues of his throat. A delicious feeling of healing spread along his scratched throat and Severus sighed lightly as the lotion cooled and evaporated entirely.

Dumbledore was smiling lightly at him. "Better, Severus?"

Snape swallowed in experiment and nodded.

Poppy dipped her head at him and gathered her pot of lotion and shuffled back out through the partition, Minerva following her.

"You've given us quite a scare. Minerva especially." Dumbledore breathed softly through his nose. "She is the one that found you on the grounds, collapsed at the gate."