Everything feels foggy and vague. My eyes flutter open and I'm immediately greeted with the sight of a white ceiling. I recognize this room from when I had my spleen removed. I noted that nothing really had changed from the first time, not even the steady beeping noise. This time, I wasn't in too much pain at all. Then the coldness of the room hits me and I shiver, trying to warm myself up before I freeze to death. An unfamiliar nurse comes close to me and drapes a warm blanket over me, burying my legs in a pool of warmth. As she leaves me, I look at her, trying to give myself a face to associate this pleasant memory with. I focus on her eyes and notice her grey eyes, the colour of a cloudy sky. Cloudy days are my favourite, I think to myself.
I like cloudy days because they aren't too hot, nor are they too cold. There are so many types of cloudy days, days where the sky is completely covered in clouds and days where there is only one cloud to be seen.
The pain hits me a second later. I bite my lip in vain as I realize that my leg is hurting. I don't mind the pain, but when I try moving them, nothing happens. I can't move either one. The beeping grows faster and I begin to feel that the room is closing in on me. Without my legs, how could I defend myself? I know that in the past defending myself would have resulted in a worse punishment, but it was a comfort knowing that if things got bad enough, I had the luxury of being able to temporarily stop the pain at the cost of having it come back later. I feel like I can't breathe.
Tears well up in my eyes and a few manage to make their way down my cheeks. What if the hospital is trying to fix me up before they sent me to the sex house? What if they are just going to send me back to my father? He is going to kill me for leaving him. I am screwed!
The casts on my legs bother me even more. I begin to feel extremely itchy and I try to get up and scratch my itchy legs but to no avail. I'm being held down by an invisible force. This invisible force morphs into the dry hands of my father and I feel him kissing me, biting me, and hitting me. I try to kick against it but my legs don't seem to be working. A scream erupts from my throat. He's raping me and I can't escape. And it hurts so badly.
The grey-eyed nurse rushes over to me and grabs my arm that isn't stuck in a cast. She pats my back and whispers, "Sev, it's just a memory. Can you tell me your full name?" The nurse asks in a sweet and calming voice.
I feel the flashback subside somewhat as I force myself to give my name, "Severus Tobias Snape," I say. I try to repeat my name in my head, hoping that would bring me away from the flashback. Thankfully, I feel the voice of my father grow quieter and quieter. I look at the nurse once more and she gives me a sad smile. "You're very brave Severus."
I smile weakly at her before my body decides that it wants me to sleep. I try to push the urge back but I'm unable to control the closing of my eyes and before I know it, I fall into a restless sleep.
I don't notice the nurse sticking a thermometer into my mouth and frowning at the results. I also don't notice my stomach incision being swabbed. But even if I wasn't awake, those things still happened.
"When I was redoing Severus' abdominal stitches, I noticed that the incision site was inflamed, suggesting infection." Doctor Michael Sullivan said the surgeon who had performed both of Severus' surgeries noted.
"I just took his temperature and it was 39 degrees Celsius. He was doing fine before the surgery." A surgical nurse by the name of Maria noted.
"This is definitely alarming considering that he just had major surgery and he doesn't have his spleen to help aid his immune system. We need to get the boy on a heavy dose of antibiotics now otherwise he'll end up with septic shock. He's already showing signs of Sepsis and the bacterial culture test results are worrying. I recommend that he gets sent to the Intensive Care Unit."
"But how's that going to affect him...and the other patients. Won't that stress him out?" Maria asked.
"I don't care about his emotional health right now. His physical health is what matters and if we don't focus on that, there's going to be no emotions for us to focus on." The surgeon said, sighing, "God damn muggles. Physical injuries are already hard enough to cure on their own, but the power of hatred makes it impossible to treat them with magic."
Maria looked at him with worry in her eyes. That worry quickly morphed into anger as she remembered Tobias and what he had done to his kid. "I just hope the father spends the rest of his life rotting away in jail."
"I think we all do Maria."
The two of them took Severus' bed out of the recovery room and ran down the halls. Once they reached the ICU, they lifted Severus up and placed him on bed number nine. "Pass me the electrodes."
Maria didn't hesitate when she gave him the electrodes and continued to adjust the IV bags. Finally, they were able to call in the ICU nurse, Heather, to monitor Severus.
James Potter lay in a bed with his entire body feeling like someone had submerged him in an ice bath. His skin was extremely pale and beads of sweat dripped down his forehead. Euphemia, his mother, had brought him several Pepper-Up potions which had helped initially, but now they weren't doing anything. His abdomen brought him immense pain and had been for about a week.
He was suffering from the latest outbreak of the Wizarding Flu and had been for about a week now. He wasn't getting better and the fact that Fleamont was barely home made it even worse. Her husband was an accomplished doctor and was usually able to cure their son in a matter of seconds but now he didn't have any time to assess what was wrong with James. He just told Euphemia to keep giving him Pepper-Up potions which had since become ineffective. James had barely left his bed in about a week which worried Euphemia immensely. Inactivity was something that was atypical of her son. On a normal day, James would normally be flying around on his broom or playing with his wizard friends.
What worried Euphemia, even more, was the fact that James complained of constant pain in his abdomen. He had vomited three times in the past hour and his fever had skyrocketed. The normally ravenous boy hadn't eaten anything in the past two days and couldn't even keep water down. Fleamont dismissed this as a normal case of the Wizarding Flu but Euphemia knew the Wizarding Flu. It was a lot milder than this. This was something else.
James let out a whimper as his stomach protested against the nothing that he had eaten. It was a double-edged sword. If he ate something, he would vomit it back up, but if he didn't eat anything, he'd starve. He scanned the room frantically, looking around for the bucket that his mother had placed beside the bed. Bile rose up his throat before he found the bucket and he covered his mouth with his hand. He turned his head so when he spewed, he vomited on the floor instead of on the blankets. It sucked but it was a lot better than last time where he vomited on himself.
By the time he had finished emptying his stomach, James felt extremely dizzy. The whole world spun around him uncontrollably and his abdomen hurt even more. The pain was so bad that he burst into sobs, hoping his mother would come and comfort him.
Hearing her son cry, Euphemia entered the room quickly and assessed her son. Here he was, crying in pain, next to a puddle of vomit. "It's okay James, we're going to take you to the hospital." She reassured, but it didn't do anything to help the boy.
Quickly, Euphemia made a portkey that would take both her and her son to the waiting room at Merlin's Children Hospital. "James you need to grab on to this," she said, extending it into his hand. The whole world distorted itself and then they had reached their destination.
"God, I'm such an idiot," Fleamont Potter muttered to himself, reflecting on his actions. He had just heard from Emily that his son had just been brought to the hospital and that he was waiting in the Emergency Room for treatment. He should have listened to his wife and checked out Severus.
Before the birth of James, they had dealt with endless miscarriages and the couple was losing hope that they would ever have a baby. They had tried several methods of conceiving a child, but nothing worked. When James had been born, they were elated because the Potter family finally had an heir! Their bloodline wouldn't die out.
Now that they had managed to have a child, the Potter family had been considering giving James a sibling and felt that there were many wizarding children that needed good homes. Being a doctor, Fleamont was no stranger to seeing kids who were abused or orphaned and his heart broke for each and every one of them. If he was able to give one of them a good home then it would make a huge difference in the life of the child and his family.
Sitting in the emergency room, James felt himself grow nauseous again. The emergency room for Merlin's Children hospital mostly contained magical kids who had done pretty stupid stuff, such as drink a potion that caused hair to grow on the tongue or stupid stuff like that. Sometimes the kids were sick, but that was pretty mild. If they were actually sick, they would be admitted to the hospital right away.
The chair he was sitting in was quite uncomfortable and James was shivering. This emergency room was quite cold. His mother was sitting right beside him and trying to comfort him. He was in a lot of pain.
James didn't even know how long he had been in the emergency room for- it felt like an eternity when it was only about three minutes. The bright lights made his head hurt and the pain made it harder for him not to throw up. "Mom I'm going to puke," he mutters, the words sounding completely muffled and garbled but he hopes he got the point across.
Euphemia got the general gist of what James was trying to communicate but unfortunately, she was too late and James was barfing on the floor. His mother sighed and used her wand to clean it up, used to doing this. Her son had been vomiting everywhere except where he was supposed to be lately and although it wasn't his fault, it still kind of annoyed her. She couldn't help but feel bad for her son.
Finally, a nurse called out James' name and Euphemia practically carried her son up to the admitting nurse. "Hello, I am Doctor Perry Kelso. I think we need to take your son to the operating room. His appendix has most likely burst and if we don't remove it, he's going to die." A doctor said, having run to the emergency room to try and save this child's life. The nurse had cast a spell to diagnose what was wrong with James and had just given the results to him. He immediately knew what he needed to do with the child.
"B-but don't you need the appendix to live?" Euphemia asked, worriedly.
"Actually, you can live without it. The appendix mostly serves as a host for good bacteria but it doesn't have any other function. But if James doesn't get it removed, he will suffer a painful death. Judging by his vitals, he's bound to go into Septicemia."
"I'll do anything to save his life," Euphemia says.
Doctor Kelso places James into a wheelchair and he wheels him to a stretcher where he helps James into it and has him lay down. He places an IV into James' hand and starts giving him some heavy dose antibiotics. Euphemia sits in the corner, trying not to cry, feeling terrible about having subjected her son to this fate. If only she had brought him into the hospital sooner.
The surgeon enters the curtained room and introduces himself. "Hi, I'm Doctor Michael Sullivan and I will be performing this procedure on your son. I just need you to sign this form that explains all of the risks of this procedure. I'm assuming that you consent to this operation, correct?"
His question was answered with Euphemia nodding.
"He's going to need his appendix removed. It's a pretty standard procedure, however, James' had progressed to the point where his may have ruptured and he's already Septic. Without this surgery, he is going to die."
James looked rather faint at that statement. "But don't worry James, this operation is fairly simple and can be done in under an hour."
James nods again and Doctor Sullivan places the boy in a wheelchair where he wheels him to the operating room. Maria, the surgical nurse on duty followed him and assisted him with the IV pole and brought it into the operating room. "James, just count down from ten, okay?" Maria says.
He doesn't make it past 8.
Heather, the Intensive Care Nurse, took a good look at her newest addition. Normally, nurses were in charge of caring for four or five patients, but in the ICU, they only had one or two. Before Severus had been admitted into the ICU, she was in charge of a young girl by the name of Lily Evans who had been involved in a muggle automobile collision.
Severus Snape was a victim of extreme child abuse. He was one of the worst cases that the hospital had ever seen. The boy was damaged both physically and emotionally. He was 48 inches tall which was close to the average for an eight-year-old, but he only weighed 31 pounds. These measurements were mostly estimates because the boy was too injured for them to give proper measurements. They got these loose measurements to figure out the right amount of anesthesia.
The boy was incredibly malnourished and they had considered placing a feeding tube. Heather would prefer to be able to spell potions into the Stomach of the boy but some of them had pretty bad side effects. The nutrition potion, save, for example, could cause his blood pressure to skyrocket. That could be fatal combined with his Sepsis.
Heather checked the chart of the boy one more time, making sure that there was no mistakes done with his vitals. Feeding tube recommended, was written in bold print.
She called the ICU doctor, Doctor Amelia Chapman over to verify this. "Amelia, should we place a feeding tube? The chart says it's the best option and I feel with him being severely underweight, this will be the best option. However, we could be introducing infection to the area and he's just had his spleen removed."
Heather handed the chart over to Amelia who nodded, "I suggest that we wait for a few days. In the meantime, we'll serve him food. I'll get the cafeteria to send over some easily digestible food." Amelia noted. "I think we should be giving him six small meals a day on a regular schedule, so that will be at 8 AM, 10:30 AM, 12PM, 2:30PM, 4PM, and 6:30. It will keep his blood sugar up and that will help him fight infection."
"It's about four now. Should I wake him up?" Heather asks, looking up at Amelia for approval.
"That's the best thing to do right now. He needs to bring his weight up."
The nurse walked over to bed nine and knelt down so her face would be at the same level that Severus' was. "Sev, it's time to wake up." Heather said in a comforting and quiet voice.
Severus quickly woke up but his heart rate and breathing rate quickly skyrocketed. "Am I in trouble?" Severus asked, afraid of what was to come.
"No Sev, you're not in any trouble. We just wanted to get you up so you could eat something." The explanation didn't do anything- Severus was still rather afraid and his heart rate reflected his fear.
"I'm not hungry," Severus lied, not wanting the nurses to waste food on him. They were unfamiliar and most unfamiliar people ended up raping him. The possibility of this happening scared Sev and he didn't want to get raped again.
"Severus, you must be hungry. You haven't eaten once in the time that you've been here," Heather explained, having read that off of his chart.
"Don't need food. I don't deserve it." Severus says, having been told that time after time.
While this argument was going on, Amelia had phoned the kitchen using the ICU phone (the hospital was equipped with technology that would allow both wizards and muggles to use the phones to talk to other rooms. She let the kitchen know about her request and knew that the house elves and the chefs would have it done rather quickly.
"Why don't you deserve food?" Heather asks the boy, still kneeling down so that her face was at Sev's level.
Severus swallowed and looked into Heather's hazel eyes. "Father said that I only get food if I clean the house." He hadn't done any cleaning here so he clearly didn't deserve to eat anything.
"Well you deserve food here," Heather reassured. She was going to pat his shoulder in an act of reassurance, but he flinched so violently that it concerned her.
The food arrived and Heather sighed in relief. She grabbed a spoon and gave the tray to Severus who just stared at it with an awkward look on his face. "Is this for me?" He asked.
"Yes Severus, this is for you. I have some chicken broth and some applesauce here for you to eat." Heather says, opening the containers for him. The boy slowly ate the food and looked at Heather, expecting a punishment. When no blow came his way, he was surprised.
Eventually, he finished eating and Heather encouraged, "Severus, I'm so proud of you. You finished all of your food!" She did this out of hope that it would make the boy feel good for eating. Heaven knew he needed the praise. Without it, he would probably never willingly eat on his own. Heather noticed that his heart rate had gone down quite a bit so this had also been beneficial for the boy. She couldn't help but smile at the boy and he gave her a small smile. This gave her a little bit of hope that Sev would be able to be happy. He definitely deserved it.
Amelia walked over to Heather and tapped her on the shoulder. This broke the Nurse out of her pondering."We're receiving another septic patient and this one's the son of Fleamont. Prepare to have your hands full."
Well here's another chapter and it's the first chapter of 2019, yay! I just want to clear some things up with you all. I am not a doctor, nor do I live in England, so I can't say everything is accurate. Another thing I wanted to bring notice to was the power of hate. In my story, hate acts as its own type of magic and can counteract even the strongest of spells. Tobias felt extreme hate for Severus and that's one of the reasons why Severus wasn't able to be healed by magic. I could choose to make magic heal everything, but that would ruin the entire point of my story and it seems a little unrealistic to have magic fix everything in one go. Muggle medicine has become more and more advanced and so why not use it? And so, I think that magic can be used to help to some extent (and it can cure magical injuries), however, when it comes to physical injuries, more must come into play.
The title of this chapter comes from the song "All At Once," by The Fray.
If you like this story, remember to review.
Edit 1/6/19- I changed the time from noon to four o'clock to make the story make more sense.
