You guys are lovely. Have I mentioned I love you?
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The light was bright on her face, and she squinted her eyes open only to clamp them shut again at the illuminating white coming from the room. It took her several more tries before her eyes finally adjusted and it registered with her that she was in the hospital.
"Arianna? Are you awake?"
She turned her head to see her mother sitting next to her bed, her brother and father a little further off in the room sitting across from her mother, engaged in what looked to be a chess match. Presently they were both looking up at here.
"Mom?" she croaked out, her voice hoarse from lack of use.
Her mom instantly burst into tears. "Baby…I was so scared…"
"Now, Meredith…" her father was instantly at her mothers side attempting to comfort her. "Arianna is fine darling, see. She's okay."
"We were really worried," her brother also came over and sat on her bed at the edge, looking down at the sheets.
"How…how did you find me?" she asked, looking at her family.
"Severus…" her mother did not seem to be able to continue speaking as the sobs consumed her.
"Professor Snape had been looking for you for a while," Anthony, her brother, told her. "He wanted to know if we had heard from you, he said it was unusual for you not to turn up. He said you had been gone for several days with no word. He thought maybe we had heard from you."
"But we hadn't!" her mom wailed, burying her face in her dads chest. Anthony handed Arianna a glass of water that she began to sip down slowly.
"Dad and I met up with him at Hogwarts to discuss where you might have gone. We thought maybe you were at Cynthia's, but she said she hadn't heard from you in a couple months, and last you'd said was that you were teaching potions at Hogwarts."
Arianna nodded, feeling guilty that she had been neglecting Cynthia.
"She was here earlier, but had to leave, told us to have you owl her when you wake up."
"How did you know, though?" Arianna persisted, her voice stronger as her throat became better lubricated.
"Right. Um, so, Snape and I went down to Gringotts to see if they knew who had requested your assistance, planning on visiting them next to see when you had left. They told us that you were sent to Italy to assist a woman named Geraldine Gardner with a cursed wardrobe, and I guess it all clicked together for Snape. Geraldine was several years younger than me, I think a year younger than you, even, but memorable to Snape. I had to search my memory to recall anything about her, all I remember was that she was in Slytherin, but never seemed to belong."
She smiled weakly at her brother, who had been in Hufflepuff himself, and would not have thought badly of anyone.
"We met up with dad and apparated off, and while dad and I restrained Gardner Snape went downstairs to get you. We couldn't hear you screaming until he opened the door, she must have had a spell…it was bloody awful Ari, I don't think I'll ever forget it…Snape came upstairs with you in his arms, and we thought…"
He trailed off, but she knew exactly what they must have thought.
"I wasn't dead," she whispered, and her mothers sobbing became hysterical again.
"No, but close I think. You were so pale and limp…it was terrible. We got you here, and they got you hydrated again, and mended up, but we weren't sure what kind of damage was done."
"Where is Severus?" she had been dying to know since Anthony told her he had been the one to rescue her.
"Today is Geraldine's hearing, I believe he went to make sure it went off without a hitch," her dad interjected. "He'll be wanting to know that you are okay though."
"Oh Martin," her mom hiccupped, and Arianna sat up and hugged her hard.
"I'm sorry mom."
"I thought you were done with curse breaking! You took the Hogwarts job, we all thought…Arianna, I know…I did it too, it's too dangerous! Look at you, in the hospital, you could have died!"
"I'm sorry mom," she repeated. She didn't know what else to say.
"What is important is that you are okay," her dad said firmly. "We are still a family, we have each other, that is what is important."
Arianna smiled at her dad, looking from him to her weepy eyed mom, to her brother sitting at her feet, and felt incredibly grateful for them.
Several days later Arianna was being released. "Don't strain yourself," the witch was advising as Arianna signed the papers.
"I wouldn't dream of it," she smiled, signing her name one last time with a flourish.
"I'm not sure you can manage that," came a voice from the doorway, and Arianna couldn't turn around fast enough.
"I could try," she grinned so big she didn't think could fit it all.
His eyes twinkled a bit at her, but his face remained the same as ever.
"I'm here to collect you."
"Please, collect me all you want."
He scowled a bit at that, and she walked over to him, into the hallway.
"Thank you," she said, looking up at him.
He nodded curtly once, gripped her arm, and apparated outside of Hogwarts grounds.
"Arianna. Please, can you wait a second?" he asked as she began to walk towards the gates.
She nodded, looking down at her feet.
"You were completely irresponsible, and careless, and reckless…" he trailed off, apparently searching for other possible synonyms for her.
"Right," she said sarcastically. "Because I should have been prepared for a crazy girlfriend to lock me up as retribution. Clearly this is a normal reaction and I must be lacking in the brain for not thinking of it."
"We had just spoken…I thought surely you would take them to heart," he snapped.
"Yeah, because people lock me up in cursed wardrobes monthly! In fact, it's an off month if I'm not being tortured. And what's this I hear about you being the right hand of the Dark Lord? Interesting turn of events! People kidnapping me to kill you, or make their lovers happy…"she trailed off, suddenly scared at the look on his face.
"Whatever you have been told, you are sadly misinformed."
"Well then perhaps you should set the record straight," she commented, keeping the sarcastic tone, but regretting it all the same. It was hard to be emotionally honest with him when he was always so cutting.
"I do not need to give you a biography," he said smoothly.
"Right. So then, why even bother coming after me, if you don't owe me any explanations, and I'm just some prattling little girl who follows you around?" she challenged.
He raised his eyebrows so far up they were lost in his hair.
"I mean, I think I deserve to know why Derek was holding me hostage in the first place, but I never asked because I thought, hm, gee, maybe he'll think it is worth telling me since apparently Derek thought my life meant enough to you to save."
"Your life is worth a lot, Arianna, don't be so dramatic."
She put her hands on her hips, giving him a challenging looking. "I don't think I'm being dramatic at all. I thought I was going to die in that bloody cupboard, and then there you were like a bleeding angel or something, and I don't want to fight with you out here in the snow!" she yelled. "I just…I just want to thank you properly, and then try and put this all behind me."
"That's an understandable desire," he said, his eyes and voice impassive.
"Why did you come after me?" she asked in a small voice.
"Because I do not enjoy when you are not around," he said in clipped tones.
"Oh. Right."
They stood there awkwardly for a minute.
"So. Shall we, er, head inside?"
He gave her a nod, and they walked in silence.
The silence continued until they reached the stairs. She was about to part ways when he stopped her.
"Arianna."
She looked at him, and his eyes were blazing with something she didn't understand.
"Yes, Severus?" she said quietly, afraid she may have upset him again.
He didn't speak, but did not break eye contact with her as he pulled her glass shoe out of his robes and handed it to her.
She looked at it, small and delicate in her hands, and then back up at him again and flung her arms impulsively around his neck.
"Thank you. For everything," she said with a quiet passion she didn't know existed within her.
"Always," he murmured back, and they stepped apart.
