I sincerely apologise for the delay in this update. This chapter has been the absolute bane of my life. It has literally gone through like 3 or 4 complete rewrites. I loved writing it a lot though. It was sort of like a son who does drugs and stuff and you're like 'I LOVE YOU SO MUCH BUT STOP GETTING ON MY NERVES!" So yeah if there are any problems with this please let me know and I'll give it some sort of edit. I'm still not totally ecstatic with it if I'm honest but it's much better than it was.
Disclaimer:
Once upon a time, there was a little bunny called Gary. He lived in a castle all on his own and was very lonely. "Oh how I wish I wasn't so lonely." He said sadly. Suddenly there was a knock on his door. He went to answer it, intrigued. No one ever came to visit him. How exciting. The door opened to reveal a man dressed in a black suit and sun glasses. "Are you here to become my friend?" Gary asked the man. "Oh God no." The man replied "I'm here to tell you that Harry Potter belongs to JK Rowling and not MT Linshaw. Why would I want to be friends with a dweeb like you." Gary cried. He was very sad. But at least he knew that JK Rowling owns Harry Potter and not MT Linshaw.
Remus Lupin could not particularly recall any other time that he and Severus Snape had been left solely in the presence of each other for any substantial period of time. In fact, Remus believed that this was the first. It was strange, he thought, how much they'd acquainted themselves with each other in the past twenty or so years and had never been alone together for more than a minute or so at a time. The day seemed to pass by at a snail's pace and Remus divided his time between obsessively watching the clock and obsessively watching over Severus' lifeless form to ensure that the man was still in the land of the living. The male nurse, who had not given them his name, came and went several times; inserting more needles and wires here and there and repeatedly checking Severus' pulse which, he informed Remus, was unsatisfactorily weak.
Mr Singh the surgeon visited them too to check on the state of Severus' stomach, and promptly joined the ever growing list of people who had lifted Severus' gown without his permission. At the sight of Severus' bandaged stomach and the healing wound beneath it, the surgeon's mouth curved into a contented smile as he marvelled at the lack of infection. Personally Remus did not particularly agree that this was anything to be remotely delighted about. Lack of infection was more of a necessity than a bonus he thought, but he smiled and nodded along with the surgeons regardless.
The surgeon, however was not so terribly happy about the continued decline of Severus' respiratory system. It was, in fact a cause for major concern. He told Remus that they would continue to monitor his 'brother' for the next day or so and if there hadn't been any notable improvement, they would take further action. Remus fleetingly wondered what the 'further action' would be, but the surgeon gave him no heed, deeming it too early to say at this stage of Severus' recovery process. Remus continued to live in hope that Dumbledore would find a way to help Severus very, very soon.
Severus himself was as much fun in his ailing state… well as he was in his healthy one. He wasn't often awake and when he was, he wasn't often lucid. He'd go from asking for the time, and Remus would tell him, to more worryingly asking where he was. When he told the nurse of his concerns, he told him that this was to be expected what with the amount of medication that Severus was currently on. It did nothing to alleviate Remus' worrying though. For Severus' body seemed to be working against him.
His breathing, even with the aid of the plastic nose wire thing, was laboured and shallow and his brow did not rest from furrowing at the immeasurable amount of pain he most likely was in. Remus remembered how his mother had used to tell him that if the wind changed in direction and he was pulling a face, that it would stay that way. However she had also told him that werewolves didn't like the taste of children, and he had the scars to disprove that so he couldn't be entirely certain about how much of what she had told him was true. He now knew that it was a simple old wives' tale to scare children into not doing the things that they most enjoyed doing, however he still couldn't help but worry that Severus' furrowed brow would remain so, should the wind change from eastwards to northwards.
Late in the afternoon, Sirius returned from his excursion to Grimmauld Place and Remus almost felt like he had never been gladder to see him. Perhaps not even when they returned to Hogwarts after having spent their summers apart when they were boys, had he been gladder. He couldn't even place why he felt so happy to see his friend. It wasn't particularly very much to do with the boredom that he might have felt while Severus slept because he had spent most of his time worrying that he was dead. When Sirius finally sat down though he looked solemn. The two men sat in silence for a little while, except for the beep-beeping of one of the little machines which monitored Severus' heart rate. The one which they had been told to inform someone of, if it happened to change.
"Harry seemed to think I was dead." Sirius said, rather matter-of-factly. Remus considered his words for a few moments before he carefully formulated what he felt might be an appropriate answer.
"What?" He replied.
"We neglected to tidy up after ourselves. I still sometimes forget that Kreacher is about as useful as a dead dormouse. But we'd left blood everywhere. Everyone was really rather upset about it. It covered the floor, it was on the kitchen table. Merlin it was even on the door!"
Remus momentarily wondered how Severus' blood could have got onto the kitchen door before the memory of propping Severus against it came flashing into his mind. "And if that weren't enough," Sirius paused to laugh a little manically, "that god forsaken portrait of my dear and wonderful mother wouldn't stop going on about how filthy blood traitors were bleeding to death and how we must all rejoice." Remus collected his thoughts. It was quite a lot to take in.
"What happened when you arrived?" Remus asked.
"To put it simply, it was bedlam. Molly Weasley was rather hysterical. Harry looked like he'd seen a ghost when I walked through the front door. Oh, here's your wand back by the way." He handed the thin black wand back to Remus, "Arthur Weasley was quite annoyed at me for not being there, and for scaring them all so much. Obviously I explained that I was fine. I told them that I'd been away due to something very important cropping up."
"How did you explain away the blood?" Remus asked.
"Oh, I couldn't lie about that. Not very well anyway. I simply told them someone had arrived late the other night after having been attacked." Remus nodded silently. It was sufficient. He looked down at the wand in his hands. Turning the cool wood over and over. In their frenzy to get Severus to a Muggle hospital, the thought of tidying up after themselves had not at all entered his mind. Remus supposed that even if it had entered his mind, that they would not have stopped to clean the blood from the kitchen door. And it was difficult enough in the best of times to prevent the portrait of Mrs Black from screaming about blood traitors and the like. He deemed she would be downright unstoppable when said blood traitors were three quarters dead and bleeding profusely.
"Oh and before I forget," Sirius interrupted his ponderings, "You're going to have to visit Grimmauld Place at some point in the near future. I couldn't persuade them that it wasn't you who had been attacked." Remus blinked in surprise. He hadn't been expecting that.
"I was quite shocked, really. I told them 'you do know I have more than one friend who I'd be willing to risk my freedom for to bring them to safety.' They didn't seem to believe me though. Molly thinks you've had a furry little accident"
"I'm not your friend." Said Severus, frowning from his bed. Remus wished that the man would alert them when he woke up. It played havoc with his nerves.
"No you're not my friend, Snape. But the Weasley's don't have to know that." Sirius replied. In the next few minutes it was decided that Remus would go and visit Grimmauld Place that evening to show its current dwellers that he was indeed alive and well. He would need not visit for too long. Just for long enough to prove his lack of peril or injury.
He soon left Severus with Sirius, quietly wondering who would come off worse from being left in the other's company for a prolonged amount of time. With every step towards the main doors of the hospital he felt his heart beat with trepidation. He was severely apprehensive about going back to Grimmauld Place. Especially to try and explain away its terrifying state to his friends. He knew he was being silly, though. His heightened fears and concerns were inevitable, for he had not slept very much at all over the past few days what with the full moon being less than a week prior. Plus he hadn't eaten more than the plastic cased sandwich that Sirius had managed to get them yesterday. And that hadn't been the epitome of fine dining, to put it bluntly.
As he walked towards the alley where from he could apparate without shocking any more Muggles, a flash of white caught the corner of his eye. Remus froze in his tracks. He had a terrible feeling about this. He abruptly turned on his heel and walked briskly back to his companions. When he walked into the room Sirius was laughing at something and Severus' eyes were glimmering, and a smirk played upon his lips. They both looked up at him as he entered.
"That was quick!" Sirius said. Remus explained his worries and the flash of white. Even as he was talking to them, he knew his worries were ridiculous, for the white flash could have been anything. Sirius and Snape seemed to agree with him that his concerns were unfounded.
"It could have been anything at all!" Sirius told him, "No one but the three of us and Dumbledore know about our whereabouts. There's nothing to worry about."
Remus knew that Sirius was right, he had known it as he was almost running back to the hospital room. Merlin he needed a good night's sleep. And a meal or two. And a lack of Voldemort and his murderous followers.
A few minutes later Remus found himself yet again in the hallway of the Order of the Phoenix headquarters being embraced by not only Harry but by Molly and the four youngest Weasley children and Hermione Granger as well. He rather struggled to breathe as they all surrounded him.
"We were so worried, Professor Lupin!" Hermione said, as they finally all let go of him. "There was blood everywhere."
"Yeah, Lupin we're glad you're still alive." Said either Fred or George. Remus did not know which. Throughout the year of his teaching them, he had never addressed either boy directly.
Remus smiled and followed the members of his 'I'm-glad-you're-not-dead' club into the kitchen. As soon as he walked through the door memories of the other night's escapades flew into his mind and he shook his head trying to eradicate them. But the image of a lifeless Severus lying on the table in front of him as he and Sirius desperately tried to restart his heart would not abate. It was slightly overwhelming in all honesty.
Arthur was waiting for them in the kitchen, his hands leaning atop the table in a position mirroring Sirius' own two nights previously. Merlin's balls was this bizarre. With much disgruntled and annoyed protestations the younger Weasleys, Harry and Hermione were heralded out of the room for the adults to converse privately and after some threats of admonishment the children obeyed, although not without a few pats on the back and some enthusiastic congratulations on his continued survival.
"I'm glad to see you're well, Remus," Arthur said with a friendly smile, "it was terribly worrying. For all of us." Remus nodded in agreement. He could well imagine how it would have been to see it. Bloody hell, it had been stressful enough experiencing it.
"I'm so sorry to have frightened you like that," he told the pair, "it was all very spur of the moment and the only thing on my mind, and Sirius' too, was getting to a hospital."
"What happened, Remus? Why was there so much blood?" Molly asked. Remus paused, they both looked so highly concerned. This was order business, and yes they were not at a meeting right now but it was necessary for them to know. He doubted highly that they were behind the attack, in fact he knew categorically that they were not behind the attack, they'd never commit such a heinous act. The children, he could not trust to know what had happened, they would not take it well and besides that they were none of them, apart from Fred and George, old enough to become members of the Order of the Phoenix. Not even Harry, no matter what Padfoot said. He looked towards the door. It would not do to have anyone listening in on the conversation.
"Don't worry about any stray ears listening in," Molly reassured him kindly, "I've barred the door from listening devices ever since the twins created those ridiculous extendible ears"
Remus breathed a slight sigh of relief and turned back towards the pair. "Severus was attacked a couple of days ago with a knife down Privet Drive, the home of Harry's relatives. We've since discovered that the knife was laced with a potion called The Draft of the Broken Heart." At the combined blank faces of the Weasleys he continued, "It apparently causes its victim's heart to stop. Its effects we've seen plentifully."
Molly gave a small gasp. It was a lot to take in, Remus knew. It was worrying enough that Severus had been attacked, but the fact that his role as a spy was left to hang on the line made it even worse. All of them could be in danger. Not, he supposed, that they weren't already what with them all belonging to a resistance group led by the wizard Voldemort hated most of all. But yes it was rather worrying none-the-less.
"Is there an antidote?" Arthur asked gravely.
Remus shook his head sadly, "Dumbledore's talking to everyone he can think of to try and find a way to help Severus. Whether by creating an antidote or find something that can prolong the effects of the potion. But it's not looking promising.
"That is also one of the reasons why we took him to a Muggle hospital" Remus continued and Arthur's face lit up, intrigued. "They might have resources that we in the wizarding world do not."
"A Muggle hospital?" Molly replied, "Can they help there with that sort of thing?"
"Well they aren't fully aware of the full extenuating circumstances, no. But they might be able to help. They managed to fix his external injuries and that gives me some confidence that they'll fix his internal ones too."
They continued to discuss the ailing health of Severus for a few minutes more and upon Molly's offer, Remus decided that he would stay with them for tea. It was only polite, he reasoned to accept her gracious offer. The fact that his stomach hadn't stopped rumbling in about seven hours was just another reason to give her his affirmation.
And it was a pleasant enough meal. Harry was extremely quiet but smiled at Remus when he caught his eye. Fred and George animatedly told everyone about a new invention of there's before being admonished by Molly for speaking with their mouths full. After almost inhaling his shepherd's pie, Remus stood to return to St Mary's hospital and Arthur accompanied him into the hallway.
"I'd very much like to come with you to the hospital for a while." Arthur said, his eyes staring into Remus' seriously, "I couldn't bear it if he…" Arthur stopped, unable to find the right words. But Remus understood. He felt the same way. It was a strange way to feel, he supposed. Severus was not a man to be friends with. But they were all soldiers fighting the same war. Disagreements sort of went out of the window in situations like this.
"I must admit," Arthur continued, "I would absolutely love to see what it's like in a Muggle hospital."
Remus smiled, "Alright. You can come."
A/N: In other news: I turned 19 last week (17th feb). How exciting! Rejoice with me, dear readers!
