A/N OMG I'm sooooooo sorry. Here's my explanation for why it's taken me
soooooo long to post this chapter. First of all I was really busy with work
and second of all when I was almost done with the chapter my mom hard shut
down my computer when the chapter was up and running and thus erased the
whole bloody thing and now I had to go back and retype the whole thing!!
And to top it all off because of that little trick I've been having massive
computer issues all week, but I think that I've got the issues taken care
of so here's the next chapter so ENJOY!!!!!!! Oh and thank you to all of
my faithful and loyal reviewers! I seriously wasn't expecting this many!
But I won't get on my hands and knees and beg for reviews like other
authors, I only hope if you read and don't review that you like the story
NOW ON WITH THE STORY!!!!!!!!
Severus stayed up late into the night.
Lei had received several owls that day and he decided to write to her friends and tell them what happened. After all of the letters were complete and the owls had swoooped out of the window back to their owners
Severus went to go take a bath to try and relax himself that helped a little bit but not a lot. He climbed into bed well after midnight only to wake up at his customary time the next morning.
He silently dressed in a simple set of black robes and went to wake up Harry who quickly and quietly got dressed. The two ate a hasty breakfast and by 8am they arrived at Saint Andrews and made their way quietly to Lei's room only to come across a rather frazzled and flustered looking Doug, who was currently trying to get information on the wherabouts and condition of his girlfriend.
"Mr. Taylor if you wish to stop harassing the poor nurse you may follow me and I will take you to Ms. McKinny." Snape said bitingly
Doug gave his professor a look and silently followed the two down the hall and around the corner to Lei's room. The three entered to see that nothing had changed in Lei's condition whatsoever.
Doug immediately went to her side and carefully took the hand that didn't have an IV in it and softly stroked the back of it.
The three boys sat in silence for some time before the doctor entered and went over to Professor Snape and adressed him. "I'm Doctor King and I was the on call doctor all night last night. I should tell you that she had a rough night but is doing slightly better now."
"In what way did she have a rough night?" Snape inquired.
"Well we had some problems regulating her oxygen levels, she kept having problems with her saturation levels but we thankfully didn't have to put her on a ventillator. Her fever started to climb again but it's gone back down a bit though but is still pretty high. I don't know how long it will be before she wakes up but hopefully it will be soon but she is fighting off a great deal of infection and needs all the rest that she can get." The doctor replied.
"Thank you doctor." Severus replied
"Anytime, if she wakes up or anything changes immediately call me."
"I will." Snape said
With that said the doctor left the room and the 3 boys lapsed into silence. Around lunchtime the group of Lei's friends from Diagon Alley, minus Oliver and plus another one of her friends Ally, arrived.
As the majority of the group situated themselves around the room Cat, being the diplomatic one of the group, walked over to Professor Snape and adressed him.
"We all appreciate you telling us and just wanted to say thank you for it."
With that said she made her way over to Doug and laid a hand on his shoulder and he breifly looked up into his friend's eyes and gave a weak smile and turned his attention back to Lei only to be met by pain and relief filled blue eyes.
Immediately the look on Doug's face softened and leaned forward and gently kissed her still scorching forehead and whispered into her ear
"Welcome back to the land of the living, you had me scared for a little bit there."
She gave him a weak smile in return but said nothing.
"Are you in pain sweetie?" Doug asked She nodded and her other hand that wasn't in Doug's hand pointed first to her head then her left knee. Doug gave Lei's hand a squeeze and said
"Be right back, don't worry." He left and returned a few moments later with Dr. King who went to check Lei then said
"You're hurting in your head and your left knee?"
Lei nodded and the doctor drew out a needle that had a painkiller in it and injected it. The effects were almost instantaneous and the look on Lei's face softened but still had a bit of pain in her eyes. The doctor asked
"Is that better?" Lei raised her hand and tilted it side to side to show that it sort of was. The doctor asked
"Where does it still hurt?" She pointed to her knee. The doctor tried to bend it a little but even when it was slightly bent Lei cried out weakly in agony.
Immediately the leg was set flat again and the doctor started to examine the area and soon found the problem. He turned to adress the group who was waiting anxiously.
"Well it seems that Ms. McKinny has a cyst in her knee that needs to be drained. Now I'm sorry but the only person that can stay in here while this is being done is Professor Snape because you have to be 18 years old to be present while this takes place but as soon as it's done you can all come back in. All right?"
The teenagers nodded and quietly exited the room. Doug gave Lei's hand a squeeze and kissed her forehead again and left last.
The doctor left and came back in with a nurse and the necessary supplies as Snape moved to the chair next to Lei and took her hand and said
"Don't worry, I'll stay right here with you the whole time and it'll be over before you know it."
Lei weakly smiled and nodded in return and winced and squeezed her eyes shut and a small tear leaked out when the needle was inserted.
It was a well known fact that Lei wasn't scared of needles because she had been stuck with so many in her life, but it didn't mean that she had to be happy about being stuck with them.
As the tear leaked out Severus reached up and brushed the tear away and softly stroked the girl's hair and whispered quietly in her ear all the while still holding onto her hand that now had it gripped quite tightly from the pain that she was in.
Outside the room stood the group of teenagers all with identical looks of shock from the actions of their, thought to be, nasty and cold Potions Master.
Thirty minutes later the cyst was completely drained and Lei's knee was back to as normal as it was expected to be and the teenagers were allowed back in only to find their professor still holding onto Lei's hand and the girl asleep, clearly exhausted from everything.
Snape got up and reliquished his hold on Lei's hand, surrendering it to Doug and went back to standing in the shadows that were gathering in the corner of the room.
The group of teenagers knew better than to say anything to the Professor out of fear of several things, so they just pushed what they had seen into the far recesses of their brains but still thinking about several things.
As the students sat quietly around the room Severus stood by himself thinking about several things as well. He had so many conflicting emotions inside of him he didn't know quite what to make of them.
He was one of the very few people that knew of Lei's true parentage, he also knew everything about her as in what she lived with day in and day out. It stretched far deeper than just asthma. He cared about her.
It tore at his heart to see her like this and it also tore him inside out thinking that he could've prevented it. But his voice of common sense that sounded oddly like Albus kicked in and said
'Yes, but Albus said it himself that you know how she is and that you really couldn't have known and now you're doing all you can for her.'
He mentally smacked himself and gave into the voice knowing that it was right. As the afternoon progressed Lei's friends left because they had to return home but promised to be back the next day.
By six o'clock only Harry and Severus remained. Lei hadn't woken up again all afternoon but there was no need for concern. In fact, her saturation levels were up and were almost back to normal and her fever was slowly but steadily going down with the aid of the medications. Finally Harry couldn't stand the silence anymore and asked "Professor, could I ask you a question?"
Severus was snapped out of his reverie by the boy's question and replied
"You already asked one, but you may ask another."
Harry decided not to make a smart aleck remark and continued
"Well, Professor Dumbledore said that Lei's been through worse than this but bounced back. Well what exactly has she gone through that could be any worse than what she's been through to put her into her current condition?"
Snape was taken slightly aback by the boy's question and thought to himself for a moment, questioning if he really should tell the boy exactly what the girl had been through. Though, Harry was a pretty strong person, having gone through quite a bit himself in his short life so he decided to tell him.
He took a deep breath and sat down in a chair by Lei's bed and looked at the girl who was still sleeping peacefully and began.
"Well you see, being born premature of course had its effects on her, it made her naturally weaker than say a person who was born from a full term. Not all of her organs were properly developed when she was born, that's why most premies have a lot of lasting problems."
"Lei's lungs were underdeveloped which opened the door for the pneumonia that caused her asthma. She has a very weak immune system which makes her even more prone to common illnesses. She takes medication to strengthen it, but it only helps a little but enough to necessitate her taking it. Also, if she should get sick, which happens quite often, it takes her longer to heal from it."
"She has severe cartilege deficiencies in all of her joints, if I remember correctly she has almost none which is very dangerous. She also has rather bad muscle problems as well, especially in her back and legs. She has horrible muscle spasms that are actually quite painful for her. She's also on medication for that."
"Also because she's so artistically inclined, she has problems associated with that. I believe that she has tendonitis in both of her wrists from clarinet playing. Tennis Elbow and arthritis in half of her fingers from playing piano for so many years and carpal tunnel syndrome as well. She takes anti-inflammatories to control those things. Also because she's a dancer she has problems with her knees and ankles as well."
"Have you ever seen her taking her medications?"
Harry shook his head and said "No sir, she never let me."
"And for good reason my dear boy. She doesn't like people to know just how much is wrong with her, she tries to live her life as best and to the fullest as she can. She doesn't like to burden other people with her problems, she'd rather help other people with theirs."
"Inside that girl is a heart of gold and she is one of the most wonderful people that a person could ever meet. She is an incredibly intelligent, gifted and beautiful girl who doesn't let anything stand in her way."
Severus paused for a moment and took another deep breath and continued.
"She spent her entire childhood being sheltered by her parents. Being dragged from doctor to doctor in hopes of solving all of her other problems, but to no avail. She spent a lot of time in and out of hospitals as well."
"She finally told her parents right before she came to Hogwarts that she had had enough, that she just wanted them to accept what was wrong with her, because she had accepted it a long time before then. Basically she wanted her parents to accept her for who she was, and that included all of the problems."
"It took them a while to accept it but they eventually did because they love her dearly and only want the best for her, and up until then they thought that they were trying to get the best for her. But deep down they knew that it wasn't going to work and it was making her miserable."
He paused again for a moment then continued
"Her parents are truly wonderful people, very supportive of all of their children and have given them everything and anything they could've wanted and Lei has always been given the best care available no matter what the cost."
"I'm not sure if Lei has told you, but she comes from a very well off family. I believe that her family is wealthier than the Malfoy's and you and I both know, that that says something. She also comes from a long line of very powerful witches and wizards and she is trying her best to live up to her family honor."
"She might be the youngest and only girl, but she is still just as important and she knows that and that's why she doesn't let anything get in her way. She deals with these things day in and day out and will continue to do so for the rest of her life, but she does it because she knows that she doesn't have a choice and she will stop at nothing to get what she wants. And what she wants more than anything is to make her parents proud and uphold the family honor."
Having finished his little speech he looked back to the girl who was still sleeping peacefully, unaware of what had just transpired at her bedside.
Harry sat in a shocked silence and his eyes fell back onto the girl laying in the bed. The two continued to sit in silence and watch her until Harry broke the silence again.
"Sir, do you know about Lei's parents? I mean do you....."
He trailed off not knowing how to finish the question but Severus knew exactly what the boy had meant.
"Yes I do Harry, but as I'm sure Dumbledore has told you, Lei and nobody else is not to know."
"Yes, I know sir. I was just curious is all."
"That's quite all right Harry, curiosity is a natural thing and Dumbledore told me right before Lei came for her first year at Hogwarts, but that didn't change anything about how I viewed her as a person. I will not however reveal who else knows this secret but I can tell you that only one other person knows outside of her family and everybody who does know intends to keep it that way."
"Yes sir, so do I. I never go back on my word."
"Are you sure that you're not a Hufflepuff with loyalty like that?" Snape said with a slight smirk.
"No sir!" Harry said slightly loudly then softly he said "To be completely honest the sorting hat wanted to put me into Slytherin but I begged it not to."
At this Severus raised his eyebrows at the boy and said
"Really? That's quite interesting."
The two again lapsed into silence and before they knew it the nurse came in and told the two that visiting hours were over.
They left and were back in Severus' chambers within minutes and the two ate a late dinner in silence and then retired to their respective rooms for the night.
A/N: WOW! That was yet another long chapter! I can't believe I wrote that much, but hopefully this should appease everybody that's been waiting with I'm sure, bated breath. I'll get to work on chapter 11 because I have all this week off of work so the wait shouldn't be nearly as long as it was for this chapter. Again, I'm sorry it took so long to get up but it was kind of unavoidable.
NOW ON WITH THE STORY!!!!!!!!
Severus stayed up late into the night.
Lei had received several owls that day and he decided to write to her friends and tell them what happened. After all of the letters were complete and the owls had swoooped out of the window back to their owners
Severus went to go take a bath to try and relax himself that helped a little bit but not a lot. He climbed into bed well after midnight only to wake up at his customary time the next morning.
He silently dressed in a simple set of black robes and went to wake up Harry who quickly and quietly got dressed. The two ate a hasty breakfast and by 8am they arrived at Saint Andrews and made their way quietly to Lei's room only to come across a rather frazzled and flustered looking Doug, who was currently trying to get information on the wherabouts and condition of his girlfriend.
"Mr. Taylor if you wish to stop harassing the poor nurse you may follow me and I will take you to Ms. McKinny." Snape said bitingly
Doug gave his professor a look and silently followed the two down the hall and around the corner to Lei's room. The three entered to see that nothing had changed in Lei's condition whatsoever.
Doug immediately went to her side and carefully took the hand that didn't have an IV in it and softly stroked the back of it.
The three boys sat in silence for some time before the doctor entered and went over to Professor Snape and adressed him. "I'm Doctor King and I was the on call doctor all night last night. I should tell you that she had a rough night but is doing slightly better now."
"In what way did she have a rough night?" Snape inquired.
"Well we had some problems regulating her oxygen levels, she kept having problems with her saturation levels but we thankfully didn't have to put her on a ventillator. Her fever started to climb again but it's gone back down a bit though but is still pretty high. I don't know how long it will be before she wakes up but hopefully it will be soon but she is fighting off a great deal of infection and needs all the rest that she can get." The doctor replied.
"Thank you doctor." Severus replied
"Anytime, if she wakes up or anything changes immediately call me."
"I will." Snape said
With that said the doctor left the room and the 3 boys lapsed into silence. Around lunchtime the group of Lei's friends from Diagon Alley, minus Oliver and plus another one of her friends Ally, arrived.
As the majority of the group situated themselves around the room Cat, being the diplomatic one of the group, walked over to Professor Snape and adressed him.
"We all appreciate you telling us and just wanted to say thank you for it."
With that said she made her way over to Doug and laid a hand on his shoulder and he breifly looked up into his friend's eyes and gave a weak smile and turned his attention back to Lei only to be met by pain and relief filled blue eyes.
Immediately the look on Doug's face softened and leaned forward and gently kissed her still scorching forehead and whispered into her ear
"Welcome back to the land of the living, you had me scared for a little bit there."
She gave him a weak smile in return but said nothing.
"Are you in pain sweetie?" Doug asked She nodded and her other hand that wasn't in Doug's hand pointed first to her head then her left knee. Doug gave Lei's hand a squeeze and said
"Be right back, don't worry." He left and returned a few moments later with Dr. King who went to check Lei then said
"You're hurting in your head and your left knee?"
Lei nodded and the doctor drew out a needle that had a painkiller in it and injected it. The effects were almost instantaneous and the look on Lei's face softened but still had a bit of pain in her eyes. The doctor asked
"Is that better?" Lei raised her hand and tilted it side to side to show that it sort of was. The doctor asked
"Where does it still hurt?" She pointed to her knee. The doctor tried to bend it a little but even when it was slightly bent Lei cried out weakly in agony.
Immediately the leg was set flat again and the doctor started to examine the area and soon found the problem. He turned to adress the group who was waiting anxiously.
"Well it seems that Ms. McKinny has a cyst in her knee that needs to be drained. Now I'm sorry but the only person that can stay in here while this is being done is Professor Snape because you have to be 18 years old to be present while this takes place but as soon as it's done you can all come back in. All right?"
The teenagers nodded and quietly exited the room. Doug gave Lei's hand a squeeze and kissed her forehead again and left last.
The doctor left and came back in with a nurse and the necessary supplies as Snape moved to the chair next to Lei and took her hand and said
"Don't worry, I'll stay right here with you the whole time and it'll be over before you know it."
Lei weakly smiled and nodded in return and winced and squeezed her eyes shut and a small tear leaked out when the needle was inserted.
It was a well known fact that Lei wasn't scared of needles because she had been stuck with so many in her life, but it didn't mean that she had to be happy about being stuck with them.
As the tear leaked out Severus reached up and brushed the tear away and softly stroked the girl's hair and whispered quietly in her ear all the while still holding onto her hand that now had it gripped quite tightly from the pain that she was in.
Outside the room stood the group of teenagers all with identical looks of shock from the actions of their, thought to be, nasty and cold Potions Master.
Thirty minutes later the cyst was completely drained and Lei's knee was back to as normal as it was expected to be and the teenagers were allowed back in only to find their professor still holding onto Lei's hand and the girl asleep, clearly exhausted from everything.
Snape got up and reliquished his hold on Lei's hand, surrendering it to Doug and went back to standing in the shadows that were gathering in the corner of the room.
The group of teenagers knew better than to say anything to the Professor out of fear of several things, so they just pushed what they had seen into the far recesses of their brains but still thinking about several things.
As the students sat quietly around the room Severus stood by himself thinking about several things as well. He had so many conflicting emotions inside of him he didn't know quite what to make of them.
He was one of the very few people that knew of Lei's true parentage, he also knew everything about her as in what she lived with day in and day out. It stretched far deeper than just asthma. He cared about her.
It tore at his heart to see her like this and it also tore him inside out thinking that he could've prevented it. But his voice of common sense that sounded oddly like Albus kicked in and said
'Yes, but Albus said it himself that you know how she is and that you really couldn't have known and now you're doing all you can for her.'
He mentally smacked himself and gave into the voice knowing that it was right. As the afternoon progressed Lei's friends left because they had to return home but promised to be back the next day.
By six o'clock only Harry and Severus remained. Lei hadn't woken up again all afternoon but there was no need for concern. In fact, her saturation levels were up and were almost back to normal and her fever was slowly but steadily going down with the aid of the medications. Finally Harry couldn't stand the silence anymore and asked "Professor, could I ask you a question?"
Severus was snapped out of his reverie by the boy's question and replied
"You already asked one, but you may ask another."
Harry decided not to make a smart aleck remark and continued
"Well, Professor Dumbledore said that Lei's been through worse than this but bounced back. Well what exactly has she gone through that could be any worse than what she's been through to put her into her current condition?"
Snape was taken slightly aback by the boy's question and thought to himself for a moment, questioning if he really should tell the boy exactly what the girl had been through. Though, Harry was a pretty strong person, having gone through quite a bit himself in his short life so he decided to tell him.
He took a deep breath and sat down in a chair by Lei's bed and looked at the girl who was still sleeping peacefully and began.
"Well you see, being born premature of course had its effects on her, it made her naturally weaker than say a person who was born from a full term. Not all of her organs were properly developed when she was born, that's why most premies have a lot of lasting problems."
"Lei's lungs were underdeveloped which opened the door for the pneumonia that caused her asthma. She has a very weak immune system which makes her even more prone to common illnesses. She takes medication to strengthen it, but it only helps a little but enough to necessitate her taking it. Also, if she should get sick, which happens quite often, it takes her longer to heal from it."
"She has severe cartilege deficiencies in all of her joints, if I remember correctly she has almost none which is very dangerous. She also has rather bad muscle problems as well, especially in her back and legs. She has horrible muscle spasms that are actually quite painful for her. She's also on medication for that."
"Also because she's so artistically inclined, she has problems associated with that. I believe that she has tendonitis in both of her wrists from clarinet playing. Tennis Elbow and arthritis in half of her fingers from playing piano for so many years and carpal tunnel syndrome as well. She takes anti-inflammatories to control those things. Also because she's a dancer she has problems with her knees and ankles as well."
"Have you ever seen her taking her medications?"
Harry shook his head and said "No sir, she never let me."
"And for good reason my dear boy. She doesn't like people to know just how much is wrong with her, she tries to live her life as best and to the fullest as she can. She doesn't like to burden other people with her problems, she'd rather help other people with theirs."
"Inside that girl is a heart of gold and she is one of the most wonderful people that a person could ever meet. She is an incredibly intelligent, gifted and beautiful girl who doesn't let anything stand in her way."
Severus paused for a moment and took another deep breath and continued.
"She spent her entire childhood being sheltered by her parents. Being dragged from doctor to doctor in hopes of solving all of her other problems, but to no avail. She spent a lot of time in and out of hospitals as well."
"She finally told her parents right before she came to Hogwarts that she had had enough, that she just wanted them to accept what was wrong with her, because she had accepted it a long time before then. Basically she wanted her parents to accept her for who she was, and that included all of the problems."
"It took them a while to accept it but they eventually did because they love her dearly and only want the best for her, and up until then they thought that they were trying to get the best for her. But deep down they knew that it wasn't going to work and it was making her miserable."
He paused again for a moment then continued
"Her parents are truly wonderful people, very supportive of all of their children and have given them everything and anything they could've wanted and Lei has always been given the best care available no matter what the cost."
"I'm not sure if Lei has told you, but she comes from a very well off family. I believe that her family is wealthier than the Malfoy's and you and I both know, that that says something. She also comes from a long line of very powerful witches and wizards and she is trying her best to live up to her family honor."
"She might be the youngest and only girl, but she is still just as important and she knows that and that's why she doesn't let anything get in her way. She deals with these things day in and day out and will continue to do so for the rest of her life, but she does it because she knows that she doesn't have a choice and she will stop at nothing to get what she wants. And what she wants more than anything is to make her parents proud and uphold the family honor."
Having finished his little speech he looked back to the girl who was still sleeping peacefully, unaware of what had just transpired at her bedside.
Harry sat in a shocked silence and his eyes fell back onto the girl laying in the bed. The two continued to sit in silence and watch her until Harry broke the silence again.
"Sir, do you know about Lei's parents? I mean do you....."
He trailed off not knowing how to finish the question but Severus knew exactly what the boy had meant.
"Yes I do Harry, but as I'm sure Dumbledore has told you, Lei and nobody else is not to know."
"Yes, I know sir. I was just curious is all."
"That's quite all right Harry, curiosity is a natural thing and Dumbledore told me right before Lei came for her first year at Hogwarts, but that didn't change anything about how I viewed her as a person. I will not however reveal who else knows this secret but I can tell you that only one other person knows outside of her family and everybody who does know intends to keep it that way."
"Yes sir, so do I. I never go back on my word."
"Are you sure that you're not a Hufflepuff with loyalty like that?" Snape said with a slight smirk.
"No sir!" Harry said slightly loudly then softly he said "To be completely honest the sorting hat wanted to put me into Slytherin but I begged it not to."
At this Severus raised his eyebrows at the boy and said
"Really? That's quite interesting."
The two again lapsed into silence and before they knew it the nurse came in and told the two that visiting hours were over.
They left and were back in Severus' chambers within minutes and the two ate a late dinner in silence and then retired to their respective rooms for the night.
A/N: WOW! That was yet another long chapter! I can't believe I wrote that much, but hopefully this should appease everybody that's been waiting with I'm sure, bated breath. I'll get to work on chapter 11 because I have all this week off of work so the wait shouldn't be nearly as long as it was for this chapter. Again, I'm sorry it took so long to get up but it was kind of unavoidable.