After the door fell quietly into the castle behind Minerva, the headmaster of Hogwarts remained undecided in Severus' living room. A fire was burning in the fireplace, which Minerva had lit when leaving the room.

His gaze wandered further through the room and got caught on the large desk, on which there were various stacks of parchment. Dumbledore approached him and realized that these were homework and class tests that had been handed in, divided into three categories.

The left pile contained the already corrected works, while the right pile still had to be looked up. The small stack was the one to look up. It was a performance check of the second graders who had dealt with the topic "Simple poisons and simple antidotes".

"How fitting," Dumbledore kidnapped when his gaze fell on Severus's small careful handwriting, in which he had written comments and corrections to the margins of the papers.

The essay, which belonged to a Lydia Abercrombie, was almost finished and was interrupted at the penultimate question asking for the antidote to all simple poisons. Here Tom had called Severus, with the result that this and the following work would remain lying for a while.

Dumbledore stood up and stretched out. He felt that his bones weren't as comfortable as they once had been when he had been sitting for a long time.

"Dobby!

He called out his favourite house elf, whom Harry Potter had freed a few years ago from his master, who was none other than Lucius Malfoy. Since then he lived as a free and paid houself in Hogwarts and appeared with a quiet plop in Severus' living and working room.

"Professor Dumbledore, sir. I wish you a wonderful morning. You look a little worried. Can I get you anything? You weren't at breakfast today," the house-elf jerked.

Nothing escaped him either...

"Thank you for asking, Dobby. It would be nice if it would be such a morning, but I doubt it. You could bring me a pot of tea and some toast down here."

As soon as he had expressed his wish, it plopped again and the house-elf had disappeared with another bow.

Dumbledore conjured up an armchair and let it float into the bedroom. He sat down next to Severus' bed and waited. A third pop announced Dobby's return.

"Professor Dumbledore, sir. I'll bring you your breakfast. Dobby also added some chocolate. Maybe this will help you get rid of your worries. Can Dobby ask what's bothering the principal," Dobby asked as he placed the tray on the bedside table and filled a cup of steaming tea.

Even before he had understood Dobby's question and before he could even think about a suitable answer, the house elf looked at Severus.

The cup in his hand began to shake threateningly and threatened to fall out of his hand at any moment. Dumbledore took the jar from Dobby's hand and lifted the elf to the edge of the bed.

"Was... Was Master Snape... was he with... again," stuttered Dobby.

"Yes, Dobby." Dumbledore replied with a sigh. "That's not his work, though, but Peter Pettigrews and Lucius Malfoys'."

When Dobby heard his old man's name, he began to bob back and forth. His eyes looked for...

"No, Dobby. I forbid you to hurt yourself. You have nothing to do with this! That is not your fault!

"But Dobby can't see this one... killing my new master's best friend. Dobby is to blame that this happened. Dobby should have tried to prevent that."

"Dobby! You couldn't have done anything. And Severus is not dead." Not yet' he added in thoughts. "But you could do me and Severus a big favour. Can you tell Hagrid to get some of the tea he had when Severus was in school? He will know which one I mean. And another request: As you know, we have Halloween tomorrow. Minerva and I can't stay away from the party all the time, that would lead to the others getting something of this story here. Could you maybe stay with Severus for a few hours?"

"But of course, Professor Dumbledore Sir. Dobby is glad he can do something."

The house-elf seemed more relaxed and you could see that he didn't have to sit around idly.

As soon as the Dobby had disappeared with a quiet plop, Dumbledore heard the door to Severus' rooms open and Minerva return from her trip out of the Great Hall. She reports to him immediately. "The teachers did not suspect anything when I told them that you were having breakfast in the Ministry and Severus, as on many Saturdays, in his rooms. I explained my fatigue to them by saying that there was a full moon today and I could never sleep there, which is true in a way.

The only thing that worries me is that Harry Potter, Hermione Granger and Ronald Weasley very often looked up to the teacher's table during a conversation."

"Well, don't put the devil against the wall. We'll tell them the same thing, of course. I had a visit during your absence from Dobby, who was so friendly and brought me some tea and toast down here. He was very upset about Severus's condition, especially after hearing who taught him all the injuries.

He offered to stay with Severus for a few hours during tomorrow's celebration. Then we don't have to disappear so often and Severus is not alone.

You look very tired, Minerva. Go to sleep for a few hours."

"No, I'll stay here while you pay Tom a visit. I'll let you know if anything changes here. Poppy and Dobby are also close by.

Has anything changed here?"

"I think the fever has gone up a bit and I found a red stripe here that wasn't there before. I believe anyway. Poppy wants to be here in a few seconds, I sent her a patronus. Just before you came. Let's see what she has to say."

As soon as Dumbledore had finished the sentence, the door opened and the healer came in and began her examinations after listening to her headmaster's explanations.

"I can confirm that the fever has gone up. We absolutely must see that we get it lowered. If that doesn't happen soon, the protein molecules will break and be irreparably damaged. Then his chance of survival is zero.

As for the red line, Dumbledore: this is blood poisoning. It comes from all the injuries, especially to the lungs. I'd like to do something about it, but I'm not allowed to use spells or potions because his body is too weak and the haematopoiesis potion wouldn't work.

We must observe this for a while now. And we worry about whether, if it doesn't go back within the next hour, we will let him die of blood poisoning, or whether we will give him something and accept the risks.

But I can't make the decision alone. It is a miracle that he survived the night. But if I'm completely honest, Albus, I don't know if what we're doing here is right. Although I couldn't do anything else.

Please call me if anything changes. I'll come back in about an hour."

An affected silence spread among those present. Everyone realized that the Severus were only torturing him, but they didn't have the heart to let him die in peace.

"Can you do this here, Minerva? I'd go to Tom's so I wouldn't be away too long."

Minerva just nodded while she renewed the water and cooled Severus's forehead.

She barely noticed that Dumbledore was leaving the room and the castle.

Minerva wanted to know more about Nagini's poison. Hopefully Dumbledore could find out something. Maybe Tom knew something about it himself.

She was with Severus with her thoughts and the question how it should go on now...

If even Poppy didn't have a solution. When even she thought the situation was almost hopeless. When she ruled out 99% of the possibility that Severus's body could not muster the strength to heal the injuries itself.

Was it too late then?

Couldn't anyone help him anymore?

What if he really couldn't make it?