Ch. 25 High-tops and Quests
The flash of green faded and now instead of his office Severus looked out into a dark room. As he stepped out of the hearth he lifted his now illuminated wand and looked around. The room looked just had he had left it last August, floor to ceiling bookshelves stuffed with books, several of which strewn across every surface of the study.
Walking over to a small table he saw the last book he was reading still open, on the page he last studied. Picking it up he looked at his hand written notes in the margins, his last minute revisions of potions for the upcoming year. When he penned those notes, he had no idea how this year would be so different then he could have ever expected. How he had no clue that a strange woman with no memory and strange unknown powers would completely change his life, his mind, and his heart in six short months. Now that woman lay in a bed uncurious and getting sicker every second he wasted. Severus gulped hard as he thought of what he could lose. Quickly his mind went back to its business at hand. Throwing the book back down on the table, Severus turned quickly and walked out of the study though the dank hallway and turning up a steep set of stairs.
Reaching the top of the stairs Severus walked towards a door on the left hand side of the hallway. For the past fourteen years Severus had not entered this room. Once his mother had passed, he took up residence in her room whenever he was home, which was only during the summer. Even then, it was more common that he would be out of town on a quest to find a rare potion formula or materials, and if he was at home, he would sleep in the studies' chair or sofa only when the need for sleep took him over.
Opening the door Severus stepped into a small grimy gray room; on one wall was a dark dresser and desk which still had his old book sack from his days at Hogwarts laying on it, parchment rolls spilling out. Across the room a small decrepit looking bed was pushed against the far corner, a faded and old Slytherin quilt was laid over it. The window had nothing on it, but the grime let little light if anything else in and a naked light bulb hung from a wire in the center of the room. Severus stood at the door way for a monument allowing his past to hit him in the face. His years in this room were far from happy, though most of his life was far from happy. Well, at least until now.
Taking a deep breath he walked into the room. He had a mission. Tabatha needed him and he had to succeed. Thanks to Potter's comment that Tabatha had not been a witch for very long Severus had surmised that Tabatha had been afflicted with a crossed breed of some muggle and magical illness. Something that was president and dangerous, as far as anyone understood, the two different types of illness did not intermingle. Muggles got muggles diseases. Magical folk, magical diseases and each were treated in their corresponding ways.
To help Tabatha a third option had to be created, something that dealt both with muggle physiognomy and magical folks as well. In short, Severus had to reinvent magical medicine and to do that, he had to understand what this 'Pneumonia' was and how it was treated for muggles before he attempted to incorporate magic into it. To accomplish that that, he was going to have to be educated in the ways of muggle medicine. He would have to get into a muggle medical library. Luckily for him and Tabatha, the University of Manchester's School of medicine was not far from the spinner's end.
Having grown up close to the University, Severus knew that they let non-students into their library. However, he was not so sure how they would approach someone that was dressed in his attire. To get into the library he would have to pass off as a muggle, and to do so he would have to dress like one. Walking over to the dark dresser Severus flung open the doors and peered into his closet.
Reaching in he grabbed his old Hogwarts uniform. As he held it in his hand Severus felt nostalgia wash over him. Those seven years seemed to have happened yesterday, but also felt a million years ago. Hogwarts had held some of his best and worst experiences, but he felt it was home to him much more than the room he was currently standing in. His hand clutched the dark gray sweater with the sliver and green collar tightly. Finally he placed the sweater down and started to unbutton his over coat.
Severus stared at himself in the mirror over the desk. Evidently he had not grown much over the years. The sweater still fit him as perfectly as it did when he was seventeen. In fact, Severus looked very much like he did back then and that, in a way, unnerved him. No matter how cold, calculating, stern or sarcastic he was, this shy socially awkward boy he tried so hard to destroy still existed. Looking down his frame Severus paused at the dark black slacks and shoes.
"No," he thought to himself, "these won't do," and he walked back over to his closet and pulled out a dark pair of jeans and an old pair of converse high-tops, which he proceeded to put on.
Again he stood in the mirror, the sneakers and jeans added just the right touch of informality most muggles had nowadays. Pushing his hair behind his ears he added the final touch, a black cap. Walking over to the desk he picked up his book bag, moved to the bed, and emptied its contents over the old blanket before shoving the book he brought with into it. Then again he crossed the small room and pulled the desk draws open, rifling through it, finally pulling out a standard muggle note book and pen that he again shoved into his bag. In his final cross of the room he knelt down and pulled an old wood floor board loose and reached in, pulling out a small glass jar full of muggle money. Opening it up he took a hand full of it, shoved it into his pockets and replaced the jar.
Once the floor board was in place Severus grabbed his old book bag and quickly walked out of the room. It would be dawn soon, and it would take a bit of time to make it to the university library via muggle transportation. Severus didn't want to risk anything by using magic to get there; just in case he was found out it would be hard to explain why he was bopping in and out of muggle medical schools. With that he made his way down stairs and opened the front door, ready to continue his quest.