Chapter 25
The night had been a hard one for the two faeries that had been tasked with finding out the intentions of the wizard who was trying to find a way to get in contact with the faerie nation. Severus had developed a serious case of hypothermia following the trail that they had left for him to follow. If the tracking charm hadn't gone on the blink they might have made it to him before it had reached a level that had become severely dangerous to his health. An Outer Hebridean autumn was not something to be sniffed at, especially with the gale force wind, which was currently making the panes of the windows rattle, even behind the shutters. In this part of the world it was certainly going to be a cold winter, possibly the coldest in years.
The two of them had stayed by the man's bedside, ensuring that he was warming up properly throughout the night. Winifred had begun doing ten minute diagnostic charms as soon as he had been wrapped up sufficiently in the blankets and had continued until the early hours of the morning when he had started to sweat. At that point they knew that it was safe to begin taking off the blankets one at a time, until he was comfortable. Aldrich removed the man's shoes and placed them neatly at the foot of the bed before tucking his feet back under the covers. Winifred was a woman who had just lost her youngest child, well lost wasn't the real term she should be using, but it felt like a part o her had died when Rosaline had finally moved from the parental nest. As such for now at least she was desperate to fill the void with something, her instincts were telling her that this young man (and he was young) needed her and by the Goddess she would be there. The wind was changing, what it brought with it was any ones guess. Though those same instincts also told her whatever those were they were positive.
Between the two of them, they peeled his coat off, being careful not to wake him in the process. Severus would need all the sleep that he could get if he were to heal faster. Underneath that he wore a set of extremely elegant but uncomfortable looking teaching robes, not having anything in his side and feeling a little broody, Winifred looked through the clothes that her children had left here and found a pair of pyjamas that her eldest had once treasured. Aldrich had dissolved into giggles at the sight of them, resized and gracing the body of the grumpy and overly forma potions master. His reputation had preceded him.
Despite knowing that Severus wouldn't be happy when he woke up, her husband didn't say anything about the situation, after all he didn't want to get bitten.
"Duck pyjamas!" He whispered to himself incredulously as he folded the man's clothing placing it carefully on the top of the dresser for him to wear in the morning. .
There seemed to be no lasting damage that she could ascertain from the results of her scans, but it was likely that he would have some concentration problems today at least due to the fact that his brain had been much cooler than it should have been.
The small cottage was a holiday home that they had used much more frequently when the children were little. The Outer Hebrides were a very beautiful and remote place that on many of the islands were sparsely inhabited. A perfect place for a little flying in their true forms once they had reached majority. Due to it not being used very often now, they only kept the bare essentials here things that wouldn't go off in the time between visits; otherwise they might have had a pepper up potion to give him.
Winifred hauled herself up from the bed as the sun began to rise, heading off to the tiny little country kitchen off the living room to prepare them all something to eat. Something warm would do all three of them the world of good. It would also help her to keep her mind off what was going on. The situation was racked with enough worry as it was without her letting herself get wound up about it. All good things come to those who wait after all.
"Porridge it is then." She mumbled, opening the small bag the pair had brought with them from home, filled with food and two or three changes of clothing. They had been in a rush and Winifred prided herself on the fact that she had remembered to bring the bag with the cooling and stasis charms on it otherwise they might have nothing to eat. The corner or her top lip quirked, if they hadn't, she would have needed only to leave it outside. In fact the weather was probably colder than the charm in place to prevent the food from spoiling.
Aldrich sat on the comfy guest bed, rubbing his eyes in an effort to keep awake. Today it was vital that they find the truth. He could smell the scent of an unmated submissive all over the man, though it seemed to be fading. Obviously the man himself was not the submissive in question. It had been an unlikely thought, but many strange things seemed to be happening lately. Now that he had the chance to think about the situation properly, the man might be a father whose child had gone through a Faerie inheritance. There were plenty of Pureblood families out there that had a little bit of Fae in them no matter how 'pure' they claimed their blood to be. If it was so, an inheritance in this way hadn't happened for so long he couldn't even think of an example to compare it against. Out there somewhere was an unmated submissive who would need the support and guidance of his people in order to get through this. It was common knowledge that the wizards didn't have many books about his people and the ones that they had possessed, had mostly been destroyed during the creature hunts of the past thousand years.
On the bed, Severus began to stir, blankets twisting round him and black hair ruffling, to create bed hair of an epic state. The hair which was usually greasy due to the extensive amount of brewing that he participated in now resembled somewhat a bird's nest that had been involved with a hurricane. In short it was even worse than James Potter's after a Quidditch match. He groaned wherever he was, he was mafting. Rolling onto his side, he opened his eyes and was greeted by a colour that worried him. The walls of his own bedroom where a calm and stately gray, not as dark as one might think that helped him get to sleep and the walls of the school infirmary were a stark and sterile white. This was neither. He could only describe it as the most offensive shade of yellow he had ever had the misfortune of seeing in his life. Who painted bedrooms sunshine yellow, apart from Helga Hufflepuff?
For a moment he luxuriated in the comfort that the warmth of the blankets provided, he was absolutely not snuggling at all...
A bedroom was supposed to be a place of serenity and peace not a violent explosion of colour that fried you optic nerve as soon as you woke up. How anyone was supposed to sleep here was beyond him. A small cough and creak of bedsprings had him sitting bolt upright and searching for his wand. But the man sat on the end of his bed merely chuckled, before handing it to him from where it had been placed on the bedside table. He grabbed it out of the large outstretched hand feeling somewhat safe once again. The past couple of weeks had been an emotional rollercoaster and this 'kidnapping' was pulling him towards the end of his rope. Being nice to people was so exhausting.
"Severus, I have heard word that you have been searching for a way to get in touch with the Faerie's." His deep voice rumbled around the small room, echoing off its brightly coloured walls. Despite his years as a spy, the potions master was finding it hard to gather together any kind of response. Normally he would have been on his feet, with his wand at the neck of the strange by now, but nothing about his life seemed to be very normal at the moment. He had followed a trail into what could possibly be a trap, not left any word with his colleagues and now he was stranded here with two completely unknown people. People who apparently knew his name and some of the details of the mission that he was on. How he had survived this long in the civil war that had happened, he had no idea, if his skills had degraded to this level. "Why?" Of all the questions that he had expected this was not one of them.
"I'm a teacher at Hogwarts School and one of our students has been through an early creature inheritance that has resulted in him becoming a submissive faerie. I want to ensure that he has the right level of support." Severus explained, running his fingers gently through his hair to remove the snarls and tangles he had created during the night with his tossing and turning. Growling when his fingers met a specifically large tangle, he stopped to think how ridiculous he looked, tucked up in bed like a small child.
The door to the room opened and the woman from the night before came through, carrying a heavy wooden tray filled with breakfast for the three of them. Her auburn hair caught the faint light from the rising sun, making it glow. It was yet another reminder of the one who he had lost. No matter how hard he tried to push away her memory, it haunted him and there were times when he wondered whether she was haunting him, her ghost unable to rest until her son was safe. Such grim thoughts were not healthy so early in the morning. Winifred laid the tray on the bed, taking off a bowl of porridge and giving it to the man whose name he was yet to learn. Severus winced, the smell of smoked fish battering his sensitive nose. As the bowl passed by him, he was able to see the smoked kipper that lay on top of the mound of salted porridge.
Luckily such a breakfast had not been created for him, his bowl consisting of one of the other traditional ways of serving porridge. A mound of salted porridge made with water, which sat like a castle in the middle of a moat of milk. In the olden days, only English people made their porridge with milk and the Scottish had developed their own little customs around their staple food. Obviously trying to make it more interesting. He had read that somewhere in Scotland the dish used to be served with puffin a now rare seabird.
They ate in hurried silence, Severus anxious to get the meeting over with and return to the castle before the meddling headmaster had the chance to notice that he had gone. After all the teachers weren't technically allowed to leave the school without the Headmaster's knowledge but he sneaked out on a regular basis using one of the many hidden passages. It wouldn't do to be caught; he had to ensure that the old man believed that he was totally on his side, that he was loyal only to him. Over the years he had found out a lot of information this way. Albus finding out about the various trips he made out of school without his knowledge could lead to disaster.
"Severus and I had an interesting conversation earlier about why he is searching for us." Standing up and arching his back, causing it to crack loudly the man informed Winifred whose lightly wrinkled face was clenched in an expression of concern and slight aggravation.
"Will you stop that Aldrich? How many times has your healer told you not to do that? Do you want to slip a disk again?" Winifred admonished, her hands on her wide hips glaring at her mate with the ease that showed, this was a conversation that they had, had many times before. Aldrich as he was now named, had the grace to look sheepish, if at least for a moment, before explaining everything that they had discussed to her.
"That is a very rare occurrence; I don't think that something like this has happened for hundreds of years." She exclaimed, thin wrinkling hands twisting in the material of her flowered apron that she had been wearing since making breakfast, her unease at the situation they were in had made her forget to remove it. "A little hatchling..."Here she sighed and Aldrich pulled her into a warm cuddle, mouthing the words 'empty nest' to Severus who nodded. It was a phenomenon that almost all those who had had children felt when they had finally flown the nest. Such feelings were a byproduct of the fact that a parent spent so much time and effort on a child, that they stayed with their parents for so long and the deep emotional bonds between the two. "I think that once you've had the chance to get yourself ready that we should bring you before the Faerie court. They should be able to help you out more than we can." Aldrich stated, pointing at the tray and plates, banishing them to the kitchen sink to be washed later, drawing his wife towards the door. They would give him some time to prepare himself for the day ahead."I just want you to promise that your intentions are pure in this. I do not want my people put at risk!"
Severus nodded gravelly, pointing his wand to his heart.
"I Severus Tobias Snape, do hereby state on my magic that my intentions towards the Faerie people are pure and that I wish, at this point in time merely to find Harry James Potter the support and guidance that he needs to live a full life."