I'm so glad that traffic is going up and reviews are almost completely positive.
Also, about grammar- English isn't my first language, and living in Russia, I get little exposure to it. Like, almost none. I do my best, but often when I look back at what I've written, it's a complete... aaah. Facepalm. So, I'll try. Привет from Moscow!
Evanescence- Hello
Playground school bell rings- again
Rain clouds come to play- again
Has no one told you she's not breathing?
Hello, I'm your mind, giving you someone to talk to
Hello
If I smile and don't believe
Soon, I know, I'll wake from this dream
Don't try to fix me, I'm not broken
Hello, I'm the lie living for you so you can hide;
Don't cry
Suddenly I know I'm not sleeping
Hello, I'm still here
All that's left of yesterday
Acting fast now -the footsteps were getting louder as the humming got quiet and, eventually, faded- Severus maneuvered Aly around, picking her up. She groaned, clawing at his shoulder. The pain in her stomach was freezing cold, as if a blade of ice had been imbedded in her.
Filch rounded the edge of the stairs and stopped, his stringy hair blowing around his face in the wind, and stared, confused. Severus shook his head and strode off the platform, away from those questioning eyes.
He had to get help, but... Madam Pomfrey, he knew, had a way of knowing everything that was going on in a person's body. And they couldn't have that.
What, then? Muggle doctors?!
Aly moaned as he missed a step, reflexively tightening his grip on her.
Through teeth squeezed together, she hissed "Hospital wing, I don't care what happens after."
Severus bit his lip, knowing he had no choice, but still searching for a way out. It wasn't that he was afraid of someone knowing that she was pregnant - they could always say that the child wasn't his.
What he was scared of was watching the nurse work her magic... and not say anything about how she could hear a second heartbeat, or sense the other living thing inside of Aly.
Stop putting it off and get help. he told himself, forcing his mind to go silent.
Hitting the bottom of the stairs, he turned a right and ran down the almost-empty hall, the few students he passed stopping in their tracks to stare and continuing on when he scowled at them, never slowing. He just hoped they wouldn't run into one of Aly's friends. They did not need an entourage.
Luckily, he made it there without meeting any of them. Inside the big room, lit by the sun's last rays, Pomfrey fussed over a green-looking girl.
The second she saw him come in, she gasped, her thin hands clapping together. "Professor Snape, what happened?" she asked as she ran forward, the delicate features of her face creased with worry and age.
"She fell and took a hit to the stomach when she landed on a railing with a lot of force." he said, the lie bitter and detailed, to avoid further questioning.
"Oh, my!" Pomfrey gestured at the cot closest to them. As he carefully lay her down, Severus realized Aly was no longer conscious.
Taking a seat on the next bed over, he watched Poppy do her thing. After some time, she was looking quite worried. "Nothing we can't heal, but... damage to the uterus can be dire." for a second Severus held his breath, wondering is she knew.
The nurse continued. "Good thing I'm here. I was just about to go off for supplies. Now, don't take offense, this is standard procedure. You wouldn't happen to know if she was carrying a child?"
Severus sputtered. "No. But that is not something one typically shares with her Professor."
"Well, if she were, I'm afraid the baby would be beyond helping. Matters of the reproductive system are delicate."
Severus felt as if the wind had been knocked out of him. He was suddenly very glad that Aly wasn't awake to hear this.
It's over. he thought, cradling his head in his hands. Gone.
When Aly resurfaced from the world of unattainable thoughts and shadows, the first thing she felt was something cold and minty being rubbed into the skin on the front of her hips, every slight movement sending twinges of pain up her spine. She didn't open her eyes as the small hands of Madam Pomfrey kept rubbing the gel in, the coolness penetrating deeper, under her skin and into her bruised muscles.
She, somehow, knew that the baby was gone. Not so much of a feeling- she just knew.
No. That's not true.
Squeezing her fists, she fought to keep from crying out. This was the very same abortion, except she hadn't wanted it.
It's still alive, I didn't get hit that hard.
"Just rest." a woman's voice muttered. "Everything will be healed up in a matter of hours."
Just some bruises.
Small, quiet footsteps retreated. Aly knew without looking that Severus was getting up from somewhere next to her.
It's still alive!His footsteps walked around her, followed by the slight noise of a curtain being closed.
Right?
"I'm sorry, Aly." Severus said.
Aly allowed her face to contort into grief. Even if the pregnancy hadn't been around for long, she had spent so much time wondering about the baby- the gender, the personality, what house it would be sorted into, who it would look like- that it felt as if she had lost a child that's been with her for years. The little boy she had pictured, with black-as-coal hair, brown eyes, and a button nose, now didn't have a chance of existing.
Severus's rough hand touched one of her fists, and she let it relax, still not wanting to open her eyes and see that yes, she really was awake and not pregnant anymore and in the hospital wing.
As tears slipped out of the corners of her eyes, her throat squeezed tight, she wanted to kill. Destroy. But most of all, she wanted to feel Severus's arms around her. See that he also grieved, that the baby had meant something to him, too. She opened her eyes.
In the little space made by the curtain, Snape leaned over her, his eyes sad and his mouth hanging slightly open. Aly whimpered.
"I'm here." he said, quiet so that nobody would overhear. On the other side of the room, Madam Pomfrey clucked, casting pitying glances at the little closed-off rectangle of white cloth. She guessed that maybe Severus had known something.
"We'll get through this."
Inside, Aly allowed herself to be overrun by emotion. In what seemed like forever, the storm quieted, leaving her to face the truth and move on. The kid's gone. No use dwelling on it.
"It's okay." she whispered. "It's better this way."
He shook his head. She was right. They would have had to get rid of it either way, and at least now they had something other then themselves to blame. Fate is cruel in it's methods.
Knowing it was useless taking Aly back to Spinner's End, that night Severus packed up her things, took the portraits off the walls - he wanted to hang them in his rooms- and returned to Hogwarts.
Aly was kept sleeping in the infirmary for the weekend, and he stayed with her, making lesson plans for the upcoming classes and dozing in a chair when awakening spells were not enough.
Her friends' visits were mostly short - the girls had a way of coming whenever Aly had just fallen asleep, and, when they did come while she was awake, he gave them privacy.
Seeing the looks on their faces when they left, he realized they had known. Well, of course. But, through the obvious sadness, he could see relief.
He couldn't not agree. This way, Aly hadn't had to make the decision- it was made for her. Which probably saved a whole lot of nerves from being fried alive.
That evening, on Sunday, Aly was finally allowed to move back to her rooms. Then when the students came sailing back, an hour before dinner, she walked down with him to meet them. Not that he was exactly happy to see the mass of giddy kids. In fact, both of them had to try hard not to look at the young, cheery first-years, the sight being too much. One little boy, to her, seemed especially like the child she had imagined.
Aly turned her head, looking up at the Astronomy Tower as the students pooled onto the dock.
Short, but there wasn't much left to say.
-Val