Thanks to everyone who read and reviewed. Yes, I know, it's been a long time, but real life is being annoying again.
Severus crossed his arms across his chest and scowled up at the ceiling. He didn't care what Molly said; he wasn't going to sleep. He couldn't go to sleep, not knowing that something bad had happened somewhere, Alastor was involved, and he had no idea what was really going on.
It wasn't like he had anyone that he could ask, either. Or no one useful, anyway, since Molly and Arthur obviously weren't going to tell him anything, Gideon was Alastor's partner and would therefore be with Alastor, Fabian must be up there too or Alastor would have just asked him to pick Severus up, and Caradoc should be with Fabian. And there weren't that many other people that he knew that were more than the most casual acquaintances. The only person that he could think of at all was Marlene, but it wasn't like he really even knew her except as Alastor's friend, and one didn't just go flooing one's guardian's friends in the middle of the night to ask random questions. Besides, there was no good reason to think that she had any idea what was going on either. She might work at the Ministry, but she wasn't an Auror herself or anything like that.
He sighed and scowled at the door. It was stupid. Why wouldn't Molly and Arthur say something about what was going on? Something a little more meaningful than 'don't worry,' preferably, since they obviously did know more than that and just didn't feel like sharing. He wasn't a child, and without any information, he was just stuck imaging things. And nothing he imagined that would keep an Auror so tied up was any good.
He rolled over and buried his face in the pillow. It might be stupid, especially for someone his age, but he wanted Alastor. And he wanted to go home. That had been the whole point of coming home from school over Easter, after all, to go home. After a few minutes, he rolled over onto his back yet again. This time he heard an answering rustling from Aberdeen's cage, and he sighed. "Sorry. I don't mean to keep you awake."
The same series of thoughts—well, unpleasant scenarios, mostly—ran in circles in his head, and he managed to completely miss the sound of footsteps on the stairs right up until the door opened. "Who's there?" he demanded as the hinge squeaked. Molly, the most likely person to be checking up one people in the middle of the night, would probably have announced herself, but maybe one of the boys—
"Severus? What in Merlin's name are you still doing up?"
"Alastor?" Severus took his hand off his wand and pushed himself into a sitting position.
"Aye." A tiny light globe activated on the ceiling. "Don't you know what time it is? You ought to have been asleep hours ago."
"I know it's late," Severus returned. "I couldn't sleep. Where were you? Nobody would tell me what was happening." The light wasn't bright enough for him to see Alastor's features very clearly, but from what little Severus could make out, he looked all right, at least.
Alastor shook his head. "Just a bit of a mess up north. It's dealt with now."
"That doesn't help," Severus muttered. In fact, the only reason that it was any more encouraging than the things that Molly and Arthur had been telling him earlier was because Alastor was the one saying it. It certainly didn't contain any more actual information. "Are Gideon and Fabian all right?" he asked.
"They're just fine. Caradoc and the others too. A few lumps scattered about here and there, but nothing that won't heal in time." There was the sound of a yawn, and then, "Lay back down, now. We could both use some sleep, I think."
"We aren't going home?" Severus asked, even as he slipped back under the blankets.
There was motion—Alastor drawing his wand, Severus realized—and then rustling as blankets unfolded and the second bed along the wall made itself up neatly. "Aye, and wouldn't up and disappearing in the middle of the night be a rude shock for Molly and Arthur tomorrow? We'll stay here tonight and give them a proper thanks and goodbye in the morning." Alastor patted Severus' chest lightly as he stepped past him. "Eyes closed, now."
"Will you tell me what happened tomorrow?"
"Eyes closed," Alastor repeated as he took off his cloak and leg and boot and lay down, not even bothering to transfigure the rest of his clothing.
That wasn't an answer any more than 'just a mess' had been, but Severus' eyes were starting to drift shut of their own accord as Alastor extinguished the light globe. He would ask again when they woke up…hopefully Alastor was just tired and would tell him a little more then.
Despite the tossing and turning that he'd done last night, Severus awoke before Alastor, and the first thing that he did was check and make sure that Alastor was really there. That his mind hadn't been playing some sort of sick joke on him because of exhaustion or something. But Alastor was still in the other bed, his breathing even and just shy of heavy enough to be called snoring, and Severus frowned. Now that the sun was up, he had a much clearer view of Alastor's features, and there was an ugly bruise across his jaw and what looked like blood on the shirtsleeve not tucked under his blanket. Dried blood, yes, but still blood, and whether it had been dried when he'd arrived last night….
Alastor shifted, muttering something unintelligible as Severus leaned forward to try and see if there was any blood on the blankets, and Severus stepped back quickly. This was the man that had charms on the door of his room; for all Severus knew, he had something similar on the cloak he'd hung over the headboard as well.
Severus checked Aberdeen quickly, promising her food when he had some, and then he went downstairs instead of staying in the room and risking waking Alastor up. Molly was up as well, mixing something on the stove, and he headed over to her. "Good morning. Can I do anything to help?"
"Oh, Severus, good morning. You startled me," Molly said. "But I suppose you could set the table, if you wouldn't mind. Do you remember where the dishes are? Is Alastor awake yet?"
"No." He shook his head. "I mean, yes, I remember where the dishes are, but no, Alastor is still asleep. I came down because didn't want to wake him." He pulled down a stack of dishes from the cabinet and then frowned. "How did you know he was here?" As far as he knew, Molly and Arthur had gone to bed at the same time he had, and he expected that they'd actually gone to sleep…maybe Alastor had stopped in to alert them to his presence before joining Severus in the spare room?
"He marked the floo." She gestured vaguely, but whatever Alastor had marked there, Severus couldn't make it out. "Oh, and if you wouldn't mind slicing some apples when the table is finished, I'd appreciate it."
He pulled a handful of silverware out of the drawer and began to sort it out. "Of course."
Arthur came in to greet Molly while Severus was still chopping up apples and then went to wake the boys, and Severus looked up at the sound of uneven footsteps on the stairs. He was glad to see Alastor up and moving, but navigating the steps seemed to be taking Alastor a lot longer than it should have, and when he reached the ground floor, Severus realized that he was limping and leaning on his cane a lot more heavily than usual. Severus put the knife in the sink—all but one of the apples were chopped; that should be plenty even with six people eating—and hurried over. "Alastor? Are you all right?"
"Good morning, and there's a good lad," Alastor said, accepting his arm. "You needn't worry; I'll be fine in an hour or two. My leg's just a bit stiffer than I expected this morning."
"Are you sure?" Severus asked as they made their way to the table.
Alastor nodded. "Aye. It won't be the first time that this has happened after a long night. But I'm thinking that Gideon's idea of a short holiday after all of our paperwork is complete might be one of his better ones. Not that I'm up for making any long journeys, but I daresay that you and I could amuse ourselves around the house for a few days before I have to go back in." He paused for a moment, getting himself settled in one of the wooden chairs and leaning his crutch against the tabletop. "Unless you've made plans with your friends, of course. You've a perfect right to get out and about if you choose."
Severus shook his head and once again kept himself from pointing out that he didn't really have much in the way of friends. A couple of days just spending time with Alastor sounded pretty good to him.
"Oh, Molly, is there anything we can do?" Alastor asked as she turned away from the stove with the pot of porridge in her hands. "I'm sorry, I intended for us both to be headed home yesterday evening instead of imposing on you, but—"
She shook her head. "Oh, no, you're no imposition. I know as well as anyone that plans can change. And Severus has already been very helpful this morning, although if you wouldn't mind moving the fruit to the table?"
Severus did as she asked before Alastor could rise, and Arthur brought the boys in for breakfast a few minutes later. He had better sense than to try asking Alastor any more about what had happened yesterday in front of a couple little kids—or, for that matter, in front of Molly—so he answered a few questions about school and his ride on the Hogwarts Express, sidestepped a few others, and concentrated on keeping Molly from heaping extra food on his plate when he wasn't looking.
"'It's fine now' isn't an answer," Severus said, crossing his arms over his chest. He knew that he sounded sulky, and that wasn't the impression that he wanted to give, but he couldn't help it. They'd floo'd home from the Weasleys' shortly after breakfast, and Alastor had almost immediately retired to his room for a few more hours of sleep. Severus hadn't begrudged him that, especially since he'd taken a short nap on the couch himself in the middle of chapter three of the book he'd grabbed, but when Alastor had joined him in the sitting room a few hours later, Severus had been more than willing to put down his book in favor of getting some actual answers about what had happened yesterday. Unfortunately, all of his attempts to get those answers were failing miserably because Alastor wasn't cooperating any more than Molly and Arthur had been, and Severus' frustration was about to boil over. Just because it was done with didn't mean that he didn't want to know what had happened. Sure, he was fine with not knowing all of the gory details, but Alastor could at least admit that some kind of a fight had happened. Which, when he thought about it, was yet another opening. "You didn't get those bruises on your face because you tripped and fell in a ditch," he pointed out.
"That's enough," Alastor said firmly before Severus could bring up the dried blood as well, pushing himself up out of his chair and turning towards the kitchen. "No more questions. I told you, there is nothing more to discuss. Now, I'm going to check the preserver and make a list; we'll need to go to the market this afternoon. At the very least, I know we need bread and jam. If there's anything in particular you want let me know, otherwise you need to take your cloak to your room and hang it up properly."
Severus scowled at the cloak lying across the back of the couch. That wasn't exactly where it was supposed to go, maybe, but Alastor had never minded him leaving it there on any other occasion, which made it an even worse excuse to end the conversation that it sounded like on the surface. "I don't need anything, and yes there is more to discuss," he pressed. "Saying 'It's fine now' doesn't just magically make it so. Not any more than it makes it an answer."
Alastor turned back to him with a frown. "It is nothing that you need to concern yourself with, then. Do as you're told."
Severus pushed himself up off the couch and grabbed his cloak. "This isn't fair, you know." He didn't miss the clench of Alastor's jaw, and he had no idea where the sudden streak of boldness was coming from, but after yesterday, he was well and truly tired of getting the equivalent of a pat on the head and being told to run and play so he went with it. "I'm not a little child, and it's not fair that all of you treat me like one. Plus, I'm not stupid." He frowned. "No one is that stupid, actually. I know bloody well what bruises and dry blood look like, and those don't just go away because you say so either."
"I suggest that you watch your tone, lad."
Severus ignored the warning in his voice. "Something happened up north—wherever the hell 'up north' actually is—and I'm not just going to stick my fingers in my ears and pretend that everything is perfect when it isn't! I'll go to Diagon Alley and ask for myself if I have to. Or Knockturn, they'll know for sure there."
"You'll do no such thing," Alastor snapped. "What you will do is go to your room and stay there for a bit until you calm down. Am I making myself clear?"
"I want to know what's going on!" Severus barely refrained from stamping his boot. He really wanted to, but his whole point was that he wasn't a child, so…. "I'm not allowed to just make things up when I want to, so why are you?"
"I said that this conversation is over," Alastor said, his voice just below what would be considered a shout. "What happened does not concern you. Now, go to your room."
"No!" Severus had no idea what possessed him to say that—directly disobeying Tobias Snape had never lead to anything but immediate, painful consequences, and his grandfather had never hesitated with his curses when Severus' demeanor had even hinted at defiance—but what he'd said was true enough. Besides, now that it was out of his mouth he might as well keep talking because if Alastor was going to punish him for disobedience, he'd be better off getting everything else out too and having it over with all at once. "I have to answer when you ask questions, and I'm not allowed to lie. Why do you get to? Because whatever happened yesterday, it definitely wasn't—and probably still isn't—fine. And you know it."
Alastor's hands opened and shut, and Severus made himself hold his ground. Not that it would do one bit of good if Alastor really lost his temper, in fact it would probably be the exact opposite, but he wasn't going to fidget or act as though he'd done anything wrong when he hadn't.
