"Normal speech"
Thoughts
"Mental speech"
"Non-English speech"
Disclaimer: I do not own Harry Potter. J.K. Rowling, her publishers, and Warner Brothers own Harry Potter.
Chapter 56
Before going to see Madame Pomfrey, Severus returned to the dungeons. Reaching his office, Severus paused in front of the far wall, which held rows and rows of shelves holding jars of various potions ingredients. He carefully examined the wall and the floor in front of it, checking the state of his wards. Satisfied that they were undisturbed, he spoke the first password, "Suffer the slings and arrows of outrageous fortune."
One of the shelves moved to the left to reveal an ornate wooden door behind it. Again, Severus paused to confirm that nothing had been disturbed before saying, "Sinon." There was a tiny click. Severus opened the door, waving a hand absently. The torches on the walls flared to life, revealing a large, cluttered sitting room. Stacks of books lay piled on the floor, with the occasional roll of parchment or quill next to them.
Expertly navigating around them, Severus stalked over to his bedroom. He removed the shrunken form of his old, battered trunk from his pocket, and placed it carefully on the floor. With a wave of his hand, the trunk returned to its normal size. He opened his trunk and began to unpack. He paused when he reached the only two new items.
After a moment's consideration, Severus placed the parseltongue box on a shelf in his sitting room. He had finally, after countless hours of practice, managed to get the blasted thing to open about half the time.
He wanted to place the container holding the horcrux on the nightstand in his bedroom.
He put it in a hidden drawer of his desk instead.
For good measure, Severus locked the drawer and vanished the key. He had found himself prone to staring longingly at the box several times since his near-possession. For all that Gellert had warded it against his opening it, he did not fully trust himself with it. Even so, he could not bring himself to surrender the horcrux to Gellert's safekeeping. And, as Gellert did not think to offer, Severus did not ask.
Severus did not know if the pull was exacerbated by the Rod of Paracelsus being his, his reward for years of hard work and brilliance, an acknowledgement from the world that yes, his life had meaning, or if the lure were simpler, a chance to live unhindered by his physical and emotional deterioration.
Late at night, he had lain in bed considering means to dissolve the protections that Gellert had placed. What a wizard can make, another can unmake. He hated himself for it, wishing he could break its hold on him, knowing that he was tempting fate.
In the end, it did not matter. He was tempted. He wanted the Rod of Paracelsus back.
It is fortunate, then, that I am accustomed to being denied that which I desire.
Severus returned to his bedroom. After a few more minutes, he had finished his unpacking. He sighed. Another year at Hogwarts.
There was a flash of flame, and Hellspawn appeared.
"You should not be here," Severus said. "Now that you are visible, you even more of a liability than you were before."
"I can stay in your bedroom," Hellspawn huffed. "It's not like anyone else ever comes in here."
He scowled. "Gellert will be doing more interesting things now that the school year has resumed."
"And I will visit him when I get bored.
"As you please, of course," Severus replied drily.
Hellspawn flew to the sitting room and looked around. "You know, this is even less tidy than I remembered. Maybe I'll clean while I wait for you to get back."
"You do realize that I know how to kill you now," Severus drawled. "Move anything, and I will be delighted to demonstrate."
"But it's so messy!" Hellspawn whined. "At least call a house elf."
"I know exactly where everything is," Severus retorted. And the Hogwarts house elves ultimately report to the headmaster or headmistress. "In any event, I have an appointment with Madame Pomfrey. Try not to burn anything while I'm gone."
-DVDVDV-
"Do you want the good news or the bad news first?" Pomfrey asked after reviewing the results of her diagnostic spells.
Severus shrugged, not caring. "Is it anything I am not already aware of?"
Pomfrey sighed. "No, probably not. Well, the good news is that your Enobarbas progression seems to have slowed. A new variant of your potion, I assume?" she asked, and he nodded. "Thought so. Normally, that would give you another couple of years, but then we come to the bad news. You've taken a considerable amount of wear and tear since I last saw you. Do I want to know what happened?"
The Dark Lord happened. "No," Severus replied.
Pomfrey hummed noncommittally. "Regardless, you need to cease doing whatever it is that's causing that damage. It's completely undone the progress you made. I want you here for monthly check-ups, not just once per term. If I don't see an improvement, I'll be sending you to St. Mungo's."
Damn it. "No, you will not," Severus said firmly.
"I can and I will," Pomfrey argued. "Whatever you are doing is killing you. I cannot in good conscience allow it to continue."
"Poppy," Severus said, annoyed, "you know as well as I do that I have been living under a death sentence since I was sixteen years old. You also know what occurred at the end of last term. Either the Enobarbas will kill me, or the Dark Lord will. In either case, I will not waste what little time I have left in a hospital."
Pomfrey sighed. "You have three years, maybe four, if you don't do anything to exacerbate your condition. If this summer is your new standard, you will be dead within a year. A year, Severus!" Tears glistened in her eyes.
Severus nodded. "I know."
Pomfrey sighed. "I won't send you to St. Mungo's, though Merlin knows I should. But you will come and see me monthly, understand?"
"That is acceptable."
"Anything you want me to tell the headmistress?" she asked.
"Tell her nothing."
"And when you die on her watch? What do I tell Minerva then?"
"Tell her to protect my Slytherins. Remind her that one-quarter of all eleven-year-olds cannot be evil." Severus gave a small, crooked smile. "Tell her that not only Gryffindors are brave. Let her know that I did not go gentle into that good night."
A/N:
"Suffer the slings and arrows of outrageous fortune" is a line from Hamlet's "To be or not to be" soliloquy.
"Sinon" is a character from the Aeneid. A Greek spy in the Trojan War, he pretended to be a deserter and convinced the Trojans that the Trojan Horse was a gift to the gods.
Severus's last line is a quote from Dylan Thomas's poem "Do not go gentle into that good night."
Please review!
