Author's Note: I'm going on a girls trip to Savnnah tomorrow with my bestie. I'll only be gone one night but thought I would go ahead and post two chapters for yall tonight since tomorrow I'll be on a hearse ghost tour (apparently thats a thing). Cheers and dont forget to review! thanks!
Days passed in much the same way, an endless stream of Healers and sleeping potions. Freddie woke one morning to find a familiar set of dark eyes watching her.
"Professor Snape," she gasped, sitting up in bed. "What – did they find-?"
He shook his head and she deflated.
"What are you doing here?" she asked.
"It's Christmas. I thought – well, Dumbledore thought-"
"You'd come visit me in the loony bin?" she asked dryly.
"It's not a loony bin, Gray, it's- I could leave, if you prefer."
"No," she said quickly, grabbing his hand. "Stay please. Thank you for coming."
"Well I haven't got anywhere else to go," he said, sitting down in the chair next to her bed.
"It's Christmas?" she asked.
"It is."
"I didn't realize..."
She looked around the room at all the decorations. The curtains around some of the other beds were open around the ward. Patients visiting with their families.
She looked at Snape, who seemed so out of place.
"My loony bin friends," she told him, nodding around the room. "That's Agnes – failed Animagus transformation." The fur-covered woman was visiting with a young man who must be her son. She was barking excitedly, her tail wagging under her robes. "She can't talk, only bark. She's been here for years, they can't fix her. That bed there-" she pointed to a bed where the curtains were drawn. "-that's William. Shoddy Memory Charm. Can't remember his own name. His memory resets every 10 seconds. Like a goldfish. That woman there with the weepy boyfriend? Messed up Draught of the Living Death. They think she might've tried to kill herself. She's been here 3 months and they can't wake her."
Snape shook his head slightly.
"Those two down there, with the old lady and the little boy? That's Frank and Alice. They've been here the longest. They don't talk to understand anything. They were-"
"Tortured," he finished quietly. "By a Death Eater named Bellatrix Lestrange."
"Oh. Right," she said, glancing at his left arm which he flexed absently.
"Would you like to have some tea?" he asked abruptly.
"You hiding the house elf under your robes?" she asked, quirking her eyebrow.
"No. Upstairs. There's a tea room."
"I'll have to ask Miriam if I'm allowed," she said, looking around for the witch. "I haven't been allowed to leave the ward before."
"Since when do you ask anyone's permission?" he teased.
She smiled slightly, but it felt forced.
"Miriam," Freddie said, waving her over.
"Merry Christmas, Winnie," Miriam said brightly. Her robes were decorated with Christmas trees and she had tinsel in her hair. "How are we today? Is this your brother?"
Snape made a face and Freddie chuckled.
"This is Professor Snape," she introduced. "From Hogwarts. I'm his apprentice. He's Potions Master."
"Wonderful to meet you, Professor," Miriam said, shaking his hand. "I'm so glad Winnie has a visitor for Christmas! How kind of you to come."
"Winnie?" Snape repeated, looking down at Freddie with an amused expression. She ignored him.
"Snape wants to know if we can go upstairs to have tea, mum," she asked Miriam hopefully.
"Of course, sweetie. You'll look after her, won't you dear?" Miriam asked, putting a hand on Snape's arm.
"I always do," he said a bit stiffly.
Miriam smiled kindly at him then went to fetch a robe for Freddie. It was a light-purple robe, the color that represented patients of the Janus Thickey Ward. Freddie got out of bed and Miriam helped her put the robe on.
"Thanks mum," Freddie said, tying the sash around her waist.
"Have fun you two," Miriam said cheerfully.
Freddie followed Snape out of the room and down the hall.
"Did you call that Healer 'mom'?" he asked as they walked.
"Mm. She's nice. She's been taking care of me, standing up for me, especially when my uncle..." she trailed off and grimaced. "I don't want to talk about it right now."
"Okay. That's okay," he said. They reached the end of the hall and were met with a locked door. Snape pulled out his wand and unlocked the door. They went through it and he re-locked the door. Freddie glanced back at the door as Snape led her away. She hadn't realized she was locked in. The thought annoyed her, just a little bit.
"Your hair is different," Snape said as they climbed the stairs.
"Yeah. It was an accident, sort of. Do you like it?" she asked, brushing a strand behind her ear.
"I have no opinion regarding your hair, Miss Gray."
"Can you- will you call me Freddie? Please? It's Christmas, we're not at school. I'm stuck in the loony bin with a ton of Healers calling me Miss Gray and asked me a million questions, except for Miriam. She calls me Winnie but that's still not my name."
"Neither is 'Freddie'," he pointed out. "I will call you 'Miss Gray' or I will call you Winifred. I do not do nicknames."
"You can call me Winifred, I guess...if I can call you Severus."
"No," he said.
"Please?"
"No."
"Just for today. It's Christmas."
"Fine," he said with a sigh. "For Christmas."
"Yay. Thank you, Severus."
"Ugh," he said, but she saw a hint of a smile as they entered the tearoom.
They both got a cup of tea. Snape got a raspberry scone and offered her one. She shook her head no.
"You should eat something, Winifred. A scone, cookies. Whatever you want."
"I just want tea," she muttered, looking around the crowded room. Patients and their families, sitting around, eating and chatting happily.
"They told me you haven't been eating well. You need to start eating if you want to return to school."
"Doesn't matter," she muttered.
"You don't want to come back to school?"
Freddie didn't answer. Snape put a second scone on the tray and paid the witch at the counter. He looked around a moment then led Freddie to a small table in the corner near the gift shop.
They sat and Freddie took a sip of her tea, not bothering to put sugar in it. She couldn't really taste it anyway.
"You don't want to come back to school?" he repeated. "Winifred?"
"I don't know," she mumbled. "I don't know when they'll let me leave, if they'll let me leave. I still can't remember..."
Snape sighed and sipped his tea. He grimaced.
"Ugh. I should have brought Noelle with me," he said and Freddie smiled slightly. "You need to return to school, Winifred. You have potions to tend to."
"My Felix Felicis," she gasped. "Is it-?"
"I've been tending to it, along with my own very busy schedule. There's been a bout of flu around the castle and several younger students developed Dragonpox before the holiday."
"Oh so you need me to come back?"
"I did not say that...but it will be nice to have my assistant back."
Freddie chuckled hollowly. She picked up a scone and took a bite. She forced herself to chew it but her mouth felt dry. She took another drink of tea.
Freddie looked out the window across the room. It was snowing heavily.
"You carried me through the snow," she said softly. She looked back at Snape who looked visibly uncomfortable. He took a drink of tea.
"You're heavier than you look," he said sardonically.
"Did you just call me fat, Severus Snape?" she demanded, laughing slightly. It felt good to laugh.
"Hmph," he said, looking down his nose at her.
"Well," she said, taking another bite of her scone. "You're stronger than you look."
Snape looked uncomfortable again and Freddie laughed at his expense.
"So," she said, changing the conversation. "You haven't screwed up my potion have you?"
"As if," he snorted. "I saved your potion."
"My hero," she said sarcastically, then smiled.
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They talked about potions for a while. Snape refilled their tea and brought a bottle of grape juice. They continued talking and Freddie took a sip of juice to see if it tasted any better to her than the tea. It didn't.
"That's mine," Snape said, taking the bottle from her. "Get your own."
"I can't, I live in a loony bin now, they won't let me have any money – or a wand."
"Stop saying that," he said, wiping the mouth of the bottle on his sleeve before taking a sip.
"Did you just wipe that? I don't have cooties, Severus."
"You sound like a child," he snorted. "You are a child."
Freddie scoffed.
"Well not 'cooties' then. But you know insanity isn't contagious."
"You're not insane, Winifred, you're...traumatized."
Freddie's smile faltered.
"Yeah," she said softly, gazing back out the window at the snow. "...They've stopped looking? Haven't they?"
"We don't have to talk about that," Snape said quietly.
"They think I killed him. My aunt and uncle. They wanted to celebrate," she said bitterly.
"Is that why they aren't here?"
"I attacked my uncle. I didn't mean to, but it happens, you know...when I'm angry."
He nodded silently, sipping his juice.
"I don't feel bad about it," she said with a shrug. "I'm glad they're not here. I don't feel bad about knocking him on his fat ass."
"You don't have to," Snape said, then set his juice down and stood up. "Wait here a moment."
Freddie swiped his juice as he walked away and took a sip. She didn't wipe the mouth of the bottle, she didn't care about his spit. Well actually, she thought and smiled to herself slightly, licking her lips.
She had tried not to give much thought about her return to Hogwarts. She hadn't wanted to imagine going back to class, walking around the school, going to class, without Daniel. She couldn't imagine facing their friends, his friends, Heather...poor Heather...
But it would be nice to have my assistant back...
Snape's words echoed in her mind. Seeing him today reminded her, reminded her that she loved school. Imagining being back in the lab, side by side with Snape, working on potions with him, was the only thing that made her feel not-terrible for the first time in weeks.
Snape sat back down and placed a gift bag in front of her.
"What's this?" she asked, putting the juice down.
"A gift," he said. "It is Christmas."
"But I don't have anything for you," she protested.
"Just open the damn bag, Winifred."
Freddie chuckled and opened the bag. Curious she pulled out something furry and looked it over. A golden cat-like creature with large ears, like a house elf, and a tail like a lion.
"A kneazle," she said, surprised and amused.
"It was that or a teddy bear, which looks nothing like an actual bear," he said, finishing off his scone.
"Thank you, Severus," she said, hugging the stuffed creature. "That was really sweet of you."
He shrugged uncomfortably.
"Eat your scone," he muttered.
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