Hazel had just left the Room of Requirement when Draco Malfoy stopped her on the stairs, looking frantic. He was rarely bothered, always having a snide remark on hand for any first-year who crossed his path. But tonight he was less than collected. Rattled, almost. "Professor Ashmore, you have to come with me. It's Professor Snape. He's in the Hospital Wing."
Her stomach dropped, Hazel assuming the worst. "Sev - Is he alright?" she asked, the two of them setting off in a new direction. "What happened?"
"I was patrolling the corridors when I heard the noise. A group of Gryffindors and Hufflepuffs, judging by their robes… They attacked him in the dungeons. Couldn't have been more than four or five of them. Professor Slughorn and I got him up to the Hospital Wing, and Madam Pomfrey told me to find you," Malfoy told her, his voice just as hurried as their footsteps.
Frowning, she moved aside a painting, holding it open and lighting her wand as they climbed into the passageway. "Poppy told you to find me? Severus would have -"
"They stunned him, Professor. At least I think. He's not conscious yet. We didn't have time to catch any of them. We had to get him to the Hospital Wing," Malfoy explained. "Don't worry, we'll find them. Pansy Parkinson is on it, and I'm going to get the other Prefects to join me."
"It's not finding them that I'm worried about right now, Draco." Malfoy hadn't doubted her loyalty, not since Snape personally assured the Death Eaters that she had renounced being an Auror, renounced her role in the Death Eater prosecutions that she had been a part of for years, and finally joined them. While she wasn't a regular at Malfoy Manor, he had seen her there once or twice. He respected her enough not to question her authority, which, coming from him, was enough. "Please just... tell me he was breathing when you left him."
"He was." Malfoy stopped in front of the doors to the Hospital Wing, adding, "I'm sorry, Professor. I'm going to get the other Slytherin Prefects and keep searching the castle for those kids. They'll be punished severely."
Hazel nodded, her hand already on the doorknob. "Thank you, Draco. Be careful. If they're willing to attack Professor Snape in the corridors, they won't hesitate to attack you either." Malfoy left as she walked in, Madam Pomfrey waving her over to a bed that she had sectioned off from all of the sick and injured students. "Poppy, how is he?"
Madam Pomfrey pulled back the curtain, revealing a peaceful-looking, if abnormally pale, Severus Snape. Hazel summoned a chair, sitting down beside him and taking his hand. He was no colder than normal, his hands covered in the usual nicks and cuts that came with brewing Potions. Even as Headmaster, he insisted that he spend some time on his Potions research, brewing everything by hand. Pianist's hands, she had always thought, though he had very little musical talent. "He'll live. One of them almost certainly hit him with a Stunning Spell, but I'm not quite sure what the other one was just yet. I don't think he'll need to go to St. Mungo's, but I want to be careful. Hopefully he'll wake up soon."
Going back to her rounds, Madam Pomfrey left her alone with him, promising to return within the hour. She had a child with Dragon Pox to check on, and another who needed his leg re-splinted. Hazel tenderly brushed the hair out of his face, whispering, "Sev, who would've done this to you?" She knew it couldn't have been anyone in Dumbledore's Army, since they had all been in the Room of Requirement at the time. Many of them would be the Carrows' first suspects, though.
In the quiet, she studied the moonlight reflecting off of his face, noticing the extra lines of stress the years had added. She remembered staring at him the same way in the moonlit Astronomy Tower, watching his lips move as he practiced incantations she had never heard of, let alone mastered. They had been sitting in the library, bathed in the warm glow of the candles that were always present but never seemed to endanger the books, when she first realized that she was smiling to herself as she watched him work. She'd swatted away the thought, at least until talk about the winter ball had begun. Pandora and Marlene were the first to bring it up. The three of them were in Transfiguration, whispering intently as McGonagall began to lecture. Pandora made the mistake of asking her if Sev was taking her to the ball just as Marlene raised her hand, so Hazel was saved from actually having to answer. Even so, the thought stuck with her, Hazel turning it over in her mind so often that she was incredibly relieved when he finally asked her.
Part of her wanted him to open his eyes, to know he was okay. Another part of her knew he needed the rest. Even on weekends, he could no longer roll out of bed as he pleased. He had to be up early. There was plenty to do running the school, plenty to take care of before breakfast. He was almost always up late. She would try to sit up with him, grading papers or doing research, but there were plenty of nights where she found herself going to bed alone. Hours later, the door would creak open, a sudden weight on the other side of the bed. She would reach out for him in her sleep, Sev never failing to plant a kiss on her cheek before he tried to fall asleep too. What little sleep he got was punctuated by nightmares, Hazel waking up with him every time. So part of her hoped he could rest now, even if it was like this. He had been working himself to the point of exhaustion, and all of the secret-keeping didn't help either. He could only truly relax when he was in his chambers, and even then, he was trying to scrounge up moments of sleep.
"Sev, I'm sorry," she said, running her thumb over his hand. "I'm sorry you have to do all of this." It was a crushing weight that had been thrust onto him by Dumbledore and Voldemort alike. "One day, I promise you, we'll have a house somewhere, maybe on the coastline like the one you were staying in over summer. We can spend our days doing whatever we want, and… maybe we won't wear black all of the time. We'll get a dog - I remember you saying you had always wanted a dog, back when we were what, sixteen? We'll get a dog, and we'll be able to do whatever we want and… you won't have to deal with all of this anymore. You won't have to constantly be looking over your shoulder. For your sake, I hope it's sometime soon, Sev." She sighed, looking out of the window, taking in the view of the castle grounds. It hurt. All of it hurt. When they were first learning Occlumency and Legillimency, she'd managed to flick through his memories. Painful as they were, she was positive that he had seen much worse since then. This was just one more thing to add to the "bad" pile.
Her thoughts were interrupted by the doors bursting open, the Carrows brushing past Madam Pomfrey and ignoring her pleas for quiet. "We're going to find out who did this," Alecto assured her, Hazel turning to look at them in shock. "They will be punished. Open defiance of the Headmaster will not be tolerated, I can assure you of that."
"Thank you, Alecto," Hazel said, trying to keep her voice down. Briefly making eye contact with Madam Pomfrey, she knew it was up to her to allay the situation and get them out of the Hospital Wing. "I would start by asking the portraits nearby if they saw who it was. Or have the Prefects ask. They may be able to give you something helpful. When Severus wakes up, well, hopefully he saw who did it."
Amycus assured her that they had already dispatched the Prefects to find whatever paintings, poltergeists, or prowling students they could round up to interview. For now they had jointly assumed the role of Head of Hogwarts, and they were going to stop at nothing to find the wrongdoers and bring whatever their twisted form of justice was. Hazel managed to get them out of the Hospital Wing fairly quickly, telling them they needed to work with Filch to be sure none of the other professors were attacked. This could be the start of a rebellion, after all.
With peace and quiet returned to the Hospital Wing, Hazel sat up for a while, watching Sev's chest steadily rise and fall. Unfortunately she had done this before. A couple of times. They both had. She had rushed him to the Hospital Wing after a particularly brutal attack by James Potter and his gang, both of them covered in blood but Sev sporting a broken nose. Madam Pomfrey had taught her how to fix some broken bones herself. It was a fairly simple spell, at least for them. When she'd taken a particularly nasty jinx in the Duelling Club, she'd woken to find him by her side, casually reading aloud for Arithmancy "so neither of us would be behind". Trips to the Hospital Wing weren't frequent, but they kept each other company when they happened.
Eventually she transfigured her chair into a far more comfortable armchair, falling asleep there and only waking when the sunlight began to stream in through the Hospital Wing's massive windows. "Poppy, I have classes to teach, but please send me an owl if anything happens, good or bad," she requested, taking off for their quarters so she could change before grabbing a quick breakfast.
It seemed like the day had been dunked in molasses, time dragging on until lunch. She let her class go a little early, telling them that they had done good work and to hurry on to the Great Hall for lunch. Instead of following, she went back to the Hospital Wing, but nothing had changed. "He's alright, he just hasn't woken up yet," Madam Pomfrey reported, shaking her head. "Hopefully soon."
It was well after dinner, Hazel in what had become her usual spot, when Sev squeezed her hand, coughing a weak, "Hazel? What happened?"
"Poppy, he's awake!" Madam Pomfrey rushed over with a Healing Draught and asked how he felt.
Amycus Carrow, who had just come to report to Hazel, jogged over at the first hint of commotion. "Who did this to you, Snape? Who was it?"
Sev sat up gingerly, Hazel putting an arm around him for support. "I… I don't remember. I can't remember." Amycus disappeared, obviously disgruntled by the news but intent on hunting down the perpetrators anyway. Sev glanced at Hazel, who instantly knew that he was covering for them. No matter what the students had done to him, he didn't want to see the Carrows have even more students to torture.
With Amycus gone, he downed the rest of the Healing Draught in peace and handed the bottle back to Madam Pomfrey, who went to check on a student with a promise that she would be back in a moment. "Hi," Hazel smiled, giving him a quick peck on the cheek. "I'm glad you're awake. You were starting to worry me there."
"I think you still have the longest record for being knocked out. The sixth year Duelling Club accident was three days, wasn't it?" he smiled, wincing as he tried to sit up further. "I feel like I fell down the grand staircase. Repeatedly."
"Yeah. But there was this really nice guy who… I swear someone was reading the Arithmancy book to me while I was out. I remember waking up and being a couple of chapters ahead of where I left off," she laughed, leaning in to give him a kiss. "Sev, we do have to talk about something sooner rather than later. Do you think this means you're no longer safe in your own school?"
He shook his head, telling her that, "I was distracted. Normally I would have been able to repel that kind of attack easily. I should be fine. There won't be a next time, don't worry."
"You know I'm always going to be worried about you. What had you so distracted that you didn't notice a couple of students sneaking up on you?"
"I was trying to figure out what to get you for Christmas."
Hazel couldn't help but smile, gently pulling him into a hug. "Be careful, Sev."