silentC: I didn't want Jen just to be a killing machine.
Sorry I didn't update yesterday, I was having a party.
I could hear Harry and Ron outside the door, waiting. Soon, they grew impatient and knocked. I yelled hoarsely, my voice taken by fear. They ran in, and their eyes opened wide, in fear or disbelief I do not know. I was pale and clammy, stuck to my bed by pain.
Harry was the first to awake, yelling to Ron, "Go get someone!" Ron stood for a minute but eventually ran. Harry came and sat on my bedside, holding my hand asking what was wrong. Soon Hermione came to the door. Her eyes widened, her hands flew to her face before she disappeared again.
Ron came back with Professors Dumbledore, McMonagall, Sprout, Snape and Madam Pomfrey. Severus walked slowly to the other side of my bed and took my other hand, kneeling down to my level. Hermione came after that with a pile of books in her hands. Dumbledore began to talk but Severus interrupted.
"She has cancer, Albus," he said in a flat dull voice. Hermione dropped her books, Harry held tighter to my hand, Ron looked puzzled, and the professors stayed blank. "It's a muggle disease where one's bodily cells grow out of control. She's had it for a long time."
The jackal headed death stands in the corner, waiting. He's ready to take me, and I'm ready to come. But Severus is watchful and notices. "There's a potion that I can make, to slow it down for a few months. I've done it before. But I'm afraid that she's so far along, it'll only work for a little while. She'll have to go to a muggle hospital before the year is over."
"No," I scream, suddenly aware of what's going on. "I can't leave Harry. Must protect Harry."
Dumbledore moves to sit next to Harry. "Yes, indeed, Ms. Dobbins. You won't leave until the year is up. Severus, go and make that potion. In the mean time, we'll set up a direct wire down the hospital wing, so if she needs anything, Poppy, you can get it." Madam Pomfrey nods and walks off with Professor Sprout. Dumbledore places a hand on Harry's shoulder, "You and you're friends are excused from lessons until the potion has taken full effect. We can't afford to leave unguarded." He was looking at me. He knows of Anubis, standing, waiting, in the corner and my will to go to him.
The professors started to move out, but Severus stayed on the other side of my bed. I turn to him and whisper, "Go, I need the potion." He looks from me to Hermione to Harry to Ron and back to me before he left. He scowled out, obviously not happy with the fact that he wasn't allowed to stay.
I sighed as he left. My head as hurting, I wanted to sleep, I could feel their eyes on me. I look around. Harry is sitting next to me still, looking worried. Ron has moved to stand behind Harry, pulling a chair behind him to sit in. Hermione is sitting on the floor, flipping through books. Harry and Ron stare at me, waiting.
Leaning back, I close my eyes. "I guess I'll have to tell you the story now," I sighed. I was exhausted, I wanted to fall asleep, but they wanted to know and it'd be easier to tell them while it's fresh in my mind. "Well Harry, you aren't the only person whose parents were killed by Voldemort. I just remember it." Ron looks uneasily at Harry, who motions for him to calm down. I continue. "I was three. They were both agents like me, pretty much the same job as aurors. Back then, they were the best. Until he came and killed them."
I stop, angry with him for taking them away. "That was when they took me into training. I had to be the best after they were gone. I spent years at the school, learning everything. When I was thirteen, it happened.
"The cancer from my mother had spread to me. Severus, I mean Snape, is a genius. He came up with this potion by himself. Unfortunately, like all things, I built immunity to it, causing its power to decrease. Now I'm twenty and look at me, it's come back and the potion doesn't even work anymore." Tears roll gently down my checks.
If this were a movie, only one perfect tear would fall. But, then again, if this was a movie, Severus would invite a new, better potion, to cure me of all ailments and I would kill Voldemort and they would live in peace. But this isn't a movie. I won't kill Voldemort, and I'll die, from the cancer or the man, I can't see. So I sob, like a child, because that is what I really am. A child without a mother.
Harry finally moves all the way on to the bed. He holds my head to his chest and I weep into him. Gently, he rocks and hums a soft song, resting his chin on my head. He isn't just a friend, he's a great friend. And he doesn't pity, like they all did, but he cares. For I am his friend. A friend who is dying.