A/N: Thanks again to all my reviewers, you guys are great!
In the Company of Snakes
By: Cousin Mary
Part8
A few minutes later Maggie was standing in the impressive drawing room of Malfoy Manor. Since Draco was deeply involved in his potion and someone had to stay with Father anyway, it had been left up to her to go for help. She understood the logic, but still, the idea of just dropping in on a wizard she'd never met at, she glanced at the clock, four in the morning, wasn't the first thing on her list of super fun happy things to do. But, she sighed, Father needed help and therefore she had to do this.
"Just stay calm, do this and get it done," She mumbled to herself as she reached up to take a hand full of silvery powder from the enameled box sitting on the high mantle. "Here goes nothing," She whispered, before throwing a sprinkling of Floo powder and stepping in, "Severus Snape!"
Maggie always traveled by Floo with her eyes tightly shut. Though she knew it wasn't magically possible, she could never quite shake the fear that one of these days she was going to bang into someone going in the opposite direction and die a most painful, splattering death. But after only a moment she was staggering into a darkened sitting room, still quite alive.
She let go of the breath she'd been holding and looked around. The walls were lined with bookcases, all filled with heavy leather bound tomes, two chairs stood in front of the fireplace she'd just exited and… that was it. Maggie took a step forward into the mostly bare room, pulling her wand and whispering a charm so it lit up like a flashlight. The house was dark and almost unnaturally quiet. She peeked out into the hall, she could barely make out a few doors and a rickety stairwell.
"Mister, I mean, Professor Snape?" Maggie called out, her voice trembling just a bit, "Professor? Are you here?"
She made her way down the hall, past a small kitchen and what turned out to be the front door. The house was tiny! She hesitated at the base of the stairs, could he be up there? Judging from what she'd seen, the bedroom –had- to be up there, there were simply no more doors down on the ground floor. Plus, it was the middle of the night, he was probably sleeping. She debated walking up versus just yelling for him from where she was, and decided he was much less likely to blast her with his wand if she got it away from him before he woke up… she'd just explain that and everything else once he was awake and alert.
Now that she'd decided what to do, Maggie couldn't seem to get her legs moving. Draco had informed her that though he seemed like the most unpleasant and surly wizard ever born, Severus Snape was, deep down, not that bad. Not exactly the glowing reassurance she'd been looking for. She swallowed, forcing down the burning ball of apprehension that was rising in her throat. She could do this, Father needed help.
Maggie climbed the stairs slowly, wincing each time the wood creaked beneath her weight. Once she'd reached the top, the choice was simple, there was only one door. She raised her hand and turned the knob. The door creaked louder than the stairs, the hinges screaming like they hadn't been oiled in decades. Maggie cringed, waiting to hear the man inside yell or maybe even throw a curse or two at the door. But nothing happened.
She waited another moment before craning her neck and peering into the bedroom. The drapes were pulled closed over the window, but from the light of her wand, Maggie could just barely make out the dark lump that had to be the professor on the bed. "Accio-wand," She whispered and nodded slightly when a twelve inch mahogany wand slapped into her waiting palm.
"Now all I have to do is wake him up," She told herself, stepping into the room fully. "Professor Snape?"
He didn't stir.
"Professor Snape," She called out, louder this time. Still, he didn't move. Frowning, she stepped closer and called his name in a loud, clear voice, "Professor Snape!"
Not a twitch.
Maggie stood there a second, at a loss. Could anyone really be –that- heavy a sleeper? Then the awful thought occurred to her, how old was her brother's potions professor? Maybe he'd passed away. More than a little worried, she stepped up to the bed and nudged the man. "Professor?"
At her touch he rolled over with a loud snore. Really loud, like a chainsaw going through a park bench!
Startled, Maggie jumped back and in doing so, knocked over a nightstand holding a lamp and a small pile of books. She spun around to save the falling lamp, but tripped over a discarded robe she hadn't seen on the floor. She reached up to stop herself from nose-diving into the hardwood and ended up with a handful of black drapes. They tore. And everything, the nightstand, lamp, books, drapes and Maggie plunged down with a loud crash.
She lay there, her face pushed into a pool of scratchy black fabric he'd used for his drapes. She could hear the tinkling of glass as what was left of the lamp fell apart. She almost laughed though when she heard something else, snoring. He was still asleep!
She shook her head as she sat up, surveying the destruction around her. Moonlight poured in from the now bare window and made the mess look even worse than it had sounded. Books lay open, spines broken all across the floor and the lamp was broken way beyond any reparo charm. Three of the legs were broken off the nightstand and the drapes were down, so was the curtain rod that'd held them up to begin with.
And Snape snored on.
Maggie did laugh this time, climbing to her feet to stand above the oblivious wizard. He'd clearly taken a sleeping draught, since no one could sleep through a racket like that. She made her way gingerly over the broken debris and through the door that had to lead to the bathroom. It was a small, but clean white tile room and she immediately spotted the empty potion bottle on the sink counter.
She picked it up, looking for the brand name so she'd know which pepper-up to wake him with, but it was unlabeled. "Of course," She mumbled angrily, "A potion master wouldn't –buy- potions, that would make this much too easy."
She opened the medicine cabinet over the sink and looked at the row of unmarked bottles lined up according to color and bottle size. Now what color was pepper-up potion? She was pretty sure it was pink, but there were two pink bottles. She picked up the lighter of the two and cautiously took a sniff. "Ugh!" It reeked of knotgrass and she knew that wasn't in pepper-up, so she grabbed the dark pink bottle. She sniffed that one too, it didn't smell much of anything, but she wasn't sure if it was what she was looking for.
She stared at the bottle. Well, what choice did she have? Her father needed help, and Draco said the professor could help… She carried the bottle back to Snape's bedside.
"Hopefully this won't kill you," She told him before firmly grasping his nose and forcing open his mouth. She poured in the potion.
She bit her lip and looked at him. He was pale, but not the ivory, almost white skin of a Malfoy, Snape's skin was more of a sallow kind of pale usually associated with someone who's been sick a long time. His hair was inky black and looked almost greasy against his starched white pillow. He wasn't very old, under forty, probably the same age as her father, Maggie thought. His brow was high and his nose was hooked. He wasn't bad looking per se, but he also didn't look like a –nice- man. A minute passed and then another, Maggie frowned and had almost decided the potion hadn't worked when the tips of Snape's hair began to smoke.
Maggie took an unconscious step back, pulling her own wand and Snape's out of her robe pocket. He began twitching and his hair was smoking up a storm now. Well, at least she knew she'd grabbed the right potion! Now all that remained to be seen was whether it was strong enough.
Severus sat up with a start and immediately reached for the lamp on his nightstand. His hand swept through empty space, he frowned and looked towards his left. No lamp, no nightstand. And why were the drapes open? Wait, where were the drapes? His dark eyes widened as he took in the disarray at his bedside. Had he caused this during one of his nightmares? He let out a string of colorful curses.
His eyes swept over the rest of the room only to come across a young blonde girl staring at him like she wanted to run for her life. She was wearing a white satin robe over what looked like a blue nightgown. On her feet were slippers shaped like… rabbits? "Who the hell are you?!" He bellowed.
"I- uh, w-well, I, er," Maggie stuttered, taking another step back, eyes huge and terrified. "I was sup-supposed to come get you."
"Get me?" He snarled, reaching for his wand before he remembered his nightstand was tipped over. He glanced down to the floor but didn't see it. His eyes swung back to the shaking girl, quickly taking in not only his wand in her hand, but also her own and an empty potion bottle. "What did you give me?!?"
"Nothing!" Maggie was almost hyperventilating, she staggered against the wall when his hand shot out and grabbed everything in her hands. She watched as he sniffed the empty bottle, "Just pepper-up," She explained quickly, "Cause you were out cold!"
"I ask again, who are you?" Severus pointed his wand at the girl, she looked vaguely familiar, but he sure of hell didn't know any teenage American girls. "And what are you doing in my bedroom?"
Maggie's mouth opened and closed a few times and Snape was unpleasantly reminded of Neville Longbottom as she flinched when he glared at her, clearly terrified. But then the girl did something Longbottom would never dare, she stepped forward and hit him! No, not hit… touched. Before he could even grasp what she was doing, her cool little hand was pressed across his forehead and then the room started to spin a bit and grew warm…
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A/N: I decided Snape needed a summer house. I figure he wouldn't want to stay at Hogwarts year round, plus I figured Dumbledore wouldn't just let people Floo into the school unannounced. :) And please, keep those reviews coming!
