By: bitmaxmouse
Rating: pg-13
Summary: Dumbledore tells Severus Snape to take a six month haitus after
Voldemort is defeated. In that six months a lot of things happen and they
just keep getting worse.
Notes: I wrote this because I was really bored and on stuff. Formula for writing this story. read all Harry Potter Books for the first time in 1 week + watched JKF the following weekend + get all four wisdom teeth pulled + doped up on Vicodin = a 100+ paged first time Harry Potter fanfic written in 3 days. Have fun.
~~~ Snape POV
In times of desperation, one tends to make many mistakes.
And in the second winter following Voldemort's return, Voldemort panicked and attacked.
With most of the Death Eaters gone, the majority of which were dead and the remaining few being taken away to Azkaban, Voldemort had realized this ultimate mistake of overestimating himself.
He had reached the cavernous secret location that he and Wormtail had escaped to. However, without thinking, (As I reflect, I must say that I was probably mad) I quickly followed in after them, bent on my own revenge against Voldermort. He would pay for what he did to me those years ago. I was only a boy before, I should have known better than to join him. but I still did. And thus suffered the consequences.
(Flashback)
The pain was beyond that of the Cruciatus curse. With the cold settling into my bones, I could feel the slowing rush of my blood and gradually slowing heartbeat. I was nearly a bloody pulp. With barely enough blood left, I had escaped with the help of Karkaroff, who had been the only one sympathetic to my near death state.
He was the only who dared to run to the center of the freezing marble circular room I was tortured in and carry me back out after Voldemort had left with the few Death Eaters that had been present. My failure to kill my mother whom I cared for deeply had cost me. It had been a test of my loyalty and I had been unsuccessful in fulfilling this task. Voldemort killed her in the end anyways. And then Voldemort had left me to suffer after hours of torture. he didn't expect Karkaroff would come back to help me. He expected me to crawl out, nearly dead and beg to go back to him.
Everyone knew Voldemort feared Dumbledore, thus Karkaroff believed that Hogwarts would be the ideal location to leave me in. With whatever energy I had left in me, I gazed up at Karkaroff and muttered, "You're mad. He'll just kill me too."
Karkaroff looked down hard at me, "Do vyou plan on returning to ve Dark Lord?!"
I didn't even need to think as I instantly shook my head weakly.
"V'You see?" He muttered in his heavy German accent. I frowned, I didn't see. I didn't understand. All I could think was that I was going to die in the hands of Voldemort's greatest enemy. A wizard who had been my enemy (up until Voldemort's order for me to kill my mother) would now have the opportunity to kill me. All I could think now in my delirious haze was, 'I hope he makes it fast.'
He laid me onto the front doorstep of the castle and knocked as hard and loud as he could. And just as quickly as he came, he left.
Now. now I was waiting for death, either here on this doorstep or by the hands of Dumbledore. Time seemed to have slowed down to the pace of viscous liquid. Each echoing step coming down could be heard with excessive clarity. They were like the tolls of the death bell before an execution. The heavy squeaking front doors opened a crack, letting out a bit of light and warmth. I would have leaned forward towards it if I could still move.
I heard a female gasp and I opened one of my blackened eyes just a tiny slit to the sight of black pointy shoes and a green dress that could have only belonged to Miss McGonagall.
"Oh my!" She cried out as I heard her breath unevenly, "I must get Albus."
Then everything else was a blur as the edges of everything bled together and sounds now only echoed in my head. Memories of my life flashed slowly and everything pulsed, synchronized to my heartbeat.
There was only one moment of clarity before I blacked out. I had mustered enough strength to barely make out the person carrying me, Dumbledore. And I whispered, "Make it quick."
(Flashback end)
Of course he didn't make it 'quick', he didn't even do it at all. I had almost been disappointed when I found myself being healed in the school's hospital wing by Madam. Pomfrey. And everything from then on was history..
~~~
I saw the end of Wormtail's tail as it sprinted around the corner; I sped up and took a sharp turn, running as hard as I could. However, as I suddenly stopped in the middle of a large room, the doors behind me closed with a dooming thud. It was a trap.
I quickly turned, only to find Lord Voldemont was right behind me. He let out a sickening cruel laugh. I froze with fear, wand useless at my side. Suddenly he let out painfully large blast from his wand. "Crucio!"
The pain laced through my veins as I fell forwards and lay useless on my side. I didn't even realize that I was screaming until my throat felt hoarse. Then he started to make several flicks of his wand, cutting deep all over my body. The pain from the cuts seemed to wake me from my stunned state. I raised my wand while lying on the ground and scream,
"Expellarimus!"
But Lord Voldemont did a counter attack quickly. Then he disappeared and reappeared on the left side of me, he then placed a foot on my deeply cut abdomen and stepped down as hard as he could. More of my screams echoed in the room. Then he kept sending more Cruciatus curses. I realized that he was going to do the same thing to me as he did fifteen years ago. He made another swiping motion with his want, cutting deep into my chest. Then he kicked hard into my stomach. Suddenly the world blurred as I tasted blood rising in my mouth.
"I should have finished you off last time. Avada K-" he started the killing curse.
But nothing came and suddenly Lord Voldemort let out a scream as a double blast of Avada Kedavra hit him square in the chest. I wished I could move to see who had sent the blasts. but I didn't matter now, the Dark Lord was dead.
Soon blackness descended, but not before I heard Dumbledore whisper, "I'll be alright." ~~~
I woke up to the sight of Madam Promfrey ambling over to me with a couple of healing potions, she broke into a smile, "Ah, you're awake."
I just nodded, still too weak to even want to speak.
Then she frowned, "How come every time you get brought into my hospital wing, you're always almost dead?"
I shrugged. She sat me up and made me drink five different vials of potions. They were to help heal my internal wounds, external wounds, and nasty bruises I got from being kicked around. After she was done, she walked out of the room. However, seconds later, Dumbledore walked in.
He gave a sympathetic smile, "I'm not going to ask how you feel because I know you feel horrible."
I nodded as I swallowed a bit, my throat felt cottony. My head still throbbed, which made my eyes heavy. Dumbledore put a hand on my shoulder, "After you're healed. I want you take a long break my boy. I'll bring in a temporary teacher to teach potions. You can start again in September. It's March right now, you'll have six months."
I looked at Dumbledore as if he was mad and let out a struggled word, "Why?"
"You need to recuperate and besides I need to find a more permanent teacher for Potions."
"You're letting me go?!" I suddenly moved up and then let out a yell of pain as I fell back.
"No. Calm down, my boy. I was thinking that it would be nice to have a more reliable and experienced Defense Against the Dark Arts teacher. Even Mr. Lupin has never faced Voldemort." He smiled as I gaped.
"But you never gave me that job, I applied for it ever since I came. Why now?"
"Because I think you're ready now." Then he let out an amused hum, "Let's just hope that you stay longer than the last six teachers we've had and break the curse behind the Defense Against the Dark Arts teaching position."
Then he gently rose as Madam Pomfry walked in with an angry expression on her face. She was muttering about how I wouldn't get better if Dumbledore kept provoking me. Then, right before he disappeared behind the doorway, he turned around and said, "Go home Severus."
~~~~
The velvet evening sky bled into to the remaining glow of light in the distance beyond the hills. I shifted my belongings as my arms grew weary of carrying them. I had not dared to levitate my luggage next to me in front of Muggles. I looked around, feeling peculiar that my mother had owned such a place.
The quiet house was still in good condition, regardless of its uninhabitance for over a decade. I vaguely suspected that my mother had paid someone to maintain the house even after their death, perhaps in hopes that I would come back one day.
I ran my fingers of the address:
1579 Livat Rd. *
Madison, New York
(Flashback)
My response to the goblin was to raise an eyebrow of annoyance as he asked too many questions. Mutely, I handed him the golden key to my mother's safe.
He studied it for a moment and called for one of the smaller goblins to take me to the vault. The ride had been a bit disorienting, however the darkness helped to ease away some of the loops and sudden jerks. We finally arrived in front of a large circular door, larger than the ones used for keeping money. Inside the door, there were hundreds and thousands of metal lockers.
The small goblin disappeared into the back for a while and came back with a box that had the numbers which matched the key I had handed to him. He nodded curtly at me as he placed both the key and box onto an empty table.
"Come out after you're done, I shall be waiting outside." The goblin growled in his tiny voice and promptly left me alone.
I picked up the key from the table and studied it for a second, then inserted it into the lock. The box gave a satisfying click as the lid popped back. The box contained two large yellow envelopes. Within the first envelope was a set of keys, documents and certificates of ownership to a house in New York. In the second envelope held a passport, ID card, birth of certificate and few other miscellaneous documents. The name on the birth certificate was:
OWEN LEIGH
I could almost feel my heart stop. I seen or heard that name for nearly 25 years. Leigh was my mother's last name and Owen Snape was my name before I ran away from home. I had run away so long ago at the age of 11 to keep my father from sending me to Durmstrang. I had wanted to go to Hogwarts so badly, but my father insisted that I go to Durmstrang since there were more purebloods there. With only a bit of savings, I managed to get to Hogwarts, however I didn't have enough left to buy me anything else. So I toiled away for month at odds and end jobs and started Hogwarts late due to lack of money to buy books.
My shabby state and desperation to keep up good grades to improve my life made me a target amongst my peers. Especially James and his friends.
I tossed the certificate back into the box quickly. Then I opened the passport and found a brown haired boy with hazel eyes looking back happily. This was how I looked like before my father had given me the potion to turn my hair and eyes black, to make me look older, and other things. His reason for doing this was that I looked 'too innocent and vibrant' to learn the Dark Arts and to be taken seriously.
I guess I had forgotten about that, after all these years I had always looked sickly with pasty white skin with greasy black hair and beady black eyes. I was used to the disgusted and fearful looks from people. I wondered how I would look like if I were to turn back to my original appearance after all these years.
I placed the remaining things that were in the yellow envelope, back in. I would look over them more carefully after I took them home. However as I did this, I noticed a small white envelope at the bottom, underneath the yellow envelopes. I quickly opened it, from the looks of it, it seemed like my mother's writing. I quickly read it:
Dear Owen,
I don't know when you'll see this letter. It could be years into the future or you may never see it. Either way, I wrote it because I believed that you needed to know the truth; the truth behind your father and my arguments and everything else. But I hope you know that I was so in love with your father when I first met him, so I didn't tell him until later. I never anticipated how angry he would be. The truth is that your grandmother on my side was a Muggle. I am half and thus you're a quarter Muggle. I'm so sorry, all your life your father kept telling you that you were a pureblood. was a lie. I now know how much of an emphasis he put on being purebloods so I never told you because I didn't want to destroy you. I figured that you could handle this at an older age. I hope you can find it in your heart to forgive me.
I gave an ironic laugh at this point. Head of the Slytherin house. a non- pureblood. Then I frowned a bit as I remembered calling girls (like Lily) Mudbloods. how ironic. I continued to read:
.Other things enclosed in this box are the keys, deeds, and documents to your Grandmother's house and horses. She left them to me after she passed away and I now leave them to you. Everything is paid off. I also left you the numbers and passwords to a number of banks that your Grandmother had saved money in. Just because your Grandmother was a Muggle, it didn't mean she was useless. In fact just the opposite, she used to be a very high up authority in the government and we lived near the Pentagon when I was younger. Over time she accumulated a number of important classified documents, assets, and quite a large sum of money. All of which you shall have access to now. I can only hope that you use them wisely.
I love you and I can only hope that you go home one day even if I'm not around anymore.
Love,
Andrea Leigh
(end flashback)
~~~
The house actually held more things than I had anticipated. Many of the rooms had furniture all covered in white cloth to prevent damage to them. I was about to say "Lumos!" when I first entered the house. However I noticed the light switch to my right, so I put my wand away. The house was very spacious. When you walked into the front door, the narrow hallway gave the impression of smaller house, however if you turned around the corner, you would be greeted by a large circular entrance hall with a display table in the middle. There was a circular stair case along the wall on the right side.
At the top of the stair case there was an open game room with a large pool table in the middle, and a rack on the wall next to it with four pool sticks, two bridges, and 13 pool balls. To the left side, there were four small guest rooms, to the right there were three rooms. The three doorways to the three rooms seemed so close together that it gave the false impression of the rooms being very small. The door on the left led to a library study, there were even stairs in this room which would lead to a small enclosure on the rooftop which actually had a telescope pointing out. The door in the right led to Master bedroom. The center door led to the bathroom, and the bathroom had doors on both sides which connected the study to the bedroom.
After walking around for so long and from the Apparation from earlier, I could feel myself growing tired as my bruises still throbbed. I still hadn't completely healed yet. Even now, I had to change the dressings wrapped around my abdomen every few days.
The bed in the master bedrooms looked terribly inviting. I collapse and fell asleep almost instantly. So weak and tired, I didn't even bother to change.
Cont.
Note: for those who aren't too busy and don't mind, can you help me beta this?
Notes: I wrote this because I was really bored and on stuff. Formula for writing this story. read all Harry Potter Books for the first time in 1 week + watched JKF the following weekend + get all four wisdom teeth pulled + doped up on Vicodin = a 100+ paged first time Harry Potter fanfic written in 3 days. Have fun.
~~~ Snape POV
In times of desperation, one tends to make many mistakes.
And in the second winter following Voldemort's return, Voldemort panicked and attacked.
With most of the Death Eaters gone, the majority of which were dead and the remaining few being taken away to Azkaban, Voldemort had realized this ultimate mistake of overestimating himself.
He had reached the cavernous secret location that he and Wormtail had escaped to. However, without thinking, (As I reflect, I must say that I was probably mad) I quickly followed in after them, bent on my own revenge against Voldermort. He would pay for what he did to me those years ago. I was only a boy before, I should have known better than to join him. but I still did. And thus suffered the consequences.
(Flashback)
The pain was beyond that of the Cruciatus curse. With the cold settling into my bones, I could feel the slowing rush of my blood and gradually slowing heartbeat. I was nearly a bloody pulp. With barely enough blood left, I had escaped with the help of Karkaroff, who had been the only one sympathetic to my near death state.
He was the only who dared to run to the center of the freezing marble circular room I was tortured in and carry me back out after Voldemort had left with the few Death Eaters that had been present. My failure to kill my mother whom I cared for deeply had cost me. It had been a test of my loyalty and I had been unsuccessful in fulfilling this task. Voldemort killed her in the end anyways. And then Voldemort had left me to suffer after hours of torture. he didn't expect Karkaroff would come back to help me. He expected me to crawl out, nearly dead and beg to go back to him.
Everyone knew Voldemort feared Dumbledore, thus Karkaroff believed that Hogwarts would be the ideal location to leave me in. With whatever energy I had left in me, I gazed up at Karkaroff and muttered, "You're mad. He'll just kill me too."
Karkaroff looked down hard at me, "Do vyou plan on returning to ve Dark Lord?!"
I didn't even need to think as I instantly shook my head weakly.
"V'You see?" He muttered in his heavy German accent. I frowned, I didn't see. I didn't understand. All I could think was that I was going to die in the hands of Voldemort's greatest enemy. A wizard who had been my enemy (up until Voldemort's order for me to kill my mother) would now have the opportunity to kill me. All I could think now in my delirious haze was, 'I hope he makes it fast.'
He laid me onto the front doorstep of the castle and knocked as hard and loud as he could. And just as quickly as he came, he left.
Now. now I was waiting for death, either here on this doorstep or by the hands of Dumbledore. Time seemed to have slowed down to the pace of viscous liquid. Each echoing step coming down could be heard with excessive clarity. They were like the tolls of the death bell before an execution. The heavy squeaking front doors opened a crack, letting out a bit of light and warmth. I would have leaned forward towards it if I could still move.
I heard a female gasp and I opened one of my blackened eyes just a tiny slit to the sight of black pointy shoes and a green dress that could have only belonged to Miss McGonagall.
"Oh my!" She cried out as I heard her breath unevenly, "I must get Albus."
Then everything else was a blur as the edges of everything bled together and sounds now only echoed in my head. Memories of my life flashed slowly and everything pulsed, synchronized to my heartbeat.
There was only one moment of clarity before I blacked out. I had mustered enough strength to barely make out the person carrying me, Dumbledore. And I whispered, "Make it quick."
(Flashback end)
Of course he didn't make it 'quick', he didn't even do it at all. I had almost been disappointed when I found myself being healed in the school's hospital wing by Madam. Pomfrey. And everything from then on was history..
~~~
I saw the end of Wormtail's tail as it sprinted around the corner; I sped up and took a sharp turn, running as hard as I could. However, as I suddenly stopped in the middle of a large room, the doors behind me closed with a dooming thud. It was a trap.
I quickly turned, only to find Lord Voldemont was right behind me. He let out a sickening cruel laugh. I froze with fear, wand useless at my side. Suddenly he let out painfully large blast from his wand. "Crucio!"
The pain laced through my veins as I fell forwards and lay useless on my side. I didn't even realize that I was screaming until my throat felt hoarse. Then he started to make several flicks of his wand, cutting deep all over my body. The pain from the cuts seemed to wake me from my stunned state. I raised my wand while lying on the ground and scream,
"Expellarimus!"
But Lord Voldemont did a counter attack quickly. Then he disappeared and reappeared on the left side of me, he then placed a foot on my deeply cut abdomen and stepped down as hard as he could. More of my screams echoed in the room. Then he kept sending more Cruciatus curses. I realized that he was going to do the same thing to me as he did fifteen years ago. He made another swiping motion with his want, cutting deep into my chest. Then he kicked hard into my stomach. Suddenly the world blurred as I tasted blood rising in my mouth.
"I should have finished you off last time. Avada K-" he started the killing curse.
But nothing came and suddenly Lord Voldemort let out a scream as a double blast of Avada Kedavra hit him square in the chest. I wished I could move to see who had sent the blasts. but I didn't matter now, the Dark Lord was dead.
Soon blackness descended, but not before I heard Dumbledore whisper, "I'll be alright." ~~~
I woke up to the sight of Madam Promfrey ambling over to me with a couple of healing potions, she broke into a smile, "Ah, you're awake."
I just nodded, still too weak to even want to speak.
Then she frowned, "How come every time you get brought into my hospital wing, you're always almost dead?"
I shrugged. She sat me up and made me drink five different vials of potions. They were to help heal my internal wounds, external wounds, and nasty bruises I got from being kicked around. After she was done, she walked out of the room. However, seconds later, Dumbledore walked in.
He gave a sympathetic smile, "I'm not going to ask how you feel because I know you feel horrible."
I nodded as I swallowed a bit, my throat felt cottony. My head still throbbed, which made my eyes heavy. Dumbledore put a hand on my shoulder, "After you're healed. I want you take a long break my boy. I'll bring in a temporary teacher to teach potions. You can start again in September. It's March right now, you'll have six months."
I looked at Dumbledore as if he was mad and let out a struggled word, "Why?"
"You need to recuperate and besides I need to find a more permanent teacher for Potions."
"You're letting me go?!" I suddenly moved up and then let out a yell of pain as I fell back.
"No. Calm down, my boy. I was thinking that it would be nice to have a more reliable and experienced Defense Against the Dark Arts teacher. Even Mr. Lupin has never faced Voldemort." He smiled as I gaped.
"But you never gave me that job, I applied for it ever since I came. Why now?"
"Because I think you're ready now." Then he let out an amused hum, "Let's just hope that you stay longer than the last six teachers we've had and break the curse behind the Defense Against the Dark Arts teaching position."
Then he gently rose as Madam Pomfry walked in with an angry expression on her face. She was muttering about how I wouldn't get better if Dumbledore kept provoking me. Then, right before he disappeared behind the doorway, he turned around and said, "Go home Severus."
~~~~
The velvet evening sky bled into to the remaining glow of light in the distance beyond the hills. I shifted my belongings as my arms grew weary of carrying them. I had not dared to levitate my luggage next to me in front of Muggles. I looked around, feeling peculiar that my mother had owned such a place.
The quiet house was still in good condition, regardless of its uninhabitance for over a decade. I vaguely suspected that my mother had paid someone to maintain the house even after their death, perhaps in hopes that I would come back one day.
I ran my fingers of the address:
1579 Livat Rd. *
Madison, New York
(Flashback)
My response to the goblin was to raise an eyebrow of annoyance as he asked too many questions. Mutely, I handed him the golden key to my mother's safe.
He studied it for a moment and called for one of the smaller goblins to take me to the vault. The ride had been a bit disorienting, however the darkness helped to ease away some of the loops and sudden jerks. We finally arrived in front of a large circular door, larger than the ones used for keeping money. Inside the door, there were hundreds and thousands of metal lockers.
The small goblin disappeared into the back for a while and came back with a box that had the numbers which matched the key I had handed to him. He nodded curtly at me as he placed both the key and box onto an empty table.
"Come out after you're done, I shall be waiting outside." The goblin growled in his tiny voice and promptly left me alone.
I picked up the key from the table and studied it for a second, then inserted it into the lock. The box gave a satisfying click as the lid popped back. The box contained two large yellow envelopes. Within the first envelope was a set of keys, documents and certificates of ownership to a house in New York. In the second envelope held a passport, ID card, birth of certificate and few other miscellaneous documents. The name on the birth certificate was:
OWEN LEIGH
I could almost feel my heart stop. I seen or heard that name for nearly 25 years. Leigh was my mother's last name and Owen Snape was my name before I ran away from home. I had run away so long ago at the age of 11 to keep my father from sending me to Durmstrang. I had wanted to go to Hogwarts so badly, but my father insisted that I go to Durmstrang since there were more purebloods there. With only a bit of savings, I managed to get to Hogwarts, however I didn't have enough left to buy me anything else. So I toiled away for month at odds and end jobs and started Hogwarts late due to lack of money to buy books.
My shabby state and desperation to keep up good grades to improve my life made me a target amongst my peers. Especially James and his friends.
I tossed the certificate back into the box quickly. Then I opened the passport and found a brown haired boy with hazel eyes looking back happily. This was how I looked like before my father had given me the potion to turn my hair and eyes black, to make me look older, and other things. His reason for doing this was that I looked 'too innocent and vibrant' to learn the Dark Arts and to be taken seriously.
I guess I had forgotten about that, after all these years I had always looked sickly with pasty white skin with greasy black hair and beady black eyes. I was used to the disgusted and fearful looks from people. I wondered how I would look like if I were to turn back to my original appearance after all these years.
I placed the remaining things that were in the yellow envelope, back in. I would look over them more carefully after I took them home. However as I did this, I noticed a small white envelope at the bottom, underneath the yellow envelopes. I quickly opened it, from the looks of it, it seemed like my mother's writing. I quickly read it:
Dear Owen,
I don't know when you'll see this letter. It could be years into the future or you may never see it. Either way, I wrote it because I believed that you needed to know the truth; the truth behind your father and my arguments and everything else. But I hope you know that I was so in love with your father when I first met him, so I didn't tell him until later. I never anticipated how angry he would be. The truth is that your grandmother on my side was a Muggle. I am half and thus you're a quarter Muggle. I'm so sorry, all your life your father kept telling you that you were a pureblood. was a lie. I now know how much of an emphasis he put on being purebloods so I never told you because I didn't want to destroy you. I figured that you could handle this at an older age. I hope you can find it in your heart to forgive me.
I gave an ironic laugh at this point. Head of the Slytherin house. a non- pureblood. Then I frowned a bit as I remembered calling girls (like Lily) Mudbloods. how ironic. I continued to read:
.Other things enclosed in this box are the keys, deeds, and documents to your Grandmother's house and horses. She left them to me after she passed away and I now leave them to you. Everything is paid off. I also left you the numbers and passwords to a number of banks that your Grandmother had saved money in. Just because your Grandmother was a Muggle, it didn't mean she was useless. In fact just the opposite, she used to be a very high up authority in the government and we lived near the Pentagon when I was younger. Over time she accumulated a number of important classified documents, assets, and quite a large sum of money. All of which you shall have access to now. I can only hope that you use them wisely.
I love you and I can only hope that you go home one day even if I'm not around anymore.
Love,
Andrea Leigh
(end flashback)
~~~
The house actually held more things than I had anticipated. Many of the rooms had furniture all covered in white cloth to prevent damage to them. I was about to say "Lumos!" when I first entered the house. However I noticed the light switch to my right, so I put my wand away. The house was very spacious. When you walked into the front door, the narrow hallway gave the impression of smaller house, however if you turned around the corner, you would be greeted by a large circular entrance hall with a display table in the middle. There was a circular stair case along the wall on the right side.
At the top of the stair case there was an open game room with a large pool table in the middle, and a rack on the wall next to it with four pool sticks, two bridges, and 13 pool balls. To the left side, there were four small guest rooms, to the right there were three rooms. The three doorways to the three rooms seemed so close together that it gave the false impression of the rooms being very small. The door on the left led to a library study, there were even stairs in this room which would lead to a small enclosure on the rooftop which actually had a telescope pointing out. The door in the right led to Master bedroom. The center door led to the bathroom, and the bathroom had doors on both sides which connected the study to the bedroom.
After walking around for so long and from the Apparation from earlier, I could feel myself growing tired as my bruises still throbbed. I still hadn't completely healed yet. Even now, I had to change the dressings wrapped around my abdomen every few days.
The bed in the master bedrooms looked terribly inviting. I collapse and fell asleep almost instantly. So weak and tired, I didn't even bother to change.
Cont.
Note: for those who aren't too busy and don't mind, can you help me beta this?