Just a note: I'm not jazzed about this chapter. I wrote it while suffering from a wicked flu; somehow, I swear this poison reeks of flu symptoms J . I know it's long and a bit tedious, but it's necessary to the plot.

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Chapter Seven

"Poppy?" Nina called into the empty room.

"Poppy?" Nina led Alex, who grew weaker by the minute, to the nearest bed and eased her onto the soft mattress. Nothing had ever felt so delicious. She just needed to sleep for about a year and she'd be fine.

"Alex, I'm going to have to go and find her. Just stay here and rest." She put a warm hand to the other's cold face. "You're safe now, my girl."

Alex nodded at Nina's blurry form, and began to cry softly again.

"Nina! What a lovely." Alex couldn't see the other witch. She was a million miles away, but she heard her inhale sharply. "What happened?"

"I don't know, Poppy."

"What's her name?"

"Alexandria."

Alex shivered with cold and with the sound of that name, the one he had used. "Alex," she mumbled through the fog in her head.

"Well, Alex, open your eyes."

She reluctantly did as she was bidden and was greeted with the sight of a slightly out-of-focus, slimmer version of Nina. It put her immediately at ease and she smiled slightly. She let out a weary, "Hi."

"Alex, I need you to tell me what happened." But, Alex was drifting away on billowy clouds, through the sky, above the sky, into the stars. "Alex, wake up. Open your eyes." She murmured a slight protest. She had never felt so sleepy. There was a slight sting on her cheek as the medi-witch tapped her face. "Alex?"

Alex felt herself coming back to earth, back to this room where her face burned and her side was throbbing and her entire leg felt as though it was encased in a slowly-spreading sheet of ice. "I'm cold, Nina." There were hurried footsteps on the stone floor. Someone was hastening toward them. She vaguely wondered what the hurry was.

"Who is it, Poppy?" The voice was deep and strong .

"It's Alexandria Borgin, Albus," Nina answered for her sister.

"Poppy?" He sounded a bit alarmed, now.

"She's been poisoned, Headmaster, I'm sure of it. I was about to fetch Severus, this is his area of expertise."

Alex knew that name, the potions master. He had warned her. "Sev." she mumbled.

"I will collect him." The footsteps were ringing again, fading.like Alex.

Nina kept Alex awake, talking to her, telling jokes and stories while her sister removed her bloodied clothing, inspected her patient, and applied a sweet-smelling unguent to the stinging areas of her face. They immediately cooled. The cracked rib she also mended and was about to move to the cut on her thigh. A small cut. On her leg. Groggily, she giggled. Was her leg even still there? She'd sit up to look if she weren't made of lead at the moment.

It didn't take much time for the aged wizard to return with Severus in tow. She wanted to tell him what happened, but the words seemed to fall from her mind.

"Sev.Lucius."

"Did you consume anything he gave you?" He spoke quietly and quickly, not with any of the sultry contempt he had been filled with this morning. Alex giggled again. It seemed like years ago. She shook her head and stifled a yawn.

"Stay awake," he snapped. "Poppy, how is she injured?"

"Not badly. A cracked rib which I mended, a few minor burns on her face and neck, and a small cut."

"Where is she cut?"

"On her leg, but it's very minor, Severus. I was about to mend it."

"Show me."

"I don't think that's very prop."

"Don't be stupid. I need to see it." His tone disallowed any argument and Poppy arranged the sheet as discreetly as possible to reveal the wound. It was barely a scratch, now. He ran a slender hand over the area, but pulled it away with a hiss.

"What is it?"

"It's freezing."

"It was bleeding when I first examined it How has it..?" Poppy began.

"The poison, if administered with a blade, is designed to close the wound quickly to avoid detection."

Poppy never ceased to be amazed at the potion master's knowledge, but this was uncanny. "You know it, then?"

Severus shared a knowing glance with Dumbledore who was seemed to be quietly seething. "Yes. Get her to my office. I'll need to be close to my supplies."

In no time at all, Alex found herself floating downstairs on a stretcher, guided by Poppy, flanked by Dumbledore and Nina, and lead by Severus Snape. As soon as they moved her, the world began to spin and her stomach to churn. She closed her eyes to shut out the sight and was forced to fight the veil of sleep that was closing on her.

Severus was cursing himself soundly. He'd never hear the end of this. If he'd done what Dumbledore had asked of him and aided Alex in warding the store, Malfoy would have never found his way in. He could only imagine what she had endured at his hands. He had only just returned home from Malfoy manor, and was as exhausted as he'd ever been. But he had made this mess, he'd have to deal with it. Arriving in his office, they settled Alex onto a soft black sofa, not unlike her own. "Keep her still,"

he said before sweeping into his storage cupboard.

The heat from the small fire in front of her felt like a touch of paradise to Alex. She was shivering uncontrollably now. Poppy left the room and reappeared with a black velvet blanket which enveloped her in comfort when tucked around her frozen form. Staring into the indistinct flames, listening to Nina and Poppy chatter, she began to drift into daydreams. Severus, wrapped in black velvet, standing in a field of a pristine snow, like a beautiful sin, the downy flakes whispering among themselves as they fell around him. If she concentrated, she could just make out what they were saying, something about virtue and vice and too much of either.

"Alex."

"Severus," She spoke his name in a whisper, almost like a lover. It was the first time he had heard her address him directly and he refused to even acknowledge the quickening of his pulse at the sound. There was work to be done. No one had said it, but everyone knew she was dying, He happened to know that if the blade had better than grazed her, she would have been dead before she'd reached Diagon Alley. But, the poison was still potent in tiny doses and even now her lips were turning blue, her face a sickly white. "I need to reopen the wound to draw out the poison. Do you understand?"

"No."

"That's a shame. Hold her," he said, drawing up the blankets to reveal Alex's thigh. He also did not acknowledge her satin-smooth skin or the well-defined muscle there as he brought to bear a small, but wickedly sharp knife. Nina reached over the sofa, found her hand under the blanket, and held it tightly. Poppy braced the injured leg with both hands as Severus slowly sliced a deep gash into the light pink line that indicated where Lucius had cut her. The pain was excruciating, as if the wound itself were protesting!

She was fully awake in an instant as was evidenced by the vicious verbal assault she unleashed on the potions master. "What the fuck?! Are you out of your mind?"

"Hold her tightly," he intoned, as he calmly continued with his work, applying a foul-smelling poultice to her thigh and magically adhering it.

"What the hell are you doing? That burns!" She began to thrash pathetically, but was far too weak to break free from the two sisters. "Nina! Let go of me!"

"Alex, calm yourself. I told you that I had to reopen the wound. You weren't listening to me."

That was true. He had said that, but her mind was full of a fog that would not lift. Panting from the exertion of her mini tirade, she fell back onto the cushions. "It stings, Sev."

"Anything else?"

Alex concentrated on the injured leg. "It is warmer."

"Good. The poultice I applied should draw the poison from the new wound. I'll need to apply a new one in a few hours."

Alex took all of this and turned it around very slowly in her exhausted mind. "Sev?"

"Yes?"

"Can I sleep, now?"

"You should."

She was dreaming before he rose from his knees.

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Siverfey- As always, bless you, you dear soul.

J.S. Sumner- I had determined to stop writing this story until you chimed in. Some troll flamed the last chapter I put up and it really discouraged me. Your review was much appreciated for it's own sake and because it came right after that incident. Don't worry. I'll explain about Severus and Lucius later.

Amberdulen- You've become the literary version of my conscience, reprimanding me for the negative, but reinforcing the positive. At first, I was a bit worried about you, thinking that you sought to dishearten, but you have been good for my writing. You've kept me from letting my imagination run Helter Skelter. I appreciate the time you've taken to help me become a better writer. By the way, don't worry about our beloved Lucius. I have a plan.

CE- Thank you. You're very kind.

Carpathia- I forgot to thank you for your review of chapter four. I do appreciate it. It helped to keep me writing.