Chapter 6 – Poisons that Lurk in the Mud
The afternoon at the Children's Ward at St. Mungo's had gone less idyllically than expected. Severus had tried his hand at eating solid food, only to encounter an obstruction in his stomach. The healers hadn't realized the poison had reached that far. After a session of miserable retching, immediately followed by medical treatment to clear the blockage, Sev fell into an uneasy sleep.
An hour later, the boy woke screaming. He sat up against the pillows, scrunched into a tight ball of terror.
Asphora LaChance raced to his side. "What is it, sweetheart?" she crooned, afraid to fully touch him; her fingers traced the contours of his head gently. Severus did not answer, but only hid his face in his hands and moaned. The healer felt the waves of fear and shame that rolled off the boy's psyche like the currents of a fast river. She turned and ran to fetch two other healers.
"Sev," she said in a calm and soothing voice when she returned. "I have two friends with me who I want you to meet."
The sobbing child shook his head.
"Please. Do it for me," she said, touching his arm and sending some healing energy his way. He flinched and pulled away.
"It's all right, Shonsey," Sibelius Hammer said.
"We'll take charge. Your boy will be all right." Aloysius Bede nodded.
"We had talked about his father and about a friend he had at Hogwarts earlier today," Asphora said. "Perhaps this has to do with one or both topics."
"Remember, Shonsey," Bede said. "It's like peeling an onion. We're still in the top layers here. We'll do our best."
Both healers brought chairs up to the two respective edges of the bed. They raised their hands over the suffering patient, gently brushing his aura. Both young men, with their eyes closed and their inner eyes seeing clearly, then broke through the terrified boy's psychic defenses as gently as if they had brushed away cobwebs.
And they saw.
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Dinner in the Great Hall was so full of tension that it would have been a miracle for any student there to actually eat and digest happily.
The Hufflepuff and Ravenclaw students glanced warily at the other two House tables. The Slytherins glared at the Gryffindors; most of the Gryffindors glared at the Marauders.
"What are you staring at, you nasty snake?" Sirius Black said to Evan Ryper.
The Slytherin boy sneered. "Nothing," he returned.
The teachers at the head table kept their eyes moving constantly. It would not do for a quarrel to break out among the tense students. Albus Dumbledore had a bad feeling about both this mealtime and about Severus. He planned to go to St. Mungo's after dinner.
As Sirius Black, James Potter, and Peter Pettigrew shoveled food into their mouths for the sheer distraction of it, Remus Lupin swallowed a lump of mashed potato and murmured something.
"What was that, Moony?" said James, still subdued and sick at heart over Snape's attempted suicide.
"You make me sick," Remus said. "Not you, James. The others. And me as well."
Sirius raised his handsome head. "Oh come on, Moony! It's Snivellus we pranked! Like Dumbledore said, it wasn't our fault if the slimy little greaseball tried to burn his innards out. The kid's been nutters since the day he came here."
"But it was our fault," Remus said, now meeting Sirius' eyes.
This was unusual. Remus was always the quiet one; the one with common sense. He had never challenged any of the other Marauders. It would have been unwise to do so, he had reasoned; they knew he was a werewolf and accepted him nonetheless. For the first time in his young life, Remus Lupin Had Friends.
"Moony! Get over it, man! The little creep's at the hospital and he'll come out, ready to turn all of us into Komodo dragons. Just you wait and see."
"No – I – will – not – wait," Remus Lupin growled. "YOU are the real creep here!"
Black dropped his fork in mock awe. "What is this, Moony? Have you gone nutters on us as well?"
The boy's brown eyes blazed. He pointed an accusing finger at Sirius. "YOU – ARE – A – MENACE – TO – OTHERS, PADFOOT."
Peter Pettigrew snorted. It was clear that he desired to side with the stronger Marauder here. "Get off it, Moony," he said, spearing another sweet potato. The tension certainly hadn't diminished his appetite any.
"Now, Moony," Black said, as if he was talking to someone half-witted, "I don't know where you get off speaking to me like that, but if you stop now, I'll forget it ever happened."
Remus Lupin rose.
Dozens of eyes from all tables followed him.
"MARTIS VOX ALMOST DIED BECAUSE OF YOU. SEVERUS SNAPE ALMOST DIED BECAUSE OF YOU. THEY WEREN'T KIDS YOU LIKED, TRUE, BUT YOU HAD NO RIGHT. AND YOU HAVE NO RIGHT TO SIT HERE ACTING LIKE EVERYTHING'S ROSES. IT – IS – YOUR – FAULT!"
Pettigrew actually spoke up. "Everyone knows you fancied Vox, Moony. It wasn't so bad, having that break from school. And everyone hates Snivelly. Why get so worked up over that skinny little git?"
Angry now, Sirius stood. "Sit, Moony, or I will knock you down."
"Like hell you will," Remus hissed, drawing his wand. "Accio wand," he said, and Black's wand flew from the sleeve of his robe. He grabbed it and glared at Sirius.
Minerva McGonagall had never moved so fast in her life. Within seeming seconds she was down at the Gryffindor table, situating herself in between the two boys. "Stop it at once," she ordered. "Mr. Lupin, kindly give me that wand and sit down."
"But Professor McGonagall," Remus Lupin said, suppressing his own tears. Remus was a go-along boy, and challenging the pack's alpha male had been supremely difficult for him. "Sirius is dangerous. He's almost killed two Slytherins and doesn't even recognize that what he did was wrong!"
"She's right, Professor," said Lucius Malfoy, who had appeared at her right side. "We really don't know whether Severus is coming back here or whether his parents will be burying him at Evergreen Cemetery instead."
"I can handle this without your interference, Mr. Malfoy. Kindly return to your table."
"Just so Black knows," Lucius hissed at Sirius, "we'll be watching his every move. And you'd better pray to the gods that Sev doesn't die. If he does – why, who would know what might happen to you?"
Sirius rose with a cry. Minerva McGonagall seated him again with a wave of the wand she held. "Take yourself and your threats out of here, Mr. Malfoy, before you lose fifty House points!!"
With an aristocratic sneer on his handsome face, Malfoy curled his lip at Black and went back to the Slytherin table, where he was instantly hailed as a hero.
"Moony, you're out of our little club," Sirius snarled at the white-faced boy who had challenged him. "Go find a group of friends on your own. And good bloody luck at it, too, you pathetic lump!"
Remus dug his fingers into his thighs to keep from crying.
Alone again? His heart broke.
But it couldn't have been any other way. He had his dignity and his honor, after all – werewolf or not.
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"We've written up our reports, Shonsey," Sibelius Hammer said, handing Asphora LaChance a parchment scroll. "The long and short of it is that Severus hadn't just been beaten, he had been ritually tortured by his father, systematically and over a period of years. It made us both sick, seeing what he still saw in his mind's eye. The worst of the worst. Apparently, he'd suppressed most of it until now."
"Until I peeled that layer off the onion this morning," Asphora said, sad for the boy.
"I know," Healer LaChance said quietly. "I once read a Muggle book about an ancient Roman emperor who had been surrounded by corruption and evildoers. When asked whether he was going to fix it all, he had shaken his head and said, 'Let all the poisons that lurk in the mud hatch out'."
"In other words," Sibelius said, "release the most terrible secrets our patient carries, so that they may be exposed to the Light and healed or diminished."
Asphora nodded. "I think that's what happened to Severus today. How is he now?"
Bede dropped his clear green eyes. "Catatonic."
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Albus Dumbledore sought out Asphora LaChance when he flooed over to the hospital later that evening.
"He's had a reversal, Headmaster," she told him.
"Please – it's Albus," he said.
"First, he needed surgery on his stomach due to the corrosive poison. Apparently, it had reached that far after all. Then he broke through some very bad memories today, and it was too much for him. He's shut down entirely, Albus."
"Can you tell me what those memories entailed?" Dumbledore asked solemnly.
She handed him a parchment and he read.
"Confutatis Maledictis Snape will never see another day of freedom," the Headmaster swore, his tone ice-cold.
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"Severus?" Healer LaChance said. "Severus, can you turn your head toward me? The Headmaster is here to see you!"
Severus lay on his side in a fetal knot, eyes staring straight ahead. He did not respond.
"Severus?" said Albus, reaching out his hand. Severus' knot tightened in his instinctive desire to present as small a target as he could.
"Oh, dear," the healer said. "He's not talking to us tonight, it seems."
Albus then reached over the bed and scooped the boy up in his arms. Severus responded by shrieking loudly. His words were unintelligible.
"Albus, I think you need to put him back down," Asphora said, frightened by the boy's outcry. Sibelius Hammer ran into the room, casting a silencing charm around the old wizard and the boy and rushing about to comfort the other young patients who had awakened.
"Nonsense," Dumbledore said. "I know what I'm doing."
He sat down in the chair next to the bed, arranging the screaming child onto his lap. Severus was still tight in a knot, shivering all over. The Headmaster sent such a wave of healing energy into him that he shrieked again, but relaxed a bit.
"It's me, Severus," Albus whispered directly into his ear. "Nobody can hurt you while I'm here, don't you remember? There is no evil here. You are safe. You're safe, Severus!"
The child's arms and legs began to unfold as some of the tension was pushed out of his body by the smooth and persistent wave of healing energy. He moaned as a large blockage of inner misery was swept out and away.
"Such a good boy," Albus crooned. "Such a good child. Severus is good. He is safe, and calm, and he will get well again."
The thin arms found their way around Dumbledore and the Dark child's head rested on his chest. "Safe," Albus soothed. "Severus is safe, right here and now. Safe. No more hurt, no more pain. Just peace."
When the Headmaster held him close this time, Severus did not flinch.
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Albus Dumbledore and young Severus Snape sat there together for more than an hour. Albus had not removed any of the boy's memories (such an action would have been unwise; it would have been like removing a chapter from a book that one must read in order to heal) but he had swept out much of Severus' fear, breaking it up into sparkling magical fragments that blew away in the constant breeze of psychic energy.
Fearful that Snape was still in his catatonic state, the silver-haired healer approached him.
"Severus, it's Asphora. Can you speak to me?"
The boy was silent for a while, and then he uttered a single word:
"Peace."
He then fell into an easy slumber in the arms of the only person he'd ever known who could protect him from the Darkness.