Ex Umbris
Chapter 7
The man had just spoken inside of his head. Harry Potter stood numbly, his hands at his sides, studying his sarcastic …and previously dead…potions teacher. Inside his bloody head, like telepathy.
His hair was the most startling aspect that Harry had noticed. The once shoulder length black locks had grown post-mortem past his waist. It was not as snarled as one would have thought. Perhaps hair growing on a body that had lay as still as death didn't become tangled on it's own. It was, however, encrusted with dirt and blood: likely from the escape from his coffin prison.
Snape wore dress robes, the equivalent of a burial suit in the muggle world. They were dirty and torn beyond repair.
It was his eyes that frightened Harry. They were black as pitch, as before his untimely death, but when the moon struck him just right they glowed pale blue, almost white, like a cat's eyes. Harry knew he could see as if it were daytime.
The shocked silence continued, nobody willing to break it. Snape flinched and inhaled sharply, pulling away when Madam Pomfrey lifted his hands in hers, beginning her healing spells. "Severus, I have to …"
"No, doesn't feel right. H-hurts." Snape pressed his back into the bark of the tree, holding his hands against his chest.
Finally, the mediwitch relented. "At least let us get you back to Hogwarts and clean you up. We can bandage your hands; we don't need magic for that. Come on, dear." She helped him to his feet, Hagrid on his other side, supporting his arms.
With Poppy and Hagrid's aid, and the rest of the crowd's silent moral support, Snape made his painful way across the field to the school. Halting before the daunting stairway that led to the main entrance, the small assemblage greeted three more members to their own; Hermione, Ron and Neville were waiting at the bottom of the steps, visibly apprehensive; Neville slightly more so, his fear of the Potions Master unwavering even through death.
"Professor!" Ron exclaimed suddenly, the first of the trio to notice their approach. Hermione and Neville turned around, eyes wide.
Harry walked forward to greet his year-mates, and Professor McGonagall insisted they go back to their dormitory. The four reluctantly relented, not wanting to lose house points for directly disobeying a staff member. Albus requested the Snuffles go with them; the unspoken agreement that it might cause unnecessary stress for Severus made the escaped convict reluctantly relent.
The remaining adults brought the bloody mess of a man to the Hospital Wing, Madame Pomfrey being replaced by Albus so she could arrange a bed for him. Once they sat Severus on the edge of the bed---he refused to lie down, as he also would have before his death---Poppy Pomfrey began cleaning his hands with a basin of soapy water, sitting down next to him. The others merely stood, watching him, as if in shock.
"Severus?" Albus began, not knowing how to ask such a personal question.
Snape merely looked up at him, a flicker of black eyes in his direction.
"How did you …die, Severus?"
The recently returned deceased thought for a moment, until it seemed he was not going to acknowledge Albus with an answer, until a quiet and simple "I don't know" emerged from his lips.
"You do not remember?"
He shook his head, slowly.
"How did you come back, then? Do you remember that?"
"I …remember voices. T-telling me that I must choose. Another voice c-commanded them to return me to Life. I belong to that voice, now. I do not know who it was."
Voldemort flashed through the minds of Albus, Minerva, Hagrid and Poppy simultaneously, startling Severus. He shrugged almost imperceptibly.
Madame Pomfrey seemed to have finished cleaning his hands, so he added; "Do you mind if I take a shower, now?"
"Of course not, Severus." Dumbledore assented.
"I will get the house elves to fetch you some fresh clothes from your rooms---you don't mind sleeping in the Hospital Wing tonight, do you? I'd like to keep an eye on you." Madame Pomfrey added, silently pleading with her eyes while wringing out the bloody cloth she used to clean his hands. "You can use the Hospital showers."
Snape shrugged his shoulders, indifferent.
Hermione followed the boys into their dorm room, sitting next to Harry on his canopied bed, startling the Boy Who Lived.
"Hermione! What are you doing?" Harry stared at her, putting his glasses back on.
"Oh, honestly! Do you really think that we're all going to be able to go back to sleep after what happened?"
Harry had been pretty sure he wasn't ever going to be able to close his eyes again without seeing Snape clawing his way out of a buried coffin. When Ron muttered much the same thing, Snuffles whined slightly, and Harry suggested that they go to the Common room, where at least if they wouldn't be minus five-hundred points if they got caught having a girl in the boys' dorms. Snuffles jumped onto one of the couches, curling up next to Harry, regretting that he couldn't turn back into a person until Neville was gone.
"We'll go see him in the morning, 'Mione. It's Saturday, after all. Then we'll see if he's still Snape, or if he's …something else."
"Well, I don't think he could get much more cruel and sarcastic, Harry. Do you mean something else as in a good thing?" Ron grinned innocently when the others shot him glares.
"I don't know. He seemed …mellow. Not one sarcastic remark or glare the entire time. And …" Harry hesitated before telling them about Snape's ability to speak in his mind. Hermione disappeared for a moment, returning with a parchment and quill.
"Hermy! It's three o'clock in the morning! Can't homework wait until tomorrow?" Ron flinched when she sent him dagger-edged glares for her pet name.
"I'm taking notes on Professor Snape, Ronnikins." She shot back. Ron looked affronted. "You say he can read minds, Harry? And speak telepathically to you?"
"Yeah, and his eyes looked …weird, in the moonlight. They would glow, when the moon hit them right. It was …"
"…Like a cat?" Hermione finished for him. "I need to research this some more. Maybe seeing him tomorrow would help?"
Harry, Ron and Neville looked exasperated. Snuffles growled slightly.