Disclaimer- As I have said before, not mine. Except the poison Exitus Memoria. Other than that, nope.
A/N- :) Thank you for all the reviews, and as requested, here is the next chapter, finally. (Depending on what site you read this on, sorry for the wait... hehe.)
Anyways, here is the story.
Hot… It was horribly and incredibly hot… and my head hurt. I laid half awake in the semi-soft bed, and then opened my eyes enough to pull the white sheet over my head. Wait a moment… White?! I quickly sat up in the bed, alarmed by the color of the sheets. My bed didn't have white sheets… Suddenly Poppy's voice came from beside me. "All right you, easy now. You just had a nasty fall there, and can't be moving around like that."
"Poppy?" I mumble and allowed myself to lie back down. I groaned and put my fingers to the bridge of my nose. "It feels as if my head is going to explode, or perhaps it already has, as it were." I waited for a reply and received only silence in return. I turned my head towards her to see the cause of her lack of reply, and found nothing but a blank stare coming from her. She rose.
"All right, enough with the games, boy. Who are you?" What?
I narrowed my eyes at her. "What do you mean who am I?" That familiar tick hit my brow, a twitch that I only felt when I was extremely annoyed. Irritating woman. "We have worked together for over ten years, and if by now you cannot recognize who I am, then surely you must have your head examined." Her brows lifted in confusion, and her mouth moved as if she were attempting to form a speech that was not there. As she attempting to work out her thoughts, the curtain to my 'room' was lifted back.
"Excuse me Poppy, might I have a word with him?" Albus? Honestly… Does that man ever even ATTEMPT to try and stop the evidence of him being completely omniscient? No, of course not, what fun would it be if he didn't always butt into everyone's business at the least opportune moment, simply to confuse the daylights out of them? Poppy looked to him, obviously confused, but then slowly nodded her head. As she left me alone with our stark-raving-mad headmaster, he came and sat down in a chair that conveniently was located next to the bed I was laying in. Then he looked over his spectacles at me. "I suppose that there might be something that you wish to tell me?"
Tell him? I pondered his question for a moment before it hit me what he could possibly be asking of me. My eyes widened, oh no…I still can't possibly be… A quick look down at my body, revealed to me the awful truth. Bloody hell. "Merlin." I brought my fingers to the bridge of my nose again. I don't believe that I have ever invoked that name so many times before, within such a short span of just a few hours. Were the fates out to get me? Had I truly done so much wrong in my life to deserve such a… Ok, so perhaps I should not finish that in particular thought, in fact, strike it from existence. It was not precisely a thought that really needed to be answered.
Finally, after a few calming breathes, I raised my eyes back to him. "Well, I believe there was a… rather small accident in my lab the other day. Absolutely nothing of importance, nor anything worth any concern over, outside of a minor appearance change, of course."
He leaned back and looked at me with an all-condemning grave look upon his face. I looked away from his gaze. "This is a very serious matter we are dealing with Severus, even as I am happy that all is not lost, all mostly meaning you of course. I must express to you, that you should have come here directly, as had you waited any longer than you already had to be treated, I fear it may have been fatal, this 'small' accident of yours."
I turned back to him slowly. "Fatal?" He gave me a curt nod, and before I realized what it was that I was doing, my thoughts transferred themselves to my traitorous tongue as I thought them. "Pity, the world must now suffer my presence yet even longer. I don't believe that many of the students would be all too happy of this."
His hand was suddenly upon my shoulder. "Severus, you know how it is that I feel towards your self-loathing." His voice was soft and consoling. I sighed.
"I apologize sir, I shall try and keep a tighter restraint upon my thoughts, lest you hear the constant thoughts I feel to my own well being."
He fell his hand from my shoulder and once again, briefly, peeped at me from over his spectacles. "I don't even like the fact that you think about your own death so consistently, or passively, Severus. But I will not pursue the matter any further, for now." His face then contorted into his more amused twinkling usual expression. "Though, it seems that somehow you have concocted both a youthening potion, as well as a rather effective poison. I would say congratulations, if it were not for this new revelation in your well-being, Severus. You may be wondering as to what happened last night as well?"
Poison? "What type of poison did I happen to produce?"
He seemed to ignore my question, and then continued on with his spiel. "It seems that after you arrived here, you passed out, and after seeing your eyes, along with the other symptoms as well of course, such as fast pulse, low temperature…" He cleared his throat, "Well anyway, Poppy recognized the symptoms of it. Rather potent as well. Tell me, have you been suffering from horrendous headaches since you have taken the potion?"
I answered him slowly, "Yes…"
He hummed. "Yes, I imagine that you would be. It would be rather odd for you not to have had anything peculiar at all happen, as to the strength of it in your system…" The old codger trailed off in thought, and I glared at him in annoyance. Why wouldn't he just simply answer my question?
"What, in the bloody name of Merlin, was the name of the poison, you old goat?" Oops. Why couldn't I simply keep my sour tongue still for once? Nothing like insulting the only friend you really have, Severus, you oaf. I closed my eyes momentarily to gain more control over the rising irritation that I was feeling. "Forgive me, Headmaster, it was uncalled for."
He chuckled. "It is quite all right, Severus, I imagine that you have had a very trying day, so for now it will be forgiven." I nodded. "Now then, where was I? Oh yes, the poison. It happens that you were poisoned with Exitus Memoria. It is a rather rare potion that I believe that you are quite familiar with, am I correct?" I am sure that all color had left my face at the mentioning of the name, as I am sure that I could feel all the blood rush away from my face, if that is even really possible. I nodded slowly. SHIT.
A/N- Hope you liked the chapter, it won't be too long before the next one is up. And, as always, I love to get reviews :)