Deceit
You don't need to bother;
I don't need to be
I'll keep slipping farther
But once I hold on:
I'll never live down my deceit
Harry Potter came racing up to the infirmary at exactly the same time Albus Dumbledore arrived. Red-faced and gasping for breath, slightly out of shape and thinner than when he had left in June, the boy leant against the doorway and dared to ask the question.
"Do you know?? Is she. Hermione." for the first time since the train, his voice broke and his eyes filled with tears. "Headmaster?"
"I have just arrived here myself Harry. I understand that you are concerned, and as soon as I have spoken to Madame Pomfrey and Professors McGonagall and Snape I will inform you on your friend's condition. Just wait out here, and have a lemon drop."
Shocked that the headmaster didn't automatically let him into the infirmary, Harry reached over and took the proffered candy. Popping it into his mouth and sitting down on the bench outside the infirmary, he felt a surge of calm. Dumbledore must coat those innocent looking lemons with a calming draught of some sort.
Inside the infirmary, both Poppy Pomfrey and Minerva McGonagall were fussing over the now ailing Severus Snape like he was a wounded puppy. He was gruffly trying to push them away as he would prefer to be left alone within his misery, to deal with it as he would. It took Albus Dumbledore entering the room to shift their attentions off him and back to Hermione.
"It would be much more effective, and much faster if you would work on the girl, I might remind you. You can only help me with the symptoms; you cannot cure these ills for they are not mine but hers. Revive her, get some strengthening draught into her, and perform the volumizing spell on her. Once that it done I should gain enough energy to go and create to potion that she needs." Severus rasped out, still managing to sound condescending , humiliating the two witches for their foolishness not to recognize this sooner. Albus nodded his agreement, and the three went over to Hermione's bed, where the girl lay ashen and motionless. Madame Pomfrey briefly described the nature and severity of Hermione's injuries to the two professors, who grew more disturbed by the moment.
"What could have driven her to this point? She was being made a prefect, top marks in the school, nice friends.. What could have caused her to do this Minerva? She's one of your students and in your house, have you noted any problems or concerns?"
"Well, no Poppy. she's always been a wonderful student. extremely conscientious about all her studies and House Points."
"I think, ladies, it might be prudent to attempt a Revival spell on Miss Granger. Perhaps she will be willing to tell us herself, and by reviving her and apply more healing spells, we might relieve some of the strain from Severus. You cannot understand the impact of the spell on him. it is dramatic, and I understand that there is some work yet for him to do in this matter. If we might begin."
Both women nodded, and Madame Pomfrey cast the Revival spell on the unconscious Gryffindor laying two beds down from Slytherin's Head of House. "That should bring her around, although I doubt she will have the strength even to speak. She has had quite an ordeal, to death's door and back again. Give her a moment, while I retrieve the potions."
Hermione's return to conscious thought was not a pleasant one. Her arm felt on fire, her head ached as if she had been hit by one hundred bludgers, and the nausea was overwhelming. A disgusted groan escaped her lips, as she attempted to open an eye. She closed it again immediately, and then cautiously, both eyes surveyed her surroundings. A look of confusion, then realization, then anger and then a dark reproach crossed her face.
'Why am I here? Who did this to me? Who saved me?" Hermione's voice was low and harsh, and trembled with rage. "Because when I find out, I'm going to fucking kill them."
The smile which had graced the headmasters face at seeing his star student awaken quickly dissolved into shock and the two witches with him gasped audibly. Two beds over, a now violently headachy and nauseous Severus Snape, nearly undone by the level of foreign emotions boiling in his veins let one phrase rumble across his thoughts in return..
"You're Welcome."
You don't need to bother;
I don't need to be
I'll keep slipping farther
But once I hold on:
I'll never live down my deceit
Harry Potter came racing up to the infirmary at exactly the same time Albus Dumbledore arrived. Red-faced and gasping for breath, slightly out of shape and thinner than when he had left in June, the boy leant against the doorway and dared to ask the question.
"Do you know?? Is she. Hermione." for the first time since the train, his voice broke and his eyes filled with tears. "Headmaster?"
"I have just arrived here myself Harry. I understand that you are concerned, and as soon as I have spoken to Madame Pomfrey and Professors McGonagall and Snape I will inform you on your friend's condition. Just wait out here, and have a lemon drop."
Shocked that the headmaster didn't automatically let him into the infirmary, Harry reached over and took the proffered candy. Popping it into his mouth and sitting down on the bench outside the infirmary, he felt a surge of calm. Dumbledore must coat those innocent looking lemons with a calming draught of some sort.
Inside the infirmary, both Poppy Pomfrey and Minerva McGonagall were fussing over the now ailing Severus Snape like he was a wounded puppy. He was gruffly trying to push them away as he would prefer to be left alone within his misery, to deal with it as he would. It took Albus Dumbledore entering the room to shift their attentions off him and back to Hermione.
"It would be much more effective, and much faster if you would work on the girl, I might remind you. You can only help me with the symptoms; you cannot cure these ills for they are not mine but hers. Revive her, get some strengthening draught into her, and perform the volumizing spell on her. Once that it done I should gain enough energy to go and create to potion that she needs." Severus rasped out, still managing to sound condescending , humiliating the two witches for their foolishness not to recognize this sooner. Albus nodded his agreement, and the three went over to Hermione's bed, where the girl lay ashen and motionless. Madame Pomfrey briefly described the nature and severity of Hermione's injuries to the two professors, who grew more disturbed by the moment.
"What could have driven her to this point? She was being made a prefect, top marks in the school, nice friends.. What could have caused her to do this Minerva? She's one of your students and in your house, have you noted any problems or concerns?"
"Well, no Poppy. she's always been a wonderful student. extremely conscientious about all her studies and House Points."
"I think, ladies, it might be prudent to attempt a Revival spell on Miss Granger. Perhaps she will be willing to tell us herself, and by reviving her and apply more healing spells, we might relieve some of the strain from Severus. You cannot understand the impact of the spell on him. it is dramatic, and I understand that there is some work yet for him to do in this matter. If we might begin."
Both women nodded, and Madame Pomfrey cast the Revival spell on the unconscious Gryffindor laying two beds down from Slytherin's Head of House. "That should bring her around, although I doubt she will have the strength even to speak. She has had quite an ordeal, to death's door and back again. Give her a moment, while I retrieve the potions."
Hermione's return to conscious thought was not a pleasant one. Her arm felt on fire, her head ached as if she had been hit by one hundred bludgers, and the nausea was overwhelming. A disgusted groan escaped her lips, as she attempted to open an eye. She closed it again immediately, and then cautiously, both eyes surveyed her surroundings. A look of confusion, then realization, then anger and then a dark reproach crossed her face.
'Why am I here? Who did this to me? Who saved me?" Hermione's voice was low and harsh, and trembled with rage. "Because when I find out, I'm going to fucking kill them."
The smile which had graced the headmasters face at seeing his star student awaken quickly dissolved into shock and the two witches with him gasped audibly. Two beds over, a now violently headachy and nauseous Severus Snape, nearly undone by the level of foreign emotions boiling in his veins let one phrase rumble across his thoughts in return..
"You're Welcome."