Chapter 23: Upon Awakening...
Severus opened his eyes...
He blinked. The dream he'd been having was disconcerting. Where was Draco? Severus shook his head, and then tried to move his arms and legs. They all worked as well as could be expected, so he sat up with effort. The dark of the Hospital Wing made looking around more difficult, but he was determined to survey his surroundings. There was something going on; he would not have dreamed of Lestrange attacking Draco in his deep unconscious state if there was nothing going on. He frowned as he saw Lily Evans slumbering in one of the beds near his, and another bed that had been used, but the occupant had left.
Severus nearly groaned, but managed to suppress it, since he didn't want anyone to know he was awake just yet. He struggled to get out of bed, but he was so damned stiff! How long had he been unconscious? A few hours? He gingerly took his first steps on the cold stone floor. To his dismay, his slippers were nowhere to be found, and he was clothed in his red-striped pyjamas that were of thinner material than his green ones. He nearly stumbled as he felt how weak his legs had gotten.
Step by step, he made his way to Lily. What had happened to her? If she was hurt by Lestrange, then he'd pay for it with his life, Severus vowed as he grit his teeth and grasped Lily's bedpost to keep from collapsing. Once he regained his balance, he peered at Lily, who had no idea that she was being watched at all. She looked so innocent, and so beautiful. He couldn't beleive how beautiful she'd gotten since she first came to Hogwart's. She used to be this gawky Mud-blood freak with big green eyes and red hair, which Severus had always hated. Only Muggles thought that witches all had red hair. He always knew that most "true witches" had black hair, back when he was young and stupid.
He recalled seeing Lily in his unconscious dream. She was a mermaid then. He gave a quick look at her legs under the covers, only to notice that one of them was in a cast. So that was why she was here, Severus noted. She'd broken her leg in some way. Yes, on her bed stand was a bottle of Skele-Gro that was nearly empty. But, Skele-Gro should have healed her leg without her having to stay in the Hospital Wing overnight. The only time that she would have had to stay overnight would have been if she had to totally regrow bones. But then she wouldn't have needed a cast, would she? This was very strange. He became even more concerned when he saw that there was another vial that was emptied next to the Skele-Gro bottle. He lifted the vial to his nose, and knew it was a sleeping potion.
Severus leaned closer. His heart began to pound in his chest; he was so very close to Lily now that he could just about touch her. "Oh, Lily," he whispered, "I hope that you are alright. I'll kill anyone that ever hurts you, I swear it. If only you knew that I'll never hurt you again." And just as he was about to dare to kiss her, he heard some raised voices from another part of the wing.
"Mr. Malfoy..." Severus heard Professor Dumbledore say. He squinted his eyes and saw Draco standing in the doorway of a well-lit room. Severus touched Lily's cheek, and whispered, "I'll be back, my love."
The next few things said, he couldn't make out. But he did manage to hear, "We found Rachel Lestrange swinging from a staircase railing. She hanged herself, we think." Severus stopped in his tracks, such as they were. Rachel's dead!
"Names! He wanted names! And I gave him yours!" Draco spat to some unseeen individual. "And I gave him yours too! But don't worry; he already knows all about you!" Draco told Foxworth with disgust. Names? Severus thought with panic. Did he mean the names of people involved with that damned Order of the Phoenix? How I wish I had never heard the name!
"Well, as long as you didn't give him my name..." he heard Aloysius sniff. Leave it to Uncle Al to say something stupid and nasty.
Drace hissed "You bastard! If I had even thought of it, I would have given your name first! As it was, I had too much to think about with Lestrange sticking my own wand up my ass and performing the Cruciatus Curse to give you a second thought!"
It took a couple of seconds for the horror to strike Severus, but when it did, he could barely stand up. Surely it couldn't be true. Even Lestrange, as much as he hated Draco, was not capable of doing such a thing! It was like a vicious kick in his stomach, this knowledge that such evil existed, and had resided in his dormitory, had eaten next to him for years! He staggered up to the door, and said "What did you say he did?" Draco looked at Severus with alarm. In fact, that was virtually everyone else's response.
"Severus! When did you wake up? What are you doing out of bed? You look like you're ready to drop dead," Draco protested, as Severus actually sank to his knees in weakness and despair. "Let's get you back up into your bed now."
"No! NO! God damn it I'll kill him! I warned him that if he did anything to you that I'd make him pay! Let go of me!" Severus struggled, which only made Draco's grip on him become stronger, and only served to make himself even weaker. It was actually embarrassing how easily Draco dragged him back to his bed. Amazingly, Lily was still fast asleep despite all the noise and commotion.
Draco plopped Severus onto his bed. Severus was panting from his efforts to try and get up again. Curse my weak body! his mind raged. I can't go and wring anyone's neck in this condition! All he could do is look at this assembly of men arranged around his bed: a wild looking old man with an eye that rolled in all directions while his other stared straight at him, Professor Foxworth, Professor Dumbledore, the Minister of Magic, and his dratted Uncle Aloysius. Draco sat on the edge of his own bed, uncomfortably shifting his weight. No need to ask why Draco couldn't sit straight...
"When did you wake up, Sevi?" Aloysius asked.
"Too late..." Severus mumbled. "It's all my fault."
"Now, Severus, you cannot go around blaming yourself for something that was totally beyond your control," Professor Dumbledore began. But Severus' mind began to race, as it did from time to time when too much information was thrown at him, especially the kind that was very emotional. He began to shake, and he held his hands over his ears. "I think we need to back off from these young people now," Dumbledore warned the other surrounding wizards.
Madame Pomfrey scurried over to the bedsides of both Severus and Draco. She almost seemed in a quandry as to who she needed to tend to first. Severus could hear Draco say, "Madame Pomfrey, Sev's in a bad way there." She peered into his face, and he tried to shut his eyes.
"This young man had just awakened from a coma, and you insensitive louts are gathered around him like vultures. Be gone with all of you!" she shooed them away, even Dumbledore, like they were vermin. Severus opened his eyes just in time to see his uncle being chased off by a stout woman at least a foot shorter than him. It was almost satisfying to see it.
"Now, my dear, we need to see how responsive you are after your long sleep..." she said, and then began to have Severus wiggle his toes, and bend his legs, and move around, to show what his range of motion was. Severus simply let her get on with her business. He heard Aloysius say something to the order of, "He's a Snape; of course he's fine!" How he wished he was fine enough to knock his lights out! If only he was fine enough to flay Lestrange alive!
"Madame Pomfrey, with all due respect, there is something we need to discuss with him," one of the old men said.
"Mr. Minister, I'm quite sure that you can discuss that foul business another time," she snapped.
A sudden cold dread siezed his heart, even in the midst of his agony over Draco's fate. "Colton..." he muttered.
And, oddly, Dumbledore smiled at Severus, and said, "Is just fine. In fact, he's more than fine, thanks to you." Severus gaped. His uncle was beaming. "He's been cured, Severus. Cured of an injury he sustained in sevice to the Ministry of Magic some years ago. He had Burned Out, Severus. You knew this, of course, because of your latent abilities. But I don't think that you had known that you could cure him of the condition. You've restored his ability to use magic."
"I did?" he breathed. Madame Pomfrey gave him a brief, reassuring smile. He looked to his side, and saw Draco with an unreadable look on his face. "How? Why was I able to do that? I didn't know that I was doing that."
The one-eyes man that Severus had seen in his strange dream finally spoke up. "Laddie," he growled, "you've got a certain power that most wizards or witches had long given up would ever resurface again. Some people had thought that I had the power, once, but it proved that they were wrong. But you have it, without a doubt. You have the power to Break, Severus."
Severus became very pensive at hearing that. "Is that a good thing or not?" he finally asked.
"Why, it's wonderful!" Uncle Aloysius told Severus in a tone that the boy obviously had never heard before. Severus thought dismally that it must be awful if Aloysius was so happy about it. He thought some more. Didn't he ever hear of this before? Surely he must have, in Defense Against the Dark Arts. He glanced to Professor Foxworth, who gave him a mild smile. Then he looked at Dumbledore, who wore as unreadable a face as Draco did. Obviously, those two didn't think that being someone who could Break was such a great thing to be. The Minister of Magic himself was at his bedpost, giving him a keen look.
"Having a Breaker amongst us will change the course of our times, young man," he said. "Now, whenever a prisoner is sent to Azkaban, he or she will be Broken, so that we will not need to use Dementors to guard the prison. A Breaker takes away someone's ability to use magic. And, when the sentence is served, the Breaker can then restore the wizard or witch, just like you did with Professor Colton."
"I'm not interested," Severus declared. "I've been knocked flat on my...back for quite a while, and I'm not feeling all too eager to repeat the experience." Dumbledore smiled, but no one else, especially Uncle Aloysius, did.
"You do what you're told, you useless creature, or I'll toss you out!" he growled. "You're going to finally live up to the Snape name and do something useful with yourself, instead of brewing weight-loss potions over the summer for extra money!" Severus' face reddened; that kind of work was for inferior witches or wizards, especially muggle-borns, not for the elite of the wizarding world. For Uncle Aloysius to even admit that his nephew did that at all was setting him at risk for a minor scandal, at least. He must be really upset with him to even dare and say it at all. Severus glanced at Draco, who was still wearing that unreadable expression.
"What's today's date?" he asked."
"It's the fourth of May," Dumbledore answered, "since it's past midnight."
Severus frowned; it was his birthday. He had to do something! So he tried to get out of his bed again. He even made it to the edge of the bedpost before he was dragged back in again by several of his unwelcomed guests.
"I think it's time to take a sleeping draught, Mr. Snape. and I'm sure Mr. Malfoy could use just one more dose," Dumbledore suggested strongly as Severus struggled.
"No! I have to get him!" Severus insisted mulishly.
Alastor Moody hobbled over to him and said as he bent down to peer into Severus' furious black eyes, "The only way you'll get Lestrange is to face him after he is sentenced to Azkaban! Just think; you will be the one who takes what is most precious to him away..."
"Moody's right!" Aloysius hissed as he pushed Severus down into the sheets. "Stop fighting this and do the training! Forget about Lestrange until the time comes where he gets justice!" Severus stopped trying to escape, and sunk down into the bed, exhausted. They would keep trying to get what they wanted from him while he was still too weak to fight back. But he would fight back. He'd destroy Lestrange by any means necessary, and the sooner, the better. Ony these thoughts consoled him as he downed another vial of sleeping potion.