A/N – I guess this is AU now, thanks to HBP… oh well…lalalala… HBP never occurred… ignoring…denial…
Chapter 3 – Encased in a Room
A low voice murmured, its gentle tones soothing her mind, as its melody rose and lowered above the sound of flapping curtains. Another voice, more gravelly than smooth, tuned in afterwards, lulling her back to sleep. A gentle hand swept over her brow, its cold hand relieving briefly the tension that was residing behind her eyes.
Then nothing.
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"Is this an appropriate time to be asking if she has much time left?" Albus Dumbledore asked quietly, eyes flickering over to the small white bundle of bandages that lay on the bed to his left, leaving no doubt as to whom he was referring.
"I don't really know." A sharp voice answered from behind him, followed by the distinctive sound of glass upon glass.
He turned his head slightly to gaze at the slightly portly nurse as she wrestled with the stopper to the bottle, finally twisting it shut and returning the bottles to the cabinet. With brisk steps Poppy Pomfrey was by his side, motioning him soundlessly to move what would have appeared to an outsider to be a pile of bandages into an upright position.
But he knew better, watching as the matron shifted the bandages to reveal a girl's pale face, deftly pouring the liquid down the girl's throat. Only after Poppy was finished did she begin to speak again.
"She's not the worst I've seen, Merlin knows Snape's given me enough grief with his injuries… but still – " Poppy halted, gently picking up a small wrist, which was almost indistinguishable beneath the wrapping that covered it, and ran her hands slowly over it, testing the wrist for its flexibility, and extent of injury.
"It's like this, Albus. She'll either pull through and be up and talking in a few hours, or we'll be burying her." Her eyes flickered over to Albus's face, sharp eyes softening in grief at what even magic couldn't prevent. "At this point in time it could shift to either extreme in a heartbeat."
He sighed slightly, returning his gaze back to the bandages, unwilling to look into the injured face of the woman again. "Then all we can do is wait…"
"Well, yes." She admitted. "You don't have to remain; I'll inform you of any developments as they occur…"
Albus shook his head, reclining slightly back into the bedside chair. "I will remain here with our - our visitor."
"Really Albus, there isn't much need." Poppy replied, decisively pausing to push one of the bandages around the girls face back into position again. "It's not like she posses any threat to us in her condition."
"I never meant to suggest that I thought she was anything of the sort." Albus said, looking sharply at the matron. "Indeed, I think we can discount her possibility of being a threat to us – she's in no condition to move about unaided, let alone co-ordinate a surprise attack."
"Then why …"
"I will remain until she is out of danger" He stated softly, yet firmly.
"Albus, you've not had enough sleep as it is, and there isn't much good that your presence can do that – "
"I believe hope is a firm motivator, no matter what the cause, or the source." He interrupted quietly, gaze fixed upon the bandaged chest that was slowly, yet steadily, rising in and out with each breath. Madam Pomfrey had stabilized her breathing not ten minutes past, and he had not yet got over the novelty of such movement from the girl.
Poppy sighed, having seen that look on the Headmasters face before. "Don't go getting attached to her sir… you're not responsible for what's happened to her."
"This woman is currently within our care at Hogwarts, and I will remain." He stated again, choosing to ignore her cautionary tone.
"You're a stubborn old man" She admonished gently, a slight smile playing upon her lips
"But if that's your wish, I have no reason to discount it – it won't do her any ill." Albus inclined his head slightly to acknowledge his thanks, but never took his eyes off of the pile of white.
Poppy moved over in the direction of her office, calling off behind her "Mind you let her sleep Albus."
"She's in little state to do much else, Poppy." He countered sadly, settling back into his chair for a long wait
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It was through half-closed lids later that night that Albus noticed a long shadow making its way stealthily across the hospital wing's floor from his position in the bedside chair.
He followed the shadow slowly with his eyes for a short while before, with a quick flick of his wrist, conjuring up a chair, into which the shadow fell with a grateful sigh.
"You look about as haggard as I feel." The shadow murmured sleepily in a voice remarkably like that of Minerva McGonagall.
Albus leaned further forward, so that the slight light coming in from under Pomfrey's office door illuminated Minerva's face, casting her pale features that were still tense with the pressures of the day into sharp relief.
"Are you implying that I look anything other than remarkable?" He asked in mock indignance, trying to keep the tone of the conversation light.
Minerva took one look of his mussed hair, crumpled robes, and forlorn expression, and tactfully changed the subject.
"Will I ever succeed in sneaking up on you?" She remarked conversationally, her face slowly shaking off the forlorn expression it had carried on its way up to the medical wing.
"Maybe, one day…"
"But not today." She finished, gaining a slight smile from him in return.
"No, not today Minerva… or should I say tonight." He elaborated teasingly, arching one eyebrow at her.
"You think you're being clever Albus, but really you're just highlighting the fact that you've been here forever." Minerva replied, eyes flashing slightly as they stared hard at him.
"Forever hmmmm…" Albus said, leaning back languidly in his chair as he stared up at the beams on darkened ceiling. "I would never have thought that eternity could be squeezed into such a few short moments…"
"Hours Albus, not moments, hours."
"Has it been that long already?" Albus feigned incredibility in an attempt to ignore the sharp glare he was still receiving from behind the spectacles in front of him, sparing the ceiling from his calculated gaze to quickly check at the moon's spinning on the pocket watch attached to his robes. "My goodness, so it has been that long. Time does fly."
"Yes, time does fly." Minerva replied, mimicking him sarcastically. "Speaking of flying, you must find time to thank your deputy headmistress for taking care of all the owls that have accosted her, each trying to find out information that the deputy herself didn't know."
Albus looked surprised. "I would have thought that most of them would have been trying to accost me…"
"They would have been, had they been directly addressed to you, and not your office. This turned out to be a really unfortunate turn of events for your deputy headmistress, who was within your office. The owls reached her, instead of their intended victim, hiding as he was within the depths of the infirmary. I swear I've been asked for comments by the Ministry, Daily Prophet, the Quibbler…"
"The Prime Minister of Albonika, the Russian Neverlands. Rest assured Minerva, not all the letters were addressed to my office." Albus cut in, reaching across her to pick up a pile of letters that were resting on a bedside table.
"Oh surely you're joking Albus!" She almost begged,
"Sadly…no" Albus replied, quickly flashing the addresses in front of her to back up his claim before returning the pile to the table.
She snorted moodily, a bad habit of hers that he was well acquainted with. "It seems that everyone and their pet Kneazle have been inquiring about the blast and…"
"We have very little to inform them about," He shrugged, an action that made him look more haphazard than ever, executed as it was within the confines of the armchair.
"So she…" Minerva's glance darted towards the bundle of white bandages lying on the bed.
"No Minerva, our guest has yet to reach consciousness, let alone inform us of the sequence of events that have led her, and her piece of molten metal, to land upon our fair fields." He answered her unvoiced question heavily.
"Oh." Minerva replied, mouth crimping itself back into a tight line despondently as she tried to get another look at the girl from the corner of her eye without looking too interested. Albus, however, was not fooled.
"And so it begins again." Albus's deep voice startled Minerva out of her revelry, stopping the hand that had been brushing back a bandage that had fallen into the girl's eyes. Minerva retracted the hand almost guiltily, while staring back at him in mock confusion.
"You simply can't resist can you." He continued, laughter creeping into his tone.
"What…what on earth do you mean?"
He laughed outright this time, the shaking of his shoulders straitening out the wrinkles that had been forming along the length of his robe. "Every time one of these beds become filled you simply can't stop yourself from coming up here."
"Now Albus, after answering owl after owl on your behalf concerning this event, I do believe that I am entitled to some glimpse of the source of this afternoon's problems."
Albus scoffed at her. "Stop playing the deputy Minerva, and pretending that you're not the woman that I know so well." Minerva huffed at his retort, but Albus waved a languid hand towards her to hold off her response. "Minerva, you've already gone mother hen on this girl, and you haven't even had a good look of her." He proclaimed, lips curling in a full grin as the laughter finally reached into his eyes. Minerva could not help but return the gesture, but she had not lost the wits battle yet.
"I'll have you know that I got as good a glimpse of her as you pulled her from that wreckage as the next person and…." Minerva quickly changed her tone from defensive into accusatory "….and like you should be talking."
"I don't know what you mean." He replied, the laughter in his eyes being slowly substituted for a knowing glint that belayed his earlier words.
"And you Albus?" She almost laughed at the situation – it was so nice to be having a battle of wits over something as trivial as this – it made a change from the usual wartime topics that frequented their bantering. "Have you really any right to be accusing me of inquiring! What are you still doing here with her, if not, well, mollycoddling her."
He turned his gaze back to the ceiling, twiddling his thumbs in the air lazily before replying. "I am simply fulfilling the very taxing and demanding job of keeping watchful eye over this…"
Minerva snorted, and shook her head at his antics: "Poppy tried to kick you out already didn't she."
He continued on like he hadn't heard her, "Monitoring the oxygen to hemoglobin ratio and…"
The grin was back in full force, on both their faces "Oh yes, she definitely did." Minerva nodded her head in a knowing manner, and decided to milk the situation for all it was worth. "The nerve of you accusing me of being over protective when you have been here for hours on end and…"
"…coupled with the hexaglobulin complex which has been suffering from a macro-normal situation cause by…"
"It won't work Albus, I know when you're faking."
He stopped in the middle of an elaborate description of the Terribula and Cornoix juncture to look her straight in the eye in a no-nonsense manner. She was almost positive that he had stolen that particular glare from her. "Or have you suddenly become a certified Medi-wizard in your spare time?"
"Are you implying that I haven't?" Albus adopted a rather indignant expression, which was spoiled by the continual twitching of his lower lip as he attempted to keep from smiling.
Minerva took one look at him and knew that she had to stop this conversation before he continued on. It had happened too many times before. He would prattle on for hours, leaving her no means of claiming victory as he would never give her the chance to have the last word.
Desperate times call for desperate measures Minerva decided as she pushed back her shoulders in a defiant manner, and looked him straight in the eye.
"I can find the solution to that particular question quiet easily" Minerva said, before turning towards the office door and yelling: "Poppy!"
"Minerva, really, there's no real need for you to bring the matron into the…"
"Poppy! I need you clarify something! Pop-"
"Shhh, quiet, the girl……Minerva, that's cheating." He almost huffed, while Minerva was silently patting herself on the back.
"I play to win Albus… you have about as much reason to be here as I do… less in fact, for the main reason I came here was to find you."
"Main," he echoed, scoffing slightly, "I'm sure that your 'mother henish' behavior had nothing to do with your travels and-"
"Albus, don't start this again. You're making dealing with you an almost Herculean feat these days." Minerva almost groaned, covering her eyes.
"Yes, but you seem to be well up to the challenge."
"Oh yes indeed," She remarked sarcastically, "and look at the beautiful muscles it's been giving me."
"Ah, yes, such beauty as those muscles may indeed cause my heart to stop beating." He jested, laughing slightly at both her and at himself, before turning thoughtful. "Well, I do suppose that this is the best place for it."
"What?" Minerva was almost afraid to ask, positive that it would lead to a joke at her expense. Albus did not disappoint.
"Well, if I do suddenly have a heart attack brought on you, I might as well have it close to medical help as possible."
Minerva really did groan this time, "That was horribly random Albus, and 2am is not the time for your beside humor."
"Unfortunately, in the infirmary is the only place I've been able to share my beside humor with you."
"Albus!" She exclaimed, flabbergasted "Are you implying…" But she never had the chance to finish her sentence, as Albus had leapt off of his chair, and was making his way steadily towards the door.
"Oh dear look at the time…."
"You're changing the subject again." Minerva responded, moving to follow him.
"Am I really?" He remarked in a would be casual voice. "The rhododendrons have been in rather full bloom lately, have they not?"
She shook her head at him in mock disgust. "You're in a dangerously cheerful mood right now. May I assume, then, that our patient is out of immediate danger, seeing as my woeful lack of muscles is enough to glean a joke from you?"
Another full smile. "Yes, Poppy expects a full recovery."
"Then why are you still here?" She asked softly again.
"Like you said Minerva, I have rather a soft spot in my heart for the weak and helpless." He gave a slight bow to her at the waist, his grin taking the prudishness out of his actions, before he swept out of the door, closing it solidly behind him.
Minerva took one small step towards the doorway, craning her head towards it in an attempt to see if he had really left. She almost held her breath as she tried to discern the telltale sound of his footsteps heading away from the wing. Her eyes darted from the doorframe, then back towards the bed in which the silent figure lay, before moving back towards the chair that Albus had just left in order to take a good look at the girl and…
"Coming?"
She jerked back at the soft voice, whipping around the see Albus's head peaking around the once closed door. She tried to arrange her features into an innocent expression, and failed miserably.
"Albus! Really! I was simply, you know, about to rest my feet and…" She stopped, glaring at the shadows where his face should be. "Don't you dare say caught in the act."
"I wouldn't dream of it." His voice belaying the exact opposite. Then his voice turned coaxing in a kindly sort of way. "Come Minerva, I've told Poppy to Floo each of us if anything changes."
She hesitated, looking back at the girl
Knowing her feelings exactly, there was nothing that he could do but take her by the elbow and steer her from the room.
A/N - But where, pray tell, would they be off to? grin Unfortunately, Albus will remain the gentleman for quite a while… or at least until later chapters even bigger grin
Rest assured my friends, not even HBP can stop this ship… we will never surrender! Mwahahahahaha (And Eilisan happily steps through the Alternate Universe Door that has appeared due to HBP)
The next chapter is indeed in the works, but here are my lovely thanks to my wonderful reviewers of the last chapter (Hopefully their number will be added to by those who review at the end of this chapter… hint hint, nudge nudge, wink wink…)
Anjyll – Here's to scary gym teachers! Glad you liked the update – hope you like this one as well!
Midnight'sGone – Woot! You came back for more… glad you're enjoying it so far.
Silver Sorceress – Glad to hear that you're not opposed to the AD/MM … there's quite a bit of it in this chapter…hope it was fun to read
East of the Sun – Thanks for the enthusiastic review! Hope the encore was worth the ovation!
TartanLioness – I love getting people hooked… thanks so much for dropping a line to let me know!