Severus trudged wearily in to his room. This had probably been the most stressful week of his entire life and now he was most definitely looking forward to a relaxing weekend, not having to do or worry about anything at all and only getting up on Sunday to have an equally and relaxing bath with about a ton of lavender scented bubbles…
"I'm back!" Snape called to Izzy who was, supposedly, in the room adjacent to this. When nobody replied, Severus frowned deeply and, hand in hand with a nasty sense of foreboding, peered around the door to see the Aengel…completely and utterly not there.
The usually well-composed Potions Master fell to his knees and moaned into the carpet,
"Why? Why? Why?"
"I'm still not sure about him." Ronald stated suspiciously, eyeing the small boy playing clapping games on Hermione's knee in an exceedingly dubious manner. Harry punched him relatively lightly, but not really, on the shoulder,
"Couldn't you at least try to get along with him? For Hermione's sake if no one else's."
"But it's Malfoy!" Ron whined, "I don't want to get along with him!" Harry narrowed his eyes,
"Then pretend it's someone else." He said slowly, getting just the slightest bit pissed at his friend's attitude. As much as he liked Ron, he could be seriously narrow-minded sometimes.
"Hey." Harry looked up to see the Aengel girl, Izzy he thought her name was, hovering over him, "Your name's Harry, isn't it?"
"Umm…yeah."
"Okay, I was just checking. And…he can't see me, cam he?" She pointed to Ron, who was watching his green-eyed friend as though he was totally mad. Harry shook his head,
"It doesn't appear so." Izzy laughed and sat herself down next to him,
"Thank you." She whispered, right into his ear,
"What-what for?"
"For being kind to Draco." The both looked over to where the small blonde boy was giggling like a wild thing, "I don't think I've ever seen him so at ease with people before." She continued, "Usually he is very wary of strangers but now, he just seems so happy. So just…thank you." Harry began to make an embarrassed sort of reply about 'Oh no! Don't be so silly, Draco's a lovely kid.' Or something of the sort. But at that moment, Severus burst through the double doors leading into the wing and made his way slowly up to where the party was assembled. Draco leapt happily to his feet and raced up to him, the boy's former fatigue almost entirely gone, and wrapped his thin arms around his godfather's waist,
"I've made a new friend!" He piped, "His name's Harry an'-" But Snape brushed him off and went up to Izzy,
"I told you to stay in my room and get some rest." His voice was low and dangerous and Draco, not having witnessed Snape's temper before, began to breath heavily, unwelcome memories starting to rise to the surface again. Izzy sighed,
"Severus you don't-"
"Do you have any idea how worried I was?" Severus continued, his tone rising rapidly in volume, "I thought you'd disappeared or been abducted! You should've waited for me! How could-"
"Severus for Merlin's sake, shut up! Can't you see you're scaring him?"
"Wh…?" Snape turned towards Draco, who, sure enough, had turned completely white and was crouched, trembling, on the ground. Within an instant, Severus was crouched by his side,
"Draco?" The little boy's head shot up, eyes wide and scared,
"N-no!" He whispered, his weak voice barely above a low whimper, "P-please…" Snape felt very much inclined towards knocking his head against a very hard brick wall. Hard enough to get concussion, at least. He looked to Izzy for some sort of moral support or guidance…but she wasn't there.
Snape turned back to Draco, who was still watching him fearfully, making it all the more clear why Issabella had vanished. A feeling of nausea rose up in his throat.
"I'm so sorry." Severus whispered to his godson, "I never meant to scare you. I swear I didn't. Please forgive me, Dragon. Please trust me." Draco looked up at Snape and hesitated, unsure whether or not his godfather was telling the truth.
Silver met black.
And Draco climbed on to Snape's lap and put his middle, pressing his thin face into the dark material of Severus' cloak, inhaling the familiar, safe smell that Draco always associated with him.
"Sev?" Snape turned his head to look into the deep, purple eyes of Draco's Aengel. He let out the breath that had been unconsciously held in, as a sigh of relief.
"I think, sometimes, you forget that I am not human." She chided softly, "I am bound to him and he to me. You cannot realise how much it hurts to be separated from him."
"I thought I had lost you." Snape said dumbly, clearly not listening to a word she had just been saying. Izzy giggled and brushed her lips against his neck,
"Don't be silly Sev." She murmured in his ear, "There's no way you can get rid of me that easily! Draco needs me." Draco, upon hearing his name, looked up and gave them both an angelic smile, happy that his two favourite people had made up and his Uncle Sev'rus wasn't cross any more.
xXxXxXx
Hermione glanced over at Ron, who was looking utterly bewildered. He stood up shakily, pinching the bridge of his nose between thumb and forefinger,
"I think…I need to lie down." He mumbled vaguely, "My head really hurts."
"I'll come with you." Harry offered, standing also, "You coming, Mione?"
"In a second. You two go on ahead. I'll catch you up." Harry and Ron exchanged sceptical looks, "What?"
"You do remember what happened when you said that last time, don't you?" Harry reminded her. Hermione sighed,
"I am not going to spy on anybody! I just need to ask something."
"What?"
"I'll tell you later! You really don't trust me, do you?" The green eyed boy grinned and shook his head,
"Nope." Hermione narrowed her eyes,
"Fine. I don't care. Just take Ron back to the common room and I'll meet you two there in five minutes." Harry hesitated, debating whether or not he could trust her, then, deciding he could, said to Ron,
"Come along Ronald." And, after waving goodbye to Draco, steered him out of the hospital wing by the elbow.
When she was sure that the boys had definitely left, Hermione went over to where Snape and Draco were sitting,
"Umm…Professor?"
"Yes?"
"Umm…. well, you know it's the first Hogsmeade visit of the year tomorrow? I was just wondering if maybe Draco would like to come with us? You know, if you wanted to rest, or something, without having to worry about him, we'd be only too happy to look after him." Draco looked hopefully up at his godfather,
"Please, Uncle Sev'rus, can I? Please?" Severus faltered,
"I don't know…"
"Pleasepleasepleasepleaassee!" Snape held up his hands in surrender,
"Fine. But you'd better look after him Granger or I'll fail you in every exam for the rest of your life." Hermione grinned.
"I will, don't worry."
A/N: Greetings! YAY! 211 REVIEWS! Does happy dance
Ahem Chocolate dragon hugs to...
13BlackAngels, Lollenk, KatieMalfoy19, Nikki's evil doppelganger, lilmissgullable, Tamika DanarDraco, Grlkat, DarkPrincesses, Miniuncy, TimeMage0955, Queen of darkness evilness and chaos, Ilya of Smeg, Carmelita, perfectpureblood, XxXGoddess of SlytherinXxX
All my love, Lilyxxxx