Chapter Two
When Minerva made it to room twenty-seven (five minutes after receiving the message) there was a team of mediwitches at hand. She was puzzled, wasn't responding a good thing? Why did they all look so grim and worried? She pushed her way to the front of the crowd and found Gabriela Auxin looking at the patient though a crack in the door. She too looked worried, as though her patient's life were at stake. Minerva felt her heart jump up in her throat and took a second to push it back down into her rib cage before asking what had happened.
"He retreated further. He won't even let us open his mouth to feed him." Minerva stole a look in at the patient. He looked like a small child, his eyes completely glazed over, lost looking. His hair was a mess and he was as far into the corner as he could possibly go, curled tightly into ball. Minerva was no psychiatrist by any means, nor was she a trained mediwitch, but working with children all her life had taught he to recognize fear, even when it is disguised, and Severus was by no means attempting to hide his terror. She turned back to face Gabriela Auxin.
"Who found him this morning when he responded?" Gabriela did not have to answer; a mediwitch with round cheeks, bright brown wide eyes and frizzy blonde hair raised her hand.
"I jumped so high when he moved." She had a quiet voice but it was very fast and more than a bit high pitched, 'He hadn't budged for days, you know. And so I tried talking to him, seeing if he would respond again. Something scared him though, and he curled up like that and has moved again since." All the commotion and excitement, Minerva presumed. Like a small shy child, he must have been very frightened by her quick movements.
Watching him helplessly like this was painful for Minerva. Severus had never been weak in front of her, even when he was caught under the annul staff room mistletoe. She could not let this happen to him. Talking had worked yesterday. Just the comforting sound of a voice. Maybe the same would happen today.
"Where's his breakfast? Minerva asked. She was not going to lose Severus to an over excitable mediwitch. Not when he had responded to her. She took the soup that Gabriela Auxin handed to her and slowly, calmly went into the room. She kneeled down on the ground as soon as the doorframe was behind her, trying desperately to keep at or below eye level with him, not that it seemed to matter much as he gave no indication he knew she was there, crawling slowly towards him. Once there was about a foot's difference between them, she sat back, crouching down so she would not seem as intimidating and spoke.
"Severus?" She thought he had twitched but she couldn't be sure. She could feel the eyes of the mediwitches on her through the doorframe, and tried desperately not to think about them. She concentrated on Severus's wide frightened eyes, glazed over as though he was not actually there. She could tell this wasn't going to be easy. But she inched a little closer, talking the same way he had the day before. Soothing words about nothing of importance, students' grades, ministry idiots, the health of friends, even the weather outside. He still didn't move, even when she was right in front of him. His chest was rising and falling very quickly, but his breath didn't make a sound. She debated whether touching him would soothe his body or just scare him more, and decided not to take the risk. Instead she began talking about life, children, love, flowers, weeds, anything that crossed her mind long enough to come out of her mouth. She could see his breathing slow and his tense muscles begin to relax as he realized she would not hurt or frighten him.
She kept talking though he only relaxed a bit and still refused to move. She felt it might be safe to touch him now and gently lay her hand across his the same way she had the day before. Minerva paused. There, she had seen it. His eyes, less glazed now, had moved. He was looking at her, though she could tell with a sinking feeling in the pit of her stomach that he had no idea who she was. Bravely, she swallowed the lump in her throat and tried to think of more things to talk about. Would he know if she said the same things twice? She doubted it, but still decided not to take the risk, so she did the next best thing: she began reciting bedtime stories and songs she had memorized as a young girl: Little things both muggle and wizarding. "Little Red Riding Robe" after "The Little Nimbus That Could' followed by, "Kneazle in Boots" and "Peter and the Werewolf". He showed no signs of understanding the stories, he didn't even seem to notice a difference between her talking and her storytelling, but he continued to relax until Minerva could lift the bowl of soup into her lap, still spinning her tales from little children's books, and begin to spoon the liquid into his mouth.
He swallowed. She was sure it was only a reflex, but that meant she didn't have to force-feed him. Minerva told three more stories before the bowl was done, and her mouth felt awfully dry, but she managed to pick up the strength to grip his hand and smile at him, promising him she'd be back. She wasn't sure if he had heard her. His eyes were still glazed over, but she felt that somehow, he knew what she had meant. She felt herself looking forward to it as much as he was.
By the time Minerva exited room twenty-seven, Gabriela Auxin was the only mediwitch left at the door. She smiled weakly at Minerva.
"Would you like me to fetch some books from the children's wing?" She asked.
"That would be splendid." Minerva said flashing a quick smile at the head mediwitch. She conjured a glass of water for her parched mouth and throat.
"Could you perhaps stay for lunch, headmistress? We can never get him to eat more than two meals a day, but you might be able to get him to have a third. He usually puts up a good fight." Gabriela Auxin took a deep breath and paused before continuing softly, "I don't think he really wanted to live until this morning. We didn't realize it, but I guess we never gave him a reason to live. Maybe, you're doing that." Minerva understood exactly, and promised to stay for the rest of the day if that's what it was going to take. It was clear Gabriela Auxin did not hold much hope for Severus's release, but Minerva did. She would find her friend again. She just had to.
A/N: how's that? I've been pretty awful to Severus lately, but he's just such a wonderful character to explore. My favorite part of this chapter would have to be the story titles. I'll put in the meaning of the title in the next chapter, I hope….