Angel Watch Me Through the Night
Chapter 5
"Minerva, this cannot go on."
"One more day, Filius. I promise, this is the last time. I just need to make sure he gets breakfast this morning. He hasn't been eating as much as of--" Filius Flitwick cut her off.
"The last day was two weeks ago, Minerva. And then two days after that, and the day after that, and a few days after that! It will not stop. I trust in you, but you need to let the healers do what they can!"
"But they can't do anything!" Minerva cried, "or they won't anyway. He won't respond to them if they don't give him a reason to! I have to help him! He trusts me, Filius. Don't you want him back?"
Filius couldn't answer. He had never been terribly fond of Severus, but he felt not that if the Potions master did not return, he would lose his friend in the Headmistress forever. Only now it seemed that perhaps they would lose Minerva anyway.
"I promise Filius," Minerva called over her shoulder, "I will be back before first period."
9:45. First period was more than half-way past. Minerva didn't care; or rather she wouldn't have cared even if she had noticed. Severus wasn't eating much and she had vowed to stay with him until he had finished every last bite of his breakfast. The man had always been far too thin. Each time she raised the spoon to his mouth, however, his eyes would follow the food steadily, but he would not move his head or open his mouth to receive the nourishment. This unnerved Minerva slightly, but did not hinder her persistence. She was simply determined to make him eat. After another ten minutes of this behavior, Severus did something unexpected; he reached up his hand and stopped the spoon on its journey. Minerva was startled, but thrilled.
"Yes, Severus, that's it!" She whispered excitedly, though she fully expected him to either hold the spoon and not do anything with it or simply drop the utensil on the ground. "That's it, dear"
But Severus did not drop the spoon to the ground, nor did he stop moving his hand. Against all odds, Severus took the spoon back down shakily to his bowl and lifted the trembling silver to his mouth. Minerva could barely contain a scream of delight as she flung her arms around her friend again and hugged him tightly. For once, he did not flinch.
"Two and a half hours, Minerva!"
"Pomona, I'm sorry! I didn't realize--"
"That's a load of shit, Minerva, and you know it! 'Didn't realize'. How can you be two and a half hours late and not realize it?" Pomona was on the verge of screaming and it took visible effort for her to calm herself. "We're all counting on you to be here, Minerva. Staff, students, we all depend on you. When you're off gallivanting some hopeless cause, leaving us to fend for ourselves--"
"It's not a hopeless cause!"
"--disaster is bound to strike us eventually, and when you aren't here--"
"He learned to feed himself today!"
Pomona froze mid-sentence. Turning slowly as if in a trance, she stared wide-eyed at Minerva, "What did you say?"
"He learned to feed himself. I won't need to go down there to spoon feed him ever again." Minerva's tone held very little emotion. It was a voice she usually reserved for students who were about to receive punishments and Pomona felt as though she had been subjected to a trick or sorts and was about to be served detention for her lack of respect towards her boss.
"I'm trying, Pomona." Minerva lost some of her hard edge as she said this, "I promise I really am. I want to be here for you and the others, but we are still short a potions master and I feel that I'm the last one Severus trusted. You all have each other here, but who will he have when he is greater need than ever if I am not there for him?" Her eyes were beginning to glisten.
"The healers, Minerva, that's what they're trained--"
"The healers don't give a damn." Minerva choked on some unseen tears before continuing. "They don't have the slightest clue what he needs. They just want him to respond to them, and he would if only they would use monotone voices and learn how not to frighten him. He's scared, Pomona. You remember what he was like in his first year; too pale, too thin and always frightened of everyone. Well he's going through that again, and no one else seems willing to help him, not that anyone really stepped up to the plate the first time. I'm not going to just pass him by this time. He needs help and I'm giving it."
"But what of the students now, Minerva?" Pomona gently touched the arm of her now sobbing friend, "The first years hardly know you and the others worry constantly when you don't attend meals. They need you now. They look to you for the strength the rest of us could never provide. You know what it was like when Albus would leave us for long periods. They feel the way about you that the others felt about him. They love you, dear! We just want you to come home to us."
Crying, Minerva leaned into Pomona Sprout's opened armed embrace and squeezed her friend tightly around the middle.
"Is it still home if someone is missing?"
Pomona had no answer.
A/N: No Snape PoV this time, though did anyone expect me top update this quickly? He'll be back. I do hope I'm setting up this conflict appropriately. I need to build the tensions up. I'm not sure how long this one will turn out to be. Sev still has a ways to go, but Min's fit to break already. We'll just see how things work out! The characters control the story, all I control is the keyboard.