Disclaimer.
J.K Rowling went out one day so I took her characters out to play.
We ran around, they laughed with glee,
All this fun and she works for free!
Thanks to all who reviewed. I hope my attempt at a South Asian/Indian accent does not offend. The letters V and W seem to blend in their speech patterns.
"No, not like that old chap. Ladies don't look at hulking dour types, constantly glaring at them." Kingsley instructed Snape who had taken his first dose of Polyjuice potion. "Head up. Look 'em straight in the eyes, give them that dazzling smile and be gallant."
Phaelan who was observing the coaching from the side could repress her laughter no longer. She snorted and choked before breaking into belly laughs. "This is too funny. You couldn't pay someone to write a script this good."
"I am most gratified that we are a source of diverting entertainment for you madam; now if you please." The Snape/Kingsley snapped at her just as he tried to pass a hand through his, now, non-existent hair causing another paroxysm of laughter from Phaelan's side of the room.
Kingsley, who had laughed as loud, shook his head finally, "Just keep your head up and don't sneer or insult needlessly."
"I shall endeavour to comply. Poppy, are you ready?" Severus asked as he clasped Kingsley's Auror's robes over the royal blue suit Shacklebolt had selected for that day.
"Wait!" called Phaelan, "You need an earring Severus."
Looking as though he'd been asked to model a thong, Severus gasped "What?"
"She's right you know. You must accessorize properly. Now, a diamond stud or Gold loop?" Shacklebolt asked. "Ah, ah, ah, old boy. Don't get violent," he teased seeing the glower being cast on him by his twin, "It's just a charm." Waving his wand, Kingsley produced a gold hoop earring on Snape's left ear.
Turning on his heel he walked to the fireplace, "Now Poppy." He called as he stepped into the flames.
Stepping through the floo to St Mungo's main entrance, the Mediwitch and Potions Master made their way to the ward where the Faubert girls were still lying comatose. Madam Pomfrey had Owled the healer in charge telling them of a finding that might help and asking him to meet them.
An intense young man of South Asian descent, wearing a look of expectation, approached the pair.
"Madam Pomfrey, it is wery good to see you again. I hear you have brought us good news." He smiled and bowed as he took her hand to shake it.
"Healer Parasarathy, it's good to see you again too. May I present Auror Kingsley Shacklebolt. Kingsley has brought the possible solution to our dilemma of the girls' coma." Poppy stood aside to let the men meet.
"Auror? I was not avare Auror's vere also trained in the magic medical arts sir." The Healer frowned at the tall dark man.
"We are not sir, but, I am the close acquaintance of a potions master who deciphered the code of the mystery. Unfortunately, he was indisposed but felt the condition of the young ladies took precedence over his need to monitor his prescribed treatment." Snape advised the young man.
"A most benewolent man. Now, let us go to my office for tea and discuss..."
"NO!" Snape interrupted, "I have other pressing duties. We must proceed at once."
"But I must set down a protocol, clinical obserwation..." the healer tried to insist.
"Healer Parasarathy, I know the potions master Kingsley speaks of and I trust his judgement." Poppy intervened. "Please, let us go to the girls and you bring your strongest antidotes and stimulants. An assistant or two would not be amiss."
"Wery vell, Madam Pomfrey but this is not the vay we work vhere I was trained." The healer replied haughtily, his head bobbing and his hand waving indicating his displeasure.
"Where did you study sir?" asked Snape.
"The Mumbai Centre for Magical Maladies. Ve are recognized through out India and Asia as pre-eminent in the study of obscure curses and spells." He replied in a disdainful tone. "Now, I must prepare. I shall meet you in the private vard."
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Thanks to another of Dumbledore's great ideas, Phaelan felt a massive headache building behind her eyes. How did this situation get out of hand, she wondered and who the hell let the patients loose to run this asylum in the first place. She thought back to a few minutes earlier when she asked...
"Headmaster, how many people would you expect to attend this...gala reunion?" Phaelan asked.
Dumbledore stroked his beard thoughtfully. "That would be difficult to guess I'm afraid. Filius, could you hazard an educated guess?" he asked the Head of Ravenclaw.
"Well given that we have an official school leaving ceremony for approximately sixty students every year and given the average life span of witches and wizards say sixty times one hundred and sixty, that's nine thousand six hundred plus spouses and of course former faculty and students who chose to leave early..."
"Professor Dumbledore," Phaelan interrupted, "The idea is absolutely insane. You have neither the facilities nor support for such an undertaking, magical intervention or not. You cannot invite every living alumnus of Hogwarts to attend, it's just..." Phaelan was lost for words for a moment but was rescued by the flying instructor.
"It's just the most stupid fucking idea you've ever come up with Albus, and you've had a few ripe ones in the past." Hooch told him before sipping her tea.
Dumbledore sighed, "Alas, I believe you may be right." He sat back with the look of a little boy being told Christmas was cancelled.
Minerva stirred her refilled cup and sat back staring pensively into the distance. "Och, it would have been so nice to have seen some of our old pupils again. A chance to catch up with some of our old colleagues." She sighed.
Phaelan looked over the faces of people who had become her friends and more over the past months and wanted to do something for them before...well...before what ever would come to pass took some of their number.
"Couldn't we have a reunion of just the recent alumni, say the past twenty five years?" She suggested. "I mean, it's not like every one will accept."
The other teachers mulled over what she had said. The room was quiet but for clinking china and biscuit munching.
"One thousand five hundred plus spouses." Flitwick offered into the air.
"Usually you get less than fifty percent attending these things." Phaelan hinted.
"They could bring tents." Suggested Sprout.
"They could bring their own elves." Vector added.
"If the Merchants in Hogsmeade know, they could set up concessions and make a boodle over and above their usual profit." Lupin suggested.
"A round robin Quidditch tournament." Hooch supplied with gleaming eyes.
"The fashion show." Imagined Minerva.
"A chess competition." Flitwick offered.
"A grand ball." Announced Dumbledore.
"Well, as long as we all pitch in, I guess it's doable." Phaelan told them. "Filius, your best guestimate on the final census if you please?"
The small man laughed, "Guesstimate, I like that word. Let's say around two thousand but I think that is on the high side."
Dumbledore rubbed his hands together "Well then, this shall be a jolly party. I dub all of you members of the Reunion Committee. Phaelan you are chairperson."
Hence, Phaelan felt a massive headache building behind her eyes. How did this situation get out of hand, she wondered and who the hell let the patients loose to run this asylum in the first place.
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Snape and Poppy stood in the room with the girls while the Healer and two Mediwitches assembled the potions along with special wands and charmed objects used for diagnoses.
"Ve are ready Madam Pomfrey. Vhere should ve start?" the Healer asked.
"Sev...Kingsley, what were you told?" Poppy almost slipped.
Shape sighed. "Since the crystal is still lying dormant in their blood, we should try a blood purification potion infused with a stimulant." He told them, "That is, I was advised to suggest it."
"As you say," the healer responded. He indicated the Mediwitches should comply.
Madam Pomfrey interrupted, "Perhaps only one girl to start with, just in case."
"A walid suggestion Madam. The older girl then." Parasarathy turned his attentions to one bed.
The potion was introduced into the tube leading to the girls' stomach. The party stood by closely watching her reaction.
"The crystal that was discovered was insolwent in the blood then?" the healer asked.
"Not exactly." Snape replied. "The dissolved crystal would lie dormant in the blood until excited or stimulated. When the girls were roused, the crystal became active and absorbed the chemical produced by the thyroid that allowed wakefulness. The Potion's master believes if we study this, we will find that the crystal has bonded to the hormone orexin and is indistinguishable from it."
Parasarathy nodded, "I understand the theory, but how vere they kept asleep after we treated them I vonder."
Severus was revealing too much, "I'm not sure, I think he said it had something to do with the crystal Madam Pomfrey found lying in the girls' ears and the reaction to stimulants."
Parasarathy was observing the girl closely, passing his wand over her body every few minutes. "This Master should write a paper, I vould be most interested in collaborating. Who is he anyvay?"
They were spared the necessity of a reply by a moan from the bed. The girl began thrashing around ever more violently. Poppy moved to the side of the bed.
"Rebecca, can you hear me? Rebecca, wake up; you must wake up child." She called.
Rebecca continued to fight against the chemicals conflicting in her body.
Snape watched trying, not very successfully, to maintain clinical detachment. "He said something about raising the body temperature to speed the detoxification."
Parasarathy nodded, "Yes, bring the Invigora Calorum." He ordered. As one of the Mediwitches held her head, the potion was poured through the tube into her stomach. Within seconds, she began to perspire.
"The sweat should be wiped away." Snape instructed.
Pomfrey stepped forward and cast a privacy charm over Rebecca's' body to provide modesty just before removing her night gown. A basin of tepid water and cloths appeared for the Mediwitches to sponge bath the girl. The cooling touch seemed to calm the thrashing slightly and the moans were becoming coherent.
"Ma...Maa...Da...Ddddeh." were the first syllables which sounded like words from Rebecca. Suddenly her eyes opened and she stared at the face of the school Mediwitch. She began to pant. "NOhhh! Mummy...Daddy. Nohhhh..." she began to sob.
Poppy pulled the covers over the now shivering girl then sat beside her, pulling her into a comforting hug to whisper, "There, there child. All will be well soon. You'll see; all will be well."
Severus leaned back on the wall and closed his eyes which were suspiciously damp. He had to move.
"Excuse me, I must...Excuse me." He bolted from the room, looking for the nearest gents' room to hide. In his brain, he had relegated his worry as a need to refresh the Polyjuice potion but his conscience knew otherwise. He had felt the yoke of a new responsibility settle itself about his neck. His wizard's oath was being called in and he was in unknown territory. Two new people in his life even more dependant than Phaelan could ever be. Not like Granger and Weasley who could be manipulated. Two girls, innocent and needy of things he had no clue of how to provide. He would be their support, their parent. Severus Snape was scared.
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Draco sat in his room with his usual entourage holding court. He had received a letter from his father regarding the upcoming holidays. It appeared Malfoy Manor would host the Dark Lord and his snivelling sycophant Pettigrew for the Yuletide and New Years. Worse yet, the Parkinson's were invited as well to present their daughter for the first time.
Pansy curled into a wicker lounge and pulled her knees to her chest. "I'm being put on show like the prize turkey at the butcher's just before Christmas. Everyone gets to gawk at it and ooh and aahh over how wonderful it looks. Wouldn't surprise me if they chain me upside down to show off my legs and hang a holly wreath around my neck."
"Pansy stop," Draco hissed, "we'll figure something out, I promise."
"Least you're going home, I'm stuck here." Goyle complained.
"I wish I could stay," Pansy added in a small voice.
Draco sat up, "That's it, you need to stay here." He told her.
"What?" she asked in confusion.
"I'll bet Snape can come up with something to make you sick so that you need to stay at the castle. Quarantine or something. I'll talk to him." He told her.
"You really do trust him, don't you?" she asked wistfully.
"He's not done anything to make me doubt what he says and even though he may serve He Who Must Not Be Named he doesn't...I dunno, he has his own mind." He looked at his friends to take their measure. "I believe he is using the Dark Lord as much as he is used. He has his own ways."
"Aren't you afraid to cross your father Draco?" Goyle asked. "He's almost second in command"
Draco snorted, "I doubt that will last much longer. Even Malfoy pockets have limits."
Pansy knelt on the floor in front of the Head Boy, "What will happen then Draco? If your father looses face before HIM..." she left the rest unsaid.
Sitting up, Draco took her hands in his, "Now you know why I must make my own way. I can't rest on the reputation of my father. I need to prove that I am my own man." He declared but then more quietly added. "Something I've been a berk about so far in my life."
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Both girls were now awake and going through a battery of tests laid out by the healer. The confusion created by the teams working on them saved to defray the full onslaught of questions both Pomfrey and Snape knew were coming.
"What now Severus? Where are they to go?" Poppy asked him.
Snape sighed, "I've broached the matter with Albus. They can't return to classes as that will let the Dark lord know immediately we have unravelled the puzzle of the girls sleep. I was thinking of the chambers the Grangers used but we need a competent caregiver. They will take a long time to get over what has happened."
Poppy nodded. "Yes, they've a bumpy road ahead." She frowned suddenly, "I wonder though..."
Looking at the Mediwitch beside him, he lifted his brow in a silent question."?"
Poppy pursed her lips, "I'll need to send an owl when we return." She patted his hand and turned back to the girls.
"I need to contact Moody and Tonks," he turned to leave the private ward but suddenly stopped. "Healer Parasarathy, a word." Snape / Shacklebolt pulled the man to the side. "No one is to leave this room until the Auror's I am about to call have arrived, understood?" he asked rhetorically.
"Really sir, you are most the most intolerable Auror I have ewer met. This is my vard..." the healer argued.
"And these are my charges. If you don't want to fall under ministry scrutiny, I would comply." Snape threatened.
Parasarathy shook his finger at the larger man. "You have not heard the end of this. I vill go ower your head."
"You can try." Snape retorted then left the room to find a floo.
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Moody strode down the hallway towards the private ward followed by Tonks and Olwen. He had just been apprised of what had transpired and was less than supportive of the action upon hearing of Snape's part in it.
"There's always something in it for Snape when he sticks his ridiculously large nose in any business. He's looking to raise his standing in someone or others ladder of lackeys. I dare say he doesn't give a damn whether these children live or die as long as he gets credit for it...either way." He told his juniors, who looked at each other, commiserating in their exasperation with the elder Auror.
"Severus found the way to counter the effects of the potion that kept the girls unconscious, Alastor. I 'ardly think 'e'd 'ave bothered if 'e'd wanted 'em dead." Tonks told her senior in an attempt to refute what he had said.
He looked at her with his good eye, "Bah! He likely had the antidote from the beginning. Probably designed the potion that they were given in the first place." He looked over at Olwen, "Watch yourself around him. Constant vigilance." He banged his walking stick on the floor for emphasis.
Tonks opened the door to the ward and entered the room which was now pretty much filled to capacity. Moody eyed Snape/Shacklebolt sharing a suspicious sneer.
"So, our young hostages are rescued." Moody announced, stating the obvious. He looked over each of the girls, letting his usual gruff exterior soften for a moment before turning to the healer.
"Choose one other with yourself Healer; the rest will not be needed." The elder Auror announced.
"BBBBut..." Parasarathy stuttered in exasperation.
Moody leaned over the shorter man causing the healer to step back, "D'ye like the cushy job and fine life here in London, for if you don't I can arrange your repatriation in an instant."
Parasarathy shook his head, "I I I'm...that is... you needn't..." he was panting now, "Madam Placid, if you would join me please."
"Very good healer, now the rest of you please go with my assistants. They will advise you of what is to be done." Moody instructed the rest of the hospital staff.
Tonks and Olwen took the others and led them to a break room where they were systematically obliviated of any knowledge pertaining to the girls' recovery. It was replaced by a memory of them being moved to a long term Muggle facility.
"So, what now Healer? When can the young lasses be released?" Moody asked.
Snape was annoyed at the Auror taking over the cause of his young charges but stayed mum to avoid the confrontation. He was more worried at the long term care for his wards than wresting control for the moment.
"They should stay for a few days to be monitored. Ve don't know what might happen long term." The healer replied.
Moody turned to Snape. "You've things arranged?" he asked.
"Small details to be worked out but all is ready." He misled the Auror slightly.
Moody approached the healer and Mediwitch from St Mungo's "Your wand oaths that the girls' disposition and condition will remain secret."
They each pulled their wands and swore. Moody nodded, "Well done. These youngsters are a treasure. I'll hold you to your oath most dearly." The pair again nodded and turned to work with the girls once more.
Moody led Snape out to the corridor. "This still smells like a devious plot by you Snape," he prodded the potions Master in the chest, "I'll be watching." He warned, before striding away to join his juniors.
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The owl post was arriving with the early mail as Phaelan was finishing breakfast. Madam Pomfrey, at the far end of the table, had just received a letter which had brought a smile to her face when she read it. She rose and walked over to speak to the Headmaster then Snape, "Meet me in the Head's office after breakfast for five minutes." She told him before taking her leave.
Severus looked over at Dumbledore who just shrugged at the unspoken question. Phaelan noticed the interaction and looked questioningly at Snape. "What was that about?" she asked before biting into her toast.
"When I find out I'll let you know." He replied before finishing his breakfast tea and heading for the office after Dumbledore.
Poppy was standing at the gargoyle entrance as the men approached. She was fairly bouncing on her toes with impatience. The gargoyle moved aside for Dumbledore to enter followed by Poppy and Snape. When they were seated in his office Dumbledore finally asked, "All right Poppy, why are you all excited?"
"Now you know we've been preparing for the Faubert girls to be released from the hospital and our biggest concern was who to get to look after them. They can't return to classes for now. So...I contacted someone with experience, who is a member of the order and who would love to nurture the girls." She told the two men.
"Wonderful," Snape responded, "now, if you wouldn't mind sharing the name of this person that we might all be enlightened."
"Molly Weasley." She declared.
Snape snorted, "Who?"
"Molly Weasley, mother extraordinaire." She repeated.
"You want me to allow my wards to be subjected to that domineering, smothering, domestic tyrant of a woman." Snape asked in shock at the suggestion.
Poppy defended her choice, "Molly Weasley is a strong minded woman." At which Snape huffed, "She is also a great mother. She is a caring, nurturing and supportive parent but she is also a disciplinarian. She'd never have managed that family of hers otherwise. The girls need her right now."
"They need a strong defender and someone that will let them see that their parents' loss was not in vain. They need someone to show them how to cope and become self sufficient. They need to deal with real life Poppy not some fantasy family where everything is all overstuffed plush toys and eiderdown quilts." Argued Snape.
"I'm sure you will give them equal doses of that hard reality, Severus since you are their guardian." She replied with some asperity.
"If I may," interrupted Dumbledore, "I think you are both correct. Molly is a loving caregiver and they will need that love. They will need to deal with reality too and you have the best chance of offering them that Severus as you are the last person who had any contact with a parent. They will cling to you as an anchor I believe."
Severus stood and sought out his favourite window. After a few moments he turned back to them, "I accede to your wisdom. Let's bring in Molly."
"Good, because she'll be here after lunch today." Poppy told them, "Oh and Severus, the girls are due to be released tomorrow morning, Healer Parasarathy sent a message by floo this morning. Now I've work to do. I trust you'll have the elves get the girls chambers ready Albus." The Mediwitch added as she headed out the door.
The two men looked at the door where Madam Pomfrey had just exited. "You know," Dumbledore decided, "men really have no control over anything in their lives. Women just let us think we're making a decision when really, the choice was made for us all along."
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