Disclaimer: The characters belong to J.K. Rowling.

Pairing: Severus/Harry.

Rating: R

Summary: For as long as he lived Harry was never going to forget the sight of those black eyes in pain. The light hit Snape from the side and then it seemed to cover him as he turned in it to face the boy he had protected so many times before. And it looked like he was melting...

Author's note: Be warned...this is one of my pet projects so update may be erratic.

Author: Spirit

NB - Three pronounciations: IN-tabesco-pestis, INTA-besco-pestis, Intabesco-pestis. Pick your favorite one. The third one is probably the best as it is the two latin words that make up the name, but I rather like the first as it sounds more exotic.

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The Cinderman's Kiss

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CHAPTER 3

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Intabescopestis

One of the darker curses to exist, it is said to have been invented in the early fourteenth century by the Dark Wizard Zepherthim. The idea for the curse was brought about by the merging of two basic concepts of tissue degeneration. One from which the Maximus Incendio spell was later derived as the burning spell (see pages 213-219). The Intabescopestis curse causes massive corrosion of the epidermis making this outer layer of the skin burn a light red glow upon impact. It is this glow which is absorbed by the flesh to break down the structures of muscles to an almost liquid form which only later solidifies into a mass of twisted ligaments and tendons (as shown in Fig. 2.5 and Illust. 22). These muscles are not dead tissues as they are still able to react to extreme hot or cold temperatures, even though organized movement is of course beyond the capabilites of the affected wizard. It is also useful to note that Intabescopestis does not cause damage to nerve cells and the Healer treating this case should therefore be careful not to administer potions containing saccarine or asphodel as these merely heighten nerve sensitivity which results in the patient seizuring on digestion...

"Well that helped," Harry said with a tinge of disgust in his voice. "Nothing on how to heal the curse but a good bit on something I've already tried and figured out myself. Mind you I didn't think you could drink any healing potion so it's good to know that once you've put on a little more weight I can start shoving vile liquids at random down your throat. You'd bloody love that wouldn't you?"

The wizard beside him did not respond in the slightest to Harry's little diatribe, even as the younger wizard dropped the heavy book he had been perusing, onto the floor. Not for the first time, Harry wondered if the curse had not gone to the man's brain. Surely someone couldn't sit so still for so long without being catatonic, but that theory would have only worked for others. And if Harry didn't know better - and with this wizard he really didn't - he'd say his ex-professor was pulling a silent pouting act. Well Harry had had enough.

"Oh for God's sake!" He retorted into the silence. "Show a little care would you. I'm only trying to save your miserable life! Can't you give me something to work with?"

An amber eye and a distorted face turned to him. Snape glared a rather eloquent but silent 'fuck off, Potter' that there was no mistaking, before he turned away again to stare upon the ceiling in ridiculous fascination.

"Ungrateful prat," Harry mumbled. "There's no winning with you is there?"

He reached across to yank the covers off the silent figure, glaring just as hotly back when the amber and black eyes threw him a look worthy of hell. The thin body shivered in the cold air of the room and Harry had to bite his tongue not to silently cast a warming spell. More importantly, the man reeked and that definitely had to be taken care of quickly.

"I might as well give you your bath now. It's almost time for your lunch potion and I've got to run over to my uni for a bit. It's the last day to see my Psych professor before Christmas hols begin. You wouldn't want me missing that now would you?" When there was only silence, Harry made a face. "I thought not."

Despite his annoyance he was very gentle in peeling away the boxer shorts that Snape wore as his only stitch of clothing. He was equally as kind on wrapping Snape's good arm around his shoulder so that on slipping his arms beneath the twig figure he could cause as little jolt as possible when he lifted Snape into his arms.

"You weigh a ton Professor," he said dryly as he strolled over to the bathroom. "What will I do when you throw out my back one of these days? However will I manage? Feathers have nothing on you."

He wasn't expecting the sharp tug on his hair that followed, which was so painful that it snapped his head backwards. After he got over the shock however he found that he could only react in the most unexpected way. He almost dropped the bundle in his arms as a peal of laughter erupted from deep inside of him. It washed over him cleansing him of the fear and guilt he had been subjecting himself to since the moment Snape had taken the curse for him.

"Vindictive aren't we?" He mock scowled at the mismatched eyes that gazed half lidded up at him. "You'll pay for that one."

He lowered Snape into the bath of warm water and spices. Surprisingly he didn't flinch when he watched the semi-opaque liquid lap against the light brown tinges that snaked and curved over the previously pale skin. The burns were just a part of Snape's body more and more now.

"Did I ever tell you how much I hated silence Professor?" Harry reached for the bar of soap and the washcloth. "When I was little and was locked in my cupboard I use to think I'd go mad from all the silence. Let me tell you, I spent a good part of my childhood talking to myself just to fill the silence. I feel like I'm going haywire having only my thoughts to keep me company."

Harry paused his little speech just long enough to realize that Snape was ignoring him yet again. It didn't matter though because Harry had a plan. One for which he was sure the wizard in his care was going to curse him sideways for as soon as he cast it, but it was something he was willing to risk.

"That being said..." Harry swiped the washcloth over long thin legs and quickly over Snape's penis and balls before he scrubbed gently on the lower abdomen beneath poking ribs and then at the flat chest with it's single surviving nipple. "Cogito Autumo!"

There was silence for a very long time. Then suddenly there wasn't anymore.

'Potter, you idiot, why did you not think to do this before?'

Snape's voice in Harry's head was just the way Harry remembered it to be, harsh and soft and silky and calm with an edge of steel. It resonated in his mind and Harry was finally able to release the breath he had been holding because no matter what he had said, this was the only way to know that the man before him really was the infamous Severus Snape.

'I could have been any number of miscreant. What if I were a Death Eater using Polyjuice? Or a stray Muggle bearing a resemblance? Does your foolish Gryffindor courage have no sense of caution? Or do you believe yourself to be invincible now that the Dark Lord is gone?'

"I gave you your ability to communicate again, I can take it back you know," Harry muttered aloud because the spell did not work both ways and there was no way to actually tune out the lecture he was being subjected to.

He worked his way though rinsing Snape off and then vindictively getting shampoo in the wizard's dark eye before the words in his mind finally drew to a close and he could think properly again. It was much easier after that to finish the bath in the eerie silence that followed after all the talking.

Harry waited until he had the other wizard wrapped in a huge white towel and cradled gently in his arms again before he allowed the smile he had been hiding to grace his face. Now that the immediate time of urgency seemed to have passed with the thirty eight hours, it was very strange to realize the sort of situation they were in. Snape was really at his mercy, and all seriousness aside, he wondered how the proud Slytherin would take their reversal of role.

'Drop me Potter and I will make you regret the use of your legs.'

Or maybe not so much a reversal afterall.

"I think I liked you silent," Harry said pointedly. "If I haven't dropped you in two days I'm hardly likely to drop you today, am I?"

'Polite as always I see.'

Harry held in the curse that rose to his mind in response to that. Instead he lowered Snape gently onto the bed, being very careful not to linger as he dressed the semi-scowling figure. Now that Snape was conscious enough to watch him, Harry felt a little uneasy with the naked form stretched out before him. Although, Snape didn't really seem to care much about his own nakedness.

"If you need anything give a signal and Dobby will get it for you," Harry instructed softly when Snape was dry, relatively clean and tucked into bed once more. "I really have to go or I'll miss my meeting with the professor."

'Where did you get a Dobby?'

Harry smiled. "He's an house-elf, sir."

'I am aware,' came the less than tolerant response. 'I only meant, where exactly did you happen to find yourself one in a Muggle house, if I'm not mistaken.'

Harry ran his fingers through his hair in futile hopes of taming it, conjured a clean pair of sock in the air then proceeded to hop on one foot as he fought to get it on. He tried to cast a silent spell -wand waving frantically about in the other hand- to magically change his clothes, and almost ended up entangled in a black sweater and a pair of blue jeans when he gazed at the clock on the wall to see that five minutes had already flown by.

"I don't have time to explain Dobby right now." His voice was a little impatient and a lot muffled but somehow he got the words to be coherent. "Just know that he's here and he's willing to help. Bang two times on something and he'll get the message."

He paused long enough to give the silent wizard a nervous smile. "I'll see you later then professor. And believe it or not, I'm glad it really is you. I mean what would I have done with some random bum bearing a resemblance to you, except maybe give him my condolence? Imagine the poor sod."

It was interesting to know, as he ran from the room, that being out of earshot of the man did not mean he got a reprieve. Snape steadily cursed him all the way to the bus stop and all Harry could do was to grin and ignore the tingles in the pit of his stomach.

o

Harry was tired when he finally apparated to the front steps of his home.

So tired in fact that he would have sworn that there was a good possibility he had splinched and left a piece of himself behind. It wouldn't have surprised him that much actually. The meeting with his Psych professor had taken longer than he planned and for all his twenty-one years and great achievements, he found that he still couldn't just impolitely tell the man to get to his point quickly because he had something bigger to worry about.

Snape had gone silent in his mind for about three hours, which could only mean he was either dead or unconscious.

"Harry Potter, so good you come home now sir." Dobby met Harry at the door, dressed in a trailing table towel, twisting the end into a tight knot and looking as if he had a run in with a briar patch. "He is not be moving sir and Dobby tries everything. He says he won't be needing help. Dobby is so sorry Harry Potter."

"It's okay, I'll go see. Thanks Dobby!" Harry was already halfway up the staircase by the time he heard the house-elf apparate.

"Professor?" he called out.

The door to the guest room was drawn shut but on frantically trying the knob he realized that it was not latched. Swinging it wildly open, Harry's heart pounded as he envisioned the horror he was about to see.

"LEAVE ME!"

The words shot through Harry's head. They were so loud and powerfully shouted that Harry physically stumbled backwards from the impact. Stars swam before his eyes and he grabbed at his temple, trying desperately to still the instant headache. Leaning against the doorframe he fought against the looming darkness and just managed not to pass out from the pain.

Then he focussed on Snape again.

The man looked like a broken doll, twisted in strange little angles, at the foot of the bed. How he got there was anyone's guess, but from the gash at the side of his face, Harry figured that he had probably rolled off the bed and maybe crawled. Which didn't make all that much sense actually. The wound was not bleeding even though it looked deep enough. Which was a sure sign that Dobby had probably been made to wrestle with Snape's good arm before succeeding in getting it to stop bleeding. This probably explained how the little house-elf had ended up looking so scruffy. In any event Snape was just lying there all twisted and obviously left to wallow in his misery. Well Harry was going to have none of that.

"How the hell did you get like this?" he asked.

Only to be met with words being shouted in his head once more. 'I SAID TO LEAVE!'

Harry refused to cower. It was perfectly okay for Snape to indulge in a bit of self-pity, but he wasn't about to be yelled at like a schoolboy in his own home. He had come a long way since Hogwarts and the last thing he wanted was to be ordered about. Obviously compassion didn't work too well with the man and so Harry decided to forgo the idea of being too gentle.

"Don't talk to me like I'm nine Professor. I am not a child and worse I'm not your bloody child so don't bloody yell at me like you think you own me or this house."

He pulled out his wand and pointed it at the broken wizard with a look that warned of the infamous power he held that had aided in killing one of the worst dark lords.

"You want to stay there and feel sorry for yourself then that's just dandy, but for all intent and purposes you are my patient. I have done everything I can think of to take care of you so far and although it may not seem like a lot, the least you could be is grateful. I'm not going to stand here and have you act all high and mighty. So no I won't leave! What I'm going to do is to move you back onto the bed where you should have parked your arse in the first place, and then I'm going to get you something to drink because you need to bloody calm down. And you better still be in the damn bed when I get back."

A flick of his wand and the right incantation gently lifted the silent man into the air. Another flick sent him floating over the bed where he was lowered amidst soft sheet. Harry moved over to tuck him in. He was still furious and had developed a migraine from the indiscriminate shouting that Snape had used. He needed a drink laced with calming potion too, but his patient was his top priority. So he tucked the sheets around the still body and fluffed the pillow and stroked his hand over the pucked wound to close it, before checking for any other signs of bruise or broken bone. When he was finished healing all that he could heal -glad there were no broken parts- he released a long suffering sigh and looked at the mismatched eyes that stared out at him.

"I'll be back then," he said softly. His anger drained out of him, leaving him with just a sense of compassion and a little bit of pain for the wizard who had hurt so much. "Just rest."

Harry returned to the room a few minutes later to be met by the same suffocating silence. Snape hadn't moved at all. Instead he laid staring up at the roof, tracing the white space with his roving eyes. He didn't turn his head in Harry's direction as he sometimes did. Instead it was as if he was ignoring Harry, which was perfectly understandable to the younger wizard actually.

"Want me to prop you up?" Harry helped Snape to wrap his fingers around the bottle of water. Snape had regained enough strength to be able to steadily hold things without slopping food or drink all over the place and the man would probably take enough offense at the straw floating in the liquid anyway.

'I can't drink this,' Snape said softly as he handed the bottle back to Harry. 'It would seem, Potter that I no longer have the ability to control my neck. I can't swallow voluntarily. I haven't a clue as to how I'm even breathing. I suppose that come tomorrow I won't be able to on my own."

Harry couldn't think of a single thing worth saying, but Snape just kept on with the soft words in his head.

"I know that you are unfamiliar with the curse. This morning having you read, told me enough to see that until now you had probably never even heard of it. Let me save you some time then. Intabescopestis causes paralysis in the affected area. In some wizards it takes minutes while in others it takes years. People usually only gets hit in their arm or legs and most are treated soon after. As you well know, I am the unfortunate soul who got emersed in it. I don't need your pity or your sympathy on this. You and I both know my reasons for stepping in front of you as I did. It is only that I fought for years now against the quadraplegic paralysis I knew was coming. It wasn't always like this. At first it was just the burns and I could live with them. When I could hold my wand I was able to cast spells that allowed me to be fully functional. I lost my left leg first. That did not stop me. I could cast concealment spells and work in Muggle shops to earn a living.

I don't know when my back left me. I just woke up one day and could not feel it. When my right leg gave out, I floated. I fought for my right hand as it is my wand hand. I think sheer will prevented it from going limp those first two years. Even when I could no longer bend my waist I still projected a glamour of being whole. And then one day the end had come. On my way back to the little flat I rented my arm went numb and my wand slipped from my fingers and rolled away. I crumbled upon filthy concrete. How I survived that year is beyond me. I have intimate knowlege of what dirt tastes like, of what filth smells like and of how hard it is to pull oneself around by one's arm to go anywhere.

And now I've lost my ability to move my neck. It seems a bit small compared to everything else. Strangely enough I had always thought my face should have been the first to give in. I'm hardly vain and it is the one part of me I don't care much about going numb. But alas Fate has deemed it the gift of outshining the rest of me.'

Harry reached out blindly through the tears that swelled in his eyes. He grabbed Snape's good hand and cradled the fingers in his palm. The heat of it was comforting. The way the fingers twitched before Snape curled them around Harry's fingers to return the grasp made Harry grateful that at least the man was not entirely broken.

'I tell you this so that you may understand my actions today. I meant no disrespect Potter. You have shown far more kindness than I deserve and should you decide that I am too much of a bother then I will graceously accept that decision. The last thing you need is to feel indebted to me and so I release you from your wizard's bond and all obligations. I am useless in my current state. It would have been better if you had left me on the street to die in the cold."

Harry's fingers tightened into a grip. "Stop that. I don't think it would have been better at all. Release me from the bond if you want, but I'm not sending you back out there. I'll make the cure. I know I suck at potions but you don't and I know that if there is a potion out there that can help you then you'll figure it out. I'll go research some more. I'll ask the other Healers at St. Mungo's how to proceed, but I'm not going to abandon you and I'm not leaving you wallow in misery. We'll work on this together professor. We'll come up with something."

They were left in one of those awkward moments where there was nothing else that they could say to each other just yet. Snape had bared his soul. Harry had sworn to fix him. They had made an unspoken promise to each other to not let the other down.

"I'll be back soon then. I have to make a few phone calls, to get something..." Harry cleared his throat as his words trailed off. He untangled his fingers, running them down the side of his pants in a touch of embarassment. "I'll come back and check on you later. Try to sleep."

He waited until Snape's eyelids fluttered close before he beat a hasty retreat out of the room. He hoped that the store was still open as he couldn't call for Darren's help again.

He was hoping to get a sip/puff electric wheelchair as it had one of those straw mechanism that made it move without any able-bodied assistance.

o

Harry spent the rest of the evening doing what he should have done from the very beginning and that was to really research the curse.

He sat in his study at a desk he usually conjured when he had a whole lot of readings to do for his Psychology courses. Or if he was given a particularly challenging scenario by his Healing-mentor to figure out. He always liked those. The fact that Snape's situation was no case-study that had already been solved, made him that much more involved. It didn't take long for him to have a pile of books and scrolls taking up elbow space and another eight that were covered in notes he had taken down.

When he finally resurfaced it was only because his stomach was complaining from lack of food and he figured that he should check in on Snape.

Harry began to close the mixture of Muggle and Wizard text books. He had found some pretty good information on quadroplegics and sip/puff wheelchairs but the potions and healing spells he had found was what he wanted to concentrate his efforts on. Afterall he was aiming for a cure not just a convenient means of allowing Snape to live with the curse. He stacked his notes into a neat little pile and placed a few of the scrolls in close vicinity of his findings. That way he figured that he could put in a little more work later when everything was settled for the night.

A quick check of the time told him that Snape was probably feeling peckish also.

Thinking about Snape forced Harry to remember the wizard and not the patient that the man was. Flicking his wand to turn off the lights and close the door, Harry found himself wondering about what Snape had told him earlier. He wondered what it must be like to wake up one day perfectly able to nod and turn his head this way and that, only to have it all go numb a few hours later. He wondered what it must have been like every day for Snape to face such mornings knowing -and being painfully proven right- that another muscle would be checking out of his body and there was no telling if it would ever be able to be fully restored to normal.

Pushing open the door to the guest room to gaze at the unmoving figure on the bed, Harry took a deep silent breath and swore to whatever deity was listening that for this man who had done something so selfless and brave for him, he would not stop until he had paid back the honor in spades.

oXo

Glossary (from the 'Glossary of Latin Terms' online)

Intabesco - to melt or whither away gradually.

pestis - pest, pestilence, plague; destruction, ruin; curse, bane.

Cogito - to turn over in the mind, to think, reflect; thoughts, reflections, ideas.

Autumo - to say, assert.