Chapter Twenty-Two

"Take it easy, son," said John Norton, as Severus tried to sit up and look around the room. "You've been out for nearly two weeks."

"Two... weeks?"

"Yupper, two weeks." Severus was now a good deal taller than his Dad, yet Dad's strong arms were holding him up just as they did in the bean field over twenty years earlier. And Severus felt as weak as a kitten, just as he had in the bean field over twenty years earlier.

"Have you been here that long, Dad?"

Dad shook his head, dislodging some of the carefully-combed strands of what was now nearly totally gray hair. "Nope, just about a week. Albus and Minerva and Molly came to bring us over at first, though now they've got our fireplace hooked up to the Floo Network, so we don't need to impose on them all the time."

"You're on the Floo now?"

John Norton's face split in his trademark grin; it was surrounded by a few extra facial creases since Severus had seen it last. "Uh-huh, though it's kept on the Q.T. – the only Ministry personnel who know about it are Tonks and Shacklebolt. Not even old Scrimgeour knows about it – he just knows that Dumbledore wanted something done, and that Albus, and not him, was going to decide who knew what about it."

"Who at the Ministry did Dumbledore bribe to achieve that? Or did he just catch Scrimgeour in a compromising position?"

Severus' Dad laughed. In fact, he guffawed. He guffawed so hard tears came to his eyes. "You don't want to see the images in my head from that, son," he said, when he finally got himself under control. "Actually, I don't know what he did, exactly, but I think it involved reminding the paper-pushers at the Ministry just how badly they messed things up last year with the Umbridge business."

"Ah, they told you about that?" Severus said. "Now that was a year of infamy, that."

"So they tell me."

"Who's teaching my Dark Arts classes?" Severus said, wincing as he moved muscles that hadn't been moved in many days.

"A nice fella named Remus Lupin, for the most part – though he's technically only there as an 'assistant'."

"'Assistant'? I'm not exactly fond of Lupin, but he's perfectly capable of following my lesson plan." Severus' eyes narrowed. "Unless..."

"Unless what, son?"

Severus pursed his lower lip slightly. "Did you know that Lupin is a werewolf?"

"Yes, actually. He mentioned it to me first thing."

"Then you know about the regard – or rather, the near-complete lack thereof – in which werewolves are generally held?"

"Yupper."

"Then that would explain why he's not officially allowed to teach here."

"That's exactly it," replied John Norton, rolling his eyes. "Dumbledore has pull, but not enough to get Remus made a full instructor, not with him being a known werewolf. That old glad-hander Slughorn is officially running the class. I shouldn't criticize him, he seems to know his stuff – he was your Head of House when you were a student here, wasn't he?"

"Yes, he was," replied the Potions master. "And yes, he does know his stuff, and yes, I can understand your distaste for him." He made a harsh chuckle. "Has he invited you to one of his parties?"

"Oh, yeah. Been there, done that, got the T-shirt. Though he was really interested in Hjordis and Julie – Sarah and Becky and I were just the hangers-on as far as he was concerned."

Severus' eyes went wide. "They're here?" he said. "Hjordis and Julie?"

Even as he said the words, he could feel the sudden presence of two mental signatures. Two very familiar mental signatures.

Who do you think helped put you back together again, silly? said the younger of the two, as clear as if she'd spoken it out loud.

He turned towards the door leading to his offices. And there they were, standing side by side in the doorway.

Hjordis' hair was now almost all white; she was a bit thinner, though still quite substantial; the skin hung somewhat loosely on her arms. She'd got newer glasses, and she was leaning rather heavily on a strange four-pronged cane. But the blue eyes behind those glasses were as sharp as ever; she had obviously been getting enough supplies to continue making the memory-sharpening potion. Hello there, dear, she said with her mind, in order to prove the point.

And then, then there was Julie.

She hadn't grown much taller, if at all, in the past twenty years. Nor had she put on much in the way of weight, except to get just a bit curvier in all the places she should have curves; Severus guessed he still could pick her up with one arm, as he'd been wont to do when he would get her alone somewhere in the tree-shaded bluffs when they stopped to rest their lungs after taking their bikes up one of the long climbs out of Rushford. The hair had a few blonde streaks in it, artificial no doubt, but was still the same length it was when he knew her.

And the eyes, the dark-blue eyes she shared with her grandmother... the eyes were still very much large and alive and sparkling, as much if not more than they ever had been.

Severus, she mind-whispered, and he felt the rush of emotion, of passion, and of love above all, coming from her like an express train, colliding into him and filling him up as if he were a dry sponge. And before he could stop himself, before he could tell himself that this was a virtual stranger he hadn't seen in over twenty years and didn't remember for over twenty years, he felt himself responding in kind.

Julie...

A thought came to him. It was you, you and your gran, holding me up, wasn't it?

Yes, Severus, it was. She gave him a small smile. Your mental defenses were down, and ours are pretty damned strong, so Gran ran interference for you while I got to work putting you back together again...

'Ran interference'?... Severus' blood ran cold suddenly. You mean she wrestled with the Dark Lord! Julie, you've no idea of the danger –

Oh, yes we do, she said firmly, the smile on her face taking on a grim, ironic cast. We had to violate your privacy pretty thoroughly in order to get you your mind back, love. The smile faltered. For which we're both very sorry...

Privacy be damned! I'm worried about the Dark Lord hurting you!

Julie actually laughed out loud. He doesn't know about me, only about Gran – and only as the mysterious entity that won't let him anywhere near your mind, even through the link of the Dark Mark. He thinks that Dumbledore's come up with a new spell or something. She smirked. We've had thirty-plus years to practice what your people call 'Legilimency' and 'Occlumency', Severus. We're pretty damned good at it. You can put us to the test if you want.

Severus made a face. I think I just might, at that... but not right now. I'm famished.

Then let's have supper. "Want a bite to eat?" Julie said out loud. "What do you feel capable of keeping down?"

----------------------

Over breadsticks and bowls of chicken soup, with Julie, the Nortons (Sarah having been summoned via the Floo) and Hjordis sitting on chairs arranged around the Potions master's bed, Severus was apprised of what had gone on in the eleven days of his coma. He was also apprised, to a degree, of what had been going on with the Nortons and Halvorsons in the twenty-two years since he was taken from them.

Dad and Mom still had the farm, though they weren't raising soybeans any more, aside from a few bushels' worth for the local Japanese restaurant in Rochester. They'd turned the bean field over to growing organic provender for local restaurants, mostly in Rochester, which thanks to the Mayo Clinic and its high proportion of jet-set clients was able to support a good number of upscale dining establishments. It was working out for them pretty well, so far, and they still had the berries and cows for dairy products – though Ava and Marilyn had long since gone to that great cow pasture in the sky. And during the fall and winter, they made extra money using the house as a bed-and-breakfast stop for persons hiking, biking or skiing the local trails.

Julie, as it turned out, did not become a professional actress, though she used techniques from the theater in her work. "I'm a modified-Jungian psychotherapist," she said, as she sat on a chair next to Severus' bed. She sipped her soup from a mug which she had carefully accepted from a house-elf; she had obviously not been here quite long enough to get used to the little beings.

"'Psychotherapist'?"

"Psychiatrist, to be exact. Which means I can prescribe drugs just like a regular doctor in addition to performing non-drug-related psychotherapy. Most of my non-drug therapy involves what's known in the Muggle world as 'guided dream imagery'." She smiled at him over her mug. "As you can imagine, I have a rather unusual treatment protocol, the exact mechanics of which I can't divulge to my colleagues for fear of getting laughed out of the profession."

"Indeed."

"But of course that can't be mentioned publicly even in the wizarding world, or your ex-boss, Old Heartbreak of Psoriasis, would put two and two together. So we had to cobble up another excuse for us all being here."

"And what did you create?"

Julie grinned. "The Official Story is that Horace heard about Gran and me being bloodstoppers – he's keeping our mentalist tricks hush-hush, for obvious reasons – and thought we might be handy over at St. Mungo's, though not without a trial period – and a chance for Sluggo to put us on display – here at Hogwarts."

"Ah," Severus said, between swallows of soup. "You finally became a bloodstopper, eh?"

"Yeah. It was right after you left. Effie came over to check on you and me and when she found out you'd been taken, she cut open her hand slamming her fist down on Sarah's dining room table; she didn't realize there was a steak knife there."

Severus winced at the thought. "That must not have been pretty."

"It wasn't. But it was really odd. I was going to call for Gran, but for some reason I didn't. I didn't even think about it, I just grabbed her hand and thought really hard, willing the bleeding to stop. And it did."

"Have you been able to do anything else? Magically, I mean?"

"Nope," she said, shaking her head; the torchlight over his bed sought out certain portions of her hair, turning it a warm red-tinged chestnut color."Effie checked me every six months, but nothing happened. Finally, the Department of Magic officially took me and Gran off her caseload, but she still would come by to visit, up until about three years after you left. Haven't heard from her in dog years, but right up until the last time we saw her, she was still trying to get the M.O.M. to hand you back."

They finished off the rest of their supper; Severus summoned a house-elf to clear away the dishes. The Potions and Dark Arts master lay back against his pillows, his eyes closed a moment, resting after all the excitement. But he was most definitely not sleeping.

"There's a war on, you know," he said, eyes popping open to take him their reactions.

"Yes, Severus, we know," Mom said. She pushed a lock of her hair, now salt-and-pepper, behind her ear.

"And we know what sort of part you're playing in it," added her husband. "And we know about the need for secrecy. We won't do anything to jeopardize what you're doing."

Severus opened his mouth, but Hjordis forestalled him. "Don't worry, Severus. John's and Sarah's minds are safe – Julie and I made sure of that."

Severus looked at her quizzically for a moment. "You put up Mind Barriers on them?"

"Yes, we did," replied Hjordis proudly.

"Not only that," chimed in Julie, "but we camouflaged them with various boring false and half-true memories, so that there's no telltale mentalist version of the Great Wall of China to draw attention to the very things we're trying to hide."

Severus stared at Julie. "That – that's something only the very best Occlumenses can achieve."

Julie and Hjordis smiled identical smiles. "That would be us, dear," Hjordis said, the sweet tone overlaid on her gravelly voice. "And Dumbledore himself's been unable to get past the camouflage we've put up. If he can't do it, then Old Scale Face certainly can't." She looked at Severus, and her smug expression softened. "But you're all tuckered out. Bet you'd like to take a nap after all this excitement."

"Erm, yes, I would, actually," Severus replied. He had been getting drowsy; the food was lulling him to sleep.

"Then we'll leave you for a little bit and come back later with Albus and Minerva and Poppy." She stood up, and the rest of Severus' visitors followed suit. "But don't worry, we'll be with you in spirit. Literally."

Severus smiled, then closed his eyes a second time. As he drifted off into a normal sleep, he could feel Julie nearby, mentally whispering something to him:

We missed you so much, Severus... we're so glad to have you back...

And on that comforting thought, he fell asleep.