Chapter Two: Recovery
Hogwarts is quiet during the summer time, July posses no different as the sun shines bright within a crystal blue sky. The grounds are silent, the animals are well hidden within their habitat that is the Forbidden Forest, the Black lake squid is even more docile than usual. All seems calm within the wards until a thundrous pop shatters that silence as two bodies suddenly appear before the doors, only one is standing upright.
"Come on Severus," Clarisa growls. "You said you were fine to apparate."
"Guess I was wrong..."
She groans, it had been hell trying to get him from the hospital. The main doctor had a list nearly a mile long on what not to do until such time and what potions to take and what time, she gave herself a headache trying to figure it all out and then to top it off, as she begins to apparate with him, he collapses. And thus is where she is now, half dragging him to the entrance of the castle. The grounds are barren save for a few owls within trees but otherwise, only the sound of her breathing and his groaning can be heard. Little do they know, someone is watching them, waiting.
"Clarisa, Severus." Both look up when their given names are spoken. "Let me help you get him inside."
Larissa takes one arm while Clarisa wraps her arm around his waist, she wonders if it was too soon to move him from the hospital. Given what is happening now, she concludes that her theory might be right after all, she sighs.
"Mother," Larissa looks at Clarisa as they stop in the entrance hallway. "Please get the bed ready and here is a list-" She hands a list over, "Of potions I need set out. Password to the room is blood-purity-not my idea." Clarisa says pointing the now unconscious man she is supporting.
Larissa nods and disappears towards the dungeons, Clarisa looks down at her husband and breathes a sigh of relief, at least he is alive. She rubs her abdomen again before locking his arm around her shoulders and vice gripping his waist, she starts to head after her mother. The trek in reality should have only taken five minutes but with her husband unconscious, it took them nearly twenty. The final turn to the hallway that leads to their chambers is when he regains consciousness for a moment,
"Clarisa..." His voice is raspy and full of pain.
She flinches when she hears it but stops and lowers him to the ground in a kneeling position, he rests upon her and puts his lips beside her ear.
"Maybe should have not left so soon."
She cannot help but laugh, the dour man, feared by all, is admitting to her that she may have been right all along. This earns her a nip on her ear lobe before his weight sags against her once more, she heaves him up and makes for the entrance to their chambers. In the meantime of trying to balance him and get him to the room, she is cursing profoundly at whatever higher power they both simultaneously pissed off this time. Larissa is waiting just inside the doorway once the wall reveals their chambers,
"Help me-get him-to bed."
Clarisa says between breathes, she is struggling by now with his weight and it is hurting her body something fierce. Larissa grabs him from her and simply levitates him but is stopped by Clarisa going mad,
"You are not suppose to use magic, do you really think I would not have done the same thing if permitted. Argh!"
She catches him as the spell releases but in the process falls to floor under his weight, damn, for a man she believed was thin as a rail, his muscle mass is nothing to sniff at. She knew first hand what his body looked and felt like but during those times, he was able to hold himself up. She cannot help the creeping blush that tints her neck and cheeks as her thoughts wander without her consent.
Getting him undressed without magic and into bed is a whole different fiasco, if he had been awake, he would have been mortified by the fact that his mother-in-law got to see every aspect of him. And what is worse is that without meaning to, Larissa ended up declothing him from the waist down, that had been horrifying to Clarisa. She just knows that if he finds out-and he most likely will thanks to her mother-she will never hear the end of it. This why she is in the shower now, a very cold shower to be exact. Even in his unconscious state, his body had reacted enthusiastically to their touches, she had been highly embarrassed that hers was reacting to his. It is going to be a long night.
"Everything alright Clarisa?" Larissa calls from the bedroom.
Clarisa drops her head onto the wall of the shower as she curses and groans simultaneously, could the woman leave so if that by some small miracle he awakens tonight and might want privacy to fix a certain problem. Oh the gitty little shit in her wishes he would, she would be more than thrilled of a repeat of what happened in the cabin. She shakes her, she really needs to stop thinking about that, his health is more important than her needs...or wants. She blasts herself with even more cold water trying to bury the feelings in ice, with her body shivering she places a mild heating charm upon herself and snaps her fingers, all traces of water vanish. With another snap she is fully clothed once more, her hair dry but frizzy thanks to the magic.
"Feel better?"
"Mum."
Clarisa groans as she walks over to the bed where he lay, covered by his deep forest green duvet. She places a hand gently upon his cheek and he turns his face torward her, she can see the sweat beading at his hair line and feels the unusual warmth of his skin, it strickens her heart once again to know that she had caused this.
"The potions, has he taken them yet?"
Larissa shakes her head and places the book she was reading back upon the bookshelf, standing she walks over toward a tray she had set up earlier, many vials of different color potions sit neatly on top of it. She grabs only three, the instuctions had been very clear that around noon he is to take one fever drought, a pain reliever, and a blood replenishment. The taxing ones are to be given at morning and at night. Clarisa slides her hands beneath his back and lifts him into her lap, his head resting upon her chest. She massages his jaw to loosen it, knowing he tends to lock it subconsciously since becoming a spy, she slips a finger between his lips to open his mouth. With phial in hand she pour the first one, massaging his throat at the same time, the next two follow the exact same way.
"Hey mum?" Clarisa asks without looking up from her husband, "Can you give us some alone time in case he wakes up?"
"Of course."
Larissa answers while walking to Clarisa placing a kiss upon her crown, she disappears out of the bedroom leaving Clarisa alone with her thoughts.
The last month had been terrifying for her, between nearly losing her husband on the night of their wedding to watching him suffer from the after effects of the potion, she was sure at one point that she had lost him. Why did she even have to brew the damn thing in the first place? Memories swirl within her mind's eye as she clutches to the sleeping man in her lap, she burrows her nose in his hair to seek solice and comfort. She shivers and can feel every hair standing on in, the cold from the dungeon walls seep deep into her bones. Why now would this place seem unfamiliar; unfriendly, when nothing but good has happened here-at least for her.
Soft wisps of breath ghost across her face and she bolts upright, nearly headbutting Severus in the process. He places a gentle kiss on her cheek as he rest his head near her shoulder,
"Morning."
Clarisa half smiles, "It is nearly night dear."
"To me it is morning but it is just semantics I believe at this point."
There is no humor in his voice, only a hidden pain. Her heart squeezes her throat causing her to swallow hard, she can't forgive herself, and hearing the pain, sensing it, it's hurting her worse than anything he has ever done to her in the past. She smiles warmly and presses him close,
"I'm glad you're okay."
He smirks and a chuckle rumbles his throat and vibrates against her, it warms her considerably. She shifts and allows for him to sit up on his own, moving toward the edge of the bed, she casts a non-verbal tempus. Four o'clock in the afternoon, she sighs and scrubs her face with one hand. His hand appears on her shoulder and she looks at him,
"What's wrong?" His silky tone washes over her.
"You just woke but in an hour I am suppose to put you back to sleep to administer the other potions, I don't want to."
He slips to the edge beside her and brings her against his chest,
"Then don't"
She breathes deeply, it is his decision even if she can't stand to see him in any pain.
"Alright..." She whispers to not to sure of her own cofidence right now.
For the hour that passed, she and him bonded closer than they were when she was but a child. She filled him in on Minerva returning to claim headmistress, oh Alexandee was not happy, but thanks to the near death of him, Alexander was forced out of the postion based on 'personal conflict of interest'. He had laughed then said that the man deserved it, she had joined in. They stayed within each others arms which eventually lead to him not being able to restrain himself, so the last thirty minutes he has spend nurturing her body with a slow tentitive love that would send even Zeus to Hades.
Her cries of passion fill the room as she crests once more, unbelieving that even after a month in a coma, he has not lost his touch. He can still illicit the most tortuous pleasures from her body, still craving his touch, his kisses and the feeling of him completing her, he could kill her from pure pleasure alone and it is divine. His hands depand her attention and his body expects obedience, a force of nature wrapped into one hell of man. He stills as he crests, the pressure and pleasure so overwhelming that he shutters at the powerful release. An alarm goes off nearby.
He growls loudly as she slips from underneath him,
"It's time for the potions."
She pats his shoulder and waves her hand over herself, clothes materialize, she is caught by the arm before she can take a step forward. He is gently tugging her towards himself,
"Can wait another thirty minutes." His voice is husky and laced with lust.
A shiver runs down her spin but she shakes her head and moves to walk over to the tray from earlier, picking up only two vials, she walks back to him and sits down. He snorts and grabs one of the two in her hands,
"We finish after I take these bloody things."
