"Poppy, are you in here?" Albus called through the long, empty Hospital Wing, his eyes twinkling merrily.
"Come into my office, Headmaster," she called as she rolled out of bed, hating how short her nap had been.
"How are Harry and Severus this morning?" he asked, knowing she already checked on them but he had no way to access the mini-Hospital Wing without her permission first.
"Severus has caught an infection and needs to remain in bed for at least today. I know he doesn't want to hear this but he probably won't be in any condition to teach tomorrow, either. Harry is doing better but I am not going to release him until after dinner, at the earliest. I would prefer it if they had absolutely no visitors today," she explained tiredly.
"Ah, well, I guess I won't be visiting them today, will I? Can you tell Severus to come see me when he is feeling better please?" the Headmaster asked, his eyes twinkling merrily.
"Of course, Headmaster," the Healer replied, as he left her office and went back to his own office.
Deciding it wasn't worth it to go back to bed, Madame Pomfrey went into the mini Hospital Wing to check up on her patients. She figured they were probably both asleep but she didn't trust Severus to stay in bed for very long if he happened to be awake. As she walked approached the open yellow door, she noticed that both of her patients were awake and were quietly talking to each other.
"Good Morning Harry and Severus. Harry, how are you feeling this morning?" she kindly asked the boy.
"Much better, thank you. When am I going to be released?" he asked.
"Most likely after dinner," she responded gently as she ran the diagnostic spell. Noticing that his fever was almost gone and everything was healed except for the concussion, she was pleased that he had healed so well.
"I am going to let you two do quiet things today but since Professor Snape is not allowed to get out of bed, " she said with a glare in his direction, "it would be wise for you both to stay in bed and rest. I can bring in a chess set if you wish. Since neither one of you ate breakfast, you both will be required to eat lunch in an hour," she stated, feeling a lot more like a mother than a Healer at that moment.
"A chess set would be wonderful, thank you Poppy," Snape responded, without any sarcasm in his voice.
Once she had placed the Wizard's Chess set on a table between the two beds, she left them alone. She figured Severus would try to talk to the boy about his nightmares and knew he was the best one for that job because he often had nightmares as well.
"I'm glad to see that your recovery has progressed, Mr. Potter. Would you like to talk or play Chess before lunch?" the Potions Master asked his student.
"Could we talk, sir?" Harry whispered, "I would like to get that over with."
"Certainly. Why don't you tell me about your nightmare from last night?" Snape responded, also eager to get their serious discussion finished.
"Okay, well, it was about the last task from the tournament last year. Just the usual one," Harry mumbled.
"The usual one, Mr. Potter?" the professor asked softly, confused that a fifth year would have nightmares he would consider "usual".
"When we touched the trophy, it was a portkey and it took us to Wormtail. He killed Cedric and afterwards used my blood to create a body for Voldemort. Then he tried to kill me but failed," Harry once again mumbled, his eyes focused on his sheets.
"How often do you have this nightmare?" Snape asked quietly, unsure of how to proceed.
"At least twice a week," Harry whispered, wishing that they would talk about anything except Harry's nightmares, "How often do you have nightmares, sir?" he asked boldly.
"Quite often, although I rarely admit that. Only you and Madame Pomfrey know that I have nightmares and I would like to keep it that way, understood?" Snape said sternly.
"Yes, sir," Harry hastily replied, shocked that his feared Potions Master would admit weakness, "Do you talk about your nightmares with anyone? Does it help with the nightmares?"
"No, I don't, but I have my own reasons for that. I would, however, like you to talk about yours, either with me, Madame Pomfrey or the Headmaster. You don't need to confide in me, but you need to confide in someone. If your nightmares go away, Occlumency will be much easier for you," the professor stated uncharacteristically, as he watched his student rub his forehead.
"Alright. I'll think about it sir, thank you," Harry responded.
"How are you feeling? Would you like to keep talking or do something else?" the Potions Master asked quietly, feeling very empathetically towards the boy in the bed next to him.
"I just have a small headache, sir, its fine if we keep talking. Last night you said we should talk about the vision I had, sir?" Harry mumbled, not talking clearly because of his headache.
Without thinking, the Potions Master swung his legs over the side of his bed but almost collapsed when his legs wouldn't support his weight at first. After a few minutes, his legs were able to support most of his weight and the dizziness went away so he was able to get up and go to the potions cabinet to retrieve a headache potion. He slowly made his way over to Harry's bed before he stumbled back to his own. The short walk across the room weakened Severus much more than he would care to admit.
"Sir, I thought you weren't allowed to get out of bed today. I saw the torture session, it looked gruesome, sir," Harry whispered, unsure of what to say and afraid to offend his teacher.
"Madame Pomfrey was able to heal my wounds, she is just being overly cautious about my health," he said, unaware that the Healer had been listening to their conversation from the other side of the door.
"Overly cautious about your health, Severus?" she said as she lifted her eyebrow in imitation of him, "Then you will be able to eat a full lunch, and won't need anymore healing salve?"
Unsure of how to respond, he just looked down at his sheets and waited for her to run her scan of him. Harry just looked on as a spectator, confused about the actual state of health of his teacher.
"Harry, dear, its nice to see you awake. What would you like for lunch, solid food or broth again?" she said as she straightened out the covers on his bed.
Whispering to her, he pleaded, "Please check Professor Snape. He got out of bed to get me a headache potion and had a lot of difficulty getting out and back in to bed, but I don't want him to feel embarrassed about his weakness"
"Alright, I can do that," she responded, giving Harry a wink before heading over towards Severus' bed and with a quick flick of her wand a silencing charm and a privacy screen went up between the two beds.
"Now, Severus, how are you feeling? He can't hear you right now, but he seemed to be very concerned about your well-being after last night. Why did you get out of bed to get him a headache potion, you could have called me or summoned it with your wand." she asked quietly, carefully rearranging his covers as well.
"Why that little dunderhead!! He knew I wasn't supposed to be out of bed and he sees fit to tell on me to you just because I tried to help him! I knew I was wrong to be nice to him!" Snape exploded, ignoring the pain in his throat.
"Severus!! That is enough! He only told me because he was very concerned about your health and well-being, which I might add, isn't doing very well right now. Now, this is the last time I'll ask you this question: how are you feeling?" she scolded in a very stern voice.
"My legs were pretty weak when I stood. How long is that going to last?" he responded in a very annoyed voice.
"The more you rest and not get up, the faster you will heal. You know this. Is your infection worse or are the potions still working?" she quietly asked, trying to get him to calm down.
"I can't tell," he whispered, suddenly feeling as though all of his energy had been drained.
"I can't give you any more potions for another few hours, you are going to try to eat some broth for me, and then I want you try to get some rest, understood?" she said as she used the stern voice again.
"Yes, ma'am," he wearily responded.
With a quick flick of her wand, the screen and charm were gone and the two adults looked over at the boy who was watching them curiously. Within a few minutes, both patients had lunch in front of them. Harry was eating some chicken noodle soup and half of a sandwich, and Professor Snape had a simple bowl of chicken broth. After a few bites, the Potions Master pushed away his lunch and quickly feel asleep. Harry slowly ate all of his lunch, while pondering all that had been discussed that morning.
AN: Thanks for reading!! Let me know if you have any suggestions or comments. Please review and thank you to everyone who reviewed the last chapter.