One Day at a Time
Out of the Hospital Wing
Once Dumbledore's visit was concluded, the hospital wing returned to its standard monotonous pace. Pomfrey brought me lunch shortly afterwards, and she chatted pleasantly with me, although her small talk was starting to get a bit repetitive. It's quite odd: I found myself starting to impatiently wait for Severus's evening visit, when he stopped by to bring the second dose of potion. We didn't even really talk when he visited, so I suppose I was just anxious for a change in pace?
The next day was the start of classes, and Severus informed me that I would not be teaching tomorrow. "And why is that?" I asked, annoyed and my good mood starting to sour.
"Because I say so. You're not recovered enough, yet," his eyes glittered, daring me to argue otherwise. I didn't say anything, though, and after a moment's silence he said, with no preamble, "Why was your brother mad that your oldest two brothers attacked you?"
I replied in a mildly confused tone, as though the answer was obvious, "Why wouldn't Tarazet care?"
Snape frowned, seemingly confused at my confused question. "He attacked you himself, earlier. Unless the stunning spell conjured itself?" he finished sarcastically.
I had forgotten that Severus had seen the end of our argument, and now I understood his perspective. "That's not really the same thing…" I said slowly. "Tarazet wasn't willfully trying to hurt me, or quote and quote 'put me in my proper place', like Seginus and Matar were."
"I didn't know people cast stunning spells to show their love," he said sarcastically.
I smiled but didn't laugh at his comment. "Tarazet was like a scared puppy, there. He might've bit, but he didn't really mean it," I shrugged my shoulders.
An odd look flitted across Severus's face. "You're awfully forgiving," he said in a rough voice.
"Tarazet," I hesitated, and thought of how to phrase my though. "Tarazet isn't the worst person in the world," I finished lamely. "He has his good points." Pause. "Sometimes." It was quiet for another moment, and I supposed our conversation had finished; Snape took the empty cup which had held the potion and I watched his back as he walked out of the door.
At the start of the next day I was able to hear the bustling of students in the formerly quiet hallways. To my great surprise, I started receiving "Get well soon" cards from some my students, and some of the sixth years sent me small boxes of Chocolate Frogs. I eyed these Chocolate Frogs rather suspiciously, wondering if they remembered that I had fed them cursed Chocolate Frogs back in October.
In the late afternoon, after the end of the first day of classes I had my first visitor of the day, beside Pomfrey and Severus. I smiled upon seeing Harry, Ron and Hermione walking through the door. "Hello, Professor," Hermione smiled.
"We wanted to see how you were doing," Harry said politely.
"We, uh, brought you candy," Ron finished awkwardly and held out a small bag. "A Get-Well-Soon gift, if you will."
"Thank you," I genuinely smiled as I took the small bag. "No Chocolate Frogs, I hope?" I added mischievously. "I've already received quite a few of those from other Sixth Years."
Harry laughed. "No, no Chocolate Frogs. Just some stuff from our stash of candy. It's mostly from Honey Dukes."
"Yeah, and we made sure to not put any of the stale stuff in there," Ron added cheerfully.
"Always good to hear! Speaking of--I mean absolutely unrelated to that—would you like a biscuit?" I playfully said as I held out the tray of biscuits that Hagrid had given me.
They seemed to recognize who had baked them, and jokingly came up with elaborate excuses. "No, see, I had a hippogriff for lunch, much too stuffed," Harry grinned.
"I'm sorry, I'm allergic to stale," Ron replied, also grinning.
The door to the Hospital Wing suddenly swung open, and Severus strode in, his black robes billowing behind him. The grins on Ron's and Harry's faces quickly faded, and I saw a loathing sneer start to form on the Potions Masters face upon seeing them.
"Your potion, Liseli. Potter, don't forget your detention tonight," he added without so much as looking in their direction.
"Yes, sir," Harry replied in a subtly disrespectful tone.
Snape left without a further word. I looked at Harry and said, in an impressed tone, "You've already managed to get detention?"
The messy-haired boy let out a hollow laugh. "It's not that difficult. Snape isn't exactly fair in giving out detentions. I swear, he'd give me detention for breathing too loudly. Or just breathing period."
"That's not good," I said in a concerned tone, only half paying attention.
Harry nodded, and then abruptly said, "Can I ask you something, Professor Colburn?" I replied affirmatively, and he tensely continued. "You said you were at Hogwarts at the same time as Lupin."
"Yes…" I replied slowly, wondering where he was going with this.
"Did you know my dad?" There was almost a note of hope in the orphaned boy's voice, and it pained my heart.
I hesitated, and my mind started racing as to what I could say. Harry was a nice boy, and I didn't want to hurt his feelings, but I didn't really want to lie to him, either. "I knew of him," I finally slowly started. "He was the Gryffindor's Seeker almost every year I was there."
"But Lupin seemed to know you. So you must have seen the Marauders more than just that," Harry pressed.
I felt as though I was being backed into a wall, with nowhere to go. I struggled with my thoughts a moment longer and said slowly, "I saw James rather often, because he and Regulus fought rather often. They were both always competing for Sirius's attention—Regulus felt that James was stealing his brother away from him, and James felt that Regulus had no right to be vying for Sirius's attention. So he was always either fighting Regulus, or he was backing Sirius up in one of Sirius's fights with his brother. But, no, I didn't talk directly with him very much," I finished conclusively. I didn't want Harry to ask any more questions, for I already disliked having to remind them of my relationship with Regulus.
Harry seemed as though he was trying to mask his disappointment. I felt a twinge of sorrow at thinking that the only way Harry would ever know his father was through scattered stories from others, haphazard glimpses into James's life. The topic of conversation was gently changed away from Harry's father, and the four of us chatted a bit longer before the trio left. When they left, I was lost in my own reflections on Regulus and Sirius.
I felt my mood immediately elevate when Severus stopped by again that evening. He wordlessly handed me the potion and inspected the remaining scorch marks on my lower legs. They had almost completely disappeared, and he seemed to notice this for after a moment's thought he said, "You can go back to teaching. You don't have to stay in the Hopsital Wing anymore, but you still have to take the potion."
My thoughts were rather scattered at hearing that, but they went something like this: Finally. The Hospital wing's mind-numbingly boring.
And then: Oh, but now I won't see Severus twice a day anymore.
Then: But he still has to give me the potion twice a day. So I will see him. Phew.
And then, shocked at myself: Wait, why do I care if I see him?
I tried to push those thoughts out of my mind and curtly thanked him. After gathering the few things I had at the Hospital Wing, I walked back to my quarters and forced myself to at least pretend that I was thinking about what my lesson plans for tomorrow would be.
My first day back teaching had been rather draining, and I now sat relaxing in the Professors' lounge, eyeing Severus over the top of my book. I had never before realized how much I saw him on any given day: at meals, in the hallways, in the Professors' lounge, and in the corridors nearby the Slytherin common room, where presumably both of our quarters were located.
"Liseli," I jumped and wondered, embarrassed, if he had realized I was looking at him. "Do you still need a cauldron and ingredients?" he asked disinterestedly, not even lifting his eyes from his book.
"Uh, yeah, I do," the words nervously spilled out.
"I keep them locked unless I'm there," he drawled. "Stop by tomorrow directly after the end of classes."
Even though I felt like he was doing a favor, I still didn't like being commanded. I pursed my lips and honestly replied, "I have a review session then."
"Review session? For what?" his eyebrows raised slightly, even though he had yet to look up from the pages of his book.
"For my first years. They feel that they forgot some of the spells over the long break, so I'm holding a review session for them," I explained.
"Is it not their own responsibility to remember the spells? And not your responsibility to dedicate more time to them than necessary?" he posed his leading questions, and seemed annoyed.
"I don't mind devoting extra time to them to help them. I mean, I'm supposed to be helping them learn, anyhow," I replied, now imitating Severus by looking intently at my own book.
As soon as I did this, though, I saw him lift his eyes and glance at me. The odd, unidentifiable expression that had flitted across his face earlier in the Hospital Wing appeared again for a second. It disappeared so quickly I almost doubted I had seen it, and then he said in an articulate but neutral voice, "I see."
We both returned to reading our books, and after a few minutes something daring within me made its move. "Severus?" I started. He didn't reply, but I noticed that his eyes had stopped flying across the page he was on. "Can I call you Sev?"
He immediately tore his black eyes from his book and started looking at me. Part of me was immediately regretting asking such a question. "Why would you do that?" he cautiously asked, his eyes still on me.
"Severus is such a long first name," I replied, an ironic smile dancing on my lips.
He raised an eyebrow. "Should I point out that Liseli is also three syllables? Lee?" he articulated the first syllable of my first name.
"No, I don't think so, Sev," I had to restrain my smile. I must be trying to annoy him, I thought, only half believing myself. That must be what possessed me to ask such a stupid question. Still…nobody had ever called me Lee before. I quite liked the ring of it.
…
A/N: First, thank you to Adam_Copeland_Fan, XxClearSakuraxX, angelofire, Mywaychan and Pollywantcookie for reviewing! Secondly, I know it's debatable whether James Potter was a seeker or chaser, but it's simpler for him to be a seeker in my story. Thirdly, I'm actually not sure how to pronounce Liseli's name, but I've always imagined it as "lee-SEL-ee", hence why the first syllable of her name as pronounced by Snape is "Lee."