27 – Liar
Dumbledore's gray-white hair streaked behind him like a stallion's as he rushed to Snape and Lily. Slughorn wasn't quite as efficient. He waddled with the grace of a possum, several times nearly toppling over.
"What happened?" asked Dumbledore. He immediately placed his hand on Lily's hip where the bleeding had been the worst, then he placed his fingers to his nose. "She's been like this for at least five, maybe seven hours? How long ago was she hurt?"
"Well, Headmaster, we were gathering roots and—"
"Severus, first tell me how long ago she was hurt. We'll get to what happened next."
"What's wrong, Severus m'boy? Oh dear! Lily!" Slughorn did the same as Dumbledore. He placed his hand to her hip, and immediately placed his fingers to his nose. "She's been out cold for what, six hours? When did the bleeding stop?"
Snape had no idea how they were able to pinpoint Lily's time of injury so accurately. He'd never read anything like it in his extracurricular books on the Dark Arts, healing tactics, lost charms. The question caught him off guard. Everything he'd rehearsed with Voldemort was suddenly forgotten, and he felt a cold sweat on his forehead. "Um, I'm not entirely sure. It was probably like you said, five or six hours ago."
"That puts you deep into the Forbidden Forest. I'm assuming that's where you were?" asked Dumbledore.
"Severus, you didn't! I warned you about the blue unicorns!" Slughorn looked at Lily sadly and shook his head. "Were you going after the doppelganger root?"
Both men became completely quiet while they waited for Snape's response.
Snape felt a bead of perspiration drop. "Well, um, no. It didn't happen exactly like that. And no, no doppelganger root." He chuckled uncomfortably. "Lily wanted to look for roots to use for the Christmas Challenge—"
"What?" Slughorn cutoff Snape quickly. "She never told me she was going to do that."
"Horace, maybe we should let Severus finish his… explanation." Dumbledore nodded to Snape, and Snape shifted from one foot to another. Dumbledore's gaze was more powerful than Voldemort's, more powerful than a Muggle's microscope, and he had no idea where to begin now that the plan would look like a lie instantly.
"Well, Professor Slughorn, I think she wanted it to be a surprise. For you. She was gathering some root I had never heard of for a potion. She said it would make her Christmas ornament glow."
"Severus?" Dumbledore's gaze remained on Snape intently. "We can learn all of the other details later. How did she get hurt?"
"Yes, of course. As we wandered into the Forbidden Forest, we lost track of how far we'd gone. We started gathering the roots near this, um, stream and suddenly this horned beast came out of nowhere and attacked."
"Horned beast? Not a hippogriff or a thestral?" asked Slughorn.
"No, it was like nothing I had ever seen before. It was blu—green and had big, square eyes and two horns."
"Square eyes?" Dumbledore paused for consideration. "Horace, this doesn't sound like anything I've ever heard of before. We should be very careful in our treatment of Lily."
"Yeah it had square eyes. They were very strange. They stuck out from its head…." Snape continued on with the description of the horned beast, and Slughorn occasionally interrupted with questions. "That's amazing, m'boy," he would say after each one of Snape's exquisite details, the next detail always more fantastic than the last.
Dumbledore stopped listening as Snape continued with his onslaught of information to Slughorn. He walked around Lily, occasionally inspected her wounds, sometimes raising an eyebrow. "This healing work you did, Severus, is very impressive." Dumbledore said some words under his breath, and the wounds closed more, in some cases the pink hue of Lily's skin returning to normal. "Might I ask what class you learned such fine work in here at Hogwarts?"
"Oh, I uh, well, it was kind of something I learned in my spare time reading at the library," said Snape.
Dumbledore paused. "The library. I see. That's very good use of our resources here at Hogwarts."
"Thank you, Headmaster."
"Horace, give me a hand. I'd like to carry Lily to the infirmary. Madame Pomfrey should take a look as well, but I must say Severus, your work has really saved her."
Snape gave a faint smile. He felt the cold sweat on his forehead continue to accumulate. The beads of sweat would be falling like rain soon—Dumbledore hadn't given him a chance to perform the Dark Tourist, and with Slughorn standing next to him, it was going to be next to impossible to do the curse. "Headmaster, do you think maybe we could talk in private for a moment?"
"Sure, Severus, but let's get Lily to the infirmary first."
"Well, I was hoping Lily could be present with us as well."
"I don't understand."
"I think the horned beast—I think it sprayed something from the horns. I think we should give a closer look." As soon as he said it, Dumbledore's expression changed ever so slightly, and both he and the Headmaster knew it—he had been caught telling a lie.
"If that's the case, then I believe we should have Professor Slughorn here as well. Horace, let's take a closer look, shall we?"
Slughorn nodded.
"No, I just…." Snape fumbled for the right words. His right hand was in the pocket of his robe, and he could feel the blue wafers between his fingers. How was he going to pull this off? "Headmaster, I'm sorry, I think it was my imagination. Let's go to the infirmary."
Dumbledore didn't wait for any further discussion. "Very well. Horace, give me a hand." With that, the three wizards moved Lily into the castle and safely placed her in the infirmary.
Snape frowned when he saw that James Potter was lying in an infirmary bed as well.
"Quite the Quidditch player, that James Potter is," said Slughorn. "But he had a nasty fly-in with one of the Ravenclaws in a scrimmage. Nearly fell one hundred feet." He continued on with how well James had been doing. Meanwhile, Dumbledore was explaining the situation to Madame Pomfrey.
Snape continued frowning and probably wouldn't have stopped if it weren't for Dumbledore finally walking over and taking his arm. "I think she's in good hands now. Severus, please come with me to my office."
Snape felt his heart begin to pound. This was his moment to attempt the Dark Tourist Curse.
