Chapter 4 (Stirring and Fretting)

Preparing the Potion was a tedious, nerve-wreckingly difficult task, and they were both drenched in sweat halfway through. Yet their motivation lay right behind their backs, breathing unevenly. The bandages had been thoroughly soaked through when they had returned, and Kreacher had been on the verge of coming after them when they had entered the room.
"Done!" Harry said, wiping sweat from his forehead with his sleeve, "Anything else I can do?" "No, you can go to sleep if you-"
"Sirius! I'm not going to bed now, couldn't sleep either way. I want to see what happens."
"Very well, put the little silver Kettle on the hook in the fireplace, we need a proper fire for this potion. Then you can add the content of the biggest glass bowl, very, very slowly, while stirring clockwise continuously."
Harry did as he was told while Sirius mumbled things and did stuff with the Eternal Fire and the Liquid Stone.
"What now?" Harry asked, turning around.
"Now you keep stirring until I tell you to stop." Sirius mumbled and continued with his incantations. After what seemed like an hour to Harry, Sirius finally brought over the next bowl and added its content to the cauldron, then the next, then the next. When all the ingredients except for the fire and the metal were properly diffused, Sirius sighed and leaned back against the wall, before slowly sagging down on the floor.
"What's wrong, Padfoot?" Harry asked nervously, wondering whether any of the ingredients might be poisonous.
But Sirius looked up at him distractedly, shrugged and said, "Huh. Not sure I should say."
"You can tell me anything, Sirius, you know that.!"
"Is that so? Well then. I'm not sure whether this is going to work. I've never worked with either of the next two ingredients, and it's very powerful black magic, I'm telling you this much. Powerful enough that, in case this goes wrong, it could easily kill Snape. And although you may be generous enough to trust me that I don't want to harm him anymore- well, not badly anyway- most people won't believe that, considering our history. So if he should die, after all those efforts, I'd probably have to go into hiding again."
"I don't think that's true, Sirius. You know, when Hermione was saying that earlier, she meant stuff like, you two were going to argue, and agitation might not be good for his health. She'd never believe you would actually do something to hurt him, and neither would anyone else. Besides, I'm your witness. Anyway, if anything should happen, we'll know we did our best to save him and that has to be enough. To think, the chosen one and his daredevil godfather broke into the Ministry to steal potion ingredients… Snape would say it's fitting. That I never learned to obey to rules."
Sirius grinned a little, then got off the floor and said, "Alright then. Nothing left to do but…"
He went to get the Eternal Fire and Liquid Stone from the little worktop they had set up in the corner of the room, carefully let it slide into the cauldron and started muttering incantations.

Harry thought it was best to step back and let his godfather work in silence, so he sat down in Sirius's dusty armchair and watched.
He woke up with a start when his head slipped from the headrest. Guiltily, he looked to Sirius, who was still busy with the cauldron. A strange light was radiating from it now, and the room was filled with a sweetish scent that made Harry dizzy. A quick glance at the clock told him that Sirius had been working for almost three hours while he had been asleep. But Sirius seemed very absorbed by his task, so Harry refrained from talking to him and apologizing or offering help. Instead, he looked at Snape, who was looking very pale and fragile. His skin colour was even less healthy than usual, beads of sweat stood on his forehead and dark circles under his eyes were strangely at odds with the fact that Snape had not been awake for so long now. Harry wiped the potion master's face with a moist cloth, then picked up a book and sat down in his chair again. Nothing he could do now. He buried himself in his book and didn't look up again, until finally, Sirius called for him.
"Harry! It's time. Take off Snape's bandages, and then get me a goblet and make sure it's cold!"
Harry bared Snape's chest and rid it of the bandages, then cleaned and freeze-charmed the goblet before bringing it over to Sirius, who filled a little amount into the goblet.
"That's all? All this work for this little gulp of potion?" Harry asked, surprised.
"Hardly. The rest of it is going… into his wounds. You can step out of the room for the duration of the process, if you wish."

Harry shuddered, yet wanted to stay with Sirius. The goblet was empty soon enough, but afterwards, the rest of the potion had to be administered. The pipette came out of its Drawer again, and Harry assisted Sirius in some uneasiness as he carefully pulled open the wounds and let the potion dribble inside, watching it mix with the dark, fresh blood that still flowed from the wounds. With horror, Harry watched the liquids combine and form a thick, bubbling mass that moved around in Snape's wounds until finally it started to… boil, apparently. Smoke ascended over the wounds, and within seconds, Snape was out of sight in a cocoon of smoke and vapour. Harry unconsciously gripped Sirius's arm, and couldn't hold in a scream when Snape's body started moving, no, spasming. Sirius gripped him around the chest, for Harry had made to throw himself at the spectacle in front of him, determined to help.
"You can't do anything for him now, Harry. All we can do is wait.", Sirius told him in a hard voice. And in that moment, Harry was glad he had sent Hermione and Ron away, because even he found Sirius menacing then. He was just standing there, stony-faced, muscles tense, staring at the twitching body before him with an icy glare.
They watched tensely for what Harry felt must be hours before finally, the vapour vanished, the jerking stopped and Snape's pale body lay before them lifelessly. "Sirius, what happened? Is he… is he dead?" Harry asked hysterically.
Sirius however had already pointed his wand at Snape and shouted "Renervate!". A big flash of light shot directly into Snape's chest and again, he took a deep breath and continued to breathe steadily after that.
Sirius took Snape's wrist in his hand: "Right, he's breathing again. Be quiet, I'm concentrating." He pulled out an old pocket watch and took Snape's pulse.
"He's fine. Well, not worse than before, anyway. Ironically, the one person I would ask for help now is Snape himself. Can't do that now, can we. Guess we'll have to wait and see. His wounds look loads better now, anyway." Sirius muttered as if talking to himself.
Harry stepped closer to the bed and bent over a little, closely examining the Potion Master. It was true, the wounds looked as if they had been sealed somehow, they were no longer gaping and there was no bleeding, either. And if Harry wasn't much mistaken, Snape's face had changed, too. Harry gave Sirius a little smie and said, "I think it may have worked, though. He seems different from earlier, like he's dreaming. He doesn't look as… as stressed as before."
"Let's hope you're right. Anyway, He's going to be out for a while. Since you can't really do anything to help him in case he wakes up, I guess you can just as well go to bed now. Better yet, go over to the Weasleys, allow Molly and Ginny to see you're all right, then maybe talk it out with your friends. I know it bothers you. Don't be unfair to them, though. Keep in mind that you're the Chosen One, Harry. Somewhere along the way you just lost all your selfish impulses, which weren't very strong to begin with. Not true for others, you understand. Anyway. I'll stay here with Snape."
"But what if he-"
"I think he's out of any immediate danger for now. I'll let you know if anything changes."
Harry sighed, then nodded. "Thanks for everything, Padfoot. You have been brilliant. It may sound strange, but after all he has done for me, I just couldn't bear it if he... you know."
"I know. I understand."
"Yeah. Well, Goodnight, Sirius. Hope you can get some sleep." Harry went for the door.
"'Night, Harry." Sirius mumbled, feeling suddenly very tired himself, then sat back and rested his head in the big winged chair.

He fell asleep soon, yet woke up repeatedly, each time Snape's breathing changed its pace. To think I used to be a dead sleeper, I can't believe I lost that. And over Snape, no less! Come to think of it, I can't even take offence at that anymore, not after…"his thoughts trailed off, and he fell back asleep.

Harry came out of the fireplace at the burrow, covered in grime. Arthur jumped up from his armchair and pulled Harry into a bone-crushing hug, regardless of the grime rubbing off on him. Then he let Harry go, saying, "Finally. The others told me you were okay, but you know, us old folks. Always worried." Harry squeezed Arthur's hand firmly, and gave him a heartfelt smile. No one would ever understand exactly how much the Weasleys meant to him. "Molly has already gone to bed, I bet she's still awake though. I'll tell her you're here. You best go to bed, now, too, as will I. Ron's Room is kind of… Occupied, I guess. Percy's old room is empty now though. But there's also a spare bunk bed in Ginny's room, I don't know how things are between you now. Yet from that face I guess I do. Up you go then. I'll turn out the fire." And after a light squeeze of Harry's shoulder, Arthur turned towards the fire. Harry sprinted upstairs as silently as he could, performed a quick cleaning spell on himself before knocking and entering. Ginny was fast asleep, hair fanned out on the pillow, breathing deep and evenly. He shrugged out of his trousers, socks and Jumper, then carefully slid under the covers behind her, brushing her hair aside and hugging her close. Her sweet scent almost overwhelmed him as he nuzzled his nose into the back of her neck, and within seconds, he was asleep, too.