If waking naturally is like being a cork on an incoming tide, bobbing your way to shore, waking from a sedative potion is like falling out of an aeroplane, you are in one state, and then instantaneously another. Snape felt a throb in his head, an ache in his bones, and the tingling of his nerves. He also felt a hand holding his. For a moment Severus indulged the idea that Remus had been watching over him. The thought gave him a sweet pleasure he did not wish to ruminate on. But the hand was too small to belong to the werewolf. "Sev?" an achingly familiar voice asked. Better than Lupin, it was Isolde. "So you finally decided to wake up?" he said in a throatier version of his normal baritone. "Another Snape needed the bed," Severus beamed at the woman he regarded as close to a daughter. "You know, I can see why you don't smile at work. You lose all authority,"
"As if I ever had any with you," Isolde's heart was full of joy as she kissed Severus' hand. "Now let me examine you," Severus was already demurring, "or I'll shout in excitement and Molly can act the mediwizard,"
"Anything but that,"
"That's what I thought. Can you sit?" With the sense that his body was structurally unsound Snape managed to sit up as Isolde transfigured the bed back into an armchair. Snape was unsurprised to see that he was wearing the same old Joy Division tee shirt Remus had lent him three weeks earlier. Some pajamas that didn't fit him saved him from embarrassment. While Isolde conducted her checks the sitting room door opened and Sirius walked in. Severus grimaced. "What's wrong?" asked Isolde, running her wand over his torso. "He's remembered whose house he's in," Black quipped. "I've remembered what you contribute - nothing," Severus snarled. Sirius was ready to respond but Isolde cut in, "Can you fetch something for him to eat?" Sirius balked at being asked to play manservant to Snivellus but the look Isolde shot him brooked no argument and he grumpily headed back to the kitchen.
"The great spy is awake and demanding sustenance," Sirius complained. Mrs Weasely emerged from the pantry and began assembling a food tray while Sirius' bad temper roused Lupin from his thoughts. "You know, when she was asleep I thought Isolde might actually be okay but she's just like him, issuing orders... Damned if I'm going to take him his food,"
"You don't know what he goes through," Remus said mildly, thinking of Snape's wounds. Sirius looked mutinous, "If he's such a bloody martyr you can minister to him, I'm off." He leapt to his feet and tore up the stairs with Molly's instruction to "see to the Grindylows" following behind.
Half an hour later Snape had eaten, changed into his own clothes and was ready to depart for Hogwarts. Against Isolde's entreaties to stay a little longer, he was determined to resume his punishing schedule. "I shall see you tomorrow at the meeting," he insisted.
"I just don't think you look well enough to be back at the school,"
"To my considerable surprise, Re-Lupin did an excellent job fixing my injuries," Remus doffed an invisible cap in mock appreciation, "I need to heal a little, that is all, and I may as well heal while marking essays. Besides, it is important no-one suspects I did anything other than return to the castle. The longer I stay the bigger cover story I need." Isolde embraced him, "Very well, though I am not happy,"
"I am not unaccustomed to sulking," Severus said with a smirk. Isolde released him and, granting a swift nod to Lupin, Severus Snape left 12 Grimmauld Place.