Ch 16: From Ashes

He was coughing and heaving. The first half-coherent thought he had was that he could not breathe. His head felt like it was filled with cotton and everything hurt. His eyes refused to open and his stomach felt like a troll had his intestines in a vice grip. He'd just had that dream again about the bloody crystal, him a prisoner within. It was different this time, though. This time, the crystal shattered... and he with it.

He could feel himself expel whatever contents still resided in his stomach, an overpowering ringing in his ears making him deaf. He still could not breathe. His nose was bombarded with an awful, putrid smell he could only assume came from the same substance currently searing his tongue. He heaved again, this time coughing out the last of whatever was in his stomach as well as what felt like half-dried glue from his lungs.

When his stomach seemed unable to return anything else, when he was that he would not need to heave again, he let himself fall fully back on whatever bed he lay, for the first time feeling as if he could take even the shallowest of breaths. He tried to ground and orient himself, but his mind drew a blank. The sheer emptiness in his mind frightened him, as if some part of him knew how important knowing was. He tried to will himself to know, only resulting in needle-like pains shooting through his brain. When at last it came, he welcomed the darkness.

Draco looked on in horror, knowing without looking that Dean bore much the same expression. The Vampire was seemingly out for the count by the wall, Dean having spared him a quick glance before turning back to the bed.

Horris, his body, was acting too alive; too normal. Of all the times he had seen the Phoenix, he had always acted stolid and artificial.
Not sick, not panting.
Draco was not sure if he could take much more of seeing life in the dead.
"Wake him," he ordered Dean, glancing at the unconscious Vampire; "heal him, wake him, make him finish."
"Draco-"
"NOW, Dean." he snapped, taking steps toward the Vampire to do it himself, until Dean relented and began tending him.
"Give him a few minutes, at least," Dean pleaded, eyes darting between Draco and the bed.

The body was a body again, still and unmoving. Dead, if not for the subtle rise and fall of his chest. That was easier, even with the stench of putrid vomit filling the room. Was it masochistic of him, he wondered, to thrust himself repeatedly into such emotional trauma?
"He ready yet?" Draco demanded of Dean, not sure how much longer he could stand being in the same room with a living corpse.
"He's been working this all day, Draco. Let him-"
"I am fine now." The Vampire cut Dean off, pushing himself slowly into a semi-sitting position and pointedly favoring his left side., "But there is no more for me to do."
"He's still breathing," Draco growled out.
The Vampire pulled himself up further, leaning against the wall as he moved slowly towards the bed and taking a cautious bite from the body atop it.
"I taste none of the Old Man's magic," he declared after a quick sip.
"How is that possible?"
"I do not pretend to be all-knowing, young Asp. Are you certain he was dead to begin with? Fully?"

"He was stabbed. We were all there. He died in his father's arms after getting his venoms slashed by a traitorous fool. If anything, he was half-dead before then." Draco snapped at him, shaking off the chill simply saying the words caused. Horris was dead; they all saw him die. How dare this monster try to lure them into such false hopes!
"Draco... the Rite?" Dean whispered, "what about the Rite? Maybe-"
"No. Nothing in the Rite would fracture one's existence. If anything it is an attempt to unify."

"However this moment came about," the Vampire insisted once it was clear neither Asp would say anything more, "unless you wish that I drain him, he will continue to breath."
"You aren't draining him," Draco nearly shouted before the Vampire stopped speaking,
"Then he will probably regain consciousness eventually, as well."
"Quiet, Vampire."

He was right though, Draco had to admit. Whatever this was, if the Vampire was honest about the lack of foreign magic, it was alive. And, most painfully, some part of him hoped so much that it was true, and that it was Horris. That their leader had returned. That he could go back to being Beta. He had to force himself to breathe when the form on the bed shifted with a slight sigh.
"I need to check on Hermione," he said quickly, already opening the door, "watch him for any change, Wolf. I'll take the Vamp back on my way up."
He did not wait for Dean's reply, grabbing the vampire bodily as he moved past. As the two walked, Draco wanted to demand the Vampire assure him that this was no trick, not some attempt to give them false hope or lure them into some kind of trap. He said nothing, however, not until he was at cell door and he told Zack to go fetch the Vampire another meal nearly as an afterthought.

He did not go to Hermione. He could not bare to, the stench from the body's heaving still lingering in his nostrils and images of the whole incident flashing before his eyes. He could not hurt her anymore. Instead, he walked the gardens, barely sparing where he was going any mind. He needed to figure out what to tell her, what to tell everyone. Before he knew it, his legs had brought him before the willow. Another minute bracing himself and he walked into the catacombs and right up to the now-empty pedestal upon which Horris's body used to lay. Despite a living, breathing Horris (or at least a living, breathing body that looked like Horris), this was still the best place for Draco to find guidance. As if Horris still lay there, dead, Draco sat on the small stone bench beside the pedestal and focused on the inscription of Horris's name. The calm of the place was so unlike the turmoil simmering around him, and briefly Draco wished he could be as immune to it as Horris's ancestors deeper in the maze of underground caverns that served as the catacombs of the Snape family.

He could no longer keep the Asps blissfully unaware of the situation they now found themselves in. This concerned their Alpha.
Twenty-four hours; he could give the situation that long to settle and stabilize.
No. He could keep it from his Asps that long, but the Professor and Hermione would have to be told sooner. Now, even.
"Things certainly spiraled into Hades awfully fast," he sighed, letting himself lean forward and rest his forearms against the empty pedestal. He could not even tell if the news he now had to break to everyone was good news or bad. Was it a blessing that their leader was back from the dead, or would they now have to bear the pain of seeing him die once more, brought back by some sick magic to torment them further?

Dean looked up as the door opened slowly. So, Draco told her.
"There's been no change," Dean told him as he met his eye, not quite able to look at Hermione; too afraid to see how she had taken the news.
"He really looks alive," he heard her whisper.
Now he did turn to her, watching mystified as she repeated herself while brushing back Horris's hair. He did not even know when she'd crossed the short distance from the door to the bed.
Where Dean (and Draco, he assumed) was so self-conscious and afraid, Hermione caressed the sleeping face as naturally as a mother would her child.

"I need you to have the Asps gather tomorrow morning before breakfast," Draco whispered to him, both of them watching Hermione as she remained oblivious to everything but Horris. "I need you to go and warn Remus that I will be sealing the Manor as soon as the Professor comes. He and cousin Sirius must figure out if they want to come in or stay out for the foreseeable future. Lady Abdicattera needs to be notified as well, though she will need to ask her brother's permission directly if she wants her husband to be likewise invited in."
"Ginny?"
"Her too, ask if she is willing to stay here of if she needs us to see if she can still return to Hogwarts."

Dean nodded. He, like Draco, knew that Dumbledore had locked and warded the school as soon as his Phoenix was taken. The Mirror should still work, but that was a last resort. That the Asps should likewise protect the Manor was a given, as was that once he was sure his home front was secure, Dumbledore would try to lay siege to theirs.
"Should I contact the Professor?"
"No, I'll do that myself. By then I need to know what the others have chosen to do. I should have called him already, but once he comes I will have to seal the manor; his early arrival will tip off too many people to keep it vulnerable for long. He will probably want my head for telling Hermione before him, as is, but this couldn't be avoided."
"Do you want me to speak with the Professor's sister first?"
"No, ask Ginny first. If she wants to leave, we need to know if she even can return to Hogwarts. I don't want her to end up stranded."

Draco kept looking at Hermione's mothering as he spoke, and Dean knew that a big part of the blond's consideration for Ginny came from Hermione's friendship with the younger Gryffindor.
"Draco," Hermione gently called, looking away from the bed for the first time since she entered the room, "I think he's waking up."
Just as she said so, a moan echoed from the bed, and Draco rushed forth to meet any danger the sleeping form might pose to Hermione. Dean similarly moved further into the small room, acutely aware of Draco's protective position. With only a look from his Beta, Dean understood their earlier conversation was null and void until the present situation ended.

From across the bed, Dean watched Hermione resume her ministrations in an effort to pull Horris back into the waking world. If that were smart or foolish, only his waking would tell.
"Hey there," she greeted, still stroking as one eye barely opened a sliver. The light was already dim in the small windowless room, consisting of a single light orb on the wall furthest from the door and in the direction opposite what the figure on the bed was facing. Still, even that amount seemed to keep the eyes from opening further. The figure tried saying something, though it came out more as a strained whoosh of sound than any actual word. On the third try, Dean could almost make out the word water and dutifully handed Hermione a glass he had brought in earlier.

"Ho-Hogwarts?" Horris, for even in a hoarse whisper, he sounded like Horris, asked after finishing the glass.
"No, you're at the Manor. You're safe."
Hermione's answer seemed to confuse him, though he visibly relaxed at the word safe. Apparently he was too weak to ask anything further, nor did he seem to register either Asp.
"Urts," he managed after another minute or two, at which Hermione looked to Draco. The blonde slowly, as if any contact might ruin the reality, placed his hand on Horris's exposed calf. He nearly jerked it back as the bed-ridden Alpha twitched it away, but then he replaced it with more pressure.
"It will heal you," Hermione promised, stroking Horris's hair out of his face, though it did not seem to have quite as soothing an effect as before,
"Herm-" Horris tried again, visibly trying to raise his head, but then he collapsed back in a boneless heap.

"You didn't have to sedate him!" Hermione snapped at Draco almost immediately, after she was sure Horris was truly out.
"I did." Draco insisted instead, "Can you tell Ginny she needs to decide if she's staying or if we need to find a way for her to return to Hogwarts? She'll take it best coming from you, and I need an answer right away."
"Draco-"
"Please, Hermione, I need to contact the Professor and see about having him moved." Draco insisted, glancing at Horris at the end.
"Fine," she relented after glaring at the blond for a solid minute, "but you're not keeping me from him."
Dean waited until Hermione left to turn his attention on Draco. Something was wrong, and he had obviously wanted to keep her oblivious to it. Even as she left, Draco's attention did not waver from the form on the bed, as if expecting him to jump up and attack.

"We have a problem," Draco told him after enough time had passed that Hermione could not overhear, "that's not Horris."
"Draco-"
"You didn't see how he looked at me, Dean," Draco insisted, "it's as if I was Voldemort about to Cerucio him." Then, as if it was even more telling, he added, "he called her Herm."
"His venoms are still gone?" Dean cautiously asked, knowing that otherwise the sedative might not have taken. As much as he would rather not listened to Draco, he could not deny having a similar feeling of wrongness about the stunted interchange. Horris would have asked for his father, surely?
"If he could have, I'm sure he would have used his killing venom on me rather than just glare," Draco confirmed. They had amputated his slashed venom sacks out after trying to mend them for two days after the battle that had taken Horris's life. Until then, none of them could touch him without the risk of absorbing the killing venom. It was hardest on the Professor, not being able to touch his son without thick gloves. At least the Asps were a bit less susceptible, knowing how excreting one venom kept others from being as readily absorbed.
"Still," Draco continued after staring at the bed's occupant for another drawn-out minute, "I'm not willing to stake our lives on it yet."
"Should I stay with him while you call the Professor?"
"Call his sister and Remus. I'll contact the Professor. Oh, and tell Hermione she is to stay with Ginny for now. I'll set some strong wards to keep him in on the off chance he actually can nullify the sedation. With how weak he was when he woke, I doubt he'd be able to even if he did have all his venoms back."

For the first time, Severus let the Asps into Durmstrang. There, he was sure, all the students were gawking at each of them as much as the school's strict rules would allow. Showing them off… 'letting them stay for dinner' was the condition his Headmaster gave to let them come. Severus could not even force himself to pretend to care. The Asps needed to pack his things since he needed to leave. Now.
Draco dropped a shocking wealth of information on him, and for the boy's sake, he should keep away from Severus for the next few days. As far as he was concerned, this proved beyond any doubt that he should never have trusted Draco to take charge of things back at the Manor. Merlin help him, what was he thinking?
"Professor?" the boy, Severus was sure, had a death wish.
"Where is he?" he demanded, not sparing the blond another glance as he used all the speed his long legs provided to walk through his Manor, forcing Draco into a stunted jog.
"This way, sir," Draco led him, "we've had to keep him mostly sedated."

Severus felt his chest constrict, mostly at the unsaid why of their need to sedate his son. Who would do this to a child? Who would prosecute a boy even after death?
The door opened, and Severus lowered his eyes. He tried to steel himself to what awaited him within. What he wanted to see since the moment he heard, he now wished he had given himself more time to prepare himself.
His son. His son was on the bed. Breathing.
He finally looked up, just as a light snore escaped the boy. Alive. He was just about to step forward when last, fleeting thought stopped him.
"Is he shadowed?" he asked, having almost forgotten.
"It's strange, sir," Draco, mumbled, "His eyes are still green with these flakes. But, they're gold, sir, not black."
"Gold?" In all his years, Severus never heard of such an outcome. You either had no soul shadow on you, had it with the tell-tale black flakes, or you conquered it, leaving your eyes black as coal.
"I don't feel any soul shadow on him, sir, either way." Then, as an afterthought, Draco added, "His venoms seem to be gone as well."

Severus was still partly lost on the oddity of the gold flakes in his son's eyes, part of him wondering if he should stay away, but he could not bare not moving towards his son. He sat beside him as he had often sat beside his body in the catacombs. It was as if he had used a time turner. His future, for a fleeting moment, seemed restored. If only everything could revert to that first summer with Horris and Alex... How Severus had under-appreciated the serenity and sheer glory of those days. Back then, Severus was so sure he could not love his heir so strongly. Yet the boy won his love so easily, now it would be Severus's turn and the man feared once again himself incapable of winning his boy's love again.
"Fight it," he whispered, holding the boy's hand for no other reason than to constantly reassure himself that this was real. He wanted to pull him into his arms fully and embrace him, but knew doing so would be impossible. For now.
"I want him moved to a proper room," he told Draco. Seeing his son on what must be one of the most be one of the most dilapidate beds in the entire manor another stab at his heart.
"Back to the heir suite, sir?"
"No," though Severus truly wished he could say yes. Draco had warned him that when Horris had woken earlier, something was not right. Not that anything could be right about a boy returning from the dead as Horris had. Still, Severus trusted Draco's intuition. Even if the boy could not give him any solid reason to think Horris was not what Severus desperately hoped he was, he would accept his warning. Besides, nothing could be so easy for either Severus or his son; it never was. "I know we still need to keep our guard up, Draco, but he deserves a decent suite. You cannot keep him perpetually sedated."

"Have the elves prepare the 'Mist suite'," he told him after a few moments contemplation, "it has a good deal of monitoring wards about it. The elves can show you the way once they rid it of dust and disuse."
The Mist suite had not been used since his own father's death. It was laced with wards to monitor and protect the rest of the Manor from anything within. His ancestors had used it to house questionable guests; ones not to be trusted or insulted by guards or monitoring spells. Unless one knew what to look for, even someone well versed in the art of finding hidden magic would find nothing amiss. Furthermore, the suite was spacious and had amenities most flats lacked. For now, it would have to suffice.

"The Mist suite, Lord Snape?" Abby's voice cut in,
"Make sure you get it done, Draco," he ordered, pulling himself away from his son to deal with his only other family, " I want him there before he wakes."
Only then did he turn to his sister, motioning her to follow him out of the dingy little room.
"Is the suite necessary?" Abdigale repeated as they walked to his study,
"Yes. Draco said he thinks Dumbledore did something. I need to know Horris is not a danger to himself or others." then, once the pain of voicing that slightly subsided, "I was not aware you had come already, Abdigale."
"I just arrived, Lord Sn-"
"Severus."
"Severus," she amended, "I came as soon as one of your Asps told me of your son. I can't believe it's true."
"They are not mine," he stressed, "and am I to assume your husband is here as well?"
"He wants to be," she replied earnestly, "I wanted to hear with my own ears you'll accept his presence first, though. I rather not be a widow by sunset."
"He may come, if he accepts being watched," he agreed, "I do not pretend to trust him, and will not tolerate any attempts on his part – or yours- to hereafter communicate with Dumbledore or his lackeys."
"We understand, Severus," she promised, snapping her fingers for an elf and instructing him to let her husband know he may come through. Apparently, she had left him waiting on an open floo.

Severus was barely holding himself together and strangely found comfort in her decision to stay by his side rather than tend to her husband. Until that moment, he kept oscillating between wanting to be alone and yearning for companionship where he could find none. The warewolf was busy keeping the mutt from likewise falling apart, the Asps preparing for the sealing wards. They were certainly not his Asps, either, he thought bristling at his sister's earlier statement. By now they were most readily Draco's Asps than any others... his son included.
"Severus?" she prompted, making him realize he'd lost himself in his thoughts for a while now.
"Thank you," he told her, sincerely glad for her company, "I know it would have been easier for you to stay away."
"You gave me back my family, Severus... I'm a Snape; this is where I belong."

A/N: Again, sorry for how long this update took. On a high note, my beta is back (yay ^_^), and I'll hopefully get a couple more chappies our before life gets crazy again.