Healing

Lily, sitting in the park where she met Sev, continued to remember the painful situation that occurred in Spinner's End last Christmas.

She remembered another unfinished business and asked him uneasily, turning to look at him, "And the school, Sev? Now they will expel you."

"Oh, that!" he replied cheerfully. "I don't think so." Meanwhile he got up and walked around the couch to turn on the side table lamp. Then he headed to a chest of drawers. "When I returned home from St. Mungo's an owl arrived with this," opening the top drawer and taking out an envelope. "It's from the Ministry," while he took out the parchment it contained and held it out to her.

He leaned back against the table behind him, watching her reaction as she read it. The letter said:

Dear Mr Snape,

We have received information that various defensive, levitation and warding spells have been used at your place of residence this morning between eight minutes past nine and eleven minutes past nine.

As you know, underage wizards are not allowed to cast spells outside the school grounds and re-use of magic could lead to expulsion from school (Decree for the Moderate Restriction of Underage Witchcraft, 1875, third article).

As numerous spells have been used, this admonishment is of a SERIOUS nature, and the corresponding sanction is in charge of the Headmaster of Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry, Profesor Albus Dumbledore. We also inform you that the anti-muggle enchantment performed by you has been withdrawn.

Have a good holidays!

Affectionately

Margaret Thompson

Department Against Improper Use of Magic

Ministry of Magic.

As Lily finished reading the letter, Sev was already telling her happily. "That's good news, isn't it?"

"But here it says serious…" she murmured worriedly, without raising her eyes from the paper.

"Bah! What is an old man's punishment compared to the expulsion I expected?" he replied sarcastically. "Surely he'll send me with Hagrid to heal wounded bowtruckels in the Forest or something similar."

"But they've removed the anti-muggle wards..." she said reviewing the text again. "And if you do it again then they will expel you."

"Yeah, that's really annoying," his voice had taken a much more serious tone. "But after what happened I'm sure my mother will put it back."

Lily wasn't so sure about that, but she didn't tell him. She had looked at him again, and in the light of the lamp and facing him she could see again the serious injuries of her friend.

She had an idea and said excitedly, "Sev, I'm going to heal you."

"No way, Lily," blunt. "They would also admonish you."

"But you yourself have said that a punishment from Dumbledore will not be serious..."

"Remember that you could not use magic again, you may need it on another more vital occasion."

Though Lily thought it would be good for Eileen to find out what her son had been through, she suspected it wouldn't do any good, and she couldn't bear to see him like that herself. So she resorted to an argument she thought Sev wouldn't reject. "Your mom can't see how you are when she wakes up, it would upset her."

However, he rebuked her. "Tomorrow, when I go to St. Mungo's, I will ask to be healed."

But Lily wasn't convinced that he would. She thought about forcing him to go to the hospital right now, going with him to make sure he would be taken care of, but she sensed Sev would refuse even more adamantly, which would mean at least another night of pain. And besides, she had gotten the idea into her head, and as Muggles would say, she 'she was stubborn as a mule'.

"Please, please…" she begged mischievously, as she knew how to do it so that he wouldn't resist, "I'm very wishful to do it myself… Besides, that way I practice…"

Sev continued to protest, and Lily insisted some more. She knew she had the upper hand, for he always gave her whatever she asked for in the long run.

"Okay, if you're so convinced…" he finally accepted. "But are you going to know how to do it?"

Lily was excellent at Charms, in fact, her willow wand was especially suited to performing them. But they were still in their fourth year and had just started studying healing spells.

"Sure I do," she answered trying to convey confidence. "But I'll need your book."

Lily knew that Eileen hid her magic treatises to prevent Tobias from destroying them. Many afternoons, having tea, she had shared them with her son and with her.

"You know you'll also have to use magic to get it out." Sev was looking at her as if testing her, his arms crossed over his chest, perhaps still waiting for her to back down.

"Bah!" now she was the sarcastic. "An Alohomora is no worse than what you have done."

"Come on then," he held out his hand to her. "I'm beginning to think I'm giving you some of my Slytherin traits," smiling wryly at her.

He led her up the darkened stairs to his room. She already knew that the books were hidden in a hole under the floorboards under his bed. As they went up he told her, "You're going to use me as a guinea pig, I hope you don't mess me up."

Lily noticed that Sev's tone of distrustfulness was simulated, and she laughed. "Don't worry, I'm not going to leave you worse of than you are."

He laughed too.

She felt like they were up to some mischief like sometimes at Hogwarts, the tension and sadness completely gone.

Sev turned on the light and Lily ducked under the narrow bed to get the book, skipping for the first time since she had a wand the ban on using it outside of school. 'Non-magical wound healing spells'. At least Eileen had gotten herself a manual to fix Tobias's messes, though she never used it when he was in the house, lest he realized she was using magic. What alone Sev was. 'Coward,' she thought of her.

They returned to the living room, Lily sat by the lamp on the side table, where she left her wand, at the far right of the sofa, resting the book on its arm and searching the index for the spells she was going to need.

Sev dropped down next to her. "Lily, stand to my left, from there you have no angle," he told her, because in that position it was the healthy part of his face that was facing her.

'By Merlin! What a fool he is.' she thought.

"This is where I have good light," without looking up from the book, which she was already leafing through. "Lie down here," hitting her thigh with the palm of her hand, still not looking at him.

It still took her a few seconds to find the page and identify the spell she was looking for, and Sev hadn't moved. She faced him, looking at her embarrassed.

"Come on!" somewhat exasperated. "If the letter from the Ministry arrives, I won't be able to do anything, it would count as the second time I break the rule."

He leaned toward her slowly and stretched out on the couch, resting his head on her lap carefully, as if afraid of disturbing her, his eyes were closed.

"Turn your face out," she said. At the same time, she took him gently by the top of his head and his chin, avoiding touching the affected area, to expose it. From so close and under the direct light of the lamp, she was finally able to appreciate the true extent of his injuries. He must have been in a lot of pain, for more than two days, and he hadn't complained once. She was afraid of doing more damage still by healing him, but she couldn't leave him like that for any longer, at least she had to try.

She carefully slipped her left hand under his good cheek to keep him from moving and swung her wand to cast the first spell she'd sought, which would reduce the swelling in his eye.

"Don't open your eyes and don't move, I'm going to start. If it hurts, let me know," she told him.

He just nodded. She pointed her wand some distance away and cast the spell, nothing happened.

"Have you noticed anything?" she asked.

"No."

"I'll try again." She repeated the spell, and this time she did see some improvement. "And now, did it hurt?"

"No, nothing, on the contrary, it has relieved me."

She did it a third time, and now the eye returned to its normal appearance.

"I think that's it, I'm going for the eyebrow, you still don't move."

With those first attempts she had realized that it was not enough to pronounce the spell and point the wand, but that she had to set her intention on healing, and so she carried out the other three, to close the cut in the eyebrow, reduce the swelling of the cheek and remove the bruise from the jaw, achieving everything without having to repeat them.

She examined him carefully. There was an almost imperceptible scar on his eyebrow and his eyelid was still slightly swollen, but nothing else.

"Do you feel better? Does it still hurt you?"

"No, no, I'm fine, leave it now."

"Tell me the truth, your eye is still a bit swollen."

"But it's nothing, seriously, I almost don't feel it anymore."

Lily was a perfectionist and now she knew how to do it right. She put all her will into healing her friend as she repeated the spell for the fourth time.

"And now?"

"Nothing, it's gone."

"Let me see you face to face." At the same time she turned his face towards herself. She carefully compared both eyelids, they looked the same. "Now open your eyes." She did the same, finding everything fine.

Sev looked at her as only he did. "Thank you… Lily," he murmured in his silkiest voice.

"Don't give thanks to me, I should have done it as soon as I walked through the door."

Lily suspected that he might be injured in some other unseen place as well, and she asked him tactfully, "Sev, did he hit you somewhere else… that I can't see?"

He shook his head slightly, still looking into her eyes.

"Sure?"

"Sure…"

Lily didn't insist. The same spirit that she had needed to heal her friend made her understand that he did not want to show her other battered parts of his body. Tomorrow she would accompany him to St. Mungo's and force him to be recognized.

She closed the book and placed it next to her wand on the side table by the lamp. She looked down into his eyes again, plunging into his unfathomable blackness as she slowly stroked his raven hair.

She didn't know how long they spent like this, the magic was broken by the sound of pecking at the window.

"The letter from the Ministry!" Lily exclaimed.

Sev got up slowly, as if in a daze, and sat on the sofa while she ran to open the window for the owl, undo the envelope, and wait for it to come out before closing it again. She opened it and unfolded the scroll as she sat down next to him again to read it together.

The text was identical, except for its own name in the header, 'opening spells and healers', the Spinner's End address, and the much longer time interval in which they had been cast. And it also put 'numerous' and 'SERIOUS'.

"Now maybe we'll be punished together…" Lily laughed.

But Sev had grown very serious and had slumped back in despondency. "I finally got you into trouble."

"Don't worry, I already expected it and it was my decision." She remembered a Muggle saying, "Today for you and tomorrow for me."

He reached for her hand, staring into space, and when she took it he laced his fingers through hers, squeezing it tightly but not hurting her. She leaned back next to him on the couch.

There was another silence, never awkward between them, although Lily was racking her brains to say something to him that would cheer him up again, she would soon have to leave and it distressed her to imagine him alone in the house at night.

"Tomorrow I will go with you to see your mother."

"Okay, come around ten o'clock, it's visiting time," he replied like an automaton.

Another long silence.

"We will spend these days together until we return to school."

"I won't be able to leave the house much, I have to find my mother's wand. When he takes it off he always hides it, because he believes that if he breaks it he will be cursed, the idiot."

"Well, I'll help you look for it and if we don't find it, we'll go to Diagon to buy her a new one."

He rested his head on her shoulder and she caressed his now healthy cheek and kissed his hair. She felt him shake and feared that he would cry again, she felt like a big mouth for having spoken to him about her mother again. She looked at his face, his eyes were closed and he seemed calm.

"Look at me Sev. Are you okay?"

He opened his eyes as if waking up from a dream, they looked so sad...

Perhaps it was because she couldn't stand his gaze, perhaps to continue comforting him, but rather because she yearned for it with all her being since she entered the humble house long hours ago, she hugged him with all her might.

He returned it desperately, as if he too had been wanting it for a long time, breathing deeply buried in her hair, feeling their bodies fused into one. They had hugged countless times, but never like this.

"I love you so much, Sev."

"And I love you, Lily… more than anything… I don't know what I would do without you…"