Severus kept stirring the potion; the decisive stage of a complex restorative potion was coming to an end, and he could not allow himself to be distracted by anything. Lily spent the night stuck in her beloved Obstetrics Department of St. Mungo's, and Snape had to look after the still-suffering Regulus alone. Frankly, he was glad to have his old friend back and her help in the difficult task of potions was immense. It was as if he had returned a few years ago, to Hogwarts, when she went home for the holidays, and he naively wrote her long letters, telling her that the first snow had fallen in Scotland, that he had come up with a new recipe for a potion and dreamed of trying it when Slughorn was not will be nearby. And he sent her sweets, which he stole from Hogsmeade's confectionaries ... And he was waiting for her return.
Someone would say that it was love: the first, naive, childish love. Severus himself would laugh until tears prickled in his eyes if he heard such a statement now. No, he wasn't in love with Lily. Not then, not now. Not ever. The girl with hair the color of the sun loved to help abandoned kittens, and Severus, ironically, turned out to be just such a homeless little animal who terribly wanted to get into the warmth of someone else's care. She was his first and for a long time only friend. Deprived of a simple human relationship, he followed her tail, ready to fulfill her every whim, if only she would not leave him. For a long time, such a friendship suited both.
Severus dragged her books around Hogwarts, helped her with her homework, fought off the Marauders when he was younger when he was older, he helped her get out from the insistent courtship of James Potter and others, eager for the love of the bright Headgirl of Gryffindor. Lily, like the fairy queen Mab, enjoyed the increased attention of several suitors at once and was proud of her success in the field of Potions, in which considerable merit belonged to the very same Snape.
And when she got bored with her retinue, she went to look for another one... Now, of course, Severus understood why their friendship had cracked four years ago. And if it were not for a happy coincidence in the person of Maya, they would hardly have reconciled. And so, time passed, old grievances smoothed out, they both grew wiser, and the suffering Regulus so successfully turned up to help them reconcile. Severus, with his irrepressible desire to try out a new potion on grateful patients, and Lily, with her desire to do good to everyone, converged in a great alliance of former friendship and mutual hobbies.
Severus chuckled as he lowered the flames under the cauldron and stirred the potion thirteen times clockwise and once counterclockwise. There had been no news from Maya for two days. He caught himself thinking he was worried. She didn't answer Patronuses, Severus didn't know where she lived. Severus had no idea why he shouldn't go all over London looking for her, really! Yet, he could not leave Regulus... He was sick to be a babysitter and a healer in one person!
Snape was grumbling to himself, of course, but he was beginning to enjoy this strange friendship with Maya, and Black, on closer inspection, turned out to be less of the pompous idiot that Severus had always thought him to be. As for Regulus, he always had warm feelings for the fellow. The boy was only a year and a half younger than Severus himself and was always wandering around the School like a restless ghost, always looking for his brother. Who knows, maybe his friendship with Snape was also the result of loneliness.
Severus put the lid on the potion, left it to cool, and glanced at the clock ticking across the kitchen. And where, pray-tell, did Maya go? As if in response to his unvoiced question, somebody knocked on the door, and without waiting for an answer somebody entered.
"Hey, anybody home?" Sirius called from the doorway.
"Yes, come in, and don't yell, you'll wake up your brother. The kid hasn't slept all night," Snape replied in a loud whisper.
"Sorry. Quite the morning we had... Do you have coffee? And something to eat?" Sirius stumbled into the kitchen, brushed off the ashes and dirt, and collapsed into a chair. Snape sighed and put the kettle on the stove.
"No, do I look like a Hog's Head to you, or what? Hospital, hotel, and psychologist's office at once. What's wrong?"
Blake waved him off.
"As usual; kept chasing your brethren all across Wizarding and Muggle London!"
Snape nodded. Sirius glared back in surprise. "What, you won't even snap at me?"
Snape placed a cup of coffee and a stack of sandwiches in front of Black.
"Eat already, you bastard. And shut up. Have you seen Maya?"
"Ah, Maya, that's it!" Blake whistled.
"One more word and I'll hex you!"
"Oh, come on, Snape, she's quite a witch, nice arse and round breasts..."
"Black, one last warning."
"Ok, I shut up. Calm down. I haven't seen her, but I know where she lives. I can give you her address. Unless she kicks you out, of course."
"You didn't get kicked out. But I can do it if you don't shut up."
"OK. Go now, I'll give you the coordinates of the Apparition. And I'll sit with Reggie."
"Give him the potion when it's cold. Two teaspoons three times a day after meals."
"You're not going back?"
"I'll hex you, Black, I swear by Merlin! I am tied to the cauldron day and night, I have no time to eat while you are chilling there! Thanks for Lils helping out as long as she could. Give me at least half a day out of this kitchen!"
Sirius finished chewing his sandwich and gave his new friend a serious look. Who would have told him four years ago that Snivellus would feed him sandwiches and complain about life, like a grandmother's neighbor, he would have hexed him into the next century. And now, how things have turned around.
"I owe you, Sniv... Severus. I swear I won't forget this."
Snape looked back at Black, nodded, and went to get ready.
Hermione thrashed around in a feverish delirium. There were worse things than a common cold, but she felt terrible. The Pensieve, the difficult conversation with Sirius, and the loss of magic after traveling between worlds significantly undermined her condition, and according to the damned law of dirty tricks, the body put her to bed at the most inopportune moment.
She could not call for help or summon a Patronus due to weakness. She couldn't call for a Healer. It remained to crawl along the route: toilet-room-sofa and hope for a miracle. And as luck would have it, all the friends seemed to have forgotten about her existence! Well, except for the portrait of her husband, of course.
"You are useless, just so you know," Hermione snapped languidly, rolling over onto her side.
"At least I can make sure that you won't kick the bucket!"
"It would be better if you learned how to heal the fever, smart guy. Some wizard are you!"
"Wife, stop it! Do you think I enjoy watching you suffer?"
"I think yes! If you thought about me, even a little bit, you would not cling to your reality and Dumbledore's advice but would act in your own way."
"We've discussed this a hundred times already! Stop it, Hermione."
"No, I'll tell you for the hundred first time that you're an idiot, Severus! I look at all of you and understand that all of you forever remained nineteen-year-old children! You and Sirius are exactly the same!"
"Why are you bringing this now?"
"Because you left Harry! One fool chased a rat, another fool bathed in his hatred for the rest of his life!"
"Hermione, stop it! I lost my whole life in an instant, you, Lily, Alice, and Frank, and you are accusing me of abandoning Harry. How could I know that his aunt was a monster? She wasn't like that when we were children. I swear, I didn't know!"
"You could personally go and make sure!"
"You were going to die two hours ago, but instead you are giving me a thrashing down now. What is it, wife?"
"I want to tell you everything before I die," Hermione snapped and lost consciousness.
As Snape stared doomed at the opposite wall, the apartment door swung open to let in a rejuvenated version of himself. Before the portrait could figure out what was happening, Severus noticed Hermione, groaned, and rushed to help.
A quick diagnostic charm informed him of the gaggle of ailments that the witch had brought with her from her past life, and the essential potions that Snape habitually carried in his pockets came in handy.
He poured drugs and potions drop by drop, now and then checking the runes flickering over her body, and the portrait surreptitiously watched the development of events.
Hermione inhaled deeply and recognized the all-familiar aroma of rain, the sea frozen in anticipation of a storm, tobacco, sage. His scent. Her wizard's. And she leaned forward.
"Severus..."
The wizard automatically embraced the witch clinging to him and stared dumbfounded at the top of her head.
Quite the situation he had found himself in!