When his eyes opened the following morning, Ms Lovegood sat in the chair beside the bed yet again, a copy of the Prophet in her hand and book in her lap. "There is a very lovely article in here about you today, Professor," her Irish accented sing-song voice said to him as soon as she noted him awake.
He scoffed and shook his head.
"Do you want me to read it to you?" She paused and looked over at him, her head tilted. "Although, there is probably nothing here you don't already know, I suppose." She gave a small smile.
He scowled at her. Why was she here? Why did she care?
"I knew before all this that you were on our side, of course…it made perfect sense. It all fits..."
His eyes snapped to her face to find her eyes wandering about the curtained space as his brow tightened.
She leaned in closer, folding the paper into her lap as she chewed her lower lip. "I suspected it before, at Hogwarts. You know, sending Neville, Ginny, and I to work with Hagrid as punishment for breaking into your office and all." She laughed. "Hardly even an inconvenience, much less a punishment. I don't even think you took house points." She shrugged.
He glanced away. Had he forgotten to take house points? What an unfortunate oversight, not that Gryffindor had any left to give at that point, but certainly Ravenclaw.
Her melodic voice lowered. "I knew then you weren't the same as the Carrows. We all noticed a line that the Carrows were afraid to cross and I knew it came from you."
She swallowed, and he looked back to her. "But at Malfoy's when, when, well... I could see in your eyes that you did not want to be doing it anymore than I did. Different from the others that hurt me before. That is why I didn't scream, didn't resist. I...I did not want to make it any worse than it had to be."
He glared at her for as long as he could stand before looking instead to a point over her shoulder, reminding himself not to speak for fear of being overtaken with pain. She was worried about making her public defiling harder for him, her attacker? He scoffed and looked away. Ridiculous child. She had no idea what was going through his mind then. How dare she even presume to understand the decisions he had to make.
She cleared her throat, drawing his attention back to her wide eyes. "I assumed you had only agreed to do it because you knew the others would have been much worse."
He nodded but pulled his gaze away from those strange eyes. Perhaps he gave her too little credit. She was an intuitive witch even if a little peculiar.
"It would have been much worse. I know…" she paused and took a deep breath. "Because those men, Rookwood and Rodolphus, told me so when they would come down to the cellar. They described the disgusting things they wanted to do to me in horrid detail if only you had not marked me first. They were angry with you. Very angry.." She reached for his hand, her gentle touch on his palm. "Thank you." She whispered.
His eyes slowly looked to hers, finding her gratitude reflected back at him. He shook his head. "No," he croaked out through damaged vocal cords, swallowing back the searing pain, pulling his hand free from hers. "I...am...a ...horrible," he whispered, having to look away from her knowing gaze.
"No. No you are not. I know what you did. Harry told everyone that you were with us all along. He even told You Know Who. I was there. Without you, we would all be under Lord Voldemort's rule now." She hissed as her body stiffened. "Harry never would have been able to do what he did. That is why Neville and I went to the Shrieking Shack to find you. Once we heard the truth, we had to find you. It was not right to leave you there like that. And to find you still alive…" Her breath caught in her throat.
He looked back to her, her eyes now glistening with unfallen tears. She looked as though she had more to say to him, but bit her lower lip as she wrapped her arms about herself and leaned away from him.
"Rather be dead," he hissed, and his body responded with a fit of agonizing coughing. He sat up and leaned against the headboard while it subsided.
The tears fell from her eyes. "I am very sorry you feel that way, Professor. But you are wrong. You don't see it now, but you will. It is finally over, and you deserve to celebrate just as much as anyone else. More even."
As Severus caught his breath, he shook his head. "Why are you here, Ms Lovegood?" He whispered.
She wiped the tears from her face. "Because you should know that someone cares about what happens to you. In fact, many people do. And -"
"You should leave." He turned away from her, forcing down another coughing spell with clenched teeth as he shut his eyes.
She was silent for a long time, but finally he heard her gather her things. "As you wish, Professor. But I am still grateful for all that you did for me, and for everyone." She paused, and he thought he heard her suppressing a sob. "Feel better soon, Sir."
Her footsteps disappeared and then the door to the ward closed. He was alone.
A/N: Leave me your thoughts. Your support is appreciated.