16
On the sixteenth, Snape found himself at the hospital wing. Puppet Snape was sat on a window sill looking over the many beds in the infirmary's main room.
The potions master was surprised to find that nine beds were occupied. He had not been aware of an accident which would cause so many people to need to spend the night under Madam Pomfrey's care. And certainly somebody would have notified him if there had been an outbreaks of an illness. It would have been his job, after all, to brew all the necessary potions.
As the near darkness of the night – there were several candles on during the night at the hospital wings so that patients would not disturb each other if someone needed the bathroom – made way to the soft light of the morning, the children started to stir. Snape watched them, curious who was going to be the one to spot him first.
It was a little blonde girl. She squealed when she caught sight of puppet Snape. She rushed to the window, grabbed the puppet and returned to her bed with it at surprising speed.
Snape was squeezed to the girl's chest and almost totally covered with her duvet.
"What do you have there?" another little girl asked from a nearby bed.
"I found a doll!" the blonde whispered excitedly. "But you can't have it. It's mine!"
"I want a doll, too!" protested her brown haired friend.
"Sssh!" Madam Pomfrey admonished from the door. "You will wake the others!"
"I have a new doll and Chadisia wants one, too," whispered the blonde. "Can you duplicate mine? I don't want Chadisia to be sad."
"Of course! You are a very nice girl, Beroia!" the nurse cast a duplication spell in the half darkness. When young Beroia wanted to get up to bring the second doll to her friend, the matron stopped her. "Stay in bed. I'll carry it over. We don't want you to get cold feet and fall ill again!"
The nurse paled when she saw the doll close-up. "Oh Severus!" she muttered. Without hesitation, the witch cast her patronus.
Chadisia must have heard her. "Is this Professor Snape? Snape in a Cape!" she cried excitedly. "Snape in a Cape!"
Nothing happened.
"I'm so sorry, Severus!" the matron told both puppets again and again. "So, so sorry!" Beroia was crying because the nurse had taken both puppets from the children and was holding them herself.
"Now pray tell what catastrophe of epic proportions has happened in a hospital wing with only a handful of patients!" raged the headmaster. "What did I rule about patronus casting in this castle? It's forbidden, but here I am, looking for Severus and just when I think I'm close to finding him, I'm called away!"
"Headmaster," the matron said sternly. "I may have killed the professor!" She held out the two Snapes.
"Snape in Cape!" cried the headmaster. Again, nothing happened.
"Severus, stop being difficult and turn back!" the headmaster demanded.
Snape knew better than to obey. True, he had his safe word, but who was to say that it worked properly when there were two of him!
The headmaster considered the situation for a while before he admitted he had no idea what to do. He cast a patronus to call for reinforcements.
A while later the Professors, the Dark Lord and his entourage and all NEWT students arrived at the hospital wing. The apprentice came last because the headmaster had forgotten to include her in his call. Only when Lucius Malfoy asked about her, was she asked to come.
Once everybody was there, Madam Pomfrey explained what had happened.
"We must be very careful not to hurt Severus." The headmaster pointed out. "Personally, I can't think of a spell to rectify this situation."
"Have you tried to turn them human?" asked the Dark Lord, pointing at the two Snapes with his pointing stick. "Severus is very good with spells and magical catastrophes."
"Maybe we should get my brother Bill," suggested Ron Weasley. "He's a cursebreaker."
"They were not cursed, Weasel," Draco Malfoy made himself heard.
"I think we should hear what Filius has to say. He's our Charms master after all," said McGonagall.
The small head of Ravenclaw asked Madam Pomfrey to describe the spell she used in detail. He wanted to know everything. Whether she said the spell or cast it nonverbally, the exact wand movement, where the children had been, how Snape had been held, on top of the bed covers or under them.
"If he doesn't die, I'll never let him forget he was manhandled by an eleven-year-old," gushed Bellatrix. She yelped as she was hit with a stinging hex and stared at the apprentice. The blonde acted innocently and raised her hands to show she was not holding a wand.
After some contemplation, Flitwick tried a counterspell, but nothing happened.
"We need to know Severus' side," Flitwick ruled.
Everybody present tried to turn Snape back with a hopeful "Snape in a Cape" but that didn't work either. "Should we write to Santa?" the Dark Lord asked.
"That would take too long," said Dumbledore. "It's more than a week until Christmas. By the time Santa comes, Severus could be starved to death." The statement caused a discussion on whether it was even possible for Snape to starve in puppet form.
In mid-discussion the apprentice said she wanted to try something.
"Snapes in Capes!" she cried.
Both puppets turned into wizards. "Master!" cried the blonde and made to fall on Snape's neck but she stopped in mid-jump. "Who of you is the real one?" she asked.
"I am, of course," the two Snapes said unison.
"Merlin help us!" muttered Potter and the other students muttered their agreement.
"Where is my present?" asked the apprentice.
Both Snapes produced small black boxes.
"I had hoped that only the real one has a present for me," the apprentice whispered to Dumbledore and the old wizard nodded. It would have made sense.
"Perhaps only one is a real present," Hermione Granger suggested.
The apprentice opened first one box – an umbrella with Snape's face on it; Umbrella-Snape was wearing a Santa hat – and then the second one. She gasped. In that box was a golden ring with a nicely sized diamond.
"An engagement ring? Why would I give you an engagement ring? Dream on!" snarled the Snape who had given her the umbrella.
"That's my master," beamed the girl. She put the ring on her finger.
"What are you putting this ring on for?" Snape hissed.
"Just trying it on," the apprentice chirped happily. She held her hand out and all the females present admired the ring.
"Very nice," said Bellatrix. "a pity only fake-Snape has good taste."
"Excuse me," sneered the second Snape. "I'm not fake at all. And I think giving a vibrant young witch an umbrella is ridiculous. My double is stupid."
"Call me stupid again and I'll give you stupid!" Snape glowered. "Be glad I don't have my wand with me!"
"My wand," stated the second Snape.
"Why don't we go for brunch before we decide what to do about the situation?" suggested Dumbledore and everybody agreed.
When they arrived at the Great Hall there was another quarrel because both Snapes wanted to sit in the potions master's usual seat. The headmaster solved the situation by banishing all chairs, benches and tables and laying out a picnic in the Great Hall.
The witches and wizards sat in groups of four to six around the many chequered blankets. Both Snapes sat with the apprentice, Dumbledore, the Dark Lord and Lucius.
When the bell struck noon, there was a clattering noise and the plate the second Snape had been holding fell to the floor as the duplicate potions master dissolved.
"I knew you were the real one!" squealed the apprentice and fell on Snape's neck.
"You still have the ring," Lucius pointed out.
"I forbid you to wear it!" growled Snape.
"You didn't give it to me. It's not your business whether I wear it or not!" the blonde flexed her hand and the diamond sparkled spectacularly in the light of the Great Halls many candles.
"I forbid you to wear a ring another man gave you!" Snape insisted.
The Dark Lord wolf-whistled.
"Then you know what to do, Severus," Lucius Malfoy pointed out.
"I will not make life-changing decisions when I'm still distraught!" Snape said with as much dignity as he could muster.
The apprentice put the ring into her pocket and handed her master a bowl of chocolate pudding.