The week that followed went by quickly as everyone in the house got used to the new circumstances.
For Harmony, it became a question of finding the right balance between handling Severus presence and care and the flow of the other tasks of her daily life. Working from home helped a lot but that had been a given since the first moment she had come back to her old house and decided to work for Muggles instead of Wizards. Between baking goods and the occasional potion to help soothe any smaller problem, she had many customers from the nearby villages that allowed her to have a problem free life. At least it used to when she was by herself with Rufus. If it would keep working or not was still to be seen but the Headmistress had assured that she would receive help sometime soon to face any extra expenses. Not that she was very worried about it, she didn't mind working a little extra for her guest.
Severus was doing good and while any time that he managed to find some rest could end rather quickly with nightmares, they had found that after a whole week that seemed to be the only remaining issue of concern besides his actual condition. He had put on some weight already and she was looking forward to starting working with him at a physical level on another week time. A few potions had been enough to help with his digestion and he was already eating and drinking almost everything and looked remarkably pleased with it.
Harmony would take him out of the room each morning after his hygiene routine to the couch in the sitting room and he kept there for most of the day where she could keep an eye on him as she worked. Rufus was never very far either which allowed her some reprieve when needed. A little before dinner time they would move him again to her former room where they would bathe him and allow him to relax in the warm water that loosened his muscles. After that, he would usually felt so drowsy that he would fall asleep immediately after eating. Harmony would then enjoy the remnant of the night reading by the fire at the feet of the bed. It had become a comfortable routine for both or so it seemed.
The idea of giving him a mean of communication never left her mind but she couldn't find in herself the courage to do it so soon. Harmony knew that she was behaving selfishly not giving him something so necessary but in her mind, she kept making excuses. Severus was still too weak. He was still recovering. He was an Occlumens. Nobody knew for sure if he would even agree. Harmony found herself often huffing in frustration as her eyes took in the sight of the formerly dour man, now condemned to silence. She knew that she was only giving herself lame excuses and it made her feel a bitch. Until one event took place on Severus second week with her, that shook her enough that she finally decided to act for both their sakes.
It had started as any regular day. She had woken up Severus by nine o'clock and had proceeded to wash and shave him. He had eaten with clear satisfaction and then she had started the process of dressing him up in proper day clothes. He only wore his pajamas to bed and they had been dressing him in some old assemblies that had once belonged to Harmony's father until the Headmistress managed to send them new ones that were in the making. Everything had been fine as Harmony talked to him about all the things she had to do on that particular day once they arrived at the main room of the house. Then, as she had her back turned searching for a brush, Rufus started to bark furiously.
"Rufus, what's the matter with you..." She had started to ask as she turned around to glance at her familiar. Her eyes grew big and the remaining words died on her lips at the sight of Severus convulsing on top of the mattress.
"Sir!"
The brush that she had been holding dropped to the wood floor and everything else eclipsed from her mind as she crossed the room to reach the bed. Her hands landed on his arms as they jerked and she felt his muscles spasming against her fingers. Harmony had to struggle to keep his body on top of the bed as it was giving quite a fight. With effort, she managed to hold him in her arms as his whole body kept being violently shaken by spasms through more than two minutes.
"I've got you. It's alright, I've got you, Sir. Just keep breathing." She asked her lips against his hair.
When the spasms finally start to subside, Harmony was holding a short of breath and barely conscious Severus. She herself found that her heart was beating erratically from the scare. It took a few more minutes for her to relax and feel safe enough to lay Severus on the bed again against the pillows.
He seemed to be just on the brink of consciousness, struggling to breathe normally and bathed in his own sweat. His skin felt clammy and looked pale as parchment.
"Sir? Please, stay with me a bit longer." Harmony pretty much begged as she summoned a wet cloth to clean his sweat away and tried to make him comfortable. She noticed that he had wet himself and the bed but she couldn't care less at the moment. She would clean it out once she was certain that he would be okay.
"Was this the first time it happened?"
The man shook his head tiredly, lids half closed. He looked exhausted and about to pass out any moment.
"Please, I need to know. Do you often experience seizures such as this?" Harmony insisted, trying to make sense of what had just happened out of nowhere. She hadn't found anything about this on his file.
As he nodded, already slipping out of conscience, Harmony felt like murdering someone. What more could those butchers have left out of his file? If the situation was to serve as an indication, the odds were not in their favor.
Finally making up her mind, Harmony knew that her only option to get any sort of truthful intel was the man on her bed.
xxxxxxXXXxxxxxx
Sometime later, Severus woke up to the comfortable semi darkness of the room he had been sleeping in for the past days. His body felt tired and sore. The weather had turned grim that day, outside the stained-glass window. He let out a long-suffering sigh as the memories of earlier came back to him, his spirit just as grim as the weather outside. Another seizure. Just what he needed at this point to show Harmony just in how much of a mess she had landed in. It would be no surprise to him if she decided to quit after that one. There was a mix of rage against himself and frustration rising steadily inside him and not the first time he longed for death. How much easier would be the life of everyone without him to worry about at this point.
He hoped against hope that Harmony wouldn't send him back to St. Mungus after her recent discovery. Not that he would blame her anyway. Perhaps Hogwarts? Poppy would no doubt be happy to see him again but he wasn't so sure that he wanted the old matron to care for him 24/7. She tended to be a little too emotional sometimes for his taste.
A soft whimpering called his attention. Looking around, he found Rufus coming his way. The dog hopped into the bed and got closer slowly as if concerned with the possibility of hurting him. He snorted at the notion. Severus had never been very fond of animals in the past. Still, the familiar was something else altogether when compared to other animals that he had met before. Incredibly perceptive, the dog actually seemed to enjoy acting like a smart ass sometimes only to get on his mistress' nerves. He seemingly tolerated Severus presence and would even babysit the man without being told so. Severus couldn't ignore the antics of the familiar and found them often amusing. Especially when they made Harmony laugh wholeheartedly and look happy. As the dog managed to put his snout beneath Severus' unmoving hand, the wizard thought back to the past days.
Severus had noticed that the witch would sometimes look sad when she thought that he wasn't paying attention. He had heard her often at night, sigh by the fire while contemplating the flickering flames. He found it weird. She always seemed to be in a sunny disposition when caring for him. Was it a farce? Was she hiding something that she didn't want him to know about his condition? Or was it something else altogether? Severus found unnerving a number of questions that he was pilling up inside his mind that he wished he could just ask away once and for all. It was frustrating to finally be with another person that actually cared for him and not being able to speak his mind. For the first time in his life, Severus Snape wished to talk with another. He had felt miserable and lonely for too long. Whenever Harmony asked him something he found himself opening his mouth as if to answer only to produce no sound at all. He had watched her go through the file she had brought from St. Mungus. Her expression had been priceless, full of disgust for whatever had been written on those pages. When she had finally lost her patience and scattered it all over the floor in frustration, he knew that whatever she had read wasn't good at all.
She was… Well, she was everything that he had hoped her to be, at least at the moment. Perhaps, even more, than he had hoped her to be. She was always there for him, any hour. She kept him warm, comfortable and with a full stomach. He had been utterly surprised to find out just how much she did work every day, besides taking care of him. The woman worked seemingly 12 hours a day from home on some days. Severus watched most of it from the couch that had quickly become his spot in the main room of the house.
"One has to earn its life, right?" She had said on his second day. She had shrugged it off as if it was the most natural thing on earth. "I'm all by myself and I had to spend most of my heritage on the actual house, so I do have to work to have food on my table."
Amidst all else, she still found the time to sit by him and give him attention. Either by reading him a book or just making him lean against her while brushing a hand through his hair. That was the most intimate he had been with anyone in years. And it was really nothing that intimate either, he knew it. Made him feel pathetic but he found himself enjoying it all the same. Longing for it too. She was so sweet with him in those moments, so caring. Her smell had quickly become familiar to him. She smelled of wild roses and flowers. Of grass freshly cut and woods. After the first awkward days, it had become comforting. The weirdness of the house had also worn off in the first days. Now it felt just right, even if the wizard found himself wondering about Harmony's roots and lineage. The word gypsy still made sense in his mind.
A soft knock on the door managed to take him out of his own head. She was there, one hand on the wood door the other by her side. For once, she wasn't smiling at him. She looked concerned.
" I was starting to worry that you wouldn't wake up so soon." She offered as she crossed the room. "Are you feeling okay?"
Severus shook his head awkwardly, a neutral expression on his features. It had become their code for something in between yes and no.
"Tired?" Harmony suggested, before running a hand over her face and down her neck.
He nodded and she moved to sit closer to him than what was her usual.
" You scared the hell out of me. Nothing on the file said anything about seizures. I was fully unprepared for it." She admitted, her countenance gloomy.
She surely looked shaken. Would she now tell him when he was supposed to leave? It seemed not, as her words took a completely different direction.
"I was… Avoiding something, these past days. You have been here for more than a week and I was still postponing it. But after what happened earlier… I can't find in myself any more excuses to postpone this conversation."
That got his interest. What could she be trying to tell him? What had she been hiding from him? By his side, Rufus glanced between both humans but kept silent.
"I have a solution for our communication issue. I can form a bond between us that will provide you with a chance to actually talk again in some way. With me. The downside of it and what kept me from telling this to you sooner was that… There were many things but the most important is that… I'm an Occlumens. And I do know that you are one too. For the bond to be formed, I would need you to willingly allow me to enter through your shields and from what I know from your past… Well, I thought that you wouldn't. Not this early. "
Her difficult speech gave him different feelings to go through. He was ecstatic at her offer and at the same time afraid of it. He was angry that she had kept quiet but he understood her line of thought. She was right, he didn't like the idea of someone rummaging through his mind again. Dumbledore and Riddle had done that enough to last him a lifetime. However, this could be his only chance of regaining some control over what happened to him in the future. Even if only Harmony could hear him, it would still be better than the present alternative. The whole conversation felt almost painful coming from her lips and once more Severus longed for the opportunity to ask her about it.
"I think it is safe to say that we both hold secrets that we don't want anyone else to find out." She added with a slight smirk as if hearing his thoughts already. Would it be like that if he accepted?
He nodded at her, confirming her words.
"That will not change with the bond. Well, at first there is a chance that something may slip but once you get the hang of it you will control how much I hear or see from your side. Being an Occlumens will help you with that. I will give you till tomorrow morning to make your decision. Today we will keep doing things the way we have been doing them from the first day. "