Agony.
Severus tensed against the pain and blinked his eyes open, trying to catch his bearings.
The world was a blur.
His body was screaming out in pain. He could hear voices all around him, but he couldn't make out what they were saying.
He needed his wand!
"Whoa, easy there Severus," a kind voice said, gently pushing his shoulders back into the pillow beneath him.
Fragments of recurring nightmares, of waking up naked and bound before the Dark Lord and his followers, exposed as a spy and laid out for punishment, retreated back into the recesses of his mind.
Poppy's face swam into focus, looking concerned beneath her professional mask.
Poppy. Hogwarts.
He was safe.
He was in the infirmary.
Why was he here? What had happened?
Oh no.
Quirrell. The Stone.
The Dark Lord.
His wand!
He'd killed Quirrell with the killing curse. If the Ministry checked his wand, he'd be sent to Azkaban, no questions asked.
Fuck.
"Stop struggling Severus. You're a worse patient than the Gryffindors," Poppy chided.
"Professor Snape!" a young voice called out as his only warning before he was ambushed by not one but two small Slytherin tornadoes.
They floated in mid air, caught by magic and looking sheepish as Poppy lowered them to the ground with a flick of her wand.
"Just because he's awake doesn't mean he's well enough for your rough housing," she reprimanded. "He's still recovering."
"Yes, Ma'am. Sorry Professor," Draco said, making a show of bowing his head in contrition.
Behind him, Harry looked over Severus with big searching eyes, as if he could read Severus' aura for clues that he'd be alright.
"What happened?" Severus asked with a scratchy voice. It was better to allow others to fill in the gaps with what they knew, before Severus came up with a lie that would hopefully keep himself out of prison.
He caught sight of Lucius Malfoy lingering behind his son near the foot of Severus' bed, looking amused.
Bastard.
"Ah, Severus my boy, you're awake!" Dumbledore said as he swept into Severus's personal space with Minerva, a gaggle of aurors, and the bloody Minister of Magic trailing behind him like little lost ducklings.
"Evidently," Severus bit out, exaggerating a wince as his headache spiked.
He was not ready for an inquisition.
Merlin, he was not ready for this!
Harry and Draco were doing their best to form an impenetrable wall between him and the aurors. Impertinent brats.
"It's good to see you Cornelius," Lucius said smoothly, drawing all eyes in the room to himself with practised ease. "Shame it isn't under better circumstances. Did all the students and townsfolk escape the fire alright?"
Fudge look positively flustered. "Horrible business, yes. Several students suffered injuries, as I guess you've noticed, being here and all, but no children have died, thank Merlin. That would have been a disaster."
"Indeed," Lucius said with glacial politeness. "It is always unseemly when a longstanding institution must be investigated for criminal negligence and child endangerment, even if no one died. My son was in the school greenhouses when that monster broke lose, Minister. I shudder to think what would have happened if it had caught a glimpse of its own reflection in the greenhouse glass and decided to begin its rampage there."
Fudge blanched, then glanced between Severus and Dumbledore.
Not good.
"Indeed, indeed," Fudge said quickly. "We are all quite grateful that your son and the other children survived the ordeal. I wouldn't say there were no deaths, however."
Lucius lifted an eyebrow. "Oh?"
Severus carefully schooled his face blank, even as his palms grew clammy and his nose began to itch. Don't look guilty.
Several of the aurors were already glaring at Severus, their wands at the ready.
Severus really wished he knew where his wand was, in case he needed to defend himself.
He was so fucked.
"It seems," Fudge said in his stumbling approximation of delicacy, "that Professor Snape here was found within a warded off section of the castle, incapacitated by what clearly amount to battle wounds, and lying next to a dead body."
Harry gasped sharply.
Severus felt ill. There was no way Lily's son was going to look at him the same way after this. He'd killed someone the boy knew.
"Perhaps the children shouldn't be here for this conversation," McGonagall said, pursing her lips.
"No!" Harry said fiercely, still standing between Severus and the world. "Professor Snape did nothing wrong. I'm not going to let you hurt him."
"Harry, perhaps you should go lay down for a bit," Dumbledore said. "It's been a long day for everyone."
Of course. No need for the impressionable youth to see the nasty business of a loose end being locked away for the rest of eternity for the crime of doing the right thing with the only tools that would actually work to get the job done.
"Actually, Headmaster," Lucius cut in, "I have my own concerns. Specifically, what in Merlin's name were you hiding in a school full of children that required a Cerberus and other traps to protect, yet no age-line, wards, or any other safeguards to keep curious students safe?"
Fudge's head snapped up. "What did you say? Do you have proof of this, Lucius?"
"I dare say the Cerberus is still there," Lucius drawled, raising an eyebrow with a self-satisfied smirk, "guarding the corpse in question. It seems highly irresponsible to have such a creature kept on school premises, especially considering the fact that both a troll and a bloody dragon were mishandled and set loose where students could be harmed by them this year already."
"Albus!" Fudge exclaimed, going red in the face. "Explain yourself! I already have one open criminal investigation involving Hogwarts. I know you assured me it was nothing, but this is too much! Parents won't vote for an administration that won't take a hard stance to protect their children!"
"What?" Harry's voice was deathly calm and cold. "I was almost murdered on school grounds, Minister, in front of hundreds of witnesses. That is not nothing! Professor Snape saved my life, and went to Dumbledore immediately as an eye witness to the culprit's attack on me.
"Not only was he ignored, but the investigation was turned against him, instead. I suspect it was a blatant attempt to silence and discredit him.
"Professor Quirrell tried to kill me. Professor Quirrell set that troll loose in the dungeons. Professor Quirrell was after whatever Dumbledore is hiding.
"Professor Snape is a hero. He's the only teacher who has been actively protecting me all year.
"I might not have parents who are alive to vote in the next elections, Minister, but I am the Boy Who Lived, and I will transfer to another school while loudly and clearly stating my lack of faith in Hogwarts leadership and the Ministry's ability to protect me as my reasons, if Professor Snape is not exonerated of all wrong doing and if criminal charges are not filed, with evidence, against the actual culprits who have repeatedly endangered my life all year.
"I am finished standing quietly by while my safety is ignored and actively sacrificed for some political game, Sir."
Fudge turned bright red and began spluttering.
Lucius cleared his throat. "For the record, Minister, the Hogwarts Board of Governors have much the same demands.
"Albus Dumbledore has repeatedly and continuously endangered the children under his care through his unsafe hiring practices, his inappropriate use of this school as his own personal vault, and through his active allowance of dangerous creatures on school grounds."
"Gentlemen," Dumbledore said placatingly, spreading his arms in a soothing gesture, "let's not blow things out of proportion. Surely, if we can move this conversation to a more appropriately private place, we can sort this unfortunate business out."
Lucius drew his wand and took a menacing step forward. "My son was placed in mortal danger numerous times under your so-called watch, Headmaster. That is not 'unfortunate'. It's criminal. Someone will pay for these crimes, and it won't be Severus.
"You will not turn the whistle-blower into a scapegoat. Severus Snape has done all he could to countermand your negligence and keep his students safe from harm. Clearly, you cannot say the same."
"Now, now," Dumbledore tried again, "emotions are running high. I'm sure none of us want to say something inflammatory that we can't take back."
"That's an interesting choice of words," Percy Weasley said, crossing the room from where he'd been standing vigil over a sleeping lump with red hair. "Inflammatory. Sounds like fire, doesn't it? My family has been staunchly loyal to you for decades, Sir, and yet there my brother lies, covered in burns. How do you explain that?"
Dumbledore frowned. "There will indeed need to be an investigation as to how a dragon managed to find its way onto Hogwarts property. I certainly did not authorize such a thing. But we're getting off track. I believe, Minister, that you requested to be brought here so that you could question Severus about the murdered professor that was found lying next to him."
Severus tried in vain to keep the hurt off of his face. He had known that he was expendable, and that Dumbledore's promises of protection were conditional, but this betrayal still stung.
Poppy, of all people, came to his rescue. "My patient is in no condition to answer any questions at the moment, gentlemen. He should be avoiding all stress and resting, as a matter of fact. If you want to talk to him, you'll have to come back later."
"It was self defence," Severus said in a low voice. "It wasn't murder, Headmaster, it was self defence. I was acting in defence of this school and her occupants, to keep a dangerous artifact out of the hands of a deranged madman. I shouldn't have been put in that position in the first place, and I did the best I could to keep the children of this school safe from harm."
"What artifact?" Fudge asked exasperatedly.
"A Philosopher's Stone," Severus said plainly.
Lucius sucked in a breathe.
Dumbledore gave Severus a dangerous look.
Minerva looked more pinched than normal.
The aurors behind Fudge fidgeted uncomfortably.
"The man had already attempted to kill Harry Potter once, and was now seeking a form of immortality," Severus said. "I couldn't allow it."
"Too right, too right," Fudge mumbled distractedly. "Albus, what in Merlin's name was a Philosopher's Stone doing at this school? Nations have gone to war over rumours of that blasted thing! Very inappropriate, indeed!"
"Perhaps you and I should talk privately, Cornelius," Dumbledore said.
Fudge nodded. "Yes, I think that's for the best. I will be getting to the bottom of this, Albus! You'd better have a damned good explanation for all of this."
"Might I accompany you, Cornelius?" Lucius asked crisply. "The Board of Governors is entitled to answers, too."
"Yes, of course Lucius! Help me make sense of this nightmare."
Dumbledore frowned, but didn't argue as he led Fudge and Lucius away.
Lucius slipped Severus a covert wink as he left.
The aurors hesitated, clearly not knowing what they were supposed to do now that their clear-cut arrest had been undermined for the moment.
Severus wondered if Hagrid had already been taken into custody, or if Dumbledore had deigned to intervene for him.
"Out!" Poppy said, gesturing at the aurors with a shooing motion. "You can loiter outside if you want, but you're all in the way."
The aurors left.
Poppy bustled about for a few moments before force-feeding Severus another round of potions.
He could feel his eyelids growing heavy, but he fought off the urge to sleep. He needed to be awake and alert for when the aurors inevitably came back.
"Severus," Minerva said quietly once Poppy had shuffled off to tend to her other patients, "I'm afraid I was ordered to hand your wand over to the aurors to be tested."
Severus closed his eyes and nodded. That was it, then.
His life was over.
"I must apologize," Minerva continued, her voice oddly coy, "that when I found you, I was in a rather frantic state of shock. I'm not sure what came over me, but I found myself facing a compulsive need to transfigure a few items in order to center myself. Why, I must have transfigured almost a hundred small rock fragments down in that room, all using your wand, as it happens."
Severus' eyes snapped open. He stared at Minerva, long and hard.
She nodded to him solemnly. "I overheard the last thing Quirrell, or rather he said to you, and I saw or maybe felt, a... a wisp rush past me in the corridor. It was You Know Who. I know it was. I don't care what you had to do to take that bastard down."
Severus felt a solid lump forming in his throat. He couldn't breathe.
She had done that, for him?
She'd interfered with an auror investigation, risked her own freedom, for his sake?
"I-"
"Rest, Severus. I'll handle the aurors. I'm sure Malfoy is handling Fudge. Focus on getting better. You deserve it."
Severus nodded numbly.
Behind Minerva, forgotten in the shuffle and official business, Harry and Draco stared at Severus, their eyes at wide as saucers.
They had both heard everything.