“You are safe now Mr. Malfoy,” Snape said as he force some water between his lips, “or at least as safe as you can be,” he added wryly as most of the water spilled due to Draco’s violent shaking.
“Must… tell… Professor Snape…”
“I am right here Mr. Malfoy,” he searched through the collection of bottles Madame Pomphrey had brought over, searching for the specific fever reducer that he wanted.
“He is my patient Professor, if you could just move out of the way,” Madame Pomphrey’s lips formed a tight line.
“You are not kicking me out Poppy, don’t try,” he found the blue, syrupy liquid that he was after.
“Mr. Malfoy is not at all well! You are just agitating his condition further!”
“Everything he says, even in delirium, is essential. You can assist me, or you can leave.”
Poppy bristled at being addressed in such a manner in her own infirmary, but other than muttering under her breath she said nothing else on the matter. “Just make sure you administer that a little at a time, you don’t want his temperature going down too quickly.”
“I made this draught for you Poppy, I am completely aware of how it works,” Severus snapped as he eased it through Draco’s lips a few drops at a time.
“Polyjuice… wasn’t my fault… wanted out…” Draco’s words became quieter as his fever began to drop and he was able to drift into a deep sleep.
“You should give him some Dreamless Sleep as well,” Poppy commanded as she bustled about, straightening sheets and fussing over her patient. Even though she didn’t trust Malfoy, and refused to believe there was even a possibility that he might be anything other than a Death Eater, he was in her care and she would look after him. She had when he was a student, and she would now.
“That is your solution for everything.”
“Well I can’t be in here checking up on him every fifteen minutes to make sure he hasn’t thrown himself out of bed or has tried to strangle himself with the sheets!”
“I will stay with him tonight, go to bed Poppy.”
“Hmpf, ordered out of my own infirmary… I have never in all my life…” Poppy continued to mumble under her breath as she crossed the hospital wing and slammed the door to her personal rooms.
Severus leaned back in his chair to watch and wait. The next few hours were still crucial. Draco had lost a lot of blood, and although Poppy had preformed a blood infusion spell, they were always tricky at best. Hold it for too long and the heart would explode, hold it for too short a period and the patient would continue to slowly deteriorate. His other injuries and fever, which was thankfully starting to go down, did not help matters.
“Water…”
Severus looked down at the bed in front of him, the moon had moved across the sky without Draco showing any signs of improving. He reached for the glass and with an arm around Draco’s shoulders helped him to sit up enough so that most of the water got into him and not on him.
“Professor Snape…” recognition flared in Malfoy’s steel grey eyes, “I thought I was dead…”
“You weren’t the only one.”
“What happened?”
“You tell me what happened Mr. Malfoy. Start from the beginning if you please. Where have you been since you graduated?”
“What happened…” Draco repeated, looking as though he wasn’t quite sure himself, “everything started so long ago… my father expected me to become a Death Eater right out of school, and so I took the Dark Mark…”
“I thought I had given you more options than that.”
Draco smiled weakly, struggling against pain and the desire to sleep, “you know what my father was like. I was angry when you killed him, he was my father, but I never got the chance to tell you that in the end it didn’t really matter, he deserved to die, and you were merciful and made it quick.”
“After your father’s death, where were you then?”
“I tried to get out. You know better than most that the Dark Lord doesn’t let his followers go once they’ve joined. I was imprisoned…” his voice faded, “tortured…”
“For how long?”
“I escaped…” he winced and clutched his side, “damn those demons…”
“You should sleep,” Severus did not sound at all pleased by that revelation, it meant that the rest of the answers he was looking for would have to wait. And he was not a patient man.
“I’m sorry… I never meant to fail you…” Draco wheezed as the pain returned full force. His time on the run had cost his health dearly, he now looked as though he could barely stand on his own. But he was alive.
~~~~~~~~~~~
“What do you mean, he is alive?!”
“Kalliope…”
“Remus!” she snapped right back at him.
“Kalliope,” Remus continued, just as outwardly calm as before, “all I know is what Minerva told me. Draco managed to make his way to Hogwarts, and he is alive, that is all she told me.”
“I slit his throat myself!”
“I know, but we must…”
“I want him dead, and I don’t care if I have to go to Britain and do it again, but he will die! Preferably by my hand…” Kalliope angrily paced the length of the room, spinning sharply on her heel as she reached the far end and returning to where she started, only to repeat the process. “Oh stay still,” she hissed as the baby kicked her rather forcefully.
“If you won’t listen to me will you at least show some consideration for our child and sit down so that we can try to work this out calmly and rationally?”
“Don’t start with me Remus!” Kalliope wheeled around so that she was facing her husband, who was leaning casually against the wall of their bedroom.
“I am just as upset as you are, don’t take it out on me,” Remus said in a voice that was much calmer than what he was feeling. “The wisest course of action is to…”
“I don’t need you against me too! You are here as my consort, don’t try to interfere in temple affairs!”
Remus found that he could easily forget how hard Kalliope could be most of the time, but when she acted like this… he was left to wonder if two people who had suffered through so much could work well together. He pushed away from the wall in a smooth motion and walked to the door without looking back.
The cool air hit him full force as he walked towards the cliff that overlooked the sea. It was going to rain.
“Are you having a bad day too?”
Remus thought about turning around and walking down towards the beach, but Nimue looked so… small… sitting there on the ledge that he couldn’t walk away, “I’ve had better.”
“So have I.”
“What’s been so bad about yours?”
Nimue hitched one shoulder as she looked down at the rolling waves, “it doesn’t matter… it’s the same thing as before…” grey clouds began to close in on the horizon, hovering low, low and dark with soft flickers of lightening dancing between them.
“I can’t send you home Nimue, no matter how badly you want to go back,” Remus said apologetically.
“I know, it’s just…” a strangled cry of anguish escaped her throat and she slammed her fist down on the stone wall. The dull thud of her hand hitting the crumbling stone coincided with the first low rumble of thunder.
Remus looked up at the darkening sky. He had a feeling the storm and Nimue’s temper were not a coincidence. He knew that Kalliope had been teaching the girl different types of wandless magic, and much of it was Elemental. He wondered if other students at Hogwarts could possibly be this strong, or if it was somehow connected with the powers of being a seer…
“I’ve Seen so much that I don’t want to… I wish I could See something useful, like when Voldemort will be defeated,” Nimue watched the waves that were now crashing against the cliff one after another as the wind picked up, “or when I’ll get to go home,” she added in a whisper. “But then I guess things would be too easy, and life wouldn’t be worth living, would it?”
“Nimue, you make me wish I’d gotten married years ago.”
“Why?” Nimue looked up at him curiously as the wind seemed to lose some of its strength and the sea calmed a bit.
“Because then I might have a son old enough to have married off to you in a few years.”
Nimue blushed, but still looked troubled, “I’m never going to get married.”
Remus hid his surprise at her vehemence poorly, “don’t you want to give it a few more years before you make a decision like that. I promise, it’s not all bad…” he trailed off as he remembered Kalliope’s angry words.
Nimue shivered and shook her head as lightening crackled overhead, “no… I shall never marry… I think it is because I am truly a coward… Seeing has allowed me to share others’ experiences.” The first of the raindrops, large and cold, fell around them, darkening the dust in a random pattern as they bled together.
“Go inside, Nimue. At least one of us ought to have enough sense to go in out of the rain.”
Nimue nodded as she gathered her damp skirts around her, “you should go in too,” she shot over her shoulder, “Kalliope needs you.”
Remus smiled sadly, sure that Nimue’s words were meant in a vague and general sense. But his heart tightened as he heard Kalliope calling him, the panic clearly apparent in her voice.
~~~~~~~~~~
“Severus?” Morgan spoke quietly so as not to risk waking Draco. She had been in school with him, and just couldn’t bring herself to trust him as blindly as she thought her husband was.
Severus glanced over to the window, which was still black, and then back to his wife, “is something wrong?”
“Maybe,” Morgan stayed by the door and waited while Severus came to her, “it’s nearly midnight,” she supplied as she saw her husband reaching for his pocket watch. “An owl brought this about an hour ago, and I’ve been debating whether I should leave tonight or in the morning.” She handed a folded slip of parchment over to him.
Severus sighed as he read the short missive and handed it back to his wife, “do you have any idea what has gotten her so upset?”
Morgan shook her head.
Severus pinched the bridge of his nose between thumb and forefinger, “go in the morning. She has to learn at some point that being married and no longer living at home means that we are not free to drop everything at a moment’s notice because she is in a panic over something that she won’t even mention in a letter.”
“But what if something is really wrong and she couldn’t put it in the letter because she was afraid it would get intercepted, or what if…”
“Morgan,” Severus put his hands on his wife’s shoulders and gently shook her, “Viviane is a grown woman, if it was that extreme she would have let you know or would have come here herself. The fact that she wrote a letter asking you to come as soon as you could means it is urgent, but by no means an emergency.”
Morgan frowned at her husband’s cool logic, but found that she had to agree with him, “fine, I’ll leave first thing in the morning…” She looked past her husband to where Draco was sleeping, “are you coming to bed tonight?”
Severus followed his wife’s gaze, “no, I think I should stay here tonight in case he needs anything.”
“There is a reason why Poppy is here you know…” Morgan said rather coldly.
Severus looked back down at his wife and was barely able to hide his surprise at her bitterness, it just wasn’t like her. “Are you jealous of Mr. Malfoy? Or is there another reason for this irrational behavior?”
Morgan glared up at him briefly before turning on her heal. She didn’t get far. Severus grabbed her by the arm and spun her back around so that she crashed against his chest, and after checking to make sure that they were alone except for Draco who was sleeping, he kissed her soundly.
“Are you still going to throw a tantrum or are you over that little bit of attitude?” he asked sternly.
Morgan made a noise low in her throat, clearly expressing her displeasure at how she was being handled. But, she grudgingly accepted her husband’s embrace, it was one of the very rare ones that she had ever received at Hogwarts while out of the privacy of their rooms.
“Go to bed Morgan, I’ll be there to check on you before you leave in the morning,” he raised a hand to brush her curls out of her face, but then pulled it back, as though deciding he had already been far too intimate considering they were in the hospital wing.
Morgan sighed, still looking less than pleased, but rose up on her toes for one last kiss. She looked back as Severus returned to his seat at Draco’s side and realized that there would be parts of her husband that she would never understand.
~~~~~~~~~~
