“I’m fine,” but Nimue paused as she took several steadying breaths. In fact, she was far from fine. She hurt all over and could barely put any weight on her left foot. And, she was getting very tired, very quickly.
Olivia, knowing that things weren’t quite right, pulled Nimue after her towards a bench, “let’s sit for awhile.”
Nimue sank down onto the bench gratefully, and leaned back against the cool stone wall while Olivia chatted away happily.
“Classes are about to change,” Olivia poked at Nimue, “do you want to move?”
Nimue did want to move, very much, but knew she wouldn’t make it very far. “No,” she sighed, “let’s just stay here until after the next class period starts.” She just hoped that they would remain inconspicuous. They had made it down to the start of the dungeons, so there should only be two classes going by at the most. She wasn’t sure which hours her father taught anymore. She leaned back and closed her eyes, willing herself into invisibility, impossible as it was, when she heard students coming back up from the Potions’ classroom.
“Nimue!” a voice shrieked, and the next thing she knew she was nearly toppled off the bench by a flying mass of Gryffindor red and gold.
“Ophelia!” Nimue righted herself and embraced her best friend. Not able to say anything else. After her family, Ophelia was the person she had missed the most during her confinement to Greece. Ophelia was someone she could talk to, someone who understood her, and would listen without judging. And Nimue was desperately in need of such a friend right now. So much had happened…
“When did you get back, Nimue? And what happened to you?” Ophelia looked at the slashes on Nimue’s face in alarm. “Why didn’t you let me know that you would be coming back? Are you alright?”
Nimue smiled, not sure which question to start with, and settled for mumbling, “I’m sure I’ll be fine now.”
“She left Greece even though she wasn’t supposed to and got hurt coming back,” Olivia piped up.
“Miss Potter, I believe you will be late for your next class.”
The three girls looked up to find Professor Snape standing over them.
“Yes sir,” Ophelia stood up reluctantly, looking back at Nimue.
“I’m sure I’m being sent back to the hospital wing now,” Nimue said with a smile, “come see me after your classes are over and we can talk.”
Ophelia smiled at that and quickly ducked away before she really did make herself for her next class.
“Why are you out of the hospital wing, let alone out of bed?” Severus did his best to keep his voice calm and even.
“I just wanted to wander around a bit.”
“And you don’t think that you’ve done enough wandering the last few days?”
Nimue chewed her lip, “no sir?”
Severus wasn’t sure if he should be amused or furious with that response. The timid little mouse had come back a bold little lioness. “Can’t make it back to the hospital wing on your own, can you?”
“Well…” Nimue opted for honesty, or at least close to it, “if I sit here a few more minutes I’ll be fine.”
Severus frowned, “I will take you back up, and then you are to stay in bed. And I hope that is clear, because I do not plan on repeating myself.”
~~~~~~~~~~
Dierna worked at trying to calm down while she pulled down several texts from her father’s book shelf. He wasn’t in his lab when she arrived, which surprised her. But she knew that as long as she didn’t touch anything that was located on a shelf above her head, or that was in a cabinet with wards on it, she was allowed nearly as much freedom as she wanted in his absence.
And to be honest, she was rather grateful for the solitude. There was a lot on her mind and she had been so tired recently that she found the mental process rather difficult. She’d march straight into Voldemort’s lair herself if she thought she had any chance of destroying him. She just wanted things to be right again. She wanted her mother back.
And in the midst of it all, she still had to come up with a final project to present to her father for this independent study. Even Eric’s prompting hadn’t helped her to come up with anything.
She rubbed her eyes as she tried to concentrate on the text in front of her, but it just wasn’t sinking in. She wanted to talk to Stefan. She wanted someone who would actually console her for what happened in Defense Against the Dark Arts. And not just the pitying looks she’d knew she’d get back in the Common Room.
“If you are going to insist on following me around, you will make yourself useful,” Severus pointed Olivia to a stool as she trailed after him into the lab a short time later. “In piles of thirty, and I expect each pile to be correct,” he set a basket of dried seed pods in front of her. “I will be checking.”
Olivia nodded solemnly as she started on the task given to her, quickly becoming completely absorbed in it, as Severus intended.
“I ran into Mr. Potter on my way down here,” Severus refused to refer to Harry as a professor, “we had a rather interesting conversation of which you were the subject.”
Dierna shrugged as continued to flip through the book in front of her.
Severus frowned, “hard way or easy way, you will discuss this.”
“There’s not much to discuss.”
“Very well then, tell me what you learned from this situation.”
“Not to mouth off in class.”
“A rather hard way to learn that lesson, wasn’t it?”
“Yes… look Dad, I really don’t feel like talking about it.”
“Because you’d rather wallow in self pity. Do try to handle this situation like an adult and stop pouting.”
“I’m not pouting…”
“Dierna, I am trying very hard to be patient with you.”
“I know,” Dierna pushed the stack of books away from her. “And I’m not feeling all that great, but it’s not just from class today. I feel… off. And before you suggest it, I don’t think it’s anything Madame Pomphrey can fix.”
“I know exactly how you feel. Olivia, stop playing with those and do as I told you!”
Dierna tried to hide her smile, “you know, you’re not half bad at this parenting thing when you really try.”
“Out! Both of you out now! And feel free to tell anyone else who is even thinking about coming down here that I am not in the mood for visitors.”
Dierna took Olivia’s hand and tried her hardest to stifle her giggles as they made a hasty retreat out of the dungeons. It was nice to see their father acting like his normal self. She also made sure to keep Olivia quiet when the Headmistress passed them on her way down to the dungeons.
“But we were supposed to tell people that…”
“Don’t worry about it. I just wish I could eavesdrop on that conversation.”
~~~~~~~~~~~
“Severus!”
“Sweet Merlin, Minerva! Is it necessary that you shout?”
“Potter said that he told you what went on in his class today and you took no action. I would have thought that you would have at least brought me into the situation, so that I wouldn’t have to hear a group of students gossiping about it, and then have to hunt down Potter so that…”
“Minerva, what is it that you want?” Severus knew that there was proper procedure to be followed, and that Minerva lived by it most of the time. He also enjoyed needling her.
“Severus, he made a student use one of the unforgivables! And not just any student, your own daughter. I would have thought that you would have something to say about that!”
“I did address the issue with Potter. I told him that it was a rather commendable lesson.”
“Severus!”
“Yes Minerva?”
“Severus, it was one of the unforgivables…” Minerva sank down onto one of the stools at the lab table next to Severus, looking as old as she was and felt these days. “Severus, they’re just children.”
“And we’re fighting a war. Think about the curses Potter himself had to learn when he was ‘just a child’ so that he could survive. I would rather that they know exactly what choices they will have to make. Which choices they can live with, and which choices they need to make in order to live.”
“How many generations of children have we lost to war, Severus? How many have had to grow up too soon?”
Severus didn’t look at Minerva as he bottled the burn ointment he had been working on when interrupted. It was the last he could make with the supplies he had. You grew up during a war, as did I, and Potter... and now our children. And the last three have all been the product of one man. He will be stopped this time Minerva.”
Minerva dabbed at her eyes with a lace-edged handkerchief as she remembered losses from those past wars. “I want you to promise me something, Severus. When I go, I don’t want a portrait made. I want to be done with this world once and for all. We don’t know what happens to those that have official portraits made, if they can… move on, or if they’re trapped here. I want to be with my Aidan again, I don’t want to risk hanging about in limbo.”
“On one condition,” Severus sat down next to the Headmistress, “you have to make me the same promise.”
“Severus, you’re young still, you have nothing…”
“They want me dead Minerva. They want me to suffer more, but they still want to kill me. I don’t want a portrait. When I die, I want to be done with this world. Perhaps more so than you…”
Minerva tucked the handkerchief back into her sleeve and straightened her robes as she stood. “As long as we’re in agreement then. And I told Potter, no more unforgivables in class. I’d appreciate it if you would enforce that decision.”
~~~~~~~~~~~
“How did you do it?! I don’t think I would be able to find my way back here if I had apparated into the middle of the mountains.” Ophelia was perched on the edge of Nimue’s bed, and the two girls were in the midst of a rushed conversation, trying to be quiet and get as much said as possible before Madame Pomphrey discovered them. She had already told Ophelia to leave once.
“That’s the odd part. I feel like someone, or something, was leading me. It was like I just knew where to go…” she hesitated, “what do you think of Professor MacLeod?”
Ophelia shrugged, “she’s alright I guess. She spends a lot of time with Professor Aagensen. Why?”
“She was the only person I saw between Greece and here. She was there right after I had apparated, she’s the one that told me which way to go…” she stopped with a small gasp as the curtain around her bed was yanked aside.
“Miss Potter, I want you out of my infirmary now, my patient needs rest!” Madame Pomphrey stood there, hands on her hips, with a look that said she wouldn’t accept any more dawdling.
“Don’t tell anyone,” Nimue mouthed, looking relieved when Ophelia nodded in agreement.
Ophelia, who was thinking about trying to sneak back in later, decided to make for the Common Room as fast as she could when she noticed that her father was engaged in conversation with Eric. She knew that any more visits would have to wait for the morning.
~~~~~~~~~~~
Dierna and Serena helped Nimue move back to Gryffindor tower only three days later after they were done with class. By that time most of her wounds had healed, although she still wore the scars, and Eric had produced a slender, elegant cane for her to use. Despite her injuries, she was in better spirits than she had been for a long time. She was back where she belonged, and her family was actually acting like a family, despite her mother’s condition, which had been steady since she returned home.
“I just need to grab my book and I’ll be done,” Nimue surveyed her bed in the room she shared with four of her fellow Fourth Years. “I left it by my bed in the Hospital Wing.”
“You have one more box down in mum and dad’s rooms, I’ll get it and then we’ll help you unpack,” Dierna followed her sister down the winding steps of Gryffindor tower.
Nimue happily made her way back to the Hospital Wing, hoping that she wouldn’t be a resident again for a long time. She knew that she was gaining looks of pity from the few other students she passed in the hallway. But it didn’t bother her. She could handle the physical defects her attack had left her with. She only wished she could rid herself of the voices that still lingered in her head.
“Kamen,” her voice was bright as she saw her brother standing outside of the infirmary, “are you here to see Mum?”
“Pomphrey won’t let me in,” Kamen’s voice and expression were sober. “Go get Serena and Dierna, quickly.”
The voices in her head rose up in a swell, but they were going to fast for her to understand what they were saying. She couldn’t concentrate on them, not now. She had to concentrate on putting one foot in front of the other as she made the journey back to Gryffindor Tower. Both Dierna and Serena were there, and she wasn’t quite sure what she told them, but the three girls were back down outside of the Hospital Wing before she would have thought possible. Kamen was standing in the same place that Nimue had left him in a quarter of an hour before.
“Dad went in,” he said softly. “I tried to listen at the door, but I couldn’t hear anything…” he squared his shoulders. “I think we are all aware that at this point there is only one reason why Pomphrey would send for Dad and empty the rest of the infirmary. Even Eric has vacated to another room.” He looked down at his sisters and their shocked faces and knew that it was up to him to assume command, “Nimue, sit down before you collapse. Dierna, get a message to Viviane as quickly as you can. Serena, hunt down Olivia. We should all be together.”
~~~~~~~~~~
Poppy checked her test results again and shook her head, tears forming in her eyes. “I’m sorry Severus, we’ve done everything we could… it just wasn’t enough.”
“Leave us.”
“Severus, please…”
“LEAVE!”
Poppy nodded as she backed away from the bed. She just managed to turn and flee out of her own hospital ward before the tears overflowed.
“Morgan… I would get down on my knees and beg every deity there is to spare your life if I thought it would do any good now.” Severus’ voice was tight, but he managed to keep most of the emotion out of it. He paced back and forth across nearly empty hospital wing. His steps echoed off the cold marble tile as the rosy glow of the setting sun flood the room and then gave way to darkness. When the icy light of the moon sent broke through the windows he stopped himself from pacing uselessly and stopped by his wife’s bed.
“I suppose its time that I learned to say goodbye…”
~~~~~~~~~~~
