Chapter 22 Beginnings of Pandemic
Severus was allowed to rebutton his shirt to the top, and go back to leaning against the dark window.
Lily saw that the three students sitting across from her, were trying to restrain themselves from scratching, and had slid together to be bunched up on their seat closest to the door, furthest from her and Sev. If this had been planned, Lily would think both her roommates wanted to get close to Evan Rosier.
Now wasn't the time for thoughts of levity. What was going to happen? Lily knew she and Severus had a contagious disease that would last … how long?
"How long does it take to get over dragonpox?" Lily asked.
Mary shrugged, "Depends on how bad you've got it. Severus has more than a little, which would only be a rash between his toes and sneezing sparks."
"Sneezing sparks?" Lily repeated.
"Yes, but he's got the pustules which is a regular case. He'll probably be green long after those clear up."
"So how long with the best case, just a rash, to worse case with pustules, and then after that till the green is gone?"
"Till October?" Mary guessed. "The green well that's months."
Helen said, "The most important thing, Lily, is not to scratch those things. They leave marks."
"Most important thing? What about missing a month of school?"
Evan interrupted, "I know you are thinking of school now, Lily, but dragonpox marks will last you a lifetime. You are a decent looking sort so it would be a pity that this could hurt your looks long-term."
"Decent looking?" Mary asked indignantly.
"Well, if I started off too heavy-handed with compliments, then it might sound fake when I tell the two of you anything nice. Better for me to start off as a low-browed baboon and show improvement. After all, this is just a train ride, ladies. The added excitement of conflict and debilitating illness to your scintillating conversation and wit have certainly intrigued me enough to consider future encounters."
"Oh, so which of us do you prefer, Evan?" Helen asked. Her interest piqued.
He took a bit of a breath to delay answering, then said, "I really need to discuss it with Malcolm first. If he is firmly set on one of you, and that happens to be the same one I was fancying, it might get embarrassing, if we didn't sort it first."
"And Lily?" Mary asked, then added, "after her dragon pox clears up, of course."
He raised his eyebrow to convey whatever they thought it could mean, without saying anything. Lily Evans was muggleborn. Why would he or Malcolm even consider her for … serious girlfriend? Is that what this was going to turn into with Mary and Helen? They were going into sixth year, and after working their way through casual Hogsmeade trips with Hufflepuffs, Ravenclaws and younger Slytherins, it was time they got around to giving a short list to their parents for making permanent future arrangements for marriage. If they found no one suitable at Hogwarts, there was time to wait, but their parents would expect them to make some attempt now, or else all choice would be taken out of their hands. Merlin help them if they were forced to marry some foreign witches, better a Hufflepuff or Gryffindor than that. Ravenclaws were questionable, Evan didn't think he'd want a wife that would prefer a good book over him.
Lily didn't know why her friends were suggesting her to Evan, or for his friend, Malcolm. Severus was so confused over their friendship that he might not be ready to accept that she would like to go on fun dates with boys. As Mary said, once this dragonpox cleared up, and she wasn't green anymore. If she ended up with a couple marks, well, Severus would always be there for her, as a friend, but anyone else that she was interested in wouldn't be so shallow as to see a tiny imperfection and blow it all out of proportion. It was what was inside that counted.
Malcolm returned and said, "They are in a right snit up there. You'd think between a Ravenclaw and a Slytherin, one of them would be able to think clearly. You're absolutely right, Evans. Longbottom would have been pompous and bossy, but would take charge, rather than pointing his finger around to lay blame."
"Uh … I didn't say Frank was pompous and bossy. Rather that things went smoother with a Head Boy and Head Girl that work together."
"Don't get your hopes up. No way these two will shag each other," Malcolm said as he pulled his trunk off the rack. He opened it and took out the uniform items he needed, and placed his casual cloak inside. Like Severus, he was already wearing black pants and a white shirt.
When he lifted his back up, he offered, "Can I get either of yours down, ladies?"
They both accepted, and when Helen took out her school robes, Lily saw the Quidditch Captain badge already in place.
Not to be outdone, Evan replaced their trunks in the racks, and then took down his own. While he was messing around in it, Malcolm said, "All of us are to stay in this compartment till everyone else is off the train. It was my suggestion that they let one of the prefects at least tell Hagrid. Since he has the firsties and the boats, our tentative course of action is to get in the last carriage, and take you two up to the Infirmary once the crowd has moved into the Great Hall. If another staff member is free, we'll adapt to whatever they say."
As the train pulled into Hogsmeade station, the Marauders were ready with a plan of action. Its simplicity was its brilliance. Evans, MacDonald and Parkin were in Gryffindor. They ate and slept with Gryffindors. They may have more classes with Slytherins now, but that wasn't until at least tomorrow. Besides Slytherins took things like Arithmancy, one of the stupidest subjects ever invented.
Anyway, back to the plan, the Marauders would purposely sit wherever they sat tonight at the Welcoming Feast and gather information on whatever … this train trip was. Considering their trunks were together in the compartment, that meant that they had been together since they boarded in King's Cross. Both groups were equally capable of clearing a compartment of younger students, so they were not forced to sit together.
Until they had more information, they would continue to speculate wildly on this turn of events. Now if it were the Marauders sitting with Slytherins, it would all be one big brilliant joke, however after a year of Evans as prefect, they knew she did not have a sense of humor. Well, contrary to whatever Prongs was claiming, she did not find anything funny and usually sounded like a mom about tidying up after themselves. They also had to consider Moony's point that Parkin was the Gryffindor quidditch captain, and no matter how crazy she sounded, on her first day as captain she would not willingly team up with enemy Slytherins for jokes or some other oddball plot.
With all evidence clearly supporting that the Gryffindors were unwillingly sitting with the Slytherins, they needed to determine why. Through subtlety, the Marauder mantra for this evening, they would question them to see if each girl felt strongly about one Slytherin in particular. That would be proof of an illegal love potion. They would also observe them for glassy eyes, vacant stares and drooling which are all signs of an enchantment. There was also the most desperate possibility, that the three were all victims of the Imperio curse. Only one Slytherin would need to have cast it on all three, and they knew Snivelly was capable of casting Unforgivables.
The Marauders entered the Great Hall muttering 'subtlety', more for Padfoot's benefit than their own. Sirius's original suggestion had been to jump the Slytherins and beat the truth out of them.
The wait for the train to clear was unimaginably long, and the milling around the carriages … some students gave the decision who they rode with an inordinate amount of weight, as if they would be spending the rest of their lives with their fellow passengers.
Wilkes went inside and harried the stragglers out of the Entrance Hall with the threat of taking points for loitering. There were no staff members waiting here for them, so they would proceed up to the Infirmary. He returned outside to tell the others that the way was clear.
At the carriage, there was a problem because this time Snape was not waking up. He had been befuddled earlier when they boarded the carriage, but that had not been a hindrance since he was doing whatever Lily Evans told him, and she was willing to grab his arm to guide him.
They discussed their options. Some nasty ideas may have occurred to the Slytherins, but they would not keep the Gryffindors' good will if they abandoned or hurt an unconscious person, even if it was Snape. Rather than letting their adventure turn to all doom and gloom, Rosier offered to carry Snape across his shoulders, kidding, "If I use a spell, and aren't careful, I'll ruin all Evans hard work and get Snape's hair dirty again."
He also got to show off his muscles to the ladies, and knew Snape was thin enough to make it look easy. Wilkes would walk in front, either to explain to a staff member that this was not a kidnapping, or to intimidate any student out of bounds.
Neither staff nor students were encountered on their route from the Entrance Hall to the Infirmary. They were starting to feel a bit nervous at this lack of supervision, but when they arrived at the Infirmary, both Madame Pomfrey and Prof. Slughorn were waiting.
Catching sight of Lily, Pomfrey tutted and said morosely, "Definitely dragonpox. Sit down over there, dear." She indicated a chair near her office.
Slughorn told Rosier, "Put him down next to her, and you four go to the Feast."
While Rosier was still holding Snape up in the chair, Pomfrey cast rennervate. His eyes opened, but their dullness gave him the appearance of remaining dormant inside.
"Well?" Slughorn asked Pomfrey.
"I'll have to treat the whole school with the cure. Everyone that was at King's Cross will have to be notified too."
"We were in Diagon Alley yesterday, Madame Pomfrey," Lily informed her, trying to be helpful with keeping this disease from spreading out of control.
Slughorn grabbed his hair, and yelled, "Whatever possessed you this time, Snape? Causing a pandemic through wizarding Britain now?"
Lily was surprised at his raised voice. This must be the side of Slughorn only Slytherins saw.
"And now, you are dragging innocent Miss Evans into your schemes. Isn't it bad enough you leech off her in Potions class? You are a despicable, no-talent maggot who can't learn to stay in his place. I'm off. Someone's got to let the Headmaster know of this disaster, and it's my sorry duty as your Head of House."
Yelling after him, Lily tried to correct his misconception, "We didn't know we had dragonpox, Professor."
Turning to Madame Pomfrey who was doing something with paperwork, Lily explained, "We didn't know until we were almost in Hogsmeade when we turned green."
"No one is blaming you, Miss Evans," Pomfrey replied as she straightened folders. "You should be more cautious in the future," she said with a glare to the inanimate Snape, "after this valuable lesson. You might be in St. Mungo's for weeks, and have plenty of time to consider what's happened." She then added as an afterthought, "I'm sorry, Lily."
"St. Mungo's?"
"I have room for quarantine here, but with having to administer the cure to so many, I won't have time to take on any unnecessary or extra care when it can be done at the hospital. Don't worry, they are very good and have experience with dragonpox."
It sounded very reasonable for Lily to go to hospital with an illness like this, but after Prof. Slughorn's unreasonable outburst blaming Severus for them getting sick, and thinking back to how she thought Sev was being silly about Madame Pomfrey and not wanting him to 'dirty her linens'. And she was going to miss weeks of school, and who would visit them in St. Mungo's and get her schoolwork to her? At least here, once the cure was administered, she could have had visitors, right? Would her mum even be able to get to St. Mungo's? And if she could, would it be far from where they lived, so she'd have to spend hours on the train alone? She could come with her father on the weekend, and pay twice the fare when they were trying to save money and that's why they didn't go on a family vacation this summer … Lily started to cry.
Severus showed some sign of life, and reached over to take Lily's hand, and said softly, "They never believe the truth."
With a self-depreciating laugh through her tears, Lily muttered back, "We don't know the truth of how we caught this."
"Why would that matter to them?"
Madame Pomfrey bustled out of her office, extinguishing lights, wearing a cloak and carrying some folders. "Right. Let's floo over to St. Mungo's so I can order dragonpox cure, and get back in time for the first of the tummy aches."
Lily wiped her face with the back of her free hand, stood and tugged at Severus to follow along with her hand that was still holding his.
Pomfrey already had the fire lit, threw in the floo powder, clearly announcing, "St. Mungo's." She indicated they should enter with her hand, and said, "In you get."
Severus didn't separate from her, and Lily felt glad that her first floo trip was with someone because it wasn't as safe-feeling as everyone had made it sound. Severus steered her out of the grate when they arrived, and Lily tried to stifle a sneeze from all the ash, but a painfully choked one shot out anyway, accompanied by sparks shooting out of her nostrils.
"Charming," Sev muttered with a gleam in his eye, before going back to pretending that no one was home inside his head.
They were quickly joined by Pomfrey, who marched past, telling them, "Stop lollygagging around. I have to get back to Hogwarts."
The witch at the front desk knew Pomfrey, and could also recognize the green of two cases of dragonpox. Severus and Lily were led away quickly as Pomfrey handed over two folders, "Here are their medical records. I need to get cure to treat the entire school, and there's going to have to be something in The Daily Prophet and over the wireless …"
Sirius muttered, "I don't think this roast is appreciating how subtle I am being. Let's slap it silly while we wait."
"Quiet, Padfoot, I'm thinking," James replied. The three sixth year Gryffindor girls weren't here, the three Slytherins weren't at their table, Prof. McGonagall should be with the firsties, so where was Prof. Slughorn? That man never missed a meal. Since some barmy new bloke was at the staff table, that was the new Defense guy, but there was still a third empty chair at the staff table. Who was not here yet? All James'steachers were here, Dumbledore, Hagrid, that spacey Arithmancy guy, the Ancient Runes crone with those creepily thick, magnifying spectacles … he thought that one in the odd clothes taught Muggle Studies …
"Where do you think they are?" Peter asked, interrupting all the Marauders capable of thought.
"If we knew that Wormtail, then we'd be off to rescue them, wouldn't we?" Remus asked pleasantly.
"Shouldn't have left the map in your trunk, Padfoot."
"Oi, how was I supposed to know slimy Slytherins would be abducting Gryffindors at the Welcoming Feast?"
Peter stood and pointed at the door and excitedly exclaimed, "There they are!"
"Sit down," James said, yanking him back onto the bench.
"And you were afraid I would be the unsubtle one?" Sirius laughed.
Remus and James joined him, while Peter turned red.
With sudden realization, James asked, "Where's Evans?"
"Where's Snivelly?"
Seeing how the Marauders' greatest enemy was unaccounted for and could still have Lily Evans in his greasy clutches, all attempts at subtlety went out the window as all four Marauders got up and pushed aside other Gryffindors in order to sit around Parkin and MacDonald.
James barely had his bum on the bench when he demanded, "Where's Evans?"
MacDonald gave him a disgusted look and said, "Infirmary. Now bugger off. We don't want to sit with you lot."
Parkin added, "Yeah, couldn't get a clue when we obviously walked right by the seats you were saving for us?"
Ignoring the rising wave of other feminine voices around them, Potter asked, "Why's Evans in the Infirmary?" while Black asked, "Where's Snape?"
Lupin wasn't as immune to the complaints, and one of the Gryffindor girls actually grabbed him by the back of the hair pulling him off the bench. "Go sit with the rest of the pigs at the other end."
Pettigrew's tormentor gave less instructions as she elbowed him in the side and called him, "Swine."
Lupin realized it first. The Gryffindor table was divided into one half boys and one half girls. The fellows were not coming to their rescue, but were beckoning them to join them in at the safe, and definitely more sane, half.
All four of the Marauders were subjected to pinches, elbows, knees and outstretched tripping feet that also kicked as they retreated to safety. The Ravenclaws were openly laughing at them. No one laughs at the Marauders! Students were supposed to laugh with the Marauders.
As they reached the lads, the Marauders were peppered with comments and questions about how crazy they really were. The nonsense of the Breast Baring Jinx was not forgotten, and certainly not forgiven. That was just one more thing now that the Marauders had to do – clear their name by finding the real perpetrator. The rest of the blokes were sure until they did, there would be no dates from any house for Potter, S. Black, Lupin and Pettigrew, and all other Gryffindor men would be viewed with suspicion as possible lechers.
Sixth Year was turning into a drag already with all they had to do, before the first class even met. They spent the rest of the feast prioritizing all they needed to do. James and Sirius would not relent on what was more important – Evans or Snape. Remus did comment that Evans should be safe in the Infirmary, and Peter felt that visiting Evans was preferable. They also had to get James back on the quidditch team, and it wouldn't hurt their chances any to expose Parkin as the crazy maniac she had turned into, so James could be captain too. They also had to remember everyone that was outside in June with them when those jinxes were cast. Even though they had blamed Snape when questioned by the headmaster, they knew it wasn't really him.
They didn't have far to go because the Magical Bugs and Diseases Ward was on the second floor of St. Mungo's. The two healers that were with them seemed nice, and weren't blaming them for catching dragonpox … as yet.
The four of them stopped at a desk in their ward, they took a moment to glance through the folders, and the younger healer said, "Why don't we get you two changed, and then we can fill in some basic information that's current. Might have grown since you were eleven," she said with a smile.
"Rooms across the hall from each other good?" she asked rhetorically.
Looking into the empty four-patient room, Lily said, "No. This place is empty and I get bored real easy. Just more convenient to put me in the same room with Severus since I'd be in it the whole time anyway."
The other healer pointed out, "You are female. He is male."
"So? We've been best friends for almost ten years, and I've never held it against Severus that he was born a boy. He's a good listener despite that."
Severus shrugged. He'd like to be near Lily, but his head just hurt too much to think of a convincing argument.
"Excuse us," the younger, and more sympathetic seeming healer said, as she opened up one of their folders.
Lily stood next to Sev since he swayed a little. Bit negligent to leave sick people standing around … but Lily supposed that could be her fault.
"Right then, you'll keep an eye on him?" said the healer as she led them into a room with four unoccupied beds.
Lily didn't answer. If they were in a hospital, wouldn't they take care of them?
The other healer added, "I'm still going to put detect charms on both of you."
Rolling her eyes, Lily thought 'detect away' sarcastically, just because a boy and a girl were best friends didn't mean they were doing anything they weren't supposed to, and in case he hadn't noticed, they both had dragonpox. Not exactly the time to get all romantic, was it?
The younger healer took her to the bed across from the one they were giving Severus. That was good. Then they could see each other straight on without having to get up, if they got really sick. This healer was being rather thorough in making sure Lily knew how to use the call button, especially if something happened with Severus.
Lily started asking questions about different things, but the healer gave her some hospital pajamas and told her to change. She'd have plenty of time to figure out everything in addition to the call button, and the loo for them was just through that door. She gave Lily the choice of dressing behind the curtain that could be put around her bed or in the bathroom. Since Severus was already curtained off, she chose the bathroom.
Emerging in the baggy drawstring trousers and the short-sleeve shirt that had a couple ties in the back,
Lily found the two healers doing stuff with Severus, sitting on the edge of his bed. She wondered if he had been purposely obtuse and put his shirt on backwards. His tied in the front.
After she enlarged her trunk and stowed it in a similar position to Severus's on the other side, she went over to find out what was going on. The two healers were working as a team, while the young woman was asking Severus questions and taking notes about his dragonpox symptoms and posing questions about where he could have caught it, the surly, older male healer was doing charms that were allowing a magical quill to fill out a sheet of parchment with spaces designated for various measurements. The self-inking quill was able to write in both black and red. Lily leaned over to read the chart to see what the difference in colors could be …
"Miss Evans," said the male healer, interrupting his series of spells and pulling the chart away. "Although you have already identified yourself as Pals for Life with the patient, you are not allowed access to his medical information."
Lily crossed her arms over her chest, and refuted, "I was just looking. I'm interested in what kind of spells you were casting, and what they recorded because I'm interested in becoming a Healer."
"Merlin help us."
Ignoring him, "Will I be able to look at my own chart?"
"Yes, if you go back to your bed and sit patiently. We're almost done over here."
She rolled her eyes. Lily got the message loud and clear that he wanted her to sit down and shut up, even though that's not the way he said it. One day, she'd be a great Healer, and maybe even his boss. Then she'd remind him of this day, she thought with a bit of glee as she went and sat down as he asked.
Lily took up drumming her fingers on her crossed arms as they got around to finishing up over there, and gave Severus a couple potions and told him to lie down.
"Alright, Miss Evans. Let's get cracking. What symptoms have you noticed?" asked the female healer.
"Other than a feeling of being unwell, only that I'm green," Lily responded and looked at the blank parchment form being set up for her by her partner.
"Mr. Snape said you live in an area inhabited by muggles so rarely come into contact with wizards over the holidays. Do you remember the name of anyone in particular?"
"I only met one wizard all summer. He was from Magical Law Enforcement. His name I think was Gumboil, and that was six weeks ago. Some classmates thought it would be funny to report me for underaged magic use."
Although she said it like they should believe she never did magic out of school, the healers had seen both her and the other patient enlarge their trunks, so she was looking for sympathy in the wrong place.
"No headache?"
"No."
Lily saw the form was getting filled out by … Helbert Spleen, with a name like that, no wonder why this healer was acting like he had a broomstick up his bum.
"Nausea?"
"No."
"Dizziness?"
"A little earlier when I was on the train. I thought it was motion sickness."
"I am not observing any spots on you yet. Did you notice any while changing?"
"No."
"Any itchiness yet?"
"A little, but it might be because I know I have dragonpox."
"Alrighty then. For tonight, you can have a light sleeping potion, if you like."
"What about the dragonpox?"
"The cure only works before you actually break out in them or turn green. That's why St. Mungo's recommends the lifelong series of boosters. If we could administer the cure after someone was fully in the grip of the disease, then we'd prevent practically all deaths from it. Now that you've both contracted it, you won't need to worry about boosters."
"Oh. Do many die from it?"
"It's only worrisome for older wizards. The young usually breeze right through it, and at your age, you shouldn't have anything to worry about except the lingering greenness and pockmarks."
"I was told if I didn't scratch that I'd have no pockmarks."
"Mmmm, that's not really true. The blisters will form if you scratch or not. When they burst, if they were of the larger,deeper variety, they can leave a mark. Scratching will aggravate the wound, making it worse, which is why people say that it's the scratching that causes the pockmark."
Looking down, Lily saw her form was now complete in all black. "Why isn't there any red on my chart?"
"Everything's in a healthy range."
She barely got a look at it listing her height and weight, when he tucked it into the folder. She'd show him.
Lily called over, "Sev, ask to see your chart so you can show it to me."
"Miss Evans," the younger healer admonished, "he's asleep. Although he can see his chart, it is rather underhanded of you to ask him to show it to you to try to circumvent rules. Besides, he's in hospital now, and will be here for weeks. Those scores are sure to improve with proper care. Think of tonight as just a baseline, so we know what areas to concentrate on while we have him under our care here at St. Mungo's."
During the explanation, Lily had recrossed her arms. Lily Evans underhanded? No, it would be underhanded to ask to see it when the healers weren't around. She was merely defiant.
Helbert Spleen added, "You may also want to consider that while you feel merely unwell, your friend may have a worse case of dragonpox than you. It's too early to say, but at the rate his pox are breaking out, if he only got the first one about four hours ago, he could be in for a rough time. Until it's determined how ill he is, could you please restrain your overwhelming enthusiasm over your friendship, Miss Evans?"
Lily frowned. Did he mean something dirty when he talked about their friendship? Ignoring his ignorance, she said, "I know he's had a bad headache on and off since yesterday. If Severus was well, you'd immediately see a difference in him. How much worse will it get past the headache and pustules?
"There are a whole range of symptoms. We can keep the headache pain reduced. The pox break out in a couple waves, break open, then scab over. Once the last batch scabs, it's no longer contagious. You'll be in hospital just past that stage."
Lily declined the sleeping potion, she had some thinking to do.
James Potter did not know why Pomfrey's panties were in such a bunch earlier when he went to visit Evans. Sure, there were a bunch of young students hanging about crying and whinging about tummy aches, but he and the Marauders were not there as patients. They were there as loyal housemates come to visit Evans.
When no one saw Evans in the common room, James decided he'd just go for a stroll with his invisibility cloak and visit her anyway after curfew. If she was asleep, he wouldn't wake her. Maybe just leave her a note to let her know that he stopped by and was thinking of her. Perhaps he could go fetch a flower from outside too?
First things first, make sure Evans is in the Infirmary. Can't go getting ahead of himself here. Knowing how the girls were acting, she could have snuck up to her dorm room while they were at the feast, and they wouldn't say anything. They wouldn't even say why she needed to go to the Infirmary, even when he begged for information. Why were girls so unreasonable? They were nigh impossible when they were in packs. Once he got Evans on a date, James would set her straight.
James found the infirmary totally empty of patients. All the overeaters from the Feast had been sorted and sent back to their houses. Even the side room, that they had always supposed was for sick staff was empty. Drat. No notes, no flowers.
Returning to the common room, the Marauders were still up and entertaining other boys. James approached Sirius and asked, "Padfoot, I need to look at the map."
Sirius nodded. He had been meaning to check it to find Snape himself.
Peter and Remus followed them up to their room. It was great being back, all here at school. Their room was just like it had been since first year when they first got together and formed the Marauders, the greatest group of friends ever known at Hogwarts.
The other three crowded around Sirius as he held the well-worn, grubby parchment, tapped it with his wand, and recited, "I solemnly swear that I am up to no good."
The Marauder's Map revealed itself by spreading the map of the school outwards from where it was tapped with the wand. They scanned the corridors for anyone out of bounds, in addition to the staff that was still on the move patrolling the school, but found nothing interesting so divided their attention between the Slytherin dungeons and Gryffindor tower.
"Move your ass, Mulciber," Sirius urged to a dot on the map. There was a pile-up in the sixth year male Slytherin dorm room, and Mulciber's name was on top of the other blokes. No one was moving to reveal more than a piece of 'ery' and 'm Wilkes'. What a bunch of good little boys, going to bed early for their first day of class. Frankly, they all made Sirius sick.
Equally frustrated, James suggested, "We got to add a feature to get dots out of the way, like a photograph when you nudge them aside." In the tower, there was a similar stack of female dots. All the girls had taken themselves to their rooms early to punish all the Gryffindor gents. The Marauders were going to have to get that sorted soon or their own housemates were going to turn on them.
After giving Petunia, the train trip, Slughorn and Pomfrey, and the healers a bit of thought, Lily got out of bed to check on Severus before going to sleep herself. This place was so boring. Least in a muggle hospital, she'd have a little telly. Hopefully, she could get her homework assignments to have something to do.
Was this what she needed the call button for? Severus's face and the one arm on top of the covers was covered in purplish blisters now. They didn't tell her how many to expect. Was this normal?
Lily went into the loo to check herself in the mirror. She had a few. There was a lot of space between hers. Leaning close to the mirror, she examined her face. Were these big and deep enough to leave marks? Touching one, it felt like it was just sitting on the surface of her skin. Don't scratch. Don't scratch. Don't scratch, she thought as she returned to Severus.
Most of his looked like hers. There were a few that had a shadow underneath, Lily prodded one but couldn't tell what the difference was. The green of their skin threw visual assessment off.
Undecided, Lily chose to go down the hall to that desk, rather than bringing someone running with the call button. She didn't want to look like a fool if this was what a normal case of the dragonpox looked like.
Lily found a different uniformed older witch at the desk, listening to the wireless while reading a book.
"Uh hi, I'm Lily Evans, and I was brought in tonight with dragonpox with my friend."
"Yes?" she said while putting a finger in the book to hold her place.
"The healer earlier told me to watch my friend Severus and call someone ..."
The healer stood up immediately, leaving her book as she moved past Lily heading towards their hospital room, and pulling out her wand. "What did he do? I was told he was on a very strong sleeping potion ..."
"Nothing. He's asleep but he's got a lot more pustules now than before, and I didn't know if that was normal."
She stopped, turned to look at Lily, and put her hands on her hips. In a condescending tone, the healer said, "That's to be expected with dragonpox. I'll take a look at him, but I'm very busy and not here to be at your beck and call."
Lily took an instant dislike to this woman. She could have just jabbed at the call button repeatedly, rather than getting up and walking down here. She waited with her arms crossed while the healer went back to the desk to get their folders, then followed her back to their hospital room.
Only having been gone minutes, Lily was surprised to see Severus's rash had spread even more to make his green skin speckled with more purple. Her own pustules were urging her to give them a nice, long, soothing scratch in response.
Unable to resist the other temptation she felt, Lily pointed at Severus and said, "See," as the healer furrowed her brow and was waving her wand diagnostically. She continued to be puzzled as she flipped open the cover of Severus's folder and looked at the notes from just hours ago. Rather than taking action, she took out a quill and ink, made notes and closed the folder.
"Right," the healer said, "might as well check you too since I'm already here." She pointed at the bed opposite, and commanded, "Bed."
"Just a sec," Lily replied. Taking her time to tuck Severus into bed, a lot looser than Petunia had done the other night. The healer let out a sigh of exasperation, went across without Lily, opened up her folder on the little table next to her bed, and set down her ink and quill there.
Working her way towards the foot of Sev's bed, Lily slipped his folder under the blanket and tucked that in too. If she found it, well, she found it. If not, she deserved to lose it, and it would turn up tomorrow.
"You are to stay in bed, or at least in this room for the rest of the night unless there is an emergency, young lady. You are not the only patient here, you know."
"I know," Lily replied as she got into bed, and allowed herself to have a couple charms cast at her person. The supposedly overworked healer wrote a couple words, capped her ink, packed everything up, and looked towards Severus's bed. Seeing nothing out of place, she left.
Lily lay still waiting to see if she came back after realizing she got back to her desk missing a folder. After ten minutes on the room's clock, Lily slid out of bed, grabbed the folder and locked herself in the loo with it. She sat on the floor with her back to the door, and flipped open the cover to find the sheet with black and red measurements. Severus weighed about a stone more than she did, but that was the first red measurement. There were reds under the blood section, but the individual measurements had wizarding names … Lily thought, she remembered reading up on this and how silly it was when wizards came up for a different name for a commonly accepted muggle scientific term. She doubted Sev could help identify these. He didn't have any muggle schooling, but maybe he could tell her what some of these did, and then she could figure out what had a similar function.
Turning to the next page, with the hospital healers' notes, Lily read the last one. 'More pustules have formed on face, torso and extremities.' Do they actually pay this woman for a medical opinion?
Agnes Pye's name was on the previous entry, and she started the page with large bold lettering. 'Self-inflicted injury risk'. Huh? This was marked as a page for Severus's file, and under this was his complaint that he had a terrible headache and that the pox had started breaking out on the Hogwarts Express, and listed other areas he had been in while in the contagious stage. What kind of nonsense was this? Lily was Sev's best friend, she had never seen him hurt himself, and he certainly didn't talk about doing himself in. Madam Pomfrey's recommendation of St. Mungo's was proving itself quite wrong, in Lily's opinion.
Lily flipped back further into the copy of his Hogwarts records to see where they got this nonsense. All right, Sev went to the Infirmary three times in his first month of his first year, then five times in October, and then in early November, and then there was no more entries. Five years of the Marauders? Lily thought as she flipped to the last piece of paper in the folder.
It was a note from Prof. Slughorn to Madam Pomfrey.
Severus Snape is a disturbed boy. His injuries are self-inflicted by jinx and hex to gain attention and sympathy. Please do not waste your time catering to him. He is capable of reversing anything he has cast on himself, and is not in need of assistance.
Lily flipped over the copy of the note, looking for any explanation or exception. The Marauders cast spells at Severus all the time. Everyone at school knew that. Did they forge this note to keep from getting into trouble? Surely, Madam Pomfrey would have discussed something like this with Prof. Slughorn to confirm it was genuine before turning a student away? Although Severus disliked Slughorn, the professor was mature enough to not take it out on a student, wasn't he? Was there a note like this in every non-wealthy, non-pureblood Slytherin's medical folder? Or was it special for the ones Slughorn called 'maggot'?
She turned the pages back and stared at 'Self-inflicted injury risk' It just wasn't true. When Sev was younger, he looked forward to attending Hogwarts to get away from his family. Now, he looked forward to graduating to get away from Hogwarts. Both places had people hurting him.
Allowing her anger to override the sadness she felt, Lily slapped the folder shut. Exiting the bathroom, she tossed the folder under Sev's bed for someone to find in the morning, when they realized someone had carelessly lost it.
Once breakfast was underway in the Great Hall on the first day of classes, Prof. Dumbledore stood to make an announcement. "Thank you all for your attention. Madam Pomfrey will be scheduling every student for an appointment to report to the Infirmary to receive the dragonpox cure. Two students broke out with it on the Hogwarts Express. We'll also be letting your parents know in order for anyone that came in contact with them at King's Cross needs to ensure their boosters are up to date. Please enjoy your breakfast and your first day of class."
There was no need for mystery, rumor already identified the two students as Severus Snape of Slytherin and Lily Evans of Gryffindor, it only took longer for the Gryffindor boys to get the message from the rest of the school.
Although everyone was slightly annoyed by the inconvenience, there was one individual that was taking the news pretty hard. James Potter was so distraught, he could not be bothered to eat.
"Evans?" he asked, letting his spoon fall out of his unfeeling fingers, splashing porridge onto his tie. "How could Evans catch dragonpox? She lives with muggles."
Peter says, "Good thing you didn't go out with her, Prongs. You'd look like a real prick for dumping her after she turned green and got all those pockmarks on her face."
"It might not be so bad, once she's better," James said weakly, not ready to give up yet on his dream of J.P. + L.E.
"I don't always look my best, and you still love me, don't you?" Remus asked. Lily Evans was a nice person, and Remus wouldn't care if she were green or scarred by dragonpox. She'd still be a good friend.
"Course, Moony," Sirius spit out, trying to figure out what went wrong. If he hadn't burnt the book, he could read the whole spell to try to piece together why more than the recipient of the cursed letter of disease was affected. Evans couldn't have caught it from Snape through normal methods because he didn't become contagious till a couple days ago, and she had it now at the same time as Snivelly. Damn the Dark Arts! There was always a catch and collateral damage. Didn't help matters that Snape had to be such a pisshead, and couldn't get sick and stay home like a decent wizard would.
His mood only darkened when he caught sight of today's The Daily Prophet headline – Dragonpox Endangers All of Britain!