Chapter 23 Suffer Well
Severus woke. His head hurt less, his throat was sore, and he was so incredibly itchy. He had his hands out, ready to attack the worst of it, his scalp, no maybe in his ears, but he knew he couldn't so just let his hands waver in the air trying to gain some control over the increasing crawling sensation all over his skin.
"Sev?"
"Lily," his response came out as a croak. She was sitting on a chair next to his bed. There were purple blisters on Lily's green face. It looked so painful, he thought, as a noise escaped his throat.
"They left a potion for the discomfort."
He blinked to disguise that he was more upset by Lily's suffering than his own. Severus did not want to make Lily feel any worse. Lily took the cap off the potion and said, "Maybe I can give to you? Your hands are covered."
Severus looked at one and saw Lily was right. His hand was a bumpy purple. The green was visible under his fingernails, and in tiny lines where he had some a couple short scar lines from minor injuries. The burn on his inner left elbow was also free of blisters, but instead of being its normal red, it was greened, surrounded by a sea of purple blisters. If he didn't feel like chizpurfles had decided to make him their first wizard host, Severus would think this was a dream. Lily had normal dragonpox, and he was somehow infected with the never in recorded history version. However, Snape's continual companions since his early childhood, pain and misery, were always ready to keep him company and prove that this really was his life. This current torture only had a duration of weeks, followed by months, maybe years of being green and further scarred. On the bright side, his current scars were immune to pox so he would not even be tempted to scratch his backside like a simian or a professional quidditch player.
Not wanting to embarrass himself in case he really was incapable of drinking a potion without help, he allowed Lily to tip the vial into his mouth. Did he have a blister on his lip too? And the inside of his mouth felt a little bumpy too, as he swirled tongue around.
Severus made another attempt to say something, but it was more than bumps in his mouth preventing him from articulating more than a questioning grunt. This time there was a painful twinge inside his throat. Didn't he just drink a potion? The itchiness was subdued, not gone, but all the pain seemed the same.
"Don't worry. The healer said she'd be back, Sev. It was Miss Pye from yesterday. She was the nice one. She had a couple ideas for when you woke up.
"So why don't we get some of this breakfast in you. You don't want to stay a nine stone weakling forever, do you?"
Severus glared at Lily because he was not weak and had to weigh more than nine stone. Just because he was robbed of being able to articulate back, he wasn't going to be insulted and pushed around. It was obvious that Lily would take advantage of his infirmity to now have both sides of their conversation, and didn't seem to mind one bit because now she could pretend Severus agreed with everything she said. Lily's dream come true. Could they just put him to sleep till this was over?
A spoon of something was already heading towards his face. Ugh! He turned his face away. Severus's mouth may be full of pulsating blisters, but he wasn't going to let other foul things entrance to join them.
"It's porridge, Sev. You like it."
Aw hell to the no … he ate Mrs. Evans' porridge. Her kitchen was immaculate, and she inspected the ingredients for rodent and other infestation before preparing it daily in a gleaming pot and only added fresh milk. There were no guarantees that this inferior substitute was unadulterated. In addition, wizards could preserve it even longer than muggles – this could be more than nine days old, with whatever happened to pass by falling into the pot as a bonus ingredient.
"Stop behaving like a child," Lily sternly said.
Severus didn't turn back until he heard the spoon go back to the bowl. Looking at the tray that Lily had next to her, he leaned forward to take the boiled egg, still in the shell. He cracked the shell on the edge of the dish, and then rolled it back and forth to weaken it before peeling it off. He threw the shell into the bowl of porridge to reiterate he would not eat that.
"Sev," Lily warned. He ignored her and broke the egg in half to look at the inside, before eating it.
"I'm not going to put up with this, Sev. Hospital food is not haute cuisine. Stop being so picky."
Didn't Lily realize people died in hospitals? Of course not because she was trying to push some tea on him, and there was a tea bag. A tea bag! Made out of questionable material, containing just the barest of tea dust to turn the water brown, and who knew what else.
He grabbed the tea bag by its string, hauled it dripping out of the cup and flung it towards the door. If Lily served him another, he'd fling it in her bed. What would be next? More bright orange non-cheese in a can?
Crossing his arms over his chest, he thought that he didn't want tea now anyway. He was just trying to endure his bladder long enough till he got to the point that he would not care if Lily followed him into the loo.
Severus could see Lily growing angry. Maybe she'd go back to her side of the room. He didn't need her over here hovering over him. If he needed constant care, the hospital would assign some stranger who wouldn't be fussing over and pitying him. For all he knew the hospital already had, and like all his previous caregivers had just left him to sort it on his own.
The beginning of Lily's snit was interrupted by a visitor. Prof. McGonagall entered their room.
Severus watched her with trepidation, here to visit a sick Gryffindor, or to issue some punishment for callously infecting the entire school?
"Professor," Lily greeted her.
"Miss Evans … and … uh, Mr. Snape," McGonagall replied while trying not to stare at the second patient who appeared to be more the victim of a magical accident, than a dragonpox sufferer that was admitted less than a day ago.
"Sev's got blisters in his mouth and throat and can't talk," Lily explained while Severus nodded.
A sudden thought occurred to Lily. "Professor, would you be able to take our summer homework back to Hogwarts? We completed it, but I wouldn't want someone to think we had an unfair advantage of extra time." Lily was concerned that her Divination homework would be invalid for turning in a forecast about Sev getting sick after the fact.
"Of course, Miss Evans, but all your teachers know that you are out ill. You are excused."
"But we did all our homework, Professor," Lily insisted.
"I'm sure you did. I can take it," McGonagall replied, in order to ease Lily's increasing turmoil.
Since Sev's trunk was next to where she was sitting, Lily went to open that first. "Oh no, you warded it. You never ward it at home."
Perhaps Lily didn't realize this wasn't his home as he turned his hands upward at her agitation.
"But you can't lift it now."
He rolled his eyes as he took his wand out of the bedside table, then wordlessly cast at his trunk to release the lid. Really, they weren't in first year anymore. Since Severus already knew his entire trunk had been rearranged to Lily's preferences, he slid out of bed to finally use the loo. McGonagall would protect him from any impropriety on Lily's part.
The bottom of his bare feet felt odd on the tile floor. They were cushioned with blisters, but the soothing coolness was still enjoyable. No time for that though, he steeled himself to walk normally to the loo door. Beyond that was sanctuary from Lily who was now talking about his homework. As he reached the door, Lily asked, "Is all this for Arithmancy, Sev?"
Sarcastically thinking that she would know better than him, he glanced and nodded at the solid stack of flatly stacked parchment tied together in a foot-high bundle. He liked Arithmancy and Potions, why not work on it? Prof. Abstractus was the one teacher that consistently said good things about Severus's work. He only had Lily to keep him busy during the summer, so it gave him something to do.
With a pained smirk, Severus locked the door once he was safely inside and alone. He could barely hear Lily's voice outside. If they couldn't put him to sleep all day, he might be spending some quality time in this loo. Lily could keep up her conversation without him in the room. It was better not to know what she had him agreeing to.
Looking down, he pondered his current situation. Hmm, well of course he had blisters here too. If he didn't pay it much mind like walking and handling the doorknob, he could do this himself. Severus did not want help to take a leak. Even the drunkest of tramps could do it unaided.
The pain when he slid his foreskin back to expose the glans was intense, he saw stars and blinked tears out of his eyes as he found himself now doubled over and staring straight down into the water of the white commode. He remained absolutely still as the pain ebbed, and he listened. Did he scream? Guess not, or Gryffindors would be blasting the door apart. Oh, he was so stupefied by the pain, he hadn't released his foreskin … well, if that's the case, he went ahead and used the toilet. He flushed, and slowly let it slide back with a breathy grimace and a shudder running up his spine, using the flushing to cover any possible noises he inadvertently made.
Catching a glimpse of himself in the mirror, Severus preferred to concentrate on washing his hands properly with their new surface texture. Why were the blisters on his hands numbed, but the group on and under his foreskin and his glans … they were sort of numb now, was it the movement? He could avoid drinking until he was really thirsty, but eventually he'd have to come back in here. Not that he studied other males in the gents, but some were quite sloppy about their hygiene and just let it go, without pulling anything out of the way. He didn't know if he could even do that, but he'd have to wash after, and wouldn't that hurt just as much because he'd have to clean inside too?
Once she heard the lock click, Lily asked Prof. McGonagall, "Are we in trouble, Professor?"
"For what, Evans?"
"Prof. Slughorn yelled at us yesterday evening for catching dragonpox. Made it sound like we did it on purpose."
"Why would he think that?"
Lily shrugged as she closed the lid of Severus's trunk. "He was definitely angry. It wasn't fair because Severus and I don't live near any wizards to even get exposed to someone sick. If it wasn't for Potter and Black blowing through town attacking muggles over the summer, I wouldn't have seen anyone other than Severus and his mum."
Following Lily over to her side of the room, Prof. McGonagall asked, "Would you care to explain that bit, Miss Evans? Those two students have not shared tales of their holiday with me yet."
Distracted from getting her homework, Lily explained the boys' fun from her point of view. "They just showed up one Saturday. Black insulted my sister at work, and tried to get her to tell where we lived. She didn't tell him, but phoned, and I was upset all afternoon waiting for them to show up at my house to cast spells, and get me in trouble for doing underaged magic. Since I'm muggleborn, the Ministry will think it's me."
"Or perhaps Mr. Snape?"
"Why would Severus do that? He doesn't want to get me in trouble. He's had plenty of opportunity to cast something because he's at my house most days.
"Anyway, they never got to my house. They stopped off in a muggle pub, got into some trouble, ended up wrecking the place and stunning a couple of them, before the muggles restrained them.
"Then poor Severus got dragged into it because his father told him to fix it. So Magical Law Enforcement gave him a warning."
"Couldn't Mrs. Snape have sorted it instead?"
"Sev's mum? Uh... no, I don't think she ever leaves the house. Or else, I'm sure if she had been feeling up to it, Sev's father would have asked her." Lily was confused as to what she should tell McGonagall about his family. If he could get help now, well, it was a little late now that he was four months away from being seventeen, and would not even see them till after that, if ever again. If she were him, she wouldn't be heading back to Spinner's End. It wasn't just the overwhelming poverty, the people there were horrible.
"She's not well. She didn't help us with any of our homework. Severus just needed to ask her if it was all right if I came round." An idea struck Lily, and she went for it. "To brew our potion for the assignment. You know, it's not fair that Prof. Slughorn assigned more than an essay. It's not that Severus and I want to do magic illegally, but I needed access to his house because his mum is the only witch for miles and I can't do any magic at my house. How are muggleborns expected to complete an assignment that involves performing magic? That's what I'd like to know, Prof. McGonagall. When none of us should be encouraged to do underaged magic over the summer."
"I'm pleased to hear that you gave the implications some extra thought, Miss Evans. I will discuss the matter with Prof. Slughorn, in case there were any law-abiding students that were unable to complete the assignment. They should not be penalized."
"Oh, here's the potion. It's the same as Sev's, because we brewed ours together, but we did our essays individually. And here's the rest of my homework."
Prof. McGonagall had quite a lot to return to Hogwartss. Both students were taking a number of advanced courses and obviously took their summer assignments seriously. It was a shame that with Frank Longbottom graduated, that her hardest working prefect, and fine role model, was here at St. Mungo's, rather than keeping her other Gryffindors' minds on the reason they were attending school.
The bathroom door opened and Severus headed back to bed. He was moving slower than before, but seemed stable enough to make it.
Lily frowned at him, sneaking into the loo without help because a professor was here.
"I really stopped by to see how you were doing, Miss Evans, and to see if you needed anything."
"Not at the moment, but if we could both get our homework assignments and any copies of notes, that would keep us from being bored. We've pretty much talked ourselves out over the summer with only each other for company."
Severus remembered that laughing would only hurt. Lily wasn't the least bit talked out.
"If either of you aren't feeling up to completing assignments over the course of your illness, your professors would understand," Prof. McGonagall replied. More for Mr. Snape's benefit, so Miss Evans didn't harass him since he seemed a lot worse off. Not that she wished Lily ill, but it might help if some of her energy could be sapped during this illness to allow Mr. Snape a chance for some much-needed rest. He habitually looked unwell to her eyes.
"How about you, Mr. Snape?" McGonagall asked. "Just a yes or no, I understand, but do you need anything?"
Severus shook his head 'no'. It was rather nice of her to ask him directly, rather than letting Lily continue on about how much he wanted class notes and homework. If he felt this bad after half a day of dragonpox breaking out on his skin, it would be a waste to say he'd stay caught up with his schoolwork.
"I must return to Hogwarts. I'll be back within the week to see how you are doing."
Lily said, "Thank you. It was really nice to have you as our first visitor, Prof. McGonagall."
Severus waved. It was considerate for her to acknowledge him while visiting Lily. He didn't expect any visitors of his own. He wouldn't miss them since he had Lily to keep him company. Knowing that he was sicker than her, he was worried that she'd get well and leave him here alone. Severus didn't want her to be ill, but there was a selfish urge to keep her with him.
Lily came back over to his bed with parchment, ink and quills. "Did you want me to set up this little table so you can write letters?"
Letters? To who? Oh that's right, he owed one to Longbottom, in case Lily was right that he was keeping tabs on Severus for when he became an auror later. He nodded to allow Lily to set things up for him, before returning to her bed to also write letters. Severus took his time writing a short boring note thanking Longbottom for his letter. He didn't even bother mentioning the dragonpox because he didn't care for a reply. With Lily writing pages, he kept the quill poised so she didn't come back over to arrange another activity for him to keep busy. He was content to watch her to fill the time. When she folded her stack of letters, he folded the one to Longbottom and addressed it.
"One letter, Sev? What about your friends?"
He pointed at Lily, and she rolled her eyes. Always pretending that she was the only friend he had got pretty old. She'd badger him every day to write letters till he started writing some real ones. This one to Longbottom felt like it was only one sheet.
She put their letters aside for posting, and said, "All right, what shall we do now?"
Severus suspected she already knew when she asked.
"Since you don't care for this for breakfast, except for the egg. Do you want me to see if they have some sort of menu to select from?" She knew that Severus should be eating more, and maybe if he had a hand in choosing what it was, he'd be served something he wouldn't throw. Even if it was a plate of boiled eggs every meal.
He shrugged, it would all be crap. What did it matter? It might be worth it to stop Lily from trying to shove spoons of filth into his mouth. Closing his eyes since she had already thought he agreed and left the room, he enjoyed the quiet.
Returning too soon for him, he could hear Lily already talking before she entered the room. He opened his eyes to see Lily enter and pick up the tea bag from earlier, and she had Healer Pye, the female one from last night with her. If it was the male healer, Severus may have pointed out the painful pox that prevented him from enjoying a quiet piss.
"Miss Evans was telling me that you are a bit of a fussy eater, Mr. Snape." The healer held her hand up and added, "And that you are unable to talk for yourself … or more so than usual even with your friend about."
He hurt his face with a smirk at that dig at Lily.
"Considering your health, I can arrange some variety to your meals."
Dragonpox got special food? If breakfast this morning was anything 'special', he'd pass.
"I have a listing here of what's available normally and by special request from the kitchens. Miss Evans already said that you are partial to their boiled eggs."
He nodded. If that's the best it got, that might be it. He looked at the list she was holding out. Was this some sort of trick? He'd want it, but it was liquid, and then … well, he was either going to have to show this healer or pass on the one thing on the menu he would actually enjoy.
Lily was looking at him expectantly. He had to pick something for her, or she'd be mad at him. Trapped in the same room with her ignoring him wouldn't be worth it. Severus sighed, pointed at the item, and then picked up the quill and inked it to write on the parchment with his left hand covering it from Lily - 'pox under foreskin' – and showed it to the healer.
"Yes, that's expected when you have such a bad case as yours."
What a thickhead! He pulled the parchment back and added - 'hurts incredibly'
"Did you take the potion that was left to ease the discomfort of the pustules?"
Discomfort? Only a woman would call it discomfort, he thought as he angrily scrawled and underlined - 'very painful to have a slash'
"Maybe I should have a look?"
What about very painful needs a look? Can't he determine for himself when he's feeling pain? This was just too much trouble to go through for something decent to drink. Pye was already asking Lily to wait outside the curtain, and was pulling it along the track to close it.
"Just lay back Mr. Snape," she said. He did, as she moved the rolling table away from the bed, but then looked at her as he heard an odd sound. She was putting on gloves, and then drew her wand. Wait, she said look, she did not say touch. He put his hands protectively over the area to clarify who would be doing the touching, if any was needed.
"Relax, I'm a healer. I've seen it all." When he did not immediately agree and move his hands, she added, "Please move your hands or I will have to restrain you."
Aren't there laws meant to protect minors from this sort of threat? He thought as he untied his own pants and arranged the blanket and pants to his satisfaction before removing his hands.
"That does look painful," she said before she swooped in and grabbed it.
That hurt, but he was able to contain that to just an indrawn breath. It was when she manipulated the foreskin to view underneath it, that squeals escaped from his throat, even though he intended them to be fully formed words as the examination continued beyond what he felt was needed to determine that he had pox there and she was causing suffering.
"Perhaps you should be on a pain potion," Pye commented as Severus tried to blink away his unwilling tears. "The number of blisters and severity of rash is going to increase."
Why was she untying his shirt? He didn't have much chest hair for her to rip out in clumps as an encore, if it could be found amongst all these purple things. Much easier to see the sparse black hair when he was his normal pale self.
"Look towards the ceiling please," she asked as she moved her fingers about and cast some spells. At least this didn't hurt so he could concentrate on the throbbing pain that continued below from her rough treatment that included negligent twisting. As her gloved hand moved higher to his throat, he realized that she had it on him lower and hadn't changed her gloves. Isn't there some sort of procedure they should follow to move from probably cleanest to probably dirtiest area of the body? What if she had these same gloves on to handle another patient?
"Sit up." He did, but had trouble controlling a shudder of disgust as she touched him again. She then removed the pajama top and asked, "Could you lift your bottom?" When he shifted, the trousers slid down his legs under the covers with a wave of her wand. Now what was she up to? "Lay back down on your front." He thought about it a moment, with her and those gloves. He had healed all his open wounds before he left Spinner's End, so he considered it safe enough to comply without getting an infection from this healer's casual disregard for hygiene.
Pye returned to whatever it was she was casting, with occasional feather touches to his body starting at the neck and working her way down. She slowed down as she neared his waist and spent quite a bit of time on the places where he knew there were scars, that protected him from the pox, and then she slowly snaked her gloved hand over his bum, which should be relatively pox-free. Pye finished on his upper thighs which also had scars where the belted stripes had missed his rear. She did not go further down to examine the dragonpox on his legs, but said, "Turn over."
Knowing that he shouldn't get his hopes up that she was done, he turned and pulled the covers up over his waist. So of course, she pushed them down. She was gentler this time, but Severus really had no idea why she would be revisiting his original complaint. It had already been diagnosed, he thought, and his original assessment that things could be painful shouldn't need further testing. Now she was poking around elsewhere down there, in an area he didn't need to touch to take a leak.
Although Pye wasn't that old, perhaps she was one of those witches that liked teen wizards? Really have to be hard up to be feeling up one as ugly as him with dragonpox. Of course the rumor's source about such witches was Mulciber, and he was a liar.
"You've been burned multiple times on your scrotum."
What does that have to do with anything? Just more spots not to have pox.
"These were not caused by you, nor the matching burns on your upper, inner thighs."
You think?
"None of these scars were self-inflicted."
What kind of stupid test was this to get a pain potion? Afraid that he'd go setting his bollocks on fire if he couldn't feel it? What a stupid bint. But of course, Lily and him had infected themselves with dragonpox. If they really wanted to cause some damage they'd have gone hung out in the lobby of the Ministry of Magic while infectious, or maybe the overseas portkey terminal to really get it spread far and wide.
He did not need her assistance to replace the pajamas, but she waved her wand anyway. Severus was all grotty after she touched him. With parchment, he negotiated a bath, rather than answering her inane questions about his scars. A few well-worded insults got her off the subject, and back onto his wanting a bath as soon as possible. Pye said there was something that could be added to it to assist with the dragonpox. Fine, as long as she wasn't in there with him.
She also wanted to finish the meal planning thing. All he wanted was the Mackeson's stout, but ended up with a boiled egg, a tangerine and a banana plus something called shark liver oil. For the shark liver oil, he negotiated two Mackesons per meal. Wizard stupidity really knew no bounds, he thought gleefully. Severus played dumb when she talked about other meals. It took long enough to plan one. Why not serve him the same thing each time till he was out of this hellhole?
Flicking the curtain back open, Pye promised to return shortly to prepare the bath and bring him fresh pajamas. He could take the pain potion with lunch. Once he took that, he was not to leave bed. Not that Severus was looking forward to lunch, but he was getting rather achy all over.
Lily was sitting on her bed, looking at him in silence. She was more spotty than when he first woke this morning. With a sigh, he just sat still looking into her eyes from where he was. It wasn't as nice as when they laid close to each other for long periods of time under a tree, but nothing about their dragonpox and this hospital room could be considered ideal, except that they were together.
Pye returned, and walked between them into the loo with a vial in her hand for the bath. Another woman in healer robes came in, carrying pajamas and more vials. She put one set and a vial at the foot of Lily's bed and told her she could also bathe, after lunch. She also placed one potion on Lily's rolling table to take with lunch. Severus's table got three, and she deposited his clean clothing at the foot of his bed and left.
"It's all set, Mr. Snape," Pye said as she came out of the loo. "I put in your change of meal so it should be waiting when you come out. If you change your mind and want to add any hot food to future meals, just let someone know."
She stayed long enough to make sure he made it in the bathroom without assistance, and then exited their room.
It was a sign of how ill Severus must be that he forgot the parchment he was writing on earlier, Lily thought as she crossed the room. And Pye, after last night and talk of patient confidentiality … really! Lily was ready to rip the curtain aside and start hexing when she heard Severus in pain, but he wanted something looked at, and she overheard Pye saying it would get worse and that Sev would now be on pain medicine. Lily had been sitting over on her bed cursing Hogwarts lack of health or anatomy classes. She could only guess from the other burns being on his upper, inner thighs that whatever his scrotum was, it was close to there. Probably a boy part since it sounded so foreign. This parchment was covered in insults. Nasty ones too. Asking Severus anything about any injuries usually got the reply he didn't want to talk about it. He wrote 'bath' about a dozen times, and 'I want a bath', 'two then', and 'no two or no oil' once each. Where is 'pox under foreskin'? Lily understood 'hurts incredibly', but was confused by the underlined 'very painful to have a slash'. She made a slashing motion with her hand, but couldn't imagine what that could be. Hmm, she had maybe two body parts and one body function to define and was in a hospital. Lily probably couldn't wander far with dragonpox so would have to give this some thought. She could probably look at Severus herself if he was knocked out with all these potions. Not self-inflicted scars sounded interesting, more interesting than that one line on his neck. Also very satisfying to know that Severus didn't hurt himself. Very unsatisfying to know that Prof. Slughorn was a liar, and that Madam Pomfrey believed that nonsense. Lily was immediately suspicious when she saw that note. The entire school knew the Marauders attacked Severus at least once a week.
Lily scooted across to her bed when she heard the lunch trolley. The potion on her table was the one she took earlier that cleared up the itchiness. She felt fine now, but the healers knew how often she should be taking this. Her lunch was a small salad, ham sandwich, an apple and pear juice. Not great, but it wasn't unappetizing. She'd wait for Sev to eat since she didn't have any hot food to go cold.
What was in those two brown bottles on his tray? Lily went over to investigate his lunch. An egg, banana, orange, a small vial of some liquid and then two bottles of stout? Severus couldn't have anything alcoholic. His parents were alcoholics so he was very likely to abuse alcohol himself. What kind of hospital was this? She took the two bottles and put them in the nightstand for the bed next to hers. Then put her pear juice on his tray, and poured herself a glass of water. Then also poured him some water. There he'd have two drinks to choose from. Ah crap, she grabbed the parchment. If she left that laying there next to his food, he'd think she'd looked at it.
Everything was all tidied when Severus emerged from the bath with wet hair. She was sitting, smiling at him, on her own bed with her table wheeled to the proper place over her legs. "Lunch is here," Lily said unnecessarily.
He could see that. That skanky munter had felt him up and not paid, and even had the nerve to include that shark shit, after they made a deal to pay him two bottles per meal to choke it down. Fine, deal's off then, he thought as he pushed the table aside into the wall, and grabbed the potions to take to bed with him. No sleep potion, he thought as he chugged them down: fever reducer, anti itch, and pain potion. That sleep potion they gave him last night was good. It kept him knocked out while all these splotches popped out. Was he only going to get that once a day?
Severus was tossing the empty vials and caps onto the tray when Lily admonished, "Sev? What are you doing?"
He shrugged. What kind of answer would she expect?
"Isn't that what you asked for?"
He shook his head so hard that he accidentally whipped himself in the face with the ends of his wet hair. He was promised something, and it wasn't here. If he got hungry later, which he doubted on this lovely pain potion, it would keep.
"Would you like any of mine? I have salad, an apple and a ham sandwich. I don't think this is processed muggle cold cuts that you can't stand, but actually regular ham."
Rather than answering her, he laid down. If he wanted to eat the flesh of a lying, disease-ridden pig crawling with parasites that wallowed in its own filth, he'd have no trouble finding one around here.
Lily ate her lunch. She knew the egg was right with his lunch. Sev could have eaten that at least, rather than pouting over something. Maybe the healer questioning him about his father got him upset?
She finished and went over to him. His eyes were open, staring at the far wall, with his back to the food. He had the covers up to his neck so she traced his arm through them with her hand, heading towards where she expected his hand to be.
Severus responded and slipped his hand out to hold hers. She saw his eyes flick up at her then back to the wall a couple times before he turned his head to look up at her.
"Are you upset?"
He nodded.
"Maybe I can find us something to take your mind off it after I take my bath. I'm not on pain medicine so I can move around the ward."
Severus shrugged. Even if Lily found nothing, she'd make it sound like she was out on a grand adventure when she returned to tell her tale to entertain him. Since she continued to hold onto his hand, he eventually nodded to her, so she'd go bathe sometime before dinner. The chair was behind him so she had been standing this whole time.
Lily found the potion added to the bath made it a little tingly, but not unpleasantly so. She could lose track of time because it was so nice, and if she ran out of here too quick, Severus would think it was for him. He could be so bullheaded. Not worth it to pop back out there just to see him laying where she left him.
Eventually the water cooled, and she decided to head out to see if he stirred, ate something or if she was just going for a walk. Finding him back to staring at the wall, she asked, "All right Sev?" before heading out the door.
Healer Spleen was at the desk. Lily didn't need to circle because he asked, "Need something, Evans?"
"Not really."
"Already heard your buddy's got pox in his throat so no talking. That would really be a drag if he wasn't such a good listener."
"Oh ha ha," Lily replied. Most of the time adults didn't pay good attention to what she said. She drifted into the ward's lounge to look at the magazines. The Witch Weekly issues were sorely out of date here, but Lily found a couple that looked interesting. She also found a magazine Lily had never heard of before called The Quibbler and thought Sev might like it. The cover story was about a Ministry conspiracy.
Passing Healer Spleen, Lily had a thought and stopped. She held up the magazines and said, "Obviously I'm starved for things to read."
"Don't you have your textbooks in your trunk?"
"I've already read ahead in them this summer. Got them early through owl order."
"Oh pardon me. So why are you telling me this?"
"Although my interest in being a Healer didn't appeal to you last night, I thought there might be some literature I could read up on. Even if it's pamphlets on common disorders or such. I'm muggleborn so half the time I don't know things till I break out in them. We don't have a muggle style Health class at Hogwarts so I'm stuck on my lower school knowledge and with whatever conflicting rumors the girls in my dorm come up with."
Lily didn't know what she thought she'd get, but Spleen supplied pamphlets on dragonpox, scrofungulus and vanishing sickness. Well yes, this was Magical Bugs and Diseases.
"Excellent," Lily said with way too much enthusiasm. "You wouldn't happen to have any others in this ward, would you? I don't spend too much time on a Witch Weekly."
"Like what? I can ask another department to send some around."
"I understand reversing charms, transfiguration and other accidental magic in principle so I don't think I'm behind my classmates there." Lily made a face, then lowered her voice, "You might find this impulse a little odd. With me only getting educated up till the age of ten this was kind of vague. My housemates kind of kid me about it, with my best friend being male, but it's not like Sev and I go skinny dipping or something like that over the summer. He likes staying covered up, and he won't answer any of my questions about y'know so if there's some …"
"You can come right out and say it, I am a healer, Evans."
"Oh pardon me," Lily parroted back to Healer Spleen. "It's just that I get flustered, as you've no doubt noticed."
"I don't know if you've noticed Evans, but there's not more than a handful of people that have the listening capacity of your friend, Snape."
"True," Lily admitted. She shook her hands nervously for effect, then said, "Just on the train to school yesterday, one of those girls asked me if I've ever seen Sev take a slash."
"Uh … it's have a slash. It's not a very nice term for urinate."
Lily made the proper 'o' shape with mouth for Healer Spleen. "Why would I ever see that?"
He laughed. "Maybe you aren't hanging out with very nice girls."
"You are absolutely right. They only tease me, and treat me like I'm stupid." Lily didn't like making herself sound stupid or naïve, but if she could get something out of this, she never planned on seeing this healer again … or at least until she was his boss. "Anyway, as I said earlier I have the education of a ten-year -ld with regards to women, men and what goes on. There's plenty of lads at school that are willing to give me an education, but they aren't the right sort."
"At least you know something," Spleen replied.
"And Sev's no help. Except to agree they are the wrong sort."
"Don't you have parents?"
"Yes, but my mum gave me a muggle book with pictures, and I think it left a lot of important information out. I don't even know if witches come here to have babies. Muggle women go to hospitals, and Sev was born in a muggle hospital since even though he has one of each type of parent, they live as muggles."
With a suffering sigh Healer Spleen said, "Well, I shouldn't leave you to learn from the wrong sort or you'd find out too much, too quick, and end up here in less than a year with little Lily. Although I do not hold your friend accountable for not going skinny dipping and making it seem typical that wizards just go waving their magic wands around. The cockier ones call them broomsticks. I'll get you some appropriate reading material from that ward."
Lily smiled. "Thank you, Healer Spleen. Oh, and if you could keep it quiet when you bring it, I don't want to embarrass Severus. He gets a little freaked when he thinks I want to be more than just friends, when I get in one of these inquisitive moods."
"I can imagine."
Having gotten one of her three vocabulary words identified, Lily now understood why Sev had covered the parchment over when he wrote it. She was pestering him to write letters when that part of his body was very painful, and that might be why he was a little slow moving from the loo back to bed. He could have written her something simple that he wasn't in the mood or he was in pain.
What if one of the other words wasn't in the literature she got from Healer Spleen? It would have helped if the one time Severus did urinate in front of her if he didn't have his hands in the way. Then she might be able to guess what was where.
Severus was asleep, still facing the distant wall, when she returned. Lily was going to wait till he took a sleeping potion, and Healer Spleen wasn't around to catch her before trying to sneak a peek. He'd have plenty of time to see this odd magazine. Lily flipped through it, and was amused by some of the nonsense in it. Maybe now Severus would see what kind of company he was in thinking the Ministry was not to be trusted.
She had finished her magazines by the time dinner was served. There were another two bottles of stout on Severus's tray, along with the same food as was on his lunch tray. Lily shrugged and hid these with the bottles from earlier. Considering she had a hot meal for dinner, she went ahead and ate it, without waiting for her friend. She doubted he would be more receptive to dinner than he was to lunch.
Bored, Lily read over the disease pamphlets multiple times before taking out her Care of Magical Creatures text, resuming about halfway through the book, where she had left off.
Eventually, Healer Spleen came in. He approached Lily first, and she sat still as he performed some charms. "You don't have a fever so just the anti-itching potion. Would you like a light sleeping potion?"
"No thanks."
"I already obtained some literature for you," he said as he slid it onto her table. There were a few pamphlets and a couple larger format booklets.
"Thank you, Healer Spleen."
"Don't mention it," he said as he went to check on Severus. "Oh, has he been asleep long?"
"Since I got back from talking with you."
The healer paused to stare at Snape's tray, and then walked about to look in the rubbish bin. He knew about the stout because it was so rarely requested. It was a muggle health drink, so wizards weren't partial to it. However, he was interested if it had any positive effect on a dragonpox patient. If the patient slept through the meal delivery, why wasn't everything still on the tray? That was also the only item missing from his lunch tray, and Pye was formulating a theory on the rest of this food. She just didn't know how the stout fit in with his odd meal request. It was not as natural and pure as the other items so it might have some unknown property. If Evans had drunk it, she would have smelt like the stout, not the gravy that was on tonight's roast, and there would be empty bottles unless she spelled them away.
Snape's temperature was high. That was rare, but not unheard of with dragonpox. The lunchtime dose of fever reducer should still be in effect. He sorted through his case of potions and chose four. Spleen woke the patient to ensure that all of them were imbibed.
"Mr. Snape, before you take the sleeping potion, you should eat dinner. Did you already drink the beverages or were they missing?"
He shook his head.
"Were they missing from lunch?"
Severus nodded.
"I'll get you another one. Maybe you can tell me about what it's supposed to do. I've read over the literature, but it's rather who it's recommended for – invalids and nursing mothers, rather than saying how it aids them, other than the milk content."
Lily sat over on her bed listening. Why did Spleen think there was something else in that bottle? Ale didn't have milk and it wasn't for invalids and nursing mothers.
Rather than accio'ing a bottle, Spleen left the room to order it properly.
Severus looked at Lily who was staring at him. What now? He shrugged in a questioning manner. Not being able to talk didn't work when Lily didn't talk for him. He attempted to speak, but it sounded like a liquid gasp.
The healer returned with two bottles, and said, "One for each of us," and uncapped them with his wand.
Lily was in shock that the healer would drink on duty, but then was more flabbergasted when Severus drunk his in one motion, slowly tilting the bottom of the bottle higher to finish it without stopping for breath. It was as if he had been in the desert for weeks. She couldn't tell how much he enjoyed it because of all the purple pustules blocking his expression. If someone asked her last week, she would have said Severus hardly showed emotion on his face, but now she knew that she could read him even when he seemed expressionless prior to having dragonpox.
Having gotten his stout, Severus drank the vial of oil, then peeled the banana to see if he could eat the entire thing without feeling too full. He made it almost to the end, when he decided that was it.
Spleen was just finishing his bottle of Mackeson's. "This has a different taste than other muggle products I've tried. Is that the addition of the milk that makes it so heavy? It's definitely not sweeter though."
Severus shrugged. He was only taking advantage of the fact that wizards had put beer on the menu.
He reached for the last potion, that would put him to sleep till at least morning.
Lily hadn't thought about the moving wizard illustrations that would make some items seem a little naughty even though they were clinical in their description. She actually found them quite informative and built upon what she already knew from the muggle world. Unlike the illustrated book she had from her mother, there was a rather bland, blob of a wizard represented with parts labeled, so she now knew that Severus really did have dragonpox everywhere, but not why it was the pustules were causing him pain there in particular. Did urine irritate the blisters?
The booklet on wizarding baby making was an eye-opener. Besides the common method between a wizard and witch, potions were an option also. Lily hadn't given it much thought before now, but if two witches were partners, a potion was recommended. The wizard/warlock solutions seemed creative, but she didn't know why they wouldn't use a potion too, with one of the wizards opting for the creation of female organs to support the fetus. That seemed the most sensible solution. There was no explanation in any of this literature why two witches or two wizards would be having a newborn, but Lily could think that there had to be a personal reason such as a childless widow, not looking for a new husband.
After studying her new literature for hours, Lily decided she'd save her energy for sneaking around till tomorrow. Severus was not going to recover overnight, so she'd have plenty of opportunity to examine him while he was rendered unfeeling with potions.
Why were there two more bottles of ale with Severus's breakfast? Lily thought as she removed them to join yesterday's as he continued to sleep.
After she ate her own breakfast while it was still hot, she went to sit with Severus. He looked as horrible as yesterday, no worse, if that was even possible by now. He was unable to make a regular snoring noise, there was a much quieter sound, perhaps mucus? She could see blisters inside his mouth and on his greenish tongue.
Earlier in the loo, Lily saw that she had a lot of green skin showing, compared to Severus. She had nothing in her mouth yet. She hoped she did not become as covered as Sev when the next wave broke out. What kind of pockmarks would he have, if the surface of his skin did not have any gaps between the blisters? He never seemed concerned about his looks, but even now he may not be able to fall back on his 'keen fashion sense', she thought with a fond smile at his self-descriptive phrase for his rubbish-ready clothes.
She took one of his hands between hers. It was also barnacled with purple pustules. Sev's hands weren't pretty, but Lily was envious for years of his longer fingers. They were bony, like his hands, but long fingers looked like they could do more things, and perhaps since she associated Sev's fingers with wands and magic, that made them even more special. Hers weren't short or stubby looking, but long fingers, maybe with rings, would be so elegant.
Over an hour passed with Lily holding Severus's hand before he woke. He expressed a preference for the potions first then picked at his food, eating the egg and some of the tangerine. She had to give him some privacy when he called a staff member to assist him because he could no longer get out of bed to go to the bathroom with the pain potion.
That was another indicator to Lily how much pain he was in. He'd rather endure some hurt than accept help. This level of assistance got her thinking that perhaps he was in agony without the potion. Unlike some muggle medications, Sev was at least aware of his surroundings and could respond to her.
Severus seemed pleased with the issue of The Quibbler, read it cover to cover, and then reread the article on the Ministry conspiracy by the editor, Xenophilius Lovegood.
At last, someone who was not afraid to put in print what everyone was thinking. Severus did not know anything about the invisible magical creature featured in this issue, but Xenophilius Lovegood was spot on about the Ministry.
When Lily insisted that Severus write letters again today, he decided to write one to Lovegood.
James Potter joined the others at lunch. "McGonagall is totally unreasonable," he snarled as he sat down and immediately began ladling large amounts of food onto his plate.
As Sirius wryly shook his head, Remus tried to put things in perspective, "You knew she wasn't going to give you permission to go to St. Mungo's, Prongs."
"How's a card going to make me stand out from all the others Evans is going to receive?"
"Flowers," Sirius suggested.
"No, candy," Peter corrected.
"I could sneak away over the weekend. Get down to the Three Broomsticks and floo."
"And what happens when Evans tells McGonagall you visited? You are on probation."
"Don't remind me. I had to sternly remind McGonagall that our little trip over the summer was during the holiday. Snivelly went crying to her. Dirty Slytherin snitch."
Peter said, "Evans'll be all spotty, Prongs."
"So? I know what dragonpox looks like."
"But on your girl?" Sirius asked. "Be bad enough when she comes back all Slytherin green."
"That'll fade," Peter said, "Best to wait and see how many of those pocks she had messing up her face."
"Wormtail!" Remus admonished. "Prongs is mature enough to know it's what inside that counts. Evans is still the same person she was last year."
"Uh, Moony, you don't remember last year? Evans's looks were her selling point," Sirius explained.
Adopting a falsetto voice, Peter mocked, "You boys clean up this mess now."
James frowned, "Evans is a lot more than a beautiful face. She's still a Gryffindor."
They all agreed, Lily Evans was a Gryffindor. Later, they'd get to work on sending her some nice cards and items. Even if they didn't individually like her, that might get them a couple brownie points with the other Gryff girls because in the past two days since school started, the Breast Baring Bandit had not struck once. What if he graduated?
Lily had hopped into bed next to Severus so they could play some word games on parchment using his table, and be facing it from the same angle. She had insisted Sev only use normal words. His repertoire of magical terms, Latin, and insults were out of bounds.
When Healer Pye stopped by to check on them, Severus hurled his quill at her like a dart once she got close. Fortunately, it was not aerodynamic and did not have a pointy metal tip.
"What seems to be the problem, Snape? Losing to Miss Evans?"
"No," Lily said, while giving Severus a shove for being so rude.
He took advantage of Lily leaning into him to grab her quill, scrawled 'no ale no deal', and turned the parchment around to be right side up to Pye.
A healer bargained with alcohol? Lily was outraged and very disappointed.
"I'm sure there were bottles available."
'Spleen got two last night', and another turn.
"Lunch will be round soon. So let me get you two checked over, and then we'll see what I need to get sorted."
"Do you know that there is alcohol in those bottles of ale?" Lily asked. She was not going to be able to swipe Sev's bottles from lunch if both of them were watching out for the tray.
Pye shrugged, "It's minimal. Little more than butterbeer." She made a note in Lily's chart, then asked, "Would you like a butterbeer, Miss Evans?"
"No thank you." Thinking, Lily asked, "Won't it interact badly with the potions? Severus is taking a pain potion too now."
"It's fine," she said absently as she cast another charm and took note of Lily's current temperature. Pye closed Lily's folder and flipped opened Severus's.
"Alrighty then, Mr. Snape. How about you give me a look down your throat first?" she asked as she conjured a narrow beam of light from her wand. Looking, she muttered, "Hmm, looks like they are still the same for now. We're going to have to watch on the next wave in case they start piling up. Just continue to let Miss Evans do your talking for you," she teased.
Lily muttered, "If I could, then he'd be getting some proper meals. Can't you give him nutrition potions of some sort, instead of liquor?"
"Mr. Snape is still capable of feeding himself. If his throat becomes more restricted, we have ways to work around it. You took the fever reducing potion earlier?"
Severus nodded, and Pye made a note, before casting another charm.
"Well, let's keep you on the same batch of potions for now. You'll just need the anti-itch one, Miss Evans. And anti-itch, pain and fever reducer for Mr. Snape. And here's lunch and your two bottles of stout. So you'll eat as much of it as you can then?"
Nodding agreement, Severus was suspicious how the bottles appeared now that Pye was here in front of him to face the consequences of not keeping her promise.
"After lunch, you can take a medicated bath, Miss Evans. And someone will be in to help you, Mr. Snape. Enjoy!" she said cheerfully as she exited the room.
Getting up to go over to her bed, Lily took both bottles off the tray. Severus was already getting his wand to open them, and held his other hand palm up to question her.
"You don't need these, Sev."
He held up one finger, pointed at her, then held up his finger again, and pointed at himself.
"No, we're not going to split them either."
Severus slapped his empty hand against the covers to indicate his unwillingness to go along with Lily taking both bottles.
"You can't drink this."
Glancing at his wand in his hand, Sev looked back at Lily, visibly sighed, then turned both his hands up and just a slight creak of his voice came out.
"No. This is not open to discussion."
He slumped then Lily felt a pull on the bottle in her left hand. She held it tightly and leaned towards Sev. "Stop it."
The other bottle was jerked out of her right hand, and there was no longer a pull on the one in her left.
"You're being childish, Severus. Just give it back to me."
He shook his head, and reached for the quill while putting his wand and the one bottle he obtained under the covers. He wrote, 'it's allowed. stop'
"Sev, you can't. Given your parents … fondness for drink, you just can't."
'?' then he added, 'I'm not them'
"I want you to give it to me, Severus."
He stared past her, then flicked his eyes to hers, then away, before writing 'I do not like being sick. I do not like being here. For You', he then paused to underline it 'For You I give up what I enjoy'. Severus took his bottle and handed it to Lily. He looked at her expectantly.
Lily took the bottle and rolled her eyes at him, "No need to make a big deal about it, Sev." Rather than watching him wave his hands around, she returned to her side of the room to eat lunch.
No big deal? When she's carrying on about his parents and that he's going to be what? Unable to leave his own house because he can't find the door behind all the bottles to stagger out of it? If it wasn't Lily, he'd hex her, Severus thought as he put his wand away. Bloody self-righteous Gryffindor, he thought, sighing to himself as he lay down.
Lily's sleep was interrupted in the middle of the night by the busy, book-reading healer. She was doing something with Severus, waving her wand and giving him a potion. Another healer rushed in to join her with some other supplies, and he pulled the curtain shut.
Her mind was rather fuzzy, as she tried to make out what they were doing. She slid out of bed when the third healer arrived. This must be important as she heard mention of throat and breathing.
She felt the difference when her feet got on the floor. There were no pustules on the bottom of them, or at least ones she hadn't noticed before. The top of her feet had twice as many, along with her arms and hands. Why were Sev and her getting coordinated outbreaks? The pamphlet she read said from the time of exposure till the first signs of illness was ten to twenty-seven days. They turned green within an hour of each other. The waves of blisters also varied in between, and they got their second wave the same night.
Now Lily was dizzy, as she stood. She sat back down. Why couldn't they speak up over there so she could hear them? Lily wanted to know how bad Severus was. It was torture leaving her over here in suspense. Stupid prat was doing this on purpose. He was a toerag all afternoon, just laying over there ignoring her and everything else. What if this was it? The last time she was with her best friend of more than half her life, and they argued over a bottle of ale. And to top it all off, he let her win the argument, and was a bloody, self-righteous Slytherin by letting her know that he was letting her win. She folded her arms over her chest to wait.
Healer Pye also joined the group working on Severus. She also came in with a healer's case and had her wand out.
Eventually, the curtain opened. Healer Pye walked across to Lily, and said, "This second wave piled up on top of the first batch. Totally blocked his throat. We got a good-sized tube down it now that we shrunk the swelling back a bit to shove it past. Eyelids also got it bad this time, so we'll have to keep on top of that too to prevent blindness. Better to keep him asleep till this recedes. He was in enough pain already.
"So your second wave popped up at the same time. Interesting. Besides the increase in blisters, any other changes?" she asked, while already casting charms.
"Dizziness. I wanted to come over, but it was really bad."
Pye nodded. "Your temperature is also elevated. I'll add a fever reducer to your potions. Any pain?"
"I haven't noticed any yet," Lily replied, fearful of her next trip to the loo.
Healer Pye also got her with a sleeping potion, so it was a surprise to Lily when she woke late, and found a festive addition to the room. There was two long tables of cards and gifts next to her bed.
Ignoring them, she cautiously got up to check on Severus. She was able to cross the room without mishap. Healer Pye was probably right that Sev should stay out. Lily thought his dragonpox couldn't get any worse, and now she was proven wrong. She blinked rapidly, then wiped her eyes with the back of her hand. She should have let him have the ale yesterday.
Severus had four cards on the stand next to his bed. They were a subdued bunch compared to the bright, flashing ones with sound effects that she received. In fact, if Lily had to describe them, without comparing them to hers, she'd call them tasteful. Looking at them, they were all from male Slytherin students - 6th years: Malcolm Wilkes and Evan Rosier, 4th years: Regulus Black and Barty Crouch, Jr.
After Severus, Lily wasn't ready to face her festive lot just yet, so ate her breakfast instead while occasionally giving the cheering one on the end a glare. It was just so inappropriate with Sev so sick in the same room.
Moving closer, why was there a card with a photo of James Potter winking and smiling at her, while astride a broom? No surprise, it was from James Potter. There was always a chance it could have been from Peter Pettigrew, Potter's biggest fan. Lily smiled, thinking what Helen would say when she saw this.
Sirius Black's card also had a photo but it was a picture of a big, black dog looking up with the caption 'We miss you'. Must be Black's dog, because it wasn't photogenic. Looked like the Grim, to tell the truth.
There was a sweet card from Remus Lupin, another card from Pettigrew, lovely cards from Helen and Mary, a card each from Prof. McGonagall, Prof. Flitwick and Prof. Slughorn. Where was Sev's card from his head of house? By now, he had to have realized that Sev was not out to kill the wizarding world with dragonpox. Potter sent flowers, and a second bunch of flowers, and he also sent this candy, and Remus sent this chocolate frog. Helen and Mary sent some skin cream. There were some more cards in the back here from other Gryffindors, along with a small selection of candy. All of it was quite nice.
Sev wouldn't receive flowers, and his fellow Slytherins surely knew he didn't care for sweets. Maybe he'd get more cards tomorrow. If he woke up briefly, and wasn't in dire pain, Lily could tell him who sent him well wishes.
After a bit of a sit next to Severus and holding his hand, Lily went back to her side of the room to arrange her cards more to her liking. There were a couple other boys that sent her cards besides the Marauders, but when she considered her future period of greenness, the dateability factor just wasn't there. She wasn't interested in any of these fellows that way, so all in all, it was all right. Potter's card promised to see her in Hogsmeade. Uh, yeah, every time in the past she saw him in Hogsmeade, he was acting like a complete toerag with his pockets bulging with items from Zonko's and his hands full of Honeyduke products. If Lily finally got Sev there, meeting up with James Potter would not be a highlight.
A wizard wandered into their room. If Lily didn't recognize him from Hogwarts she'd have thought he was lost. It was uh... the Arithmancy bloke, Prof. Abacus, no, Prof. Abstractus.
He stopped halfway into their hospital room, and stared at Severus. Since she wasn't an Arithmancy student, Lily could guess who he must be here to see, but seeing how Severus wasn't up to company, she said, "Professor?"
"That is a grave case of dragonpox," he said thoughtfully as he turned to Lily.
"I'm Lily Evans, Professor. I'm sorry I don't take Arithmancy, but I am a Gryffindor prefect."
He nodded, and said, "Ah yes, Prof. McGonagall did mention one of hers was here too. Your case is also severe."
The professor pulled out a pair of glasses, and put them on. The lenses had some fiddly bits that he adjusted. Leaning closer, he muttered, "If you'll excuse me. I find the spread of disease to be an interesting study. You two caught this together?"
"We think so. We live near each other, see each other almost every day during the holiday, and don't live near any other wizarding families."
He took the glasses off long enough to get close to Severus, then replaced them on his face. "Interesting. Very interesting. Are your houses within line of sight with each other?"
"No." That would be Petunia's worst nightmare.
"But you came down with dragonpox at almost the same time? And Severus seems to have a case that cannot be described as natural. But he is unable to answer any questions at this time."
He called him Severus instead of Snape? "Yes. We were on the train together, and the people in the compartment noticed we both looked green about the same time."
"What is the approximate distance between your houses?"
"About a quarter mile."
Although she had seen Severus do this on occasion, seeing an experienced wizard such as Prof. Abstractus start using his fingers for counting and calculating was kind of funny.
"Hmm, no matter how I figure it, you'd only get a rash between your toes, at the worst. Unless the curse was released closer to your home. Perhaps Severus is just unnaturally susceptible to dragonpox, and coincidentally you broke out at the same time. Though of course, coincidence is usually the sign for some other pattern."
"Curse? I thought dragonpox was from potions' ingredients going off, or exposure to someone with dragonpox who was in the contagious stage."
"Normally that's true. But the origin of dragonpox was from a curse. Back at the turn of the millenium, it was devised, and its beauty was it was able to sicken a whole family if they were present when the curse was released. Starting with the recipient getting the worst, and most lethal case and spreading out to the next closest wizard or witch, and so on until it reached its maximum range. Sometimes there would be damage to families living in close proximity to the recipient of the cursed letter or object. Letters were used because they could be clearly addressed and aimed from a distance.
"Once the cure was found in the early 17th century, the curse was rarely used because recipients only had to pop round to get the cure before the dragonpox itself broke out. Kind of pointless to send it. Now its used rarely because everyone's pretty much forgot how it started because it propagates nicely on its own. Also simpler and surer ways to kill other wizards."
"A letter? Severus eats breakfast at my house a lot, and since we're so isolated, it was a habit of ours to receive and share mail."
"Share mail with a Slytherin? Or rather, a Slytherin shared mail with you?"
"Yes," Lily said indignantly. Did everyone think that Sev was a Death Eater receiving love notes from the big you know who?
"Possible. It wouldn't have to be anything significant. Back in the day, the caster might even write some sort of missive declaring their intent to the victim so they could get their affairs in order, besides knowing who cast it. Some wizards can't stand not to get credit."
Yes, Lily knew the Marauders too well. "He did get an odd note in July, but we were sure that one had a tracking charm. The second one in August self-destructed when we tried to examine it. It was really lame because all it said was 'you stink' as the message with no signature. It was pale green heavy parchment, and was addressed to Sev in a much nicer script than the interior message."
"You stink? Usually practitioners of the Dark Arts tend to be more eloquent. That makes it seem more like a schoolboy matter, but I think there's a copy of the spell at Hogwarts from the last time I did this research. There's also the cases in Godric's Hollow to cross reference for possibility of contagion."
"I only met one wizard this summer outside of Severus. St. Mungo's was going to look into it."
"Hmm, that does narrow down the chance of outside influences considerably," Abstractus mused, as he went back to doing air math. He stopped, then nodded towards the doorway, "Minerva."
"I didn't want to distract you, Atlas."
"Oh no bother, Miss Evans has presented evidence for a fascinating scenario, which could lead to an exciting solution to explain this current outbreak of dragonpox."
"Yes, you and disease, Atlas."
"Not disease itself," he replied with a touch of distaste, "the probability of it spreading or dying out, and the magical permutations that revive it. With a commonly available cure, dragonpox should have been eliminated some time ago, Minerva. If you'll excuse me, I'd like to return to Hogwarts to work on this, since Mr. Snape is unavailable to visitors."
Prof. McGonagall looked at Severus, and asked in concern, "What happened?"
Lily explained, "We both had our second wave of pox break out last night. Sev's was already so thickly packed, that the blisters kind of stacked up. There wasn't enough room in his throat for that and for him to breathe. That's the tube, and they are going to keep him knocked out till it's out."
"I see why Prof. Abstractus would take such an interest. Within days, Mr. Snape has an overdeveloped case of dragonpox. He probably would have worked on the permutations nonetheless, since Snape is one of his favorite students."
"Really?"
"He's been raving about Mr. Snape's summer project since tea yesterday. If today wasn't Saturday, I'm sure Prof. Abstractus would have skived off class to come meet with him here."
Lily smiled, "Surely not a Hogwarts professor."
After her visitors left, Lily got a letter from her mother. She had written both her mother and Petunia once so far since arriving at the hospital. Of course, her mother was concerned, and reiterated that she thought Severus should have gone to a hospital, rather than getting on the train. With Severus's current condition, Lily felt a bit guilty that she misled her mother into thinking that this disease was just something silly that turned them green. Would Lily still be green for Christmas?
Atlas Abstractus had found the book he was looking for in the restricted section of the library. Whoever cast this spell didn't even try to disguise it with a variant, but cast it as written, resulting in a pale green parchment, imbued with dragonpox and targeted to infect the named recipient, instantly spreading to all witches and wizards surrounding him, presumably his immediate family. The odd thing was, who would target Severus Snape? As far as he knew, he was the only professor that thought highly of him. He had already approached Prof. Slughorn about Mr. Snape continuing his summer project with practical experimentation, and was soundly rebuffed. Seemed a bit cold, considering Snape was a Slytherin, and according to his records, scored an O on his Potion OWL. If Abstractus was an expert in Potions, he'd willingly supervise, but Potions were not his forte.
Anyway, something about this was too odd to ignore, so he brought the Dark Arts tome to the Headmaster's office. He was missing a part of this equation, and if he needed to consult the man who had plans within plans, it was Albus Dumbledore.
Days passed for Lily. A few more cards arrived for her. Prof. Slughorn's never arrived for Severus. Letters were written and received, and she spent much of her time by Severus's side, missing him.
Both Prof. McGonagall and Prof. Abstractus visited again. McGonagall had brought schoolwork, but Lily didn't feel like working on it without Severus.
As the third wave of blisters began, her first ones were starting to scab over. Sev's next round of pustules hit at the same time, but there wasn't anyplace left for them to form so they crowded the existing ones and his skin just broke into an oozing mess. He was on a continual supply of potions that were directly administered by healers into his comatose body. Besides detection charms, healers were inspecting him every hour, even the busy book-reading one, except on her nights off.
Since looking at the breathing tube and Sev's damp, encrusted face was too much, Lily was resting her head on Severus's chest, listening to his heartbeat with just the pajama top and one blanket to keep the seepage from his blisters from her face and hair, and holding one of his hands between hers, without any protection, when a festive wizard robe came to a stop at the foot of the bed. Without moving, she could see the white beard, and then the face of Albus Dumbledore, topped by a matching hat, consciously tipped at a jaunty angle to show off the shiny bauble dangling from its pinnacle.
"Ah, Miss Evans."
She sat up and replied, "Professor."
The headmaster conjured up a comfortable armchair in a floral print that did not go well with his robe, and took a seat. He took out a small tin, and offered, "Lemon Sherbet."
"No thank you, Professor."
Prof. Dumbledore took one for himself, and occupied himself with enjoying the sweet, rather than making small talk as visitors to the hospital usually do. Both Prof. McGonagall and Prof. Abstractus were excellent visitors since they never spoke of the weather. This room had no window, so Lily would be forced to accept the opinion of anyone visiting.
Used to the silence with just Severus to keep her company, Lily decided not to ask inane questions.
She felt a slight moment of satisfaction, when Dumbledore finally spoke, "Quite quiet here. One of my oldest friends was getting over dragonpox when he started Hogwarts. That's when I first met him, when he was still green, and we were both sorted into Gryffindor. Bad skin color to wear with Gryffindor colors, but there was nothing for it, I suppose. The Sorting Hat is blind to that sort of thing."
"Yes," Lily said. The Sorting Hat would not put her in Slytherin, the house that Severus had told her about before they attended Hogwarts. With Evans coming before Snape, did he ask the hat to put him in Gryffindor to be with her? Ugh, Severus being stuck with the Marauders? Would they have tried to make him one of them? Black and Potter had already met Sev on the train. More likely that it would be Severus and Remus, and then Pettigrew still admiring Black and Potter.
"Elphias is still one of my best friends. Even if Gryffindors aren't sorted into Hufflepuff, we are still able to be loyal. Don't you think, Miss Evans?"
"I wouldn't let what an old hat said come between me and my best friend."
"What about what others say?"
Lily rolled her eyes. "Are you talking about what gets said about every Slytherin? I know Sev's father is a muggle, and it's not his deepest, darkest secret, so he hasn't lied his way into the Death Eaters. And on the train this year, my roommates and I were in a compartment with two other Slytherins. Purebloods. And not once in all those hours did either one profess their undying affection for He-Who-Must-Not-Be-Named. As a matter of fact, we didn't bother talking about him at all."
"Mr. Snape isn't the type to blindly follow along. They'd have to offer him something of value to get his attention. He is also quite good at hiding his own worth from others."'
Indignantly, Lily corrected him, "I think it's more that they don't want to see it."
"Someone's noticed," Dumbledore quietly commented, "More than you and of course, Prof. Abstractus. He actually thinks that Severus has such an intrinsic understanding of magic that he can devise his own spells and improvise existing ones and potions."
"Severus has been doing that kind of thing for years. That's why he's the best potions partner, even if Prof. Slughorn outright lies about him," Lily snarled.
"The minimizing of Mr. Snape's accomplishments … may be beneficial."
"Well yeah, if I was that shallow to want the credit for what he does in class. But I'm not."
"I remember Mr. Snape's mother, Eileen, was reserved at school. Has she been in to visit?"
Does Dumbledore know? Why mention Sev's mum? It was his secret, not hers to go blabbing all over. Lily had already justified not saying anything to Prof. McGonagall since Sev was almost seventeen and away from them. She replied with his version of things, "She's unwell, and never leaves the house. I uh... saw her earlier this summer when Sev asked if it was all right if I came round to work on an assignment. After that we just went straight up to his bedroom."
Prof. Dumbledore merely raised his eyebrows, when Lily went on the defensive. "Why do people always assume with a boy and a girl best friend that they are always up to something? His bedroom's small, but it's not like that stupid game where they lock a boy and girl in a closet for five minutes."
"Really? That might explain one of the problems Mr. Filch has been having with his supplies being tampered with. I rather like games. What are the rules?"
"It's not that kind of game, professor. It's mean. A group takes one of the most socially awkward members and shove them in a closet with either an equally awkward person of the opposite sex, or someone with a reputation for being experienced. Then they close the door, leaving them both inside in the dark, while they stand outside suggesting what's going on and making a lot of childish noises. Hogwarts has a lot of immature students well beyond first and second year."
Minerva chose this prefect well, Albus thought. Such a shame about Remus Lupin though. Those boys were so promising, but their ability to get past petty problems or show any degree of empathy for other students, even younger ones, had never developed. Although they clearly were kind enough to send Miss Evans a card. He could see James Potter smiling on a broom among her well-wishers' gifts and cards. They couldn't be all bad, they were Gryffindors.
The puzzling thing was the placement of Severus Snape onto the board with the use of this spell. Albus did not know if he was a piece worth protecting, or where he was to be moved to gain the most benefit from his sacrifice.