Second Time, The
by
Rating: PG
Characters: Albus Dumbledore, Poppy Pomfrey, Severus Snape
Word Count: 1,760
Disclaimer: All the characters are Rowling's. The situations they're in are mine. No profit was made.
Summary: Poppy tries to save Albus's life... and Severus's sanity.
Snape could not be disturbed unless it was an emergency or so she'd been told. How could this not be an emergency? Poppy did not know what to do. She had tried everything in her limited repertoire and her patient refused to go to St. Mungo's.
Albus, however, insisted it was not an emergency, but even the stasis field was not holding the continuing damage. His hand, dear Merlin, but his hand!
It was a curse was all she'd been told, but not who had cursed him, or what he had been doing to be cursed.
She had been working for nearly an entire day, working, arguing, cajoling, and finally begging and she was exhausted. Minerva had finally informed her she had contacted Severus and Poppy was slightly mollified. There were a number of potions he might be able to use, but she did not think anything could truly be done. She hoped he would know more; his knowledge of Dark Arts was second to exceedingly few.
She made sure the Headmaster was asleep and then curled up on the bed beside his own to wait, utterly drained.
~(*)~
"Drink it, you stubborn old goat."
"I must say, I do appreciate a spirited healer."
"I'm no bloody healer and you know it."
Poppy woke to the sound of this quiet but decided bickering.
"And what does this one do?"
"It will attempt to rehydrate the tissues. If I can get some of them rehydrated, there is more of a chance."
"My boy, you fight a losing battle."
"And will keep fighting it until I decide to stop."
"My boy... my dear boy."
Poppy watched and listened now, unnoticed by either. She did not get up, aware that Severus would surely have noticed her presence when he arrived and would wake her without hesitation if he needed anything.
"Albus, dammit, drink!"
There was a momentary silence as Albus drank and then she watched Severus place a faintly trembling hand on the Headmaster's forehead.
"Fever?"
"Only slightly. I've had worse."
"Albus... this can kill you."
"Severus, my boy, anything can kill you. Water can kill you if there is too much and you drown. Air can kill you if it is too strong and you get swept away."
"Albus, why didn't you wait for me to help you disable the bloody thing?"
"And have two of us in this condition? I think not! That boy... that boy needs you."
"Damn you, Albus, he needs you, not me. He won't even listen to me."
"Oh, I think he'd listen if he wanted to hear what you had to say."
Severus made a snorting sound and his voice, when it came again, was tight with suppressed feeling.
"Albus, things are moving too quickly now."
"My boy, they've been doing so since Tom's return, as we knew they would. We've been preparing. You've played your part beautifully. We need but keep playing the cards we've been dealt."
"It's a game of bloody Snap, Albus, and a card has exploded in your hand."
"Oh, now Severus--"
"Don't! Enough!" Poppy nearly got up as Severus pulled back from the Headmaster with an unsteady step, but then he slicked a hand over his hair and steadied himself. "I'll be in my lab. I think I can make a few more potions that should help."
"Including the one I suggested," Albus said with decided insistence.
Severus did not look back, but merely nodded, head turned away from the Headmaster, before continuing on his way.
Poppy considered all this.
"He's rather a firebrand, is he not, my dear?"
She started and looked to the Headmaster who smiled weakly at her.
"How are you feeling, Albus?"
"Quite spry, my dear. Is it too much to ask for a cup of hot cocoa?"
"I'll get the elves to fetch some. In the interim, let me have a look."
She took the towel that covered the blackened, curse-damaged arm and was heartened to see that the rehydration potion Severus had mentioned seemed to be helping. The desiccated tissues that had extended to mid forearm were now plumped up and nearly normal in appearance. Only his hand remained badly damaged. She smiled.
"I'll get you that cocoa, then you get some sleep."
~(*)~
She almost never bothered Severus when he brewed. She rarely visited him in his domain. This instance seemed appropriate, however, and besides, she wanted a word with him in private about the Headmaster's injury.
She heard a strange sound as she stepped from the dungeon stairwell and it grew louder as she walked toward Severus's office, which held, she knew the only entry to his private laboratory.
The sound of breaking glass and an anguished shout made her hurry, and she jumped a little, as the Bloody Baron suddenly glided through the office door and hurried along the corridor, ignoring her.
She pushed the door open onto disarray and dripping fluids. Jars lay broken on the stones and Severus sat in his chair, turned sideways from the desk, head in hands. Then she could hear it.
He was crying.
These were not, she knew, tears of frustration. No. Severus Snape was grieving and it made her heart feel as if it had skipped a beat.
Her lips pursed and she hurried through the mess, avoiding broken glass until she was before him. Then she bent and place warm hands on his knees, and he jumped.
"Minerv-? P-Poppy..." his black, pain-filled eyes beheld her briefly, before he turned his face away. "I..."
Poppy shook her head and stepped closer, kneeling and putting her arms around those shaking shoulders and drawing his head to her own shoulder. Shudders began to course through him, through them both, and she held him tighter.
This was part of healing. Thankfully, it was not a part she had to practice often, but it was often the most necessary, she knew.
She waited, stroked her hands through his hair and down his back and suddenly he was clinging to her and she had a flashback to another day, another time she had held this man as a boy and assured him he would not become a werewolf, that he would be right as rain once he healed.
She could not say this now. She knew the only thing that could provoke this reaction in this man was if he was accepting what she now knew in her own heart; Albus Dumbledore was dying.
The unavoidable death of a patient was the hardest thing anyone in the medical profession had to accept. Severus was not, she knew, in the profession, despite his expertise in the understanding of bodily reactions to chemicals and herbs. Moreover, Albus was not patient, but friend, mentor. This must be agony to him.
"I know," she whispered now. "I know."
She closed her eyes as she recalled that frightened sixteen-year old in her Infirmary, horrorstricken at what the future might hold. The only one to visit the boy had been the Headmaster. Not even his head of house had made the attempt. Poor Remus had tried to talk to him, to apologize, but it had been too recent, too fresh on his mind to permit it. No one else had bothered.
She wondered now if anyone, besides the Headmaster, bothered about Severus at all. He conversed, she knew, at the supper table with his colleagues; he attended staff parties from time to time, but always at a remove. He never took part in activities, always standing on the outskirts, looking in.
Like a poverty-stricken boy at the window of a candy store, she mused.
She could feel him pulling back now, head down, likely mortified. She gently placed a hand on his face, although he would not look at her.
"I seem to recall a young man I once held that same way, it must be about twenty-three years ago now."
He drew in a shivering breath, but said nothing.
"I'm afraid what I said then won't hold now," she sighed.
She thought he might ignore this, but he drew in another breath, fought to calm down. His voice, when he spoke, was thick with emotion.
"No. It won't be all right. Not this time."
She put both hands on his bowed head then and he clenched his hands into fists.
"Poppy. There is nothing I can do."
"Nor I, Severus."
She pulled back from him and he fumbled in a pocket, finally fishing out a handkerchief and wiping his face and blowing his nose. He cleared his throat.
"I wish he'd waited."
"What the devil was he doing?"
He looked over to her now, stricken.
"I... Poppy, I can't say. Suffice it to say, this is the darkest of magic, the deepest of curses."
"I understood that much when I saw him, Severus. Is there a counter curse?"
He scowled. "The one who dealt that curse would not counter it for the sake of the world and his bloody, benighted soul."
Poppy closed her eyes at this. "I was afraid that might be the case."
"I... I'll come see him in the morning. There is a potion I can make that... that will make him comfortable. It will take me a few hours to make."
She studied him now. "Severus..."
"I will leave it up to Albus as to whether he wishes to take it or not," he said firmly.
She finally nodded, remembering what Albus had told him - a potion he'd suggested. The only potions she knew of that could possibly assist Albus now were nearly as dark as the curse that had stricken him.
Still, it might allow him what she herself could not provide him with: time.
She was suddenly, irrationally, yet profoundly glad the boy she'd once known had grown into a man strong and arrogant enough to meddle in such things. A lesser man would not have been able to provide even that much help to Albus. Poppy would gladly help a patient so badly injured no matter what the cost; it was a deeply ingrained part of her nature, the side of her that made her the healer that she was.
Still, she would not be kept in the dark. Not this time.
"I'll see you in the morning, then. We can share breakfast."
It was not a suggestion and Severus smiled slightly at her tone. He bowed his head in agreement.
"Good night, Poppy."
She nodded at him. "Good night, Severus."
Then she carefully stepped back out of his office and headed back up to her own domain.
~ FIN ~
posted 11 Dec 2006.