Soulmate Prophecy - Marauders

Chapter 19

The Hospital Wing was chaos. Two burly Hufflepuffs from the seventh year potions class had just come through the doors carrying James Potter. Behind them, a trail of blood led all the way back to the potions' dungeon. Professor Slughorn and Severus Snape had followed it, and were now standing at James's bedside while Lily Evans and Madam Pomfrey were pulling off his blood-soaked shirt and tie. He was cut deeply, viciously across his collar bones, just below his throat, bleeding profusely.

Remus Lupin and Sirius Black had thrown themselves in front of Snape when he came in, shouting at him and ordering him to leave, threatening to slash him to pieces in return.

"There's a counter-curse, you idiots," Snape was saying. "Get out of the way."

"You are not coming near him again!" Sirius snarled.

"Gentlemen, we need to approach this rationally," Slughorn said.

"He'll approach nothing," Sirius said, eyes still on Snape. "This evil, jealous, cowardly -- "

"Hexing James while his back was turned -- " Remus added.

"You never even saw," Snape said, suddenly raging at Lupin. "You, in the supply cupboard with that girl who plays at being a Veela -- "

Lupin lunged at Snape, over Sirius's shoulder, reaching for the front of his robes.

"Shut it!" a voice called over the noise. It was Lily. When the room fell quiet, the sound of James's quick, shallow breaths could be heard. "Severus come here. If there's a counter-curse, you must use it to mend him."

James didn't argue. He might not have heard, his eyes closed, stripped to the waist, his skin white with shock, but his grip on Lily's arm showing signs of strength and will.

"Madam Pomfrey?" Slughorn said.

"A counter-curse is always the best remedy, if he has one," she allowed. "Could take me hours, maybe days to patch him up otherwise, and him bleeding all the while -- dangerous."

"Sev, please," Lily said.

Sirius began to protest but Remus raised a hand to his chest. "It's not for us to object if it's what she wants for him."

The remark stung Snape. Yes, of course. As Potter's wife, Lily's say meant more than anyone's. He spun on his heel, fed up and storming out of the infirmary. Let Slughorn threaten all he wanted.

"Sev!" Lily called after him, tears in her voice. "Don't leave me like this. Please."

His face still turned away from her, she saw Snape's shoulders fall. He was relenting, staying, turning back.

"Some privacy," he sneered, brushing past Sirius and Remus as he moved to the bed.

"Yes, let's wait outside, lads," Slughorn said. "Come along now."

Lily stayed close, her red, sticky hands still entwined with James's as Snape stood over them. He drew his wand and began to intone the counter-curse, a low, indistinct incantation, like a song. As Lily watched, James's slashed flesh began to mend, knitting itself together. It began on the inner layers and vessels, stopping the flow of blood, and worked outward, Snape's wand passing slowly over the wound, in one direction, and then the other.

He finished and stood back, the song dying away. The atmosphere in the room was different, something like peaceful. Snape staggered back, drained, disgusted with the damage he'd done, and equally disgusted that he'd been made to mend it himself.

Colour was returning to Potter's face. He was clearing his throat, coughing up fluid that Lily was wiping away with her soiled jumper. It was profoundly intimate, dreadful for Snape to have to see, perhaps worse than watching them embrace each other. Even when awful and mangled, she treated his body as precious, as if she loved him more than anything else she had.