Y/n and the potions professor - in progress

3. The mystery accident

A/N: Woah so much drama! Sorry this chapter is slightly shorter. Hope you enjoy it anyway:)

Warnings: Injury detail, implied abuse, panic attack
Pairings: none

"Y/n", he asked, "What are you taking about?"
She suddenly took an interest in the floor. "Um, nothing."
"That's an outright lie." Sev was angry now. Their was a fine line between concern and anger for him.
It was always hard to tell which one he was portraying. And in this situation, it was a mixture of both. Concern, for her safety and her well-being, and anger at himself that he had not noticed something was off earlier. He was taking his own anger out on her, yet again.
But he began to get a hold of himself when he noticed her cowering against the back of her chair, hyperventilating. He crouched down to her level, his voice soft. "I'm sorry, I'm not angry with you, I promise. I'm angry with myself. Now, deep breaths in, deep breaths out." They practiced breathing until she was calm once more. "Are you feeling calmer?" He asked, not breaking eye contact with her. She nodded.
"Good." He stood up and walked over to a drawer in the corner of the room and opened the top draw, producing a small glass vial. "This is a calming drought I brewed myself earlier this week. You can take it next time your feel a panic attack coming on." He handed her the vial, and watched as she slipped it into the pocket of her robe. He sat down in the seat opposite her once more. "Now, I think it's best you and I have a little chat, don't you?"
She nodded again.
Sev began. "I'm just going to ask you some questions okay? Depending on your answers, we can talk further about taking any courses of action. Ok?" She nodded.
"So, first of all, what are your parents like? Your family in general?"
She looked down sadly. "My parents are dead, Professor."
His heart dropped. "Oh, I'm so sorry. I had no idea. Would you mind telling me what happened?"
She sighed. "It happened when I was 1, I don't remember much, but death eaters came and killed my parents and all of my other family. They hid me in a cupboard, I guess they didn't think to check. They were all dead after that. And then Dumbledore came and gave me to a muggle foster home. Then when I was 7 I started to show signs of magic and my letter came when I was 11."
Severus exhaled deeply. Her parents were dead along with the rest of her family? Wow, she was an orphan and she was probably severely traumatised. He wondered if that had anything to do with the frequent panic attacks or eating habits. "And, I understand you don't want to talk about this, but it's important. I'm afraid, I can't keep your eating habits between the two of us."
He saw an emotion he couldn't reconginse flash in her eyes.
"What? No! You can't tell anyone! You can't betray me like that! And to think, I was actually starting to trust you!" She screamed, running out of his study.
He barely had time to react, but he knew their was no point running after her. Instead he opted to use magic to discover the wereabouts of the Slytherin. "Appare Vestigum!" He commanded, blue, streaky flashes shooting out of his wand like sparks. The wispy luminous trail twisted and shimmered, moving through the castle at an alarming rate, Severus not far behind. He followed them for a short while, until they stopped near a deserted part of the castle. It didn't take him long to notice her huddled in a corner. She was lying with her back to him. She didn't seem to be crying, that was odd. Suddenly, he was overwhelmed with worry, she wasn't moving. He rushed to her side, trying desperately to communicate with her. He felt for her pulse, and the thrumming of a heartbeat greeted him. She was just unconscious. He turned her over, scanning her body for the cause. He turned over her hand and gasped at the deep gash running from her wrist to her palm. Blood dripped from it onto the stone floor. He knew it would take them a while to walk to the hospital wing from here, so he decided he would try his best to treat it on his own.
He managed to untie her tie from around her neck, wrapping the emerald and white fabric around the wound, and tying it. He then gathered her thin frame in his arms, draping her arms around his neck. He carried her like this to the hospital wing, thankful no students roamed the hallways as they were all in class. He arrived at the hospital wing and was instructed by Madam Pomfrey to carry her into a separate room. He laid her still body down carefully on a cot and Madam Pomfrey inspected the wound. She concluded it was quite bad, although not infected and not fatal.
As she discussed things further with him, she disinfected the wound and dressed and bandaged it. But Severus kept zoning out, thinking how could something like this have happened to her on his watch again? Somehow he'd managed to risk her life twice in 2 days. He was also worried about how she could have cut her hand. Part of him told himself it was just an innocent accident. But the other part new better. You didn't just accidentally cut your hand so deep that you passed out. It must've been on purpose. But how? Voldemort's minions were on the lose, what if she'd been a victim? And if they only cut her hand this time, what would they do next time? He'd already grown attached to her, and was determined to help her as best he could and the thought of losing her was too much. Madam Pomfrey noticed his distress. She sometimes still saw the scared little boy she'd seen grow up. The abused, broken child who'd she'd helped put back together. The older woman placed a hand on the dark-haired man's shoulder, and he flinched. He still flinched after all these years. A sympathetic smile came to her lips. "This isn't your fault Severus."
He looked away, not meeting her eyes.
They talked about what had happened and he filled her in on what he knew, which was not much. "What would be the wisest course of action to take next Poppy?" He asked her. She was surprised at this but soon nodded. "I think its best that you ask her some questions yourself Severus. She seems to trust you. And then if necessary we shall schedule a meeting with Dumbledore to discuss further courses of action."
He nodded "Ok." She wanted to hug him but lingered back. That was unprofessional. They were colleagues. But she just wanted to comfort the scared little boy within.

She promptly changed the subject. "Severus, she will be here until tomorrow, would you mind bringing her dinner from the great hall?"
He nodded. "Of course Poppy."
She gave him a kind, weary smile. "You can go now Severus. I'm sure you have somewhere to be."
He nodded. "Of course." He promptly left, making his way to his next class.