-a fine line- part two/ sequal

Chapter 2- Fire

Poppy looked up and frowned. A crease appeared between her eyebrows and she wiped her forehead with her sleeve as if she was trying to wipe away the line.

"What's the matter?"

"I've tried talking to him. He looked at me like I was a threat and then I asked if he recognized me. He said he didn't."

Once she opened the door, they were met with a stressed man searching around the room.

"What are you doing, young man! Get your arse in the bed." Severus snapped his head to glare at her and stumbled the two steps back to bed. It was troubled and certainly took a lot of effort, from the looks of it. Again, there was a painful expression on his face.

"Where's my wand." Poppy pursed her lips and shook her head while propping both of her hands on her hips.

"You stubborn man. I'll show you if you promise not to get out of bed anymore." Severus sighed in defeat and crossed his arms over each other, waiting for an answer.

"Under your pillow, obviously." Y/N even saw a small smirk on the potioneer's face and grinned at her lover. He wrapped his hand around the wand and exhaled like his life depended on it.

"Severus, can you tell me what year it is?" He opened his mouth to say something but got interrupted just as quickly: "Don't talk! Write it down." Poppy handed him a piece of parchment and a quill and he frowned at her.

"Go on then." She said impatiently. It took about two or perhaps three minutes before he had written it down. His limbs were feeling heavy and his eyes were drooping already even though he couldn't be awake for longer than fifteen minutes yet. He handed Poppy the parchment and completely ignored Y/N's presence. It stinged her in the heart even though she would never admit this.

Year 1993. Can you kindly ask that dunderhead to leave?

She glanced over Poppy's shoulder and didn't know whether to laugh or cry at that comment.

"How old are you, Severus." He sighed and rolled his eyes. Why would they even want to know those simple questions?

33. I must say, I'm disappointed you don't know how old I am.

She snorted and gave him a glare.

"I think it's best if you rest for now. You need all the sleep you can get. Don't be afraid to ask for something if you need it." Severus nodded and once again gave Y/N a strange, angry look.

Once the door closed behind them, Poppy turned towards her.

"No need to worry, dear. I'll just get Albus and we'll figure something out. In the meantime, I think some sleep will do you good as well." Y/N nodded even though she didn't want to abandon Severus in that little hospital room. To be honest, she hadn't been sleeping in her own bed for months. It had always been on the couch next to him or in his bed. Now, she needed to get back to her routine she had in the first few weeks after the war, in her own bed. Y/N hadn't given much thought about the things she wanted to do after graduating and figured she had to take her time. That's why she had been given permission to sleep in Severus' quarters that had been restored. There was little damage, but still needed to be fixed up a bit. Hermione and Ron had offered her a place to stay, even Harry although he was extremely busy. Harry had gone ahead and became an auror, well still in practice, with Ron. He's also helping people who had been damaged after the war with spells that needed to be lifted. Hermione had gotten pregnant and was now in her third month. However, Y/N had declined it and said she would stay here at Hogwarts, close to Severus.

Her friends had understood even though Harry still tried to convince her otherwise sometimes, but that was fine. They needed to adapt to her decision of willingly being with Severus, not because of this so-called love potion people accused him of.

Now, she was making her way to the chilly dungeons to hopefully get some sleep.

It wasn't until a few hours later that day when the fire turned green and Dumbledore stepped out. Y/N was sitting on the couch, already giving up on trying to sleep without him with her.

They greeted and she asked if he wanted some tea, which he declined saying this wasn't going to take long.

"I'm afraid I can't stay." Strangely, he did sit down. "We've been discussing this with the other staff members and I thought it was only fair for you to know our decision. We did some rational thinking and came to the conclusion it was best for him to get professional help in St. Mungo." Y/N didn't know what to say. She didn't want him to go somewhere else, far away from her. Not to mention, once Severus would wake up, he would completely freak out and think they've abandoned him. He never said such things aloud, but she knew he was scared to someday wake up and find everyone he cared for gone. Also, he hated St. Mungo. He had bad mouthed them a lot during her last year when she spent more time with him. It only made Y/N laugh every time he was nagging about something new; claiming they had no clue what they were actually doing.

"Are you sure? I don't doubt your choice if you think it's best, but I'm having second thoughts. Of course, I only want what's best for him." Albus nodded and relaxed a bit more in the armchair he had occupied at arrival.

"Well, there is one other option but we've figured you might think it's a bit overwhelming. Poppy had done some more research and informed us that pieces of the last five years will slowly come back. It isn't guaranteed but there's a big chance that'll happen. We can move him to his own private chambers so he'll be more comfortable in the long run. He'll slowly get his memory back and recover in a place he is familiar with. The only problem is that he can't do much on his own and is in desperate need of assistance for the smallest things."

It was quiet for longer than comfortable. She hadn't given much thought about that. Poppy couldn't be helping him with every single thing while there were so many others still in need for help. She can't do a 24/7 job watching Severus.
Suddenly, an idea lit in her. It wasn't perfect, especially with Severus not knowing who she was but it was worth the shot.

"Maybe he can recover in his quarters while he gets his memory back and I'll help him with everything. I really don't have anything else to do and it will be good for him." Albus seemed to think about the idea and sighed.

"We can always try. Just remember that he doesn't recognize you so Severus is going to be an absolute git towards you. I think it's also better if you keep yourself from revealing who you are to him. So you'll have to pretend to be a mediwitch, I trust you can do that?" Albus asked Y/N. Of course she could but it felt like distancing herself from him. As long as he was getting better, it didn't matter.

"No problem. May I just ask why I can't tell him who I was to him?"

"Too much information at once won't do any good to his health. Severus needs to take it slow and not get overwhelmed by everything that happened in the last five years. We haven't even told him about the war yet, oh how much we wanted to. It needs to be revealed in small steps. Don't get me wrong, the man is clever and cunning so he probably already knows there's something wrong with his mind. But for now, we'll take it slow. Small pieces of information at once, got it?"