Perhaps Another Time, Severus [A Severus Snape Fanfiction]

2000

2000

Cross lay bleeding on the Headquarters floor, his chest heaving, he had barely made it back. Shaylah ran her wand over him, muttering any healing spell that came to mind, but the deep lacerations didn't seem to budge. There was so much blood, it soaked into her pant legs as she knelt next to her friend, doing her best to keep him calm, keep him breathing. Keep him alive.

Vex joined her, his wand trembling as he, too, was reaching for any helpful healing spells. "I found it," said Brawn, breathless, as he came barreling into the room, his hands tightly wrapped around the small vial, "I found the blood replenishing potion." He knelt across from Shaylah, the puddle beneath them splashing as he held the vial to Cross' lips and helped him drink.

"It doesn't do us any damn good if we can't control the bleeding and close the wounds," Shaylah hissed, "Do we have any Dittany?" Brawn laid Cross' head down gently before disappearing again. Fuck. Each breath oozed more crimson blood over Cross' chest, soaking his vest.

They had a healer in their group, Holly, who was excellent at what she did. She could heal a wound or repair a bone in less time than you could bat an eye, and had spent years working at St. Mungos, but she disappeared a month ago, when she had gone to replenish their supplies. They never found her, though they scoured the area. So the group was left with the bits and pieces of collective healing knowledge they had acquired.

Brawn returned with a bottle of Dittany and pressed it into Vex's hand, his own too shaky to open the top. Shaylah snatched it, popping the cork with only her thumb. The adrenaline in her veins mincing with the panic in her chest, she squeezed the dropper and watched as the flesh sizzled under the droplets that landed on the wounds, fresh skin began to form, and she sighed in relief, but it was short lived. The wounds reopened and Cross grunted, a pained cry echoing through the room as his body shuddered. "No. No. No." Shaylah shouted, her heart thundering at the way Cross writhed under her palm, "Keep trying."

Cross was muttering, his words slurred as his jaw clenched against the pain, blood pooling between his teeth. It was so like the crucio curse, the way his body twitched, but she had never seen wounds like this, though she knew their origin. "Stay with me, Cross," she whispered, as she poured the tincture directly on a gash, Vex chanting beside her, both of them doing their best to keep the tears back, the fear bottled. Raking his fingers nervously through his hair, Brawn watched in horror, his wide eyes brimming with tears.

Vex continued to run his wand along Cross' chest but nothing changed, blood still poured from the wounds before them, and she had exhausted the small amount of Dittany, there was no more. She laced her fingers with Cross' as his chest went from heaving to still, one hand pressed to the wound in a futile attempt to staunch the bleeding. "I'm sorry," she whispered, her voice breaking as her hands slipped up to cup his blood stained face, "I'm so fucking sorry." There was no pulse beneath her palm, nothing left to be done but mourn.

Vex's wand flew across the room and Brawn let out a deep howl. The former turned to the table just behind him and ran his arm across it causing the stacks of The Daily Prophet and the trash that had accumulated to topple onto the floor, the papers filtering to the floor. Shaylah heard glass shatter and her jaw tightened, but she would clean it later. Vex had known Cross far longer than she had, his pain overshadowed hers. "I told him not to go after Snape!" Brawn shouted, hands flying to his head. Making no effort to hide the hurt.

The three of them had already established the Order when she received her letter, and though there was a relationship between them all, the three men had grown the organization together, with Vex at the head. It was his idea to use Azkaban, his flat that had become their home. Brawn and Cross had been his first recruits, the brawn behind his brains and now one of the beast's arms had been severed.