Mend Me

Twenty-Three

"I do not care what you do, so long as you are quiet while you do it!" Severus snaps at the girl, perhaps a bit too harshly. She scampers off to the other side of the room and begins chopping ingredients on the small dining table in front of the tightly closed curtains.

She was growing bored, rightfully so. She had been stuck in his living quarters at Hogwarts for the better part of two months. The plan had been to have her stay there, only until she had healed and gained a bit of weight, and then return her to Spinner's End, but then Albus was fired by the Ministry, making Umbridge the new headmistress at Hogwarts, and it was far too risky to move her. The two were getting on one anothers nerves. Severus, unused to living with another person full time, her unused to hiding out in a professors bedroom every moment of her life, both of them unused to married life. Admittedly, he had been speeding less time in the room due to this, which pushed her further in to isolation.

Severus tried to make her as comfortable as possible. As soon as her weight reached what it had been prior to her imprisonment, Severus went alone to Diagon Alley one Saturday morning and purchased an entire wardrobe and new wand for her. He purchased things he had seen her wear before; corduroy jumper dresses, striped jumpers in every color imaginable, turtlenecks, stockings, flowing dresses. He bought her undergarments, nightgowns, personal hygiene products, and even a small brewing kit to keep her occupied during the day, and had his grandmothers gold wedding band sized down to fit her. He could not bring himself to give the ring to her, yet. The girl was appreciative, but he couldn't help but notice the way her face fell when the realization that she would continue being trapped in this room dawned on her. She had gone from one prison to anther, and for this, Severus held deep regrets.

Dolores Umbridge's tyrannical reign has only worsened with the absence of Albus. When he wasn't teaching a highly scrutinized lesson, he was escorting yet another mass group of students in to the Dining Hall for the make-shift detention area. Only Umbridge was allowed to be present during these detentions, but he knew what was going on in there by the amounts of students sporting deep gouges on the backs of their hands the next day in class. Severus did what he could to deter her by providing vials of water under the guise of Veritaserum, but there was no stopping her. Thankfully, he no longer was forced to teach Occulmency to Potter, not after the little brat breached his privacy by looking in to the Pensive in his office.

Severus leans back in his chair before the fire and brings the lit cigarette to his lips. While not outright complaining about his smoking, the girl did wrinkle her nose and move to the far end of the room each time he lit a cigarette. It was a nasty habit, but the only thing keeping his nerves in check these days. He watches as the girl chops mandrake root, lavender, and lemon and stews them in honey in the lit cauldron before her. She is making Cough Potions for him to bring to Madam Pomfrey to treat students suffering from springtime allergies.

"Did you always want to be a professor?" She finally asks him, turning her head in his direction as he takes one final drag from his cigarette, he inhales deeply and holds the smoke in his lungs.

"No." He states plainly, his voice husky from the smoke held in his lungs, he allows the smoke to slowly escape from his parted lips as he stubs the cigarette out in the ashtray perched on the arm of the chair.

"Why do you do it, then?" Her hair is tied up in a loose bun, soft curls escape at random and frame her face. Severus watches as she blows at a strand dangling in front of her mouth, sending it waving above her head before softly floating back down again.

"Because, despite what many of your fellow classmates would like to believe, I am good at it." The girl turns and grins at him, the smile reaching her eyes for the first time in months.

"How did you become so good at potions?" Severus watches the slow turn of her elbow from behind, she only has a few more moments left to stir, then she will bottle the contents, and with any luck, she will smirk as she holds the bottles to the light.