Mended

Sixteen

Danu had apparated to Clagmar Coast to retrieve Lorna after leaving Harry on the sidewalk across from her mother's house in Surrey, only to find Severus' home empty. She was completely unfazed, perhaps Lorna wanted to go home, or Severus grew tired of her wreaking havoc in his house. It was not the first time she had gone to retrieve Lorna, only to find a note on the door instructing her to go to her own home to relieve him of their child. This time, however, there was no note. Still though, Danu thought nothing of it until she walks through her kitchen door to find Severus pacing angrily in the kitchen, Lorna cradled in his arms like an infant as he pats her back gently. Severus places Lorna gently on the sofa, brushes his lips across her forehead, and drapes a throw blanket folded across the back of the couch across her body. He then stalks towards her, his brows arched in fury as he grabs her by the sleeve of her coat and drags her out into the snow.

"Where were you?" Severus demands as he flicks his wrist to silence the two of them from Lorna.

"I—I was with Harry. I'm sorry, I forgot to mention it, Molly—"

"Your daughter is sick, and you were out gallivanting with Potter well past dark, when you were supposed to be off of work an hour ago!"

"She's sick? She was fine this morning when I dropped her off. What's wrong?" Danu turns in an attempt to go back through the door to comfort Lorna, when Severus grabs her shoulder and forces her back around to face him.

"She is burning up with a fever, calling out for you, and coughing for the last two hours. It came on suddenly after she woke from a nap, which is unlike her. I would not be surprised if that abominable creature of yours gave her Black Cat Fever!"

"If she had Black Cat Fever she would have a rash, does she have a rash?" Danu places her hand on the knob once more, guilt brewing in her chest for being late when Lorna was so sick.

"Your brewing room," Severus begins, narrowing his eyes at Danu as his lip quivers with anger. "if one may call it that, is positively abysmal! No bicorn horn, no jewelweed, your mandrake root is appalling, the lavender, asphodel petals, and valerian were all picked out of season, and you will have to scrape the jar to get even a drop of flobberworm mucus! You have no ready-made potions available that will do us any good! Honestly, I taught you better than this. I came here in hopes that you would have anything at all to relieve her symptoms, but I was mistaken."

"I—I—" Danu stammers as her eyes dart between Lorna lying on the sofa and Severus pacing in the snow before her.

"Move." Severus demands as he pushes past her, his black cloak circling her ankles. Severus stomps across the garden, she watches in the faint glow of the porch light as he apparates away, presumably back to his home to retrieve either ingredients, or ready-made potions. 

Danu rushes to Lorna's side, drops to her knees beside the sofa, and pulls her small, burning body against her chest as the child moans and buries her face in her mother's chest for comfort. Severus had undoubtedly changed her clothes at some point during the day, as she was no longer wearing the knitted jumper and black tights she had dressed her in that morning. Instead, she now wears her favorite pair of pink pajamas with vertical white stripes and thick woolen socks on her feet. Simon the hippogriff is nowhere to be seen, which is unusual even when Lorna is feeling well.

The truth being, her brewing room is absolutely appalling. She has no time for brewing, and no disposable income for any complex ingredients that she isn't able to forage herself on the property. Not to mention the fact that Molly was only a short walk away and was always stocked up on Pepper-Up Potion, Sleeping Draught, Burn Balm, and anything else she could possibly need to soothe a sickly child.

Danu stands and pulls Lorna into her arms before nestling down on the sofa, Lorna's body temperature causing her to sweat beneath her coat as she wraps it and the blanket around the toddlers body. Severus bursts through the door, snow and his black cloak swirling in the air around him. In his left hand is two vials of potions: one red and the other dark purple. Lorna shifts in her arms, burying her face further into her chest as Severus' icy hand drifts across her forehead. She whimpers as Danu shift her head once more towards her father kneeling before them as he unstoppers the vials, pinches her cheeks to open her mouth, and simultaneously pours each vial down her throat. Lorna makes to spit them out, but Severus is faster, and clamps him hand down over her mouth until she swallows, her eyes too heavy to even open, her body too weak to protest. Danu smooths the hair from her sweaty face and rocks her gently as steam erupts from her ears, carrying the fever away with it. Lorna sighs in relief, coughs once, and stretches in her arms, the dark purple Sleeping Drought that Severus has given her already taking effect.