Heart of the Guardian

5. Ashwagandha Tea

She knew. He knew she knew. She knew he knew she knew. He fumed. He demanded. He all but ordered her to tell him, but she held firm.

"It's not mine to tell, Severus. If you want to know, you'll have to ask Potter. I'm sorry. That's my final word." Then – patting him again, drat the woman! – she stood up and left. Just left him there. With that.

He waited. He was having a hard time thinking, unable to make it make sense. What? He shook his head, trying to clear it, clear the confused whirl of thoughts. He waited some more.

Fred Weasley...

He looked to his right, toward Poppy's office. She was chatting with Smethwyck. He drummed his fingers on his knees, put his head in his hands, and shook it again, narrowing his eyes.

Potter... Voldemort... What?

He picked up his wand and Accio'd his slippers. He banished them. He brought them back. He scowled, realizing he was behaving like some first year fool of a student with their first wand. Maybe second year. He picked up the potions book Potter had been reading. The boy had been using a bit of folded parchment for a bookmark. He opened it to see what had captured the boy's interest – that morning?Yesterday? He couldn't think... – and his attention was caught by the once-familiar scrawl. Curious, he opened the parchment to read what the boy had written.

Ashwagandha root tea decoction - reduce stress, enhance libido (what's that?) and calm nerves. Useful as a tonic for chronic inflammatory conditions. Acts as a mild sedative. Botanical name: somnifera. Best taken in evening.

1 teaspoon powdered or chopped Ashwagandha root (Sn = crushed), 1/8 teaspoon Long Pepper (Sn = crushed)
Brew ten minutes in hot water.

Blood purifying potion -

2 parts burdock root and comfrey (Sn = 2/3 comfrey, 1/3 root)
1 part wormwood
1 part nettle
1 part peppermint (Sn = fresh)
(Sn = Brew on a Monday; one cw. for ea. 3 ccw., can be re-heated using warming spell)

Detoxifying oil - 10 drops Cypress; 10 drops Fennel; 10 drops Juniper. (Sn = 8 drops Cypress, 10 Fennel, 9 Juniper. Store in grn. bttl. Keep out of sunlight)

It took him a moment to work out that "Sn" was Potter's indication that he had copied out not only the author's instructions, but also Snape's own hand-written annotations. It took him several more moments to realize the potions could possibly be considered appropriate for his current condition. And it took him a full minute to begin laughing, albeit shakily, at Potter's "What's that?" after the word "libido".

***

Potter entered the ward backward, concentrating on a tray bearing a steaming tea pot and a mug, hovering waist high behind him – or was it in front of him? Snape had time to drop his arms and draw his sleeves down to his wrists.

Each wound he had touched had brought back, in exquisitely painful detail, a strike of the giant snake.

Nagini... Kill.

Fred...

He fought down bile, fought – unsuccessfully – the shivers that overtook him. His blood turned to ice as remembered terror – not for him, but for the end of any possible chance to help the boy – turned his intestines to water.

He's alive. It's over. He's safe, he had been thinking, over and over, in an attempt to calm himself, ease the pain in his gut.

Fred...