Complications // Severus Snape

• Ch 27 Contentment •

We appeared at the gates of Hogwarts, where the storm was still raging on. As Severus had earlier predicted, I was rather weak upon arrival, and stumbled when attempting to walk on my own through the gate. Severus regarded me with an amused smirk, allowing himself a few moments of entertainment in the form of watching me hopelessly stagger, before he offered me aid.

"I swear, my muscles have degenerated since being in the Hospital Wing." I said as I helplessly sank into Severus's arms, feeling too weak to walk. Or perhaps it was due to the cold; I was, after all, wearing but a dressing gown, cloak and ankle boots. A rather odd ensemble, for which I was now most certainly paying the price.

"Or maybe I have frostbite," I said. "If I have frostbite, will I have to get my legs amputated?"

"That is a horrific Muggle practice." said Severus. "Frostbite can easily be treated with a single salve. Is this a recent development? Pull back your cloak." said Severus. I, still held up by Severus, pulled back the cloak, revealing my skin, which looked as pale as the snow around us.

Without another word, Severus conjured a floating stretcher, and lifted me onto it.

"Not again..." I murmured. "Wait, you can't take me back to the Hospital Wing—Madam Pomfrey will have my head when she sees I went outside..."

"What am I to do, then, take you to the Potions room?" said Severus sarcastically.

"Sure," I said.

"If you so desire." said Severus, and thus we commenced to the Potions room.

We made it there without hindrance, for all the students and staff were currently occupied with supper in the Great Hall. There was no patrol in the hallways at the moment, as there had been at this time after Sage was cursed; professors were beginning to lose caution, believing Sage's attack to be lone. She was still incapacitated, completely unresponsive in her bed across from mine in the Hospital Wing; and still no one had yet figured out which curse exactly it was that had been placed upon her.

Once inside the Potions room, Severus sent my floating stretcher to one side, and began working on the salve. I silently watched as he worked, chopping ingredients and forming a paste, nearly dancing as he glided around the Potions room, displaying a sense of ease which he seldom exhibited, even in my sole presence. While watching him I smiled, a task quite easily done; I had long ago gone numb to the cold and pain the frostbite had caused, for which I was quite thankful.

The salve was completed in no time; Severus soon approached me with a bowl of it in one hand and a cloth in the other.

"It is difficult to determine the affected areas, due to your complexion..." he said hesitantly.

"I may be pale, but I don't think that that's the problem. I think this room is too dark." I said.

"I prepared the salve without difficulty."

"Well, then, you should be able to apply it without difficulty—before my skin turns black, if you don't mind?"

Severus was rather unamused. He nevertheless applied the salve, seemingly with no trouble. Essentially, he had called me out on my paleness for no good reason.

"There." he said, stepping back a few moments later. "Do you feel warm?"

"Cold, actually. But that's only to be expected; we're in your classroom, after all."