To Tame A Wild Heart || Book One (An Open SS Fan fiction)

CHAPTER 26 : An Old Man's Greed*

Reminder:

Italic = Past memory.

Bold italic = Dumbledore thinking of another past memory.

Dumbledore's POV:

I was sitting at my desk reading twelve uses of Dragon's blood when I heard a knock at my door. It was extremely late in the evening so I was bewildered by the sudden visit. Nonetheless, I got up and opened the door.

It was Severus and he was in an awful state. His hair was tangled, sweat beaded across his forehead. His robes were dusted with snow and dirt. 

I immediately opened the door wider for him. He stumbled inside limping slightly in a sour mood. Silently, he went up to the wine bottles and poured himself a glass of the expensive whiskey he gifted me on my birthday.

He emptied the liquid in one shot and poured himself another glass. With the glass in hand, he whirled around and sat in front of my desk. There was a massive book in his hands that he placed on my desk with a thud.

"Here is the book you wanted," he said impassively after he drank the second glass in one shot.

I hurried to my desk and sat on the chair behind it. "Severus my dear boy, what happened to you?"

At once, he met my eyes crossly but his face remained monotone. Over the years, I got used to the potions master hiding his emotions behind a mask but I was sometimes able to read what was behind that mask. 

At that moment, I could sense extreme rage and anger that he tried to hide behind the cold mask. Feeling that anger, I gave him a few moments to let him answer me at his own pace.

He kept staring up at me, his expression indifferent. His mouth kept opening and closing signifying that he didn't know how to start. After a while he nodded subtly to himself.

"I just came from a mountain in Antarctica...a bloody mountain Dumbledore. So excuse my appearance for it shouldn't astonish you, it's completely natural. However what should be astonishing, is how I made it back alive when I was forced to deal with a psychopath who wanted to murder all of us?"

I was confused but it was clearly evident that the wizard was angry and the last thing I wanted was to feed his anger even more. Severus lowered his gaze to address the wounds on his thighs. He was mumbling a few healing charms on them making them disappear one by one.

I sighed, "I truly apologize for the conundrum I put you through Severus, I wasn't aware that –"

Severus at once looked up at me, "I know you weren't aware! No one was. How could we have known? How could we have known that the one person we were looking for is the one person who wants to murder a poor girl who doesn't even know him?"

"She was just lying there, between life and death. A corpse that was barely breathing. I promised myself I would give her a future and I couldn't even save her when she was inches from me. All I could do was to bring her to the hospital wing before I came here to you."

He paused to took a deep breath, "I am not here to blame you Albus, I am here to ask you one question, was it worth it? Was losing her life worth whatever you were looking for in the book?"

His question took me by surprise. I didn't know how to respond. I was more confused than before and I stared back at the onyx eyes that demanded answers.

"Are you speaking about Florina, Severus? Was she hurt?" I said cautiously.

"Hurt!" Severus exclaimed unable to stop himself "Dumbledore, she is in a coma. A coma! The psychopathic Augustus used her to free himself from his chains. Once he was free, he possessed her and I don't know what the hell he did to her. But once I was free from the loop of a cave he trapped me in, me and the elf found her buried deep in the snow. Buried ALIVE in the snow!"