The Princess and The Half Blood Prince

Nightmares

Stranger fell in front of me. A dark shadow stood a few feet away laughing. No!! I cried out and tried to reach him. The further I reached the further away he seemed to be. The forest closed in around me.

I was standing in a dark tunnel. Stranger stood at the end a tiny light shinning behind him. He turned from me and started walking away. I gave chase.
"Please don't go!" I cried after him.

The scene changed again I was in my house. A little girl no more than nine stood at the end of a long hall way.
"Ruth?"
She turned from me.
"Wait please! Ruth I'm sorry!"

Then I was standing in a room. Bodies littered the floor. Stranger was there now laying dead. Four faces I remember distinctly. A shadow stood in front of a cold fire place.

It turned to me with a wide white razor toothed grin. "It's all your fault." A nonhuman voice said. The mouth hadn't moved. It only grinned.

Then the face changed suddenly. I was looking into Stranger's face. "It's all your fault." He growled at me.

The face switched and switched repeating over and over again, "It's all your fault, ITS all your fault! ITS ALL Your fault! ITS ALL YOUR FAULT!!"

I jerked awake heart pounding. My back no longer hurt. My eyes burned. My throat felt as if I had been screaming for a thousand years.

Severus Snape sat in the chair next to me, watching me intently. With steady hands he poured me a glass of water. I took it and sucked it down in one gulp.

"What's the matter Professor?" I asked meekly.
"I'm covering for Madame Pomfrey for a few hours."
"Oh." I didn't know what else to say.

I had fallen asleep in his robe. It had an oddly sweet scent to it. It reminded me of cool autumn evenings.

"Madame Pomfrey instructed me to check your wound periodically. I was about to wake you."

"Ok sir. Whenever you're ready." He turned his back to I could undo the buttons.

Once I was as decent as one can get when needing to be half naked he carefully undid the dressing. He made a noise of surprise. I knew what he had found. The wound was gone. Already healed completely.
"I will instruct Madame Pomfrey to look for any underlying damage, but your injuries seem to have healed."

"Right." I brought his robes a little closer to my face, taking one last deep breathe of his scent. "Let me get changed Professor and I'll give these back to you."
"Very well." He closed the curtain around my bed.

I stood and slipped out of my skirt. I pulled my pants up. They were more like soft leggings, super comfortable. Thank you Gabby. Then I slipped my tank top over my head. Gabby hadn't brought one of my over shirts so it would have to do. The top of the bodice was lacy and showed off my boobs quite well.

I opened the curtain. Snape took the robes from me trying extremely hard not to let his gaze wander. I still watched him drink it in. My green eyes, crimson hair, fair skin, his eyes lingered on a wolf shaped scar on my neck for a moment before he moved on to my chest. His gaze drifted back up to my eyes again. I could see the want in his eyes. I could also see the hesitation there.

I drank him in as well for a moment. Like all good things it didn't last.
"Hagrid brought your dog back." He was trying to sound sympathetic.
"Stranger." A tear slid down my cheek unbidden. I quickly wiped it away. "I would like to lay him to rest first thing in the morning."
"Whenever you're released. You may go there immediately."
I gave a nod.
"I'm sorry Ira." His voice cracked. I saw a tear fall before he swept his hand down his face.
"I got him in Ireland. He was training to be a police dog when he was injured. They brought him into the vet clinic I was interning at for the summer. They were going to put him down because they had trained him to attack, but he would be to old to enter the force once his injuries finished healing." I felt another tear drop. I'm not even sure why I was telling this story. " I begged the captain to let me take him in. He agreed on the condition that I kept up his training once the vet cleared him. So I did. He's been by my side ever since with more than few bites under his belt keeping me safe. I didn't even need him to protect me. I just had to save him that day." I was full on crying now.
Severus stepped towards me. "May I?"
I shook my head yes.
He wrapped his arms around me pulling me into his chest. He held me tightly for a long while. He laid his head on top of mine, breathing in my scent.
"I should have been there." He whispered.

I looked up into his eyes. "You didn't know. There's no way you could have prevented this."

He stroked my hair. I wanted nothing more than to kiss him. To kiss him and pretend like I wasn't the shattered remains of a human being.

His hand came back to my face wiping away my tears. He leaned down and pressed his lips to my forehead. I wrapped my arms around his waist burying myself deeper into his chest.

Eventually he brought me over to the chair. He sat down pulling me into his lap. Where I laid with my face buried in his neck while he stroked my hair until I was asleep.

I woke up again to Madame Pomfrey shaking me gently. "Let me check your back Miss. Severus said it had healed quite nicely by the time he checked last night."

I raised up sliding the tank top over my head, but leaving it around my arms so it would cover my chest. I felt as she poked and prodded where the deepest parts of the cut had been. It didn't hurt.

"Miss Greyson, if you don't mind my asking."
"With all respect Madame, I do mind." That was a story I never wanted to tell.
"All's good then. If you ever need to talk Miss Greyson, stop in any time." She said in the way that crones do when they know you probably won't do something but feel they need to be polite.

"Thank you." I smiled. I really did appreciate the offer.

"One last thing. Professor Snape asked me to send you to his office once I cleared you."

"I'll head that way. Thank you Madam Pomfrey." I waved to her as the doors closed behind me.