Snape's New Flower

The Hospital Wing

The pain in my arm woke me hours after the sun went down, the only light being from the moon shining in through the tall, arched windows. Disoriented, I sat up in my bed and cradled my arm to  my chest, gritting my teeth. I was hoping to sleep through this part of the healing, having heard the first dose of Skele-gro was the worst, but I must have underestimated the severity of the break.

"Be quiet, the rest of us are trying to sleep," growled the shadow in the bed closest to me.

"Sorry," I answered, but as the word slipped out, so did the tears. I began to cry, not from the pain, but because of what it meant. We were attacked. We were at war. Some of my classmates were dead and I could be too, just as easily. I tried to hold back the tears, but it was no use. The people in the other beds begin to stir, bringing me back to reality. I should leave. Let them have their rest, before the losses we have endured hits them tomorrow. Just as it did me.

I cautiously swung my feet over the side of my bed, careful to not move my arm, but right as my feet made contact with the floor, the shadow began to growl again.

"You're fine. We're safe now," it reassured me. "Get some sleep, or Madam Pomfrey with break your other arm."

I laughed through my tears and tried to get a glimpse of him, but found the tears had blurred my vision. His voice, however, was recognizable- I just couldn't put a name to it. I decided to trust him anyway, the urgency to get this off my chest overpowering my better judgement.

"I know we're safe, but I don't feel safe. We were attacked. People died. The school was destroyed. We might have won, but-"

He cut me off, "you'll never be satisfied if you focus on the 'buts' and 'what ifs'. We did win. The rest doesn't matter."

I choked up, the blood rushing to my head, "of course it matters! We could have lost just as easily as we won." But after his silence, I felt it was too harsh and brought my voice back down to a whisper, and explained "I almost died out there."

The figure hesitated for a moment, then arose from his bed and sat down next to me, in almost complete silence. We sat there like that for a few minutes, me sobbing, him listening. It should have been uncomfortable, but the only thing worse than crying in front of a stranger right now, was being alone with my grief.

He waited until the tears had dried on my skin to confess, "I almost died too."

I lifted my head and moved my hair out of my eyes to look at him now. His solemn face wasn't looking back at me, or at anything else in the room. His deep set eyes were not present at all. It scared me, but it comforted me all the same. He understood.

I knew I should have left it at that, thanked him for talking to me and gone back to bed. If I was feeling brave, I could have even asked him what it was he went through. There were lots of ways to go from here, so why did I choose to burst into tears and bury my face in his chest.

Professor Snape's chest.

I awaited his scolding, for his arms to reach out in disgust and push me away, but it never came. Instead, I could have sworn he leaned back into me, his chest contracting as if sobbing with me, but an empty one leaving no sound to be heard. He stayed still as a rock, letting me cry until I ran out of tears, just as the faint morning light started peering in the hospital wing.

When I pried myself away from him, I could feel his body tense up before returning to his bed beside me. We said nothing before we fell back asleep, feeling lighter than before.