Promise to the Past | 🐾 ᴍᴀʀᴀᴜᴅᴇʀs ✓

27 | Suspicious Excuses

 "Bloody fucking hell," Andromeda burst out in a moment of uncharacteristic discomposure. 

Severus and Mary looked up from Sirius's still body in surprise. They'd hardly noticed when the trio apparated in. 

"I thought I told you to stay out of the way, Potter," Snape snarled impatiently. 

"You try telling that to them," James rolled his eyes, gesturing to the inpatient women. 

"Get on with it, Snape. I can help you siphon the curse," Meda instructed tersely, immediately knowing what her cousin suffered from. 

"Lily, could you help me?" Mary called out. "The injuries keep reappearing faster than I can heal them."     

"Of course," Lily stuttered, quickly dropping to her knees next to Mary. 

James watched in numb shock as the four diligently worked over his best mate's body. It was nearly an hour of grueling, silent work. As the time passed, the wisps of black magic drifting up from Sirius's chest became thinner and thinner until Snape and Meda finally paused in their relentless work.    

"Is he okay?" James asked hoarsely. 

"I don't know," Snape responded after an uncertain bout of silence from both of them. "If he wakes up, he'll be through the worst of it." 

"If ?" Lily cried in distress. 

Severus's eyes softened on his old friend, nodding shortly. "It took us longer than it should've to siphon the curse. We don't know if his body will hold up against all that damage." 

"What do we do?" James asked. 

"We wait." Snape shrugged. 

"What I want to know," Andromeda began silently, turning a piercing gaze to Snape. "Is how my cousin seemingly absorbed the curse that hit Miss Dumbledore." 

"What?" Lily blanched. 

"Hermione was hit with the same curse as this one," Meda told her. "Yet she was healed easily by Narcissa even before I began to siphon the curse. That's not possible." 

"You'd said they were cursed by Dolohov," Mary's eyes widened. "But James said Sirius was nowhere near Dolohov." 

James turned an irate gaze to the stoic wizard. "What the bloody hell is happening, Snape?" 

He merely scoffed under the scrutiny. "Perhaps you should ask your fool of a friend," he sneered at their ungrateful tone. "If he wakes." 

"Severus..." Lily warned softly. 

Snape sighed, closing his eyes in frustration. "Fine," he bit out. "I certainly have no obligations to keep his damn secrets." 

The others looked at him expectantly. Sirius had kept something from all of them? Something that Severus Snape, of all people, had been privy to? 

"The night we went to Pettigrew's hideout, Hermione was hit one of Bellatrix's curses," Snape recalled unemotionally. "It was draining her magical core- she was fading fast. We were going to bring her back to Dumbledore until we realized she didn't even have that much time left. Black made me facilitate one of the old bonding rites so it would counter the curse." 

The entire room seemed to freeze. 

Meda looked to her cousin in pitying concern. "You fool," she whispered sadly. 

"I don't understand," Lily asked confused. "What bonding rites?" 

"They've been outlawed for at least a century," James spoke in surprise. "It's blood magic."