Tarnished | Severus Snape [Book One]

Chapter Fourteen | First Day Jitters

Amel...

Amel...

Amelia...

The world came back to me.

As I slowly opened my eyes, my eyesight was blurred and lopsided. I managed to lift my hands up to my face, rubbing my eyes tiredly. I felt heavy, drowsy even, until I heard a familiar monotonous voice speak up from close by.

"Poppy, she came to," Severus said. I finally had the strength to open my eyes and notice myself laying in a small twin bed accompanied by rows of other beds between and across from me. There was a curtain wall beside me where I saw Severus sitting in one chair.

I heard bustling clacking coming this way and it was the shoes of what looked like the school nurse coming by with a stethoscope in his ears. She knelt towards me, laying the cold instrument against my heart and chest area.

I gasped from the cold and asked, "Where am I?"

"The Hospital Wing, dear." Said the healer, "My name is Madam Pomfrey. You could call me Poppy. So how are you feeling? Dizzy? Nauseous?"

"Fine," I replied, "Just a bit tired, that's all."

"Well, you seem fine. It could've been the first day jitters! One first year was so nervous, he fainted and fell off the Grand Staircase, if it wasn't for Filius Flitwick to cast a levitation charm on the boy, he'd be a pancake!" Madam Pomfrey said as she rushed to her small office connected at the end of the room.

Fell off? I looked at Severus and mouthed him I told you indicating the dangers of the Grand Staircase. He scoffed and rolled his eyes, shaking his head, but had a small chuckle at my remark.

Poppy came in with a vial of a potion and handed it to me.

"Here, my dear, for the nerves."

"Oh, no," I declined her offer shaking my head and gently pushing the vial towards her, "that's a sleeping draught. I don't feel comfortable sleeping here. I feel fine, really."

"Are you sure, dear?" Poppy assured, but Severus cut in, "I wmakemake sure Amelia makes it to her quarters, Poppy."

Eventually Poppy agreed and left us to retreat to my bedroom on the third floor. Severus had the idea to keep me lifted by holding my arm, but soon enough I was bothered.

"Okay," I chuckled nervously, "I don't need to be babied. I'm fine, first day jitters, Poppy said."

"Is that what you believe?" Severus asked and I gave him a look of uncertainty. But, I quickly looked away with a big smile and said, "Why else would my nervous clumsy self faint out of nowhere? I'm at Hogwarts! Assisting a class, living within its walls, hiding from You-Know-Who." I quickly frowned at the thought.

"You're safe now," Severus whispered.

We both walked through the corridors until we made it to my bedroom. "What time is it?" I questioned, leaning my back against the door and looked out the arch windows across the hall to see the glistening moonlight.

"Just pass midnight." Severus said, his hands behind his back, "We have a long day ahead of us."

I nodded, "You should go then. Its quite a ways back to the dungeons."

He nodded, turning around down the hall, but he stopped abruptly to face me and said, "are you sure you'll be fine?"

I gave him a warm smile and said, "I think I can manage a night without you, Severus."

He approached me slowly, leaning one hand against my door, his body a good few inches away, "I wouldn't want you passing out on your bedroom floor."