Eleanor Snape- Book 4

"Eleanor, I-"

I spend most of my time training, which meant I spent most of my time sleeping to anyone who didn't know what I was really doing. It got to the point where some of the staff was starting to worry about me. Infact, the only people who seemed relaxed about it was Uncle Severus, Dumbledore, and Slughorn, who kept reminding everyone that I was only a lazy teenager and that's my natural actions. 

The concern kept going until Flitwick finally escorted me to the Hospital Wing on September 1st, before everyone got there. I assured him over and over the whole way there that I was okay, but he said that it would make him feel much better if I would just go and get checked out. He wanted to know for himself that I was okay.

Of course, I was tired, too. When ever I trained it was as if I wasn't sleeping at all. So I was basically staying up almost twenty-one to twenty-two hours a day. Plus, I wasn't just sitting around when I really was awake. I was still jogging every morning. I would make two laps around the edge of the ground in the cool morning air. Afterwards, I would go back to bed and actually sleep. A couple hours later I would wake up, eat breakfast with everyone, then go back to training with my father. Then I would wake up for lunch. Back to training. Wake up for dinner. After dinner I would try to relax a bit by either helping Uncle Severus with anything he would need, or reading a book, or even just laying down in his office and talking. Afterwards, I would get ready for bed and train again. Then the cycle would start over. 

The lack of rest was starting to show. Underneath my eyes were dark and puffy. My pale skin made it look much worse then it really was. I told Flitwick this, and he actually agreed that that could be the case, although he still wanted me to be checked out. I reluctantly shook my head yes.

When we finally went into the Hospital Wing, Flitwick made me sit down on one of the many beds that lined the walls. Pomfrey was no where to be found. Flitwick looked around.

"Stay here. I'll get her." He sighed and waddled towards the back of the room. I rolled my eyes; this was a complete waste of time. I could be training instead of being uselessly examined. Also, it made me a bit nervous. What if she actually knew her stuff and found something odd...Something about my father....Or my Mark! What if she found my Mark?!

Despite my freaking out, I yawned and laid down on the bed, putting my head on the pillow. Would it hurt to get a little rest while I could? I closed my eyes and after a few minutes I drift into unconsciousness. But instead of sleeping like I wanted I was encountered by my father.

He was standing in the middle of my old basement, like usual, but everything else was different. Everything that was usually there was gone. It was unusually dark. I could barely see the panicked expression on his face. It was obvious that he was trying to hide it. He never tried to looked worried, but the fact that he was trying to hide it scared me. After all, he was dead. What was he to be worried about?

He also looked aged. It made me realize for the first time that he never aged when I saw him. He always looked the same, like he had before he got blown up. His hair was always the same and everything. Now I saw that his hair was longer and scruffy. The lines around his eyes and forehead was deeper then usual. Way deeper. I could see age on him. The hair on his face was long and scruffy; not quiet a beard but not quiet stubble. What scarred me the most was that he looked faded. Like someone put a wet goblet on a page of a magazine. I took a frightened step towards him.

"Father..." I couldn't find any other words to say. We stayed a couple seconds, just starring at each other. Finally, in one quick movement, he was right in front of me, one hand on each of my shoulders. He looked almost mad. My upper lip quivered for a moment.

"Listen, Eleanor." His voice was just a little bit more then a whisper. "There isn't much time." As if on cue, the little light that was there flickered like it did whenever I was about to wake. He looked up and silently cursed. 

"Time for wh-"

"Listen, ignorant girl! There's something important I have to tell you!" He started to fade way, along with most of the room. 

"Wha-"

"Eleanor, I'm-" And he disappeared. I was left floating in nothing but darkness., like a girl named Alice in a Muggle story that Sarah Beth had once told us. But after a moment that went away, too, and I was back to just looking at the back of my eyelids.

What had happened? What was that important that he needed to tell me? "Eleanor, I'm-", he didn't get to finish. He was what? Upping my training? Proud of me? Or maybe, if I dare hoped, that my innermost wishes were true and he was still alive. Was that it? 'Eleanor, I'm alive'. Could that have been it? No... to much wishful thinking. I saw the body....I saw it....

"Eleanor, are you awake?" Flitwick's voice pulled me out of my thoughts. I opened my eyes. "You're trembling. Are you okay?" 

"Yes..." I lied. Was I really okay?

"You look flushed." Madam Pomfrey put a hand on my forehead. "But you don't seem to be running a fever.

"That is because I am fine." I turned to Flitwick. "She checked me out. Can I leave now?" He chuckled, which made me feel terrible. I was being serious, and being laughed at when being serious is something people did to Sarah Beth or Gregory, not myself. 

"I'm just going to do a standard checkup. All the sleep you're getting and you're still tired. That's not healthy, Miss Snape." Pomfrey pulled a couple instruments out of a pocket onher robes. I stiffened and sat up.

"I don't need to-"

"Eleanor!" Suddenly, my Uncle came through the door to my rescue.

"Hello, Severus." Both the staff members greeted. My Uncle took my hand and helped me off the bed.

"Hello."

"Are you aware how much your niece has been sleeping?" Pomfrey questioned.

"Yes, I am. Are you implying that I do not know how to care for her?" He questioned. I looked up at him; he always knew how to fix these kind of things. "I think the Ministry wouldn't have let me have her if I wasn't going to do a sufficient job caring for her. And you can't do anything to her without my consent." The two teachers looked at him with blank faces. "Come, Eleanor."  My Uncle led me out of the Hospital Wing and took me on the long journey to his office. Once there he closed the door and turned to me.

"What were you thinking?!" He exclaimed. "They could have seen your Mark! Is that what you wanted?! You can't go flaunting it around!-"

"I didn't think about that until I was already there!" I interrupted. He suddenly stopped, annoyed that I cut into what he was saying. "Besides, that doesn't matter! My father tried to tell me something, but I woke up before he could. He said it was important." That information changed his whole demeanor 

"If it was that important, he's probably waiting for you now. Try to go to sleep."

"Okay..." I sat myself on the small love seat he had in his office. I laid down for a few moments without luck. I opened my eyes. "Uncle Severus?"

"Hm?" He looked up from the paper work he was doing.

"Do you think my father could still be alive?"

"I..." He trailed off. "I don't know, Eleanor."  

And with that I nodded my head, then closed my eyes again. This time I was successful in my attempts, and fell asleep in just a few minutes. But to my disappointment, my father never came.