Accio Evans

Chapter 12: Hospital Wing

Recap: Sirius is carted up to Dumbledore's office where he fails top give up the culprit of the permanent ink fiasco. Dumbledore decided as Sirius doesn't know, there is no-one to punish and Sirius skips off to the hospital wing to rid himself of the ink.

Lily and James, whilst on patrol, laugh about this. Once they reach the dungeon, Severus Snape appears from the shadows and hexes James, throwing James against the wall, Lily stuns him and runs to James, who is badly hurt. Remus and Alice appear from their patrol and run to get McGonagall and Madame Pomfrey. Severus Snape admits that he is completely in love with Lily as he watched her attend to him. Lily kisses James and despite the pain, James thinks it is perfect. Sirius is incredibly upset that he can't go and see James and is comforted by Hestia, the awkwardness seems to have lifted somewhat. Lily returns, is embraced by Sirius, and retires to bed early, where she is comforted by Hestia and she admits she thought she had lost James before he'd got chance to tell him how she felt.

He wasn't sure when the last time he'd been in this room, if he ever had; it was unusual with its portraits wallpapered across the walls and odd trinkets adorning the shelves, a strange plate like object glittering in a locked cabinet. A bird of golden feathers, sat on the perch opposite him, he didn't often describe things as beautiful, but this bird was quite possibly one of the most beautiful things he had ever seen, with feathers the cold of gold, burnished copper and startling red, it was truly beautiful. The bird watched the man sat the other side of the desk to Severus, then its eyes flicked him back to him. The other man sat across him was speaking but Severus didn't hear a word. Whatever the man was saying was useless, it was unimportant; his only thought the potion bubbling away locked in a cupboard in the spare classroom in the dungeons.

Professor Dumbledore knew Severus Snape was not listening to a single word he said, it was evident from the glassy eyed gaze he surveyed Fawkes with, vacant but concentrated, something was occupying his mind and it certainly was not the lecture his Headmaster was supposed to be giving him.

"Yes, Hippogriffs are apparently very good pets, I'm thinking of replacing all the teachers in the school with them, dragons maybe? Might even get a centaur in too." The Professor digressed; no element of recognition played across Snape's face. If the Professor needed further proof of Snape's wandering mind, the student nodded simply, his eyes still focused on Fawkes, whose gaze was flicking between his master and the unknown student in front of them. The pause in the Headmaster's dulcet tones seemed to bring Severus' attention back to him.

"Is there something you'd like to tell me Severus?" the Professor asked seriously, reminded of Professor McGonagall's stern expression as she had hauled the Slytherin up to the Headmaster's office and sombre expression as she explained the condition she had found the Head Girl and Boy in down in the dungeons and relayed the story that Lily had tearfully explained to her only minutes previous. Snape smirked, the rest of his face thoroughly bored, he honestly had better things to do than talk about the bloody git that is James Potter; but in truth he wanted to avoid the aching in his chest that intensified every time he thought of that git. James had won and Severus had lost, Lily had chosen James and she'd shunned him. Yes, he had hexed James Potter; he deserved it, nothing more to be said.

"No Professor." Snape replied somewhat sarcastically.

Inwardly, the Professor sighed; he could see exactly what was going on inside Snape's head, the jealousy, the vindictiveness, the hatred; it was evident in the harsh coal eyes. Dumbledore also knew the Slytherin student was lying, once James had been transported to the Hospital Wing, the Prefects and Head Girl had been summoned to relay their stories to him so he had a first-hand account of the incident, Snape had denied it all 'He hexed me first, I thought he was going to kill me.' He'd drawled; something which Lily had especially refuted.