“beyond wandpoint” 020 by gingerbred
Mar. 20th, 2019 01:29 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
beyondwandpoint“11 09a Sunday - Severus Wakes”
Albus breaks his idea to Severus...
Severus, Albus
Originally Published: 2017-11-24 on AO3
Chapter: 020
Pairing: Hermione Granger / Severus Snape
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Major Character Death, Rape/Non-Con
Just as Poppy had promised, Severus begins to come to. He reaches for Albus' robes, clutching them earnestly, and despite his state manages to choke out a hoarse, "Miss Granger?"
Albus couldn't be more thrilled.
He begins in a rush of what might even be reassuring words about said witch's condition, she's shaken, but mostly fine, and waxes nearly lyrical about what a magnificent effort the rescue was, truly heroic...
"Praise, Albus? What distasteful thing do you want me to do next?" Severus interrupts the litany.
At which point Albus smoothly changes the tune, and possibly orchestra and venue as well, and weaves in something about how he'd like for Severus to bond with the witch to continue to keep her safe.
Oof.
Or at least that's how Severus will recall it. It was all rather overwhelming.
He's having extreme difficulty parsing any of it.
He tries again. "She's alright?"
"Yes, Severus. Thanks to you." Severus thinks he disagrees, but he can't seem to remember the facts of the matter quite yet. It will come back to him, he's sure. Albus, for his part, is pleased with the man's priorities.
"And you want what from me?" He rasps.
Albus hands the poor man a glass of water to help him recover, or at least his voice, as he explains. "Severus, I fear the threat is very real." Severus snorts softly at that. If it weren't, he wouldn't be lying here; that much he remembers. "I would like you to bond the young woman under a Fidelity Vow. To keep her safe. To keep both of you safe."
Albus wants. Albus always wants. Albus usually gets, the blackguard. Severus fights to scrape together what he knows of 'bonding'. It seems to be a losing battle at present. No, he's failing on all fronts. Coming up quite empty. Hasn't a clue. Woman... Women aren't problematic... That may or may not be accurate, but 'woman' wasn't the worrisome part. He scans that sentence for any other words he recognises, and then alights on one that alarms him. Greatly.
"Bloody hell. You mean for me to never have sex again." Severus is feeling a bit sluggish and thick, but that thought wormed its way into his addled brain. He's vaguely ashamed that this was the thing he chose to focus on, and even more so that he apparently was fool enough to voice it, but in his defence, he's only just regained consciousness. Fortunately he's still in enough of a haze that he doesn't give himself too much grief for the thoughts. Instead, he's currently trying to remember when the last time was that he'd had a bit of the old 'how's your father', and then shudders to think that would have been his last go. Oh, for fuck's sake.
Quite, in fact.
"Perhaps," Albus seems to assent. Or dissemble. It's frequently hard to tell with him. Particularly when one isn't exactly in command of one's faculties. Severus has difficulty for a moment just remembering the question he must have posed. Fucking hell.
He struggles to think this through. "Or shall I hold out hope she doesn't survive?" This is absurd. Given he'd only just risked his life to get her out of harm's way, that can't be his answer.
"Probably not. We may need to establish that you would be severely injured were she to fall." Oddly, that doesn't prove the least bit comforting.
"I beg your pardon?" He's blinking a mite nervously, and looks for all the world rather like a young, startled bird. Something stork-like, maybe. But then that's uncharitable, Albus muses, and partially the result of the poor sod's pallor. Hardly unexpected after being comatose for almost two days. Albus chides himself for the slight, unvoiced though it was. The man truly deserves better from him.
"So there would be no temptation on the part of certain parties to eliminate her," he explains patiently, but the dark wizard still doesn't find it all that reassuring.
"Or to ensure that there is even more. Albus..." He sounds very worried, and Albus is pleased to note Severus' concern has shifted to the young woman's welfare, and not his own. Yes, this has promise.
"Calm yourself, Severus. We have time to think about that in more detail once you've come to yourself. Why don't you tell me about Friday night?"
"The events at the Manor or here?"
"Both, if you've the strength for it."
"I'll find it." Doing so appears to be quite the exertion. "The Manor was... wretched. Beyond wretched. I..." He swallows and tries again. The strain is visible in his face, and Albus feels vindicated in his plans for the man. "They had a number of Muggles prisoner. I doubt they survived the night. If they did, they'll wish they hadn't." He sounds hollow. "There was nothing I could do. It was enough to not be forced to... participate."
"Severus, you should know by now, you can't save them all."
"All, Albus? I couldn't save a one."
"You saved Miss Granger."
"I doubt the threat was remotely the same."
"You did what you could. Give yourself credit for that."
"And yet you're telling me it wasn't enough. Or why suggest a bonding? And why me?" Strangely, this whole plot isn't coming as quite the shock it probably should have been, perhaps he's just come to expect the worst.
"Patience, Severus. In time." There's a slight pause, and then, "You made use of a house elf." It's a statement and not a question. But if he had all the facts, they shouldn't even be discussing it. Severus wonders if the point is simply to rebuke him. It's feeling like that kind of day, and he's only been awake for mere minutes of it. He's learnt to trust his instincts. "To transport students within the castle," Albus further prompts, as though Severus didn't know full well what he meant.
"The boys were Confunded, Albus. It won't be a problem. They have retained no information from the encounter to share. There's no risk whatsoever there. And the Apparition itself occurred within a Notice-Me-Not and Muffliato. None of the portraits or even anyone conceivably lurking would have been able to see or hear a thing."
"Except for the boys failing to reappear from the Notice-Me-Not as you did..."
"They could have continued to be under a Notice-Me-Not, or I could have Disillusioned them. Rumour has it I am quite proficient at both spells." His eyebrow arches in that provocative way of his, and for the first time Albus feels like Severus is truly going to recover. "That's not the problem. The problem, if you wish to concern yourself about something, was I determined that Sunny was able to both hear and find me within both of those spells. Neither approach will help as a defensive tactic if they ever think to weaponise the elves."
"Should they ever do so, we have very grave problems indeed," Albus agrees sombrely. "What made you think to try it?"
Reluctantly, Severus admits, "I wasn't thinking and simply called for him, having forgotten it shouldn't work." His lips are drawn, and he hastens to add, "But I wasn't careless, Albus. I even carried Miss Granger up here to avoid another instance of elf magic, especially as she was neither Confunded nor Obliviated. I was extremely cautious."
"Carried, Severus?" Albus prods in that irksome way of his that gets under Severus' skin.
"She couldn't walk, and I couldn't leave her there," he snaps in reply.
"If you say so, Severus."
"What was I supposed to do, Albus? Honestly? Just leave her there? Traumatised and rendered mute? Or were you expecting non-verbal magic in her state? With that potion coursing through her system? She could neither defend herself nor summon help.
"Should I have sent her ahead with Sunny? And then what, Confund her after everything else she'd been through? She couldn't have even called for Poppy or explained what happened with the Muffliato, even less so with a Confundus.
"No," he sounds quite positive, "I had no other choice."
"You are a good man, Severus, despite what you would have people believe." All that gets him is a silent glare. To be fair, if he weren't trying to convince the younger man to take part in a very questionable scheme, the praise may have seemed more credible. As it is, Severus thinks he's being softened up. He is, but the statement is no less true.
"Why don't you tell me about the Manor first," Albus spurs him on, sensing they're getting nowhere with kind words. And so he does. In full, gory detail for once. Albus encourages Severus to keep talking, as he needs to accurately gauge how bad things have become, and how desperate the man lying before him might be.
It's bad.
They both feel ill by the time the account's finished, and then there's still the report of the boys' attack to cover, as well as all the information Severus was able to glean in the process through the Legilimency.
It was rather a lot.
Miss Granger's memories of Friday evening had given the Headmaster a good idea of what to expect, but without the benefit of Severus' Legilimency, she had gotten a few things wrong. As she wasn't privy to the boys' thoughts, she had underestimated the threat Mr. Zabini represents while seriously overestimating Mr. Goyle's. In all fairness, that had corresponded with Severus' expectations as well.
Her long-standing antipathy towards Mr. Goyle will have played a critical role. Subconsciously, their appearances and social skills will also have made a difference, although the witch is less susceptible towards that influence than most. Likewise, she won't have been clear on the motivations for Severus' Obliviations, to what extent it was cover for his Legilimency, but just how much he had sought to protect her in the process.
Albus takes that as another ray of hope for his plans.
A/N:
I hope those of you who celebrated Thanksgiving had nice times with friends and family. (We haven't got that here, but oddly we have the sales.)
In the spirit of that holiday, I'd like to thank everyone for reading, the kudos, the bookmarks, and most especially for the comments. You're lovely, and it's greatly appreciated.