Chapter Text
Thank you for reading! I don’t own any of Harry Potter! Please let me know if you enjoy! Updates every Saturday!
—————————————————————
As wizarding Britain slowly began to shake off the ashes of the second wizarding world war, no one was more disappointed to have survived then Severus Snape.
Hogwarts’ headmaster had been less then thrilled to have awoken in the hospital after closing his eyes as he bled, with Nagini’s poison coursing through his veins, in that abandoned corner of the castle’s boathouse.
His irritation had doubled when the healers of St. Mungo’s had assisted him in making a full recovery some weeks later, only to eventually earn his release and return to his post.
As he sat in his office early one Thursday morning after another sleepless night, he scowled as he looked around at all of the portraits on the wall.
Misery.
Misery, pain, sacrifice, and loneliness, life had always been the same for Severus Snape.
………..And always would be the same for him too.
He sat down in the high-backed chair behind his regal desk just as a knock came at the door.
Severus shut his black eyes for a split second and let out a breath of pure frustration.
His bones still ached from the aftermath of his injuries and he would be forced to stand after he…..had…..just…….sat……down.
“Yes………..?” He barked more than spoke, the smoothness gone from his voice then, leeched by his own aggravation.
The door gradually opened and in stepped two of his former students he had less than favoured.
Hermione Granger and Ron Weasley entered his office with a seemingly shared sense of unease, their steps too gingerly and their eyes too wide.
“Granger, Weasley……..” Severus scowled, “If the two of you wish to inquire about returning for your final year once the next term begins, you’ll need to-“
“-Sorry, Professor Snape, but we haven’t come to ask about enrolling.” Hermione interrupted.
Ron frowned at Severus.
A tense silence passed while Severus’s black eyes darted between his unexpected visitors.
“I…….I heard everything went well with your recovery, sir?” Hermione asked with a smile.
Severus held up a hand and kept his scowl as he spoke, “Spare me the niceties. My recovery is none of your concern, Granger. What business have you two come on?”
“Forgive us, sir, but…….we’’ve come to ask for your help………We need to brew a Tonilingesy Nerve Tonic.” Hermione confessed.
Severus’s scowl remained as he responded, “……….That-“
“-Is far beyond the scope of a Hogwart’s education.” Hermione nodded, “We understand, sir, and that’s why we’ve come to you for help. You see, Ron’s tried.”
Severus smirked.
“I’ve tried.” Hermione frowned, “And it goes wrong every time. Please, Professor Snape, will you help us?”
“Tonilingesy Nerve Tonic is among the hardest medicinal potions to brew.” Severus drawled as he stepped out from behind his chair and began to glide across the floor, his black robes swinging like the wings of a great, black bat.
The light in the room glinted off his ghostly white face as he continued speaking, his black eyes boring into Ron’s, then Hermione’s, “Tonilingesy Nerve Tonic can easily be fatal if overdosed by a single drop, used as a last resort for the mad and deranged………Why would either of you have need of such a mixture?”
“It’s not for us, Professor.” Ron frowned, “It’s for Harriet.”
Severus’s black eyes narrowed to slits.
“The Potter girl saw that the battle was won.” He scoffed.
“Yes,” Hermione nodded, “The healers aren’t certain what exactly has been the cause, if it was the Killing Curse when she was a baby or the Horcrux in her being destroyed…..but, sir, haven’t you heard?”
Severus stayed silent.
“Not more then an hour after Voldemort’s death, she started screaming.” Hermione confessed.
She and Ron wore similar expressions of sadness as she went on, “We couldn’t make her stop, the healer’s can’t calm her, she just, we can’t help her and-“
“-Where is Potter now?” Severus snapped.
“St. Mungo’s.” Ron nodded.
“She’s been there all these weeks.” Hermione frowned, “Screaming and wailing, strapped down like some sort of animal and-“
As Hermione broke off in tears, she quickly wiped her face with one hand as Ron gripped her other.
If the gesture surprised Severus in any way, he made no outward acknowledgement as he answered, “I will visit Potter when the day is over. If Tonilingesy Nerve Tonic may assist in her restoration, then perhaps I may be able to brew a vial.”
“Thank you, sir!” Hermione sniffed as a smile lit up her tear-stained face.
“Thanks, Professor Snape.” Ron nodded.
“……..For a fee, of course.” Severus added, “The ingredients are very difficult to find and the….proper…..brewing process is time-consuming. Make no mistake, it will be a burden.”
“……..We understand, sir.” Hermione nodded. Ron murmured something to her but she squeezed his hand to silence him as she vowed, “We’ll pay any price.”
As Severus watched the two leave his office, he had no real intention to charge them a single galleon.
Worry gnawed at his heart as guilt pulled his soul to the bottom of despair.
Had he sacrificed so much to protect Lily’s daughter only for her to end up a raving lunatic?
—————————————————————-
That night, Severus kept his word to Hermione and Ron.
Once the day at Hogwarts had concluded, Severus journeyed from the castle to St. Mungo’s and shortly after his arrival, found himself led down a long, white hallway by a nurse in a starched, white uniform.
“I must warn you, sir,” The elderly nurse frowned as she took a magical key from her pocket and unlocked the heavy door in front of them at the corridor’s end, “This may be very hard to see…..and harder yet to hear.”
“I am no stranger to tragedy, madam.” Severus assured her in his decadent voice.
The nurse nodded as she unlocked the door and pushed it open.
Although he was in fact no stranger to tragedy, Severus’s dark eyes still widened at the heart-wrenching shriek that immediately met his ears once the door cracked opened.
A loud, grating sound that seemed to never end, instead of running away, the noise sent him flying into the room.
His breath stopped for just a moment once he found Harriet.
Lying on the bed, wrapped only in a thin hospital sheet, if he hadn’t recognized her mother’s green eyes, he wouldn’t have known her at all.
Her arms and legs were tied in rough, leather restraints, her body emaciated and starving, her face hollow, lips cracked, eyes bloodshot from lack of rest.
Severus stared at her with his brow furrowed in horrified silence.
Harriet stared back at him as she screamed that horrible scream, that piercing wail of terror.
“There’s nothing we’ve been able to do to soothe her since she came to us!” The nurse explained in a shout as she joined Severus in the room.
Severus slowly walked towards Harriet while her nauseating scream echoed off the wall.
He stopped beside the bed and gazed down at her while his heart silently broke.
In his memory, Lily smiled as a child.
In his memory, Harriet smiled with the same cheek of her father but she was healthy and well.
The nurse moved suddenly behind him and Severus turned.
As he did, the motion sent just a bit of his black cape brushing into Harriet’s hand.
……………And around that bit of dark fabric, her hand closed.
Severus and the nurse looked at each other wide-eyed as that awful, intolerable scream was suddenly silenced.
They immediately glanced down at Harriet, who looked over at the bit of Severus’s cloak she clutched in her hand.
“Oh my goodness!” The nurse exclaimed as she scurried over to her patient’s bedside.
Severus’s dark eyes stayed wide as Harriet’s green eyes turned to gaze up at him, unfocused but accurate regardless, even without her glasses.
“Oh sir, forgive me for making such an assumption, but are you her mate?” The nurse asked.
From Severus’s tall, commanding prescense to the deep richness of his scent, smoked amber and old parchment, only a fool would have taken him for anything other than an alpha.
“………No.” He said with a quick shake of his head as hd met the nurse’s eyes, “A ridiculous assumption indeed, I’m an acquaintance, nothing more.”
“Well, you certianly have an effect on the girl!” The nurse laughed, “Look there! As soon as she’s gotten hold of you, she’s quieted down! Nearly a month and we haven’t been able to soothe her, she won’t sleep, she won’t eat, but in you strolled in tonight and just like that……she’s settled!”
Severus looked back at Harriet.
Harriet’s eyes never left his face.
The path to Voldemort in his miserable teenage mind had been clear.
To his fear-ridden adult thoughts, the path to goodness had opened.
For once in his life, while Harriet gazed up at him, the physical connection between them the only thing holding her from unimaginable torment, Severus Snape had absolutely no idea what to do next.