Third Chance

Each day, he could feel himself getting better. Stronger. He could successfully lift a 10-pound dumbbell and curl it with his left arm. His leg was a lot less stiff. The flare-ups stopped happening as frequently. He stopped seeing everyone as torturers, as people with extreme intent to hurt him. His right side still struggled, though. His handwriting looked like a dog wrote it, and his right leg refused to bend. And nightmares still plagued every corner of his mind.

But it was much better than before.

As a result of his attack, he was also deathly afraid of snakes.

Deathly afraid.

Nagini’s hiss sounded in his ear nearly every living second.

How ironic. A Slytherin afraid of serpents. What his students must think of him now.

Dahlia was really patient with him. Severus trusted her more each day. He stopped flinching when she touched him, stopped thinking she was going to hurt him. 

Severus also started relearning how to walk again. He had a levitation charm placed on him that was supposed to help with lightening his weight so that his legs could support him. Dahlia even spent a day running around muggle shops and trying to change her gold into muggle currency so that she could buy a treadmill for him. Apparently it was easier than letting him practice around the hallways, but Severus suspected that she just wanted to try and fiddle with paper money. He wasn’t complaining, however. Dahlia started receiving more and more students suffering from falls and breaks and other injuries after it was made public that Severus Snape himself was living in the Infirmary. A few days ago, a young first-year Slytherin even got as far as sneaking inside the door to Dahlia’s quarters (the door was accidentally left open by Dahlia) and managed to surprise Severus into a nervous agony-filled fit that wouldn’t go away for ten minutes. After that, Dahlia started putting notices up around the castle saying that wanting to see Severus wasn’t an excuse to visit the Hospital Ward.

So he practiced walking, each day, in their living room. He was able to walk for twenty seconds without doubling over in pain, then thirty, then a minute, until he could walk multiple yards without weakly falling back- it was a good thing that the levitation charm prevented him from completely falling to the ground.

His legs still shook with spasms and the pain never left, but the trembling and weakness wasn’t so bad that he couldn’t move his legs in the walking motion.

Muggles sometimes took longer, he was told, but with the Muscle-Strengthening Potions and the other medicine he took to relieve some of the pain, he was recovering faster than most.

It was the day right before Christmas Eve, and Severus finally decided that he was ready and that he wanted to try and stand without aid. Molly Weasley scheduled a Christmas Eve dinner the day after, and although Severus didn’t want to go, he knew he probably had to. He didn’t want to listen to Molly’s shouts about how he was too skinny, too weak, how she could see his bones, or her usual speech. He was tired, too tired. He shouldn’t be this tired, doing nothing all day.

He wasn’t as sharp as he used to be. Sometimes in the middle of a conversation, his eyes would unfocus and cross, his mind would wander, and when he woke up he would be at a completely different place with the blanket Molly had given him wrapped around him.

He was sitting in his wheelchair right in front of Dahlia now, who had the levitation charm on him. Slowly, she helped him up into a standing position, her hands holding him steadily on the waist.

They’d agreed to stand only on his left leg first, the stronger one. So Severus gripped the sides of the chair and lifted up his right leg. 

“Are you ready?”

Both of them were breathing nervously, Severus from fearful anticipation and Dahlia from worry. 

What was the worst case scenario, Severus wondered? Worst case, he would fall and break his neck, crack his head open-

Severus gulped and forced those thoughts away.

Best case scenario, he manages to walk and he heals. 

Severus rarely hopes, in fear of it all being for nothing, but this time, he clings on to it.

Holding his breath, he gave her a nod.

Dahlia muttered a spell under her breath, and the rope slowly relaxed, giving Severus all of his weight.

For that one blissful moment, Severus’s face split into a ghost of a grin. He was standing. Without any aid. On one leg. Without falling over, fainting, or screaming in pain. For the first time in so long- a year? More?

He swayed, feeling slightly vulnerable, but his heart was bursting with pride at his accomplishment. His thin frame, standing for the first time in a long time. 

“Good job!” Dahlia beamed at him. She has a misty, hopeful look in her eyes, but it cleared before Severus could think more about it. 

“Right leg?” He breathed hoarsely, his voice a faint shadow of what it used to be.

Dahlia nodded, her hands gripping tighter on his waist.

Severus hesitantly lowered his right leg onto the ground, let it linger there for a moment, and then shifted his weight equally on both legs. His lips curled up, his hands flew down from the wall, and then-

A sharp, blinding pain seared through his leg, up to his hip. He stumbled, seeing stars line his gaze. The pain persisted. Severus took in a gasping breath, and gritted his teeth, fighting back a whimper.

They both heard the crack.

Severus cried out in agony as his right ankle twisted and broke. Dahlia stiffened, trying to hold him up, but sheer dead weight, even with his skinny frame, was too much for her to hold. 

He crashed down. Severus held out his arms, but he knew from experience that he was far too weak to break his fall. With his fingers crushed underneath his body, Severus’s head dropped against the floor, his lanky black hair obscuring his tearstained face. 

“Severus!”

Dahlia bent down, performed a diagnosis spell, summoned multiple potions, and turned him so that he laid on his back. 

“Here,” she said softly. “This’ll repair your bones. You’ve broken your ankle and some fingers.” She tipped back his head so he drank the blue-hued liquid. “Pain Reliever,” she then said, giving him the familiar bottle. 

Severus curled up, swallowed back a sob, and simply stared blankly at the wall. 

“Wiggle your fingers?” Dahlia prompted gently.

Severus stared dully up at her, and even the eye that wasn’t blind was cloudy with pain. But he obeyed, lifted his hands, and moved his fingers. Then he slowly uncurled, lifted his right foot, and turned it clockwise. 

“Okay. Are you alright?” 

Severus nearly wanted to snap back at her, saying that he most clearly wasn’t. A wave of self-loathing shuddered through his body as he felt immediately repulsed at himself for even thinking about snapping at her, the person who had fed him and housed him for the past month or so. 

He nodded instead, not quite meeting her gaze. 

“I’m sorry, Severus-”

“You don’t have to be sorry. It;s my own stupid fault.”

“Don’t say that,” she sighed, and then patted his knee gently in reassurance. 

He couldn’t think about anything other than the fact that she was touching him. 

Dahlia helped him up to a sitting position so that he was leaning against the wall but still in that curled up position.

Severus found that he quite liked the position after his time in Azkaban. His knees to his chest reminded him slightly of an embrace. Something that he’d never quite gotten.

Then a knock was heard on the door. 

“Dahlia? Severus?”

Severus heard the werewolf’s voice ring through the door. Severus frowned; he knew had most definitely met Remus after his time in Azkaban, but he couldn’t quite place where and when. 

“Come on in.”

He sighed, closing his eyes and wrapping his arms tighter around himself. Why had Dahlia let him in? What if Lupin hurt him? Or her? Severus’s heart rate accelerated.

“Hello!” Lupin edged in with a broad smile and a warm twinkle in his hazel eyes. His eyes first landed on Dahlia, and then fell to Severus, who was still crumpled on the ground and clutching his ankle. His face fell.

“Auntie Dahlia!” 

Severus’s gaze turned even more terrified as a small, mousy-haired boy ran forward from behind Lupin and bounced forward with a gap-toothed grin. 

“Heya, Teddy!” 

Dahlia held out her arms and the boy wrapped her into a hug. 

Lupin looked down at Severus and managed to hide a grimace of sympathy. 

“What happened? Are you alright?”

“No,” Severus rasped glumly. “I broke an ankle and three fingers.”

Lupin couldn’t quite understand the man’s speech- it was garbled and unclear- but he was smart enough to realize that something obviously went wrong.

“Who’s that?” Teddy tilted his gaze curiously to Severus, who was now paralyzed with terror. 

“Severus Snape,” Dahlia answered with a grin of her own. 

“Oh!” Teddy gasped loudly. “I know who you are! Daddy’s told me stories about you! You’re on the Memor- Memor-”

“Memorial,” Lupin reminded his son gently.

“Memorial,” Teddy repeated. 

“Memorial?” Severus hoarsely croaked out, feeling so much curiosity that he snapped out of the full-body terror. 

“You didn’t know?” Lupin asked, delighted. “There’s a Memorial right outside of the gates. It has a list of the Fallen Fifty. You know, since, er, we thought you were, well, dead,” he added awkwardly.

Teddy giggled, not paying attention to the solemn conversation the adults were having, stared hard at Severus, and scrunched up his face into the same pained look that Severus recalled Nymphadora did so often.

Right as Severus began to squirm at Teddy’s gaze, the boy’s hair turned long, lanky, and black. His nose got longer, more hooked, and Severus’s mouth twisted into a grimace. He didn’t like his nose on himself, much less a little boy. 

“How do you do the eye?” Teddy asked eagerly after a few moments. “I can do one, look-”

Teddy’s eyes turned onyx. In the next few seconds, his right eye turned gray, then black again. 

Severus flinched, curled up tighter, and bent his head so his long hair covered his blind eye. 

It’s only a little boy, he chided himself silently, but he could only see Teddy and his color-changing eye. His stomach turned uncomfortably. He was mocking him about his blind eye, they all were-

“Teddy,” Lupin chided softly. “You know how Professor Snape fought in the war?”

“Duh.” Teddy smiled cheekily. Dahlia laughed at Teddy’s response and bent down next to Severus, wrapped an arm around him, and tried to calm him down with pats on his back.

Severus twitched as she touched him, bolts of electricity dancing across his skin. He didn’t want her to pull back. Was that a bad thing?

“He got bitten by a snake, remember?” Lupin prompted.

“Yup.”

“The venom hurt the right side of his face,” Lupin explained, trying to use words Teddy would understand. “Professor Snape can’t really use his right side, and he can’t see with that eye.”

“Ooh.” Teddy’s black eyes grew large. He came closer, reached out a pudgy hand, and gently put his hand over Severus’s left eye.

“Teddy!”

“It’s fine,” Severus mumbled. He lifted his head. Teddy beamed and placed his hand on Severus’s eye. 

“Can you see?” Teddy squeaked, eyes round.

Severus frowned, his torn cheek twisting.

“No,” he eventually answered. “I cannot see anything.”

“Severus.”

Lupin’s abrupt voice startled Severus. 

“Look, I just want to apologize.” He met Severus’s watery gaze determinedly. “For everything that happened when…when we were younger.”

Severus simply stared back, feeling tired, scared, and just quite plainly uncomfortable. 

“I should have stepped up for you,” Lupin said quickly. “I watched James and Sirius and Peter bully you constantly and I didn’t do anything. I kept on reading, not caring, and I just…let them go on,” he finished lamely. “I will be forever thankful for your help with the Wolfsbane. You spared me a lot of pain, of worry, of stress…”

He trailed off pitifully. 

Severus nodded, his mind beginning to trail away. He couldn’t control it. Cruciatus had done a lot on his fragile mind. 

“I’m sorry, too,” he managed to mumble out before he lost all focus. “I should’ve been nicer.”

Lupin couldn’t help but bark out a laugh. “Nice” hardly fit Severus Snape’s character. And since when did the man apologize?

“Lupin-” Severus stared down, looking hurt. The werewolf immediately felt guilty.

“Remus,” he said. “Call me Remus.”

Dahlia beamed, delighted, as the two childhood enemies started to forgive each other. 

They fought wars together. One emerged grieving but found happiness and solace with his child. The other spent years alone. Perhaps they could all help each other.

Severus’s fall might set him back mentally, physically, and emotionally. But at least they knew that he could stand on his left leg. Dahlia planned to write to Hippocrates as soon as Remus and Teddy left. Maybe they could make a specially charmed leg brace or a cane to help him walk. Dahlia had always admired Severus’s prowl. Now, the only thing she worried about is if Severus returned her emotions back.