Roots

07:00

She eventually gives up entirely on trying to sleep.  Probably later than she should, given she spends most of the night flat on her back, staring up at the ceiling through shadows.  Occasionally, a car passing by on the Muggle street below throws light - lonely.  It makes it impossible to close her eyes.

When she finally gets out of bed - in the morning with the sun - she learns very quickly that Selwyn wants her to take the day off of rounds.  He at least has the decency to tell her this in person rather than send a fucking memo about it - tells her when he stops by Severus's office shortly after Harriet's finally spelled the vomit off her robes - doing a poor job and leaving a truly spectacular stain behind, smack in the middle of her chest - she'll have to stop by her own office to change into a replacement set before she sees any patients.  He also tells her she looks, to quote, like shit - and Harriet glares daggers at him and very nearly shoves him in her effort to get out of the too-empty office - to get the fuck away from him - and into the corridor.

"I'm fine," she snarls - outright, and in a way that probably undermines her entire point - but she's a little beyond caring, and she's lost all patience with him, besides.  "I'm not going to bloody sit around with my thumb up my arse waiting for this shit to end when I could be doing my job - "

"It is almost over," Selwyn replies - he sounds torn between annoyance and resignation, which is just so fucking rich - Harriet nearly laughs in his face.  "Severus's antidote is going through a final simmer as we speak."

She nearly trips over her own feet at this - catches herself and glowers at him some more.  "Good," she says - stiff - and Selwyn frowns some more.  "What?"

"Severus has already given me an earful - " he starts - a dull flush rising to his cheeks.  "I'll not - " he adds sharply when Harriet immediately opens her mouth again, undoubtedly looking nearly as angry as Severus had been when Selwyn had gotten that earful: "be apologizing.  I need to consider the safety and health of everyone in this building and outside it in my decision making - "

"You can't think he would've stopped working on an antidote just because - !"

"Of course not," Selwyn shakes his head sharply - only once.  "But there's no just because about it.  It's never that simple, Potter.  Surely - after everything - you know that."

Harriet doesn't - really have anything to say to that, so she doesn't bother trying - doesn't want to look like too much of a fool if she can help it.  She knows what Selwyn means - she has no doubt Severus knows it, too.  But there's only so much damage a person can take because things are complicated before the words lose their meaning.  And Harriet - and Severus even more so -

"Fine," she snaps - crosses her arms and glares some more.  "I get it - but that doesn't mean I'm not fucking furious about it.  What would you have done if he'd gone looking for me and found me gone?"

The flush on Selwyn's face deepens - he glances away.  "It wouldn't have come to that," he says - which is the exact same kind of bullshit response that had fractured Albus's and Severus's relationship so thoroughly - Harriet doesn't bother hiding her scoff before turning away.  "Potter - "

"What?" she says again - doesn't bother turning back to him.  Selwyn sighs so spectacularly, she rolls her eyes.

"I'm glad you're alright, is all."

"Yeah, fine," Harriet says - before stalking off to find some clean fucking robes so she can do her fucking job.

--

Ginny doesn't cry when Harriet enters her office without knocking, at least.  Not that Harriet had thought she would - it's just.  She's feeling rather delicate at the moment - not just because of Selwyn - because of everything.  All of it - piled atop her chest.  She's not sure she can handle another hyper-emotional conversation just now.

She does say: "Oh, I'm going to murder you," and: "You scared the piss out of me," all with a tight hug and a wrinkled nose at Harriet's stained robes.  Harriet has to shrug her off to start rooting through her cabinets for a clean set of uniform robes - manages to find just one - but that is, of course, enough.  Ginny waits until she's shed the dirty pair on the floor behind her desk before asking her back: "Did you see Draco?"

Tentative - nervous, even.  Frightened?  Vulnerable - Harriet half-doesn't want to look at her because of it.  She says to the wall in the corner: "No."  Adds after a strained pause: "I only saw Selwyn and Albus."

"Not Snape?"

No - not Snape.  She doesn't respond - for probably too long.  Picks at her new robes for a second - probably giving herself entirely away.  Ginny's shifting around behind her - uncomfortable?  Impatient?  Worried?

"They didn't let him in the room," she finally mutters - after finally pulling her clean robes on over her shoulders.  Ginny's quiet now - considering this?  Her pause doesn't drag nearly as long as Harriet's had.  She snorts faintly - outright laughs.

"I'm surprised he didn't burn the place to the ground."

Harriet turns - shoots the mildest possible glare her way - Ginny only grins.  "Whatever," she says, waving it away.  "Look - Selwyn says they're gonna have the antidote done soon.  Hopefully you'll be able to see Malfoy tomorrow."

Ginny's smile grows - shifts into something a little less mocking.  "Good," she says - with all seriousness.  And: "Thanks."

--

10:00

"Oh, Healer Potter!"

Frankie actually flings herself out of bed before Harriet's fully two steps into the room - her mum catches her just before she collides bodily with her legs.  There's no hint of green to her skin now - no hint of purple - no hint, really, that she'd been desperately ill at all.  Harriet smiles down at her as she twists in her mum's grip - shakes her head once.  She's still got protective charms on - despite how close they seemingly are to the end, she will keep them on until told otherwise.  And it wouldn't do to have Frankie attempting to hug her through those - no matter how nice it might be.

"Hi, Frankie," she says.  "You look like you're feeling much better."

"I am," Frankie's braids bob in time with her nodding.  Her expression is much too serious for a girl so young.  "Are you okay, Healer Potter?  We heard you - got sick - ?"

"False alarm," Harriet says - and all three of them relax - Frankie's parents, likely, for different reasons - she's frankly surprised they didn't immediately start throwing hexes at her the second she opened the door.  "I'm okay, Frankie," she adds.  "I promise."

"Good," Frankie says - still adopting that much-to-firm expression.  She shakes her mum's hand off - scuttles over to the table beside her bed.  Seizes a bit of folded parchment - turns back to Harriet and thrusts it out towards her, her jaw set into the most adorable way.  Determined - brave, too.  A little Gryffindor in the making.  "I made you this yesterday."

Harriet takes the offering - blushes scarlet when she looks at the front of the little card and sees a crayon rendition of someone who can only be her slaying a bloody massive purple dragon.  Frankie - blushing and squirming a bit, too, now, adds, breathlessly, when Harriet fails spectacularly to speak for a solid minute:

"My dad told me you beat a dragon when you were fourteen, so - "

Harriet glances at said dad - who merely smiles at her, which - yes, fine.  Technically, she beat the Horntail.  In the absolute loosest sense of the word.  Still.  "Thank you, Frankie," she says - managing to sound normal rather than choked up.  Frankie nods again - still flushing.  Still, as well, a bit too serious.

"I'm really glad you're okay," she says.  Harriet just barely catches herself, once again, before reaching out to put a hand on the little girl's head.

--

14:00

She's in the process of taking her second loo break of the day when - and he's very lucky she's chosen a loo with only one bloody toilet in it - Ron finds her.

"What in the bloody fuck - ?" she snaps at him - shoves him away when he crowds into the small space with her while she's trying to wash her bloody hands.  He didn't even knock.  She'd just been peeing, for Merlin's sake -

"I heard they're administering an antidote soon?"

"Yeah," she pushes him away again when he closes the door behind him - eliminates any and all personal space in the tiny room.  "They are - in less than an hour."  She'd gotten the news from a cluster of her colleagues when she'd been doing a pass of the fourth floor around noon.  "Why?"

"We've got a suspect in custody - can't prove it was him - but the bloke's a nutter.  Think we can get him to confess if he hears Snape's about to undo all his hard work - "

Harriet turns towards him sharply.  Elbows him in the ribs - truly, by accident - ignores it when he grunts and glowers. 

"What?  You caught someone?"

"Maybe," Ron says - pushes his red fringe out of his eyes - shuts them for a moment.  "I think it's him.  He - had all these fucked up diagrams on his walls - his cottage was worse than Snape's office at Hogwarts ever was with all the bloody things he had floating around in jars - fucking everywhere, Harrie - "

She ignores the jab about Severus - she's not about to deny his office had been a nightmare.  It had been.  On purpose.  "What d'you mean, diagrams?"

"I mean I think it's all some kind of twisted experiment to him.  Like he's - testing this poison just to test it - not because he's out to get anyone - "

"What - ?"

"I know.  I know - it's so - " he drags his hands down his face.  Asks through his fingers: "You're sure?  About the antidote?"

"Yeah, they're administering it," Harriet says firmly - seizes Ron's robes when he just - moves to open the door again - which, what the bloody fuck was the point of all the dramatics if he was just going to leave again this quickly?  "And it's going to work - "

"'Course it's gonna work - Snape made it," Ron says - like it's the most obvious thing in the word - Harriet can't bite back the surprised grin in time, and he rolls his eyes.  "Yes, fine, I admit your boyfriend is bloody brilliant - "

"That's right," Harriet pats him on the shoulder.  "If you get in a room with this prick, make sure you tell him that - "

Ron offers a mock salute.  "Give Gin my love, yeah?"

"Give it to her yourself - tomorrow - " Harriet catches his sleeve again.  "And make sure you're not a prat about Malfoy while you're at it, yeah?"

Ron rolls his eyes - far more spectacularly this time.  "Yeah, yeah," he mutters - shrugs Harriet off and takes off down the corridor.  Probably to illegally check in on Ginny himself - Harriet's not dumb enough to believe he only came here to confirm the existence of the antidote - but, whatever. 

Harriet's not going to stop him.

--

19:00

Harriet's not going to go hunting Severus down, either - she's not going to muck about demanding his attention - though it does get more and more difficult to resist with each hour that passes.

At this point, the antidote was administered for the first time hours ago - if he's not back yet, it means he's still busy with it - and however much she wants to see him - wants to make sure he's okay after all of this mess - more so - she doesn't want to get in the way.  She doesn't want to distract him - doesn't want to take away, even accidentally, from anyone still suffering.  Again - it's not that she thinks she will - that he'll drop everything if she appears - it's not that.  But - Selwyn had also - not necessarily been wrong.  It's not that simple. 

It's never that simple.

So - she'll wait.  She'll go through the motions.  It's going on two days - she can fucking survive that, given everything.  They're both adults - however much she prefers when she can see him when she wants - she knows better than anyone that it's not always possible.  And, frankly, as long as, at the end of it, they come together again - she can survive it.  He can, too, she's sure. 

"You gonna sleep here tonight?" Ginny asks after they finish another sad meal of soggy sandwiches in her office - she's going to eat so much spaghetti when they get to leave, sweet Merlin.  Harriet crumples up the paper bag her sandwich had come in - tosses it in the trashcan beside her desk.

"No, sorry," she says.  "Just wanna - "

Ginny nods - waves her hands a little dramatically - Harriet snaps her mouth shut again.  "I get it - can't blame you for it."

"I promise I won't bitch about Malfoy in the flat for at least three months," Harriet offers - a little lamely, and really only because Ginny's drooping a little.  She's only been here a few days - not as long as most of them - and even with the hope starting to swell in the corridors - well, the isolation - this kind - it gets to people.  Ginny's not immune.  Harriet isn't, either.  And it's been just a little too long, maybe -

Ginny flushes slightly.  "Dunno how much we'll be in the flat for the next little bit," she grunts.  "I've had a letter from his mum."

Harriet's eyebrows begin to crawl up her forehead of their own accord: "Narcissa?"

"Does he have any other mums?" Ginny glowers a little.  "She wants us - to spend some time at the Manor while he - recovers - "

"Oh - that's - that's quite serious, isn't it?"

"I guess," Ginny lifts one shoulder - rallies, pulling a strained smirk out of nowhere.  "And that'll leave the flat for you and Snape - "

Harriet rolls her eyes - undermines herself by blushing. 

She excuses herself shortly after - picks her way to Severus's office through darkened - quiet corridors - patient doors closed and silent - the stray Healer bustling off, distracted - thinking, possibly, hopefully about the end.  She doesn't say much to them - to her colleagues - barely acknowledges them beyond the quick exchanges of nods - she doesn't quite have the energy for it after this day - after the day before.  When she reaches Severus's office, the door is shut as tightly as she'd left it that morning - she catches herself pausing before she pushes it open.  She knows it'll be empty - is prepared for it to be empty - understands why it'll be empty - but -

Except -

She pushes it open - steps through - and her feet stutter over each other, the door swinging shut behind her and striking her right in the bum.

"Sev - "

It comes punched out.  It comes quiet.  Severus twitches in his seat on the edge of the mattress - and he's just sitting there for all the world like he'd been waiting for her - he glances up at her when she speaks - or when she makes a noise at all - and Merlin, she'd think herself dramatic, but his eyes are so dark - so fucking deep - so very much - she could quite literally drown in them if she let herself.

Sometimes, she thinks she'd like to let herself. 

For a long moment - her breath caught up in her lungs - him so very still where he sits - they simply stare at one another in silence.

"Come here," he murmurs - turns his entire body towards her, his knees spreading - abrupt, making her blink - jerks his chin to emphasize the request.  Harriet moves before he's even done speaking - trips forward, catches herself again - manages the last few steps without falling flat on her face.  She stops in front of him - pauses just short of his knees - but she steps between his parted thighs when he pulls her forward.  Her hands land on his shoulders - his slip to her hips and squeeze.  His head tips forward, his nose pressing to her belly.  He exhales - even through multiple layers of fabric, she feels it on her skin.  A slow shudder runs down her spine - languid, almost.  A second follows - when he presses a kiss through her robes - just over her belly button.

"Sev - " she says again - a little stronger this time.  She curls her fingers through his hair - both hands. 

"It's done," Severus murmurs - ignores her stuttered breath - moves to part her robes - expose her undershirt.  He presses another kiss to fabric - Harriet might be pulling his hair now, though he doesn't complain.  "The antidote has been administered.  It's working.  By this time tomorrow, we'll be allowed to leave - "

"Yeah?" Harriet whispers.  She doesn't doubt it, of course - however much it sounds too good to be true - that they might be able to go to her flat - or to Spinner's End - or to literally anywhere else so soon.  She'd like to hear him say it again - if only to hear it again.  Reinforcement - steady.  Severus lets out another breath - pushes her t-shirt up - exposes her belly -

Presses another kiss to her bare skin -

"I can take you home, then," he goes on - speaks against her, his mouth brushing everywhere - Harriet might actually shake apart.  Everywhere he touches her, heat is spreading - it pools low in her stomach - drips between her legs - she knows without looking - can feel very well how wet her knickers are getting.  So quickly - so soon - but she's not going to overthink it.  Not here.  Not now.  "Where I can spread you out in my bed, and I can have my way - take my time, the way I always intended," he pauses - and Harriet makes a tiny noise - something she can't swallow back - high and needy enough to be embarrassing, though, somehow, it isn't.  Not quite.  His eyes cut up to hers.  Catch her.  Hold.  "But I find I'd rather not wait."

Her mouth opens - nothing but a harsh, stuttered breath escapes.

She would ask: are you alright?  She would ask: are you sure?  She would - she'd take a step back - she'd put a stop to this - if she doubted for a second - but she doesn't.  In all this time - she knows him.  She does.  And he's never looked at her quite this steadily.  With this much iron certainty.  He's - maybe okay is too strong a word after a week like this - but he issolid.  Right now - in this moment - maybe he's tired - maybe he's still a little stretched thin - but he knows what he wants.

So does Harriet.

"Yeah," she says again - breathy.  "Yeah, I - "

His hands tighten on her waist.  His body shifts against her - intentional.  It seems that all he'd been waiting for - perhaps through this entire conversation, short though it's been - had been a yes.

Her back hits the mattress - he moves her bodily, one arm wrapped around her waist to properly manhandle her into position - the other braced against the wall beside them, his knuckles straining against his skin.  The moment she’s beneath him, he’s down with her - close - their foreheads pressed together - their noses slotting together.  Their mouths opening against each other - his hand leaves the wall - his fingers curl into her hair and tug - force her chin up. 

And then - the kissing. 

Lips - and breaths - tongues.  Deeper - more - than any kissing they've ever done before.  Wet and hot and probably a little sloppy - probably lacking in all finesse - but she's never claimed to be a bloody sex goddess, and Severus - well, he wouldn't be kissing her back so fucking wildly if he didn't like it.  Harriet reaches between them - clumsy - searching - reaches for every fastening on her clothes she can get at without pushing him off.  Rips open her robes - squirms to get her arms out of the sleeves.  Fumbles at the button on her jeans - manages to shove them off, somehow - and all the while, Severus is - everywhere.  He's everywhere.  He's fucking in the way, really - she's elbowed him at least twice - but she can't care too much about that.  Can't get too annoyed by that.  Not when his mouth is on her neck - not when his hands are slipping beneath her shirt again - spreading wide over her waist - so big and so steady and so warm.  Somehow, some way, she manages to get down to her t-shirt and knickers - and he's still wearing far too much.  She attacks his robes - probably a little too aggressively - at least some fabric tears - but he certainly doesn't make it easy on her, pushing as close as he is - his mouth still fastened on her pulse point.

She manages to get most of it off him - but, of course, then they have another problem - there's so much bloody fabric on the bed - all of it bloody lime green - that they're getting tangled up in it as they move against each other.  As their bodies roll and grind - Harriet's arm gets caught up in Severus's shed robes - and Severus's leg gets wrapped in some combination of robes and Harriet's discarded jeans - and it's so stupid, she can't help but snort with laughter for half a second.  Severus makes an annoyed noise - kicks at her wandering jeans - and they break apart for a second - only a little - to shove it all out of the way. 

Severus seizes her around the waist again once the fabric hits the floor - drags her backwards onto his lap.  His chest presses to her back - his fingers to her hips.  He lifts one hand to brush her hair out of the way.  And just two thin layers of fabric - she feels, still, the moment she lands on his thighs - his cock - hot - hot hot hot - nudging at her cunt.  Harriet might be panting a little.  The space between her legs - he must be able to feel it.  How wet she is.  Slick dripping into her knickers - his cock is rubbing right there, and it's probably smearing all over his briefs -

"The way you smell," he murmurs - his mouth moving against the tip of her spine - his breath heated on her skin.  His nose presses into the junction between her throat and shoulder.  "The way you taste - the way you feel - I'll never get enough, Potter.  I hope you know that - "

Her face warms - she buries it, for a moment, in her own hands.  Severus kisses the hinge of her jaw - holds her wrists and pulls them down.  Shifts them again - again puts her flat on her back on the mattress - with enough force, they bounce together for a moment.  His cock presses into her right thigh -

They kiss again - brief - deep - and he breaks away to murmur against her lips: "Are you ready for me?"  His free hand - the one he's not holding her jaw with - has drifted down between her legs - is stroking her cunt through her knickers - Harriet squirms down against his fingers before she can stop herself - rubs her wetness all over his hand.

"Yeah - yeah, I - "

Merlin - is that all she's capable of saying anymore?  Yeah?  Because - yes, it is an enthusiastic yes, and at least she can articulate that, but - well, he's keeping his head - she's going to bloody embarrass herself at this rate -

"Good girl - "

And, well - she can't bite back the whimper.  Not to that.

He shifts the pesky fabric aside - her soaked knickers - lifts himself off her only enough to free his cock from his underwear.  Harriet's breathing is getting rather hoarse - she lifts her head to look between them - to look at his cock.  The shape of it.  The color.  The delightful little curve to the left.  The way it thickens at the base, nestled in dark hair -

He drops down on top of her again.  Notches his cock at her entrance - hot - so hot, and more velvet than she would have ever expected -

He doesn't hesitate.  She wouldn't want him to, anyway.

He bottoms out on the first thrust - and it's so much - so quick - the faintest burn and the sharpest heat and the sound - the slickness between their bodies - her fault, probably, but she doesn't have it in her to be embarrassed, no matter her quick spiral only moments ago.  Severus grips her right thigh - presses it down into the blankets beneath them - spreads her - spreads her as wide as she'll go.  Her muscles strain - she doesn't care.  His weight presses her down - she doesn't care, as it's exactly what she'd wanted - him.  Him - everywhere.  All around her, holding her - inside of her.  He's not being - rough, exactly - maybe that's for another time.  But his movements are firm.  Sure.  And he rocks with such purpose - makes her feel every single nerve as they fire - as they fucking explode - between them.

His mouth latches onto her neck again - Merlin, she's going to have such a bruise - everyone's going to see it - fuck -

Harriet wraps her arms around his shoulders - curls her fingers into his t-shirt - his hair.  Her noises are loud in her own ears - again, not enough to be embarrassing.  She doesn't have space inside herself to be embarrassed anymore - not when he's here with her - right here - right where he belongs, frankly - moaning in her ear and pressing his chest to hers and using both hands on her thighs, now, holding her wide open -

"Sev - "

Severus rumbles against her - lifts his head - looks down between them, his hair brushing her cheeks - her nose.  Harriet follows his gaze - sees it, too.  Sees his cock disappearing over and over and over again - inside her - spreading her open - stuffing her full - the visual matching the sharp, wet noises - the smack smack smack of flesh on flesh.

And then his eyes are on hers again - a hand on her jaw, drawing her face back to his -

The orgasm hits her hard - there's not quite enough space between them for her to properly spasm - to properly bend in fucking half - really, all she can do is squirm against him, gasping - making noises that are veering towards animal - Severus's mouth collides with hers again, their teeth clacking - swallows them all down - every last whimper.

It only takes him a few more thrusts to crest himself.  His cock crashing into her twitching cunt - once - twice - three times.  His rhythm snapping almost immediately - turning into something frantic - perhaps he'd even been waiting for her.  Perhaps he doesn't want her to leave him behind.  He bites down on her lip when he comes - she tastes the barest hint of blood as the heat erupts between them - inside her -

They crash back together on the blankets - a tangle of limbs and sweat and slick release between their thighs - smearing over their skin.  Ragged breaths - groping hands - Harriet latches on to his t-shirt to keep him from rolling away - though he doesn't even try, instead opting to curl around her again - immediately, without being asked.  He even rolls them around a little - settles her in front of him, spooning up behind her - a hand spread low on her belly - his nose pressing into her hair.

"S'good," she mumbles - for all the crackling energy of only a minute or two before, the exhaustion that rolls over her - and so quickly - is impossible to ignore.  She yawns - turns her face into the pillow beneath her to muffle it.  Severus chuckles softly into the back of her neck.

"It's very good," he replies - kisses the shell of her ear.  "Sleep now.  You need it."

"Only if you do, too," Harriet wraps a hand around his wrist.  "You need it, too."

Severus hums - nudges closer. 

For once, sleep comes quickly to them both.