Saving Snape
It was well known that of all the members of the Order of the Phoenix who sometimes stayed after meetings to eat at headquarters, Snape was never one of them. Not once had he lingered longer than necessary in the former House of Black, always arriving right on time and leaving as soon as the meeting was over. Snape, though 'reconciled' with Sirius Black in a quick handshake a few weeks earlier, was never shy about making nasty comments to their host about how he had nothing more useful to do than clean. Sirius took his former school enemy's comments very hard and although he knew that he had done some unfortunate things to Snape when they were teenagers, he also couldn't forget that the Potions Master had wanted to hand him and Lupin over to the Dementors two years before. Snape had often blamed him for wanting to kill him, but Sirius made excuses: he was young, it was supposed to be a joke, James had saved his life anyway. Whereas Snape was a responsible adult and if Harry hadn't been there... he would have been worse than dead. The two men had such a grudge against each other that Sirius doubted they could ever work well together: To him, Snape was always Snivellus, and when Snape teased him about his inaction in a nasty, mocking tone, Sirius could think of less and less to say except for the old-fashioned 'if you like, I can include your greasy hair in the household Snivellus' or 'your role as a spy suits you Snape, you love to stick your big nose in wherever you can' comments. Sometimes Dumbledore would overhear their conversations and give them a stern look of exasperation. Snape would immediately cease to berate Sirius and usually turn away in disgust. Sirius would scowl and get as far away from his old enemy as possible.
One evening in early August when the last meeting had just taken place and Sirius was in the kitchen with Harry, Ron and Hermione, the twins, Ginny, and Mrs. Weasley, Tonks and Lupin, they were startled by an unusual noise. They heard a quick slam in the doorway, as if the door had been opened and then slammed shut, followed by a thud as if something had fallen on the floor. Instinctively, everyone drew their wands and Sirius motioned for Lupin to come with him, accompanied by Tonks. Mrs Weasley gave them a frightened look and turned to the children, signalling them to stay put. Mrs Black's portrait had thankfully not started screaming and Sirius whispered ‘Lumos’ to see what was in the hall. It couldn't have been someone from outside the Order, but the situation seemed rather strange and with his heart pounding, Sirius shone a light on the ground... a black shape lay there.
"Who's there?", asked Sirius in a loud voice.
No one answered and the shape did not move. Sirius, Lupin and Tonks approached cautiously, two of their wands lit and the third ready to cast a spell. The shape was completely still, and Sirius felt that he was stepping on something. Blood.
"It's someone who's hurt", he said, pointing to the ground where a red puddle was growing beneath the body.
"Sirius!", Lupin exclaimed, "It's Snape!"
Sirius immediately stiffened and looked at the head of the person lying there. He saw the long black hair, completely matted, Snape had fallen forward and only part of his face was visible, the other was stuck to the ground. The hooked nose and thin, slightly parted lips were still clearly visible. The rest of the face could not be seen because it was full of blood.
"Tonks! Tell Dumbledore immediately that Snape has arrived at headquarters in a critical condition. He must come and see for himself and bring Madam Pomfrey too, if possible", Lupin said hurriedly.
Immediately Tonks left the room and revealed the large silver form of her Patronus. Lupin bent down to examine Snape and put two fingers on his neck to try to find his pulse.
"He's alive", he said to Sirius. "I wonder what happened... Do you think...?"
"Shh, not here Remus", Sirius whispered hastily, glancing towards the kitchen. "I don't know, but he sure doesn't look good."
Sirius shrugged indifferently.
"Dumbledore should be here soon, we'll know more."
Lupin frowned at Sirius' bored tone. He was right though, only a few minutes later they heard a loud creak and saw Dumbledore coming directly into the kitchen doorway, Fawkes with him.
"Poppy is coming in the usual way", he said without preamble.
The old man approached Snape with hurried steps and began to examine him as Sirius and Lupin stepped aside to give him room. Dumbledore began to mutter magic spells as he ran his wand over Snape's body, but nothing happened. After a moment, there were three light knocks on the door and the Hogwarts nurse entered. She was not a member of the Order but obviously Dumbledore had given her access to the secret place. Maybe she was going to be a member, Sirius thought. She gave them all a frightened look and immediately leaned over Snape.
"He needs to be moved to a bed so that I can better study the extent and severity of his injuries", she said hoarsely after a few minutes.
Dumbledore nodded and turned to Sirius:
"Is there a room where we can put him?"
"Yes, there are plenty of empty rooms. Opposite mine is a guest room with a bathroom for example..."
"Very well", cut in Dumbledore, "show us."
Sirius complied and started up the stairs. He saw the Weasleys, Harry and Hermione giving them questioning looks but no one said anything to them.
"Remus, if you could take care of cleaning up the blood tracks, please..."
"Of course, Albus", Lupin replied at once.
He disappeared into the darkness of the entrance. Sirius had a strange feeling, as if Snape's presence in these intimate parts of his house was unpleasant but also very strange. He stopped at a doorway, and Dumbledore, who had carried Snape on a stretcher through the air, flew his lifeless body to the bed. Madam Pomfrey stepped forward and immediately began her inspection. Snape's wizard's robe was torn in places and Sirius could now see that his bloody face had at least one large gash running down his left cheek. He shuddered in disgust as he wondered who could have done this to Snape. Probably one of his so-called Death Eater friends. Sirius coughed and asked:
"Is there anything else I can do, or can I go back downstairs and reassure the others?"
"Reassure the others?", said Dumbledore, turning to him. "But we don't know if there's anything reassuring to be said yet, Sirius. But yes, you can be useful. I think Severus is going to need some new clothes, if you can find him something suitable, maybe some pyjamas, that would be good."
"Er, yes, all right", Sirius muttered, caught off guard by the request.
He left the room and went upstairs to his mother's old room. He didn't know exactly what he was looking for. He pushed the door open and was greeted by Buck. He choked a little as he entered, the smell of dust catching in his throat and stinging his nose and eyes. He stepped forward and absentmindedly scratched the hippogriff.
"I'm not here for you Bucky... I have a strange task to perform..."
Sirius wondered what he had come for before he remembered the injured Snape and his torn robe. With a sigh, Sirius began to open the wardrobe and ran his hands over robes that seemed to belong to another century. He winced; he couldn't imagine Snape wearing such things. He quickly thought of a story Lupin had told him where one of his students had put a Boggart in the form of Snape in a granny dress. He heard Buck calling out behind him to get his attention. Not knowing exactly how long he'd been there, he finally settled on a nightgown that had belonged to his mother but was relatively plain, and more importantly, it was all black. ‘It won't make much of a difference to his usual outfit’, Sirius thought darkly as he grabbed the cloth and took it upstairs where Snape was. He knocked on the door and entered at Dumbledore's word.
By now Snape's face had been washed and he could see two large gashes, one of which split his left cheek from under his eye to his chin, while the other crossed the bridge of his nose. He saw that Dumbledore's phoenix was perched nearby and the Headmaster said absentmindedly to Sirius:
"He will survive, but he has been severely abused. I don't yet know the conditions under which it happened, but Severus was attacked and the marks on him are those of dark magic. Fawkes has healed some superficial wounds, but the others must be treated carefully every day. He is in a coma, and I think we may not get the full story when he wakes up. Poppy has no idea of his mental state. Sirius, I want to ask you a great favour, something that will call upon your courage and determination."
Dumbledore looked up at Sirius and his piercing gaze X-rayed him over the frames of his half-moon glasses. Sirius had the unpleasant sensation that he already knew what Dumbledore was going to ask him.
"Yes of course, I'm listening, he said dully."
"Sirius, this mission is very important. I would even say it is the most important task the Order has had to perform so far. Severus must survive and he must remember. This is absolutely crucial. It's about our victory over Voldemort and the safety of everyone, especially Harry."
Sirius said nothing. He looked at Snape in his torn robes and scarred face and felt no pity. He was just annoyed that Dumbledore was asking him that.
"I understand that. But isn't there someone better qualified to do that than me? I mean, I'm not particularly good at healing, and er... Snape doesn't like me much, and neither do I. I'm not sure I'd be able to do it. I'm not sure he’ll like the fact that I'm the one who's been, uh, taking care of him during his unconscious time."
"Sirius, this is no time to be spineless and make excuses. You're staying in this house and you're the perfect person to keep a constant eye on Severus. I want to be kept informed of any changes in his condition. If he wakes up, I want to be notified immediately in the usual way. You understand that Severus is the key to my plan to defeat Voldemort, I need to know what has happened and for that to happen he must survive, Dumbledore added in a softened but still firm tone."
"I understand", Sirius muttered again, displeased. "And what does this... care consist of?"
"Well, he'll need regular baths, healing potions and cleaning of his wounds. I think he's been under the Cruciatus curse for a while and that's why he's not waking up."
"Wash him?!", Sirius choked.
"Yes, wash him! Come on Sirius, you complain about having nothing to do and I ask you one thing, a very important thing, and you keep complaining?"
"Dumbledore, don't you think Molly could handle this better than I?"
"No", said Dumbledore angrily. "Molly has enough on her plate as it is, and she doesn't live here. I don't want anyone else breaking into Severus's room. This is your mission, and you will carry it out. I'm counting on you, and so is the wizarding world."
Sirius thought Dumbledore was exaggerating, and he too was furious at this new chore that awaited him. He didn't care what happened to Snape and he was sure there were other ways to defeat Voldemort. He was expendable. But under Dumbledore's gaze he finally gave in.
"Very well", he said in an annoyed and resigned voice. "I'll take care of him."
"Thank you very much, Sirius", exclaimed Dumbledore in a delighted tone. "We'll have to stay at his bedside most of the time. Poppy", he said, turning to Madam Pomfrey who had just reappeared at the bathroom door opposite the bed where Snape lay. "Can you explain to Sirius what potions to give Severus and the process to follow for the wounds?"
She nodded and began to list the treatments for Sirius, who was a little overwrought as he tried to memorise everything. He could feel his head spinning a little. He hadn't expected Dumbledore to ask him for something like this at all. Dumbledore had left the room and Sirius thought that he must have left the house by now. The Hogwarts nurse had finished her explanation and Sirius felt a growing sense of unease. He hadn't listened to anything, only heard that he would certainly have to touch Snape many times to do all this, including places on his body that in this context seemed surreal. When he came to, he could see from the questioning look Madam Pomfrey was giving him that she was expecting an answer from him, but he didn't know what.
"Er, sorry, you were saying?"
"I was asking you to help me with the nightgown, please", she said sternly with a slight sigh.
"Ah, uh, well, do you really need me for that?", Sirius answered a little intimidated.
"Yes, I do need you, otherwise I wouldn't ask you!"
Trembling a little, Sirius approached the bed and stood with his arms hanging down without knowing what to do. Madam Pomfrey gave him a deeply annoyed look.
"Well, don't just stand there! Help me put the nightgown on him."
The nurse lifted the sheet under which Snape lay and Sirius recoiled and looked away. The Potions Master had already been undressed (he figured that for the examination of his body it made sense), he only had his long, greyish pants left which would also need changing, there were blood stains in some places. The rest of the body was frightening to see: very thin, almost too thin, incredibly white as if Snape had never seen the sun in his life, Sirius was amazed at the number of bruises and various marks that dotted the body of the man he hated so much.
He moved closer again to help Madam Pomfrey put his mother's nightgown around Snape's neck.
"Raise his chest and be careful not to hurt him more", she ordered.
Almost too shocked by what he saw, Sirius forgot his disgust and did as the nurse asked. He put one hand under Snape's neck and slid the other under his back and lifted him slightly. Poppy pulled Mrs Black's nightgown on with some difficulty and pulled it down his body. Sirius looked at the man lying before him, he almost looked like he was dead. He even looked a little like his mother like this, his dirty black hair splashing on the pillow like an ink stain around his scarred, pallid face. Now that the nightgown was unfolded, Sirius noticed that it had a round collar with some kind of lace and that the sleeves were tightened at the wrist before spreading out a few inches. The cuffs were lacy too, but at least everything was black, Sirius thought. There was nothing else anyway. He had a slight panic when he thought of the look on Snape's face when he woke up in a bed at Sirius' house, wearing his mother's old nightgown. He hoped the Potions teacher would be too weak to cast a spell on him, but he made a mental note to hide the wand that lay on the bedside table in its drawer.
"I'll go now", the nurse said in a voice that sounded very distant to Sirius.
He had forgotten she was there.
"Oh yes, of course. That's the way out", he muttered, turning away from Snape.
He closed the door carefully and led Madam Pomfrey into the hallway and closed the door on her after she had whispered hurriedly to him again not to stay outside Snape's room for too long and to go there very often during the day and night. Sirius had nodded without adding a word. He would have preferred to investigate what had happened with Dumbledore, rather than having to stay in that horrible house, playing nursemaid. With a shuffling step he went into the kitchen to give the others an update, thinking that he would have to go back up to Snape's room quickly to check that everything was all right.