Chapter 2
Severus wondered dully as they trudged slowly through the corridors; was he really hallucinating?
Everything felt so real.
He could feel the pain of the wound on his chest.
Just in case, if it was real..if the war was still going on...then he had to take drastic action.
Severus was in bad shape. But he had survived worse, so he just needed to get through this as well. Then he could get to the bottom of whatever the hell was going on.
Being a teacher for many years at Hogwarts, Severus knew the usual patrol routes the teachers took.
The teachers on patrol were generally ones that did not have classes in the morning, for example, teachers of subjects like Astronomy.
But the other subject teachers often patrolled the corridors too. He himself had done it quite a few times.
Severus needed to get to the Hospital as soon as possible and Potter was proving to be rather useless in this endeavor.
Could he not conjure a stretcher? But wait, he seemed to be in fifth year, in his (maybe) hallucination.
Conjuring was NEWT level, so Potter couldn't do it now.
Therefore, he needed to get to a teacher and do it fast.
If memory served him right, then the nearest teacher would be patrolling the corridor next to Arithmancy classrooms.
With this thought in mind, he opened his mouth to tell Potter about it, only to start coughing.
He coughed up an alarming amount of blood.
This made Potter panic (rather unnecessarily, in Severus's opinion. It's not like Severus was dying. It's not as if anyone cared any more, either).
"Oh shit... Damn.... Hang in there Snape! I - I'll get you to Madam Pomfrey.... everything will be f-fine! Just... hang in there!"
Potter was annoying.
Severus finally found the strength to speak and said,
"Shut up Potter! Go to the corridor -" ...cough... "Next to the Arithmancy classrooms."
"Uhh...why?" Was Potter's intelligent response.
"There will be a teacher there."
Said Severus, voice strained.
Potter, thankfully, did not argue with him on this or ask how he knew that. They walked as quickly as they could and reached the corridor.
Severus didn't think he could stand for much longer. He had lost a lot of blood. He had managed not to collapse till now due to sheer willpower, but now he was going to faint.
"Mr. Potter and Mr. Snape! What are you doing out of bed at midni- !"
Severus heard a very familiar voice talking to him, though why was Minerva chiding him for being out of bed? He wasn't a student anymore....was he?
"Mr. Snape!"
Minerva looked alarmed. Severus didn't get why. Why was he being put on a stretcher?
Where were they going? There was a war going on.
They had to fight, and defend Hogwarts....why would Minerva take him to the hospital? They had just had a duel not long ago....
___
Minerva McGonagall was not in a good mood.
Her classes had been disrupted thrice in a single day, once by Peeves the poltergeist and twice by Potter and Black.
Needless to say, both had received detention.
After that she had spent the whole evening correcting subpar assignments and patrolling.
She had thought that her day could not get worse. She was wrong.
Professor McGonagall heard footsteps and went ahead to investigate. She had not expected seeing Mr. Snape leaning heavily on Mr. Potter while the latter struggled to carry his weight.
Minerva McGonagall started to scold the two for being out of bed past midnight when she noticed that something was wrong.
Mr. Snape was bleeding heavily.
To her increasing alarm, she saw that Mr. Snape was looking pale and that he was barely conscious.
They had to get to Poppy.
"Mr. Potter! I will take Mr. Snape to the Hospital Wing. Go get the headmaster, quickly!"
Said Minerva while hurriedly conjuring a stretcher.
---
Severus woke slowly. His head was aching, and his limbs felt heavy.
He opened his eyes with difficulty only to shut them again as they came in contact with the bright light streaming through the window beside his bed.
He was in the hospital wing.
Severus's chest was also hurting a lot.
His head was heavy, and his occlumency shields were down.
Severus thought it best to put his mental shields in place before waking up.
He didn't quite understand what had happened the night before and his thoughts were a jumbled mess.
When Severus was sure he wouldn't lose control of his emotions (just in case), he slowly opened his eyes.
He blinked twice, rather confused.
The Hospital Wing looked...different. The new shelf added to contain potions for healing cuts and pain killers (during the reign of Carrows) was conspicuously absent.
Even the furniture was different, the chairs beside the beds were rather old fashioned.
What was going on?
Severus sat up slowly, feeling his chest hurt. His robe had been removed and he was dressed in his white shirt.
It seemed like last night's (or maybe the night before?) wound was healed properly.
Although it still ached, as the wound was caused by a werewolf.
Severus's wand was on the beside table. He reached out to take it and realized that something was wrong.
His hand was too small, too skinny. He threw back the bedsheets and saw that his legs were smaller too.
What was going on? Was he under the influence of some sort of spell?
Severus swung his legs off the bed, deciding to investigate.
But that had been a bad move because as soon as he stood up he tripped.
Severus caught hold of the table to break his fall and knocked down a glass of water in the process.
Poppy Pomfrey rushed out of her office at the noise and helped Severus climb back on to the bed without a word.
She had a very strange look on her face.
Severus stared at her, expecting her to accuse him of being a traitor, a coward, but she did nothing of that sort.
She just looked at him with pursed lips and brows drawn into a frown.
"I...ah...am sorry...?" Severus blurted before he could stop himself. (He was really not feeling like himself).
But he truly was sorry: sorry for not being able to protect the students better, sorry for treating her and the rest of the staff like shit for that last year....the list went on.
And then suddenly Poppy was patting his shoulder, asking him about his symptoms (headache, nausea, pain) and giving him half a dozen potions to swallow.
Severus gulped them down one by one and lied down again, exhausted even when he hadn't really done anything. He was fast asleep within a minute.
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