Potion seizure

The second Y/N woke up, Severus darted out of the room. After a few hours alone, she was incredible bored and was not allowed to leave until Madam Pomfrey had heard back from her ‘informant’. Y/N was too tired to ask questions. Yet, she was awake enough for sleep to be impossible.

“You should refrain from making a habit out of this,” Professor Snape said as he walked back into the room and towards her bed. Her eyes went wide as she realized that he lacked his usual cold tone. He joked. Severus Snape joked. A smile covered her face.

“I will certainly try my best, but whatever this is, it’s out of my control,” Y/N said. She motioned for him to take a seat next to her. He gladly took it but seemed rather uncomfortable when silence fell upon them. His feet moved inside his shoes as to make it less obvious that he was nervous.

“Thank you for being there - both times,” Y/N eventually blurted out. She fidgeted with the blanket covering her legs, finding the entire situation bizarre. She had a seizure, two seizures, and Professor Snape had helped her both times. He stayed with me, she thought. Severus Snape cares.

“No need for gratitude. It is my duty as a teacher to care for the students - no matter what others might think, I do take my duties seriously,” Severus said, straightening his back to show pride. Y/N stared at him. Not in a million years had she imagined hearing him admitting to caring for others. Her perception of the greasy dungeon bat was beginning to shatter into pieces. Left was a different view of a troubled man, who clearly had some priorities straight, but the methods could use an upgrade.

“Oh, okay. May I ask a question, Professor?” she asked, looking at him. Or rather she looked at his dark eyes, seeing a little bit of life in there. He nodded, indicating for her to continue.

“Why did you stay with me? Not that I mind at all. I... uhm… It was very nice of you,” she stuttered nervously. The blanket was by then wrinkled beyond repair and Snape stopped moving his feet. Both froze, thinking.

Severus ran a hand through his hair and leaned back in the chair.
“It was rather unpleasant to watch, and I suspect it was just as unpleasant to go through. I wanted answers,” he told her truthfully, but tried to hide his emotions by using his usual cold tone accompanied by a blank stare. Unknown to Severus, Madam Pomfrey stood behind him, smiling like a madwoman. She was trying not to ruin the moment in case he decided to open up and show his emotions clearer.
Y/N looked away from her professor, thinking about how awful she felt after an episode and how weird it must had been to see.

Y/N was lost for words and hardly listening when Madam Pomfrey informed them of the answer from her friend. Only a few information pierced her clouded mind. She had an appointment at St. Mungo’s Hospital for Magical Maladies and Injuries the following week.

She spent the rest of the day sleeping on and off while thinking about everything that had happened in the past few months. What she thought had been a one-time thing could be something she had to go through repeatedly.

Y/N’s mood took a severe dive in general. The only time she felt herself relax was whenever Severus Snape was nearby. Knowing he cared, that he knew how to handle the situation if things went wrong and that he would be there made her feel at ease.
At meals he would keep an eye on her and whenever she hardly touched her food, he would give her a death stare. That sure made her take a few extra bites before bolting out of the Great Hall.

While Y/N was at the hospital to get checked by healers, Severus barricaded himself in the dungeons, or rather the potion room. He worked at odd hours on combining a potion that could prevent the seizures or at least help speed up the recovery.

“Valerian is being used in anti-convulsive potions already, maybe if I combine it with lavender, for the calming effect, and Aconite, for the pain, it could work as a relief potion… after the seizures,” Severus mumbled to himself as he attempted to brew the perfect cauldron of medicine for his student and possible others as well.

He had been so focused on the task, that he had forgotten both lunch and dinner. Minerva noticed and sent one of the elves down with a plate of food. She knew where he would be even though he had told no one of his experiments. Smiling to himself, Severus took a bite of food before continuing with his assignment.

At the hospital, Y/N was escorted to the fourth floor, which usually consisted of the ‘long-term residents’, but was also known as the ward for spell damage, such as jinxes, hexes, curses and incorrectly-applied charms. Y/N dreaded being there knowing that some people lived there. She felt awfully bad for those who had ended up in a situation where they needed around the clock care. She hoped with all of her heart that she would not end up there.

Being a witch and occasionally collapsing with seizures was not a good mix, the thought of being outcasted and possible losing her right to magic made her extremely nervous. She would had broken down if it weren’t for the Draught of Peace that Madam Pomfrey had given her prior to the appointment.

“You alright there?” Poppy asked as they had finished with the tests. Y/N just nodded, not trusting herself to speak without voicing her real concerns. Poppy squinted her eyes at her, clearly not believing her. She dropped the matter as the Healer walked in.

“We have the answers on a few of the tests already. The rest will come back in about a weeks time, and I’ll make sure to owl you,” the healer said, looking at Poppy. “We can see that your brain is suffering, and I had my suspicions on it not being related to magic. This has been confirmed. It is indeed a Muggle disorder that is causing the seizures,” she continued.
She had chosen her words carefully so that Y/N could follow. She would of course go over it with Poppy afterwards using the correct medical terminology to give a better understanding, but the meeting was mostly for the student at first.

The healer informed them both of the need to consume medicine in order to control the seizures better. Sadly, nothing could be done to fully prevent them. The news made Y/N extremely depressed and all she wanted was to get back to Hogwarts, to hide in her room and never come out.

“Thank you for your help,” Y/N said politely as they left the hospital. Just outside of the building, Madam Pomfrey grabbed her arm and Apparated them back outside the school. Together they walked inside the protective walls of the castle.

“Right, I believe it’s almost past curfew. Off you go to bed,” Poppy told her, waving goodbye as she left for the dungeons. Y/N slowly walked back to her common room, ignoring the students studying or having fun. She went straight to bed, not bothering to change out of her school robes.

Poppy made her way through the chilly dungeon, gently knocking on the door to Snape’s chambers. The door opened with a click, showing an exhausted looking Severus, who still had his teaching robes on. His dark eyes matched the bags under them.

“Oh, dear Severus. You must not overwork yourself,” Poppy exclaimed when she saw him. He just huffed at her worrying.

“Are you not going to invite me in so that I can tell you what the healer said?” she asked in an amused tone. Without speaking a word, Severus moved out of the door. Together they made their way inside, sitting down on the couch. A tea pot and two mugs flew over to the coffee table as they talked about Y/N.