Gaelic Blessing

The next morning Severus woke to see Molly Weasley hovering over him. He looked completely befuddled at having been woken up and stared up at her confusedly.

She smiled gently at him. “It’s morning Severus, in fact it’s 10am. Holly said you were still awake when she looked in at 7.30am. Have you not slept at all?”

Severus pulled himself up in the chair and waved his wand over his robes to remove all of the creases and smiled ruefully. “I’ve dozed a bit. It’s too dangerous to go to sleep completely. I have to keep waking him every few hours to dose him with more potions. It’s simply unfortunate that the worst is probably still to come. He’s going to have to get worse before he can get better.”

Molly’s face crumpled. “Oh, the poor dear. Why didn’t he tell anyone he was feeing ill? For that matter why didn’t he tell anyone where he was?” Here she swung round and glared at Severus. “Although you obviously knew where he was. Now, I want you to cast a monitoring charm on Harry and then you are going to come downstairs for breakfast and you are going to explain to me why you didn’t tell us where he was!”

With that the Weasley matriarch walked out of the room, knowing full well that Severus would follow her and that is exactly what he did. He cast a monitoring charm on the ill man lying on the bed and then walked out of the room heading for the kitchen. As he walked into the huge flag-stoned room he was relieved to see that it was just himself and Molly, with the children nowhere in sight. As if she knew what he was thinking Molly answered him.

“The older children are doing their homework. I convinced them it was in their best interests to get it done as soon as possible so that they have free time when my clan come. The younger ones are being watched by Dobby and Winky.”

While she had been talking Molly had been cooking and she now placed a full English breakfast in front of Severus. He almost moaned in anticipation; even the food at Hogwarts had nothing on Molly Weasley’s cooking. As he ate she sat down at the table with a mug of tea.

“Now, how long have you known Harry was here? Why didn’t he tell us? Why didn’t you tell us?”

Severus sighed, knowing that in essence he was having to tell a mother why her youngest son hadn’t been in touch for almost five years. He opened him mouth and reminded himself to be diplomatic.

“What you have to understand Molly is that Harry lost practically everything four years ago. He lost his childhood and his innocence fighting Voldemort and training to kill him. He lost his godfather too soon after he’d just found him. He saw Cedric Diggory killed in front of him for no reason other than being in the wrong place at the wrong time. The things he saw in his visions from Voldemort shouldn’t be witnessed by anyone; tortures, rapes, murders. He saw his first two girlfriends murdered. He lost his best friends. Ron was killed and that was traumatic enough but what Hermione did to him was worse. Then, with your family losing Ronald, Ginevra and Percy as well as William’s encounter with Greyback it was too much to cope with. Add to that the media attention and he simply couldn’t cope. He had to leave the magickal world as far behind as possible. There’s also the fact that even though you don’t blame him for the deaths in your family, he blames himself. I don’t know why he kept in touch with me but I appreciate his efforts.”

Molly smiled at the younger man. “It’s obvious why he kept in touch with you. You’re the closest friend he has left and unless I’m mistaken he’s one of your closest friends as well.” Seeing the look on his face she probed gently. “Or do you feel more than friendship for him?”

Wide black eyes stared up at her in shock “What?”

Molly smiled gently. “I’ve brought up seven sons and a daughter Severus Snape, I think I can tell when someone’s in love.” She looked at him thoughtfully for a moment. “You didn’t know until recently did you?”

Severus half smiled. “Nothing escapes you does it Molly? No, I didn’t realise it probably until the summer. I spend most of my summer’s here and have done ever since Harry moved here. However, at some point this summer I realised that, for me at least, our relationship had gone from friendship to love. When Holly appeared at Hogwarts my heart stopped and I knew I couldn’t lose him. Especially not without telling him. Not that there’s much point.” He added bitterly.

“Any why is that?”

“Molly, Harry is rich, powerful, gorgeous, young and intelligent. What would he want with me?”

“Severus Snape! Just you be quiet! If I know my son, and yes I’ve considered him my son since he set foot in the wizarding world, then none of that matters. All he wants is a family and someone to love who loves him in return. If I’m truthful, and it’s not easy for me to say this, he wouldn’t have found that with my Ginny and the chances of him finding happiness with Cho Chang were even less likely. Not that it matters now. So, you need to pluck up the courage and talk to him. Harry won’t shoot you down – he’ll hear you out.”

Here she paused and smiled slyly. “Besides, from what Holly and Lucia told me Harry stares at you just as much as you stare at him. I don’t think the children would object to you becoming a permanent fixture.”

Severus smiled ruefully. “Be that as it may, it makes no sense at this point in time. Harry has no idea what is going on at the moment. Now, I need to make some potions for Harry so would you mind checking on him a couple of times each hour? It shouldn’t take me longer than about three hours to brew the necessary potions.”

When Molly nodded and shooed him off he made his way down to the lower level and the well-stocked potions laboratory that it housed. Even as he checked the vials that lined the shelves of the room he knew that they would all be children’s doses. Severus cursed under his breath at the younger man. Regardless of how intelligent the younger man was he’d neglected to make any potions that were of a suitable dosage for anyone over the age of thirteen. Many of the potions that were had been specifically brewed for Holly, who was allergic to many of the ingredients in normal healing potions.

Shaking his head and muttering frustratedly he started collecting and preparing the necessary ingredients for fever reducers, headache potions, sleeping draughts and anti-nausea potions. As always, he managed to lose himself in the process of brewing; the familiarity and repetition allowing him to calm down and relax. Before he knew it, he had completed the three cauldrons and was pouring individual doses into vials. Placing an unbreakable charm on the vials he levitated them behind him as he made his way up the stairs to Harry’s room.

As he entered the room he almost walked into Molly who seemed to be slightly flustered.

“Molly, is everything alright?”

“Oh thank Merlin, Severus. I was just about to call for you. I think his fever’s rising. He’s not breathing too well either, his coughing isn’t helping either.”

“Ok Molly, I’ll check and if there are any problems I’ll floo for Poppy. Do you think you could ask Dobby to make up some meat broth? We need to try and get some liquids into him.”

Molly nodded. “I can do better than that Severus, I’ll make it myself. Are you ok with him by yourself?”

As Molly exited the room, Severus crossed over to the desk and placed the precious potions on it before making his way over to the canopied bed. Harry lay in the centre of the bed looking paler than ever. Leaning over, Severus placed a hand on Harry’s forehead in order to gauge the mans temperature. Whilst it wasn’t excessively high as yet it was still high enough to warrant a fever reducer.

Severus silently summoned one of the vials of fever reducer and slid onto the bed carefully so as not to disturb the sick man. Carefully, he cradled Harry in his arms, tilted slightly so that Severus could easily tilt the potion down his throat, several long, ingredient-stained fingers stroking the throat softly to aid the action. After the potion had been swallowed he still stayed in the bed with Harry propped up against his chest, the position helping the younger man to breathe easier. About fifteen minutes had passed before Dobby appeared with a ‘pop’ carrying a tray that contained a bowl of beef broth, a spoon, a mug and a mug of tea for Severus.

“Master Severus? Dobby is bringing broth for Master Harry and tea for Master Severus.”

Severus smiled. “Thank you Dobby. Could you pass me the broth and put my tea on the table?”

“Dobby can do better than that Master Severus.”

With another snap of his fingers, a lap tray appeared across Severus’ and Harry’s legs that the broth could be balanced on, allowing Severus to spoon feed the sick man.

It took him a long time but he managed to get three-quarters of the bowl into Harry. It was messy and a fair bit of it went down Harry’s nightshirt but Severus was still delighted that Harry had taken in some sort of nourishment. He cleaned and dried the shirt with a flick of his wand before he slipped out from under Harry and laid him back down before tucking him back in. He leant over and rested his hand on Harry’s forehead, relieved to discover that the heat hadn’t increased at all. In fact, if anything, it seemed to have decreased slightly.

As Severus moved away, Harry stirred slightly and his eyes fluttered open a crack.

“Sev?” Harry croaked exhaustedly

Severus’ head snapped round so quickly that he almost got whiplash. “Harry?”

Harry groaned and his eyes blinked owlishly. “Sev? Tha’ you?”

Severus was back at the side of the bed so quickly that his robes billowed behind him, reminiscent of him stalking the corridors at Hogwarts.

“Yes, Harry, it’s me. How are you feeling?”

“Fine,” whispered Harry.

Severus rolled his eyes at the comment. “You and I both know perfectly well that you are not fine. You just say that to avoid having to see Poppy. Now, what is it?”

“Spoil sport. Head aches.” Harry grimaced as he swallowed the headache draught that Severus held up for him to swallow. Severus of the lines on his face eased as the draught kicked in.

“What day ‘sit?”

“It’s the fifteenth of December. Hogwarts finished for Christmas yesterday. Holly came to fetch me during dinner.”

“Kids ok?” Harry was too exhausted to string together proper sentences.

Severus hastened to reassure him. “The children are fine. They were just shocked at coming home and finding out that Violet and Robert couldn’t wake you. Holly flooed straight to Hogwarts to find me and I brought Poppy and Molly back with us.”

Even as Severus spoke he could see that Harry was exhausted but struggling to stay awake. “Harry, you need to go back to sleep. It’s sleep that will help you get better. And you need to get better. It’s only ten days until Christmas Eve, the children need you well again, and I refuse t deal with the Weasley clan myself.”

He could see that Harry’s eyes were drifting shut but weren’t closing completely. “I can give you a sleeping draught if you’d like? It will help you,” he coaxed.

He breathed a sigh of relief as Harry nodded somewhat listlessly. Not wanting to give Harry another chance to change his mind he summoned yet another vial from across the room, coaxing it down the increasingly slack throat with gentle fingers. The draught did its work quickly and Harry was asleep within minutes although his sleep was troubled and uneasy.

Rechecking the monitoring spell he slipped out of the room and made his way to the library where the older children sat doing their holiday homework. As Severus slipped in the door Alexander looked up and, seeing him, exclaimed

“Uncle Sev!”

His cry caught the attention of the other children and three heads came up to stare at him. All four children looked wary, as if they wanted to come to him for reassurance but were afraid to. Severus knew that this was due to exposure to his teaching persona over the last term. Regardless of his softening whenever he was at Heathmore he still had a reputation to uphold as the most feared teacher at Hogwarts. He opened his arms and smiled as the children flung themselves at him, desperate both for affection and reassurance that their guardian would be fine.