In Need

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Severus Snape sat at the desk in his office. He was trying - unsuccessfully - to force himself to concentrate on the parchment at which he had been staring blankly for over an hour without actually having written a single word. Without warning, he stood up and angrily flung the contents of his desk onto the floor with a single sweep of his arm. He ran a hand through his hair (once entirely raven black, it was now streaked with white) and grimaced. Despite his best efforts to distract his attention and occupy himself, there was apparently not going to be any easy way for him to forget that this was to have been his wedding day.


He had lain awake the entire night, but that was not unusual these days. Sometimes going to Megan’s quarters and being among her things helped him relax, but last night it had only stirred up memories that would not leave him in peace. He crossed his office and opened a cabinet. He took a small ornately carved wooden box out of the cabinet and took it back to his desk to examine it more closely. The box had been inside of his wedding package from Megan. While he had removed the wrapping, he had been reluctant to explore the contents further until the actual occasion of his wedding. Today, though, he decided to open the letter. He doubted that Megan would offer any objections to his doing so.


~~**~~


She was still suspended in the earth at the site where the curse had hit her, and nothing had brought her any closer to reviving. He had desperately sought every earth mage that could be found, had called in healers of every variety, and had spent long hours in both library and laboratory trying to find some way to bring her back. While the earth mages had assured him many times that change was slowly happening, after three months with no obvious improvement short of the chest closure that had happened almost immediately after she was struck, he was having an increasingly hard time justifying his hope that she would get better.


He had been on a razor’s edge since the moment he had learned that Megan wasn’t really dead. In the past when emotions had threatened his composure, he ignored them and used his intellect to solve his problems logically. This time it wasn’t working. Nothing that he or anyone else had been able to think of had brought them any closer to the answer they hoped to find. On the other hand, she *was* still alive. It was the lack of a black or white answer that was the most maddening to him. When he first thought she was dead, the choice was easy - he would join her in death. His obligations to the Order and his promises to Dumbledore had been fulfilled when Harry Potter defeated Voldemort, and he really couldn’t have cared less about what others would have thought about him for taking his own life. Now the daily choice to live was a struggle throughout which he had no way of predicting whether or not his waiting would pay off.


~~**~~


Opening the small drawer in the bottom of the wooden box, he took out the envelope that had been fastened to the gift and closed his eyes, inhaling her fragrance that somehow still lingered on the paper. The script on the envelope said, ‘To Severus on our wedding day, with love from Megan.’ He unsealed the crisp white envelope and unfolded the white linen paper revealing Megan’s curly loops of handwriting:


~~**~~

May 1st.


My Dearest Severus,


If you are reading this, then I can finally say that I am your wife! I love you more than I can say in words, and I know that our life together is going to be beautiful. Thank you so much for everything that you have meant to me in the time that I’ve known you so far - you inspire me to be the best person that I can be, and you’ve given me a kind of happiness that I’ve never had before. I like you better than anyone else I know, and can’t wait to see what our years together will hold.


Please accept this token of my esteem and regard, and whenever you listen to the song within, know that you are its inspiration. Just say my name to make it play.


Always,
Your Megan


~~**~~

Her words wrenched his heart. His throat tightnened and he closed his eyes, trying to remain collected. \"Megan,\" he muttered, \"by the gods, I don\'t know how much more of this I can take. Please come back to me, my love.\"


He traced over the intricate carvings on the box with his fingertips, curious and hesitant at the same time. Finally, he said ‘Megan,’ but nothing happened. A moment later, he looked puzzled, but then tried, ‘Megan Waters.’ Still nothing. Could it be her full name that she had used as the spell? Cumbersome, but she was quirky enough to do it, so he said, ‘Megan Dumbledore Medgrae Waters.’ And the music box still remained silent! For a moment, he considered the possibility that she hadn’t finished it yet, but no - it was wrapped and the instructions were written. Was there some mistake? He glanced at the note again, and then was struck with a thought.


In a voice barely above a whisper, he said, “Megan Snape.”


The lid of the box popped obediently open and the song began. Severus had heard her playing it in the past, picking out the melody as she went along, but he’d had no idea that she was writing it for him. Hearing her music was almost like hearing her voice, and he sank back into his chair and let himself absorb it. The tune was a simple one and appeared to be inspired by the reels of the highlands, but at the same time gentler. In the music was something that, if he had to put it into words, sounded like hope and it began to revive his weary heart.


Severus Snape stood up from his chair with a new expression on his face. With a wave of his wand, the things that he had pushed onto the floor put themselves back in their correct places on his desk. He fastened his cloak around his shoulders and made his way to the greenhouses. There, he gathered a bunch of white tulips that were to have been her bridal bouquet and fastened them neatly together with the white satin ribbon from her package to him.


He had thus far refused to let anyone put flowers where Megan was - not only did he want to heed the advice of the earth mages who had advised them to leave the site alone and not interfere with the work the earth had to do in that particular place, but he also had a strong wish to make her site as little like a gravesite as possible. Leaving flowers by her would have made it look too funereal, but her tulips would be different - she was meant to have these flowers today, and it would give him a chance to spend time near her.


Concentrating, Severus apparated to the forest clearing where the battle had taken place. He walked past the worksite where a construction crew had already come in to prepare the site for the monument that was being erected there in honor of the Order’s initiative and Harry’s defeat of Voldemort. Flowers in hand, he walked up the hill to Megan’s site, but as it came into view he was suddenly filled with worry and anger upon discovering that there were already a good many flowers there. He approached the site, wondering how his wards had been compromised and why someone would go to such lengths to disregard such a simple request - leave the ground alone at that spot. It was *not* to be her grave!


To his surprise, upon reaching the spot Severus bumped headfirst into the ward that was apparently still intact. Rubbing his forehead where it had hit against the ward, he did a quick test of the perimeter and found all of the wards to be sound and still stoutly surrounding Megan’s place. He stood still to think for a moment, his hands on his hips. A tiny movement caught the corner of his eye, and he noticed for the first time that there were several butterflies crawling up the outside of the wards, which, though invisible, acted like a physical shield. His eyes widening, he took a closer look at the flowers over Megan’s place: they were growing.


Severus immediately took down the protective wards and knelt down on the ground, looking intently at the blossoms unfolding in front of his eyes. He parted them carefully, feeling the life expanding in his hands even as he touched it. And, sure enough, there beneath the flowers were Megan’s nose and mouth pushing up through the ground.


~~**~~


Dumbledore felt his magic mirror beckoning him. Upon opening it to see Severus - and notice that he was at the battle sight with a most peculiar expression on his face - Dumbledore was immediately concerned. For as difficult as it had been to have such a scare over his niece, it had made still harder to watch as Severus wasted away in front of his eyes. He had grave worry for Severus, and it chilled his heart to see Severus’ face in the mirror looking so frantic.


“Severus? What are you doing?” asked Dumbledore warily.


“Come quickly and bring the earth mages,” Severus gasped. “Something is changing!” And with that, the mirror went dark.


~~**~~


That evening, those near the receptionist’s desk at St. Mungo’s hospital looked up with a start as a tall haggard wizard burst through the doors carrying the limp form of what appeared to be a filthy person wrapped up in a cloak. “Alert the magical maladies ward that Megan Waters is here,” he commanded sharply to the attendant at the desk as he flew past it to the stairs and quickly disappeared up them with his precious bundle.


A half hour la Sev Severus sat next to Megan’s bed. She was cleaned off, and the earth mages had been quite pleased to see once the layers of dirt had been washed away that her hair matched their springtime white. After being without proper nutrients for so long, she was emaciated, but the healers and earth mages tending her all agreed that her condition was stable. It had taken close to nine hours for her to fully emerge from the earth once Severus had arrived in the forest clearing. He had watched the entire process anxiously, helplessly watching the earth push her up and out as the earth mages held him back from aiding in her release.


Severus stared at her and resisted the urge to simply gather her into his arms and never let go of her again. Instead, he reached out to her mind with his own using legilimancy, tentatively probing to see what he could find. After a moment, he relaxed for the first time in what felt like ages, and the corners of his mouth turned up in a rare but genuine smile. Where there had been nothing when he had tried to reach her over the past few months, he now had finally been able to connect with her. She was finding her way back.


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A/N - Thanks to all of you for reading! Drop a line and let me know what you think...


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