Sunset

I drove to school the next morning amidst light flurries of snow. It was beautiful to me, everything around had become covered in a sheet of glistening white. Trees, dirt, roads, cars, rooftops – everything blended in. Even the sky was a murky gray color. When I reached the top of a hill on my way, I gasped at how the sky blended in with the spindly trees and earth. Black tire tracks on the road starkly contrasted against the shades of white blanketing the rest of the world.

A few minutes later I reached school. My trip had taken longer than usual because I was trying to be extra careful on the slippery roads. I hoped that there wouldn’t be too much snow on the ground later, because I still hadn’t gotten a chance to ask James how to turn on four-wheel drive.

I opened the door and carefully stepped out of my truck, trying not to slip. I was wearing a pair of Converse – not exactly the best choice for winter weather, but they matched what I had on and most of my shoes had only average traction, anyway. I pulled the hood of my sweatshirt over my head and wrapped my outer coat tighter to ward off the freezing air.

Just as I locked and closed the door to my rustbucket of a truck, I heard someone call my name.

“Harry!”

I looked over to my left and saw Hermione laughing next to Ron, balling up a wad of snow. She threw it at me, and I ducked. Vying for revenge, I grabbed my own handful and threw a snowball back.

It accidentally hit Ron. An incredulous expression came over his face and he started running at me, hooting with laughter.

I burst out laughing, and started to run the opposite direction. As I turned, I saw Snape getting out of an expensive-looking black Lexus on the other side of the parking lot.

That was when I slipped.

I reached out to brace myself right as I heard a loud honk… coming from ten feet to my right.

I had run out from the protection of parked cars into a lane of traffic. The driver wasn’t able to see me. I was stupid. I should have looked. My hood tunneled my vision. All were lame excuses compared to the realization of what the unmistakeable outcome would be – I would die.

Those thoughts reeled through my head milliseconds before the collision. I could do absolutely nothing to stop the events from unfolding.

I was dead meat. Friction was no match for the sliding mass of metal and rubber.

I stared, transfixed, at the car moving in slow motion towards me. I was still kneeling on the ground with a horrified expression on my face, mirrored on the face of the mother in the driver’s seat. She had the wheel of the car in a death grip, attempting to swerve. It wouldn’t work. There wasn’t time for anything but impact.

That’s when my entire world shifted on its axis.

Something, moving so quickly it was only a blur, blew by me and rammed into the vehicle that was barely a foot away from me. I was knocked over by an unseen force and cracked my head against the pavement. I heard a voice far away screaming my name. The other students were probably rushing over… the crunch of metal had been loud and screeching. I’m sure everyone within a five mile radius had heard the crash.

That’s when I rolled over, confused as fuck, wondering why I was still alive. Blood ran into my eyes and I blinked rapidly, trying to make out what all of the fuzzy shapes were.

Snape kneeled next to me with a concerned expression etched onto his beautiful face. I was momentarily dazzled, but then looked past him to the destroyed car. There was a shoulder-sized dent where the left headlight used to be. The car was angled towards the parked cars, partially shielding me from the rest of the parking lot. I saw a large white shape on the other side of the windshield, and assumed that the airbag had deployed. I hoped that the mom inside wasn’t injured.

My attention switched back to Snape when he clamped his freezing hand over my bleeding forehead. His hand was practically ice cold. I grimaced and tried to scoot away, but he held me still and I was forced to endure his icy fingers on top of the cold-as-fuck pavement.

A second later, I heard footfalls and Ron’s panicked voice.

“Mr. Snape!” he called, “Is Harry okay? What happened? Is he bleeding!? Oh my god!”

Snape just sat staring at me and refused to open his mouth. Hermione was right behind Ron, asking the same kinds of questions, and assured all three of us that she had called an ambulance.

The coldness of the ground was sapping all of my energy. I felt dizzy, and tried to say something, but couldn’t.

And then everything was black.

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I woke up in the hospital.

I groaned – my head was pounding. James got out of the visitor’s chair at the foot of the bed and rushed to see if I was alright.

“Harry?” he asked, “How are you feeling?”

I opened my mouth and realized that I was parched. “Water,” I croaked.

James handed me a cup of water and I drank it down greedily, then cleared my throat and said, “I’m fine, Dad.”

“Not according to your doctor,” he argued. “You have a concussion. You’ll need to stay here for the night so they can observe you.”

I sighed and asked, “Why can’t I go home?”

“It’s best for you to stay here in case any complications arise. Harry, they paramedics aren’t even sure how you lived. Everyone who saw the accident said you were… you should have…”

“I’m fine, Dad. I’m alive, don’t worry about me.” I assured him.

He looked at me sadly and said, “When I got the call I was scared shitless, Harry. Don’t do anything stupid like that again, do you hear me?”

I halfheartedly smiled and said, “I know, I won’t.”

James straightened up in his chair and cleared his throat. “You’ve had some visitors,” he said. “And I called your mother. I should probably go tell her you’ve woken up now, I’ll be right back. Okay?”

I nodded, but regretted it because of the instantaneous vertigo. Someone else walked into the room as soon as James left. He was wearing a white doctor’s coat and carrying a clipboard. And he had the blondest hair I had ever seen. It was long, too, and framed his pale, beautiful, sleep-deprived face. He reminded me instantly of Snape and Dumbledore with his complexion.

The man smiled at me and said, “Hello, Harry. I see you’ve woken up. My name is Doctor Malfoy. How is your headache?”

“Pretty bad,” I admitted.

“I’ll tell the nurses to up your medication, then,” he replied. He wrote something on the clipboard at the foot of my bed, then took a step closer to me and pulled up a chair.

“How has your memory been, Harry? Fuzzy at all? Do you remember the accident?” Dr. Malfoy inquired.

“I remember parts of it…” I started, “But not much,” I lied.

For some reason, I felt like whatever Snape had done was something I shouldn’t be telling everyone. I needed to ask him what the hell had happened. It was impossible, that he had covered such a long distance in such a short amount of time. Impossible, but he’d done it.

And apparently saved my life.

The doctor smiled at me warmly, his amber eyes friendly as he continued the conversation, “I see. Well, you’ve had quite the amount of visitors today. A few are still in the waiting room; would you like me to get them for you?”

I shrugged and said back, “Okay.”

“Alright, I’ll tell them they may come in. They should only stay for a few minutes, though. You need rest to recover from your head trauma.”

“I understand,” I replied.

Dr. Malfoy left me in the room to wonder at the strangeness of the day. I tentatively reached a hand up to feel the bandage on my head. Just as I was frowning at the excessive bulkiness of it – I must have looked like a complete idiot – Ron and Hermione came in.

“Harry!” Hermione exclaimed.

“Hey guys!” I said, trying to be enthusiastic but feeling much too tired to achieve the full effect.

“How are you feeling, man?” Ron asked.

“Not too great,” I said, “But it’s alright, don’t worry about me.”

The two were standing next to my bed, and suddenly Hermione reached down and hugged me in a death grip. I was just about to protest when she let me go and I saw tears in her eyes.

“Harry, I’m so sorry for getting you into this mess!” she said. “I never would have thrown that stupid snowball if I’d known you’d be in the hospital because of it!”

Ron looked down at his feet and choked out, “Yeah, I’m sorry for chasing you. I didn’t see the car-“

“Look, guys!” I interrupted, “Please don’t blame yourselves, it was just an accident. Nobody is to blame. I’m alive now, and that’s all that matters.”

That’s when I remembered the mother in the car, and I quickly asked, “How is the woman who was driving the car? Is she alright?”

“That was Colin Creevey’s mom. She’s fine, she just has a bruise from the air bag,” Hermione informed me.

“Oh, good,” I said, “I’m glad she’s okay.”

Hermione just sniffled and nodded. Ron handed her a tissue.

Doctor Malfoy then poked his head into the doorway and said, “Time’s up, guys. Harry needs his rest.”

The two friends nodded. “Get better soon, Harry, okay? We’ll be back in to visit tomorrow,” Ron said.

“Feel better, Harry!” said Hermione.

And then the two were out the door. A nurse came in and pushed a button on the IV machine next to my bed and patted my shoulder. Soon after that, I had drifted off to sleep once more.

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I woke up in the middle of the night from a sharp pain coming from my bladder. I groaned and lay disoriented in the hospital bed before I was able to move. That was when I noticed a shadowed figure standing against the wall. I nearly jumped out of my skin.

“Hello?” I called out, defensively.

“It’s just me,” a voice said.

I gasped in realization, it was Snape. What was he doing here so late at night?

“Snape?” I asked, to confirm my assumption.

“That’s me,” he said, with a laugh in his voice.

There was a short pause, and he then asked, “Do you need help?”

I blushed in the darkness, feeling awkward. Despite the pain in my bladder I was determined to know what the hell Snape was doing in my hospital room in the middle of the night.

“What are you doing here?” I asked.

Snape didn’t answer.

“Snape, what the hell are you doing here?” I asked again, more forcefully.

“I just wanted to make sure you were okay,” he finally responded.

I snorted. “Like it couldn’t wait until visiting hours?”

Snape’s voice became irritated and he shot back, “Like you couldn’t thank me for saving your life?”

I was stunned as the accident came back to me and I remembered what had happened. Snape had, in fact, saved me. I wasn’t quite sure what to say.

I finally settled for, “Thank you.”

He answered from the wall, “You’re welcome. Now I’ll ask again, do you need help?”

“I need to go to the bathroom,” I admitted.

Snape left the wall and walked to the side of my bed. He helped me scoot to the edge, and let me lean on him as I stood up. He wheeled my IV bag for me to the door of the bathroom, left it inside once I’d grabbed the rail on the wall, and closed the door behind me.

Once I finished my business, I called out, “Snape?”

The door opened and he walked to my side, wrapping an arm around my waist to make sure I wouldn’t fall. Through the fabric of the hospital gown I felt the chill of his body. I shivered after he had covered me back up.

There was silence as Snape walked back to his spot on the wall, and I considered what exactly I should say next. I decided I wanted answers, and popped him a question.

“So,” I said, “Do you make a habit of saving all of your students from life-threatening situations, or just me?”

Snape laughed once at my attempt at humor, but answered seriously, “No. Just you.”

“Why did you do it?”

“Why?” Snape mused, “That, I’m not sure of myself.”

I sighed and asked, “Well then, how?”

“How, what?” Snape evaded.

“You ran across the whole parking lot in under a second. I’d like to know how that’s possible.” I replied.

“How hard did you hit your head, Harry?” Snape deflected with a laugh.

“Fine,” I said, “Be that way. But you’re not normal.”

“Normal is a relative term,” Snape replied.

I rolled my eyes and chose a different tactic. “Is there a reason why Doctor Malfoy and Mr. Dumbledore look so much like you?” I asked.

I thought I saw Snape smirk in the darkness before he replied saying, “Well… we’re sort of… related.”

“Related how?” I pressed.

“I think you need sleep, Harry,” he said.

“Stop deflecting!” I accused.

Snape just slowly walked around the bed to my IV machine and pushed the same button that the nurse had pushed earlier. He leaned over the side of my bed and said softly, very close to my ear, “Goodnight, Harry.”