Tearmann 2

Harry had given it two weeks and still no one had told him anything. When he tried asking Professor McGonagall she had merely told him it was none of his concern. He tried asking Remus and Sirius but they didn\'t know anymore than he did. Harry had tried to ask Dumbledore but the man never seemed to be around anymore since the substitute potions teacher had arrived. The only time Harry saw him was at meals in the Great Hall and he always left before Harry had a chance to approach him.

He was becoming increasingly frustrated and worried. Maybe there was a reason Dumbledore was avoiding him... Maybe something had happened and he didn\'t want to tell Harry... Maybe Severus had asked that Harry not be told anything... So many possibilities.

Frustration and worry turned to anger. It was almost three weeks now since Severus had been sent away and Harry still had no idea how the man was fairing. His friends had long since given up trying to comfort him and reassure him. Even his godfather had stopped trying to distract Harry from his worry. The only person Harry could really talk to about it was Remus and he had been busy with preparing end of term exams.

Finally, on the twentieth day of Severus\' forced departure, Harry could take no more. He stormed up to the head table, stared hard into Dumbledore\'s sad eyes and demanded to know what was happening with Professor Snape.

\"Come with me Harry,\" Dumbledore said as he rose from his seat. He led Harry out of the Great Hall and up the winding staircase to his office. Once inside, he directed Harry to the single soft chair in front of his desk.

\"Would you like some tea, Harry?\" As Harry shook his head no, Dumbledore raised a small candy dish to him. \"Lemon drop?\"

\"No, thank you,\" Harry said firmly. He knew Dumbledore was just stalling. It was an old tactic that Harry had gotten to know very well over the years. \"Please, sir, I just want to know if Professor Snape is all right.\"

Dumbledore gave out a long sigh and turned to look out the window. The lines around his eyes were obscured by the darkness circling them. Harry was sure the Headmaster couldn\'t have been getting much sleep recently.

\"Professor Snape is...\" Dumbledore hesitated, then started again. \"He is... not well. He hasn\'t spoken a word to anyone since he arrived there. Not even to me. He shies away from my touch though my hands are fire, burning him. No one can touch him physically and I\'m not even sure my words touch his mind anymore.\" Dumbledore was in tears now.

Harry felt awful for the man. He hadn\'t realized just how much the old wizard cared about Severus. He knew that Dumbledore was worried, but hadn\'t considered that he truly loved Severus. It was obvious now.

He thought about everything Dumbledore had said. In the last three weeks Severus hadn\'t gotten better, he\'d gotten worse. He was shoving everyone away, locking himself up against the world. Harry knew that he had been right, that Severus should not have been sent away.

\"I want to see him,\" he said with as much conviction as he could muster. No matter how hard his friends had tried, Harry still felt overwhelming guilt for not doing more, not seeing it sooner, not knowing how to help the saddened man.

\"Harry, I really don\'t think that would be wise right now. Severus just isn\'t up to company right now.\"

\"I have to try. I owe him that much. Besides, maybe I can reach a part of him that you haven\'t been able to. Please, Professor, I need him.\" Harry sighed in frustration and helplessness.

\"Yes, of course, it\'s worth the effort.\" Dumbledore reached the top drawer of his desk and removed something. Coming around the desk to face Harry as he stood, Dumbledore held out both hands, palms up. Harry saw in one hand a large tarnished key. In the other was a small brass snake, which was coiled tightly in a knot. It was no bigger than a deck of cards.

Dumbledore mutter a few words to the snake, then held it towards Harry. Harry suddenly realized that Dumbledore was preparing portkeys.

\"Put this one in your pocket for later. When you\'re ready to come home, just say Hogwarts is home.\" Harry gingerly picked up the brass snake and placed it carefullyhis his robe pocket. \"Are you ready, Harry? Severus is in a room on the fifth floor.\"

Harry nodded and reached for the large key. He immediately felt the strong pull starting at his stomach and flowing outward over his whole body. Before he could even register the discomfort, it was over. Harry found himself standing outside the abandoned looking building that hid the Wizarding hospital from the Muggles in the middle of the busy London street.

Harry made his way through the hospital to the fifth floor without too much trouble. When he reached the only door in that ward, he paused. He was suddenly terrified of seeing the man he can come to love in the horrific state Dumbledore had described.

Gathering up his courage, Harry pushed open the door and was immediately assailedloudloud wailing, banging and shouting. It was nothing like the peaceful, quiet ward he had expected to find Severus in.

There were wizards and witches of all descriptions hovering around the spacious room. Harry guessed this to be some kind of common room like in his dorm. In one corner of the room, Harry saw a very slight witch talking to what looked to him like a blank wall. She was very animated, as though explaining planets or stars by the way she was gesturing.

Off to the left side of the room sat several small tables. On two were wizard chessboards but only one was in use. A verrge rge wizard with white hair and beard, sat across from a much smaller one with equally white hair. Looking closely, the smaller one, for all his white hair, seemed q you young, perhaps even younger than himself. Harry took a guess that the similar features of their faces, probably grandfather and grandson, related them.

Harry looked all around the room but didn\'t see Severus anywhere. He spotted what appeared to be a medi-witch in a white robe and nursing cap bent over a table talking with a pale man in black robes. He approached her slowly, worried about drawing the attention of one of the wandering patients.

Harry waited patiently for the woman to end her conversation. After several minutes, she straightened up and turned toward him. When she saw Harry standing there, she eyed him suspiciously for a moment.

\"Who are you?\" she inquired.

\"Harry Potter.\" He was feeling more nervous under her scrutiny than he had when he first entered the ward.

\"Are you a patient here?\"

\"No, ma\'am. I\'m here to see a patient, though. Severus Snape. Can you tell me where I can find him?\" The witch looked very relieved that Harry wasn\'t a patient that she had forgotten about.

\"Snape, you say? Snape...\" She seemed to think hard for a moment about the name. Harry was seriously beginning to wonder about the level of care Severus could be getting in this place.

\"Norma Jean, take that hat off at once,\" a very stern looking older witch dressed also in a white robe with a nurses cap said as she came toward them. \"How many times have I told you not to impersonate staff?\"

The woman Harry had been speaking with hung her head sheepishly and removed the hat, wringing it tightly in her hands.

\"Three hundred seventy one times, including just now,\" the phoney nurse said sulking and wandering away from them toward the two men playing chess.

\"Sorry about that,\" the older woman said. \"Norma Jean was once a very good medi-witch and sometimes forgets that she isn\'t one anymore. Anyhow, how can I help you?\" This woman was shorter than Harry, but quite round and jolly looking, pale hair up in a tight bun at the base of her neck.

\"I\'m looking for Severus Snape. I was told he was on the fifth floor but I don\'t see him here,\" Harry scanned the room once more.

\"Oh, yes. Professor Snape is in his room. He hasn\'t been very sociable. Are you one of his students?\"

\"Yes. I\'m Harry. Harry Potter.\"

\"Well, dear, I\'m afraid that Professor Snape isn\'t taking any visitors right now. He\'s really not well, you see, and people tend to upset him.\" She was speaking as though to a young child that couldn\'t understand why he couldn\'t play outside during a tornado. This annoyed Harry but he was also beginning to worry that he wouldn\'t be allowed to see Severus.

\"Please, ma\'am, I have to see him. Professor Dumbledore gave me a portkey and everything. I really have to see him, please!\" Harry was getting upset. After three weeks without word on the man\'s condition, then the awful description Dumbledore had given, and now this. He was desperate to see the man.

The medi-witched sighed. She looked at Harry with compassion and Harry was sure there was sadness there as well.

\"All right, Mr. Potter. I\'ll take you to his room, but if he gets upset, you must leave!\" Harry nodded quickly, relieved that he was finally going to see the Potion master. He followed the woman down a long corridor, past a row of doors that led into small, white rooms, each one identical. Outside of the only closed door she stopped. She knocked twice then opened the door. Harry was thankful to see that it wasn\'t locked.

\"Professor Snape,\" she said softly, \"you have a guest.\" The respect she was showing for the proud professor gave Harry some small measure of comfort.