Two hours later, a piercing scream came from Shara as she bolted upright in her bed. Severus bolted awake at the scream his wand was in hand. Severus put his wand away and sat on the bed comforting her.
“Sick. I feel so sick,” Shara whispered, quietly.
Severus felt her forehead and felt a slight fever coming. “You have a slight fever, Shara.”
“I need something from my trunk. There’s a small box filled with smaller vials. I need that and the book that is underneath it, Professor,” whispered Shara.
“I’ll get it for you. Just lie back down and rest,” said Severus, as he rushed out of the hospital wing to the Gryffindor tower.
The fat lady spoke, “Password, please?”
“Gryffindor rules,” spat Severus, as the portal opened to him. Severus rushed into the common room and seeing the Gryffindor students stand up with their mouths wide open. “Close your mouths, Gryffindors. I’ll be out of your tower soon.”
Severus then, strode up the steps with a few students right behind him with wands drawn as he went into the girls’ dormitory. He looked amused as he heard the girls scream out that a man was in the dorm. He looked for the first year dorm and entered the room. He saw Shara’s new cloak hanging on the hanger by her bed, bent down and opened her trunk. There was the box that she spoke of and then the book was right under it. Snape noticed that the diary that Ginny had given to her for Christmas was gone. He put that information to the back of his memories as he picked what he came for and closed her trunk. Severus walked out of the room and down the stairs and waltzed right out of the Gryffindor common room.
He went to the hospital wing to see Shara sitting up coughing lightly. Severus placed the box in front of her and the book. He watched as she opened the book and started to whisper to herself, “Sore throat, coughing and fever. Let’s see. Belladonna, no I would have to have two red cheeks and I don’t. I should go with the basic first step aconite. But what level of it.”
She put the book down and picked up the box. She opened it to reveal small brown vials with white tops on them. She scanned the vials before she picked one vial up and placed it on the table next to her. She closed the box and placed it at her feet.
“Professor, can you get me a goblet of water, please?” asked Shara, her voice was scratchy as she spoke.
“Sure,” Severus said, as he poured some water into the goblet. He handed it to her and asked, “Do you know what aconite can do?”
“Yes, it can force your body to get healthy by alerting it to the flu and colds that come every few weeks. It can help your body reverse a sore throat within 48 to 72 hours if caught quickly enough. And if it’s not prepared properly it can be quite poisonous,” replied Shara, as she opened the vial and took hold of the spoon, poured a teaspoon of the liquid into the spoon. She poured it into the water and stirred it. She drained the entire goblet in one setting.
Severus took the goblet from her and placed it on the table next to the bed as well the box and the book itself. “What is…Homeopathy?”
“You know the hair of the dog that bit you phrase? Like if you get very drunk, that the same thing that got you drunk will help you get over your hangover,” spoke Shara, as she started to get comfy in bed again. Snape nodded as he thought about it. “You can read the book if you wish.”
“Thank you, I think I will,” said Snape, as he watched her close her eyes and fell into a deep sleep.
Later, that night, Snape went out of the wing to get a midnight snack from the kitchen and when he returned to the hospital wing. He saw someone standing over Shara with a pillow over her face and she was struggling against her attacker.
“Get away from her!” Snape screamed out, as he dropped his food and pulled out his wand. The cloaked figure bolted right out of the window before Snape could fire off a spell. He rushed to Shara’s side to find her alive but scared.
“I need to get Dumbledore.” Snape said, looking at Shara.
“Please don’t leave me!” Shara nearly screamed out. “I’m scared, Professor!”
Severus wrapped his arms around Shara and held her. “I’ll call him using the fireplace here. Come with me,”
Shara climbed out of bed pulling her robe on as Severus led her to the fireplace where Severus called Dumbledore.
“Yes, Severus?” asked a sleepy Dumbledore, his face appearing in the fire.
“Headmaster, sorry to wake you but someone just tried to kill Shara,” spoke Severus.
“What? I’ll be there right away. Hospital wing, right?” asked Albus.
“Yes, headmaster.” replied Severus. Albus nodded and faded from view. “Now I must get Remus Lupin and Sirius Black here.”
“Professor, can I ask you a question?” asked Shara, looking at him.
“Of course,” spoke Severus.
“Why do you hate me?” asked Shara, as she sat down on the bed.
“What do you mean hate you!?” snapped Severus, looking at her.
“Hate me for what had happened to me with Draco,” spoke Shara.
“I don’t hate you, Shara! I may seem to be harsh but I can not really hate anyone for something that they could not control. I…am a proud Slytherin, Shara and the assault that Draco did to you cut me to the core and it hurt.”
“That’s what Sirius said about you,” whispered Shara, as she curled up against him.
At first, he wanted to push her away but instead wrapped his arms around her and allowed her to curl up against him. He sighed and lifted the young girl up into his arms as she curled even closer towards him.
Suddenly, Dumbledore, Black and Lupin came rushing into the room. Shara was curled up in Severus’s arms, actually being cradled in his arms. The Potion Master was quick to point his wand at them when they came rushing into the room.
“It’s us, Severus,” spoke Albus, before he would lower his wand. “Did you get a good look at the attacker?”
“I didn’t, but knowing Lucius Malfoy. He’s trying to prevent Shara from testifying against his son at the criminal trial next week,” spoke Severus.
“How do you know it is Lucius Malfoy, Severus?” asked Sirius, glaring at him.
“Read today’s front page,” spoke Severus, handing him the Daily Prophet.
“Draco Malfoy arrested for attempted murder of a fellow student at Hogwarts. The trial is set for next week,” said Sirius, as he read it out loud.
Suddenly, an owl came flying into the wing and dropped a note on Albus Dumbledore’s lap and the hand of Severus. When they looked at the writing on front of the letter it was from the Attorney of the Ministry’s court system.
Sirius asked, “Why are you being owled by the Ministry’s Attorney?”
“Because we have been summoned to be witnesses…well I am,” spoke Severus.
“There are three summonses for Harry Potter, Oliver Wood and Minerva McGonagall. They’re witnesses for the Attorney. But he stated that it might be possible that the defense attorney may want Severus as witness for their side,” spoke Albus, looking at Severus.
“That will be a hostile witness. I promise you this, headmaster. Draco will not get free from this charge. He will be seeing the inside of Azkaban and will probably die there too,” spat Severus.
“Sh! You’ll wake her,” whispered Remus, as he glanced over to Shara who moaned in her sleep.
“I have all ready heard from the school board. They have broken Draco’s wand, burned it completely and formally expelled him from school,” said Albus.
“That’s good. At least, he will never harm someone again in school,” spoke Sirius, as he watched as Severus placed Shara in the bed again.
“Maybe we should put her in her dorm bed? I’m sure no one will come and try to attack her again tonight,” suggested Remus. ‘I hope they stay away from her tonight.’
“I would have to agree with Remus there. She needs to be in her own room with the other girls,” stated Severus. “But which Animagus in this room will guard her tonight?”
“No one will. When she gets in her bed, you three will go to your own rooms and get some sleep,” spoke a stern Albus Dumbledore.
Sirius carried Shara to her dorm room and laid her in her bed. The girls woke up to see the three Professors in the room around Shara’s bed. They told them to return to sleep, which they did. Remus, Sirius and Severus all sat in the Gryffindor’s common room quietly yelling at each other about Shara and the need of nightly guardians in her room.
“Unless she gets another nightly visitor who is intent on killing her,” hissed Severus, glaring at the two Professors.
“True, if that happens.” said Sirius, looking at Severus, in the back of his mind he was thinking about a prank to do to the Potion Master. He would need to speak with the Terror Twins about this in the morning.
“I’ll be the first night guardian. When she goes to sleep, she’ll see me in my Animagus form protecting her,” spoke Severus, his voice was almost a growl and his eyes dared the two Professors to challenge his statement.
“So I believe Severus Snape is actually a Gryffindor hiding within a Slytherins crest,” spoke Remus, smiling towards the Potion Master and Head of Slytherin House.
“Would you believe the Sorting Hat wanted to put me in Gryffindor?” smirked Severus, looking at them both. “It told me I was really a Gryffindor but if you want to be in the House of Slytherin, just be careful of your Housemates as one day you will betray them and the Dark Lord to the one person you trust the most. The Slytherins do not take lightly to being betrayed by one of their own.”
“You did you trust the most, Severus?” asked Remus, looking at him as he summoned three cups of tea and handed them the cups.
“Albus Dumbledore. It was right after I got my Dark Mark did I realize that I screwed up and made the wrong decision. I went right to Dumbledore and I told him I did something that was totally unforgivable and showed him the mark on my arm. I told him I also ‘killed’ an all ready dead muggle using the unforgivable curse. I pleaded with him to help me get rid of the mark. He told me he had a better idea. What about becoming a spy for the Ministry, I’ll make it so that when you’re captured, everyone in the Death Eaters will think you fought back and escaped from them. So from that moment on till a few days before the Potters got killed, I was a part of the group.” said Severus. Remus and Sirius looked shocked at hearing that from him. “Didn’t you two know I was a former Death Eater turned traitor?”
They both shook their heads. They turned their talk back to who would go with Shara when she goes to court the next week.
It was only two hours before dawn, when one of Shara’s dorm mates woke up and glanced over towards Shara’s bed to see someone standing over her with a knife in hand. Her scream pierced the early morning hours. Sirius and Severus raced into the room to see the shadowy figure moving for the window but they both pounced on the form to knock the form away from the window. Remus stupefied him before he even tried to pull out his wand.
“Let’s see who the attacker is?” whispered Sirius, as he reached down to the cloaked figure to remove the hood. “Walden MacNair, the soon to be former executioner for the Committee for the Disposal of Dangerous Creatures! Now, this is very interesting and what a disgrace for the Ministry!”
Severus used a full body bind on him preventing him from escaping when they hauled him to the dungeons where he would be placed till they were able to get more Aurors there to take him to jail.
© Copyright 2003 Beth Brownell