Draco got kicked out about a half hour after Hermione left, he might have been able to stretch it out until curfew but, even though Blaise and Pansy had brought his homework, he never even moved to touch his bag. He just sat there staring and miserable and presumably thinking; it was creepy as hell and Ron was relieved to see him go. It was like the git had never spent a night beside Harry’s bed in the hospital before, amateur scoffed Ron stretching out luxuriously in his bed.
Snape definitely didn’t want to go but Madam Pomfrey kicked him out too. Ron supposed she was thinking of the children when she did it, the children who would have an absolutely venomous professor the next day if Snape sat there grim and fuming all night.
Snape gave her a filthy look before he left but the matron didn’t back down an inch. Ron did his best not to look too smug as he snuggled down. He would have been more apprehensive about being left alone on the ward but Brogan had improved a lot in the last few hours, the fits were just little shudders now and she seemed to be asleep instead of unconscious.
When she woke Ron up in the middle of the night with her soft cries and thrashing Ron didn’t even hesitate about scrambling into the other bed. Her body turned in towards him and she curled up just like she always did. Ron wriggled an arm under her neck and tugged her closer feeling all of his tension seep out into the mattress below him.
“Ron?” came a whisper a little later. Ron made a sort of humming response.
“Where are we?”
“We’re in the hospital ward, you were poisoned. Do you remember?”
“Yeah, now I do, I was with Draco at Slug’s... Are they alright?”
“Yeah, you took the first drink I guess. Draco saved your life, he got a bezoar.”
“Good.” Some tiny part of her brain recognized that as kind of a stupid comment but she felt too warm and safe and sleepy to worry about it. Brogan nuzzled closer instead and put her arm across Ron’s (hard flat) stomach. When her fingers reached bandage instead of Ron she managed to struggle up onto an elbow so she could investigate better.
“What happened to you?” she asked in a firm voice.
Ron held his hand up to be inspected and hoped it was too dark for her to see him blushing, “I, um, I was eating when I heard you were poisoned and my knife slipped. It was just a little gash and Madam Pomfrey healed it in two seconds. You can take the bandage off, there isn’t anything underneath.”
“Then why are you still here?”
“Observation,” said Ron simply, pulling her back down to the pillow.
Brogan huffed, “well I hope she isn’t observing this.”
Ron set an alarm so he could drag himself out of Brogan’s bed and get dressed before Madam Pomfrey was forced to acknowledge their trespass; he owed her that much at least. His friend was still asleep when he grabbed his bag from the chair between their beds. She looked as pale as the sheets and his knees went weak for a moment as he remembered that first seizure he had seen last night. He couldn’t imagine how terrifying it must have been before the bezoar; actually remembering Draco sitting in the chair still and silent and staring he supposed he could imagine pretty well.
They needed to meet, him and Draco -Hermione too if he could manage it but that might be hard since he usually talked to Draco in the boys’ bathroom. Madam Pomfrey came out of her rooms just then and walked over to officially discharge Ron, interrupting his planning.
Ron had left the useless bandage on, he wasn’t sure if the nurse wanted him to keep it to help her justify the overnight stay or what; she seemed to be pondering that herself as she looked him over. And then she decided and gently unwound it from Ron’s hand, she stroked his palm where there wasn’t even the hint of a scar and her warm fingers swept up his forearm too tracing the places where the brains had latched on to him all those months ago in the Department of Mysteries. The marks were virtually invisible but Poppy had helped treat them and she remembered.
“You’re a good friend Mr. Weasley, loyal to a fault.”
“Thank you madam,” said Ron feeling his cheeks heat up.
“Did Miss Snape wake up at all last night?”
“Yes, just once. She remembered what happened and seemed pretty lucid, tired but lucid.”
“And then she slept the rest of the night without bad dreams or needing more potions?”
“Yes, madam.”
“Thank you Mr. Weasley, you’re free to go and attend classes today. I will probably release Miss Snape this afternoon and let her finish up her convalescence in her own room. Hopefully in a week or so she’ll be able to return to classes.”
“Would you care to place a wager on that Madam Pomfrey? A whole week?”
“No actually,” the madam responded with a twinkle. “I don’t think I would.”
Draco came in just then, his face was a little flushed as if he had sprinted from the dungeons to squeeze in a visit before breakfast. Ron smiled when he saw him, the word amateur floating through his head once more and Madam Pomfrey bustled off.
Draco stood quietly for a moment drinking in the pale skin and the mussed hair, even Brogan’s lips were pale.
“She slept well,” Ron finally spoke up in a soft voice, as matter of fact as he could make it but still unbearably fond. “Madam Pomfrey plans to let her go home this afternoon and recover in her own room. Brogan will like that I think.”
“Yeah, that’s good.”
Ron looked at Draco, the other boy was barely registering him so Ron reached out and touched his arm, drawing him away. Draco had to drag his whole head around to focus on Ron and even then his eyes kept sliding back. Ron jerked his sleeve a little and waited.
Draco shook his head and gave Ron a rueful smile, “Yes, Weasel was there something else?”
“Yeah, I want to know everything that happened at Slug’s, can we meet in the room sometime today?”
Draco made a face of displeasure that was not a pout and looked at the sleeping beauty again, deciding that getting Ron and Hermione’s interrogation out of the way while she was still asleep would be preferable to missing out on her presence when she was conscious he nodded. They set a time for just before lunch and Ron headed off to breakfast.
Draco paced like a trapped tiger while Ron and Hermione interrogated him. “And he said the mead was supposed to be for Dumbledore?” Hermione had asked the same questions six different times just stressing different words each time she asked. Ron was impressed that Draco hadn’t resorted to violence or just leaving yet.
“Yes,” he snarled, “and it makes no sense at all because Dumbledore is already dying.”
“What?” the Gryffindors asked together in perfect stereo.
“He was cursed this summer, that’s why his hand is all black. Surely you’ve noticed that much?” They nodded.
“Well, nobody spelled it out for me but it seems like he must have touched a cursed object over the summer and somehow they slowed the curse down but it’s still spreading up his arm and to the rest of him. Eventually it will kill him, but eventually I guess he’s going to die no matter what right. At least that seems to be the Headmaster’s bizarre <cough, Gryffindor> attitude.”
There were a few moments of sweet sweet silence while Ron and Hermione digested this news then Ron shrugged and said, “well I guess it just means the other side doesn’t know he’s dying soon anyway. Which gives us an advantage right, they’re focusing all of their efforts on killing a dying man and that gives us time to find the horcruxes.”
“It would work like that if Brogan didn’t keep intercepting the deadly artifacts.” mused Draco.
“Well, you can never really account for that.” smiled Ron with the air of someone who had long ago accepted it.
“Right,” said Hermione. She seemed calmer and more in control now, Draco was pathetically jealous. “Well, with Brogan recuperating we need to help her with her task. Slughorn might be strangely vulnerable now, you know with the guilt of almost killing a student. We need to press that advantage.”
“Brilliant,” said Ron with a hint of adoration sparking in his eyes.
“I’ll go first,” offered Hermione. “He knows that we’re acquaintances from tutoring and I can be all teary and frightened and see where it gets me. That will give Draco the afternoon off to be with Brogan, but then tomorrow Draco you should visit him and see what you can get, he owes you a lot now for saving Brogan’s life.”
“It could almost be a life debt,” mused Ron, “because Snape absolutely would have killed him if his daughter died of poisoning in a potion master’s parlor.”
“Snape, may in fact be our best bet for getting the story now but I think if we keep the pressure up until Snape gets to him that will make it easier in the end.” said Hermione.
“Easier for Snape you mean?” asked Draco.
“Of course,” said Hermione with a rather frosty tone which implied that perhaps Snape could kill Slughorn after he got the truth and it would be no great loss.
Hermione’s plan didn’t work out exactly but it was a good thing she had implemented it. She stopped by the professor’s quarters right after her last class of the day, still musing to herself about how exactly she should behave and wondering if she could drum up a tear or two, when she found the professor stuffing things in his trunk.
“Professor!” she allowed herself to squeal, “What are you doing? Has something happened? Are you leaving sir?”
“Miss Granger,” Professor Slughorn tried to give her a bright and cheery smile but failed miserably. “I’m afraid I am in fact departing, but fret not I have conveyed to the Headmaster the names of some of my best students; one of whom I am certain can be called upon to finish up the year here. And your NEWTs my dear are a whole year off yet, isn’t that right? So no harm there.” He absently patted her arm a bit, nearly missing since he refused to actually look at her, choosing instead to scan the room for more personal items.
“But Professor why are you leaving like this?” Hermione glanced around as if to be sure they were alone and whispered darkly to him, “Has the board said anything?”
Slughorn did not drop the flask he was holding just then but he did end up juggling it a bit, “What? No child, they haven’t. I mean of course they might and I of course would take full responsibility but this is almost unrelated.”
“Really sir?”
“Well, perhaps not as such entirely unrelated, but...” Slughorn collapsed into the chair behind his desk as if his body could not hold him up for another second, as if had that chair not been conveniently located he would be on the floor at this very moment, so exhausted and spent did he appear. “The thing is Miss Granger, I am not proud of how I reacted to Miss Snape’s duress. If Mr. Malfoy had not been present, I... Well I dare not think about it.”
Hermione sat too, “I know Professor. What if you had been alone and tasted it yourself?” Slughorn shuddered.
“But sir, it seems like we should draw together and share our strengths to bring them down. To figure out who is trying to harm Hogwarts.” Even as Hermione tried to appeal to the man she knew her lofty idealism was falling on deaf noses.
“I’m an old man Miss Granger, and not very brave. I’m afraid I shall have to leave it to young Gryffindors like yourself and Mr. Potter, wherever he is.
Now, if you’ll excuse me, I must get back to my packing.”
Hermione stood and excused herself, solemnly shaking his hand and wishing him the best. She wasn’t so foolish as to leave Horace Slughorn on bad terms with herself. And as soon as the door closed behind her she ran like hell to the infirmary to find the others.
Snape was with Brogan, talking to Madam Pomfrey about the planned convalescence that was to take place in his quarters. Brogan was sitting on her bed wearing soft jeans and a thick sweater that was just a touch too big on her, still pale but looking better. They all looked up in shock as Hermione skidded around the corner, the door banging behind her.
“Professor, Brogan, you have to catch him!” she gasped.
Madam Pomfrey gave Hermione a disappointed look for running in the halls and then decided she really didn’t want to know and excused herself. Hermione barely even noticed, she had collapsed next to Brogan with a stitch in her side.
“Miss Granger?” asked Professor Snape in his ridiculously commanding soft voice.
“Sir, sorry, <gasp> Professor Slughorn is packing up his office, he’s leaving Hogwarts. You have to go now and get that memory sir.”
Snape bolted to his feet and so did Brogan. Snape looked at Brogan and she glared back, it was one of the more pathetic glares since she looked like a breeze could take her out but the determination was radiating off of her. “Very well,” he acknowledged her silent demand.
“Miss Granger, did he say why he was leaving?”
“He’s frightened sir, and ashamed about how Draco had to save Brogan I guess.”
Snape’s lips thinned so that there was just a line of displeasure slashing across his face. He nodded to the still panting Gryffindor and turned to leave. Brogan scurried to keep up with him. Hermione watched as her git of a potions professor stopped to hold the door for his daughter and then she heard him huff something about expediency and sweep the pale girl into his arms.
“I should have left you in the infirmary,” Snape was chastising himself in a dark mutter as he strode to Slughorn’s quarters.
Brogan heard him anyway since she was in his arms with her head tucked onto his shoulder, “Maybe, but I can always nap later. It doesn’t make sense to leave one of your best chess pieces in the box.”
Snape lowered her carefully to the ground outside of Slughorn’s door and together they entered.
Horace Slughorn was just closing up his trunk when he saw them. He sighed and looked truly sorrowful. “Let’s head through to my sitting room, alright?”
Snape nodded and guided Brogan by her elbow through to a little room behind the classroom. Slughorn took a big squashy chair and Snape carefully placed Brogan in the other upholstered chair before pausing, he seemed to be considering whether it was better to loom and pace or to just sit before he pulled up another chair as close to Brogan’s as he could.
Slughorn smiled, “I am glad I came if only to see with my own eyes the two of you together like this. Lily would have been pleased, I am sure wherever she is now she’s happier.”
Brogan blindly grabbed for her da’s hand, “You knew?” she breathed with a look of horror on her face.
“Yes, and if you have any ill will at all towards Lily you must forgive her. She didn’t know, I never told her about the risks of the paternus potion. She never would have hurt you and it was a fifty-fifty gamble that it wouldn’t matter anyway so I just, I just didn’t tell her.”
Slughorn settled back a little in his chair, folded his hands over his enormous stomach and refused to look away from his stubby little fingers while he spoke. “She came to me early in her pregnancy, she wanted the baby, she was already desperately in love with you Brogan, but the time was awful. So dark, so frightening.
She loved you Severus, she believed in you, that you would do what was right but she knew that one does not just walk away from He Who Must Not Be Named. And if you knew that the child was yours she feared that you would try.” Brogan was shocked to see tears start to trickle down Slughorn’s cheeks, she glanced at her da and saw tears on his face too.
“James Potter was a good man, perhaps even a great man. He knew the child was not his and he married Lily anyway swearing to raise the baby as his own. You should know that Brogan, James Potter knew and he still...” he trailed off when he heard the sobs coming from the girl on his other chair. Brogan had pulled her knees up to her chest and had her head buried in them, she was sobbing.
Snape stood up abruptly and threw some floo powder in the fire to summon a tea tray, giving everyone a moment to calm down.
Brogan didn’t emerge until they were pushing a tea cup at her hands, Severus thoughtfully shoved a handkerchief in her other hand after she looked up at him with red eyes and a smeary nose. Everyone sipped studiously and waited until Brogan had gathered herself and taken a few sips too.
“I’m sorry Professor Slughorn, it’s just. It was so overwhelming to hear all at once, I’ve been wondering since summer you know. If my mum meant to run that risk with me, and if James Potter knew who he died protecting, and I hoped of course, but I didn’t expect to ever really know. And then to hear it like that, it’s just, I’m happy I guess. I’m relieved too that it turned out like that.”
“Of course my dear, it’s been a trying time for you hasn’t it?” said Slughorn sympathetically.
Snape seemed more interested in how pale his daughter was, how steady her hand as she sipped her tea. He knelt next to her and placed a cool hand on her throat to check her pulse, Brogan rolled her eyes and allowed it. When he was satisfied he slid the hand around to cup her head.
When he finally let go and stepped away again Brogan swallowed and tried to get a hold of herself again. “Professor, have you known all year?”
“Yes, very much so, since that first day of classes. Although in the pictures of Harry Potter his eyes seemed brighter, not that yours aren’t lovely my dear.”
“Oh, it’s a charm sir. I’m rather too recognizable without it, would you like to see?” And without waiting Brogan pulled out her wand and canceled the charm.
Slughorn had stood up, he couldn’t quite reach the biscuit he had his eye on from his chair, and he almost dropped his tea cup when he saw the result. Instead he carefully placed it on the table and opened his arms wide to hug his Lily’s daughter.
Horace Slughorn had never been Brogan’s favorite professor; she found him gossipy and faintly disgusting, he had just stood by uselessly when she was poisoned in his sitting room, and also he had condemned her to sixteen years of living a lie when she could have been with her own father, but as others had noted before, Brogan’s capacity to love was a thing to behold. She didn’t hesitate to rise up too and hug the poor man back, he did seem very sorry after all.
He was talking now, pleading in her hair, “I looked you know, I looked and looked for days, through every book I had. I couldn’t find any other solutions. She wouldn’t go into hiding, she wouldn’t leave, she just had this, this faith. Faith in me, pathetic old me, faith in magic that there was something magic could do to make it all better.
I know it’s beyond rude to say these things, but she was just so muggleborn with her faith that magic could do something. And I just had to try.” They broke apart then and shuffled back to their chairs.
Horace took a sip of his tea, the cup clattering when he put it down. “Your mother came to me unspeakably young and unbearably trusting and I failed you Brogan. She would not have taken the potion I suggested if I warned her about the damage it could do to you, so I didn’t mention it.
James Potter knew, not only that the baby wasn’t his, but also that it was yours Severus. He knew about your relationship with Lily; I think he knew that she would always love you too but he was a good sport and he went along with it all. Lily was planning to have more children with him but they never got the chance.”
“Do you know sir, if their friends knew? Did Sirius Black know?”
“You know I think he did, he was your godfather right? I think they did tell him because of that. I don’t know if they dared to tell him who the father was, he probably guessed it but maybe not. He did know you were, how did I put it to Lily... Oh yes, blood adopted before birth. I remember I phrased it that way so they wouldn’t have the name of the potion. Old pureblood families like the Potters and the Blacks, one can never tell what those children know even if they aren’t the best potions students.
And you Severus, you were the best potion student. I am not a man without a conscience but I kept my tabs on you and it seemed that as long as Harry was with Lily’s family it was probably better than the reports I got from my students about you. I am sorry now, after seeing you two together but back then, four or five years ago you hated all things Harry Potter. Why would I want to bring it up then?”
“Because she was my child? Because she belonged to me, with me?” Snape’s words were vengeful but his tone was just tired.
“I admit I underestimated you, Lily didn’t though. I hope it gives you some solace to know that much at least. She hid Brogan only to protect you and it pained her greatly to do so.”
“Are you still leaving sir?” Brogan asked suddenly. She was exhausted and only wanted to go home to bed, but she couldn’t leave without asking about the memory if this was her last chance to see Slughorn.
“Yes, I’m afraid I am. I’m glad I had the chance to clear the air between us before I left, but the thought of that bottle of poisoned mead sitting on my sideboard all that time. I can’t stay here, there will be another attempt I’m sure of it and if I’m not here maybe someone who can do good will be in my place.”
“You’re not without your uses sir, will you give us that memory before you go? You know the one that the Headmaster wants.”
“Yes, I know. Another dark star in my shameful past dear.” He looked at the green green eyes silently beseeching him. “You really are Harry Potter?” he asked almost to himself.
Brogan looked back at him steadily, “I am sir, I am the Chosen One and I have the power to defeat him. Please give me that memory.”
They ended up using Slughorn’s fire to floo back to Snape’s rooms. It wasn’t that far away but Brogan didn’t want to be carried around again in case the other students saw her. Snape went through first so he could catch her when she stumbled on the other end.
He kept hold of her elbow and led her to her room, swishing his wand to turn down the covers on her bed. Brogan kicked off her shoes and crawled in, “I’m just going to take a nap.” she mumbled, too tired to change her clothes.
“Very well.” said Snape smoothing back her hair. “I’m glad Horace was able to put your mind at ease about your mother and James Potter.”
“Me too, did it help you Da?”
“Yes, I feel bad of course that it was necessary because of my mistakes,” he said turning the wrist of his left arm, “but considering the times it was probably a good decision. It’s just hard to accept.”
“We have now though. I’m glad you’re here, I’m glad we got this chance.”
“As am I. However I must say that I thought your resorting would take care of those foolish Gryffindor traits.”
“What? Like taking a sip of mead when a professor offers it to me?”
Snape just gave her a dirty look and Brogan continued in outrage, “Everyone just assumes I go around with a sign around my neck, ‘I’m The Boy Who Lived why don’t you give it your best shot?’ and it really isn’t like that. Things just happen.”
Severus had to smile a little at that, it sounded like something he might have said himself to the celebrity once upon a time. “If you insist, now take your nap and maybe, if you don’t look so peaky, you can go to dinner with your friends tonight.”
Brogan slept right through dinner and woke up sometime much much later. The sound of a page turning seemed like the loudest thing ever in the quiet and when she opened her eyes she could see her father in a chair near her bed reading a book.
The next day she slept in the common room which seemed kind of scandalous but Snape didn’t care. At one point she even dreamed that he was tucking her in with a soft green afghan and when she woke up the blanket was real. The second time Dobby had to wake her up for a snack and a potion she blushed furiously and asked the elf if he thought she should go back to the infirmary. “But then Miss Snape all your friends would have to go there to see you, this way you are home where you belong. Do you feel bad? Do you think you need to go back? Dobby thought you hated it there.”
“I do hate it there but I don’t want to cause trouble for you.”
“Dobby doesn’t care, Dobby has to bring trays from kitchen to white room so what’s the difference if Dobby brings trays from kitchen to Snake room?”
“I guess that’s true.” she mused as Dobby gently nudged a spoon closer to her hand.
Draco was pleased to have Brogan conveniently asleep on the couch near him while he scrambled to catch up with his homework. He had been mildly scandalized all year long by Brogan’s cavalier attitude towards homework and a little self conscious around her of how much time he was used to spending on his. He didn’t want her to think he was as obsessed as Hermione, but really he sort of was.
He realized with a start that he wasn’t actually doing his homework now and was just staring at the fire with his hand carding through Brogan’s hair. The common room was mostly empty and he should probably get Brogan home, probably. He felt protective of the girl but strangely the smothering fear that had plagued him for the last month or so was gone now.
His worst fear had happened right in front of his face and he had handled it, he had handled it pretty well and they had survived. He didn’t feel cocky, it hadn’t been a full frontal assault from the Death Eaters and the Dark Lord, but it had been a life or death crisis and they made it through. The Weasel had been looking at him that night, when he was still coming down from the adrenaline and quietly falling to pieces in the infirmary, the Weasel had looked at him like he was a rank amateur and Ron was oh so much better at handling the stress.
Which was absurd because he had apparently sliced his own hand with a steak knife in order to get to Brogan’s side, but whatever. Draco’s hand slipped from her hair down to her throat where he could feel the thump thump thump of her heartbeat and he went back to staring at the fire.
Snape arrived later, Draco vaguely remembered he had been at some faculty meeting trying to deal with the fallout from Slughorn’s abrupt departure. The professor came right over to the couch and knelt down next to it, examining his daughter’s color and pulse rate. Satisfied he scooped her up in his arms and turned to Draco, “Mr. Malfoy, if you could please bring her bag?”
Draco nodded mutely and gathered up the bag, then went to open the door for his professor. They walked silently to Snape’s quarters and Draco stood around uselessly while Severus went to put Brogan in her bed.
When Snape came back out he took the bag from Draco’s hands and dropped it on the floor next to the couch. “How are you doing today Draco?” He actually touched Draco’s cheek and peered closely in the quiet boy’s eyes. “You seem unnaturally quiet, do you feel as if the trauma from the other night is catching up to you?”
Draco shook off the hand, and stepped back a bit. “No sir, I’m sorry, I was just daydreaming when you came in. Actually I feel a bit better than I did before. I think I’m not as frightened now, now that we’ve been tested a bit.”
“That’s good, your hovering was obnoxious to me -I can’t imagine how Brogan could stand it.”
“She didn’t really,” Draco replied with a fond smile, moving over to the couch.
“Were you able to meet with Professor Slughorn before his dramatic departure?”
Snape sat down across from his student, crossing his arms over his chest and leaning his head back in an uncharacteristic pose, “Thanks to Miss Granger we were able to chat. Horace was unusually forthcoming; we learned a lot about the circumstances of Brogan’s mother taking that potion and also what number Tom Riddle considered the most magically significant.”
“Really sir, what number is that?” Draco asked, deciding instantly that he didn’t want to pry at all into the circumstances around Lily Potter. He felt a little ambivalent about her but knew very well that neither Severus nor Brogan shared his opinion.
“Seven, Draco.”
“Seven is pretty significant -and huge, it’s good that two are gone already I guess.”
Snape gave Draco a somewhat blank look but allowed himself to look tired for a moment.
“Are you alright sir? Is the trauma of being a father catching up to you?”
Snape also allowed himself to kick Draco, but his eyes had slipped closed and he didn’t open them again.
“I can see myself out Severus. Good night.” Draco walked away and Snape stayed there on his couch, a litany repeating itself in his head; words and images flashing on his eyelids “the diary, the ring, Slytherin’s locket from the memory, possibly a cup rumored to belong to Hufflepuff, Nagini, maybe something from Ravenclaw, and the malevolent bit of dark and twisted soul lodged in his daughter’s forehead linking them so neither can live while the other survives.