Adult-FanFiction.org : Harry Potter

The Prize	By : Kvarta Category: HP Canon Characters paired with Original Characters > Het - Male/Female Views: 3468 -:- Recommendations : 0 -:- Currently Reading : 0
Disclaimer: This is a work of fan fiction. Harry Potter is owned by J.K. Rowling. This story is purely for entertainment purposes, no money is being made from it.

Chapter List
- 4
- 5
- 6
NEARLY DEAR DEPARTED
Five months passed since Battle at Hogwarts, most of the Death Eaters where either imprisoned or fled the country leaving behind all their possessions, some of them even leaving their families behind. Wizarding radio was mixture of celebration and news.
Constant, distant, unrecognizable sound murmured in the background. He tried to ignore it but found that was not possible. Trying to think back, he remembered the snake, the pain and green eyes, than darkness. The inner part of his eyelids felt like sandpaper. He attempted to move, and discovered that he was unable to do so. Speech would not come to him. With great effort, he managed to crack his eyes open, feeling like sharp spikes scratching his eyeballs. Whiteness and multitude of bright light engulfed him, stabbing in the brain through his eyes.
“I died. I died, and now I’m somewhere, maybe a ghost. Did I have something to tie me down? I desired death. There is nothing on this Earth tying me to it.”
Mused, aware that his reasoning is weak even when the thought formed. Here and there, he would feel a tingle of pain. Ghosts could not feel the pain, not in physical sense anyway. Spilled image, unfocused but still painfully familiar floated in front of him – Potter. Now he was sure that he died and ended up in some terrible place to be tortured for eternity. Image was talking but sound had no shape and he could hear only an undefined murmur. Female voice echoed in background
“Lily”
He focused all his attention to female voice, desperate to hear her even if she mocked him. He felt a small arm touching him, too small! He forced his eyes fully open. Another image came to his view, female shape with fizz of a hair. Voice was getting clearer, at least words sounded familiar but quiet, as if they are reaching him from great distance. Excided, female voice.
- Professor, you are finally awake. Oh Gods, what a relief. –
Who in a right mind would be calling him “professor”? His students? Maybe they are dead too, but, why would they come to him then? One would expect of them to run in opposite direction, screaming, even in afterlife. His hearing suddenly started to work properly. He could recognize a chatter of radio in the background. Sadly, first normal voice he heard unmistakably belonged Ronald Weasley
- Did greasy git died or woke up? –
- Ronald! – shrieked female voice, he could belong to no one else but that annoying Granger menace – Professor has woken up. Be polite or be gone! Harry, go and call Poppy! – her face floated in to his blurry sight again – Easy professor, you’ve bine in coma for five months now. You can’t move yet and don’t try to speak. Blink if you hear me or understand me. –
He stared at her spilling features, mulling on her words.
“I am alive? Poppy? So, I am at school. Did Potter win or lose? It must be that he won. I saw him. How? Am I hallucinating?”
- Professor!!! Can you understand me?!!! – yelled the girl and his eyes darted to her, still widely open and unfocused. Her screaming caused him a headache, but no matter how much she turn in to banshee, he would not blink.
- Easy dear. – he heard Poppys’ voice approaching - His eyes are dry, blinking might be a problem. Just let me check on him. –
Poppy’s sharp frame looked oddly spilled like some bizarre, disturbing work of art. He felt her pinching and poking here and there. She waved her wand in front of his face and his eyes filled with water, rapidly blinking, savoring the absence of unpleasant scratchy feeling in the back of his eyelids. Opening his eyes finally, still wincing at brightness of light, he could finally see. While Poppy was still probing and poking, he could hear Ron and Hermione in the background.
- Ok, he is wake can we go now? -
- No Ron, we can’t! Besides, I don’t want to run from the press or be cooked up in a crummy hotel room hiding. Poppy asked us to help, and in here, we are safe from prying eyes. –
- I don’t mind prying eyes and press. - grumbled Ron
- Well, I do. I am sick and tired of that Skeeter woman. –
- But,… -
- Ron, if you are bored here, if you want to talk to press no one stopping you, just don’t mention my name. –
- Or mine. – grumbled Harry
- Fine. – angrily huffed Ron – Can we at least be somewhere else? –
- No. –
- ‘Mione, you two spent more time next to his bed than eating and sleeping since the war was over. Might I remind…. –
- No, you may not! – he heard Hermione stomping her leg at floor
- And I will keep reminding you Ron, until it sinks in. – Harry’s voice was dancing on brink of serious anger, words spoken at the same time as the girls
- Might I remind ALL of you, - Poppy stopped the bickering – that patient is awake AND able to hear you? Take your noise outside, before one of you say something you will regret. –
That did not sounded good. “What are they hiding? What I cannot know?”
His eyes sought out Poppy’, he was hoping that she would give him at least a hint of what was going on.
“War is over, and we won. Potter would not be alive otherwise. Then again, Potter should not be alive at all, if we won. What is going on? Why am I alive?”
Panic risen in him, and his fuzzy, unfocused mind did not provide him with so much needed mental protection. He attempted to struggle, to force his limbs to move.
- Easy now Severus. – Poppy’s gentle hand pressed his forehead – You are safe. We won, the war is over, and you are in no danger. –
If war ended as he hoped it, statement that he is safe was farthest from the truth as it could be. It was just question of time before they take him to Azkaban, he frowned mentally at irony, they saved his life just so they can make example out of him and end his existence once for all.
- You gave us quite the scare, we were not sure if you going to wake up at all. They held your trial in your absence. – Poppy continued and the breath hitched in his lungs in expectation of bad news – You are free of all charges, you’re a war hero with all benefits. -
He started to breathe again; this was beyond luck, beyond all hopes. This also raised another question – what now? He had no hopes, no plans, nothing beyond carrying out his duty to Lily. Much in the same way, he had nothing to tie him to earth as ghost. Perfect ending to misfortune called his life was blissful oblivion of death. Multitude of questions buzzed in his head as he set his eyes firmly on Poppy’s face.
- Don’t you even try looking at me in that cross eyed manner boy! If you are wondering how you survived, I will send Hermione to explain it to you. What are the benefits of your status? Harry fought for them, so he will tell you. I can only speak about your health. –
He blinked, confident that Poppy heard Miss Granger; in fact, he was sure that even dead and deaf heard her. Poppy waved her wand, dragged a chair and smiled. That was not good, Poppy rarely smiled and her smile never brought the good news, especially considering that he could not speak or move.
- I placed a body bind on you, in case you wake up when no one is near you. I removed it now, so you should be able to move. You will limit yourself to sitting for now, if you can manage it on your own. If I see you out of bed before I say you can go, Merlin help you Severus, I mean it. – she paused
He tried to move. His body felt as if weighed a ton. With no small amount of effort, he managed to raise one hand of the sheets no higher than an inch. Twitching muscles, testing them, discovered that he could control them except muscles in his neck.
- Your neck muscles are under couple of strong spells. They keep them relaxed and fixed in position. Even if wound healed, I still have my concerns about it. You will regain your voice again, although I cannot predict amount of damage your vocal cords suffered at this point. They appear to heal nicely, albeit slowly. Snake missed them; but poison did do some serious damage. Other than that, you are in perfect health, in fact, better than you were in years. Oh, and you did gain some weight in past months. – she stud up, he watched her, wanting to communicate to send him that blasted girl. His eyelids felt heavy – Sleep now. Kids will be here when you wake up. –
Snape wanted to argue, but feeling limited in terms of voice or movement, lying in bed almost helpless, was not position for arguing. Attempt to glare at her resulted in amused look on Poppys’ face. Acknowledging his temporary defeat, he closed eyes and almost immediately fell asleep. In the next few days, he could not stay awake longer than a few minutes at the time, not long enough to hear the rest of the news, and on Poppys’ decision, he had to wait.
The light was still dim when Severus woke up, he was alone and only sign of life was chattering of the radio in the distance. His head felt clear, for the first time he stepped back in to the land of the living. Appreciating the moment of solitude, he tested his mind by reciting ingredients and instructions for most complicated potions he could think of, complex arithmancy equations and most boring details from Wizarding history. He sighed with a relief when he realized that his mind is intact.
With no prying eyes to testify of his struggle, he tried to move his hands and legs, shuffling them as much as he could. His muscles felt sore and numb but he did not detect any damage so far. Putting an effort, he pushed himself off the bed, his head and stiff neck forced him to sit up by blindly feeling his way. His back crackled, painful from so much lying. Left shoulder was much weaker support than a right one, and the whole area felt raw, as if he received a hit from the bludger. Bit by bit he managed to push himself in sitting position, scolding himself internally for the brief moment when he felt pride in his achievement
“What an achievement Severus! You managed to sit down, bravo! Next milestone is to learn how to say “mama and dada” and bedpan training.”
Attempting to pull himself backward so he could lean on the bed headboard, he lost his strength and awkwardly fell back to lying position. He felt as if he could scream. Clenching his eyes tight, painfully aware that year after year of carefully build mental defense are nonexistent now. In silent rage caused by his vulnerable position, he felt tears gathering in the corners of his eyes. Poppy walked in the room
- Good morning rainy cloud. – she greeted him cheerfully – I see that you are finally up and about. –
He gave her a glare, certain that he looked as scary as pigmy puff. Poppy ignored his attempt to intimidate her
- Relax now and let me help you to a sitting position. I have to look at your wound. – she opened his night shirt and poked him for a while – Mhm, looks solid enough. – he felt slight tingle of magic – Try to move your head, slowly. – he obeyed her, neck was stiff and muscles were painful but his mobility was good.
Poppy reached under his back and pulled him up, setting the pillows and dragging him to lean on them.
- How do you feel? – she asked and he gave her another of his trademark stares, lifting his hand slowly he made a motion like writing in the air – You want to write? –
He nodded, feeling relieved that blinking is not his only form of communication any more. She left him, but returned soon with wooden board, ink well, quill and parchments. Place them on his lap. Poppy was patiently waiting until he managed to force his numb fingers to cooperate. It took him another five attempts to start writing shaky, uneven letters.
- My wand? – was the first thing he wrote
- It is safe, safe and far enough, you cannot summon him. –
- Why am I alive? -
- You had more luck than one can hope for. –
- Are those blasting pests going to torture me with their presence today as well? –
- If by “pests” you think of Hermione, Harry and Ron, answer is yes. – hi grimaced – I will have none of that young man. Do you feel strong enough to listen what Hermione has to say about your survival? – he nodded – Fine, I will send her alone when they come. Now, how do you feel? –
- Hungry. – to his surprise he was hungry
- Good, I will sent you some broth in a cup. I presume you want to eat alone. - Poppy left the room. Soon enough a tray with cup full of warm broth appeared, steadying the shaking of muscles as best as he could, he picked up the cup. This small gain of control gave him enormous feeling of satisfaction.
- 4
- 5
- 6
You need to be logged in to leave a review for this story.You need to be logged in to leave a review for this story.
Report Story

The Prize