Severus Snape is tired of the lies. (fortiscadere) wrote in blurred_lines, @ 2008-09-14 01:42:00 |
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Almost the instant Severus stepped into the shack, he pushed away the throbbing pain from his leg and his abdomen and pulled on ever ounce of determination he had to Apparate to the Mulciber's house. He knew he was going to need help with the wounds. He could only hope that he wasn't going to splinch himself in the process. However, no one had ever claimed Severus Snape to be anything but determined. While he had struggled with some things in school, Apparating had never been one of them. Severus could be extremely determined when he set his mind to it, and so he arrived on the edge of the grounds, and let forth a light "oof", as he could feel his feet on the ground again. Somewhere between angry and terrified, was where he was standing right now, in point of fact, it was possibly a pendelum swinging from one side to the other and back again. He knew that Agnes had been found, and now that he was out of the battle she was beginning to seep back into his memories, her tiny beaten form by the edge of the Hogwart's walls, and he shook his head. He was still bleeding, although his quick charms had slowed it significantly, and he needed to sit down, drink water, get a potion, and get them charmed properly and hope that nothing extraordinarily vital had been injured in the process. He stopped and looked down at the injuries. Both were bleeding, although were bleeding less than they had been when it first happened. He was dirty from where he'd slipped (twice, thank you Pettigrew and Lupin) in the tunnel, and he frankly looked a mess. Demetrius would possibly kill him once he dripped mod and blood all over the sitting room. On the other hand, Severus knew he couldn't take care of it himself. He started up the drive, the gravel crunching under his feet and as he reached the door it opened which told him the house elve was expecting people at least, possibly him, possibly not. He made his way through to Demetrius room, glancing behind him to see just how badly he was leaving mud on the floor. It wasn't terrible, and certainly nothing the house elf wouldn't take care of - possibly before anyone else saw him. As he reached Demetrius room he raised his hand and knocked uncertain if his friend would be there just yet. His right leg was aching worse with every step and he was afraid the charm on the deep gauge in his abdomen wouldn't hold much longer. Having only arrived home a few moments ago, Demetrius was rather startled by the knock at his door. He had been pacing and had started to clean up his room just to ease his nerves. She had said she wouldn't get hurt, yet she had come back hurt. Surely that couldn't be good for his chances at a long life. Well...he kind of deserved it. He had let her go out into battle, hadn't he? Sighing, he moved away from the bookshelf and towards the door. It was probably just the house elf or his mother. No one important could be coming to call at this hour. Opening the door, Demetrius frowned. "Severus," he said quickly. He wasn't in good condition, obviously. Cringing inwardly at the blood and dirty, he stood aside to let his friend in. "Sit down," he commanded. Severus did as he was commanded. Normally he would have probably made a snarky comment or done something other than what Demetrius commanded, but he was beginning to feel slightly light headed and was afraid that if he didn't sit down, he would collapse. He shrugged out of his outer robe, trying to turn it inside out so that at least the mud wouldn't be on the sofa, and then he eased down on the sofa, wincing at a sharp stab of pain from his abdomen. "Bugger all," he said with a frown. "I got through the entire damn thing without - only to get..." he winced and put his hand down on the wound. He wanted to have tea, or water, and he really wanted Astra, he thought to himself. She knew healing charms, she'd been working on them, and he would have given almost anything to have her hands on his forehead right now and her - he pushed the thought away almost as quickly as it came. It wasn't a possibility, so he wasn't going to think about it. Or indeed, to think about anything, including Agnes. "Need... to have... sorry about the mess." Wincing, Demetrius shrugged. "Be quiet. I can't guarantee I can heal these all properly, but I can do my best and bandage the rest," he said. "I'm sorry I wasn't around to help." Cursing inwardly, he fetched his wand. If he hadn't been stuck guarding the women, maybe he could have helped Severus. Maybe someone else would've actually done the job properly. Kept Corbina out of battle. After locating his wand, he summoned the house elf and requested bandages. "How badly are you hurt?" he asked, surveying Severus. "I mean. Do you have anything else that I can't see?" he added, shaking his head. "Sorry if I'm a bit slow tonight. Got hit in the head with a rock." "You got hit?" Sev frowned. Hadn't Demetrius been supposed to be guarding the women? "Did something happen?" He moved his hand from his abdomen. "There's the leg and the stomach there and a bunch of cuts and I think I broke a rib," he winced. "Maybe, I'm not certain, exactly. Damn Lupin. Hopefully someone else wiped him off the face of the earth." Severus laid his head back on the couch and closed his eyes, trying to ignore the throbbing from his wounds. He deserved them, he thought to himself. Agnes had been a mess when he'd left her and he didn't even know if she'd lived. Merlin what if she didn't? He squinched his eyes tighter and looked at Demetrius again. "Sorry. Didn't think I could do it myself," he mumbled. He needed a pain potion or something, because if anything he felt as if they were only getting more intense, and he just wanted to curl up and sleep for a week. Sleep and believe that when he woke up the wounds would be healed and Agnes would be fine. The night they'd spent in Muggle London was so recent and it was intensely vivid in his mind, her face as they laughed under a street lamp at the end of the evening, and he opened his eyes unable to think about her anymore. "Potion, please Demetrius," he mumbled. "...So to speak," he muttered with a somewhat fond smile. Shaking his head, he decided that withholding the details of his evening would probably be a good idea. At least until he heard word of the battle. The house elf reappeared in the room with bandages, and Demetrius sent her off again with a request for pain potion. "Lupin did this?" he asked, raising an eyebrow. "I didn't know he had it in him," he elaborated. Muttering a few quick incantations, he went about trying to seal the worst wounds. "Merlin Severus, you know I'm not as good as you at these kinds of things," he muttered. "That should stop most of the bleeding though," he said. Thank Merlin, he added to himself. "I did," Severus said scornfully. "I've had run ins with him before. Bastard." He winced as Demetrius worked on the wounds. "I'm sorry," he said. "I know you're not a healer, but I didn't know where else to go," he frowned. "And I wasn't certain I knew the..." he frowned. "I guess I knew them. But..." it really hurt like hell and he winced again. He wasn't going to say it though, cause he didn't feel like actually complaining about it. "Is it horrible to drink vodka on top of a pain potion?" he asked, with a wry sense of humour. It was a rhetorical question, for it wasn't as if Severus Snape, training to be a potion master, didn't know the answer to the question. As if right on cue, the house elf returned with a vial of pain potion and a glass of water. Demetrius smiled a little exasperatedly and took them from the elf, dismissing her. Handing the pain potion to Severus, he sighed. "Do you think we lost anyone?" he asked, a little vaguely. Of course, it was a far too likely possibility. He didn't really have that many friends left to lose. Aquila arrived shortly after Severus, having left an injured Alecto in capable hands. Safely on the grounds, he took a long breath and headed up the familiar pathway to Demetrius' front door. He rapped sharply on the door and shoved past the house elf who answered, who thankfully recognised him. "Demetrius!" he called, pulling off his torn, dirty cloak and robes and leaving them on the floor for the elf to take care of. "Dem?" He picked the hallway he knew lead to Demetrius' room, realising that he probably should have gone for the outer door instead of trailing dirt all over the nice front floor. But that sort of thing just did not cross his mind. He pushed the door open, bursting into the room. He paused, staring at the bloody form of Severus, and whatever ill will he had toward him was temporarily dropped. "Mate, you look a right mess," he breathed. Severus blinked up and the groan he'd been considering seemed much less a good idea when he realised how badly his abdomen hurt when he breathed in. "Dammit Demetrius," he said instead, feeling rather grumpy about the entire situation. Both of his best friends had somehow managed to escape without much harm and while Demetrius had just been watching the women, Aquila had been out there fighting with them and had not even been to the dueling practises for the past month and a half. What did that say about Severus that he was sitting here bleeding, or he supposed not bleeding so much now but rather being bandaged up by Demetrius. "That hurts," he added. "Seriously, Aquila, I thought I looked ready to go to one of Mrs Black's fancy parties," he replied to his other friend sardonically and a bit bitterly because of having not been invited to the last one. "Sarcasm may reopen those wounds, Sev," Demetrius sniped, looking from Aquila to Severus. "Aquila, I expect you should sit down, and shut the door. I don't really want to wake my parents," he added. "And you know, warning would be great next time we decide to have a reunion. Especially if you're both going to come in filthy, because then I'll know not to bother cleaning." He stretched a bit, wincing at the pain in his head. "I hope my substandard healing skills are enough for tonight," he told Severus. "I've got more bandages and possibly some pain potion around here if you need to take it with you," he added. Demetrius looked at Aquila. "You alright?" he asked, frowning. He looked relatively unhurt. That was a good sign. Severus gave Demetrius a look. "I hardly woke up this morning and thought to myself, I believe I'll track mud and blood all over Demetrius' carpet," he said, still sarcastic. "And if my wounds cannot handle sarcasm, then they are lame wounds," he added before Demetrius could complain about it. Which, did not mean that they did not still hurt and that he was not tired. "I've got pain potion at home, I think," Severus said. "If not, I can easily get some at work." He watched Demetrius bandaging up the wounds and tried to breathe in gently without completely injuring his abdomen. Both of his best friends looked fine and he couldn't help but feel annoyed at that. Was he really that much worse a dueler than either of them? He didn't think so, but maybe he was. "Well, at least you're well enough to be snarking at us," Aquila said cheerfully, shutting the door carefully behind him. "And sorry about the mess, Dem, but we all know how much you adore cleaning. As for me, I'm fine. Went up against Emmeline Vance, not like she's that much of a threat. Can't believe she was even there." He hovered next to the couch. "D'you need me to do anything, Dem?" "Take a seat," he said. "If your injured at all, take a seat and tell me. Either way, stop standing around like you've never been here before." He grinned a bit at Aquila and sighed. "Great. Well. I don't feel like cleaning this up right now. So...if you don't need anything else, Sev, can one of you tell me how this battle went? I didn't see anything of it," he added with a frown. "Vance was there?" Severus was interested suddenly. Had she been on his list of vigilantes? She had been hadn't she. She'd been at Lily's funeral, he was pretty certain of it, although he didn't have his notes around to check. Well that was interesting, and probably someone else to move up to his potential confirmed vigilante list. "You can get me something to drink," he growled to Aquila. "I'll need pain removing draught later, but frankly I'd rather have vodka at the moment." He winced as he sat up a little bit, but slowly and rather carefully. "Aquila and I took on Longbottom at the front of it," he said nodding to Aquila. "He's decent, but there were two of us, which meant it wasn't really much of a fair fight, I don't think. If we hadn't gotten distracted, we could have eventually taken him I think. We know each other's styles too well. And that's precisely why we're fighting together every Wednesday evening," he added. "When we know how we fight, it's far easier to team duel like that and use it to our advantage." Thoughts of Agnes flitted back through his mind and he winced. He was going to ignore those. Ignore the entire situation and not talk to Demetrius and Aquila about it. He couldn't think about it right now without feeling a pain in his heart that had nothing to do with his injuries. Please let her be alive and all right. He sat back and considered his two friends. They'd all made it out of this alive. He had some injuries but they were not so serious that they would not heal. Abe would know if anyone else had been injured and he could check on that later. For the moment he thought, they'd sit still, he'd get his wounds bandaged, and possibly a bit of vodka, and life, at least for them, would go on. |