Caoimhe Sullivan has had better days. (pronouncedkeeva) wrote in find_horcruxes, @ 2010-01-08 20:04:00 |
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Severus made his way down the hall, stopping in front of the door that the receptionist had told him was Caoimhe's. He wondered if he should have brought her something. It had been such a spur of the moment decision to come in the first place - and he couldn't help but feel that it was a little unlike him. Then again, ever since 1980 had started, he felt as if his world had been turned up on its axis and that his entire centre of gravity was a bit off. Nothing that had once upon a time made sense seemed to make sense now, and things that had seemed set in stone - for instance that he would never be sympathetic to Remus Lupin ever - turned out to have foundations in constantly shifting sand. Caoimhe had started out as a ridiculous - and he thought it rather was ridiculous considering how very different they were - crush, but he couldn't help but feel as if he wanted that to shift too. He'd like to count Caoimhe as a friend, as ridiculous as it was, and although he still frequently felt nervous around her - the knowing that she didn't like him romantically didn't have the same sting that it always had with Lily. At this moment, however, his entire purpose in being here was not to become best friends over night, but simply to give her a smile, let her know people were thinking about her - specifically that he was - and to hopefully cheer her up a bit. He straightened up his shoulders, put a smile on his face and knocked lightly on the door before pushing it open. Caoimhe was, to put it mildly, not at her best. It was her back that had taken the worst damage, so she was lying on her stomach, head turned to the side so she could see whomever came in and out to see her. There had been several visitors, though the Healers had been very clear that no one was to stay more than a few minutes at a time and she was to spend as much time as she could resting. She had snorted faintly at the order to rest. What on earth else was she going to do? She could barely move, and even if she could the amount of pain neutralizing potion necessary to keep her from constantly whimpering as the curses faded and the wounds healed would have also kept her from so much as sitting up anyway. They also kept her much too out of it to be sarcastic, though (which, Sturgis had teased, might be an improvement) and she was really dealing with her situation rather peacefully. She had seen most of her friends at some point or another over the past few days, Sturgis was in and out as he could be, and Marion and Doyle had stuck by close more or less constantly. A few visitors had been surprises, though, and Severus Snape was definitely one of those. Despite Sturgis being suspicious of the kid, Caoimhe smiled faintly when he came in. She doubted if he were a Death Eater anyway, and if he were, he'd hardly just stroll in unmasked to kill her in a hospital bed. That would be a silly thing to do. "Helloooo..." she murmured, and if the slightly glazed look in her eyes hadn't clued him in to her current mental state, the slightly high and sing-songy pitch to her voice would have done it. This is your librarian...and this is your librarian on drugs. Severus had known that it was bad - the 'not certain if she's going to make it' was rather a give away on that topic - but she looked about as bad as he had imagined plus some. The number of bandages and wraps across her back made him wince internally, but he kept the smile on his face as he stepped into the room, and at her words the smile actually got a bit bigger. "Hi," he said quietly. It was weird that he felt the need to be so quiet in the room - as if him speaking at a normal volume might in some way cause her more pain - despite the fact that her face, and her head, was clearly quite fine. He stepped up so that he could be beside her bed, and pulled a chair up so that he wasn't completely towering over her, even though he knew he couldn't stay too long. And he had no idea what to say. This had probably been a really bad idea. Spontaneous things nearly always were bad ideas, he thought. "I bet you still know where to find the answer," he quipped slightly, feeling ludicrous almost the instant that he did so. "I'd ask how you're feeling, but um, how many potions do they have you on?" More ridiculous things, he thought, and if he'd been watching himself, he would have rolled his eyes at himself. Caoimhe didn't find it ridiculous, though. In her present state, she really wasn't in much of a position to criticize. It all sounded like perfectly reasonable conversation to her - and indeed the last was a very valid question. "No idea," she decisively replied, and then gave a weak smile as she attempted a joke. "I do know where to find the answer, though: Jon Bones." Her friend had been bothering the Healers half to death about what she was on and what dosages, while she had only dimly been aware of any of it. She'd just been glad that there was somebody there who knew what he was doing to both make sure nobody knocked her out too much and to make sure Doyle knew exactly what was going on. Severus gave her another grin. He'd talked to Bones briefly in the journals - enough to know that the two shared an interest in potions and he couldn't help but be glad that someone who did was keeping an eye on everything. "Maybe I'll have to send him an owl and demand he answer my reference questions," Severus said with a note in his voice that could only be teasing. He relaxed a little. He'd managed to talk to Caoimhe's Hitwizard boyfriend hadn't he? And he'd survived (at least thus far) so Caoimhe - particularly this drugged and half-aware of what was going on around her Caoimhe - ought to be a piece of cake. He relaxed briefly. "The Library is not the same without you around," he added. "I mean, yeah, the other librarians are nice, but they aren't you." And that he flushed slightly when he said that would probably not have been something Caoimhe noticed under the best of circumstances - much less when she had however many potions they'd actually flushed through her system. Right - he had called her the Pretty One that first time she talked to him. It had made her smile. She had almost forgotten, but now she remembered and it made her smile faintly once again. "'re you and Remus being nice?" she asked, and then her brow furrowed as she remembered that Remus wouldn't be at work either, probably. "Sorry," Caoimhe went on with an apologetic grimace. "Everything's all..." Something. There was a word for it. She waved her hand as she tried to think of it. "Jumbled. I swear I'll be smart again someday." Severus shrugged and shook his head in protest. "You're still smart, it's just the potions that are making everything jumbled. Some of the pain potions very literally impair your ability to put coherent thoughts together, and..." he shook his head. "Sorry. I will try to not potions geek at you," he laughed shortly. "And actually, believe it or not Remus and I are being nice, and he was actually back at work today - so..." he trailed off. This was about as much as he'd ever talked to her about not work related things. "And by being nice I actually do mean that we haven't punched each other - yet anyway," but he smiled to let her know that he was teasing. And he truly was, because he honestly had no desire to punch Lupin at the moment - as strange as he found the lack of that desire. That was good, that Remus was enough better to be back at work. It was also good that the two of them were working together without anyone getting punched again. Caoimhe had had quite enough of that sort of juvenile behavior from them. They were too smart to be acting like hooligans at work. "Good," she murmured, and gave him another slight, vague smile. Severus was a good bloke, dropping by to see her when he didn't have to and not hitting Remus so he didn't get sacked when she got back. "I don't mind potions geek. Jon does it to me a lot. And Marion with history, and Kamal with Quidditch...my friends are all geeks. We used to have a very good Trivia Night team back when Kelly's still did Trivia Tuesday. Doyle would--" Realizing that she was beginning to ramble, which she never did, Caoimhe laughed quietly at herself. "Sorry. I keep doing that." "S'okay," Severus said with a smile. So many of his interactions with Caoimhe had been so formal - the side-effect, he supposed, of her being his boss at the library - that it was actually nice to see this side of her. Even if it was potions inspired informality. And with that thought he realised he probably should go. She was loopy, and he'd done what he came to do, which was let her know that he was thinking about her. And, to be honest, he supposed he ought to give Podmore a chance to see her before she fell back asleep - if he wanted to anyway. "It sounds like fun actually," he added, scooting forward to the edge of his chair so that he could easily get up in a minute. "Maybe we ought to start up a Trivia Tuesday at the library," he smirked slightly. "We might not have beer, but we'll have all the answers - anyway, I don't want to keep you up, the Healer's say you need your sleep and stuff, but I just wanted to say hi, and you know, to get better quickly cause we need you at the Library and stuff." "Working on it," she assured him, that tiny smile still holding along with the slightly sleepy look in her eyes. She could tell he needed to get moving - and that she probably needed to close her eyes for a little while again. Everything was just so blasted tiring. "Thanks for coming, Severus," Caoimhe concluded. She would have reached out to shake his hand or something, but arm muscles were a little too connected to back muscles for that to really work. Instead he got a sort of sideways wave. "'sgood to see you." "Yeah, it was good to see you too," he said, standing up. "Get better," he added. And with that he gave her the briefest of smiles and headed towards the door. He'd stop in the waiting room and let Podmore know he was leaving, he thought. Granted Caoimhe probably wasn't going to be awake much longer, but at least then the other man would know he was done - if he did want to step in for a minute or two. He stepped out of the room, pulling the door to behind him and making his way out. |