InsaneJournal

Who: David Nolan and Severus Snape
When: Recently
Where: Snape’s garage Potions Laboratory
What: David needs a cure for his illness
Rating/Warnings: Low/None (sickness triggers?)
Status: Complete


Severus Snape was in his garage potions laboratory with the door up. His children were with their mother today, so he was spending some time organizing his lab. There were old potions that needed to be disposed of properly, and he had new things in the works. When Neal had contacted him, he gave permission for his friend to pass along his contact information, then he’d started in on making some universal cures to ailments. This was unlike anything he’d experienced in his world. His strength was in potion-making, not diagnostics. But he’d do what he could.

He turned to look when a car pulled up to the street down the driveway, and came to stand in the open garage doorway, wondering if this was the man he was set to meet today.

David owed Neal so, so much. There was nothing more alarming than waking up one day with a deadly poison infecting your body. Fortunately, he knew that there were a lot of people around the OC that had magic and other gifts from the dreams. Someone had to be able to help him, right?

When he pulled up at the house, he noticed a man standing there and David did a double check of the address. This was it. He got out of the car, careful of his side, and walked up the driveway.

“Hi. Severus Snape?” David asked, holding out his hand.

Severus took off the thick, leather gloves that he’d been wearing and set them on the counter. He was clad in a black, button-down, long-sleeved shirt with the cuffs rolled up to his elbows. There was a dark tattoo on his left forearm. His hair was shaggy but clean, his nose hooked. He stepped forward and reached a hand out to shake the other man’s hand.

“You must be David,” Sev said. “Any friend of Neal’s. All that.”

David took the other man’s hand in a firm, solid handshake. They were complete opposites, really, but David knew better than to judge a book by its cover these days. After all, he was here for a potion to heal his poison.

“This means a lot to me. Really. Like, my entire life.” David cracked a bit of a smile.

“Let’s hope that it means a lot to you for a long time.” Severus said, somewhat playfully. He motioned for David to come in and take a seat. “Why don’t you tell me your experiences in regards to this poison. Symptoms and everything you can remember from the dreams regarding the illness associated.” He added, reaching for the gloves again. “And I’ll see what I can do.”

David cracked a smile. He had been worried this would be awkward, but it appeared that he was wrong. As he took a seat, he let out an exhale and rubbed the back of his head. “Well. In my dreams, we’re all fairy tale characters. And all these stories and everything are real, everything exists in different worlds but it’s not quite the stories we’re used to. Before the poison showed up, we traveled to Neverland. Which definitely isn’t the way Disney made us think it was. It’s the sort of place where everything kills you, things aren’t what you think. There’s this plant called dreamshade. It’s deadly, the Lost Boys use it to coat the tips of their arrows and I got hit. Grazed, really,” David said, to really get across the danger behind the plant.

“As far as I know, there’s no known cure for it. You don’t have many days to go after you get it.” Once he paused, David cleared his throat, then stood up. “It’s going slower here, in the waking world, but.” He lifted up his shirt to show Severus the black lines that were starting to work their way up David’s torso and across his stomach.

Nah, Severus didn't bother with awkward. It was a waste of time. And time was of the essence. Apparently. He took a couple steps back over and bent down to get a good look at the way the poison was spreading. "I see." He said softly, his mind already working quickly through all of the possibilities.

"How many days does it normally take? And how many have you had?" Severus asked, moving over to his store cupboard. He pulled it open to start sifting through the bottles that lined it. Small, mostly stoppered, different colored liquids and powders in each. He picked a couple of bottles and brought them back over to David.

David wasn’t sure if he should keep his shirt held up or not, so he let the hem drop. “Days. Less than a week, the guy that tells me about it makes it seem like three or four. I’ve had three already here, only one or so in the dreams. I … Think maybe it might progress as I dream about it progressing?” Which meant that it was hard to say exactly what would happen and when.

Severus nodded. Funny how a few years ago that would have sounded absolutely insane to him, but now it made perfect sense. His magical powers grew as he dreamed more and more about them, so why wouldn’t something like this? Only, he hoped that David wasn’t going to die from it here. It was fascinating and he wanted to study it. “I have a couple of universal cures here that shouldn’t cause any harm even if they don’t offer a benefit. Are you allergic to any medications, foods, plants or other substances?”
In any other circumstance, any phrase involving shouldn’t cause any harm might have worried David. At this point, though, he figured he couldn’t actually get worse than what was already happening. At Severus’ question, David shook his head. “No allergies. I’m pretty much good to go with anything you might have.”

“All right.” Severus was all business as he pulled some vials and bottles out of the stock cabinet. He double-checked labels and expiration dates, then opened them each in turn and sniffed the contents. When everything was as he wanted it to be, he held each one out to David. “Drink. Then I’ll have you lay down for an hour.” He was likely to get sleepy after so many potions.

There was a cot in the room, near the door leading into the kitchen. It didn’t look like much, but it was magicked to be quite comfortable.

“Just to make sure there are no immediate ill effects.” Severus added.

David glanced at the cot, but honestly didn’t think much of it. It was already kind enough for the man to want to keep a certain amount of supervision on David, let alone offer him a place to rest. What he did think much of was the potions. For not the first time in the last hour, David wondered what his life had become, but he took the offered bottles and drank as he was told.

“-- You could fix any side effects, though, right?” he asked, maybe a bit too late as he’d already taken a good portion of potions.

“There is a certain amount of unpredictability when it comes to magic.” Severus explained. “Chances are high that you’re going to experience a bit of lethargy while your body processes the potions you’ve just taken. I doubt there will be any other effects.” He took the vials and bottles and moved them to his sink, then set about tidying the lab, giving David some space.