Loose ends chapter 14 - healer
Feb. 17th, 2017 09:56 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
coriariaSnape refuses to go to St Mungo's, so Lupin calls a werewolf healer for help. Substance abuse, drug withdrawl. PG.
This is a work of fan fiction. The world and all recognisable characters belong to J.K. Rowling and I make no claim or profit etc.
Healer
It was a tired household that woke the next morning. Lupin barely managed to get himself from his bed to his chair. Teddy, unsettled by a disrupted day, had woken Andromeda in the night and was grumpy. Andromeda looked more tired than Lupin had seen her in many months – not since Lupin and Teddy first came to live with her, and during Harry’s withdrawal. Harry stalked silently into the kitchen and began making strong coffee without a word.
“How was the night, Harry?” Lupin asked, once Harry had downed half a cup.
“Miserable. He’s not complaining, in fact he’s said almost nothing, but he’s been quite ill. Nothing will stay down, every time he drinks any water he’s sick. And I think he’s starting to run a fever. But he seems calm. He said he was okay if I went and got breakfast.”
“No visit from Sevvy?”
“No, thank Merlin. I don’t think I’d have coped with that.”
“When you’ve finished your coffee, take me through and I’ll sit with him for a bit.”
Harry nodded and continued to drink his coffee.
When Harry took him through, Lupin could see that Snape was flushed and sweating, and his breathing was laboured.
“How are you feeling this morning, Severus?”
Snape avoided looking at Lupin.
“Fine,” he muttered.
“Clearly not, Severus,” Lupin replied.
“Okay then, shit,” Snape snapped in response.
“That sounds more like it.”
Lupin held the back of his fingers to Snape’s forehead, then under his chin. He brushed back greasy hair that was sticking to the sweat on his face.
“Definitely a fever. That could be the withdrawal, or it could be something else. We’ll keep an eye on it.”
Snape was silent.
“I’ll stay here with you for a bit. Harry’s got to go in to the College.”
Lupin sat quietly next to the bed while Snape ignored him. Andromeda brought him tea and a note from Hagrid, saying that he would visit that afternoon in preparation for the full moon the following night. Snape didn’t respond when Lupin told him. Lupin leaned across and put a hand on his shoulder.
“Just let me know you’ve heard me please, Severus. I need to know you are still with me.”
“Yes.”
Snape responded with the bare minimum of words.
“Are you sure you won’t have something to drink? You’ll get dehydrated.”
“No point.”
Lupin didn’t press Snape further. He suspected that Snape was feeling regret or anxiety about how open he had been with Lupin the previous day, and was now trying to put some distance between them. It was typical Snape behaviour, any small moment of friendliness followed by sudden hostility, and Lupin was used to it.
By mid-morning though, Lupin was becoming more concerned. Snape’s fever had risen and he had become even less communicative. Lupin had taken a flannel and a basin of cool water and was wiping Snape’s face and neck with the cooled cloth. That Snape hadn’t complained or hexed him for it indicated just how ill he was feeling. Snape’s breathing was becoming progressively more laboured, and he was coughing. He had agreed, once, to drink some water, and had kept it down for only a few minutes before vomiting it back up. He was now clearly dehydrated.
Lupin and Andromeda conversed anxiously beside his bed, as Teddy sat in Lupin’s lap. Eventually, Andromeda leaned over to speak to Snape.
“Severus, you need to see a healer. I’m going to contact St Mungo’s and see if I can take you in.”
“No, I’m not going.”
“Severus, you are ill and getting worse, you need to see a healer.”
“I’m not going to St Mungo’s.”
“You need to, Severus.”
Snape began to cough. He sounded almost like he was choking.
“Listen to yourself, Severus,” Lupin said firmly. “You need a healer.”
“Cough, cough,” added Teddy helpfully.
“Not St Mungo’s.”
“Why not, Severus?”
Snape began to cough again while Teddy again added his commentary. When he finally had himself under control, he looked sadly at Lupin.
“Why not, Severus?” Lupin repeated softly.
Snape was silent for a moment. His eyes were watery, whether as a result of the coughing fit, or because he was about to cry, Lupin couldn’t tell.
“They want to lock me up. Every time I go there, they say I can’t look after myself properly, and I should go to Asphodel Fields. I’m not going. I’m not.”
Snape’s voice carried a note of desperation.
Lupin and Andromeda leaped in to reassure him, both speaking at once.
“We won’t allow that, we won’t let you go there.”
“That won’t happen, we won’t let them do that.”
Snape looked up, disbelief on his face.
“Really?”
“We won’t allow it, Severus, I promise,” Lupin said gently.
Snape nodded.
“Will you take me, Lupin?”
“It has to be Andromeda. St Mungo’s don’t… they don’t allow pets on the premises. As a werewolf, I’m considered a pet.”
Snape began to cough again. When the coughing finally subsided, he spoke again through clenched teeth, the tone utterly clear.
“Then I’m not going.”
“Severus, please be reasonable.”
“I’m not going without you.”
Lupin sighed. There was a fear in Snape’s eyes that made him reluctant to push him.
“We could contact Hogwarts then. Madame Pomphrey would come if we asked, I’m sure. Or, Hermione? She’s far from qualified, but I’m sure she’d be happy to come, and she could refer back to St Mungo’s or Madame Pomphrey if needed.”
As Lupin expected, the expression on Snape’s face showed what he thought of those options. Given the choice of being talked to as if he was a child, or being given a lecture, Snape would choose neither, and suffer alone.
“Well your only other option is the werewolf healer at the Institute. She’s quite competent in general ailments as well, although her bedside manner is a little lacking.”
Lupin paused. He hadn’t been serious about the Institute, but he suddenly realised it wasn’t such a bad idea. The Institute staff were not inclined to be judgemental. They certainly understood the fear of being locked away.
“She’s young, Severus, and rather… brusque,” he went on gently. “But she knows what she’s doing. You’d probably find her personality more compatible than Hermione’s.”
That was one way to put it, Lupin thought. The healer was notoriously prickly, blunt to the point of rudeness and with little tolerance for such nonsense as emotions. And, thought Lupin with a small smile, there was Wormwood Fox, the Institute’s potion maker. It might be helpful if Snape were to see the young man again.
Seeing no particular objection from Snape, and no other option, Lupin turned to Andromeda.
“Do you think you could contact Lucretia, please. Ask if she’s able to come, or wants us to bring him. It’s a little close to the full moon, she may be rather busy.”
Andromeda left the room with Teddy in her arms, while Lupin returned to cooling Snape’s face with a damp cloth, and failing to convince him to drink anything.
Half an hour later, Andromeda returned without Teddy, having left him at the Institute, where he would be fussed over and generally spoiled while she dealt with the healer. Behind her was a tall young woman with her hair in a severe ponytail. Her posture was very upright, and her dress may have graced the wardrobe of a fashionable widow a hundred years previously. Her face wore a grim expression, although it softened slightly as she nodded at Lupin.
“And this is…?” she asked, looking intently at Snape.
“This is Severus, Lucretia. He’s an old friend and colleague. He’s staying here while he’s unwell.”
Snape’s eyes flicked up at Lupin, avoiding the young woman’s gaze. His chest heaved with the effort of breathing, and beads of sweat were forming on his face.
“Unwell,” the woman repeated, turning to Lupin. “Andromeda mentioned Dreamless Sleep withdrawal.”
“Yes,” Lupin replied. “But he also has memory problems. We are hoping these improve once he’s past the withdrawal.”
“And he’s not a werewolf?”
“No.”
“I see.”
The woman looked disapproving. She looked down at Snape before returning her icy eyes to Lupin.
“And why did you ask for me?”
“He’s developed a fever and cough, and won’t go to St Mungo’s. They want him to go to Asphodel Fields, apparently.”
The woman gave a terse nod and crouched down beside him.
“Hello Severus.”
The greeting appeared to be as friendly as she got. She took out her wand and immediately held it to Snape’s temple, looking him in the eye with her intense gaze. Snape’s face showed panic as he frantically tried to throw mental defences in her path, but she was not trying to look in his mind. Instead, her body began to absorb his pain. Snape relaxed as he realised there was no intrusion into his mind and, for a short time, his pain was transferred to the healer. There was no change in the expression on Lucretia’s face as she passed her wand around his body. Lupin knew from experience that there never was, no matter what agonies her patients were suffering.
She broke the connection as Snape began to cough, then looked from Snape to Lupin, then Andromeda.
“I can treat the dehydration and the chest infection without affecting the withdrawal,” she said sharply. “I can’t tell how much Dreamless Sleep he was taking though, that will affect how much I can treat the fever, headache and nausea.”
“A standard brewer’s bottle a week.” Lupin replied, knowing that the woman didn’t respond well to unnecessary words when she was treating a patient, and there was no point in softening the ugly truth.
Lucretia’s eyebrows moved slightly. Other than that, her expression didn’t change.
“That volume will prolong the withdrawal by a day or two. The fever will come down if I treat the infection, but it’s not worth treating the headache and nausea. It will only slow the withdrawal further. Are there other symptoms I should be aware of?”
“Stomach cramps and diarrhoea, although that’s largely stopped since he’s barely eaten or drunk anything since last night. I assume it was the withdrawal. And the memory problems I mentioned. These have gone on for some months, we think. Perhaps since the end of the war. They seem to be linked to occlumency, and maybe the dreamless sleep.”
Lucretia was silent for a moment.
“What was his involvement in the war?” she said, her voice slightly more gentle.
“He spied for the Order. He was in the inner circle of the Death Eaters.”
“In both wars actually,” added Andromeda. “Hence the Occlumency.”
A look of understanding flashed across the young woman’s face, and she gave another of her brief nods. After a few more moments of silence, Lucretia took a tiny box from a skirt pocket and placed it on the floor beside Snape’s bed. She tapped it with her wand, and it expanded into a small wooden cabinet. She pulled a handle to reveal a narrow shelf, then began opening drawers and pulling out various small bottles, which she neatly lined up in a row on the shelf.
Lucretia turned to Andromeda, who was watching closely. The older woman had never been permitted to undergo healer training, since a Black girl’s education was confined to the skills required to be a rich man’s wife, but she had picked up some useful skills over the years and had patched up Order members through two wars.
Lucretia had slowly begun to trust Andromeda, seeing that she could be relied upon to administer even complex treatments for Lupin.
“Outside of a hospital, there are few options for rehydration that don’t involve suppressing the nausea and getting him to drink. This will work, but it’s slow and you’ll need to keep doing it. On the other hand, it’s also an effective way to administer other potions to a patient who can’t take anything by mouth.”
Lucretia took the left hand bottle in the row and opened the lid. Silently, she began to open the other bottles one by one, left to right, placing a few drops from each in the first bottle. When she had taken some from each bottle, she put all but the first bottle away, and took out one more, a clear bottle containing a yellow liquid.
Lucretia took Snape’s left arm and pushed the sleeve up to the elbow. Snape struggled briefly to pull his arm away but her grip was firm. She paid no attention to the scar on the inside of his arm, instead she gently stroked her thumb over the veins of his wrist. She turned to her cabinet, taking the bottle of yellow liquid and removing the lid.
“Severus, I need you to listen to this.”
She gripped his arm with uncomfortable intensity until he met her gaze.
“You will feel a tingling on your wrist, and hear the skin sizzling. It won’t hurt because I’ve numbed the skin, but it may startle you. I need you to keep your arm still.”
Snape responded with a bout of coughing. When it subsided, she asked Lupin to help steady Snape’s arm, then gripped his hand firmly.
With an eyedropper in her other hand, she placed a single drop of the yellow liquid on the inside of his wrist. There was a sizzling sound and the liquid bubbled like acid. There was a faint smell of sulphur and burned flesh in the room. A blister began to swell on the skin, at first tiny, then engorged to the size of an eyeball. After a few minutes, it was clear that the blister was shrinking, and after a few minutes more it shrunk away completely, leaving no mark on the skin.
“What is that? I’ve never seen it before,” Andromeda asked.
“No, the alunar healers seldom bother to learn anything from werewolves. It’s celandine serum. Usually used on a sick werewolf after transformation, although useful under many other circumstances as well.”
Andromeda knew that the woman’s sharp tone and reference to alunar healers wasn’t directed at her personally. Lucretia was simply unused to interacting with anyone who wasn’t a werewolf. She had been born a werewolf, part of an oppressive matriarchy where girls were prized as able to bear cubs, and boys, unable to pass on their lycanthropy to their offspring, were controlled and dominated, to ensure obedience when they grew up. The men in the family married only werewolf women chosen by their mothers, thus perpetuating a pure werewolf line.
Lucretia hadn’t even met an “Alunar”, as she called anyone who wasn’t a werewolf, until she ran away with her younger brother, the night before his wedding to a cousin who frightened even Lucretia with her cruelty. The Institute had become their refuge, Lucretia using her considerable skills to help the other werewolves, while her brother, timid and afraid of both humans and werewolves, proved to be utterly fearless with dragons.
Andromeda was immensely grateful for the circumstances which had brought the pair to the Institute, as she doubted Lupin would have survived without the young woman’s care.
“I’ve used this on Remus many times, but you won’t have seen me because I’ve already done it by the time you’ve arrived. You’ll be able to apply it, but I don’t know if you’ll have a method to numb the skin, otherwise it stings badly.”
“There’s torpeo, although that would take out the whole arm for about an hour.”
“That’s fine. Stop him moving it around and the treatment needs repeating. I’ll get you to do the next one.”
Andromeda leaned forward and touched Snape gently on the shoulder.
“Are you ready, Severus? I’m going to numb your arm now.”
Snape’s eyes flicked across to her, then away again, as he tried to pretend he was alone and not being poked and prodded by healers.
Andromeda took out her wand and tapped Snape’s hand, saying “Torpeo” as she did so. She then took the dropper from Lucretia, and dropped the yellow liquid to his wrist. She held him steady, one hand on his arm, the other against his shoulder, as he began to cough again.
This time, as the blister swelled, Lucretia handed Andromeda the original bottle that she had mixed.
“This is for his chest infection. It should clear it up in a few hours. However because he’s already had pneumonia recently, I’ll get you to keep up the treatment a bit longer. Two drops every two hours until nightfall. Place the drops on the blister when it’s growing.”
Andromeda dropped the liquid onto the surface of the blister, and it disappeared immediately. She glanced up at Lucretia for confirmation, then added another drop. They watched closely as the blister slowly retreated.
“I’m afraid you’ll need to repeat the blistering about ten times now before he’s properly rehydrated, then you’ll probably need to do it another five times tonight, and again tomorrow morning, unless he is able to keep liquids down before then.”
Lucretia leaned forward to speak to Snape.
“Severus, it’s really important that you keep still as much as possible during the blistering process. Do you understand.”
Snape didn’t respond, his eyes staring fixedly at the wall.
“Severus?”
Before Lupin could stop her, she tapped him firmly on the right shoulder. Suddenly his eyes turned towards her, filled with fear. His breathing became rapid, and he began to struggle, becoming more panicked as he was unable to move away from the people surrounding him. He flung his right arm over his head defensively and began to whimper.
“Mother, no, no, please.”
Lupin muttered “shit” under his breath and motioned for Lucretia to move away. He gently took Snape’s hand in his, and began to make soothing noises.
“Please, don’t, I… I’ll be good. Please,” Snape begged.
“Shh now, Sevvy, it’s okay. You’re safe, hush now.”
Snape looked up at him in confusion.
“Do you remember me, Sevvy?” Remus asked softly. “I’m Clarridge’s friend, Remus. I’ve got a big black dog called Grimmy. Remember him?”
Snape’s brow creased in concentration. He looked uncertain, but something in Lupin’s voice calmed him. His breathing slowed.
“Remus?”
“That’s right. I’m Remus.”
Lupin let go of Snape’s hand, and began to stroke his brow. He continued to speak gently.
“Do you remember Sevvy, you are staying here while you are sick. You’ve just had a bad dream, you can go back to sleep now. Shh, shh.”
“Remus, I’m scared.”
“I know, Sevvy, but you know you are safe here, don’t you?
Andromeda quietly backed out of the room, signalling to Lucretia to follow.
“That’s one of the memory problems. He gets stuck in a memory from childhood, thinks he’s about six years old again. He can be quite difficult in that state, the fewer people around him the better.”
“There’s not much more I can do here anyway. I’ll give you more doses of the celandine serum and the chest potion, and I’ll come back tomorrow.”
“Do you have time?”
“Of course not, tomorrow night’s the full moon” she said sharply. “But he needs to be treated as well. I’ll come around three, and take Remus back with me. Speaking of the full moon, what do you intend to do? You will need more help.”
“Hagrid’s coming. You know Hagrid from Hogwarts, don’t you? I’m pretty sure he’s visited the Institute.”
“Oh yes, I know Hagrid. Marvellous with a wounded hippogriff or a sulking dragon.”
Before Andromeda could wonder whether that was a veiled reference to the skills required to care for Snape, Lucretia summoned the wooden cabinet to her, removing the bottle she had mixed and one of the yellow liquid, and passing them to Andromeda. She then briskly shrunk the cabinet back, tucked it into a pocket in her skirt, turned and left the house with the briefest nod. Andromeda wasn’t offended and knew Lupin wouldn’t be. Both knew that the young werewolf didn’t have much in the way of social graces.
Andromeda returned to find Snape calmly sleeping, his hand clutching Lupin’s.
“I think he’s so ill he didn’t really know what was happening. I calmed him and told him he’d been having a nightmare, and he just settled off to sleep.”
This is a work of fan fiction. The world and all recognisable characters belong to J.K. Rowling and I make no claim or profit etc.
Healer
It was a tired household that woke the next morning. Lupin barely managed to get himself from his bed to his chair. Teddy, unsettled by a disrupted day, had woken Andromeda in the night and was grumpy. Andromeda looked more tired than Lupin had seen her in many months – not since Lupin and Teddy first came to live with her, and during Harry’s withdrawal. Harry stalked silently into the kitchen and began making strong coffee without a word.
“How was the night, Harry?” Lupin asked, once Harry had downed half a cup.
“Miserable. He’s not complaining, in fact he’s said almost nothing, but he’s been quite ill. Nothing will stay down, every time he drinks any water he’s sick. And I think he’s starting to run a fever. But he seems calm. He said he was okay if I went and got breakfast.”
“No visit from Sevvy?”
“No, thank Merlin. I don’t think I’d have coped with that.”
“When you’ve finished your coffee, take me through and I’ll sit with him for a bit.”
Harry nodded and continued to drink his coffee.
When Harry took him through, Lupin could see that Snape was flushed and sweating, and his breathing was laboured.
“How are you feeling this morning, Severus?”
Snape avoided looking at Lupin.
“Fine,” he muttered.
“Clearly not, Severus,” Lupin replied.
“Okay then, shit,” Snape snapped in response.
“That sounds more like it.”
Lupin held the back of his fingers to Snape’s forehead, then under his chin. He brushed back greasy hair that was sticking to the sweat on his face.
“Definitely a fever. That could be the withdrawal, or it could be something else. We’ll keep an eye on it.”
Snape was silent.
“I’ll stay here with you for a bit. Harry’s got to go in to the College.”
Lupin sat quietly next to the bed while Snape ignored him. Andromeda brought him tea and a note from Hagrid, saying that he would visit that afternoon in preparation for the full moon the following night. Snape didn’t respond when Lupin told him. Lupin leaned across and put a hand on his shoulder.
“Just let me know you’ve heard me please, Severus. I need to know you are still with me.”
“Yes.”
Snape responded with the bare minimum of words.
“Are you sure you won’t have something to drink? You’ll get dehydrated.”
“No point.”
Lupin didn’t press Snape further. He suspected that Snape was feeling regret or anxiety about how open he had been with Lupin the previous day, and was now trying to put some distance between them. It was typical Snape behaviour, any small moment of friendliness followed by sudden hostility, and Lupin was used to it.
By mid-morning though, Lupin was becoming more concerned. Snape’s fever had risen and he had become even less communicative. Lupin had taken a flannel and a basin of cool water and was wiping Snape’s face and neck with the cooled cloth. That Snape hadn’t complained or hexed him for it indicated just how ill he was feeling. Snape’s breathing was becoming progressively more laboured, and he was coughing. He had agreed, once, to drink some water, and had kept it down for only a few minutes before vomiting it back up. He was now clearly dehydrated.
Lupin and Andromeda conversed anxiously beside his bed, as Teddy sat in Lupin’s lap. Eventually, Andromeda leaned over to speak to Snape.
“Severus, you need to see a healer. I’m going to contact St Mungo’s and see if I can take you in.”
“No, I’m not going.”
“Severus, you are ill and getting worse, you need to see a healer.”
“I’m not going to St Mungo’s.”
“You need to, Severus.”
Snape began to cough. He sounded almost like he was choking.
“Listen to yourself, Severus,” Lupin said firmly. “You need a healer.”
“Cough, cough,” added Teddy helpfully.
“Not St Mungo’s.”
“Why not, Severus?”
Snape began to cough again while Teddy again added his commentary. When he finally had himself under control, he looked sadly at Lupin.
“Why not, Severus?” Lupin repeated softly.
Snape was silent for a moment. His eyes were watery, whether as a result of the coughing fit, or because he was about to cry, Lupin couldn’t tell.
“They want to lock me up. Every time I go there, they say I can’t look after myself properly, and I should go to Asphodel Fields. I’m not going. I’m not.”
Snape’s voice carried a note of desperation.
Lupin and Andromeda leaped in to reassure him, both speaking at once.
“We won’t allow that, we won’t let you go there.”
“That won’t happen, we won’t let them do that.”
Snape looked up, disbelief on his face.
“Really?”
“We won’t allow it, Severus, I promise,” Lupin said gently.
Snape nodded.
“Will you take me, Lupin?”
“It has to be Andromeda. St Mungo’s don’t… they don’t allow pets on the premises. As a werewolf, I’m considered a pet.”
Snape began to cough again. When the coughing finally subsided, he spoke again through clenched teeth, the tone utterly clear.
“Then I’m not going.”
“Severus, please be reasonable.”
“I’m not going without you.”
Lupin sighed. There was a fear in Snape’s eyes that made him reluctant to push him.
“We could contact Hogwarts then. Madame Pomphrey would come if we asked, I’m sure. Or, Hermione? She’s far from qualified, but I’m sure she’d be happy to come, and she could refer back to St Mungo’s or Madame Pomphrey if needed.”
As Lupin expected, the expression on Snape’s face showed what he thought of those options. Given the choice of being talked to as if he was a child, or being given a lecture, Snape would choose neither, and suffer alone.
“Well your only other option is the werewolf healer at the Institute. She’s quite competent in general ailments as well, although her bedside manner is a little lacking.”
Lupin paused. He hadn’t been serious about the Institute, but he suddenly realised it wasn’t such a bad idea. The Institute staff were not inclined to be judgemental. They certainly understood the fear of being locked away.
“She’s young, Severus, and rather… brusque,” he went on gently. “But she knows what she’s doing. You’d probably find her personality more compatible than Hermione’s.”
That was one way to put it, Lupin thought. The healer was notoriously prickly, blunt to the point of rudeness and with little tolerance for such nonsense as emotions. And, thought Lupin with a small smile, there was Wormwood Fox, the Institute’s potion maker. It might be helpful if Snape were to see the young man again.
Seeing no particular objection from Snape, and no other option, Lupin turned to Andromeda.
“Do you think you could contact Lucretia, please. Ask if she’s able to come, or wants us to bring him. It’s a little close to the full moon, she may be rather busy.”
Andromeda left the room with Teddy in her arms, while Lupin returned to cooling Snape’s face with a damp cloth, and failing to convince him to drink anything.
Half an hour later, Andromeda returned without Teddy, having left him at the Institute, where he would be fussed over and generally spoiled while she dealt with the healer. Behind her was a tall young woman with her hair in a severe ponytail. Her posture was very upright, and her dress may have graced the wardrobe of a fashionable widow a hundred years previously. Her face wore a grim expression, although it softened slightly as she nodded at Lupin.
“And this is…?” she asked, looking intently at Snape.
“This is Severus, Lucretia. He’s an old friend and colleague. He’s staying here while he’s unwell.”
Snape’s eyes flicked up at Lupin, avoiding the young woman’s gaze. His chest heaved with the effort of breathing, and beads of sweat were forming on his face.
“Unwell,” the woman repeated, turning to Lupin. “Andromeda mentioned Dreamless Sleep withdrawal.”
“Yes,” Lupin replied. “But he also has memory problems. We are hoping these improve once he’s past the withdrawal.”
“And he’s not a werewolf?”
“No.”
“I see.”
The woman looked disapproving. She looked down at Snape before returning her icy eyes to Lupin.
“And why did you ask for me?”
“He’s developed a fever and cough, and won’t go to St Mungo’s. They want him to go to Asphodel Fields, apparently.”
The woman gave a terse nod and crouched down beside him.
“Hello Severus.”
The greeting appeared to be as friendly as she got. She took out her wand and immediately held it to Snape’s temple, looking him in the eye with her intense gaze. Snape’s face showed panic as he frantically tried to throw mental defences in her path, but she was not trying to look in his mind. Instead, her body began to absorb his pain. Snape relaxed as he realised there was no intrusion into his mind and, for a short time, his pain was transferred to the healer. There was no change in the expression on Lucretia’s face as she passed her wand around his body. Lupin knew from experience that there never was, no matter what agonies her patients were suffering.
She broke the connection as Snape began to cough, then looked from Snape to Lupin, then Andromeda.
“I can treat the dehydration and the chest infection without affecting the withdrawal,” she said sharply. “I can’t tell how much Dreamless Sleep he was taking though, that will affect how much I can treat the fever, headache and nausea.”
“A standard brewer’s bottle a week.” Lupin replied, knowing that the woman didn’t respond well to unnecessary words when she was treating a patient, and there was no point in softening the ugly truth.
Lucretia’s eyebrows moved slightly. Other than that, her expression didn’t change.
“That volume will prolong the withdrawal by a day or two. The fever will come down if I treat the infection, but it’s not worth treating the headache and nausea. It will only slow the withdrawal further. Are there other symptoms I should be aware of?”
“Stomach cramps and diarrhoea, although that’s largely stopped since he’s barely eaten or drunk anything since last night. I assume it was the withdrawal. And the memory problems I mentioned. These have gone on for some months, we think. Perhaps since the end of the war. They seem to be linked to occlumency, and maybe the dreamless sleep.”
Lucretia was silent for a moment.
“What was his involvement in the war?” she said, her voice slightly more gentle.
“He spied for the Order. He was in the inner circle of the Death Eaters.”
“In both wars actually,” added Andromeda. “Hence the Occlumency.”
A look of understanding flashed across the young woman’s face, and she gave another of her brief nods. After a few more moments of silence, Lucretia took a tiny box from a skirt pocket and placed it on the floor beside Snape’s bed. She tapped it with her wand, and it expanded into a small wooden cabinet. She pulled a handle to reveal a narrow shelf, then began opening drawers and pulling out various small bottles, which she neatly lined up in a row on the shelf.
Lucretia turned to Andromeda, who was watching closely. The older woman had never been permitted to undergo healer training, since a Black girl’s education was confined to the skills required to be a rich man’s wife, but she had picked up some useful skills over the years and had patched up Order members through two wars.
Lucretia had slowly begun to trust Andromeda, seeing that she could be relied upon to administer even complex treatments for Lupin.
“Outside of a hospital, there are few options for rehydration that don’t involve suppressing the nausea and getting him to drink. This will work, but it’s slow and you’ll need to keep doing it. On the other hand, it’s also an effective way to administer other potions to a patient who can’t take anything by mouth.”
Lucretia took the left hand bottle in the row and opened the lid. Silently, she began to open the other bottles one by one, left to right, placing a few drops from each in the first bottle. When she had taken some from each bottle, she put all but the first bottle away, and took out one more, a clear bottle containing a yellow liquid.
Lucretia took Snape’s left arm and pushed the sleeve up to the elbow. Snape struggled briefly to pull his arm away but her grip was firm. She paid no attention to the scar on the inside of his arm, instead she gently stroked her thumb over the veins of his wrist. She turned to her cabinet, taking the bottle of yellow liquid and removing the lid.
“Severus, I need you to listen to this.”
She gripped his arm with uncomfortable intensity until he met her gaze.
“You will feel a tingling on your wrist, and hear the skin sizzling. It won’t hurt because I’ve numbed the skin, but it may startle you. I need you to keep your arm still.”
Snape responded with a bout of coughing. When it subsided, she asked Lupin to help steady Snape’s arm, then gripped his hand firmly.
With an eyedropper in her other hand, she placed a single drop of the yellow liquid on the inside of his wrist. There was a sizzling sound and the liquid bubbled like acid. There was a faint smell of sulphur and burned flesh in the room. A blister began to swell on the skin, at first tiny, then engorged to the size of an eyeball. After a few minutes, it was clear that the blister was shrinking, and after a few minutes more it shrunk away completely, leaving no mark on the skin.
“What is that? I’ve never seen it before,” Andromeda asked.
“No, the alunar healers seldom bother to learn anything from werewolves. It’s celandine serum. Usually used on a sick werewolf after transformation, although useful under many other circumstances as well.”
Andromeda knew that the woman’s sharp tone and reference to alunar healers wasn’t directed at her personally. Lucretia was simply unused to interacting with anyone who wasn’t a werewolf. She had been born a werewolf, part of an oppressive matriarchy where girls were prized as able to bear cubs, and boys, unable to pass on their lycanthropy to their offspring, were controlled and dominated, to ensure obedience when they grew up. The men in the family married only werewolf women chosen by their mothers, thus perpetuating a pure werewolf line.
Lucretia hadn’t even met an “Alunar”, as she called anyone who wasn’t a werewolf, until she ran away with her younger brother, the night before his wedding to a cousin who frightened even Lucretia with her cruelty. The Institute had become their refuge, Lucretia using her considerable skills to help the other werewolves, while her brother, timid and afraid of both humans and werewolves, proved to be utterly fearless with dragons.
Andromeda was immensely grateful for the circumstances which had brought the pair to the Institute, as she doubted Lupin would have survived without the young woman’s care.
“I’ve used this on Remus many times, but you won’t have seen me because I’ve already done it by the time you’ve arrived. You’ll be able to apply it, but I don’t know if you’ll have a method to numb the skin, otherwise it stings badly.”
“There’s torpeo, although that would take out the whole arm for about an hour.”
“That’s fine. Stop him moving it around and the treatment needs repeating. I’ll get you to do the next one.”
Andromeda leaned forward and touched Snape gently on the shoulder.
“Are you ready, Severus? I’m going to numb your arm now.”
Snape’s eyes flicked across to her, then away again, as he tried to pretend he was alone and not being poked and prodded by healers.
Andromeda took out her wand and tapped Snape’s hand, saying “Torpeo” as she did so. She then took the dropper from Lucretia, and dropped the yellow liquid to his wrist. She held him steady, one hand on his arm, the other against his shoulder, as he began to cough again.
This time, as the blister swelled, Lucretia handed Andromeda the original bottle that she had mixed.
“This is for his chest infection. It should clear it up in a few hours. However because he’s already had pneumonia recently, I’ll get you to keep up the treatment a bit longer. Two drops every two hours until nightfall. Place the drops on the blister when it’s growing.”
Andromeda dropped the liquid onto the surface of the blister, and it disappeared immediately. She glanced up at Lucretia for confirmation, then added another drop. They watched closely as the blister slowly retreated.
“I’m afraid you’ll need to repeat the blistering about ten times now before he’s properly rehydrated, then you’ll probably need to do it another five times tonight, and again tomorrow morning, unless he is able to keep liquids down before then.”
Lucretia leaned forward to speak to Snape.
“Severus, it’s really important that you keep still as much as possible during the blistering process. Do you understand.”
Snape didn’t respond, his eyes staring fixedly at the wall.
“Severus?”
Before Lupin could stop her, she tapped him firmly on the right shoulder. Suddenly his eyes turned towards her, filled with fear. His breathing became rapid, and he began to struggle, becoming more panicked as he was unable to move away from the people surrounding him. He flung his right arm over his head defensively and began to whimper.
“Mother, no, no, please.”
Lupin muttered “shit” under his breath and motioned for Lucretia to move away. He gently took Snape’s hand in his, and began to make soothing noises.
“Please, don’t, I… I’ll be good. Please,” Snape begged.
“Shh now, Sevvy, it’s okay. You’re safe, hush now.”
Snape looked up at him in confusion.
“Do you remember me, Sevvy?” Remus asked softly. “I’m Clarridge’s friend, Remus. I’ve got a big black dog called Grimmy. Remember him?”
Snape’s brow creased in concentration. He looked uncertain, but something in Lupin’s voice calmed him. His breathing slowed.
“Remus?”
“That’s right. I’m Remus.”
Lupin let go of Snape’s hand, and began to stroke his brow. He continued to speak gently.
“Do you remember Sevvy, you are staying here while you are sick. You’ve just had a bad dream, you can go back to sleep now. Shh, shh.”
“Remus, I’m scared.”
“I know, Sevvy, but you know you are safe here, don’t you?
Andromeda quietly backed out of the room, signalling to Lucretia to follow.
“That’s one of the memory problems. He gets stuck in a memory from childhood, thinks he’s about six years old again. He can be quite difficult in that state, the fewer people around him the better.”
“There’s not much more I can do here anyway. I’ll give you more doses of the celandine serum and the chest potion, and I’ll come back tomorrow.”
“Do you have time?”
“Of course not, tomorrow night’s the full moon” she said sharply. “But he needs to be treated as well. I’ll come around three, and take Remus back with me. Speaking of the full moon, what do you intend to do? You will need more help.”
“Hagrid’s coming. You know Hagrid from Hogwarts, don’t you? I’m pretty sure he’s visited the Institute.”
“Oh yes, I know Hagrid. Marvellous with a wounded hippogriff or a sulking dragon.”
Before Andromeda could wonder whether that was a veiled reference to the skills required to care for Snape, Lucretia summoned the wooden cabinet to her, removing the bottle she had mixed and one of the yellow liquid, and passing them to Andromeda. She then briskly shrunk the cabinet back, tucked it into a pocket in her skirt, turned and left the house with the briefest nod. Andromeda wasn’t offended and knew Lupin wouldn’t be. Both knew that the young werewolf didn’t have much in the way of social graces.
Andromeda returned to find Snape calmly sleeping, his hand clutching Lupin’s.
“I think he’s so ill he didn’t really know what was happening. I calmed him and told him he’d been having a nightmare, and he just settled off to sleep.”
