Qualms and Connections

Qualms and Connections

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Chapter 5:

The Rescue

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"Remus?" asked Severus, frowning a bit. "Are you feeling all right? You aren't eating anything."

"What? Oh, sorry, Severus," the werewolf replied with a tiny smile. "Yeah, I am feeling all right. I'm just not so hungry at the moment. I'll eat later, okay?"

However, this made his friend frown. Remus didn't look all right, he looked sick. "Are you sure nothing's wrong with you?" the darkhaired boy demanded, reaching out a hand to touch Remus' forehead. "Merlin, you're boiling hot! Why didn't you tell me?" he added angrily.

"It'll go away," Remus mumbled. "It's just the full moon coming up, nothing serious."

Severus, of course, didn't buy it. However, knowing how stubborn Remus could be when he wanted to, there was little the darkhaired boy could do. Determined to do at least something, though, Severus did force Remus to stay behind in the cave they had chosen as their "home" until the full moon as he left to look for a place for them to stay afterwards. This pattern seemed as good as anything; they would stay away from any human-habited areas on full moons, sleeping in barns and abandoned houses during the rest of the month. Severus in his cat form was becoming an expert in finding good places to stay at.

However, when he later returned, he got even more worried. The cave had become cold, a sign that Remus had dropped the warming charms. The coldness itself did not bother him much, but the possible reasons for it certainly did. Just like he'd feared, he found Remus lying down, too fevered and exhausted to get up.

Biting his lip, Severus cursed under his breath. The full moon would show up the next night. This did most certainly not promise anything good for poor Remus. Raking his memory for some spell, any kind of magic that would help, he cursed again as he realized that the only things that might help were all potions. It wasn't that he couldn't brew those potions; no, he was an expert in the field of brewery. However, even though some of the ingredients might be found somewhere in the nature, most were very hard or even impossible to acquire from anywhere else than a Wizarding shop. So, pretty much all he could do was to trust Remus' werewolf abilities to heal him. After the full moon, he would get them into a more comfortable location, and concentrate fully on doing everything he could to help his friend.

Not for the first and certainly not for the last time, he cursed himself for ever taking Remus with him.

*

Molly Weasley smiled as she watched her two sons running around. It had truly been a good idea to come to her sister's farm. Arthur had to stay behind as he had work, but Molly, Bill, and Charlie were now enjoying the peace of the countryside and the hospitality of Melanie and her husband Louis.

Now, she sighed. Thinking about the reasons of coming there hurt. When Alanna Potter had asked her, she had more than happily agreed to adopt the poor boy Alanna was talking about, Severus Snape. Arthur and Molly were both from big families, and having two children without any sign of another being on the way the thought of adopting a child sounded good to both of them. A teenager might bring troubles, but surely nothing they couldn't solve. Bill and Charlie had been excited at the thought of getting a big brother.

Just as well they had all been shocked when they had read from the Daily Prophet that the boy they had planned to adopt had died in a fire along with his friend.

So, Arthur had suggested that Molly and the boys should take a small holiday to take their minds away from the matter. This far it seemed to be working, for Bill and Charlie, at least. Molly, however, was finding herself quite unable to forget, especially whenever Melanie's fifteen-year-old son Tom was in sight.

Molly frowned a bit as Bill ran into the nearby barn. Leaving her bag where she had been sitting at, she went after him. Sure, the kids would have loved nothing as much as playing in the hay and climb to the attic, but she was concerned that they might fall down, hurting themselves. Knowing Bill, he was already up.

Suddenly, however, she heard something surprising. "Mom!" shouted Bill. "There's a boy here! Two boys!"

At hearing this Molly started to hurry towards where her son's voice was coming. Charlie followed her. Climbing the ladder up, the witch was startled to find Bill indeed sitting next to two boys. One of them raised his eyes at her. "Help him," pleaded the boy with a weak voice. "Just -- just help him. Please."

Molly stared at the boy in shock. She recognized him -- recognized him from a photograph she'd seen in the Daily Prophet some time earlier. The boy was even paler and thinner than in the photo -- his cheekbones looked so sharp under the nonexistent layer of flesh that they could have cut paper -- and there was a haunted look in his black eyes. He'd also cut his hair, which was now hanging on uneven, messy and oily strands all around his face. However, he was still well recognizable as Severus Snape -- a boy she had once agreed to adopt, and who was now dead to most of the world. He seemed to be very cold, wearing only a thin shirt and worn-out trousers.

And there, in front of the boy, lay another. The pale boy was still like dead, only the feverish red glow on his cheeks and the short, sharp breaths escaping his mouth telling that he was indeed alive. His pale skin was covered with cuts and bruises, and the only thing covering his shivering body was a robe that didn't seem to be his, as it was a bit too large for him. Blood had tainted his messy, golden hair, as well as the overlarge robe. Yet, he could also be recognized as Remus Lupin -- again a thought-to-be-dead boy. And, by the looks of it, he would probably become dead if he didn't get help and soon.

"Well? Are you going to help him?" demanded the darkhaired boy, sounding as if he was just about to start crying at any moment. As Molly nodded mutely, still too shocked to say a word, he let out a strangled and weak, "Thank Merlin," and fell down next to his friend in a dead faint.

Now, Molly broke out from her daze, and her motherly instincts struck in immediately. "Bill, go and get Aunt Melanie," she commanded firmly. "Charlie, bring my bag, I need some of the things there."

To her slight surprise, neither of the boys protested. Instead, they just nodded, seemingly just as shocked as she was, and then ran to do as they'd been told.

Molly, however, concentrated on the two boys in front of her. She carefully collected tiny Remus into her arms, alarmed at how little he seemed to weigh. Pressing her hand on the sweaty forehead, she noticed that the boy indeed had a very high fever. Severus, however, seemed to be suffering of hypothermia, at least if his blue lips were any sign to go by. They both needed to get inside, and warm, and bathed and clothed and fed and --

A task followed another in the mental list she was making. She was just on the point of taking Severus -- on whom she'd casted the Adoption Charm somewhere around task fifteen -- to the Diagon Alley to get him some new clothes as Charlie came back, carrying her handbag, which contained her wand.

"Thank you, Charlie," sighed Molly. She quickly cast a warming spell on poor Severus, hoping to help him feel at least a bit better. Then she started to go through her memory in an attempt to find some healing charms that might help Remus. At the same time she thought of potions both boys would need as soon as possible to take care of their obvious malnutrition.

Some time later she heard as Melanie entered the barn. "Molly?" called her for sister. "Exactly what is here that would need me to come here?" As she then climbed the ladder, she drew a sharp breath. "But -- aren't they --" she started, her eyes wide. Yes, she had indeed read the Daily Prophet as well.

"Remus Lupin and Severus Snape? Yes, it looks like that," Molly sighed. "Once they get better, I'll be interested to hear how they are alive -- or, rather, why they are thought dead. Before that, however, they need warmth, food, and a mediwitch. And I am now going to get them just that."

"I agree," Melanie said firmly. Turning towards her nephews, she said, "Bill, Charlie, get Uncle Louis and Tom here. They'll help us carry the poor boys to the house." Nodding, the children hurried off.

So, both determined, the two sisters now set to work.

*

Severus blinked as he slowly came to. The surroundings were unfamiliar to him, and for a moment, he almost panicked. As he made to sit up, however, a gentle hand pushed him down on the bed.

"You need to rest," said a gentle voice. "Don't worry about your friend, he's going to be fine. You'll both be fine." As his eyes managed to focus on the speaker he saw a friendly-looking, red-haired woman.

"Is he awake?" called out a child's voice. The next second two equally red-haired boys appeared to his bedside, looking at him curiously. "Are you gonna be our new big brother?" asked eagerly the one who had spoken earlier, seemingly the older one. "Mom said she's gonna adopt you!"

"Now, Bill, Charlie, let the poor boy rest," chuckled the woman. Turning towards Severus, she then said, "And, like Bill just said, my husband and I would definitely be interested in adopting you. I honestly don't think you can be as bad as those people in the orphanage made you out to be. Of course, that is only if you want to become our son," she added carefully. "As you can see, you'd get two little brothers as well."

"You don't want to adopt me," Severus said immediately. That was a fact, he knew it, and said as well.

"And why wouldn't I?" asked the woman back. "You do seem nice enough a boy to me. As you put yourself in such a bad state just to help your friend, you can't be too bad. I'd love to have you as my son."

"I like boys," the boy replied immediately. He regretted the words as soon as they had left his mouth, but he couldn't pull them back. Besides, he could just as well say it now, before they made the mistake of adopting them. They'd find out eventually, and he'd rather not be adopted at all than be abandoned again.

"So do I," she replied calmly. "Oh, don't give me that look. I know that most people might be prejudiced about things like that, but I am not. You love who you love; their gender doesn't matter."

Severus' eyes widened a bit at that. Did she really not care? So she didn't hate him for it?

"Now," continued the witch then, oblivious to his surprise, "what about you go and take a bath now? My sister has drawn you one; this is her house, you see. Oh, and you can call me Molly -- or Mother, if you'd like that." And again she flashed him her warm, caring smile that seemed to be targeted only at him.

"Didn't you just say that I needed to rest?" asked Severus. He made no comment on the name matter.

"Well, you seem rather determined not to rest," Molly replied levelly. "So, you need to get yourself washed now. Then you'll wear some clean clothes, eat something, and drink a couple of nutritional potions -- you're awfully thin, my dear! -- and then you may see your friend and explain just what you did and why."

She had never seen anybody stand up as fast as Severus now did.

*

"So, how did it all happen?" asked Molly gently from the now clean and fed Severus. "Why are you assumed dead? They did find your bodies, I believe. And why'd you frame such a thing?"

"It's my fault," the darkhaired boy replied immediately, never taking his eyes away from Remus' unmoving form. The poor boy's fever had gone down a bit, but he was still very sick, and seemingly not even near to regaining consciousness. "The other boys in the orphanage... they broke something very dear to me. They all hated me and Remus, you see, just because we were always together, they called us queers and freaks and whatnot." Sighing, the boy continued, "I was sure that nobody would ever want to adopt me if they actually met me, but I couldn't stay there any longer. So, I decided to run away -- and convinced Remus to come with me." Now, he gently reached out a hand to wipe a strand of hair from his friend's face.

Molly smiled a bit. She had suspected something ever since Severus had announced that he liked boys. Seemingly those boys in the orphanage hadn't been entirely wrong, even though the words they had used had been far from right. She then nodded, urging the boy to continue.

"Anyway. I created lifeless clones of us, and then we lit the fire, leaving the clones there -- that's why everybody thinks that we are dead. We did it so that they'd wipe our magical signatures from the registries and we could do magic without being detected; if we'd just run, they would have found us as soon as we first used magic, and surviving without it would have been near impossible. Then, shortly before the full moon, Remus fell ill. The wolf hurt himself, and once he had transformed back to a human, he wouldn't even wake up, he was so badly off. I carried him into the safest place I found and, well, then you found us."

"How exactly did you survive the full moon?" asked Melanie, startled. She of course knew that Remus was a werewolf, she had been told that much, as had the mediwitch who had come to treat the boys.

To this, Severus didn't say anything. Instead, he seemed to concentrate for a moment. Then, suddenly, a black cat sat on his place. Turning back into human, oblivious to their shocked expressions, he sighed, again taking Remus' hand in his own. "It is all my fault," he repeated. "If I hadn't convinced Remus to leave with me, he would now be adopted and happy with the Potters. He wouldn't be ill... it's all my fault."

Molly bit her lip, unable to find anything to say. Then she said, just to take the boy's thoughts away from such things, "Exactly what did they break? If you still have it with you, I might be able to repair it."

After a moment of hesitation the boy raised his hand to his neck. Drawing a leather pouch in a string from under his shirt, he took it away from around his neck and offered it to her. "I've never managed to get the repairing charm right," he said quietly. "So, I didn't dare to try; I was afraid I'd damage it further."

At this, Melanie raised her eyebrows, surprised. The repairing charm wasn't even taught before the third year. Molly, however, kept her smile calm as she opened the small pouch. It seemed to be full of tiny crystal fragments. Emptying it on a table, careful not to let anything fall to the floor, she then directed her wand at the fragments and said, "Reparo." Then she, like the others, watched as the fragments all came together to form a small statue, portraying a woman carrying her child.

"I got it from my mother," Severus said quietly, his eyes now fixed on the statue instead of his unconscious friend. "She left it to me when she took me to the orphanage. I was only three back then. It's the only proof I have that I've had a family once -- she wouldn't even tell my real name, afraid that my father would find me. I got the name Snape because I always snapped at everybody. But... that's more than Remus has."

Molly and Melanie glanced at each other. Then, they both smiled. "Well, Severus," Molly said, "you can now have a family again -- if you accept it, of course. It's only an Adoption Charm away."

Then, the two sisters watched him, both waiting to hear his answer. At last, he spoke.

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