Master in the Trees

From the sounds she could hear from the hallway, the teachers and students who were staying for the holidays were at lunch. She couldn't allow them all to see Professor Snape -not that anyone would have recognised him- but she knew that she would need a great deal of privacy when he awoke. Just to be safe, she cast a Disillusionment Charm on him and brought him to the Hospital Wing, which was dark and empty. Good. Madam Pomfrey was on holiday.

Hermione laid him on a screen-concealed bed and lit the lamps with a wave of her wand. She used a Severing Charm to remove what remained of his clothing and Banished what dirt and grime she could.

Confident that he would not die before regaining consciousness, she began rummaging through Madam Pomfrey's stores for bandages, Blood Replenishing Potion, and disinfectant. She was poised to yank the remains of the arrow out of his leg when the door of the Infirmary opened with a loud bang and the headmistress strode in, followed closely by a suspicious-looking house elf.

"What in the Nine Hells is going on in here?" Her eyes widened in shock. "Hermione, what are you-" she cut off with a gasp at the sight of the on the bed. "Is that-" she seemed unable to say the name.

"It's Professor Snape," finished Hermione softly.

Minerva rounded on her. "What have you done to him?" she demanded, trembling with rage.

"I didn't do anything to him, apart from bringing him here," she retorted, anger rising. "He needed immediate medical attention. Look at the state he's in! Why did you warn me away from him?"

The headmistress approached the bed and conjured a sheet to protect his dignity. She examined his emaciated body, clawed fingernails, matted hair and beard, and finally his wounds. She cast a spell that Hermione didn't know, which neatly pulled the arrow from his leg.

Hermione applied pressure to the wound. When she was satisfied that the bleeding had slowed, she cleaned the wound, cast a spell to help the wound heal more quickly, and looked pointedly at the headmistress, who had fallen heavily into the chair next to the bed.

She finally raised her eyes to Hermione's. "You must believe me that if I had any idea, I would have intervened."

"You didn't know he was living in the forest?"

Hermione was startled to see tears in the headmistress's eyes. "Of course I didn't," she snapped, wiping her face with the back of her hand. "Nobody in the Order knew, of course, and none of the Death Eaters who were questioned under Veritaserum had any idea as to his whereabouts. But his former Hogwarts house elf couldn't be given orders by anyone else, so we knew he was still alive. We were surprised when he didn't resurface after his trial and even more shocked that he never picked up his Order of Merlin. Frankly, I'd assumed it's because not one of us believed he could be innocent prior to seeing the memories Albus left us. The lie Albus had constructed was so much easier to believe than the truth, even after seeing Severus fight at Potter's side at the end of it all."

"Ron thought Moody had Professor Snape under the Imperius Curse," said Hermione with a sad smile, wrapping gauze around his leg.

"He's no longer Professor Snape, you know," said Minerva. "You should get used to calling him Severus." She clapped her hands, and a house elf appeared with a pop. "Toddy, please bring us tea and some sandwiches, and tell Professor Flitwick that I won't be able to meet with him this afternoon."

"Yes, headmistress!" the elf squeaked before winking out of the room.

The headmistress turned to Hermione. "My dear, I must ask. How did you find Severus and how did he end up with an arrow in his leg?"

"It's complicated, but I believe that Severus has been living in the forest with a wild Thestral herd since Voldemort's death." She continued her narrative, and Minerva gasped at all the right places. The food arrived, and after a warm and filling lunch, Hermione felt much better and broached the subject of Snape's mental state.

The headmistress nodded. "The first step will be moving Severus into his old quarters to convalesce. As excellent as the staff at St. Mungo's are for physical healing, they're ill-equipped to handle injuries of other kinds. If Severus is to be fit to give evidence against Malfoy, he'll need more intensive care than St. Mungo's can give. The very least we can do is hide him until we assess his ability and willingness to testify. You've brought him this far. Are you prepared to see this through?"

Hermione recalled Magorian's parting words and nodded in agreement.

"I shall send an owl to your employer that you are in the Hospital Wing at Hogwarts and will not be able to leave for several days," said the headmistress, shaking the crumbs from her robes. "The password to Severus's quarters is 'bonny brae.' You may enter through the Duchess of Burgundy's portrait in the west dungeon. I'll meet you there presently with the contents of the infirmary's potions stores."

"Thank you, Minerva."

"You're welcome. Thank you for bringing him back, Hermione. Merlin knows he won't ever thank you, but I'm grateful all the same."

)()()()()()()()()()()()()()()()(

Severus's rooms were as gloomy as his classroom, with heavy velvet draperies so deep a violet that they appeared black in the lamplight. She laid him on the bed, still wrapped in the cloak she'd given him in the forest, and pulled the curtains open. It was snowing harder, and the lead-paned glass was decorated with swirls of frost. Hermione was surprised to realize that his quarters in the west dungeon were above ground.

The man on the bed groaned.

She rushed to his side. "Severus," she said, feeling awkward addressing him thus, "are you all right?"

To her dismay, his eyes grew wide as he looked around him in a panic. He shrieked at her as he had before and made a leap for one of the bookshelves that lined the room. However, his wounded leg couldn't bear the weight, and he fell to the ground. He drew his bandaged thigh to his chest and began to wail, a desolate keening sound. Alarmed, she seized the cloak he had left on the bed and attempted to cover him with it. He batted her hands away, but she seized him firmly, wrapping him in the cloak as she had seen the Thestral conceal him in her wings, and he quieted.

She crooned comforting words as she held him, hoping to inure him to the sound of human speech. The words became a lullaby, and when the song was over, his head lolled against her arm. She gathered him close, squared her hips over her feet, and lifted him off the ground. He was impossibly light, as if living with the Thestrals had made him hollow somehow.

She laid him on the bed and slid his black and silver duvet over him. She pushed the matted hair back from his face and was surprised to see several strands of silver at his temples. She sighed, feeling utterly out of her element, and gazed at his face. The harsh lines between his eyebrows were less pronounced in sleep, but they were the same ones that so frequently deepened in scorn during her Potions classes.

Her finger reached out to soothe them, seemingly of its own accord, running lightly along the creases. His eyebrows felt coarse under her finger, and she watched in fascination as his eyeballs moved beneath his lids.

The door opened, and Minerva entered with a large basket. Hermione pulled her hand back from Severus's face and whispered, "He's sleeping."

"My dear girl," whispered the headmistress, "what happened?" She put a hand to Hermione's wrist, where Severus had accidentally scratched her during their altercation.

"It's nothing," said Hermione. "He didn't mean to, but his nails are so long."

"Right," said Minerva. "I'll leave the food and drink on his nightstand for the time being. Now, we need to run him a bath."

"I don't think he'll like that."

"Like it or not, it must be done. Cleansing Charms only go so far, and the man is in a bad way."

"Aren't you worried that he won't trust you?"

"I don't think Severus Snape ever trusted anyone, not even Albus," said Minerva, rolling up her sleeves.

The two women stepped into the bathroom. Minerva lit the candles and Hermione let out a low whistle. The only bathroom she'd seen to rival it was the Prefects', but where that was all in white and gold, this bathroom was in green and maroon, with sleek silver fixtures. It was dark where the Prefects' bathroom was light, intimate where the other was open, and it begged to be soaked in, preferably with a long Russian novel and a glass of Georgian wine.

"How on earth could he have left this?"

"We shall have to ask him when he's feeling more himself," said Minerva, turning several tap handles, which began filling the tub with water and the air with freshly-scented steam.

Hermione breathed deeply. "This makes me want to dive in."

"Well, one of us must if we're to clean him properly without drowning him," said Minerva. "Transfigure yourself a bathing costume. I'll fetch Severus."

"Be careful," said Hermione, slipping off her cloak. "He doesn't like being surprised."

The headmistress shook her head. "He never did."

When Hermione had untwisted the straps of her swimsuit, Minerva entered the bathroom with a nude, unconscious Snape bobbing after her.

"Did you Stun him?" asked Hermione, dismayed.

"Not at all. I knew he'd tuck in to the food and drink as soon as we left the room, and I spiked his pumpkin juice with Dreamless Sleep. I thought it would be easier to clean him this way."

"He really has gone wild," commented Hermione. "In his right mind, Professor Snape would have smelled it immediately."

Minerva shook her head. "Well, it's our task to get him looking more like himself. Perhaps the personality will follow."

Hermione lowered herself into the steaming water and helped Minerva ease him into the tub. Hermione carefully dipped him into the water, making sure his mouth and nose stayed above water. When he was thoroughly wet, she raised him, dripping, and deposited him in a sitting position on a pile of towels, feet dangling in the water.

Minerva conjured a coarse scrub brush for Hermione, and a comb and scissors for herself. The women worked in companionable silence, which was only broken by the occasional Evanesco. After periodic rinses in the tub and an hour of trimming, scrubbing, and clipping, Severus Snape began to emerge from the mess of grime and hair.

"I think his hair used to be longer," commented Hermione.

"Do you think so?" asked Minerva, punctuating her query with brisk snips of the scissors. "Ah, no matter. It must be evened up. There, don't you think that suits his forehead?"

Hermione shrugged. "It doesn't go with the full beard."

"Of course it doesn't. That will be next to go."

Hermione finished trimming Severus's finger and toenails with a Talon Clipping Charm and looked appraisingly at his face. "Don't you think he might look better with some hair on his face?"

"Don't be cheeky."

"I'm being serious." She held up her finger and drew it along the point of his jaw, finally locating it beneath the mass of hair. "Thin here, and around his mouth."

"Quite Mephistophelean. He'll like that."

Hermione transfigured the scrub brush into a small safety razor and smiled. "Would you like to do the honours, or shall I?"

"Great Grunnion, girl!" exclaimed Minerva. "Have you never heard of a Shaving Spell, for all love?"

They both jumped when a house elf popped into the bathroom.

"Please excuse Toddy, headmistress," said the elf, ears drooping. "Professor Sprout needs your help in Greenhouse Five. Very bad students are feeding her plants trick candies."

"Confound it!" exclaimed the Headmistress. "Do you think you can finish on your own?"

"I'll be fine," said Hermione. "Just lower him onto this step and prop him against the side."

With a grumbled curse, the headmistress Apparated.

Hermione began cutting his long beard with the scissors Minerva had left behind, trimming it to the width of her fingers. "I didn't know she could do that, did you?"

The unconscious man made no response, and Hermione continued snipping until she could clearly see the shape of his face. She squirted creamy lather into her hand from a nearby tap and scrubbed it into what remained of his facial hair.

She reached for the razor and nearly screamed when he seized her wrist.