Into the Fold

THE LISTENING PARCHMENT

September, 1979

Eight o'clock in the morning came early: too early for Severus, who hadn't found uninterrupted sleep until four-thirty a.m.

He didn't have to be at work that morning until ten-thirty, but he rose at eight nevertheless. He wanted to have breakfast with Mother, since, if all went well, she would be in bed by the time he arrived home.

Severus would see to it that all went well. If Mother was still upset, he really would apologise. He hadn't meant to--what? Shove her? Strike her? He couldn't remember. But he would never have done whatever he had done if Tobias hadn't made him so angry. For that matter, Mother should have seen how angry he was. She should have stayed out of his way.

Never mind. It didn't matter. It would never happen again, and that was that.

Perhaps Mother meant to put it out of her mind too, for, to judge by the aroma of bacon frying (or, rather, burning) which reached Severus's nose as he descended the stairs, she was actually cooking breakfast.

But instead of orchestrating the frying like a witch, with a wave of her wand, Mother muddled through Muggle-fashion, poking around in the pans with a spatula. That explained the burned bacon and watery scrambled eggs which she set before Severus. The same melancholy which had stolen her magic crippled her efforts to learn the skills which might replace it.

Tobias would have complained. But Severus ate heartily. When he was done, he washed down the taste of charred bacon and the feel of cold, congealed eggs with a cup of strong tea.

Mother was good at brewing tea, with or without magic. Sometimes she seemed to live on it. Since Severus had sat down at the table, she'd had two cups of tea and nothing else.

Severus decided not to remark upon it, however. Instead he said, "Do you think you'll be all right today, Mother?"

Mother rose quickly and carried the dirty dishes to the sink. "Why, yes, Severus, I'll be fine," she said, with her back turned and in as bright a tone as she'd managed since he had arrived home the night before.

She turned on the tap and the water flowed noisily. Severus looked at her back and sighed. "Tobias shouldn't be back, if Lindsay did a proper job of Obliviating him," he said. "We couldn't be so unlucky as to have him stumble across your path again while you're taking a walk in the park."

"No one will find me," Mother said, busily rattling the dishes in the sink. "I won't be going out today."

That would work, of course. But to have her brooding alone at home for twelve hours wasn't necessarily a good thing, either. "Even if Tobias comes back while I'm gone, Mrs Watkins can't evict us, Mother. You're ill. You've lost your magic. How can she expect you to help maintain enchantments? As long as you make an effort to get rid of him if he does show up..."

Mother said nothing.

"Mother. Promise me you'll call the hit wizards if you see Tobias so much as wander up the road."

"Of course, Severus," Mother said without looking around. "I promise."

Severus could do no more. He got up from the table and deposited an uncomfortable little peck on the top of her head, inhaling the faint scent of lavender which he remembered from his childhood. "I'm off, then, Mother," he said. "I'll see you tonight."

She looked up at him and smiled, then kissed him on the cheek. "Good-bye, Severus."

Out in the lane, walking toward the Floo station, Severus decided he'd been right not to mention what he had done to Mother the night before. She'd forgotten it, and so what good would it have done to fuss her with unnecessary apologies, to pick off the scab from a healing wound?

****

Severus's thoughts abandoned his mother the moment he reached the Potions and Physics Department. Bermsley was there, lurking in a corner and looking sheepish. He often did look sheepish, but this time he had a reason, for Galen Sage and Eugenia Wort were standing in front of the reception desk, facing Severus as he came through the door.

"There you are, Mr Snape!" said Sage, looking his usual cool and dapper self. "We've been waiting for you."

Severus stopped in his tracks. "Oh?" he said, looking from one to the other.

Healer Wort laughed. "Don't look like that, Severus! It's good news. I've just finished rounds in Acute Spell Damage. I expect Auror Dawlish to make a full recovery. I placed him on the stable list this morning, and I plan on discharging him within the week."

"I'm glad to hear it," said Severus. He noticed Bermsley had grown a little less shy. The night-shift Apothecary had moved out of his corner and was casting meaningful glances at the clock.

Sage caught the glances. "Ah, Mr Bermsley," he said. "You can spare Mr Snape to us for a few minutes, I think? Perhaps you could give your shift report to Apothecary Morgan instead."

"Indeed, yes, Abel, it would be a very great help if you could," said Wort, who hadn't stopped smiling. "Severus, Galen, my office, for just a half-hour or so? Tea all around, of course."

Without being large at all, Eugenia Wort seemed to fill the room. In that, and in her shock of silver hair and her sharp blue eyes, she resembled Professor Dumbledore. Perhaps that was why Severus obeyed her without question.

Sage, Wort and Severus Flooed from Potions and Physics to Wort's office on the fourth floor. Furnished with armchairs, a tea table and a roll top desk, it was a much cosier place than Morgan's office. On the wall amid a cluster of diplomas and certificates hung a picture of Healer Wort, obviously on holiday, for she was on a beach, dressed in a bathing costume. Beside her stood a man in bathing trunks, sporting a long grey beard and a huge grin. Every now and then, a young man and woman of about Severus's age ran out of the sea, dripping and laughing, and came up behind Wort and the bearded man.

Severus watched the photograph while Wort produced tea from an ornate silver samovar. Sage had already taken one of the armchairs.

Emerging from a cloud of fragrant steam, Wort said, "Sit down, Severus!" She waved him to the armchair next to Sage. Then, after carrying tea to them both, she turned the chair from her desk and sat facing Severus.

"Yes," she said. "I couldn't be more pleased with Auror Dawlish's progress. And I couldn't be more astonished by the story of how he was healed. Galen tells me you saved his life."

"I was just doing my job," Severus said rather diffidently.

"But that's just it, Mr Snape," said Sage. "It wasn't your job. It was mine. Yet you did it better than I ever could."

Severus didn't know how to answer that. He wished Sage and Wort would just forget about it, but of course they couldn't.

"Don't be anxious, Severus," Wort said. "We're not here to reprimand you, but to thank you. More important than that, we're here to learn from you. The curse left a very strong magical trail in Dawlish's body. From that residue, I parsed the curse's incantation as Sectumsempra. I don't doubt that incantation sounds familiar to you."

"Yes." Severus admitted that much at once. He knew Wort by acquaintance and reputation as someone you didn't play games with.

"And Auror Scrimgeour said that a Death Eater cast Sectumsempra on Dawlish," said Sage. "The way things are going these days, I'm afraid we'll soon see more of the curse at St. Mungo's."

"Galen and I would like you to give us the counter-curse, so that we can teach it to our Healers and Trainees," said Wort. She pulled a pouch out of one of the desk drawers. The pouch was fastened by a buckle, which in turn was secured by a small padlock. Wort waved her wand over the padlock, which popped open. She withdrew a parchment from the pouch and handed it to Severus.

Severus unrolled the parchment and saw that it was blank.

"Are you familiar with Listening Parchments?" Healer Wort asked.

"I've heard of them," Severus said. "I've never used one before."

"Your counter to Sectumsempra was very complex, Mr Snape," said Sage. "And you sang the spell. The music is part of the magic, isn't it?"

"Yes," said Severus.

"We need you to cast it into a Listening Parchment, then. The parchment will record not only the words of the counter and the character of the spell's magic as it flows from your wand, but also the tonalities in your voice as you chant," Sage said. "I don't suppose you have a Soothspell Quill, do you?"

"No," said Severus, who had never heard of a Soothspell Quill.

"I didn't think so," said Sage. "They write only on Listening Parchments, and they're quite dear. Nobody'd buy one who didn't have to. Here, I'll lend you mine." He took a quill from his pocket and handed it to Severus.

To Severus, it looked like an ordinary goose quill, one of those that St. Mungo's bought in bulk and distributed to the various departments.

With a flick of her wand, Wort cleaned the used teacups and sent them flying into a small cupboard behind her samovar. "I tell my Trainees that the Soothspell Quill is like a Quick-Quotes Quill, only more respectable," Wort said, smiling at her own joke. "But they work in pretty much the same way. Spread your Listening Parchment out on the tea table and set the Soothspell Quill on it. Then cast your spell directly at the Parchment, just as if you were trying to mend the effects of Sectumsempra in a real person."

Severus cleared his mind. There were no tears analogous to wounds in the Listening Parchment, nothing for him to repair, so he simply held his wand over the paper and began to sing.

Severus felt the warmth of magic course through his arm to the tips of his fingers and saw the Soothspell Quill leap up to scratch busily over the parchment, forming the words to his incantation. For a few moments, nothing else happened. Then a pearly grey light, the colour of a misty dawn, rose from the parchment. Severus stared at the Listening Parchment, into the bright centre of the light, and continued to sing. The Soothspell Quill continued to etch, in black, flowing script against the shining white of the parchment, the counter-curse to Sectumsempra. Out of the corner of his eye, Severus saw the spell-light shining into Wort and Sage's faces, like moonlight reflected off water. It showed the lines that age had etched into their flesh and a childlike wonder in their eyes.

Presently something arose, seemingly from the depths of the Listening Parchment, behind the letters which flowed from the nib of the Soothspell Quill. When it swam into focus, Severus realised he was seeing his own memory of Dawlish's wounds knitting together under the influence of his counter-curse. The vision went even further than Severus's recollection, however, to the point where the red lines of the closed gashes faded into thin, pale scars.

Severus ended the counter-curse with a slight flourish of his wand. The Listening Parchment swallowed up the vision of Dawlish's wounds made whole, along with the incantation written upon it. The pearl-grey light evaporated. Looking again like an ordinary pen and a piece of plain blank parchment, the Soothspell Quill and the Listening Parchment lay side-by-side on Healer Wort's tea table.

"Impressive," Sage remarked after a moment of complete silence had passed. "But then, it would take a powerful piece of Light magic to counteract Sectumsempra."

Wort rolled up the Listening Parchment, returned it to its padlocked pouch and put the pouch back in her desk. "I'm impressed too," she said. "Do you have a name for your counter-curse?"

"Textum," said Severus.

"Textum." Wort repeated it with a crisp nod, as if confirming the rightness of the name. "Where did you learn Textum?"

"At school," Severus replied.

"At school," Sage echoed quietly. "And did you learn Sectumsempra at school too?"

"Yes," Severus said firmly, even daring to look Sage in the eye.

"Yes? How could you have learned at Hogwarts the same spell that brought down Auror Dawlish?"

"It wasn't as strong then, and not that many people knew it," said Severus. "But those who did weren't usually the sort who'd give you fair warning before casting a curse. I learned Sectumsempra because I wanted to see if I could develop a spell to counter it."

"I see," Sage replied.

"Textum is a very potent Light spell," Wort said. "The Listening Parchment's response to it made that clear." She and Sage gazed at Severus in a way that made him rather uncomfortable. "I'm surprised you thought you needed such strong magic to counter schoolboy curses."

Severus shrugged self-deprecatingly. "Dawlish's cuts were worse than anything I'd seen in school. Maybe I just reacted instinctively with a stronger counter-curse."

"Luckily, you don't have to cast Sectumsempra into the Listening Parchment," Sage said dryly. "Unless that's a song as well?"

"Hardly," Wort said, and Severus certainly had no objection to her answering Sage's question. "It's nothing more than a word, with a very nasty intent behind it. One step below an Unforgivable now, whatever it may have been while Severus was in school. In fact, that's how I'll classify it when I send it over to Magical Law Enforcement."

"I'm sure Barty Crouch will be grateful you've parsed that curse for him," said Sage.

"Maybe. I don't know that gratitude's Barty's strong suit, though," Wort said.

After another silence, Severus ventured to ask, "It's all right, then? You don't mind if I return to work?"

"Heavens, no!" said Wort. "I know you've got plenty to do. And thank you so much for helping us out."

"Indeed, yes, we're very grateful," Sage said, shaking Severus's hand. "Thank you."

As far as Severus could tell, they were as satisfied as they said they were, so he stepped with some relief into Wort's fireplace, to Floo back to the Potions and Physics Department.

****

Severus was in the brewing room, straining burn-healing paste, when emerald flames burst up in the fireplace and Lily Potter's head appeared in the grate.

"Hello, Severus," she said.

"Hello," he replied. "Oh, are you calling about the burn-healing paste? I've just brewed a fresh batch; it's cooling right now. I'll bring A&E's stock over on my way to lunch."

"That's what I called about. Lunch, I mean, not burn-healing paste." She sounded hesitant. "Do you mind if I eat with you?"

Severus couldn't say he minded. He also couldn't remember her asking him to do anything with her since they'd been at Hogwarts. "What's the matter?" he asked.

"Why--nothing. I just wanted to talk with you about something, that's all. But if you'd rather not--"

Now Severus was curious. "No, no, I don't mind. I'll meet you in A&E in an hour, when I bring the stock potions, and we can go to lunch from there."

"Oh, good! Thanks, Severus. I'll see you then."

Before Severus could say, "You're welcome," the Floo-fire winked out, and Lily Potter's image disappeared.

****

The staff cafeteria was serving up a blandly inoffensive meal that afternoon, lamb chop, potatoes, peas and pumpkin juice, which Severus and Lily carried to their table.

It was the height of the lunch hour, and witches and wizards crowded the cafeteria, chattering at all the tables around them. Severus and Lily arranged themselves at their table without saying anything of importance to each other and ate for the first few minutes in silence.

It didn't matter to Severus. He was used to eating in silence, because he was used to eating alone. He doubted Lily was similarly untroubled. At Hogwarts, she had always been surrounded by a ring of friends, and Severus usually saw her around St. Mungo's with the other Trainees. He didn't see it as his task, however, to make her comfortable by saying stupid things about subjects that bored him. He hated small talk, and she, after all, was the one who had wanted this meeting.

Lily had finished half her lamb chop before she said, "I hear Auror Dawlish will be discharged at the end of the week."

"That's good news," Severus answered.

Lily set her knife and fork on her plate. "Galen Sage told me what those Death Eaters threw at Dawlish was some of the Darkest magic he's ever sensed. And Galen's been a Healer for forty years."

Severus ate the last of his boiled potatoes. When he looked up, he saw that Lily, having nudged her plate aside, was leaning on her elbows and watching him.

"How did you do it?" she asked.

"Do what?"

"Oh, sack that. You know what I mean. How did you heal Auror Dawlish? How did you know the counter-curse to Sectumsempra?"

"Sectumsempra," Severus repeated. He hadn't told her the spell's name. Where had she heard it?

Lily immediately answered his unspoken question. "Eugenia Wort parsed the curse. As soon as she'd worked it out, she had Galen and me in for rounds on Dawlish. She didn't say much about how the curse had been countered, but everybody knows you did it. It's all over the hospital. What nobody knows is how you did it."

"You will soon," said Severus. "I cast the counter-curse into one of Healer Wort's Listening Parchments. I'm sure it won't be long before Sage and Wort start teaching it to the Trainees."

"They'd better," Lily said with a peculiar intensity. "Dawlish is the first person I've seen hit with Sectumsempra, but I bet he won't be the last."

Severus said nothing. He wanted to risk no chance of betraying the vast relief he felt at this new confirmation of Lily's ignorance of the curse. He busied himself with his pumpkin juice instead.

"Or maybe he's not the first," Lily said thoughtfully.

Though his glass wasn't quite empty, Severus set it back down. "I beg your pardon?"

Lily didn't answer at once. She began twisting her wedding and engagement rings around on the third finger of her left hand.

It was an absurd little nervous tic, which Severus found unreasonably irritating. That and the rings themselves, which were far too ornate for the kind of work a Healer's hands did. Well, the wedding band was acceptable, he supposed. The other Healers wore theirs. But the engagement ring, set with three square-cut emeralds and a dozen diamond chips--that was a bit much.

Of course, it was none of Severus's business. It was up to Healer Sage to see that his Trainee's attire met the requirements of the dress code.

"I have seen Sectumsempra before, haven't I, Severus?" Lily asked.

Severus stared at Lily and then looked away. He felt as though he had been punched in the stomach: apparently he had been too quick to rejoice over her ignorance. "Have you really?" he asked weakly.

"Yes," said Lily. Severus could feel her eyes on him. He didn't dare to meet them. "By the Hogwarts Lake. In fifth year, after O.W.L.s."

Severus looked up. "What?" he said, baffled.

"I saw you cast a spell that cut James's cheek."

In fifth year, after O.W.L.s-- "Oh, that," he said, in sudden and resentful comprehension. "You can hardly compare that spell to what happened to Dawlish, can you?"

She kept fiddling with the rings Potter had placed on her finger. "I suppose not. It's just that...." She paused. "Well, you remember sixth-year Potions, when we used to be partners sometimes?"

"Yes," said Severus.

"I used to look over your shoulder at your textbook, because you'd written useful little tweakings for the potions in there, bits of notes in the margins."

"Oh, I haven't forgotten," said Severus.

"And not only notes on potions," Lily continued. "It looked as though you were working on spells in your textbook too."

"I expect you have a point?"

Lily stopped twisting her rings and put her hands beneath the table. "I remember when we were kids. You used to show me magic I'd never seen before." The lamb and potatoes swam around in Severus's stomach. Blushing faintly, Lily averted her eyes for a moment. Then she continued. "Those spells you wrote down. Were they yours? Did you invent them?"

"Why do you ask?" said Severus, though he thought he knew the answer.

"It's just that I remember seeing the word 'Sectumsempra' in your Advanced Potion-Making." Lily hesitated before going on. "And under it you'd written, 'For Enemies.'"

He hadn't enjoyed it at the time, but now Severus was glad he'd already been interrogated on this topic by Scrimgeour, Sage and Wort. "You haven't the courage to come out and say it, Healer Potter, so I'll say it for you. You're suggesting I invented the curse that nearly killed Auror Dawlish. That would have killed him, if I hadn't intervened."

"Well, not exactly--"

"'Not exactly?'" Severus interrupted. "I'm delighted to hear you're 'not exactly' intimating I'm capable of murder."

Lily looked exasperated. "All I'm saying is that the incantation in your book was the same as the incantation Eugenia parsed from the magical residue the curse left in Dawlish's body. It looks as though somebody's enhanced Sectumsempra since you cast it on James. But that was Sectumsempra you cast on James. Wasn't it?"

Severus glanced at the tables nearest them before answering. Everyone around them was talking at least as loudly as they were, and no one seemed to have heard them. That was a good thing, because he didn't dare cast Muffliato in this crowd. The witches and wizards of St. Mungo's were sharp enough to know when a spell was tampering with their hearing.

"What if it was?" he said. "That doesn't mean I invented it."

"Where did you pick it up, then?"

"It was going around the school."

"What part of the school? Slytherin House? I never saw it before--before that day by the lake."

"Yes," Severus said. He wasn't sixteen any longer. He could look straight at her and go on coolly. "You remember that day. So you'll appreciate that afterward I made it my goal to learn to counter any aggressive new spells I saw going around. And, as Auror Scrimgeour didn't fail to remind me, you have to learn the stronger curses in order to counter them."

"Auror Scrimgeour?" asked Lily. "Oh! Is that what you and he were on about yesterday?"

"Yes. He was interrogating me in the meditation room and used Legilimency without warning, after I told him what I've just told you. I was caught off guard, and I reacted with a Shield Charm." Severus smiled cynically. "He thought I was lying, you see. Evidently, he shares your suspicions about me."

Lily's colour deepened. "I never meant to imply--I just wondered, that's all."

"You wondered whether I could be as bad as Potter always said I was. Well, I don't know where Sectumsempra came from," Severus said. "I saw people use it, and I thought it was another fad. Like Levicorpus."

At the mention of the second spell, Lily turned redder yet. Emboldened, Severus went on, spinning out the lie which would protect him.

"I had to learn the counter-curse to Sectumsempra, so I had to learn Sectumsempra itself. I mean, what if I couldn't deflect it in time? What if too many people ganged up at once to cast it on me, like Potter and his friends?"

Lily's embarrassment turned to anger. "James would never cast a spell like that!"

"Oh, wouldn't he?" Severus retorted. "I don't recall him sticking at much else in those days."

"You're the one who cast it on him!"

A few people at neighbouring tables looked at them.

"Why are you raising your voice, Healer Potter?" Severus asked, though, truth to tell, to see her as angry as he felt was not wholly unsatisfying. "If you don't like the conversation, you shouldn't have started it. As I was trying to say, I taught myself the counter-curse in self-defence."

Lily pressed her lips together in a thin white line. Then she took a deep breath. "Sectumsempra isn't one of your inventions, then?"

"Certainly not!" said Severus. Lily stared at him for a few moments, but she was no Scrimgeour, no Legilimens. If she was trying to pierce his thoughts, she did not succeed.

"Good," Lily said. "You don't want to look nowadays as though you know too much about a spell like that."

"No, indeed," Severus answered astringently. "The people who can't believe you're Dark enough to have invented it yourself could start to wonder who taught it to you. Couldn't they?"

Avoiding Severus's eyes, Lily didn't answer.

They were both silent for a while. Then, with a forced smile, Lily looked up. "Oh! I meant to tell you, we're nearly out of Murtlap Essence in A&E, and I forgot to note that on the stock order this morning. Do you think you could bring some over with the afternoon deliveries?"

Severus readily agreed: whether he had managed to force the change of topic or not, he was certainly relieved by it. He and Lily continued discussing the minutiae of keeping a busy department supplied with potions until a young wizard came round to their table, Vanished the uneaten food on their plates and added their dirty dishes to the tall stack he was Levitating before him. Then they left the cafeteria. In the corridor, they quickly parted ways, both assuring each other that, as they were late getting back to work as it was, they didn't have any more time to chat.