To My Dear and Loving Husband

To My Dear and Loving Husband

Chapter 3 - Waiting there for me to come back

*~*~*~*

"Professor?" Harry poked his head into the Potions classroom. Elaine Mordecai was organizing and labeling the many bottles around the room. "Could we talk?"

"Oh hello Harry! One second... There. Come on in. What did you want to talk about?"

He took a seat near her desk. "It's about Professor Snape."

"Oh?"

He took a deep breath. Professor Mordecai was still new, for all that it was February. "Is he really sick? What's going on? Is he getting better?"

The Professor sighed. "Well. As to your first question, yes, he's sick. It's a magical illness that doesn't yet have a name, so few people have caught it. The doctors have been calling it the 'Silver Illness,' because of the silvery color the patient turns. Your second question is a bit vague, but what's going on is what it seems - Severus is ill, he's at St. Mungo's, and I'll be your teacher until he gets better.

"As to the third question..." She picked nervously at the calligraphy pens on her desk. "The Silver Illness has only come up four times before, and two of those four died. As of now, no one's sure. He could get better. He could get worse. The doctors are doing all they can, but for now it's a waiting game. There's not much they can do."

Harry nodded and replied, "Thanks. I was curious."

He got up off the desk to leave, but Elaine called out, "Harry?" He turned around. "Even if it was only to satiate your curiosity, thank you. Not many people have asked about him."

"He doesn't... he's not the sort of person people care about."

Elaine gave him a strange look. "Let me tell you a story. Eight years ago, my husband died in a freak accident. I had three children, aged 8, 7, and 5, and a job that didn't pay very much. The very next day, Severus was there, taking care of us, making sure we stayed together. He patched our little family up, and was truly a father to the three children. He spent a whole year with us, even though he was this close to a Defense Against the Dark Arts position, and after that year he went back but stayed in contact. He's seen some terrible things as the servant of the Dark Lord, and it's made him draw closer to himself, but don't think that he has no heart. He just has had many people try and take it away, and he doesn't have much left to spare on 'mere students.'"

Harry blinked. So this was what Dumbledore had been talking about. "Well, I should be going..."

"See you tomorrow..."

"Thanks for the story..."

"No, Harry, thank you."

"Anytime."

~*~

The Odd One

By Harry Potter

If three's the magic number

Why do people come in twos?

If everyone is winning

What's the odd one got to lose?

The third blind mouse, the third musketeer

The third little pig, and love's third wheel

What happens to the third wheel

When two are working fine?

Does he fade away to nothing

Does he break away in time?

The third blind mouse, the third good reason

The third little pig, the hag, mom, maiden

What happens to the maiden?

Does she try to work alone?

Will she fade away to nothing

Will she ever find a home?

The third blind mouse, the third great mountain

The third little pig, three coins in a fountain

If three's the magic number

Why do people come in twos?

If everyone is winning

Why does someone have to lose?

~*~

Elaine stood next to a bed in St. Mungo's, looking down with concern on her face. Albus Dumbledore stood next to her, with a similar grave expression.

"Elaine, you do know that this job may become permanent?"

"I know. I've been trying not to think about that. It's not fair for the kids to lose two fathers." She wiped a tear away quickly.

Albus smiled, though his eyes were still sad. "I know. We'll all say our prayers for him."

"Albus, hardly anyone cares about him anymore. The only student who asked about his health was Harry Potter! James's son. Can you imagine? If I was in a hospital in the US I'd have a ton of kids asking about me."

Albus sighed. "All his friends have betrayed him. You're the only one he trusts, anymore."

"Not even you?"

"He trusts me, but only to a point. I'm a trustworthy man, I'm not a friend. A confidant. You're the only one who he's been able to spill his soul to, and you're all the way in America."

There was a heavy silence for a minute, before Elaine spoke what they had both been thinking. "I might not go back." But she quickly turned the statement positive. "Even when he recovers. I'm not sure Jennifer will be able to take me back, now that I've uprooted and gone. She's done so much for me, it's too much to ask that I try and force my way into the school."

"And the salary is higher here, right?" Dumbledore's eyes twinkled.

Elaine laughed. "It's about the same."

Their laughter died away as they again caught sight of the man on the bed. His black hair was strewn all over the pillow. His skin had that distinctive silver tone that had given the illness it's nickname. He was even thinner than usual, and there were frown lines on his forehead. Elaine sighed and tried to smooth them out.

"Sweetheart, you're too young to frown like that."

*~*~*~*