Faerie Folly and Wizard Wands

Chapter Eighteen

After grabbing water and cloths, Saquoya followed the floating and unconscious body of Severus Snape up the stairs to the bedroom next to hers, where with another quick flick of the wand sent the covers sailing back. Gently levering Severus to the clean white sheets, she watched with an almost sadistic little laugh as his head rolled back and forth before settling permanently on the pillow. His face looked as ghastly white as the bedding he laid upon. With another few waves and muttered words, candles in the candelabra on the walls sprang to life. This made his pallor even more waxy.

On a second thought, she quickly closed the thick drapes at the windows as well.

She knelt by the four poster bed, and drew even with his face. One of his eyes was slit open a crack, and by passing her hand a few inches above, it closed gently. Now she felt more at ease without his sour glare staring at her.

For a brief moment she kept kneeling, and studied him at her leisure.

He was definitely not handsome.

His nose was too large for his thin face, hooked and like a beak, while his teeth, slightly exposed, glared a light yellow. Thin lips, slightly hooded eyes, and sunken cheeks completed the look of a just-dead corpse, but her mind knew too much to judge this unflattering appearance. Her head swirled with visions from the Pensieve. She had seen Severus Snape in youth. She had seen his dark eyes naked, and his thoughts laid bare.

The fact that he now had a terribly caustic attitude was only a matter of circumstance.

To her, he was but a dear wizard by the name of Severus Snape.

Wait! Again-dear wizard?!?

Suddenly sniffing again, she realized that her very brief pause had let him lose more blood, as it spread slowly and stealthily along the starched sheets. It fanned out from under him, black and sticky, and choking Saquoya's senses.

Standing, she pursed her lips, and again, in this moment of seriousness, a small smile twitched. She would have to take off a few of Severus' clothes.

Saquoya had never seen a man without clothes. She had never seen a man's leg. But, instead of dwelling, she called to mind the remedies Granna had taught her, and the new information from the spell books, and even on her faerie blood, which twitched and danced in her veins.

It became a quest to find out where he was wounded.

With his wand, she stripped him down to his underwear, which was long, black, and utterly wretched. Baring him from the waist up, her mind was forced to stay focused as she continued to watch the blood gush from his wounds. It seemed a few well placed instruments of torture had been used. Saquoya didn't wish to entertain thoughts about the interrogation or what had been done to him. Instead, she took off the blue and sliver housecoat and rolled up the sleeves of her gray nightdress to take care of the most pressing tasks.

Four slices in his upper arm were cut far into the muscle. One even displayed the white sliver of his bone. His chest was cris-crossed with red angry lines. But his back was the worst. It looked like he had been whipped with something thick and thorned, as the wounds were shallow in some parts, and deep in others. The flesh was torn and ripped, with gushing wounds that penetrated deeper than her finger dared to probe. Some parts were clotted with thick, congealed blood, and other sores still ran red with fresh blood.

It smelled like pain and wickedness.

Shaking her head, Saquoya wished she had gotten a book on Medi-wizardry. It would be nice to know how to treat with magic. She only had Granna's ways, and that was all. So, leaving the unconscious wizard alone briefly, she moved to her room to find the small containers of prepared salves she still had from when she had left the American wilds.

Severus was still out cold as she began to wash the wounds carefully and apply the healing salves. This was only the beginning of the healing, for she knew she would have to do more later. But now, the most daunting part was to staunch the loss of blood.

Gently winding the cloths around his back, chest, and tightly around his arm, Saquoya winced at the pool of blood he still laid in. Sighing, once again, she levied him with his wand, and moved him to the only other room that had bedding on it.

Her room.

Once Severus lay buried under the two quilts from her room and the guest room, she piled the soiled sheets in the kitchen, to avoid the stench of the blood so close to her acute perception. After dousing the candles in the room used as a hospital operating area, she grabbed a blanket to curl up in the chair near the bed. He would awaken soon from the pain and stinging of the salves, as well as any other injuries that were yet to be attended to.

* * * *

"Damn this."

The low growl of a masculine voice awoke Saquoya. Half expecting to see Sirius, Saquoya awoke in an automatically friendly demeanor. But her position in a chair, and the peaked face staring down from her bed was enough to put her in a sour disposition.

"Damn what?" she asked, standing.

"I'm-." Severus stopped to stare at her. Looking down at herself, Saquoya noticed the miscellaneous trails of blood that spatted down the length of her semi-transparent nightgown. Yet, it was his blood, and she would leave it there for the moment.

"You've got blood on you," he pointed out.

"Yes, thank you for the obvious, Severus," she retorted. "I see you are feeling better. My pixie magic worked, apparently."

"Ha!" His laugh was cold, but she saw him wince at the tiniest movement, and his exasperation at being an invalid would be distinct to anyone.

"You didn't use pixie magic," he continued. "It's some primitive creams, I can smell them all over my skin. You could have at least used a decent potion."

"With what ingredients?" she asked, moving towards the bed, once again rolling up her sleeves. "You think I enjoyed toying with your precious wounds? That I love to have the stench of your blood all over my clothing?"

"I didn't ask for your help."

"You would have preferred to die?"

"I wouldn't have died," he looked at her and narrowed his eyes. "And don't expect a groveling thanks for this."

"I would not want it."

"What are you doing?" he put quickly, trying to clutch the covers with his good hand as she prepared to whisk them off.

"Fixing you." There was no more argument as her strength won the brief tug of war, and exposed the white linen of the bandages. His body laid before her to feast upon, but she was already used to the long length of his somewhat lean body, and the pure white of his skin.

"What are you going to do now?" Instead of the phrase sounding whiney, it was more like a challenge coming from Severus.

"Now I am going to apply true pixie magic."

This was going to use a lot of energy, Saquoya knew already, and her body reared at the task. But it was necessary to heal this wizard before her, for reasons even she was unwilling to dissect.