RedRemorse XIII

Red Remorse
Pg Thirteen
You cast your demons Well




Minerva MacGonagall rushed from the chamber in an uncommonly agitated state…flush and bothered from an obviously lost bout with the convalescing yet still quite formidable Wizard…

“He is insufferably stubborn… Poppy is there anything quick acting for a massive headache…”

“Is Severus…”

“No… It’s for Me…”



Severus sat down on the edge of the bed… A clammy chill had taken hold of him after his confrontation with Professor MacGonagall...


He had been up and about the room for the better part of a hour when Minerva came to visit Him… She was pleased to see him up, although he still did appeared rather weak, He was showing signs of improvement…

“It is good to see you on your feet Severus…How are you feeling today”

“As well as can be expected… All things considered”

“Oh Severus… Have you thought about My request…?” She hurled right into her question… Not giving much time to test his temperment…

He stopped mid-stride by the window… He was rubbing the blood from his fingers, pressing hard against the skin of his long pale hands…He turned to face her, he stared into her searching eyes, boring right clear through them to the wall beyond…

“For the last time Minerva… Do not ask Me again… I will have to ask that you not visit Me if that will be the topic of our discourse…”

“Severus… You cannot forsake Him…” She pleaded.

Severus turned his gaze to the cloud covered sky at the window casement…
A dangerously chilling tone took hold of his already strained voice…

“That was his decision long ago, when I had to make that infernal Vow… No… I cannot see him… will not see him… Go now, please… I am tired…”

“Shall I call for Poppy?” She started…

“Minerva… enough… just Go…”

She stood staring at his back…He was starting to shake slightly… His posture indicated a volatile sign for her to retreat… She did so promptly…



Severus remained seated at the edge of the bed. The afternoon light traveled the rest of its course across the room…He did not move… Poppy came in to offer him something… Her words fell away, fading with the light… She too retreated, rather than have her own confrontation with him… She returned shortly with a tray, quietly placing it on the table…

“lease… Try to eat something…” Was what she voiced… a soft plea, nothing like the commanding medical temper she was used to display. She gazed at him, in his inattention… She sighed then, leaving without another word.

The night set… Hours must have passed… the room had long since grown chill with the night air…He stood finally, he was aching from his interminable sentry at the edge of the bed… He doned His robe and passed through the door slient like yet another dark specter into the Hall…

He reached the passage he would often use to enter the Headmasters chambers unnoticed… moving quietly through the secret byway up into the darkened office at the far end…

His capacity for night vision ever present… He stepped resolute through the room to stand before the Portrait that rested on the ornately carved chair… The image leaned into the plum colored robes, snoring softly… a sound a thousand years old to his ears and his heart…