Moving On

Explanation

Severus opened his eyes to find a white ceiling above him. He turned his head as he heard the rustle of a curtain. 

There stood Sirius Black, who changed the direction of his motion after realising that Severus was awake. 

Severus heard him say, "Hey Moony, Snapes awake. I'll go get Poppy." 

Soon after he said that Severus heard footsteps coming in his direction, Potter and Remus were in his line of vision. They both looked like a mess. Potter's hair was messier than usual, his glasses were askew. His robe was wrinkly and his hands were covered in ink marks. Remus looked paler and his eyes had dullness to them that made him look pitiful, his clothes and hair were neat but the aura surrounding him was melancholic almost. 

Severus sighed, "Look at you two, I'm unconscious for a while and you stop taking care of yourselves," he said.

James appeared miffed by that comment, "You've been out of it for a week! How'd you expect us to take care of ourselves? We were busy worrying about you." 

Severus' eyes widened a bit. Potter was shocking him the more he got to know him. 

He let out a small smile.

"Sorry, it's my fault," Severus said. Potter nodded. 

"Yes it is, don't ever scare us like that again," Potter replied. 

Severus snorted. He glanced at Remus and found him staring at him. Severus tilted his head to the side asking Remus why he was staring. Remus just shook his head and walked toward him, he gently rubbed his shoulder. 

"James' right. You should never do that to us again, you gave us a real scare," Remus said softly. 

Severus felt warmth bloom in his chest, these bloody Gryffindors and their caring are too much for him to handle. 

Who would have thought that there would be a day when he was sent to the Hospital Wing and the Marauders did not cause it, instead they took him there and they were worried about him. 

Madame Pomfrey was soon on his bedside accompanied by Sirius Black, Regulus, and McGonagall. 

Pomfrey performed spells on him to check his vitals and admonished him for not taking good care of himself, Severus was not listening much. He was thinking about what got him to the state that he was in. The entity that was stalking him. He knew that it was something magical but he did not know what it was, he most definitely knew though that he was not a lunatic. What he saw was real. 

Madame Pomfrey left soon, leaving the Marauders, Regulus and McGonagall with him. 

McGonagall moved from the foot of the bed to the head of the bed, she gently stroked Severus' head as he maintained his upright posture. 

"Mr. Lupin here told me everything that happened. You must have been scared." 

Severus nodded. 

"Tell me what lead up to this Severus," she said. 

Severus cleared his throat, "It started after the Hufflepuff students were attacked. I kept on seeing the shadow of some animal or magical creature, sometimes a pixie, a goblin, a house-elf, even a dementor. Then the sounds came around. I'd hear a giggle, a cry that resembled a banshee's, footsteps, sometimes I would hear my mother's voice call out my name." 

"Then there was a week of silence and no shadow tailing me. I thought I could rest and that whoever was playing a prank on me was finally sated and would let me have my peace. I was wrong. I started finding letters written in some weird language on my desk in my dorm every morning, nobody could have entered as I locked the door with a strong charm. No Slytherin knows it, that wasn't the scary part, the scary part was that the letters were written in blood." 

Severus took a deep breath as he heard the listeners in the room gasp. 

"Then I'd find myself getting to dead ends in places where I knew there was a hallway. I'd feel chased, the worst thing was the dreams. The dreams were terrible. I'd have to relive my mother's death in at least fifty different variations, each one worse than the previous. Sometimes I would dream about you guys. Remus and the lot would go ahead and harass me. Instead of us reconciling we'd argue and I'd kill them in every single dream. That's how they all ended. I killed them." 

Severus looked up at McGonagall, "Instead of you rescuing me that day at home, you'd fool me and torture me badly, using muggle means and sometimes magical ways, when we're at school you'd make me fail Transfiguration and would allow the Marauders to bully me. Then I'd take my anger out on Regulus and kill him because the version of myself in the dream would be paranoid and believed that Regulus wanted to hurt me too." He was trembling by the end of it. 

"Oh Severus," McGonagall said, pulling him in for a hug, "It's okay dear child, it'll be okay. We'll find out the menace causing you this pain." 

Severus released tears enough to soak through McGonagall's robe. He was tired of the nightmare that he was living. He soon found himself closing his eyes. 

Minerva gently positioned Severus onto the bed to let him sleep comfortably and looked at the remaining youth in the room, they all appeared terrified. 

The person she least expected was the one to break the silence, and what he said left her astonished for a moment. 

"Professor, Snapes gonna be fine right?" Said, Sirius Black 

She composed herself quickly.

"Yes. All of you don't have to worry." 

Black sighed in relief. 

Minerva could not allow herself to laugh at the boy's reaction, she was worried that the situation with Severus was what she thought it was. 

"I'll be taking my leave and I would suggest that you all do so too, Severus will not be happy if you all do not take care of yourselves." 

The boys nodded their heads obediently. 

She briskly walked out of the room. She had to look for the book that had the information to confirm her suspicions. She was worried that she would be too late to help Severus. 

Author's Note: Don't know how I feel about this chapter, but enjoy! Constructive criticism is always welcome. Stay safe, vote and comment. Also, thanks for the follows, the votes, the comments, as well as adding this story to ya'lls reading lists.😘 Till next time.