Touch your heart (Severus Snape)

Chapter 11

I didn't need more than five seconds to acknowledge where I was. The hospital wing was now a well-known place to me since I've been having panic attacks more frequently now. But I wasn't there due to a panic attack. I wasn't there due to a terrible nightmare that haunted me at night. I was there for something real. - For something terribly real.

I tried to focus my vision on the black silhouette right next to me, that moved closer and whispered my name in my ears, but I couldn't open my eyes, so I drifted again into a peaceful sleep.

***

The sunrays coming through the window made my eyes feel sore. As I tried to open them again, very slowly, I started recognizing the people around me: Madame Pomfrey, Dumbledore, Hermione, Ron, a bruised Harry Potter and Snape looking through the window, lost in his own thoughts. And when they noticed my body trying to wake up, Snape's' attention was now fully on my recovery.

"Angel, can you hear us?" I heard Dumbledore asking.

I tried to reply, but my throat was dry. My body was still trying to wake up and I wasn't ready to do anything yet. Not to mention the pain coming from my belly.

As I recalled all the events that led me to that hospital bed, my tears started running down my face at a fast pace. I felt Dumbledore's' hand caressing my cheek, cleaning the tears away.

"Shh. You're safe now. You're safe. And you have friends here now. Don't cry, sweet Angel."

"Voldemort... He's...back." I tried to speak but I was so weak that it came out as a whisper and my eyes started closing by themselves.

"I know, my darling. I know. Don't worry now."

Madame Pomfrey came closer to me to check my eyes and to check my medication. She put a hand on my forehead and looked worried at the crowd. "She needs to rest now. Please leave her be. I'll you call you all when she wakes up again."

Everyone started to leave the room but Snape didn't move an inch from the window. Madame Pomfrey looked at him but he gave her a harsh look, so she didn't say anything and got out of the room too. He, then, approached my bedside and sat on the chair next to me, without saying a single word.

"Mr. Snape..." I susurrated.

"Shhh. Don't talk." He gulped and I could swear I saw his eyes tearful. "And it's Severus." He grabbed my hands. "You're safe now."

I never saw Snape -- Severus like that. He never shows any kind of emotions - except when I made him laugh once, and not to mention that time on his chambers when we got carried away - and seeing him almost crying because of me, it felt so overwhelming. But we didn't say any word to each other. He just stayed there, clutching my hand, stroking it tenderly while I was in a limbo of sleeping and being conscious.

He visited me every day until I was discharged from the hospital, a month after the incident. But things weren't easier. I felt pain on my stomach every time I laughed or coughed and there was so much tension on Hogwarts after Cedric's' death. No one wanted to believe he was dead. But no one wanted to believe Voldemort was back either.

The Ministry of Magic and the Daily Prophet were on a race to discredit me, Harry and Dumbledore for saying HE was back. They were consumed by fear, haunted by the ghosts of the past and worried that this was all a conspiracy for Dumbledore to take over the Ministry. Foolishness, they should know him better.

So since the Ministry refused to believe in us, the Order of Phoenix was reassembled. It was a secret society founded by Dumbledore himself when Voldemort tried to take over the Ministry of Magic and kill Muggle-born wizards. When Voldemort was eliminated, the Order ended, but now, unfortunately, they are reunited, once again.

Sirius Black offered his abandoned family house, on 12 Grimmauld Place, to be their headquarters. Poor man, locked on his own house, unable to get out without being caught by the Dementors, even though he's an innocent man. Hopefully, we'll be able to prove his innocence and everything will turn out to be just fine - or maybe not.

And even though I was still recovering from my injuries I received a letter from Dumbledore that somehow made me happy.

Dear Angelina,

Like I warned you when I first wrote you, dark times have arrived. Unfortunately, the Ministry of Magic is wrapped up by fear and we cannot count on them.

So the Order will be reunited to fight against Him.

We gladly invite you to join the Order of Phoenix. A great Wizard and a person like yourself would be a great ally to our fight.

Waiting for you at 12 Grimmauld Place. You just need to call out for me.

Albus Dumbledore.

I learned to trust Dumbledore and if he says he needs me, I'll be honored to be by his side in this fight, even if it means death. So, since the school year has come to an end, I packed up my things and headed for the address indicated.

And despite this weird feeling of terror hovering over my head, there was a knot on my throat every time I looked in Severus' eyes. I didn't know what it meant, but I would like to find out. And most importantly, I would like to know if he feels it too.