"Please, please don't tell either of them!" You hoarsely whimper out, trying not to cry.
"They'll never forgive themselves." You sniffle, tears cascading down your unhealthy pale cheeks.
Last night you went out into the edge of the forbidden forest, after you had heard Professor Snape muttering about needing some ingredients. Did he directly ask you to go into the forest? Not exactly- but he did mention something about if you wanted to help. But it wasn't his fault- it was you that chose to go out last night in particular.
You figured that it would be a nice gesture to collect an ingredient for him to take to class the next day. A quite simple task at that too- just scavenging for a type of small red flower that had a silver hue to it's petals. It wasn't terribly too far deep into the forest, it was merely off a path about ten feet in. But it didn't matter..
What you didn't know- was that last night was a full moon.
This was probably the worst night to have chosen to go into the forbidden forest.
You had known about Professor Lupin's condition after hearing him and Professor Snape discuss it one night. When he figured out that you knew, you swore not to tell anybody. But how could you in the first place? You wouldn't dare ruin that man's reputation- he was an angel!
Somehow, his uh.. other personality decided to make a guest-star appearance. Despite trying to get the wolf-man to recognize you, it ultimately failed. The night ended bloody after the werewolf made an enormous slash with his huge claws over you midsection. Blood was gushing out and you screamed so loudly- the pain hadn't even hit yet, but you were afraid of what else could happen. Professor McGonagall and Headmaster Dumbledore had heard your blood-curdling screams, as they were taking a late night stroll and having a discussion. The Headmaster scared off the werewolf while McGonagall ran towards your half-conscious figure.
Because it wasn't a bite, you did not contract lycanthropy.
The two teachers had gotten you to the medical wing immediately and as McGonagall went to inform your professors, you grasped her sleeve with your bloody hand- telling her to not to.
It was now the next day and you had lost a lot of blood. After explaining what had happened, you were begging for your professors to not tell either of your father figures what had happened last night and why you were out there in the first place.
"Professor Snape will blame himself, as will Professor Moony." You sigh, sniffling at the thought of the two men distancing themselves from you.
Dumbledore sadly sighs as he stands there, hands clasped in front of him in thought. Professor McGonagall continues to hold your hand as she sits in the chair next to your bed.
"We won't tell them. But you likely will have to at some point. For now, just focusing on getting better. Madam Pomfrey will keep you behind this curtain so she can keep an eye on you." The old man says.
"Albus, you just want her to avoid them until she's better? Even with Poppy's healing skills, she will be here for at least a week. Severus and Remus will notice that she isn't in class." The woman next to you states.
"We'll tell them she is sick. I'll have a friend of Miss Y/l/n's bring her the necessary schoolwork." The Headmaster replies, dropping his hands to his sides.
Though not fully convinced, Professor McGonagall nods her head before standing up.
"Feel better soon, dear. Don't worry." She softly says.
Dumbledore gives a sympathetic smile before following the woman out of the medical wing.
~ The next day ~
"Hello, Y/n." A familiar dreamy voice says.
The curtain is slightly pulled back and Luna Lovegood steps through, her blonde hair flowing behind her as she turns around to pull the curtain closed.
"Hi, Luna." You softly say, smiling at her light voice.
"I brought you your schoolwork." she smiles, putting some papers and stacks of books on the nightstand.
"I also made you this." she says, handing you a necklace.
"It's supposed to quicken your healing process and release a happy aura. Plus, the beads are purple. Purple suits you very well, Y/n." She simply states, taking a seat next to you.
You smile at the gift and slowly pull it over your head, careful to not upset the wounds on your torso. You twist the small glass vial on your neck as you slightly shake it back and forth. It looks to be filled with a type of red sand and a sort of herb. It has a cork to keep it from spilling out. On either side of the vial are two purple beads slid onto the string.
"Thank you, Luna. This was very thoughtful of you." You smile, dropping your hand back down.
She nods and sits up straight, her hands on her knees as she looks around the little area set up for you. Her bright eyes scan every surface carefully, her radish earrings swaying back and forth.
"I am sorry that you are sick. Are you at least comfortable in here?." She asks, turning her gaze to you.
You slightly shrug with a sad smile.
"Thanks, Luna. It's alright. Certainly not my dorm, but comfortable enough." You reply.
The sound of a familiar male voice and Madam Pomfrey discussing something not too far away from the curtain makes you tense up.
Luna goes to say something and you quickly hold up your index finger to your lips, gesturing for her to be quiet.
"Yes, Poppy. Do let me know if you need anything else."
"Of course, Severus. Thank you."
It was Professor Snape- likely dropping off a potion.
You tensely wait for him to leave, clutching your blankets. You hear his footsteps and just when you think he is gone, his voice speaks up.
"Poppy, you don't happen to know the whereabouts of Y/n Y/l/n?" The man lowly asks. You can imagine him slightly lifting a brow.
There is a long silent pause.
"No, I have not. I am sure she is just fine. Sometimes we all need a mental health day." Madam Pomfrey finally replies, sounding as nonchalant as possible. That woman was good.
But likely not good enough to fool Severus Snape.
Despite not being able to see his face, you can imagine that he is able to smell the bullshit in that reply from a mile away.
"Very well." He murmurs, his footsteps receding.
You sigh and your arms go limp, releasing your tight hold on the white blankets.
Luna hesitantly goes to speak, but stops herself as if she weren't entirely sure if you were both in the clear.
"Sorry." You mutter.
"It's alright.." she shrugs, not asking what that was about.
"It's just.. I don't want him worrying about me, you know? He's a bit overprotective, as well as Professor Lupin. I also don't want anybody else making a big deal out of this." You sigh. Though technically not lying, you still felt bad about keeping some of this from your friend. She even went out of her way to bring you your homework.
"I understand. My father would be quite worried too. Especially after my mother. I won't tell anybody." She softly replies, looking at you.
You not in appreciation, smiling gratefully.
"Now, I must be off. I need to feed the Thestrals. I promised them that I would come back, but I wasn't able to yesterday because Neville needed help with his homework." She says, grabbing her brown satchel as she stands up.
You smile at her generosity and involvement with the odd animals.
"Thanks again, Luna. Bye." You say.
"Goodbye, Y/n." She replies, before stepping behind the curtain.
~
It was now two days after the incident and you were still extremely exhausted and a bit pale. There was only so much blood replenisher you could take at a time and Madam Pomfrey was getting worried about your worsening condition.
"Y/n!" A familiar voice calls out.
Your eyes widen and you cringe at the sharp tone. Based on the deeper voice, it was obviously Professor Snape. The sound of two other sets of footsteps are behind him.
"Y/n?" Another, yet softer male voice, follows the shout.
"Remus, Severus. Please be calm." You hear McGonagall say, yet her voice urgent.
You can tell by her more dainty footsteps that she is struggling to keep up with the long and hurried strides of the other two men.
"Do not tell me to be 'calm', Minerva. You and Dumbledore lied to me." The man hisses back, the clacking of his black dress shoes getting louder.
"Why didn't you tell us she was here, Minnie? Had Severus not been kind enough to inform me, I wouldn't have even known she was here."
So Snape did figure it out. Shocker.
"She asked us to keep it a secret." McGonagall solemnly replies.
Two pairs of footsteps suddenly halt against the tiled floor and the male voices lower. A lighter pair of footsteps follow in suit, before joining them in stillness.
"Why would she feel the need to keep it a secret? I thought this was simply a cold." Professor Lupin says.
The softer, yet quick, footsteps of the sandy-haired man are heard directly on the other side of the curtain.
You swear under your breath as he begins to pull back the curtain. You were extremely tempted to shout "I'm naked!" to keep him from entering.
"Y/n." The man sighs as he looks at your ill figure, running a hand through his shaggy hair. It was later at night and he looked to have thrown a warmer sweater on last minute, the tan collar crooked around his neck. A freshly red cut rests across his cheekbone, obviously from his recent transformation.
The man in black walks over to the other side of your bed, pulling a chair closer.
You go to push yourself up in the bed, but stop as you whimper at the soreness.
McGonagall has fled the scene, leaving you alone with the other two professors.
"What is it?"
"What's wrong?"
The two men ask simultaneously, their words overlapping the other's.
"Stomach ache." You mutter, sighing as your arms go limp at your sides- too tired to push your weight up. Your head falls back as it turns to the side, you tiredly exhaling.
"Don't lie to me." Snape sternly says, masking his worriedness with frustration.
"Tell us what's really going on." Professor Lupin says, brushing a strand of hair from your forehead.
You go to reply, but your eyebrows furrow together as something suddenly doesn't feel right around your midsection.
"What the bloody hell is that?" Professor Lupin suddenly exclaims, taking his hand away from your forehead. You follow the gaze of his amber eyes and realize he was looking down at your stomach.
Your wounds were bleeding through the bandages and through your hospital shirt, staining the white fabric with three long red lines.
Professor Lupin runs over to the supply area and grabs a handful of bandages and other supplies.
Professor Snape stands up, his chair screeching backwards. He walks closer to you and slowly lifts up your shirt to underneath your chest area, observing the large rectangle bandages. The width of the bandages makes him tilt his head, wondering why the hell you would need such bandaging from the bottom of your chest to your hip diagonally.
Lupin races back over and sets the supplies down, getting ready to lift the bandage.
Your eyes widen and you bring your hand down on top of his scarred one, keeping him from lifting up the tape of the edge of the bandage.
"N-No! Just get Madam Pomf-"
"Y/n, I've done this many times in my life. I can patch this up." He says, gently shrugging your hand off of his.
You go to say something, before your words die in your throat as he lifts the edge of the bandage. He slightly looks under, not peeling it off all the way.
You hold your breath, tensely awaiting for all hell to break loose. The room is so silent you could hear a pin drop.
You watch as his face ever so slightly falls, his face growing pale. His hands slightly begin to shake and you know that he's seen the claw marks. He knows.
He drops the corner of the bandage and takes a step away from you, nearly stumbling into the cart behind him.
He puts a hand on his hip, the other shaky hand going to his mouth as he turns his back to you. He sharply exhales and his shoulders shudder, before turning back around to gaze at your torso again.
His chest rises and falls and tears fill his eyes as he takes his hand away from his mouth.
"I-I...Oh my G-God." The man hoarsely chokes out, his hands shaking as he continues to stare at the bandage.
"It wasn't your fault." You quietly whisper, tears dropping from your eyes as his figure turns into a mere smudge.
You feel Professor Snape shift beside you. He tentatively reaches down, as if hesitant to see what lies under there. He looks at the long marks briefly before holding a cloth up to it. After about twenty seconds of holding it there, he finally pulls the cloth away now that the bleeding has stopped.
The room is silent except for Lupin's sniffling. Professor Snape silently stares down at the marks, his black hair shielding his full reaction. Suddenly, his slowly lifts his head up at Lupin. His eyes were red with rage.
"YOU SON OF A.." He growls, rounding the bed.
"PROFESSOR WAIT!" You cry out, not wishing for the two men to fight.
He luckily stops but keeps his eyes on Lupin who has steady streams of tears falling from his eyes.
"Y/n. I am s-so, so sorry.." Professor Lupin chokes out, looking at you with such remorse..
"It wasn't your fault. It wasn't his fault. I-I shouldn't have gone out there." You whisper, looking between the two men.
Professor Snape turns his head away from the other man, clutching his fists at his sides.
"I went out there for the Aconalia plant. I wanted to surprise you. I didn't mean to wander far into the forest, I didn't know it was a full moon." You plead, turning your gaze to the sandy haired man at the last sentence.
Professor Snape pinches the bridge of his nose and shapely exhales, as though he were in pain.
Suddenly, the dark haired man swings his arm over a nearby table, throwing everything off of it with a shout of anger.
Great, now they were both blaming themselves..
"Professors. It was m-my fault and only mine. I didn't want you to blame yourself for me picking the flowers a-and I didn't want you to blame Professor Moony." You sigh, wiping a tear from your left eye.
Remus uses the back of the sleeve of his brown sweater to wipe his teary eyes.
"D-Did I..?" Professor Lupin trails off, looking down at you.
"Please don't blame yourself. I'm okay. I don't have lycanthropy." You state, looking at the both of them.
Both of their postures change at the mention of that, not entirely happy with your situation- but somewhat relieved that you didn't have to live with the burdening condition.
A moment of silence passes by, though not as tense.
"You could have died." Professor Snape whispers, looking up at you.
"I know. But I'm here now." You whisper in reply.
"Now can you please help me with this? I may not have been bit, but it still burns like hell in the open air." You say with a smirk, trying to diffuse the situation with humor.
"Sorry." Professor Lupin mutters, walking back over to you.
Professor Snape sighs and looks at you, before walking over the supply desk. He had knocked everything over and needed to get more sterile bandages.
The two work in silence, now not angry at each other. Both knew that they had a role to play in this (despite what you said) so they couldn't play the blame game.
When all is said and done, the two Professors stand there in silence, both unsure of what to do.
Professor Lupin walks over to the mess the other man made, crouching down to pick some things up.
Professor Snape follows the man's direction and starts to help pick up the objects. The both of them keep their backs turned as you change into a not bloodied shirt.
"Done." You say
The two men turn around, both looking at you with unreadable expressions.
"Please don't blame yourselves. Or each other. For my sake, at least." You whisper.
Both of the professors walk over, Lupin ruffling your hair and Snape squeezing your hand affectionately.
Both turn to walk away, but you quickly grasp the brown sleeve of Lupin.
"Please stay until I fall asleep." You quietly say, looking between the two..
They look down at you and Lupin nods. After a brief pause, Snape does too and brushes a strand of black hair out of his face.
Both pull up a chair on either side of your bed and sit there. Each of them keeps a hand in yours and you relax at the comforting gesture.
Before you find yourself dozing off completely, you mutter,
"After I fall asleep, please try not to rip each other's throats out."
"No promises."
"No promises." They reply in unison.