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"Bloody hell, Severus! What happened to you?"
Your call of his name only made the boy walk faster, trying his best to outrun your question and make his way to the dining hall.
"Severus! Hold on, wait up!"
He pushed past groups of students, rudely bumping and shoving them to avoid you. You huffed, jogging forward and trailing behind him until you could reach out and take hold of his wrist.
Severus stuttered to a stop, spinning around to face you with a scowl and a black eye, "What?" He hissed, pulling his arm out of your hold. You didn't fail to notice the way he flinched at the action, making you wonder about the extent of his injuries.
"You're hurt. Come with me to the infirmary, I can fix you up before dinner."
He continued to scowl at you, stiffly shaking his head, "I don't need your help, (L/N)."
"Well then whose help do you need? Because it's gotta be someone, I'll direct them to you."
He scoffed, shaking his head once more, "Nobody's. I'm fine."
"You're bleeding, Severus." You pointed out, gesturing to the small cuts on his face and his most likely broken nose, "You're obviously not fine."
He stared at you in what looked like disbelief and hesitantly asked, "So?"
"So let me help you! It'll be quick, and mostly painless, I promise."
Still incredulous and unaware of your intentions, Severus asked, "Why are you trying so hard to help me? Do you want something?"
You shook your head, "Nope, just want to help. You know, there's people who care about you, yeah?"
He scoffed at your attempt to persuade him. People care about him? Yeah, right.
"You're not going to leave me alone until I go with you, huh?"
"Maybe, maybe not. You're going to have to get that nose checked sometime, anyhow. Whether it's now with me or when you pass out from blood loss with Madame Pomphrey."
He reached up and wiped at his nose with the back of his hand, noticing just how much it had been bleeding once the dark substance covered it. He sighed.
"Okay, fine. I'll go with you."
You smiled at him, "Perfect, let's go."
The walk to the infirmary didn't take too long, though it would have been shorter if you hadn't gotten stopped by your friends who were wondering why you weren't making your way to the dining hall. You assured them you'd meet with them later, and once they got a look at Severus, they knew exactly where you were headed.
"Madame?" You called out as you entered the infirmary, looking around for the woman in question.
She caught sight of you from across the room where she was tending to the wounds of a student who seemed to have broken a bone, "(L/N)? Is everything alright? Shouldn't you be at dinner?"
"Oh, yes, ma'am! I'm alright, I'm just here with a student who got hurt. I can see you're busy, so I can take care of it."
Pomphrey nodded, waving her wand to pour a potion into a glass for the student on the bed while she scribbled something on a clipboard with her other hand. "I appreciate it, (L/N). You know where everything is, but don't hesitate to ask if you need any help."
"Yes, ma'am. Thank you!" You turned to address Severus, who had been standing awkwardly behind you while you spoke. You dropped your bag to the floor at the foot of the nearest bed, "Take a seat up here," you nodded towards the bed you were near and finished with, "I'm going to go grab some supplies."
The boy nodded before doing as you asked, sitting atop the too-perfectly made bed with his hands in his lap and his legs dangling off the side. You disappeared into the storage room in the back, going to retrieve whatever so-called "supplies" you needed.
Severus sat quietly while he waited for you, trying to avoid eye contact with other students who were waiting in the infirmary. Instead he thought about you- specifically, your words from earlier.
He never thought someone would imply that they cared about him. Sure, your way of letting him know that fact wasn't discrete by any means, but the realization still shocked him.
Or… maybe it shouldn't have shocked him so much. You're kind to him, and you go out of your way to talk to him often. Plus, one time you called him your friend, and Severus hadn't thought you were serious enough to warrant asking what that entailed. Apparently, it meant you'd bug him until he let you clean his wounds. He wondered what else you'd do for him, how much you actually cared or if you were just being nice to him to get something, while he waited for your return.
You walked back into the main room carrying a small bucket and a rag, along with a small bottle of some potion he couldn't read the label of.
"We should deal with that nose first." Your words pulled him out if his thoughts and he looked up at you from under his hair. It was only then he realized he was hunched over and he straightened his back to seem more welcoming, though he wasn't sure if you cared about his posture either way. You were already determined to help him even when he was outwardly refusing you.
"This is the part that's going to hurt," you warned as you pulled out your wand. You whispered a soft 'Episkey' and waved your wand towards his face. He flinched as he felt as well as heard his nose cracking back into place. You even made your own face of distaste at the sight, and he would have laughed at the way your nose scrunched up if his didn't hurt so much.
"Okay, there! Now let's deal with… everything else." You picked up the bucket from earlier and placed it on the side of the bed, once more using your wand and whispering a spell to fill it with water. You returned your wand into your back pocket and instead produced a cloth that you had tucked into your other pocket.
You dipped a large corner of the light grey rag into the water, making it appear darker. Severus felt the need to close his eyes as you reached up to his face with the wet rag, but he kept them open to keep careful watch of your movements.
Your touch was nothing except for gentle as you held his head steady with a light grip on his chin and wiped at the blood under his nose. Your eyes were focused on the task at hand, but you didn't fail to notice how he stared at you while you worked. It made you slightly nervous, especially since it was so hard to tell what he was thinking under his dark gaze.
You tilted his head slowly to the side to reach the shallow cuts on his cheek and you saw how he finally closed his eyes, physically relaxing at your touch rather than tensing at your movement.
A sigh left your lips as you continued, your mind being swarmed with thoughts about how something so violent could happen to someone so… quiet. As far as you knew, Severus wasn't this accident prone, and you didn't see him as much of a fighter. He wasn't on the Quidditch team, either. So what could have caused this?
Your turmoil didn't go unnoticed by Severus, who had peeked out from under one of his eyelids to watch your face contort into confusion and worry.
"Is everything alright?"
You nodded quickly in response, but then asked, "Well… I've been wondering something, if you don't mind my asking."
He took a moment to respond ultimately encouraged you to continue with a simple, "Go on."
"How did this happen to you? There's not many ways to get hurt like this on Hogwarts grounds, unless you found yourself in a fight with the Whomping Willow, though I know you're smart enough to avoid doing that…" You found yourself rambling as you thought about the few ways he could have injured himself while you dipped the cloth into the water to clean it off. You squeezed the water out of it before returning to the other side of his face to finish cleaning the cuts that littered his skin there.
"I don't know if you've noticed, but not many people like me, (Y/N)," he stated bluntly.
Your eyebrows knitted together and your lips turned into a frown as you came to your own conclusions from his words. "I'm sorry, Sev," you responded sincerely, "you don't deserve that."
He laughed dryly at that, but didn't continue the conversation. You decided it was probably best to leave it there, too, if he didn't want to continue talking about it.
Though before you could drop it completely, you had to tell him something important.
"I'm here for you, you know? More than just a healer, so if you need anything- and I mean anything, Sev- don't be a stranger, okay?"
He looked up at you with the same disbelief as before, making your heart hurt. Has he never heard that from anyone before? Does he truly not know that he matters to someone?
His response came slowly, voice wavering as he said, "Yeah… okay. Thank you, (Y/N)."
You smiled, pulling back once you were satisfied with the state of his face. You noticed his own small ghost of a smile, too, one that made your heart swell.
His smile was immediately replaced with a frown as he winced, though, and then you recalled his reaction to you taking his wrist.
You tossed the rag to drape over the side of the bucket and then gestured to his long sleeves.
"May I?"
At Severus' pained nod, you gingerly reached out and pulled his sleeve up while gently holding his forearm to assess what was wrong. You frowned at the sight of his wrist covered in thorns- tiny, green, and sharp poking into his pale skin.
"Oh, Severus…" you couldn't even imagine what horrible curse could have caused this, and you found it hard to not ask for the names of the people who have hurt him so that you could cast a few choice charms of your own their way, but you ignored all those thoughts in favor of helping him in that moment.
You reached for a pair of tweezers from off the side table tray, showing him the small utensil to catch his attention.
"I'm sorry, I lied earlier. This might hurt a bit, too."
He nodded, squeezing his palm shut to prepare for the dreadful feeling of getting thorns plucked from his skin. You laid his arm on your lap and slid your hand under his, holding it tightly in a way you hoped was comforting.
You made quick work of removing the thorns, not wanting him to suffer for too long. He only winced a few times while you worked, surprising both you and himself. Once that arm was done, you switched sides to work on the other one, which was thankfully not as bad as the first.
When all was finished, Severus had a few bandages wrapped around each of his wrists and a small bottle of potion that was to be taken every day for the next week to help heal his nose properly.
"I hope you're feeling better now, Sev," you said to him as you cleaned up, "I'm sorry I took so long, though. Hopefully the house elves don't mind making you a late dinner."
He nodded slowly, still somewhat lost in thought. "It's alright, I do feel better now. Thank you."
You smiled at his sincerity, glad that he truly was doing better and was able to be truthful about it with you despite his earlier stubbornness.
"And I meant everything I said," you reassured him, "I'm here for you, Severus. I'm someone who cares, so don't forget that."
The boy nodded, an unfamiliar feeling of warmth taking over his chest at your words.
"I promise, I won't. Thank you, again."
"Anytime. Make sure you get something to eat, okay? I'd like to hang out with you tomorrow, if that's alright?"
Severus nodded almost too excitedly, "I would love to. How about lunch?"
You chuckled at his eagerness, happy to see that he was coming around to the idea of being friends with you. "Sounds perfect, Sev. See you then."
He left after thanking you one more time, which just left you with cleaning up. As you began the process of cleaning up your workspace and putting things in their respective places, Madame Pomphrey approached you with a wide smile. You paused your actions when she made a shooing motion towards you.
"Go off to bed, sweetheart. I can take care of all this, it's getting late and you still need to eat."
"Thank you, Madame. Are you sure you can handle it?"
"Quite sure, (L/N), I insist. Go be with your friends, you've helped me enough this past week."
You thanked her again, gathering your few things that you had brought to the infirmary with you from class.
"Oh, and (Y/N)?"
You turned on your heel to face the healer with a raised eyebrow, surprised at hearing her use your first name. "Yes?"
"Try to refrain from taking boys on dates to my infirmary," she winked as she teased you, making it obvious she was only joking. A chuckle escaped her lips as your face flushed.
"Yes, ma'am!" You squeaked as you fled the room, embarrassment taking over your face at her knowing smile.