home (reader at hogwarts)

thirteen

as the four of you eat breakfast conversation sparks about the events of last night.

you tell dumbledore about the dream- or what happened when you fell asleep.

how you ended up back on that dirty mattress and how you met mike and your mother.

and how you had been in unbearable pain.

"i don't know how long- i was gone for but i assume that it was for as long as i had been asleep." you say, looking to severus.

"about 40 minutes." severus adds. "we had tried to wake her, albus. minerva and i tried but nothing worked."

"hm." albus looks down at his fork and twirls it in his hand and you can see the small sparkling thought in his eyes grow larger before her looks up.

"nothing worked at all? how did she wake, then?"

"she woke finally when-"  severus crosses his eyebrows in consideration. "when minerva sort of touched her hand and said her name-"

albus turns to you. "did you feel minerva's hand y/n? did you feel them trying to wake you?"

"in the dream i only woke when-" you struggle to say their names. "my parents gave me my injections."

"your arm looked very red when you woke." minerva acknowledges, pushing some peas forward on her plate.

"although, it didn't seem any more irritated than usual before i got into the shower." you say. "it had looked the same before i fell asleep."

"do you think it really was administered albus?" severus leans forward and asks. " or do you think, y/n might have switched realities once again?"

"you said you hear their voices grow louder the more you fall asleep?" albus turns to you and asks.

you nod.

"i do believe it so severus. it seems that sleep is the portal between this reality and that of y/n's origin- and that each time you fall asleep," he looks at you, with pity written over his elderly features.

"you will have to go back."

"not unless we do something about it." minerva says. "is- is there something we can do about it?"

"as far as my knowledge extends i am not aware of any such potion that can prevent people from slipping out of a reality."

"then, make one." you say.

it isn't in a demanding tone, but it isn't a plea for help either.

these people need you because you hold their fate in your hands with your vast knowledge of the future. if you keep slipping away, it isn't guaranteed that you will come back.

"it isn't as easy as you think-" severus says, glaring down at his shoes.

you can tell he hates this.
hates not knowing what to do.

"i trust there is a potion for dreamless sleep?" you ask, looking up at severus.

he nods and you smile, reassuringly.

"then, we'll alter it. it doesn't matter to me how long it takes but it is imperative that you add something to that that will prevent me from slipping into that other reality."

albus and minerva sort of just- gawp at you.

"i don't want to go back." you say. "not ever again."

"i'll try." severus says. "albus, i'll need your help."

"of course."

"minerva too." he adds and minerva flashes him a small reassuring smile.

"good." he says, sitting back in his chair and wiping his hand on the napkin. he looks around at all of your empty plates and smirks.

"we're all done, then. how was my cooking?"

"you made this?" you say incredulously. it was the best food you'd ever tasted, perhaps even better than what you had at hogwarts.

"i did." severus nods.

he leans forward and mutters next to your small face. "i might have slipped a few savoury potions into the batter but we don't need to talk about them."

you lean back and laugh in your chair and minerva smirks.

"gosh, i'm full." you slump against the back of your chair and smile dreamily like you had at hogwarts.

"i'll take care of this." albus says, clapping his hand and causing all of the plates and utensils to float to the kitchen sink.

you grab the silver goblet infront of you and down some water.

"i'm getting a little hot again." you tell severus and he nods, pulling up his black tunic to reveal a icey blue bottle tucked into one of the hoops on his belt.

he waved his wand at your goblet and suddenly it was empty, before pouring the inalgesco into it.

you drink it quickly, not wanting the painfully numbing feeling to last longer than it needed to and shudder feeling cold- but not as cold as you was the night before.

you scrunch up your face, trying to figure out why and severus read your expression rather than your mind.

"it's diluted. you don't need as much after the first day."

"what's next, do you think?" minerva asks. "in the withdrawal-"

"well, i'm not entirely sure- given that she was administered some more ketamine when she slipped into that weird sleep that i couldn't get her out of."

"test me then. " you say. "the muggles have tests my mother has had to do several times before where they can tell if you've been on a drug in a specific amount of time."

"oh?" says minerva, smirking down at her goblet. "the muggles are smarter than they look."

you smile before looking up at severus. "is there a test that you know of? maybe one that can see whether or not there's been ketamine in my system in the past 24 hours?"

"one minute." minerva said suddenly, pulling out her wand. "i think i might have something-"

"i've had to use this only once before, the emerge charm. it's mostly used amongst wizards as something able to detect the slightest hints of poison in food or traces of anything in particular one may wish to find."

she walks forward and taps the wand on your arm.

"however, the aurors stopped using this when they found it often didn't allow detection of anything that wasn't present past 24 hours."

severus and albus watch her carefully, nodding as she speaks.

"it should do the trick for you, y/n." minerva says hopefully, before leaning down and whispering.

"veni foras."

a speck of glowing blue but nothing more, stands out on your arm.

severus and albus let out synchronised breath. one of understanding and one of relief.

"what?" you ask, looking up. "what does it mean?"

"there's nothing more than a speck of ketamine present, y/n." severus breaths, rubbing the one speck of glowing blue off of your arm.

"the other reality doesn't affect you here." minerva adds.

"thank merlin." dumbledore sighs before wrapping an arm around you. "you'll be safe, if not only a little shaken up."

"traumatised more like it." severus scoffs. "why, if you'd have put me in a room with my parents now i'd have trouble breathing at all and-"

albus, minerva and yourself stare at him and his eyes widen as he realises what he has just begun to say.

he coughs, and covers his reddening face before looking to you for a millisecond.

"get some rest, y/n." he says. "back to bed, now."