Snape Dragons and Dance Lessons

Allegra groaned as she rolled onto her side and held as still as possible, she was unbelievably sore. She was in her room, she could tell by the extravagant custom made comforter that was draped over her still form, but only one problem with her being in her room: she didn’t know how she got there. Her mind racked itself for an answer, but the last thing it recalled before waking up was blacking out, unable to get into her room, yet here she was, snuggled under her warm sheets. She tried to sit up and let out a loud groan, quickly returning to her statuesque state.

“Good, you’re up.” Severus walked into her bedroom and she looked at him in complete horror, she was in no mental state to be alone with him right now.

“Get out.” She whispered as she slowly moved her arm up to drape over her face. She had no idea what she looked like, but she knew that Ariana had gotten quite a few good scratches on her face, and they no doubt looked even worse today without being cleaned yesterday.

“Excuse me?” What little emotion Severus had been showing suddenly vanished to be replaced with an extraordinarily frigid demeanor.

“Get out.” Allegra once again whispered, her voice pleading for him to comply. There was silence in the room, but Allegra didn’t dare to move her arm until she heard fast footsteps and the violent slam of a door. After a minute of laying still she finally convinced herself that she needed to move, grinding her teeth she clenched her jaw and stiffened as she shoved herself into a sitting position as fast as possible. Allegra fell from her bed, barely catching herself on her hands and knees as she emptied her stomach on the floor. She stayed like that for a while, hunched over, every time she moved her stomach heaved and she soon found that when her stomach had nothing left she was expelling blood.

After what felt like years on the floor she slowly pushed back into a crouched position, hesitating when her stomach gave a lurch, but nothing came up. She gripped onto the bed to help herself stand completely, before shuffling around the puke and towards her bathroom, she figured she’d survey the damage first thing. She looked like the walking god damn dead. She cringed as she looked at herself, she had never, ever, in her life looked as bad as she did now. There were dark circles under her eyes, her skin was so white it was almost ghostly, her long blonde hair was matted with some of the contents of her stomach from earlier, and there was a trail of vomit from her lips down to her night gown.

But there was no blood, no scratches. She looked at her face confused, she knew that Ariana had used her nails, she had felt her flesh being scraped from her face, but there were no marks. Her face was just as unblemished as it had been a couple of days ago, except for the ungodly circles under her eyes. She reached for the bottom hem of her night gown and slowly pulled it up, gasping at what she saw. Her entire left side was a mass of black, purple, and green bruises. Seeing the sight made her stomach roll and she dove for the toilet as she ejected a mouthful of rancid blood. Well at least she now knew why she was coughing up blood, she most likely had internal bleeding.

Slowly Allegra slid down to lay on the ground, her forehead pressed firmly against the cold tile flooring, hoping to calm the impending headache. She hoped to god that if she felt this bad, that, that bitch Ariana felt ten times worse. She fell asleep at some point, the cold floor lulling her aching body into a sense of numbness, but it could only last for so long.

“Allegra!” A voice all but screamed as one of the doors in her room was thrown open. Allegra jerked awake and let out a unintended groan as she whimpered and writhed on the ground, her body wanting to kill itself.

“Merlin, Allegra!” black boots came before her eyes, but she didn’t dare move, she didn’t trust her stomach. Suddenly her body was jerked into a sitting position and she had a moment of looking into the worried eyes of Igor Karkaroff before she dove out of his grasp and emitted even more blood into the toilet.

“Shhhh, it’s all right.” Igor tried to sooth her as she continued to cough up more blood, whimpering from pain and sheer exhaustion. Igor rubbed his hand along her back and held her already blood matted hair back as she continued. Once she had stopped Allegra moved from him at a snail’s pace and found a new place to lie down on the cold tile, whimpers escaping her mouth as she tried to relax herself back into that sense of being numb.

“I’ll be right back,” Igor whispered as he smoothed his hand over her hair softly. “I’m going to get help.” Allegra tried to stop him as he stood, but her vision swam and suddenly she was clutching to the strings of consciousness for dear life, finally feeling the blood loss from puking up quarts and quarts of blood.

“What are you doing in there?” she heard another voice demand, but she didn’t try to place it, too busy keeping her eyes focused on the shiny metal knob of the cabinet.

“Allegra’s not well, I’m going to get help.” She could still place Igor’s voice, after all she had talked to him moments ago.

“What do you mean she’s not well?” the other voice demanded and she felt the vibration of footsteps approaching her. “Merlin.” The voice whispered and suddenly she was being picked up from the floor.

“No!” she screamed, for the first time talking as she threw herself from their arms, banging harshly to the ground as she made a mad scramble for the toilet. She clutched onto the porcelain for dear life as she felt her consciousness flicker with every mouthful of blood that left her. Huffing she let her head rest against the cold side of the toilet and let out helpless whimpers, she couldn’t move, she was trapped here, she was going to die in her blasted bathroom! A sob escaped her mouth, followed by another and she slowly sank to the ground, curling in on herself as she finally left the world of the conscious.

Through the veil of darkness she was still somewhat attached to the real world, still somewhat aware of what was happening to her body, but it felt like she was no longer inside her own body.

“-internal bleeding-“ she caught once matched with the feel of a liquid spilling down her throat.

“-blood loss-“ her body was being moved.

“-like the dead-“ well it was nice to know someone else thought she looked like shit.

“-drought of the living dead-“ another liquid passed her lips.

“-what happened-“ a cool cloth was placed on her forehead.

“-no change-“ she felt her spirit weaken, she wasn’t getting better.

“-blood potion-“

“-not fast enough-“

“-not helping-“

“-you’ll give her blood!” the voice was harsh.

“-helping-“ she didn’t dare hope.

“-blood—taking-“ she kept flickering in and out.

“She’s waking up!” for the first time the sentence came in full and she could understand. She thought for a moment, that was Igor’s voice, but she could tell someone else was in the room. Who? Slowly her eyes opened and she looked through slitted eyelids up at the ceiling, what a boring ceiling it was.

“She’ll be fine, we just have to let her rest.” The voice was cold, familiar, and set her heart into a painfully fast rhythm. She could feel their presence retreating from her, and she panicked, she wanted them to stay, but her body wouldn’t work, her mouth felt dry as sand paper, her limbs heaver than the thickest lead, her mind as groggy to the near point of comatose.

She looked up at the ceiling in complete depression, she couldn’t move, she couldn’t speak, she was paralyzed. With dark thoughts running rampant in her mind she fell into a state of completely silent hysteria…until she felt…it. She didn’t know what it was, it was weird, like someone was poking her brain with a stick, but it didn’t hurt. It happened a moment later and upon instinct she seized the ‘stick’ pulling hard with her mind. There was nothing and then the ‘stick’ slowly came, until it was in her mind. An image of Severus filled her mind, completely taking over all senses. She could smell him, touch him, hear his rough voice, taste his lips against hers, and see his scowl.

“Calm down.” The image in her mind muttered softly and she instantly felt her hysteria dissipate. “Good, you need to get your rest, go to sleep.” The imaginary Severus said softly, encouragingly.

“Don’t leave me.” Her voice echoed around the image of Severus and she thought confused, how had her voice just said what she wanted to say, when her lips would not obey a single command.

“I won’t leave you, I’ll stay right here.” The image of Severus reassured and she felt her eyes droop closed into exhaustion, her mind still keeping a firm hold on the image of Severus. “Relax, Allegra.” The image cooed and she relaxed a bit more.

“Don’t leave me Severus.” Allegra’s voice whispered as she slipped into a deep sleep.