Work Text:
November 1987
Snape was glad it was finally Saturday evening. The quidditch match that morning had seemed like it dragged on forever, only for his Slytherin team to lose to the Ravenclaws. He had gotten back to his quarters, poured himself a goblet of wine, and unfolded his newspaper.
He was halfway through his drink when he heard banging on the wooden door to his quarters. He sighed and folded the newspaper and set it down on the end table before heading to the door. The banging got louder, more urgent.
“What is it?!” Snape glowered as he flung open his door.
“Sir! It’s Sian!” Doris Nott said as she gasped for breath. She must have run to the door. Snape quickly shut the door of his quarters and let himself be led through the dungeon hallways back to the Slytherin common room.
“What happened?” He asked as he followed the young prefect.
“I don’t know sir, but there’s so much blood,” the sixth year explained. “She won’t let anyone get Madam Pomfrey.”
They had arrived at the Slytherin common room and Snape quickly whispered the password and ducked through the passage. The students that were gathered in the common room gave quick glances at their usually put together Head of House who was jogging behind their prefect, signature billowing robes missing.
Snape could hear the confused whispers erupt from the other Slytherins, but he ignored them and focused on the prefect that was leading him up the stairs leading to the sixth year girls’ dorm.
Snape could smell the blood and hear someone sobbing before he even opened the door. Sian Roberts, one of his sixth year Slytherin NEWT students was curled on her side, sobbing into the loose embrace of Ambrosia Flint.
“Everyone out!” Snape commanded. Several pairs of eyes turned to him in surprise, but none of the girls seemed to move. “NOW!”
His raised voice and command seemed to startle them all into action. Three teen girls scooted past him and lingered in the doorway. Snape scowled at them and flicked his wand. The door slammed into their faces and he turned to the sobbing teen.
“Please, sir. Go away,” Sian cried miserably.
“Miss Roberts,” Snape warned her and took a few steps closer to her. “What have you done?”
“Please sir,” she cried again and pulled herself into the fetal position, blankets clutched tightly in her fists.
“Miss Roberts,” Snape said wearily as he sank onto the neatly made bed across from the girl’s. “Sian, you are not the first, nor the last young woman who has been in this situation. What have you done?”
The girl only seemed to sob more violently. Snape sighed internally and leant forward.
“I’m going to ask you once more. What have you done? Did you take something?” Snape asked quietly.
Sian stayed silent, not acknowledging her professor.
“Miss Roberts, I don’t care how you came to be in the family way. I don’t care why you made the choice to get rid of it. I need to know what you’ve done,” Snape told the girl frankly.
The girl sobbed and shook her head.
Snape vanished the girl’s blankets and saw her red stained nightgown and mattress. Snape swore and stored his wand away. He scooped his arms beneath the girl’s shoulders and knees and lifted her slight body into his arms. The girl struggled feebly and tried to push herself out of his arms, but he held her closer to his chest.
“Ms. Nott,” he called and the door was opened quickly. He ignored the shocked looks he was getting from the prefect and turned towards her.
“Tell everyone in the common room to go to the Great Hall for dinner,” he told her. “Anyone left in the room when I come down will be subject to a month’s worth of detention with Filch.”
The prefect nodded and led the other sixth year Slytherin girls down to the common room. Snape waited until he couldn’t hear movement in the common room before he carried the silently crying girl down the steps and back to his office.
He set the girl down on a chair he transformed into a cot before his desk before he turned his back on her and grabbed a vial and a small, sharp knife from his potions kit.
“Miss Roberts, I’m going to take a sample of your blood,” he warned the girl before he took her inner arm and made a quick slice and held the cool glass to collect the fresh blood.
“You can tell me what you took and I’ll help you or you can stay silent, but I will eventually figure it out,” Snape warned.
“I…” Sian sniffled. “I can’t.”
“Fine,” Snape huffed and started to pull down ingredients from the shelves.
“Sir, I don’t know what it was,” the girl confessed quietly.
Snape stilled and turned to the girl.
“What do you mean you don’t know what it was?”
“Someone sent it to me,” Sian explained.
“Where’s the vial?” Snape demanded.
“My trunk,” Sian sniffled.
Snape summoned the girl’s trunk and emptied the contents on the top of his crowded desk. He saw a small, green tinged vial with an oily residue inside.
He opened the cork and sniffed the contents. He could smell the acrid potion. He started to list ingredients he could identify based on the remaining potion. Aconite, Hellebore, Murtlap Root, Gecko Eyes, Pickled Mandrake…
Snape turned to the girl and took her pulse, it was weak, but even. Her skin was pale, cool, and clammy. Snape sighed and summoned a vial of blood replenisher from his own stores.
“Here, drink this,” he told the girl. “It shouldn’t react with that swill you took earlier.”
The girl let him help her drink the potion. Snape observed her skin start to flush again and nodded in relief.
“I’m going to brew a quick potion that should stop the abortion,” Snape told the girl who sobbed and tried to push herself off the cot.
“I won’t take it,” she said as she lumped back to the cot. She was clearly still dizzy from the trauma and blood loss.
“You will or I will take you to Madam Pomfrey,” Snape warned the girl sternly.
“Please, Professor,” the girl pleaded. “My family will kill me. I can’t… I just can’t have it.”
“You will take the potion to stop the abortion or you will be brought to the hospital wing. Madam Pomfrey will stop the abortion and be required to report you to St. Mungo's and the ministry will be involved,” Snape explained.
The girl turned onto her side and put her back to the professor.
“Please, just take the potion here and I…” Snape paused. “Take the potion here and I will give you something next week to take care of the situation safely.”
The girl rolled until she was looking at him, tear filled eyes wide.
“You would?”
“Yes,” Snape said honestly. “But only if you take the potion here, now, and without complaint. You also have to promise me that you won’t attempt anything like this again.”
“Okay,” the girl whispered meekly.
Snape nodded and summoned a blanket for the girl. He unfurled the thick, green fabric over the slight figure of the girl and rested a hand on her shoulder.
“I’ll have the potion ready in half an hour. You must tell me if you feel faint again,” Snape told the girl softly. Sian muttered an agreement and wiped her eyes.
Snape gave the girl a final glance and rubbed a palm down his face. He shook his head and went back to collecting ingredients. Whomever made that particular brew had no business brewing any potions let alone complex, individualized potions made for desperate women.
He stirred, sliced, and smashed ingredients together and adjusted the flame under the small cauldron. He slammed his fist down on the side of his knife and let it smash the bulb into a thick paste. He scraped it off the cutting board and added it to the thick potion which instantly bubbled. The potion settled seconds later and was now a glassy, moss green potion.
Snape cast a cooling charm on the cauldron and ladled some of the potion into a tall goblet.
“Miss Roberts,” Snape called out to the girl who had started to slip into a fitful sleep. He shook her shoulder and helped her rise into a semi-sitting position.
“You must finish it all,” Snape raised the goblet to her lips and watched as she grimaced and gulped the potion down.
“Yes, I am aware that it probably tastes like rotten beets,” Snape said as the girl tried to stop drinking the potion. “But you must finish it all to work.”
The girl finished the potion and Snape set the goblet on his desk. He scanned her vitals and nodded. She was out of any danger now, but she was still weak.
“You should start to feel better in about an hour,” Snape explained.
“When you return to your dorm, explain that you had a burst ovarian cyst,” Snape told the girl. He had told other women to use this excuse before and it was never questioned.
“Okay,” the girl whispered. “Thank you, sir.”
Snape nodded at the girl and turned his back on her. He focused on cleaning his brewing equipment and reshelving the ingredients he hadn’t used. By the time he was done, the girl was sitting on the cot, sipping water and sniffling.
“Miss Roberts, you may go back to your dorm. Here is a note to excuse you from classes on Monday if you still are experiencing cramping,” Snape told the girl and handed her a written note.
“Thank you, Professor, really,” the girl offered him and accepted the note.
“Yes, well, if you experience any further bleeding or side effects other than cramping you must summon me immediately,” Snape warned the teen.
She nodded and tugged the thick blanket around her shoulders like a cloak. She stood and swayed. Snape quickly reached out a hand and clamped down on the girl’s shoulder to steady her.
“I’ll walk you back, I need to speak with Ms. Nott as well,” Snape told the girl and ushered her out of his office and back to her dorm. He ensured she made it back to her room and that the house elves had replaced her bedsheets with freshly washed linens and that she wasn’t experiencing further symptoms before he left.
He ran into Ms. Nott on his way back to his office and he gestured for her to join him in a side hall.
“Ms. Nott,” Snape greeted the prefect.
“Sir, how’s Sian?” the girl asked concernedly.
“Ms. Roberts should be fine with time,” Snape said. “She can explain what happened to you later, but now she is resting in the dorms.”
“Oh, thank Merlin!” the girl sighed in relief.
“Please keep an eye on her for the next few days, summon me right away if you notice anything wrong with the girl. I gave her a note to excuse her from classes on Monday if she requires it.”
“Of course, sir!” Doris exclaimed. “Are you going to report this?”
“No,” Snape shook his head and sighed. “I think it best if we keep this incident in house.”
The girl nodded. This was nothing new, Snape tended to handle many issues within Slytherin house rather than including the other professors, heads of houses, headmaster, or sometimes Madam Pomfrey.
“I will make sure the other girls are aware of that in case I'm not around,” Ms. Nott told him and he nodded his approval.
“You should get back to the dorms, Ms. Nott,” the potions professor told the girl. “I believe I overheard some fifth year boys planning to sneak out to harvest some mushrooms in the forest tonight.”
Doris snorted and gave the professor a rare smile. She waved goodbye and left to rejoin the house.
Snape gladly returned to his quarters and saw the half drunk bottle of wine. He banished it with a quick swipe of his wand. He sunk into his couch with a groan and cursed loudly.
“Fucking ministry!”