It hurt, strangely enough. And he thought he'd outgrown the childish hero-worship he used to have for the man, long ago...
Albus Dumbledore shouldn't look...old, damnit.
Even if he was.
Especially if he was.
He'd always been powerful, even with his white beard, even with the wrinkles, even with...
Dumbledore smiled, looking tired and sad.
"Mr Hazama. I believe Severus has been...a bit highhanded for my sake, so to speak. My apologies for the inconvenience?"
Aawk? The old coot actually was acknowledging Snape was doing something for his sake for a change?
Well, well, well.
"...Just as long as he doesn't do it again, Headmaster."
"You are too kind, Mr Hazama."
Too right, but it's not for your sake. Or not just that, anyway...
Kuroo sighed.
"Just what do you want of me, Headmaster?"
Not that he couldn't guess, but it never hurt to be sure.
"...Mr Hazama, though it pains me to admit it, I am not the Headmaster of Hogwarts for the moment, and I doubt that I would be ever able to take up that mantle again. Not that I did not know I would have to retire sometimes, but..."
The old man mopped his brow, and sighed, a faint tremor coming over his fingers.
"...Professor Dumbledore, then. What can I do for you, sir?"
The trembling fingers, the burned and withered hand, and--that black-streaked aura.
...Shit.
And now Snape was turning around, choppily heading for the doorway...
"...An examination would be a good idea, to begin with, I would think..."
A test, was it.
...Won-der-ful.
Hazama Kuroo stamped into the room he'd began to think of as the living room, taking off his whites and gloves and throwing them in a basket he conjured.
"Snape, what in the world ha..."
One Snape, two Snapes, three Snapes...All asleep, curled up under blankets and towels on the various sofas and beds crowded into the room.
"She's over in the Bell Room, with the pooch with her."
And the sole Snape awake was crankier then ever.
Kuroo blinked. Oh, yes, Pinoco...
The Bell Room was, unsurprisingly, shaped like a Bell, and colored in warm earth colors. Pinoco slept soundly, Ralgo at her side.
Kuroo sighed, again. She'd had a long day, too...
"...So? Your analysis is...?"
"...Horcrux poisoning. I'd wondered what somebody who had regular access to both you and a Phoenix and the Alchemist's Stone couldn't handle...For about 5 seconds, that is."
"...He doesn't have the Stone with him any more."
Kuroo just looked at him.
Snape sighed, and coughed.
"--Not officially, anyway. ...So it's really just that, is it. I'd thought, perhaps, there might be something else as well..."
"Well, there are plenty of other things wrong with him as well, but nothing that I or even you couldn't deal with. Horcrux poisoning, on the other hand..."
"..Right."
Snape buried his head in his hands again, groaning.
"Headache?"
"Don't fuss, it'll go away...I don't want to end up addicted to my own headache potions, damnit."
He wasn't trying to use any of the other spells commonly utilized to deal with headaches, either, so that meant...
Hazama groaned, and sent a small localized massage spell his way anyway. Better a embarrassed Snape then a half-crazed-with-pain-and-fatigue Snape any day...Especially if he was going to go get Ralgo and the goldfish and shut down his house, now.
"...Awk, Hazama, stop mother-henning me!"
Snape growled as the glowing red, green and purple lights started to crawl over his neck and back.
"Shut up, Snape."
"...I can't afford to fall asleep, damn youu..."
"Then don't. You're going to go get my dog and goldfish now, right?"
"...I suppose so. Damnit, damnit..."
"Language, Snape. Get dog and goldfish, shut down the house--"
At least he didn't have give him detailed instructions about how to shut down a muggle house. Snape kept up with the muggle world much better then even some Muggleborns did.
"And don't go around hexing any muggles or supposed muggle you see around the house, either, They'd probably be either my former patients or Pinoco's friends, and I don't like people messing with my household or connections."
Not that he thought Snape of all people needed reminding of that...
"I know, I know, stop belaboring the obvious. I do--did--live in a muggle neighborhood when I wasn't at Hogwarts, you know that."
Snape yawned and reeled off the sofa.
"Come on, eat something before you go..."
"--My chocolate is better."
"Of course your chocolate is better. You drove that Potions substitute teacher Whats-her-name nuts because your confections and your cleaning potions were always better then hers was. ...Even though hers generally looked better, I suppose."
"...She wasn't that bad a teacher now that I think about it, I suppose. It's just that what she taught wasn't Potions."
Kuroo stared. Had Snape just said something nice about That Person? Where somebody else could hear?
"...You just say that because you liked her creme-puffs."
"Well so did you, Hazama!"
"True, true...But then, so did everybody. Well, almost everybody. And everybody who wasn't taking Potions in the OWLs or NEWTs liked her just fine. She was fun and taught easy and even useful stuff, what's not to like?"
"Plus, you could actually eat a great many of the end products..."
They both sighed together, then.
"They should just have made a elective called Magical Domestic Arts 101 and made it a day. Really. She would have done fine with something like that."
Kuroo yawned himself, and sat at the sofa. Damn, it had been a long day...
"It would have been popular, too...I suggested something like that to Albus, about 10 years ago, and he thought it was a good idea, but Professor McGonagall didn't like it, for some reason."
Kuroo shrugged. Minnie McGonagall could be strange, sometimes...
"Thinking about Prof. McGonagall...Is she still in charge of the OWLs and NEWTs test copies?"
"...Oh, yes."
Snape shuddered.
"Not that anybody--except the Gryffindors, I suppose--ever use her copies, any more. How could anybody leave the tests in such an unorganized mess--Me, Prof. Flitwick and Prof. Sprout all have our own backup copies for our own Houses now. ...Or we did, anyway. I don't know what Sluggy is doing, really."
He'd really better stop mentioning Hogwarts for the duration, Kuroo decided.
Not to mention that this sofa was getting much too comfortable...
"Let's talk in the morning, Snape. ...I passed your little test, I presume?"
Snape just gave a half-hearted sneer, and left.
OK, and now which room was supposed to be his one...
(Posted Wed, 07 Sep 2005 11:27)
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