171) Nights in the infirmary

It was night, and in the Hogwarts infirmary were Severus Snape and Albus Dumbledore, gazing at the two children lying on the beds, both unconscious.

"So... Severus?" Dumbledore asked.

"Potter may wake up after a long rest, although he would do us all a favor if he stays like this. At least in this state, he can't cause us any more trouble," Snape sneered.

"Hmm..." Dumbledore simply nodded, knowing it was pointless to question Snape's words, he wouldn't gain anything. "And what about Red?"

"He's completely lost. We can bury him tomorrow," Snape's tone changed when saying this, it was also mocking, but his tone was different when talking about Harry.

"Severus..." now he couldn't help but question the response he received. He had recently noticed the change in the potions master but couldn't quite understand it.

"What do you want me to say, Madame Pomfrey has tried everything and doesn't know what's wrong with him? You pulled me from my duties to also check him after surely you also didn't discover his situation," he complained. "Anyway, he's constantly doing something that puts himself or others in danger. The most appropriate thing in this situation is to be compassionate and sacrifice him."

"..."(Dumbledore)

Albus looked at him for a while, the surprise in his gaze couldn't be hidden. For a moment, he thought someone had replaced Snape.Was what he was hearing from him a joke? That's what he supposed, because it had a certain mocking tone, and it didn't seem like he was speaking seriously about sacrificing him, it didn't sound like it should if that were the case, which would be much easier to accept than the current situation.

Since Lily's death, Snape had been cold and barely showed more emotions than necessary, but now, just by hearing the tone of his words, he could tell that this cold, heartless potions master seemed more... alive.

"Has something happened between Mr. Weasley and you? You're acting a bit... different," Dumbledore asked with his penetrating gaze through his half-moon glasses.

"I'm just acting as I should in front of a potential criminal like him," Snape responded, although he had some reaction to Dumbledore's words. He himself felt that he wasn't acting as he normally did, but he also didn't feel that there was anything wrong with that. Doubting himself, he began to execute his Occlumency to try to find out if there really was something wrong with him.

"So..." he set aside the matter of Snape's behavior, returning to the topic that was more important right now. "You didn't manage to find out anything? Didn't work...?"

"I've tried everything, from potions to cure altered states to those that could snatch someone from the hands of death, and nothing works. Well, there I'm wrong, all my potions worked, but he's the one who doesn't improve. I don't know what's wrong with him, but it's not normal, although we already know that nothing related to him is normal," he said as he searched his pockets and then extended it in front of him.

"Is that it?" Dumbledore asked, looking at the small vial in Snape's hands and its strange contents.

"One of his blood samples," he said, exposing the vial.

This vial had blood at the top, but the further down in the vial it was seen, it was noticed that it was not just blood, or at least not normal blood. Beneath the blood was a denser liquid resembling a mixture of blood and oil, further down the liquid seemed to turn into something resembling honey both in color and density, although more yellowish, and finally, floating at the deepest part, a cluster of small crystallized elements of bright burgundy color.

"His blood?" asked Dumbledore surprised, grabbing the vial and examining it.

"Yes, I'm not surprised he hasn't woken up if he has this inside him. His heart shouldn't even be able to pump something like this through his veins. It's normal that we can't hear his heartbeats in short periods of time," Snape explained.

"But his heartbeats have been slightly more frequent," Dumbledore informed, relaying what Madame Pomfrey had told him.

"That's because those strange substances are decreasing in concentration... or maybe they are dissolving into his blood, I don't know. I've been taking blood samples every three hours and I've found that the presence of those substances is decreasing, although it's hard to notice," Snape said.

"So can we expect him to improve over time?" Dumbledore asked.

"That's the only thing we can do. I don't know what damn magic is causing this, but it's not something we can intervene in without risking making it worse," he sighed resignedly while rubbing his tired eyes.

"Are you worried about him, Severus?" Dumbledore asked, noticing Snape's dedication.

Dumbledore felt puzzled by Snape. Although he didn't express it clearly, with his experience he could tell that Severus was worried about Red to a similar level as Harry, albeit perhaps in a different way. Just mentioning that he was taking samples every three hours and the clear lack of sleep on his face made it clear how much he had worked during this time to find a solution, especially knowing that he wasn't asked much, it was all by his own will. He increasingly felt in the dark about what was happening between his potions master and one of his most troublesome students; he had to start paying attention and investigate it.

"Worried?! Ha! The only thing I'm worried about is you keep calling me in the middle of the night to see a dead kid. I already have too much work to waste time on him. Of course, we also have to consider his endless group of fangirls... jhhm... bitches," he complained in whispers.

"Severus! They are girls and our students," reacted strongly to the unexpected insult to the Hogwarts students.

"Right, the only bitch here is him..." Snape muttered.

Dumbledore's eyes widened, now he was completely sure that something was going on and he didn't know. Severus's behavior was not normal.

"That's not the issue now..." Dumbledore decided not to delve into this for the moment; it was something he would do, but there were more important things, like the location of the Philosopher's Stone.

"That's what you say, it wasn't you whom Pomfrey asked to make a super-powerful calming potion to calm down a girl in a nervous breakdown."

-Flashback-

Hermione sat on the chair next to the bed, holding Red's hand and looking despondent, swaying like a lunatic as she whispered.

"...a-and when you recover, we'll go back to classes...

...We'll graduate from Hogwarts with honors, and Professor McGonagall will congratulate me...

...We'll get married and move to a lovely house in the countryside...

...I'll be a professor or work at the Ministry, you'll just stay home and be safe, you don't have to worry about working...

...We'll have three children, a boy and two girls, and you'll take care of them, everyone will be safe at home, I'll take care of everything...

...everyone will be safe..."

She uttered in an insane manner to the point that the nurse, noticing her, immediately went to intervene but she became aggressive when they tried to make her release Red's hand.

No one knew she would have a nervous breakdown of such a level even when Red wasn't completely dead, but that was because of things people didn't know. Not even Red himself would discover until years later that his blood magic clings to the people he uses it on and that the use of his emotional control would have some consequences on people he uses it on frequently.

-End of Flashback-

"Instead of a tranquilizer, I decided to put her to sleep; she was in one of these beds until noon. Fortunately, she recovered quite well, and her emotional state returned almost to normal, but unfortunately, she explained the situation to her friends, and the infirmary was full of girls crying, thinking that Weasley was dying. I even had to deduct points from my own house because Farley wouldn't stop crying on the boy's chest and resisted leaving the infirmary," Snape explained.

Dumbledore didn't say anything this time, just looked at the tables with gifts on either side of Harry and Red. Both had their things, but Red's were almost purely gifts made by the girls. From handmade food for when he wakes up to other personal effects. He even appreciated that Hannah Abbott had raided the greenhouse to bring him a bunch of giant flowers (enhanced with magic and growth potions).

Severus and Dumbledore finished the conversation shortly after.

...

Dumbledore continued to investigate his belongings. Apart from Harry's health, what concerned him was the whereabouts of the Philosopher's Stone and, secondly, the Mirror of Erised. He was sure it was Red's doing, but until he woke up, he couldn't ask him any questions.

Also... there was the matter of Severus that needed to be figured out, as the oddities were hard to ignore. Once away from Red, he returned to being as he was before, almost with no difference, but when he was near him, he exhibited behavior that could be considered childish. And what happened on the afternoon of the second day...

-Flashback-

Severus was standing next to Red's bed, having just taken another blood sample and holding it up to the light, he observed that the strange components had already reduced considerably, leaving only some residue at the bottom of the vial.

At that moment, Severus seemed to hear something, and looking down, he noticed Red's hand trembling, and his lips trying to move. He was surprised, especially when he seemed to hear the attempt to say his name from the lips of the dying child.

"S-s... Sev..."

"Red!" he responded, holding him and trying to search for any discomfort in the boy's body with great seriousness. He continued to hear him trying to speak, but it was getting weaker, so he brought his ear closer to his mouth, trying to hear what he had to say, thinking it might provide some information to help him.

"Sev..." he weakly pronounced with a dry voice.

"I'm here." (Sev)

"Sev...?" (Red)

"Yes." (Sev)

"I... F-fuk... yor... mom..." He smiled.

*SLAP!!!* He slapped the boy's face, now once again unconscious, with the back of his hand while his eye twitched, ignoring everyone in the infirmary who saw him, at least until Mrs. Pomfrey arrived with a terrifying expression.

-End of flashback-

Albus shook his head. He still didn't know what was going on and whether that would disturb his plans and life at Hogwarts more than it already was with the Dark Lord's future return.

He returned to the infirmary very late at night, hiding from the nurse to avoid trouble and to see Red. He wouldn't be at ease until he knew the location of the stone and made sure Tom didn't have it.

Fortunately for Dumbledore, he found Red, who had woken up once again and had the chance to speak again.

"Welcome back to the land of the living, Mr. Weasley!"

"Ghhh... my face hurts," he spoke with difficulty and a weak, hoarse voice.

Dumbledore provided him with some water to help him recover and began to speak with the boy patiently, as he could hardly speak normally without much effort.

"Am I dead?" (Red)

"No, fortunately." (Dumbledore)

"Damn." (Red)

"He doesn't seem happy to be alive," he narrowed his eyes with curiosity.

"I thought this pain all over my body was because I was in hell, but I'm alive... if I'm going to constantly suffer like this being alive, please, get me out of my misery," he tried to laugh, but it brought him more pain and he stopped.

Dumbledore ignored the boy's words but continued to urge him to explain his situation. He knew nothing about Red's condition, but he himself should know his own body well enough to give answers.

Red never revealed anything about his situation, pretending also to be unaware, but he assured that he would be fine. He even suggested that maybe it was some curse caused by Quirrell, but Dumbledore didn't fully believe him. Unfortunately for the old man, even in the boy's state, Dumbledore couldn't access his mind with Legilimency.

They continued talking for a while longer until he finally asked about the important matter.

"The stone...?" (Dumbledore)

"It no longer exists in this world." (Red)

"So you took it?" (Dumbledore)

"I didn't think Harry could keep it away from Voldemort, not even trust myself to take care of it. So I decided to get rid of it. Don't worry, there's no longer a Philosopher's Stone in this world... well, that's if it was really the only one..." (Red)

"So you destroyed it? Wasn't it a hasty decision? It wasn't even yours in the first place? Nor mine, it belonged to my friend Nicholas Flamel..." He commented without expressing any emotion about it, waiting for the response and hoping to extract information from it.

"I should have thought better before leaving it so accessible that even a group of children could get it. The stone no longer exists, and I can't bring it back even if I wanted to. At most, a pile of dust..." (Red)

Dumbledore kept insisting but got nothing. Red continued to deny everything, acting sick and changing the subject. Not even hidden threats got anything, not even about the mirror for which Red acted with feigned confusion about its whereabouts, although he never specifically said that he didn't have it, which made Dumbledore doubt but unable to do anything.

It was already very late at night when the headmaster stopped harassing Red and decided to leave for the time being since he hadn't gotten anything. Things were complicated, but Red even promised to subject himself to any magical agreement, even an unbreakable vow that the stone no longer exists, so the old man had to let him go for now, but he would keep his intense gaze on him for a long time.

------------------------------------------------------

Sorry for the absence, I was taking my exams