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Making Ends Meet by Obadiah Slope [Reviews - 9]

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Rosie and Severus sat next to each other in the waiting room of a clinic. Rosie was waiting to have some Healer prod and poke her head in an effort to determine whether she was concussed or not. In the meantime she had her eyes closed and her head leaned up against the cold wall of the hospital. The pain in her head had still not gone away. Severus was staring darkly at the table in front of them, which was littered with ancient editions of ‘Witch Weekly’ and yellowed pages of the ‘Prophet’. He sighed and looked round at Rosie. He didn’t understand why she was being this difficult about the whole situation. Granted, she was shaken, but she just simply seemed to be furious with Severus for being concerned about her. It was almost as though she didn’t want him to be there for her, like she didn’t want his sympathy.

Hit the nail on the head, Severus.

He stood up feeling as though he would dearly love to kick something. Storming from the hospital waiting area, leaving Rosie alone, he did not notice as Alina came in another door and looked at him with disbelief in her eyes before wondering what on Earth was going on between the pair of them.

Alina sat next to Rosie, occupying Severus’ old seat. Nudging Rosie, she handed a mug of steaming tea to her, which Rosie took gratefully.

“What’s been going on, then?” asked Alina.

“I don’t know what you mean,” replied Rosie stiffly.

“Yes, you do. I didn’t tell Severus about Maximus being the one who attacked you – I thought that it would be best for you to do that yourself. It seems like he still doesn’t know though.”

“Could you imagine what it would be like if Severus found out that it was his father who did this to me?” Rosie said quietly. “I can’t bear to tell him. I just – I can’t.”

“Why? Come on, Rosie, just tell me, will you?”

“I’m worried he’ll – do something. He told,” Rosie stopped and looked around, as though checking that he was nowhere near by. “He – gets angry sometimes.” She sighed and closed her eyes. “I just – I know what will happen if I – I just can’t Alina,” Rosie finished indifferently, with a shrug.

“I don’t understand why you’re acting like this, Rosie. You’re infuriating Severus and you’re treating me like a fool. Sometimes you can really piss me off.” And with that Alina stood up and walked out of the room. After the sound of Alina’s footsteps disappeared, Rosie hung her head. She didn’t honestly know why she was so irritable all of a sudden. She just felt as though she would rather be alone. This whole situation had unfolded far too fast for her. In a matter of minutes she had been whisked off to a hospital by her partner and best friend; she hadn’t even had time to mull over the seriousness of what Maximus had done. And now, what was worse, everyone seemed to want to know every little detail. She couldn’t bear it. Rosie just couldn’t make decisions on how to phrase what had happened, not when she hadn’t had enough time to replay it her own mind.

She needed to judge how Severus would react. Rosie knew that he would go berserk, and she felt that it would be best to be given a clean bill of health before she was forced to bodily hold onto him to stop him killing another one of his parents.

Rosie sighed deeply but was forced to open her eyes as she heard Severus enter the room again.

“Where’ve you been?” asked Rosie angrily, flaring up as soon as she saw him. Why am I behaving like this? she scolded herself.

“On a walk,” he answered shortly. He looked as though it was taking all his patience not to scream at her; there was a muscle going in his mouth and his fingers kept flexing.

“Do you want to take a pot shot?” Rosie asked bitterly.

“Pardon?” he hissed. “What are you playing-?”

“Are you Miss Watermouth?” asked a female nurse from the doorway. Rosie nodded and made to stand up. “The Healer will see you now. Do you wish to bring in your –” she looked questioningly at Severus.

“No, thank you,” she said shooting him a look as she swept out of the room and into the Healer’s room. In the distance she distinctly heard Severus kick the table, hard.

*

“Could we speak to you for a moment, sir?” asked the nurse as she ushered Rosie back into the waiting room. Rosie had been given a clean bill of health. The Healer had said that she was fine, that her skull was not in any way damaged and that there was only a slight bit of bruising that would go down in a few days. However, she had been told that if her headaches persisted, or that if her vision became blurry, she should return immediately.

Severus followed the nurse into a small office wondering why on Earth he was here – if Rosie was well.

“You are Rosie’s boyfriend, I believe?”

“Yes,” said Severus, not bothering to correct her. He still preferred the term ‘partner’.

“We just wanted to say to you that although she is perfectly well, she seemed quite irritable.” Severus snorted. “It seems that you’ve noticed?”

“Indeed I have. It’s not like her to be so angry with me – it’s normally quite the reverse.”

The nurse smiled. “She may well have slight mood-swings for a few days – be irritable and so forth. She will return to normal, but any damage to the head can do bizarre things.”

“I see,” replied Severus.

“We’ve also encouraged her to rest for a few days – so make sure that she doesn’t over-exert herself.”

“Indeed. Thank you for your help.”

“A pleasure.” And she saw him out of the room.

*

Rosie and Severus sat in their front room silently, neither one speaking to the other. Alina had left the hospital before either Severus or Rosie had noticed and, in a way, Rosie was pleased. It meant that there was one less person to explain her behaviour to.

Severus looked restless and on the edge of speaking to her. This infuriated Rosie. She wished that he would just spit it out instead of looking so foolish and apprehensive.

“How do you feel?” he asked suddenly, breaking the silence.

“No headache, if that’s what you mean.”

“Indeed I did. How very perceptive of you.”

“Thanks, Severus,” she muttered darkly.

He got up and sat next to Rosie on her sofa. Once he was settled he turned to her and looked at her with such deep compassion in her eyes that she completely forgot to be angry with him. “I know that you don’t wish to tell me about the attack yet,” he said solemnly. “I will just have to accept that. I realise that pushing you for information will not help. You have to understand though, that I love you and that it hurts to see you suffering with the knowledge of your attacker alone. I’m sorry that I irritated you today – I can imagine that everything was just – hectic. I care about you, Rosie. You do understand that, don’t you?”

Her anger seemed to melt away as he spoke. “Of course I do,” she said sincerely. “I can appreciate how you feel but – I need to think this over in my head before I go blurting it to you.”

“I can wait,” he said. Rosie kissed him chastely on the lips.

“You don’t need to apologise about earlier, either,” continued Rosie. “I don’t know why I felt so hot-tempered. I want you to be here for me – I didn’t mean to push you away.”

“Think nothing of it.” He waved a hand dismissively.

Rosie leant into him and closed her eyes. “I feel exhausted, Sev. I think that I’ll go to bed.”

“I’m going to stay up a while longer. There’s a – programme – that I want to watch,” he said somewhat evasively.

“Really? A programme?” Rosie teased, standing up. “Are you sure that it’s not just some porn movie, Severus?”

“Rosie,” he said warningly. “No – it’s – this programme about the making of a film.”

“Which film?” asked Rosie, smiling.

He rolled his eyes, and said sheepishly, “Fine – Harry Potter! I’m simply curious! Are you happy?”

“Immeasurably!” she chimed and kissed him on the forehead before making her way up to bed. She felt a lot happier than earlier this morning. Little did she know that Severus was about to feel a lot worse.


A/N: It’s always great to get feedback on a chapter, so a big thanks to all those who have already reviewed. But, please, feel free to post some more comments…

Making Ends Meet by Obadiah Slope [Reviews - 9]

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