Original Sin

A/N Thanks to my beta Duniazade. All remaining mistakes are my fault. All warnings still in effect.

In which we wake the dead...

PART 4

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They had found Lily sobbing brokenheartedly on the kitchen floor, crying over and over again, "My brother, my brother."

Grimly, Aberforth looked into the cauldron that smelled of the meat they had at their table. The soup was dark and murky, but Aberforth could see the small, pale form of his nephew, curled up inside the cauldron. He shut his eyes, suppressing his horror, and then rolled up his sleeves and brought out his wand.

"He's dead, he's dead... " Lily continuously moaned.

Aberforth cast a diagnostic charm over the cauldron, and the Order members held their breath as they waited. The blue mist hovering over the cauldron was completely still, and Aberforth almost gave his nephew up for lost, until the mist began to pulse faintly.

"We have to act quickly," Aberforth muttered and then looked into the cauldron. He tapped it experimentally and looked at the herbs and roots that were inside.

"It has a stasis charm on it... Albus must have forgotten. And the combination of herbs and roots in here while meant only to enhance flavour, are also enhancing the charm. Damn fool never thinks things though, lucky for us."

Andromeda peered into the cauldron before quickly looking away. "What does that mean, Aberforth?"

Minerva answered for him, looking grimly at the cooking station. "It means Severus' body has been preserved by the magnified stasis charm and prevented him from dying when he should have. What little blood still left in him has been magically stopped from leaving."

She then sighed in frustration, massaging her temples and furiously trying to come up with a solution.

Aberforth had already overturned the kitchen cupboards and was throwing certain potions ingredients into the cauldron. They were ingredients used in powerful healing potions. It was too dangerous for them to move Severus out of the cauldron at the present moment.

He carefully reached into the cauldron and brought Severus' head out of the water. It lolled grotesquely, the throat open and gaping. Aberforth's upper lip curled in disgust, and he re-positioned the head as Minerva stepped in to cast charms so the flesh would knit back together. It left an ugly, mangled scar but they were pressed for time. A few more taps of her wand and the water inside Severus' lungs and throat expelled out of his nose and mouth.

"Girl, get up from the floor."

Lily looked up, barely registering anything in her misery.

"All the blood restorative draughts you have in the house, fetch them now!"

It took Lily a moment to understand what her uncle had said to her, but then her eyes widened and she dashed out of the room.

Once Minerva saw that Lily was out of earshot, she looked worriedly at Aberforth.

"Aberforth, we don't even really have a boy in there anymore, we have a husk. A preserved body. He hasn't even been breathing these past couple hours. He's technically dead."

Aberforth looked at her significantly, and she looked horrified.

"You can't possibly be considering that!"

Aberforth merely poked his wand into the cauldron's contents once more, critically examining the strange soup.

"Albus has cut off his arm. We'll have to find something to replace it. For now, help me seal the wound. The blood restoratives will do nothing if they leak out of his arm socket."

Sighing in resignation, Minerva brought out her wand and helped Aberforth perform sealing charms to knit together muscle and tissue and hopefully seal the gaping hole they found on Severus' left side. Andromeda and Lucius stepped in to help them as well, and finally they were left with an ugly, but closed crater.

Lily came stumbling back into the kitchens, a box of small bottles in her arms. She gave them to Aberforth, and he set them down on the kitchen counter. It was then that Molly and MacNair entered the kitchens, Molly looking somewhat worse for wear.

"Walden, come take a look at the boy."

MacNair handed Molly off to Narcissa, with a slightly concerned expression on his face as if to make sure she was comfortable, before striding over to where Aberforth was. He looked into the cauldron and was the only one to do so with no reaction. He considered it with the same silent solemnity he did everything.

"Unicorn's blood," he finally declared.

Lily gasped, some of the Order members shooting worried looks at each other. Aberforth and Minerva looked defeated. They knew it would have to come to that before even asking Walden.

Aberforth then looked carefully at Lily, holding her hand and speaking to her as gently as possible. This decision would make her life the most difficult out of any of them. It was hers to make.

"Lily, your brother... he is not alive. There are only enough parts of his body that have miraculously been maintained for them to function on only the slightest level. Technically, he is a very fresh corpse."

The tears began to roll down her face, and she shook her head from side to side. "You must save him."

"There is only one way we can bring him back. You do know what unicorn's blood will do, don't you?"

Lily nodded slowly.

"He will live a cursed life. Often in such cases, it is better to let the good die in peace."

"He must live."

"Lily, think of what you are asking. Your brother may not be the same person you know if he is revived by such a means."

Lily shook her head more violently, sobs erupting from her throat. "No, he won't change, I know him. You can't let him die, uncle, please, you must save him or else I won't be able to live."

Grimly, Aberforth nodded, wiping the tears from her face.

"Stop crying, now, it is done."

He went to the cauldron and grasped Severus firmly by the chin. He tilted the boy's head back and gently pushed the tongue to the side so it wouldn't block his airway. MacNair produced a small vial from the inner pocket of his coat. It contained something silver and bright. Uncorking the vial, he tipped the viscous, shimmering silver substance down Severus' throat. It glowed as it left the vial, slipping away from its glass cage at an agonizingly glacial pace.

Colour slowly began to form on Severus' cheeks, then disappeared back into a sallow complexion. Narcissa produced a small hand mirror from her robe sleeve and placed it under Severus' nose. She gasped, holding it up to show everyone the quickly evaporating mist on its surface.

"He's breathing again."

Lily cried out, making to rush over to him but Molly held her back.

"He's very weak, dear. We can't touch him."

Severus' throat began to move gently, his mouth slowly moving. They saw his chest gently rise and fall, but his breathing was still light and shallow.

"Lily, go bring all the healing potions in this house. We've no time to make any ourselves. Regulus, go with her and bring blankets."

The Order kept a nervous vigil over their newly re-awakened charge. Severus still had his eyes closed, still unmoving. He was breathing and he was alive, but only just.

When Lily came with all the medical supplies they had in the house, Aberforth searched through the potions stores and took all the strengthening potions he could find. These, he gave to Severus first, gently massaging the boy's throat to ease their passage downwards.

"Walden, help me bring him out."

Andromeda had laid out blankets on one of the long kitchen tables. MacNair and Aberforth jointly placed their arms under Severus' body and lifted him as gently out of the concoction as they could. He hung limply in their arms. They laid him out on the table and quickly performed drying spells and warming charms.

Lily had been watching the proceedings, heart pounding wildly the whole while. She desperately wanted to go to her brother, touch him, really see that he was alive, but Molly had her arms around her and bade her wait.

In her maelstrom of emotions, Lily noticed the twins standing a distance apart. They had been curiously quiet and distant from the entire event, and then she noticed them snickering to themselves, engaged in some private conversation. She suddenly saw red, her ears burning.

"Something amuse you?"

They looked at her, at first curious and then contemptuous. They looked at her as if they hadn't even expected someone of her mean background to even think to speak to them. Instead of dignifying her with an answer, they continued to whisper to each other, only this time staring at her as they did so. Their behaviour disturbed her, so she looked away, hoping to forget the bizarre encounter. Hatred curdled in her breast as she fought to ignore them and she seethed silently.

The different potions that promoted healing in the muscles and restored depleted energy sources were rubbed into his skin and anointed in specific places like his eyes, temples and hand. He began to stir, his head tossing from side to side, and Aberforth fed him a half-measure of Dreamless Sleep.

"No need for him to wake now, he must rest."

They then wrapped him in the warmed blankets and then levitated him out of the kitchens. It was an odd procession that walked down the hallway, following the floating body, and Lily led them to the parlour where they had a fireplace. Lucius lit it into a crackling blaze with a fancy twirl of his wand, and they laid Severus on the chaise longue.

Finally, Lily was allowed to sit beside him and hold his hand. She cried fresh tears, some from a delirious happiness that he was alive, and some at the sight of his mutilated form. Severus was left-handed... he'd be devastated when he discovered he could no longer write or do things normally.

The Order members settled themselves into chairs or on the floor, preparing themselves for a very long wait. Only MacNair left the room, and this was to go see after Albus and baby-sit his charge. The eldest Dumbledore was entirely signed over to MacNair's hands now.

Molly couldn't look away from Severus' sleeping form. She felt partly responsible for the horrible mutilation he had undergone. A part of her knew this was irrational to think, but her mouth could remember what he had tasted like. Her nose could remember what he had smelled like. The small shallow dip in the blanket where his arm no longer existed was a hypnotic spot she could not look away from.

It was hours into the night and everyone had fallen asleep except for Lucius and Aberforth. They sat silently by the fire watching everyone else sleeping gently in their chairs. Lily had her head resting by Severus' chest, still kneeling on the floor. Her legs wouldn't thank her for such treatment when she woke.

MacNair strode into the room just as the sun began to peek over the horizon. He showed no signs of fatigue and brought a decanter of mead and a few glasses. The glasses were shared among the three men, and MacNair poured them healthy measures of the vintage.

"Has he gone to Azkaban?" Aberforth asked quietly.

MacNair nodded.

"Did he make a fuss?"

MacNair shook his head.

"We'll have to set his trial date as soon as possible."

MacNair shrugged and took a sip of his mead. "He doesn't want a trial."

"That's preposterous."

"He insisted."

Aberforth looked into his glass, troubled. He truly couldn't understand his brother anymore. He remembered that once they had been close. He wasn't sure what had created the distance between them. Perhaps they had just grown up.

"Well, that's still unlawful. We'll give him a trial at the soonest possible time whether he wishes it or not."

"He'll plead guilty either way," Lucius mused, "it seems he wishes to be punished. Bizarre man."

It was the first time Lucius had said anything that evening since the trouble had started. He looked as unruffled as ever, although a certain gravity had crossed his face.

"I do wonder how those children could have ever grown up normally. A part of me suspects they didn't."

Aberforth looked worriedly over at his niece and nephew, as if any signs of troubled childhoods could show as visible as their skin. "Lily, at least, seems perfectly normal."

"Time will tell. We know for certain Severus could not have grown up in a healthy way."

"A part of me thinks I've done him no good by saving his life." Aberforth shot a quick glance to MacNair, as if waiting for the executioner to reassure him that he had done well. The silent man merely quirked him a rare smile instead, as if to say that it was amusing to consider him an authority on bringing life.

Finally when morning came, and everyone had woken again, they waited only a few more hours before Severus stirred awake.

TBC