This is the first story I am actually going to publish here (not least of all because they ask for a title!). I've been working on it for a while and I would very much like to hear what you guys think about it.

The story takes place between the last-but-one chapter and the very last chapter of book seven. It features both Sirius and Severus, but apart from that, I try to stay as close to the canon as possible.
Why Sirius is alive is a different story and will not be explained in this one. However, I figured it is wrong that both my favourite characters should be dead and gone, so I revived them.

Since I filed it under romance, you probably guessed that this story is slashy, but you wouldn't know from the first three, maybe four chapters, because, let's face it, Sirius and Severus have a lot to overcome.

I rated the story M because things are going to get sweaty in later chapters, there's also blood and stuff and I just wanted to be safe.

Please do review if you can find the time! Constructive criticism is highly appreciated. I don't even have a beta yet, so if anybody is interested, please pm me!

Now, let's do this.

Of Lovers, Letters, Foes and Friends

Chapter 1

So this was it. It was all over. The horrors had finally stopped.

Yet somehow, it felt as though some of the horrors had not even begun to take effect.
Sirius kneeled besides Remus' dead body, gently stroking the stony white face.

He quickly wiped his eyes as he heard hurried steps approaching. Ron was running towards him, two brooms in his hands.

"What are you…" Sirius made to ask,

but Ron immediately cut him off.

"No time to explain, I don't know any details, but we need to apparate, Harry needs help!" and with that, he handed one of the brooms to Sirius, who didn't hesitate a second, swung one leg over it and shot off into the air, aiming towards Hogsmeade, quickly followed by Ron. Within minutes, they were behind the gates of the school grounds and landed. Ron grabbed him firmly and said,

"Grimmauld Place 12!" which was Sirius's cue to apparate.
Ron let go of him on the threshold of Grimmauld place 12, where they stumbled through the door as soon as they had stopped spinning. Immediately, they spotted Harry.

„Harry- what the hell is going on?" gasped Sirius, as he became aware of what Harry and Hermione were doing. Apparently, they were carrying the slouched figure of a lifeless Snape towards the stairs.

"Quick, Sirius- he's still breathing!" answered Harry, and continued to place a locomotor charm on Snape, who slowly floated up the first floor of stairs, while Sirius stared after them, stumped.

"What is this supposed to mean?" he asked Hermione, who had pulled a book out of her robe, which she searched agitatedly.

"Listen, Sirius, you have to trust Harry now. Snape is innocent, he was on our side all along, but he was bitten by Voldemort's snake hours ago. He's still breathing, and we think he could be saved, but we can't take him to Saint Mungo's until his name has been cleared, and Madame Pomfrey is dead, as is pretty much everyone else we could think of, so you are the only one left capable to fix him. Please, push your bias away for a second and just trust us!"

Sirius took a look at her, and the expression on his face changed from bewildered to determined.

"All right. Hermione, get me the big suitcase marked 'fragile' from Regulus's old Room! Ron, you get some hot water and towels. This might get nasty."
He took the book out of Hermione's trembling hands and found the right page within moments. Then he rushed upstairs after Harry, who had laid Snape onto his bed and was currently ridding him of his torn garments with trembling fingers, but let go to try and explain when he heard his Godfather enter. Sirius interrupted his blubber: "Shhh. It's okay, I trust you. Let me see." He stepped to the bed, pushing Harry aside gently and bared Snape's chest with one flick of his wand.
It was a ghastly sight. Dark, crusted blood was everywhere, the skin hung down in shreds and smithereens, bones were poking through, the pale skin seemed to be fluorescing greenly and looked burnt around the ragged edges of the wounds.

Sirius slumped for a second, but Harry's terrified gasp made him spring back into action.

"Harry, get 'fighting the fatal' from the library, don't search for it, summon it!" he barked, before leaning down to examine the wounds more closely.

Hermione arrived at the door panting, trying to fit the enormous suitcase through the door without crashing it against the frame. Finally, she just enlarged the doorway magically before scurrying inside, and Sirius tapped the suitcase, so it sprang open and revealed its thousands of drawers, a little cauldron and an already lit fire in a jar. He jammed the book in the book holder and continued to read out the ingredients, causing various drawers to spring open. Then he advised Hermione on how to prepare the ingredients while he grabbed a bottle of skele gro. He mended the broken ribs and shoulder blades, spoke a simple pain-relieving charm and went on to use the towels and hot water that Ron had just brought to try and reassemble Snape's chest. Even after all he had been through, Sirius still had to fight back a gag when a loose string of muscle slid through his fingers as he tried to settle it back into place. Hermione whimpered quietly, but obeyed as Sirius ordered her to hand him a bottle each of essence of dittany and fibre fuse. Harry shot into the room carrying a small and very dusty book. Sirius looked up at him and asked, "Are you absolutely sure that this was just Nagini, nothing else?"

"Yes, I saw her do it!"

"That's something, I guess. Search the index for an antidote to Irisea poison."

Harry did so with shaking hands and then showed his godfather the page he found. Sirius read it quickly and told Ron and Harry to prepare the ingredients to this potion, as well. After that, he continued to point his wand at the tears in Snape's flesh and murmured incantations while carefully glazing the spots with drops of Fibre Fuse and Dittany. The flesh gave a sizzling sound and a little smoke evaded at the gaping skin's attempts to grow back together. But the blood wouldn't stop flowing, and soon the mattress was soaked through and the blood started dripping to the floor.

"How are those ingredients coming?" Sirius asked Hermione with gritted teeth.

"Almost done!" she said in a slightly hysteric voice, and Sirius carefully wrapped bandages around Snape's torso, compressing the wounds while he saw to the potion-making.

He and Hermione worked well together, and an hour later, all they could do was wait as both potions were simmering.

"Now," Sighed Sirius, wiping the sweat off his forehead with his sleeve, "Ron and Hermione, you go ask Arthur for the name of the healer that treated him at Saint Mungo's when he was bitten by Nagini. Then you'll go to Saint Mungo's, find that person and bring them here. Stun them if necessary, we really need a professional. All we are doing here so far is give Snape a blood building potion and clean and try to heal some of the minor wounds, because all the traditional remedies I tried aren't working too well. I'd say I'm a little out of my league here. See you later! And please, do hurry!"

Ron and Hermione left the room and Sirius waited until he heard the door close downstairs before he turned to Harry. "All right. Now explain."

And explain Harry did. Sirius let him talk first, then asked a few questions, reluctant at first to let go of his conviction that Snape was evil. But finally, he nodded.

"Fine. Snape and I shall never be friends, there's just too much bitterness between us after all these years. But after what he did for you- for all of us- I guess I'm done fighting him."

Harry stared at him with wet eyes. He felt the exact same thing, he couldn't find it in himself to like Snape the way he felt he should after all the sacrifices Snape had made for Harry's sake, but the white hot ball of anger that used to roll around in his stomach every time he thought of Snape had vanished to make room for gratefulness, respect, even admiration at so much courage.

'And maybe a little spark of amity', said a voice in the back of his mind that Harry ignored.

Sirius checked the cauldron once more and finally told Harry to prepare a feeding cup, because: "It's ready."

It was hard to get the potion into Snape's mouth, since the jaws were clenched tightly. Almost one third of the first cup spilled down his chin and chest. When none of the muscle relaxing spells would work, Sirius took Snape's ashen face in his hands and massaged the muscles until eventually, Snape's mouth fell open. They continued to empty two more cups of potion into the potion master's throat, and colour slowly started flooding back into the mangled face.

"Look, he's getting better!" Harry breathed, but Sirius was sceptic:

"I'm afraid that doesn't mean anything. We are just fighting the effects of the injuries, not healing the intoxication. That's what the second potion is supposed to do. But I don't know whether it is strong enough after all these hours."
"But it might still work, right?" Harry asked anxiously.

"We'll just have to try, it's our best option. Help me lift him up a little, but be careful. I haven't been able to seal those wounds, so they're still open."

They sat Snape up against the pillows, which seemed to help with the blood circulation, but also soaked the bandages with a surge of fresh blood. Sirius cursed, removed the bandages and dabbed the wounds with hot wet towels again. Finally, thick, silvery smoke filled the room: the second potion was ready.

Carefully, Sirius took out a curious looking instrument from one of the drawers in his portable potions-brewery and sucked some potion into its nozzle by twisting it slightly between his fingers. Then he held the instrument near Snape's torn flesh and the wounds seemed to suck the liquid from it as needed. Upon contact with the flesh, the Potion changed its consistency: first it appeared to become vapour and hovered over the tears in Snape's torso. Then it sunk in, steaming a little. Harry gasped as he watched the flesh turn rosy again where it had been burnt and black. Sirius treated the last of the injuries, and finally, they looked at clean, fresh looking wounds instead of burnt holes and the bleeding had been reduced a lot. With a sigh, Sirius put down the strange pipette-type instrument and ran his fingers through his hair. "That's all we can do for now."

But he got distracted when Snape started stirring a little. Which was a good thing, supposedly. But the movement disturbed the wounds and caused the blood to come gushing out in streams again.

Sirius cursed under his breath and bent over Snape.

"We have to get him to wake up- or fall back to sleep again." He slapped Snape's face softly. "Snape! Snape! Wake up!" more stirring, but the lids remained shut. "Snape! …Severus!" Another slap, slightly harder. Snape's lids fluttered a little.

"Come on, Snape! You need to wake up." Sirius said urgently. And Snape opened his eyes. When he realised who sat at his side, he tried to sit up, but Sirius held him down without an effort.

"Stop fidgeting! You're injured. This is not a joke, it is vital that you remain absolutely still. You lost a lot of blood."

Snape tried to speak, but only soft cough came out, along with a little blood.

"The cup, quick!" said Sirius, and when Harry had handed it to him, he tried to feed Snape some more of the potion. Snape shook his head and tried to shuffle away from Sirius, but was held him in place firmly. "Look, Snape, we're all you've got now, no use fighting us. Voldemort's snake attacked you, and you're very badly wounded." Snape stared at him for a second, then allowed him to feed him some potion.

"The dark Lord…" Snape managed to get out, before his voice broke and he coughed blood again, while Sirius tried to hold his torso as still as possible.
"Dead. We finished him, along with all the Horcruxes, and then I went to find you." Said Harry, moving into Snape's field of vision.

"Potter- alive?" Snape wheezed, and if Harry wasn't much mistaken, Snape seemed assuaged. "Yes, Harry is alive. A lot of people died though. A lot of young people, as well."

Snape closed his eyes, his breathing became more forced.

"Anyway, you should rest, you have a lot of healing to do, and we can't help you an awful lot with that as long as the healer isn't here."

Snape flung his eyes back open.

"Healer? From Saint Mungo's?", he panted, not coughing this time.
"I said, relax!" barked Sirius harshly, and forced Snape down onto the cushions again. "We're hardly going to try and save you just so they can ship you off to Azkaban now, are we?"

Snape shot him a look which told Harry that under normal circumstances, a banter would have ensued. Sirius must have noticed, too, but he seemed to be serious about not wishing to fight Snape any more, because all he said was:

"Maybe you know what to do, you're the potions master, after all. Do you have any idea what we could do? You're losing a lot of blood."

Snape let out a ragged sigh, then tried to sit up again, immediately being held down by Sirius. "Snape, I swear to god!", he shouted, then calmed himself forcefully and continued, "Listen, no one is trying to harm you, but you need to lie still!" Snape shot him a scathing look and forced out between gritted teeth:

"I will have to see the wounds to estimate the damage and think of an appropriate healing strategy."

Apparently, even if in mortal peril Snape, would make absolutely sure he didn't miss an opportunity to sound superior. So Sirius carefully lifted the potions master's body up, Harry stuffed a pillow behind his back, and Snape sank back into it with a stifled groan. Then he looked down at his chest, eyes widening in shock. "Wha- how am I still alive? What have you done?"

"We gave you an antidote to Irisea, the one from 'fighting the fatal' and a blood building potion. Apart from that I tried Fibre Fuse and Dittany, but apparently, something in the Irisea poison keeps the wounds from healing."

Snape stared at him with a searching look in his eyes. "How long have I been here?" he asked. Sirius looked at Harry, who shrugged. He checked the grandfather clock in the corner of the room and said, mildly surprised:

"A little more than eight hours."

Snape closed his eyes again and let his head sink back against the pillows. "whatever you did to relieve the pain, undo it. I have to know how bad the injuries really are."
Harry and Sirius looked at each other, but when Harry said, "But Sir…", Snape hissed:

"I've worked with the dark Lord for over two decades, I can take my fair share of pain. I always could, as your dear godfather very well knows, Potter."

Sirius's glared at him and spat, "Fine."

He pointed his wand at the Potions Master's heaving chest, then slightly flicked it. The result was frightening, to say the least. An animalistic sound escaped Snapes mouth, his eyes rolled back in their sockets, and after one last rear that sent blood spattering everywhere, he fell back, chest horribly still for lack of breathing.

"Sirius!" Harry shouted, "Do something!"

But Sirius hardly needed prompting. He pointed his wand at the Potion Master's chest again and hissed,

"Renervate!", then quickly continued to take the pain away. After a few moments, Snape's breathing returned, ragged at first, then slowly became steady again. Harry, who had been clutching his own face, finally relaxed.

"Do you think that did any… damage?" he asked Sirius in a trembling voice. Sirius looked at him sympathetically and said in a dark voice,

"I can't say. I'm guessing not, since pain alone can't harm you, really."

"But Mr. and Mrs. Longbottom…" "I doubt that this is comparable. They were tortured for days on end, accompanied by threats and humiliation which may cause any mind to hide behind insanity. Snape on the other hand knew what was coming, and told me to do it. Although I doubt he realised how bad his injuries really were."

Harry nodded. "shouldn't we… you know, give him something?"

"Not much we can give him now, Harry. We have to wait for him to wake up again. Although a little more of the blood builder might be a good idea." Harry handed him the cup and Sirius fed the lifeless figure carefully. Harry marvelled at the change in his Godfather's behaviour towards his former enemy- he was careful, almost gentle with him.

They emptied a fair amount of the thick potion into Snape's mouth, and again, it seemed to take immediate effect, as Snape's hollow cheeks were tinted with a hint of colour, which encouraged Sirius to give the antidote another try as well. But this time, Snape didn't wake up; he just stirred for a second but kept breathing deeply. With an exasperated sigh, Harry put down the cup he had been holding.

Sirius looked up at him and said, "It's late, Harry. You might want to get some rest."

"I'm not tired" said Harry immediately, but couldn't suppress an enormous yawn. Sirius chuckled, and Harry smiled.

"I guess I am tired. Are you coming, too?"

"Nah, I'll stay here, see if he wakes up."

"But no fighting!" said Harry, in a stern voice that sounded a lot like Hermione's. "Yes, Ma'am." Growled Sirius, and with another smile, Harry left the room. But Sirius, too, was exhausted. So when Ron and Hermione finally arrived, they fond him sitting slouched in his chair, chin sunken to his chest, still holding his wand.

"Sirius?" Hermione asked, and shrieked as Sirius sprang to his feet, pointing his wand at her. When he realised what was going on, Sirius put his arm down looking a little embarrassed and muttered, "What do you think you're doing, sneaking up on prison-escapees like that!"

Ron made to argue, but Hermione said,

"Sorry Padfoot. Look, we searched everywhere, but the healers in the poison-department of Saint Mungo's are all gone, and there's hardly anyone there at all since some of them have gone into hiding outside of England after Voldemort started recruiting again, and the rest are busy at Hogwarts, trying to rescue as many as possible!"

Sirius sighed. "I figured as much, to be honest. But we had to try. Snape is stable for now it seems, he was awake and lucid before, but he insisted on sampling the pain I had taken from him in order to estimate his injuries, and now he's been out for hours again. Fine, go to bed, you two. You must be exhausted." And though Hermione looked as though she still had a million questions, she didn't protest when Ron towed her out of the room and upstairs.

Sirius couldn't go back to sleep, though. He lunged in the big comfy chair, trying to find a position that suited him, but his thoughts kept racing. Everything that had happened during the days before came back to his mind, and whenever he finally closed his eyes, he saw the still, white face of Remus before them

After a while, he simply gave up, got up and got all the books on potions and healing he could find in the enormous Black library. Then he sat down by the fireside and started flicking through the pages, folding down a page every once in a while when he found something that might be useful one day, but nothing came even close to relating to their situation. The night went by, morning came and went. Around noon, Harry, Ron and Hermione came down the stairs, and Sirius got up to summon Kreacher back from Hogwarts, were he was sent to help, and told him to fix them something to eat, making sure before he left the room that Snape was still evenly breathing and in neither pain nor distress.

During lunch, Harry was coerced by the others to fill them in on some of the details they still hadn't quite understood, and slowly, the mood changed somewhat, becoming more hopeful.

When they had finished, Sirius told Harry, Hermione and Ron to look after Snape for a while and to send Kreacher to come and find him if something changed, for he had business to attend to.

So I'll let you guys cliff hang there a little until I've edited the second chapter sufficiently, which hopefully won't take too long.

I can promise, however, that things are going to get a lot more interesting soon.
As I said, please review, it means a lot. If anybody even got this far reading my story.
Right, I'll just hit "save" now, before I chicken out again.

Cheers!