Disclaimer: Anything you notice is not mine. I am simply pulling the strings for a while.
AN: I recently found my breaks didn't work the first time so I'm hoping they work a little better this time. Also I had a reader point a few things out to me so it's a bit different. I wanted to wait awhile to post this until I had time to write at least a few more chapters but decided it might help me get passed the first part if I had motivation to do it.
She ran back to the man lying on the floor, blood seeping from the wound in his neck intertwined with something dark, something black and evil. She felt for a pulse and found one barely there. The poison was taking over his body at an alarming rate if she wanted to help him she needed to do something fast but she could barely breathe.
She wasn't sure what had pulled her back here, maybe it was guilt over the things that had happened in the last year or maybe she was just tired of everyone they had lost in this war, but she needed something good to come from all of it.
But she didn't know where to start. Everything around her was moving at the speed of light but she felt like she was stuck in sludge. Her arms were disconnected from her body and her mind couldn't stop screaming long enough to think.
She put her hands over her eyes and tried to clear her mind. Dittany, a couple vials. Blood replenishing potions, maybe something to get his heart going faster. He'd also need something to cover it for the trip back up to castle but that could wait for now. She just needed to get the bleeding under control. She summoned what she needed and started to work.
Hermione didn't know how she had managed to stop the bleeding let alone maneuver him back up castle by herself. She was groggy when she woke up and realized she was in the hospital wing in one of Poppy's beds. She wiped the sleep from her eyes and tried to sit up.
"Now, now dear let me just check on you," Poppy said as she gently pushed Hermione back onto the bed.
"What happened?" she asked. Her voice sounded too far away.
"You came back to us in quite the state, gone for hours and pale as a ghost when you came back. You barely made it up to the front steps when they found you two," the matron explained.
"Professor Snape? The War?"
"Mister Potter has more than done us proud and I have no doubts there will tales for months to come. The Dark has fallen at last but many escaped. The aurors have been at it all night hunting through the forest for those who remain and more than half have been taken into custody. As for Severus, he's in a more private area dear," she lowered her voice and leaned closer to Hermione. "Minerva and Mister Potter both agreed that the less he was seen right now the better it might be for him. He's stable for now thanks to you. The next few days will tell us more."
She tried to sit up again and was quickly stopped, "Can I see him?"
"Of course dear but not yet. I would like to check your vitals again and you need to eat something before you leave. I won't have you back up here in an hour. When was the last time you had an actual meal?" Poppy asked her sternly.
Hermione thought back to a week ago when they had managed to actually cook something and didn't respond. "That's what I thought." Poppy called for one of the elves to bring a meal up to Hermione but she didn't feel hungry. She wanted to check on her former professor, she needed to make sure with her own eyes. It all felt unreal.
"I'm not letting you leave here until you at least attempt to eat something," the witch told her again. Hermione knew she wouldn't give in so she started on her toast.
Two hours later Hermione had finished most of her meal and was off to find Professor McGonagall. She climbed through the debris that used to be an entry way and walked out into the hallway unsure of where to start when she heard the Professor behind her calling her name.
"Hermione I'm glad you're awake, how are you feeling?" she asked wearily. Hermione could see the worry and the weight of the world on the witches face in front of her.
"Better. I don't feel like I'm in my own body but I need to do something I can't sit in that hospital any longer. Is Professor Sn..." she started before Professor McGonagall interrupted.
"He's sleeping now," she said in a hushed tone. "The aurors are still speaking with Mr. Potter trying to get everything figured out. The poor man, all these years." she said, her voice full of sorrow. "Miss Granger not many know of what's happening with the man I think for now it's for best if we kept it to ourselves, don't you agree? Now, have you eaten this morning?"
"Madam Pomfrey wouldn't let me leave without finishing my plate. I need to help with something. Please put me to work," Hermione all but begged.
The woman watched her for a minute before finally caving, "Well we need someone to distribute some potions. Mostly reinvigorating potions and pain relievers, if you're willing to walk around some. Groups are over most of the castle with all the damage that's happened. I would like you to rest a little more before I assign you anything more than that." Hermione nodded and followed her Professor down the hallway.
"Thanks Hermione," Neville said as he took the potion from her. He looked tired she noticed, older than he had the last time she had seen him, but thankfully in one piece. She was surprised at how many were mostly unharmed but still too many had died the last week. Too many people she had grown up with. She might not have friends with all of them but she never would have wished death on any of them. The more she had walked around the castle the more bitter she had become.
"How are you holding up?" she asked as she touched his shoulder.
"I'm ready for this to all be over," he offered simply. She couldn't bring herself to reply. She squeezed his shoulder and withdrew her hand waving to him as she walked off. She'd been walking around all morning. Emptying the crate she was carrying and returning for more. She was tired, but didn't want to stop moving. This load was the last for the night though so she set the crate in the potions classroom and looked around.
She had never hated potions. She even respected the potions master that lay somewhere in the castle with his throat spread open. At the memory of seeing him sprawled on the floor of the shrieking shack she turned from the classroom. She needed to get out of the castle.
She ran down the front lawn to the edge of the forest and climbed one of the trees. It was funny as she thought of it. She hated heights, and was terrified of flying, but she loved sitting in the top of a sturdy tree with the rest of the world below her.
When she was still a child she would hide at the top of her tree with her favorite book at the time in her own world. No kids making fun of her for always having her nose stuck in a book, nothing to stop her from falling headfirst into the fantasy land spread out on the pages.
But she knew nothing could bring her from...whatever she was feeling right now. There was anger inside her. There was hurt, sadness. She could feel her heart beating in every part of her body. She could feel her thoughts drowning her in her own head. She felt the panic of remembering her potions professor bleeding out on the floor in front of her. She wanted to cry and scream at everything that had happened to her but she couldn't. She needed to see him and make sure he was still alive.
"Miss Granger I can promise you he's perfectly stable at the moment. However until the aurors have worked everything out with Mr. Potter, and Professor Snape's role in this war, he must remain in an undisclosed location."
"Why would I tell anyone where he is Professor? I just want to make sure he's alive." Hermione was trying to keep the anger from her voice, the last thing she wanted to do when she was trying to get the woman to help her was raise her voice. "Blindfold me, have me take a vow of secrecy, just for a few minutes. I...I can't wrap my head around it all. This whole year has been complete madness. Please just a few minutes," she pleaded.
The older witch watched her silently for a few seconds as Hermione watched the battle in her head display on her face. "Alright Miss. Granger. Come with me."
Snape was ghostly white, any coloring he had before the attack was gone. She could see his shallow breaths barely lifting his chest. But they were there. His neck was covered in a thick bandage and she could smell the medicinal herbs from underneath it. His robe was on a chair next to him and he was covered completely in a sheet.
Professor McGonagall pat Hermione on the back, "I'll leave you for a minute while I talk with Poppy." She didn't even bother turning around to answer, she couldn't take her eyes off the man in the bed.
He looked like a different man, there was no sneer on his face nor snide remarks from his sleeping form. It was unnerving to watch. She watched him for a few minutes, it almost felt like he would sit up at any second and scold her like a child for being there to see him like this.
When she couldn't look at him anymore she grabbed a rag from the pile on the table next to him and dipped it in the basin to wash the sweat from his face. She moved slowly, afraid he would wake from her touch. But he didn't move beneath her hand save for the shallow breathing she could now hear coming from his chest.
She picked his cloak up from the chair and sat beside him looking at him again. He's alive at least. There would be one less funeral to attend. She was afraid to take her eyes from him in fear he would stop breathing the moment she did.
Suddenly she was filled with all the emotions she thought were missing. All the sorrow for the past year, everything that had happened to and between her friends and her, rushed through her body and all she could do was weep.
She cried for friendships that had been ruined, lives that had been taken before their time, reputations that would never be the same despite having given everything they could offer and more, and for herself. For the first time in over a year she allowed herself to wallow in her own pity and it completely consumed her.
She cried into her hands unaware of the elderly witch watching from the doorway who didn't make a sound. The professor wanted to comfort the young witch in front of her but she knew she needed this time to herself. She turned from the room to allow her privacy, she could return later.
Hermione cried until the tears stopped flowing, but she still couldn't calm herself. Her dry sobs continued until she was overcome with exhaustion. With Professor Snape's cloak still in her lap she fell into a deep sleep, her face covered in tears that had dried there.
Professor McGonagall found her covered with the cloak and curled into a ball beside the sleeping man. She decided it would be best to allow Hermione to sleep and transfigured the chair a little larger to allow the witch room to move before she turned from the room once more.
AN: Alright, a bit short to start with but I felt it was a good place to stop. Eventually it will be SS/HG but seduction is an art and my lovely readers you are in for a seducing.
Also, I have currently no beta. So please, please if you notice something tell me. I'm open to suggestions as well but I thrive on feedback so please click the button. Cookies to follow.