Stone´s heart:
Disclaimer: All the characters and most of the magic reality owns to J..
Hogwarts: At war
Harry, harry, wait! You´re lost someth…! – Herminone Granger´s shrill voice didn´t get Harry to stop, as his friend was running yet after having come downstairs from headmaster´s office. Though she run as far as her legs let her, she finally gave it up, when the sudden presence of a pair of death eaters stopped her. She reduced them immediately, but, regarding to Harry, it was too late: He had gone.
Hermione, breathless, bended down to take the object whose friend had lost. She didn´t remember to have seen before (neither in books) any stone like that: maroon colored, with a glassy structure and some particular magic propriety which kept it sparkling inside.
What the hell is that? – Ron Weasley asked, staring at the stone with mistrust.
I don´t know. – Hermione acknowledged. – Harry has never showed it up to us. – Added. Anyways, what shall we do now? – Ron looked her back; He seemed as much taken aback as her (and she was not between the indecisive people very often.)
We can´t know now where he has gone. I wish he hadn´t gone to Voldermort´s call. We have to kill the snake yet. There must be something in Snape´s memories which has made him to leave in that way. – Hermione went pale by the minute; they have attended to their potions professor´s death, for which she was affected in some sense: She can´t like him: the treatment given by him to the trio hadn´t been exactly pleasant. But she still acknowledge his work as a potion master, despite his love towards the dark arts (of which she has been aware enough during the past year, when she has discovered that he was the half-blood prince; The fact of Harry getting better marks than her in potions has been unforgettable, too.) But, above all, she dislike him because he was the man who had killed Albus Dumbledore. He had betrayed everybody. But… there was something disconcerting yet. How was he able – Severus Snape – to manage to kill Albus Dumbledore, if Lord Voldemort wasn´t? Hermione Granger isn´t used to doubt of Harry´s statement… But… Why had Severus Snape begged Harry to look at his eyes? It was everything so odd.
Well… what can we do, then? – Ron´s voice took Hermione back to the world. She had to made a decision. Because of her curiosity, nevertheless, it had already been made.
I´m going up – She said, looking towards the statue of headmaster´s office. - ¡Reductio! – She cried (without realize that she hadn´t required her wand for getting the entrance destroyed. A minor damage, taking the current castle´s circumstances into account.
A few moments later she was in front of the pensieve, whose surface was showing the gleaming memories of Severus Snape.
Won´t you expecting me to get through this? – Ron said, looking at the pensieve with a sick gaze.
As you like – She answered, and, without saying anymore, she put her hear under the pensieve´s content.
Neither Hermione could have been able to guess what she saw, nor she will be able to express the different kind of feelings prompted by Snape´s memories. As Harry did recently, She was allowed to watch Snape-child talking animatedly with Lily Evans… staring at her with concern, the day she was selected to Griffindor´s house… begging in front of a younger Albus Dumbledore to protect her… crying while contemplating her lifeless body… swearing to protect her son before the headmaster… who, about to die, ordered him to kill him to save Draco Malfoy´s soul…. Snape, whose patronus was preserving his old hind´s form.
Hermione got out of the pensieve and leaned on the wall, panting loudly. She understood at last, unable of understand nothing yet. That can´t be true. He…
What happened? What have you seen? Where is Harry? – Hermione couldn´t hear the imperious voice of Ron Weasley. Inside her mind, those images that she had just seen were occurring again and again: Her dying professor, staring at Harry… A voice became stronger and stronger deep down her. It wasn´t fair. It wasn´t… He can´t be death. He can´t have died that way…
Hermione, What are you going? Ron´s cry tried to stop the girl who had just started to run downstairs. He barely followed her through the Hogwart´s corridors, trying to dodge death eaters, allies, curses, corpses and rubble at the same time.
Hermione! Stop, please! – He failed again, as the girl made his way towards the forbidden forest. She only stopped when she was in front of the whomping willow. She immobilize it quickly. Ron managed to catch her up, breathless.
Bbut, Hermione, where´re you going? Is Harry there again? Could you speak to me once and for all? – Hermione couldn´t. She wasn´t listening to him, in fact, as she wasn´t realizing what she was about to do or where she was going. Although she really knows… dragged herself along the passage to the Shrieking Shack. She went straight until she arrived to the dark room where – she knows – he was lying yet. Hermione, with unsteady steps, came closer to Severus Snape´s body. She shuddered when she realized the dry blood staining his dark robes.
But… ¡What! And Harry? Hermione, WHAT…
¡ OH, RON, SHUT UP. – Hermione cried. And that was the first and last words she said, releasing her arm from Ron´s hand. Her own´s kept firmly clenched the red stone which Harry had lost. She carefully bent down towards Severus Snape´s corpse. She remained, barely 4 centimeters towards him, his pale skin paler than ever, his head resting over the left shoulder. It was hard to believe that this man was the same who, last year, walked around the potion class whit fluttering robes. The same with name her insufferable know-it-all… with had spent his life-time protecting the life of a loved-woman´s son.
And then, then there was no doubt. There was no wait. Snape´s hand become between hers, both sharing the stone. With a sudden movement, she let herself fall over the chest of the man. A blinding light filled the room. She closed her eyes. And everything went dark…
She opened her eyes lazily, hardly hearing the cries coming from Ron Weasley above her. She started to recover her senses to discover a freckly face in front of her. He seems scared. She went conscious of her own location – she was lying down on SNAPES CORPSE? – and tried to get up so quick than she felt dizzy. Recovered from the first impression, she spoke:
Wh- where are we?
In the Shrieking Shack, don ´t you remember? You started running, I followed you here. I believed that Harry was here but, then, Snape… what the hell was that light? What have you done? Hermione…
But the girl didn´t listen to him again. She was staring at Snape with horrified eyes. A few moments later Ron realized, and opened and closed the mouth, unable to give out a single sound:
The lifeless body had clearly moved. And moved again. The head which had been on a slant now was raised, showing a pair of dark and sharp eyes. They had met Hermione´s intensely, and with obvious confusion.
Severus Snape was alive.