Disclaimer: If you sued you would only get my teenaged daughter…..then again!
If Only for Tomorrow
Chapter 1
It was icy cold on the wooden Quidditch stands, even with the press of bodies the winter chill of the highland air made watching his house trounce the Hufflepuff team a trial. He snuggled deeper into his dark grey wool coat, and surreptitiously cast a warming spell on his booted feet, stamping them slightly on the rough wooden floor and wriggling his toes. Flicking his fine black hair back with one long elegant finger he surveyed the stadium with a cold disdain. All around him the crowd cheered, whooped and gasped at the antics on the field. The Slytherin seeker, a whoosh of green and silver, dived low over the teacher's stand, making them gasp in fright and duck low. All around the whirl of green, silver, yellow and gold like autumn leaves whirling in the breeze as they danced around the stadium, fighting for possession of the red quaffle. The cold man showed no emotion, other than distaste for the Hufflepuffs desperate manoverings. They were easily outclassed, and the Slytherin in him wished they would simply retreat and allow his team their easy victory; the deatheater in him enjoyed spinning out their suffering.
He watched as the Slytherin seeker dove effortlessly, pushing aside the Hufflepuff with a side sweep of his broom tail he reached the snitch first, and the green and silver stands went wild. The dark man merely smirked at Professor Sprout as she threw her hands in the air, and meeting his icy glare she turned and tried to petition Albus to intervene in the blatant cheating going on. Gathering his coat about him turned to leave, satisfied that he had been seen to perform his duty.
Striding to the back of the stand where the stairs were located, he had not been concentrating on the space in front of him. His mind was already wandering along the path of an experiment, figuring out the puzzles in his mind.
With the roar of the crowds still ringing around the stadium it was impossible for anyone to hear the whistling pop as the girl appeared immediately in front of him. She fell in a stumbling dead faint, her wand clattering to the floor of the stand. Instinct made him reach for her, to catch her before she fell and cracked her skull on the wooden seats all around her. The other teachers jumped to their feet, nudging their compatriots, the chatter increasing as they tried to ascertain the nature of the problem. The slight brown haired girl was manhandled onto the hastily vacated seats, and Severus quietly stepped back, his eyes scanning both the crowd and the girl.
She looked familiar, something about her countenance, something about the look in her golden brown eyes. She stared up at him, her cheeks flushing slightly and tried to sit up. Pushing away the helping hands of the staff she struggled to stand, and swaying slightly she held out a hand towards him.
"Severus," she whispered, "My God, you're alive. Oh God, Sev, please…" she stumbled towards him and practically fell, wrapping her arms around the frozen potions master and laying her head on his cold chest.
The dark man stood immobile, frozen into inaction and unable to process his situation. He glared at Professor Dumbledore, who immediately came to his rescue, delicately removing the sobbing girl from the object of her affections and trying to get her attention.
"Hello, my dear. Can you stand up, hm?" He questioned, tilting her chin up so that he could look into her eyes. "Miss Granger? Well this does seem to have cause a stir. I think we had better disappear quietly along to my office. Yes, yes, Professor Snape will be joining us." he smiled at the look she shot the potions master, obviously not wanting to be out of his sight.
Severus growled low in his throat, knowing this was not going to be sorted out in a matter of minutes. He could forget about his experiment any time soon. Grudgingly he started to move forward following Albus and the girl down the stairs.
He was thoroughly non-plussed when she grabbed hold of his hand, and gently squeezed it, as if reassuring him that things would be alright.
He watched her from the corner of his eye, seemingly staring straight ahead, but in reality totally absorbed in the details of the girl. She was of medium height, with high cheek bones and a heart shaped face, pretty but not overly so. She was nervous, and kept darting looks at him, looks that expected an answer and were filled with an expression which Severus did not want to interpret.
She was near to tears, fighting to hold them back, but her distress was obvious and slightly distasteful. The fact that she seemed to be under the mistaken impression that he cared for her in some way, and should be providing her with some comfort did not escape him. He sneered, and angled his body away from her, letting her know he was in no way connected with a chit of a Gryffindor, especially an over emotional, hormonal teenager.
"So, Miss Granger. Can you tell us why you are here?" Albus handed her an enormous monogrammed cotton hankerchief he flourished from his cuff like a conjuror, and smiled gently and reassuringly at her.
Hermione took it gratefully, and snuffled into its snowy whiteness, determined to get herself back under control. It was not characteristic of her to go to pieces like this, but seeing him die, seeing him give his life and then ending up here. She had had a big shock, and his cold disdain in this time period, for she had realised very quickly that she had returned to pre-war Hogwarts, had proved too much for her fragile emotional state.
"I'm sorry," she said, waving the hankerchief to indicate the apology was for both men. "Where to start…the beginning of yesterday possibly." She murmured to herself.
"Severus found out first." His eyes shot to her face, his brows narrowing at her use of his first name and his mouth unconsciously forming a pout. But she was oblivious to his annoyance as her eyes glazed slightly as she recalled the events of her yesterday.
The hall was busy, breakfast was underway and the normal bustle and noise of 500 teenagers eating and chatting as normal hid the noise of the doors being wrenched open. The sight of the tall dark man, striding brooding and menacing down the length of the hall, his deatheater cloak rippling behind him as he bore down to the high table caused the hall to fall into strained silence.
Shock at seeing this man in this guise caused Hermione to stand and stare with the others, observing him in silence as he walked past her. He was tired, the strain showed in his eyes, there was blood in a long curving cut to one cheek and his fingers were clutched around his drawn wand. He looked murderous, and for a split second she was in fear of him, the man she had come to respect, admire and care for.
Their association was new, a precious fragile thing they had forged out of long talks at 12 Grimmauld Place, the work of the Order bringing them into an uneasy truce. The summer just past had Hermione and Severus spending more time together, and unexpectedly on both parts, a relationship had started. Initially it was just a cessation of hostilities but it had grown slowly into a touching of fingertips, the slightest of electric contacts. It had grown as two lonely people began to trust one another. Hermione would not have called it love, just a warm friendship, one of many she had. She did not call it love, until she saw the killing curse hit him, not more than three paces from her as he struggled to turn the tide of Deatheaters away from the huddle of Hogwarts pupils, including her.
All this she told the two men, her eyes still glazed as she pictured the scene, heard the headmaster as he ordered the younger children into the safety of the dungeons while Snape formed the older children into fighting units. She could feel the greasy residue of magic in the air once the battle had started, and watched the ability of the children, able to fight back thanks to the training given by the DA. They had not been taken by surprise, the scarce few minutes that Snape had bought for them with his spying had been enough to save them, but had earned the hatred of the enemy. He had been dodging the killing curse since he emerged on the battle field, but that one last time he had not managed to evade it, and he had looked her in the eyes as he fell, a small smile reaching his mouth.
Hermione snuffled louder into the hankerchief, and looking up was amazed to see a look of peace on Severus' face. He scowled suddenly, realising that she was staring at him, and reached for a large flowery teacup.
"Well, Miss Granger. I'm not sure exactly how much of that you should have told us, but it is good to be forewarned. You haven't as yet explained how you came to be here though?" the headmaster smiled gently, easing through her statement.
"After….after you fell," she was looking Snape in the eye again, much to his discomfort, "I ran towards you. I had my time turner on, we had come straight from the great hall and I didn't have time to take it off. I remember just reaching you, touching your shoulder, and then a blinding green light hit my chest. I had no idea where it came from, but I remember the shouts of anger and pain, I felt dizzy, a kind of whirling, like I was on a carousel, then I sort of apparated, straight into Severus's arms." She had dropped her gaze again, and was twisting the corner of the white hankerchief. Severus had the distinct impression that there was quite a lot of the story that she had not felt comfortable explaining. He had also decided that she had left a sizable chunk of information out. Narrowing his eyes at her he realised that she had been staring at him for the last few seconds, watching the play of emotions across his pale features. He pouted slightly, and drew his cup up to his lips in an effort to break the tense silence which had developed.
"Well, Miss Granger, I can see that you are distressed and in need of a good nights sleep. I don't think I need to warn you about the dangers of meeting your other self, I'm sure you will remain diligent about not revealing your true identity to any one else, hm?" the headmaster looked at her over the top of his glasses, impressing the warning.
"My only worry Professor is that I don't know where my other self will be in this time period. I will try to avoid myself, but will it cause any problems if I do come face to face?"
"Apart from the ramifications of providing a plausible explanation, one your second year self will except, you mean?" came the withering reply from the potions master, "Severus" the headmaster warned, his tone of voice showing he disliked the dark man's attitude.
"You'll just have to be careful Miss Granger, and try to come up with an alternate identity, just in case." He said, "We will have to come up with something, to satisfy the other teachers. Until then I think you should be as far removed from your Gryffindor self as possible. "
Clapping his hands the headmaster addressed the house elf which appeared with a quiet "Pop". "Ah Monty, please can you take this Miss Granger down to the dungeons and put her in a room near to the Professor, on the other side to the Slytherin quarters?" The house elf bobbed once in agreement and clasping Hermione's hand he led her to her new quarters.
"Well, this was unexpected." The older man stated, as soon as the door had shut behind the pair.
"Indeed" Severus replied dryly, "Your reason for putting her in the dungeons?"
"She needs someone to help orientate her back into this time, and seeing as she trusts you…." He trailed off, looking into the deeply distrusting face of the man in front of him.
"She needs to be returned, not molly coddled here." Severus practically barked. He was feeling under pressure, he knew the headmaster was expecting him to look after the girl, and it was a prospect that held not an iota of pleasure. He was wary of her explanation, as he could not see the possibility of him having any feelings of a positive nature in regard to a student, and a Gryffindor student at that. She was a pain in the neck, a thorn in his side, and not to be trusted. He disliked her, he disliked her friends, and currently he felt the feelings extended towards the headmaster also. After a promising start, this was not turning into a good day.
"You could always use the time to train her as an assistant. She could teach the first years for you, give you some free time, allow you to get on with some experiments?"
Severus scowled at him, and rose to leave, gathering his robes around him, " That was most unsubtle, even for you Albus" he spat with disgust and pivoting on his heel he stalked out of the tower and returned to the dank of his dungeon office.
A/N- Please leave a review, it has been ages since I have written anything, and I need the encouragement to carry on.