12/12/216 - Updated

A/N - Alright, just fixed some grammar/spelling issues.

ConCrit Welcome.

Enjoy!

Hermione forced her feet to keep a jogging pace; she had to get to the Shrieking Shack!
Yet she was so exhausted! All her energy had been sapped with the final battle. She was tired and wounded.

Yet after viewing what she just did in that pensieve, she had to get to him; Hermione had no idea why, she just felt that urgency. Harry had beat Voldemort finally not even an hour ago, and she had immediately demanded to know why he went alone into that forest earlier. He had only given her a vial, which she saw held memories; and told her to go view them.

Then he sat down next to Ron in exhaustion. And that was the moment, the moment that the first inkling of this urgency started inside her.

She quickly walked to the headmaster's old office and poured the memories and dunked her head.

Snape's memories engulfed her immediately.

After minutes when she was finished, that feeling of urgency turned into full blown waves of urgency, washing over her being. Thus she found herself running across school grounds and aparating to the shack.

Hermione tentatively walked into the still open doored shack. The wooden plank floor squeaking ominously with each step she took. Then she saw his black-cloaked figure, right where they had left him hours earlier.

Exactly how they left him.

Hermione quickly dropped to her knees next to the professor, silent tears rolling down her face. Then she noticed something, his lips had some colour in them still.

Frowning Hermione looked closer, then she saw the two empty potion bottles next to his hand. Picking one up, she saw the label for the blood replenishing potion. The other had the label for the anti-venom potion, Hermione felt her heart rate quicken as the realisation came over her.

She pressed her fingers against his throat tentatively.

Those quantity potions were not enough to save him, she knew, but they were enough to stall the inevitable until stronger variants could be administered in a course.

She felt the faint thump of a heartbeat.

Hermione immediately 'Accio'd' more blood replenishment potions, and deciding on a broader spectrum course, a bezoar stone. Minutes later they flew to her trough the open door, she grabbed them deftly. Urgently she leaned forward and pried his mouth open; she poured the potion in first and then stuck the bezoar in his mouth.

Hermione started muttering to herself, a habit she had when under stress. As anyone could witness; that had been around when she was frantically studying for exams.

"Come on professor... Please, professor... You cannot die... Come on potion work... Bezoar you better work..."

She kept muttering and feeling his pulse, she knew she had to get him to Madam Pomfrey, at least till she could get him to better healers at St Mungo. But she was scared to move him before she at least felt his breathing strengthen.

After what felt like excruciating long minutes, she felt the barely perceptible pulse strengthen under her fingers. Almost immediately followed by a very slight tinge of colour in his normally pale cheeks. His breathing, which she couldn't even notice before, also strengthened. At least now his chest had the slightest tremble, indicating his slight breathing.

That was what she had been waiting for. Encircling his chest with her arms, slightly dragging him in a more upright position against her chest, she aparated them with a pop.

They appeared on the grounds in front of the school, where there were still a lot of commotion. Wizards and witches picking their way through the rubble, finding more injured to take to the great hall, or moving dead to the others that were placed in rows on the lawn before the castle entrance.

All covered by sheets.

Hermione immediately levitated the professor and rushed inside with him floating in front of her. She was shocked on her way in at how many rows of bodies she saw.

They had to be hundreds!

And that was without all the witches and wizards that were killed during this last year. She vaguely thought that the wizarding population count in England would be severely cut down after this war. Hermione shook her head and forced her thoughts back to Snape.

She rushed into the great hall. "Harry! Harry! Quick get a healer! Anyone with experience!"

Her voice shrieked out in an almost panic. Luckily she saw several older wizards and witches rushing over to her, along with Harry and Ron.

"He's alive?" Harry stared dumbfounded, a healer imminently took charge and Hermione lowered Severus Snape to the floor.

"Yes! But just barely! I gave him blood replenishing and a bezoar is in his mouth. He was attacked by the snake of Voldemort. He has already drunk blood replenishing and anti-venom potions earlier." She spoke to the healer, informing him so that he knew what to do and where to pick up from.

The healer nodded and resumed his examination; then started taking potions from a case he had with him. Hermione sagged to her knees on the other side of Snape, taking his hand and holding it. Ron looked dumbfounded, Hermione immediately knew that he had not been informed yet of the Professor's true role in the whole war.

Harry just looked blankly.

"Hermione, why did you go back for this git?" Ron phrased it in disgust almost; Hermione just shook her head in disappointment.

Harry saved her the trouble of answering. "Ron, Snape was never a traitor. I saw his memories, Hermione did too. He is, in fact, the biggest hero in this war in my opinion."

Harry stated it simply. Ron just gaped, completely flabbergasted while Hermione just remained quiet next to the professor, never letting go of his hand.

SSHG

It was a full three days later that Snape finally woke up. Hermione sat beside his bed in St Mungo's, just like she has done since the day she found him and brought him into the great hall. Never leaving.

She could not describe it; it was as if that urgency she felt to get to him in the shack, had changed to a need to be with him. So she promised herself, she will stay by his side, till he woke up and she knew for sure he was alright.

And that was how she sat, holding his hand, that his eyes slowly opened. Hermione did not see it immediately; she was resting her head tiredly on his bed, next to their clasped hands. She felt a slight twitch of his hand that was held by hers, though.

Her head snapped up, and her eyes locked with those obsidian eyes of his. For a moment she was taken aback, never had she realised that his eyes were actually beautiful.

She cleared her thoughts though and smiled tentatively at him. He just looked back at her, his eyes as always hooded and his face expressionless. But she saw reason in his eyes, and knew he was fully aware and in his conscious mind; which meant her time with him was up.

Thus she slowly stood up. But before releasing his hand, she lifted it and kissed the palm of his hand. "Welcome back to us Professor."

Then she placed his hand back on his bed and let go of it. He got a slight frown on his face when she kissed his palm and looked at her almost searchingly. But she only smiled warmly and then turned around and left his room.

Leaving a thoroughly confused Severus Snape behind.