A/N: Hi I know it's been awhile since I last wrote anything. I really hope this one-shot makes up for it. Hope you all enjoy it. Please review J
Disclaimer: I own nothing. JK Rowling does.
Finding Peace
A man was lying down, on what he would describe as a comfortable mattress. He had no idea where he was or how he came to be there. Straining his ears, to catch any conversations that might have been going on near by, but he heard nothing. Maybe I'm dead, he thought to himself, hoping that finally he would be able to see his once best friend, Lily Potter. Or as he still liked to think of her, Lily Evans.
He was just about to open his eyes, when he heard footsteps approaching, and decided to keep his eyes closed, and to keep himself as still as possible, lest they try and talk to him, before he figured out where he was. Or the possibility of who he would end up conversing with. He hoped that it was not any of his fellow Death Eaters, or even worse, The Dark Lord.
His musing stopped quite suddenly when he felt a warm sponge on his forehead. Somebody was cleaning his face, with a very gentle touch, and obviously trying not to cause him any pain or discomfort. "It's ok now Professor, your safe, no one can hurt you here," a soft voice whispered to him. Straight away he had recognised the voice. Granger, he thought.
He started to wonder why Granger, one part of The Golden Trio, was helping him, before he realised that the war must be over, and that it seemed that the Potter boy had survived to tell the tale. Everything started coming back to him in a whirlwind of memories, one after the other. How it had been him, who had shot the killing curse that had ended the life of his mentor, how he had quickly left the scene, but had known that Potter had seen what had happened, and had given chase. It still pained him to think of Albus. But the last memory that came to him, nearly made him open his eyes.
The Dark Lord had tried to kill him. Using his snake Nagini to finish him off with her deadly poison. But he couldn't understand how he had survived. He needed answers, and very slowly opened his eyes, only too look directly into the eyes of one, Hermione Granger. She seemed to be quite scared of the way he was looking at her, but she held her ground, and waited for him to try and speak, not knowing that he couldn't.
Opening his mouth slowly, to reprimand her for staring at him and touching him, he realised that he was unable to speak. He began to panic. "Please Professor, try and stay calm, or your neck will start bleeding again," Granger told him, while quickly picking up a damp cloth and holding it to his neck, in case any blood did start to seep through the gashes that had only just started to stitch themselves back together, with the help of a healing salve that she had only just made down in the dungeons.
While making it, she had no idea if it would even work, and was terrified of what he would have done to her, if it hadn't. She had never imagined that she would one day be taking care of her Potions Professor, and probably would have cursed anyone who said that she would, but she liked the fact that he might need her, whether he liked it or not. Hermione was still upset that Snape had killed the Headmaster, but she did understand why he had to do it. The thought of Professor Dumbledore suffering longer than was necessary, was a very unbearable thought.
She was brought back to the present, when she felt a hand clutching her wrist. Looking into his eyes, she realised that he had a calculating look on his face. "I'm sorry Professor, was I hurting you?" she asked him, politely. He shook his head, and made a gesture with his hands, as if to write on paper. She quickly understood, and grabbed some spare parchment, a quill and an ink pot from her bag. Handing them into his waiting hand, she sat back down folded her arms, and waiting to see what he was going to say.
Severus quickly wrote down the two things that he needed to know the most, as he believed nothing else was important. Handing the parchment back to Hermione, he waited for her response.
She looked down and saw only two questions. What happened? And why are you helping me? She looked back into his eyes and decided to begin where his last memory of the battle had been. Inside the boathouse.
"Well," she began, nervously wringing her hands together. "When myself, Harry and Ron ran down to the boathouse, where we knew that Voldemort and you were, through the connection that Voldemort and Harry share, we saw that he had ordered his snake to kill you. Harry had taken the memories that you had given him, back up to the castle, to view them. I had stayed behind, believing that you still deserved a proper burial. As I was starting to move your body, I realised that you were still breathing and as quickly as I could, I dragged you back up to the castle, so I could put you into the care of Madam Pomfrey. But she was too busy. At this point the battle had commenced, and I left to fight alongside my friends. After Harry had killed Voldemort, I decided to check up on you, only to panic, because you were getting weaker. I used your Potions Lab, to make an antidote for the poison in your system, and it seems to have worked, sir."
She looked in his eyes, hoping that he would understand. He took the parchment back, quickly wrote something and handed it back to her. He had written, Thanks for saving my life Miss Granger, it was short but sweet, and nearly reduced Hermione too tears. "You don't need to thank me sir. And you can call me Hermione. I will still be taking care of you until you can talk again. But I must leave for a couple of hours, I'll try not to be long." She got up, put her hand on his, squeezed his hand lightly and left the infirmary.
Severus watched her leave. He couldn't believe that he was being taken care of by the Gryffindor know-it-all. At least she didn't pester me with constant questions, he thought to himself with a small smile. He didn't feel the need to be mean anymore, as he was no longer under the control of The Dark Lord. And having a beautiful witch taking care of him was an added bonus.
It had been two weeks since he had woken up in the infirmary, with Hermione Granger, and he was finely being moved down to his rooms in the dungeon. Of course he knew that Hermione would still be coming to see him and take care of him, as she had promised him, and had been to see him every day since. He hated to admit it, but he now realised that he rather liked her a lot, and was wondering if it would develop into more.
Hermione came into the infirmary with his clean clothes and began helping him get dressed, which embarrassed him greatly, but she put him at ease, and told him that she had seen him naked a few times, when she had to bathe him. This confession from her, only made his face go a darker shade of red, and look away from her. He was absolutely mortified that a former student of his, had seen him naked.
They didn't talk as he got dressed, and still didn't talk until they were in his rooms, where she steered him to his bedroom. "Do I have too?" he said in a raspy voice, as it wasn't fully repaired. "Yes," Hermione replied. "You need all the rest you can get. After all, who's going to insult the new first years in September," she joked with sarcasm. Before she knew what had hit her, his lips were firmly pressed against hers.
It was a bittersweet moment, where there lips didn't move. But very slowly Hermione opened her mouth slightly, he copying her, and she slowly pushed her tongue in between his lips, slowly caressing his tongue with hers. Neither of them could understood how it had happened, but they both were now in Severus Snape's bedroom, completely naked.
Everyone that had stayed at Hogwarts to repair it, had indeed noticed that Hermione and Severus were absent, but believed that she was taking care of Severus. Not knowing that at that precise moment he was entering her, or that fact that she was moaning his name loudly, or the sound of the bed hitting the wall, leaving huge dents with each bang it made, or the young woman under the dour Potions Master, quivering with pleasure, and finally the shouts that they both made when their orgasms finally burst forth. But the magic of the castle had heard everything. Including at the end, when they both confessed that they loved each other.
The End