The Waiting and The Change
Severus and Hermione are planning their escape. However a powerful curse changes that plan. But why is Hermione still alive? Will they have to stay in the wizarding world with this change of plans?
Another piece from the convoluted inner imaginings of my mind that I just had to jot down right now instead of studying for the exams I have this next week. Enjoy!
(Also, if there are any mistakes, please let me know! I do proofread my work, but I'm most definitely not perfect and will occasionally not see things! Being the kind of person who will have a conniption if a parenthesis or semicolon is missing, I will be more than happy to change them.)
Disclaimer: As per usual, all the characters belong to the illustrious J.K. Rowling. The plot bunnies, on the other hand, were found in my bedroom closet when I was cleaning it out this morning.
It's almost over, the tall dark man thought to himself. He heard the sounds of the war going on around the old building where he was hidden. They believed him to be dead, but little did they know that he had intentionally built up an immunity to the snake's venom.
She would be back soon. Or at least, that was what they had agreed on.
"It will look as though I've died. Go. You have to. Leave Potter with me. And go."
"I can't just leave you. I'll stay with Potter." She had responded, crying into his shoulder.
That had been the plan. He could hear her crying as he gave Harry the memories he needed. She had almost lost it as he pretended to breathe his last breath. It hurt him to be hurting her like that. It was a pain worse than anything he had ever experienced before in his life. Worse even than the pain of the Dark Lord's favourite Cruciatus. He wanted to kill himself for causing her this much pain.
He had hidden himself in the upstairs bedroom closets after ensuring that there had been enough "evidence" that somebody had found dragged his body away. Here he would wait for her.
He watched the minutes tick by on the muggle watch that she had charmed for him. Not only was it a regular watch, but if something bad happened to either one of them, it would act as an alert to the other.
Seconds ticked by, slowly turning into minutes. The minutes turned into hours, long hours that passed with multiple recitings of the most complicated potions instructions that he knew. The third lumbar vertebrae off a freshwater squid... Powdered horn of bicorn boiled in a two ounce distillation of unicorn blood and werewolf saliva... Bring to a rolling boil seven times for two minutes each time... Stir as it cools off, once to the counterclockwise for every three times clockwise... Once cool add three drops of the blood of the being who was to ingest it... Bottle in three purified rose quartz crystal viles. The lists went on and on as the sounds of the war slowly died down.
The door downstairs clicked. It could be her.
Footsteps clicked though the hall. Another pair followed the first. His intuition as a spy told him that it was most likely someone who had come to investigate Harry's claims that he was dead.
Where was she? She should have been here by now. His watch had not alerted him to anything. What if something had happened to her that even the watch could not alert him to? Who was walking though the house right now?
He heard murmuring voices as the footsteps crept closer to the room where he was hidden. When they stopped outside the room where he was, he could hear the voices as well.
"I swear minister, he was here. I left him here. I saw him die." Potter.
"I understand, my boy. What I do not understand is why you are willing to help round up the bodies when you obviously need to be taking care of your own!"
"Minister, Hermione will be fine. I'm sure of it. I trust Madame Pomfrey. I trust her with my life. She is the most capable medi-witch I have ever met. Mrs. Weasley is there with her as well. She will be more than fine." Harry paused. Snape's hair was now standing on end. All his training as a spy had never prepared him for something like this to occur. For something to happen to somebody he loved. Lily was his own fault, but this?
When Harry spoke again, he seemed to be addressing the house at large, as if he was trying to prove a point to an invisible person. "Hermione would have wanted me to come look for the Professor. We all owe him our lives. And I know she is absolutely devastated over losing her favorite teacher I was with her. She insisted in staying here with me when I found him. In fact, I am convinced that was why what has happened actually occurred."
"But, Mr. Potter, what about all the bad things the man had done in his life? Don't you find it a little hard... to trust him, or trusted what he said he was when he was alive?"
"No, Minister." Potter seemed to be directly speaking to Snape now. "I now realize that the Professor was the bravest man I've ever known. I was just too much of a dunderhead to realize it then. I owe the man my life. And if he was still alive, I would want him to know that."
Snape found it hard not to move until he was sure that the two men had left the house. Potter had brought him a message. Potter had brought him a message... About Minone. She was hurt. Or sick. Or something. What was wrong with her? She obviously needed him. Why hadn't the watch worked? Was it still on her? Was it at least in her possession?
The was was over. People were most likely tending the sick, injured and gathering the dead right now. He would be able to sneak back into the castle. He would have to be careful, but he could. If he snuck in through the secret entrance to his quarters... Nobody would be in his quarters, or guarding them. They all thought he was dead. Eventually, they would break his wards and search through his belongings for anything that may help in whatever post-humorous trial they would scheme up. From there he, as a teacher could apparate into the infirmary. If he disillusioned himself and placed a notice me not spell on himself, he would be safe. Only the ghosts would be able to see right thought the incantations. But, no matter, what, he had to get to Hermione.
He stood up and placed the spells with some of the magical strength he had gained while waiting and relaxing in the closet. He snuck down the stairs, avoiding the noisiest floorboards just in case anybody else had found in necessary to come search for the dead potions master. Once outside, he ran along the boarder of the Forbidden Forest, surveying the destruction that had come from the war that had ended less than hours ago. The ground was covered in scorch marks and there was the occasional semi-dried up pool of blood. The dead had already been cleared.
The castle itself was in a whole other state. Half the parapets had been destroyed, and many of the towers themselves looked to literally be on their last legs, only being held together with simple magic charms and incantations.
Snape made it all the way to the secret entrance to his quarters, removed the wards he had placed, and entered his dungeon rooms. It was strange walking into the rooms he never thought he would see again. Outside, everything had been either destroyed or nearly destroyed. In here, not one little fleck of dust was out of place. It was almost as though he had entered a completely new world.
As soon as he was in, though, he left again. He walked over to the door, checked his concealment charms and apparated to the infirmary. He stayed close to the wall as people rushed in and out. Suddenly he found a chance to sneak in as a witch he did not recognize held the door open for a gurney carrying another warlock he did not know. He walked in right behind the levitating stretcher and then plastered himself against the wall as another group of patched up witches and wizards left.
He surveyed the filled infirmary, noting that it had been magically stretched to fit the hundreds of people who were now healing or being healed. He visually scoured the entire room for Hermione. Every time he thought about her he could feel his heart clench in fear. She had to be somewhere in here, but he just couldn't see her.
He kept watching all the people moving around, not going anywhere himself so as to not draw any attention. He was supposed to be dead. Harry had said that Madame Pomfrey was with her. But she was nowhere to be seen either.
Just as soon as he had though about that, he saw Mrs. Weasley nonchalantly walk through the wall on the farthest end of the infirmary. It was an illusion. To keep her privacy. Something was really wrong. They never gave a patient that much care and privacy unless there was something really wrong.
Hermione had had that kind of privacy before. In her second year when she had been petrified, for example, she had had that much privacy. He had come and sat with he every night, reading, just to keep her company. In her first year too, he had come and sat outside the curtains that hid her feline features when her nearly perfect Polyjuice potion had gone wrong.
Now they had actually created her her own room. This was bad. Very bad. He waited for the hall to clear up enough so that he would not bump into anybody as he walked though. Once he made it to the back, he examined the wall. As he was examining, Mrs. Weasley arrived again and almost walked into him as the tried to go through the wall. Seeing that she went through with little difficulty, he just walked through after her.
The room was well lit, and there was a bed at one end. In that bed was none other than the love if his life. He could see the path of tears that had recently flown down her face. Madame Pomfrey rushed in a second later.
"I have it! I was able to find one single vile of this potion the Professor Snape's stores." She made her way back to the bed where Hermione lay, a look of pain and shock spread across her face.
"Good! Well, as much as I pray that it isn't what it may be, I'd rather know what's really going on with her and be able to help her. Especially after all the other possible treatment treatment failed!"
Snape immediately recognized the bottle. He had made that potion three years ago at Madame Pomphrey's request. It was not a potion she often asked to be made, but it was easy enough to make. Did they honestly think that...? All the other treatments had failed...? What the hell...?
Hermione's breathy voice pulled him out of his dazed mental confusion, "Hurry... please... It hurts..."
"Alright, love." Madame Pomphrey lowered the phial to her lips and Mrs. Weasley held the young woman's hand as she drank down the entire potion.
Snape watched, his jaw literally hitting the floor, as a soft pink glow began to emanate from Hermione's abdomen.
"Holy shit." The two matrons and the younger woman chorused all at once.
Once the initial shock had been put aside enough for the women's brains to properly function, Madame Pomfrey was the first to speak, "Darling...? Did you know about this...?"
"No, Madame, I didn't..." Hermione's eyes were still wide as she stared at her stomach with a mixture of shock and pure astonishment mixed with awe.
"When you were hit with that curse...?" Mrs. Weasley continued.
"... I should have died?" Hermione finished her sentence.
"Yes," said Madam Pomphrey. "I have another idea. Give me one split second." She ran out of the room again and came back seconds later with another vile of this time purple liquid. She handed it to Hermione who swallowed it down quickly. Snape watched as within seconds the pain that marred Hermione's beautiful face disappeared and she visibly relaxed.
"It..." Hermione stammered, "It took the blow of the magic, didn't it?"
"Yes, Hermione. She did," Madame Pomfrey answered her. "You are carrying a very powerful child, Miss Granger. She has already saved you very life! Though it did hurt her, this potion has healed her and removed the last of the dark magic from your body."
"Um... Hermione..." Mrs. Weasley added unsurely, "I know you are a very powerful witch... but, you and Ron have been separated for years and this child is far more powerful that anything he would ever be able to... contribute to. If you don't my... unbridled curiosity... Who is the father? Do you know?"
Hermione looked awkwardly up at the mother figure who had cared for her so well ever since she had met her. "Please, Mrs. Weasley, don't hate me for the choices I have made."
"My darling!" Snape watched as Mrs. Weasley wrapped her arms around her pseudo-daughter, "I could never hate you. No matter what, I am here to support you."
"In that case..." Hermione paused again to readjust the blankets that had been covering her torso...
"I am." Snape disillusioned himself. "I'm the father." He sounded surprised and shocked himself.
Two of the three jaws dropped in unison. "Aren't... you... dead?"
"Well, Madame, it would appear not, now, would it?" Snape smirked at the stunned medi-witch.
"But Harry said...?"
"As far as anybody is concerned, I am deceased. I wanted them to think so. I was done with this life. I wanted to start anew. But this young witch here convinced me otherwise. She seems to have me wrapped around her finger." Snape paused as he walked and sat down on the bed next to the young woman who had stolen his heart. "Harry managed to come notify me that you were... not well."
Hermione's arms were now wrapped around him as well. "Good, I had to tell him to go. Threatened to hex him if he didn't."
"What happened to the watch?" Snape asked her.
"Well, I suppose this one had something to do with it. The magic works so that only if I am in danger or trouble it will let you know." She took Snape's hand and placed it on her abdomen. "Somebody obviously didn't want to worry her father too much and get him killed. And it seems that she justified that by keeping everything under her own control."
"That was a bloody Gryffindor thing to do..." Snape stared at his hand on the young woman's stomach. "My Gryffindors. Gods, I love you. Both of you. I was in so much pain thinking that you were somehow injured."
In the next few moments they realized that not only were the original two people who were caring for Hermione still petrified with their jowls still on the floor, but another woman was now there and her jaw had also decided to join it's fellow comrades in chewing.
"Minerva, it is most unbecoming of a woman of such high rank to look as though she has been graced by the presence of a necromancer." Snape's eyes did not leave Hermione's.
"Severus...? Aren't you...? Weren't you...? Harry said...?" McGonnagal spluttered, her arms waiving around in a very comical fashion. Finally, she was able to compose herself enough to form a complete sentence, "Why are your arms around Miss Granger?"
"Well, fate has once again decided to be capricious. Her hand in my life has obviously changed a lot of things that may or may not have happened. And this young woman here, will not only be my wife (if she agrees to it, that is) but she is also my savior and the mother of my beautiful and powerful daughter!"
"Wife...? Daughter...? I need a bottle of Ogden's Best... I do believe hell has just frozen over." Minerva, the stuttering Headmistress of Hogwarts slowly turned to leave the hidden room on the infirmary, conjuring an already opened bottle of Fire Whiskey as she walked out.
"Well, I suppose the plan to go into hiding for a while has been foiled..."
"Yes... We don't have to leave. Sev, I do have some request to make." Hermione gazed up at her now fiancée.
"You know that I would move the stars for you, my love."
"Can we get married soon? I want our daughter to have a real family when she arrives."
"Mrs. Weasley, could you do me a large favor and find the Minister?" Snape looked over at the woman who looked as though she was going to go home and get her very own bottle of Ogden's. She nodded at the usually quiet and dark man. Minerva was right... Hell really had frozen over. She was about to walk out of the hidden room when Severus stopped her.
"Wait... Actually, it may go over a little better if I summoned him myself..." Snape turned to Hermione. "Love could I borrow your wand? Mine was snapped..." Hermione pulled her wand out of the holster she had wrapped around her arm and handed it to him. "Expecto-Patronum." he muttered and out of the tip of his wand flew a small doe. It pranced closer to the bed where they sat, and gently laid it's head on Hermione's lap, looking up at the Potions Professor. "Please tell the Minister that he is needed in the infirmary. You may as well pass that message along to Mister Potter as well while you're at it." They all watched as the doe scampered off through the false wall.
"Minister, what are we going to do now?" Harry muttered to the man who was looking through the Great Hall as families wept over their lost loved ones.
"I'm not sure, Harry, but..." his voice trailed off as he saw the silvery, ghost-like doe trotting towards them. "I think we have a message."
"I've seen that patronus somewhere... I know I have." Harry gazed at the creature. It was almost like deja-vu.
The doe finally arrived next to them, and in the deep voice of a man than had been assumed to be dead, said "Minister, Mister Potter, you are needed in the infirmary. Immediately."
The Minister was the first to speak, "Was that...?"
"I think so..." Harry was equally as surprised. Hermione had told him that she needed him to go tell Snape that she was injured, and that he had to do so nonchalantly, and that nobody else could know that he was alive. Well, this definitely changed things... "We'd better hurry. Something might be wrong."
Without a backwards glance at the people who were now glaring at them from the hall, the both pulled out their wands and ran to the infirmary.
"We're here! What's wrong?" The two burst in through the hidden wall into the hidden room, wants drawn, ready to hex or even kill if necessary.
"Harry! Minister! Put your wands down this instant!" Mrs. Weasley scolded the war hero and the highest ranking wizard in the entirety of the British wizarding world. "You don't want to cause Hermione anymore stress! She may lose the child!"
"Child...?" The two confused male voices said in unison.
"A girl!" Snape said proudly. Hermione smiled as him. He would make a great father.
"Minister, how soon can you marry us?" Hermione looked at the minister who seemed to be choking on the air going down his throat.
"If... you're... Really...? Now...? Rings...?" Was all the poor man had been able to stutter out.
"I have them. I got them out of my vault weeks ago when we first began planning on going into hiding. This just... expedites and publicizes matters a little more than we expected."
"Well, I'm happy for the two of you. You both are perfect for each other," Harry added, smiling at his former teacher and his best friend who currently had each other in a death clutch.
"Thank you, Harry," Hermione said, looking over at him. "Your support means a lot to me."
"Yes, Mister Potter. You helped keep my soon-to-be wife alive. As much of a dunderhead as you have been in the past, thank you. Also... Would you mind being a witness when the minister comes back to his senses? You too Mrs. Weasley and Poppy."
The minister snapped out of the shock almost instantly. "Alright, um, should we begin then?"
"The sooner, the better. Right, Mr. Snape?" Hermione pulled her husband's face down towards hers and kissed him tenderly.
They were suddenly enveloped in a bright white light. The rings flew out of Snape's pocket and onto their respective fingers.
"Not only is my daughter very powerful, but she is also impatient...!" Snape said as he watched a binding magic that he had never witnessed before entwine itself around himself and his new wife and their daughter.
"It's a bond of fate. I read about it once..." Hermione paused as just watched the magic float around them. "... Very rare. Only one documented case. Now two. It only every happens between soul mates who have taken way too long to find each other."