"No, no, no, your technique is all wrong," Snape said, shaking his head at Hermione. "Here, hold it like this, and apply the pressure there instead of where you were. Right, it'll be much easier that way, weren't you paying attention when I showed the class?"
Hermione looked at how he had repositioned her hand. It looked the same to her, she noted to herself with mild annoyance. She figured he was about to take points, when there was a commotion on the other side of the room. Harry and Draco had gotten in a fight.
Hermione and Blaise exchanged glances before looking back to where Harry and Draco were. They came pummeling forward, and as Snape turned his head to look over his shoulder and see what was going on, they crashed into him full force from behind.
"What the f-" he began, but stopped abruptly, having tripped forward.
Harry and Draco sprang apart, looking over to see their blunder. But they didn't know quite how big a blunder, until they saw him drop to his knees, slowly.
~*~*~*~HERMIONE'S POV~*~*~*~
I, like the rest of the class, had looked up when Harry and Draco had started fighting. I saw them crash into Snape, who, in turn, tripped forward towards me. He grabbed hold of my shoulder to keep himself from knocking me over, and I felt a pressure of my left hand. I figured he would let go, stand up, and take a boatload of points from Gryffindor, but instead, he just stared at me, his mouth open slightly and his eyes wide.
I realized that something was wrong, and what was that pressure on my arm? Well, no, not my arm, really, just my hand, I thought. I looked down and saw it. I had still been holding the knife. I could only see the hilt of the knife now, as the rest of it was buried somewhere in Snape's stomach.
My eyes widened in horror. I yanked the knife out. My heart was racing as he let go of my shoulder and grabbed his stomach, which was bleeding a lot. The shocked look stayed on his face as he dropped to his knees in front of me, no longer able to stand.
~*~*~*~HARRY'S POV~*~*~*~
I knew something was seriously wrong when I saw the expression on Hermione's face. She looked horrified, frightened, and it takes a lot to get Hermione to look that way. When Snape fell onto his knees like that, something that I'd never, ever seen him do, it increased the foreboding feeling I'd been getting.
He then fell all the way onto the floor, and I could see his chest heaving, like it was hard to breathe, and then I saw the knife in Hermione's hand. We'd pushed Snape onto that knife, and seeing the blood on it and Snape on the ground, it was obvious that he was seriously hurt. Oh God.
Hermione said something like "Oh my God, Professor!" and threw the knife onto the ground. It skidded across the floor and disappeared under one of the desks, and she dropped down, pulling his hands away from his stomach.
I felt my breath catch in my chest as we all saw it. A hole clean through his robes and the white shirt underneath, and blood was oozing, literally, through it. There was blood on his hands and the floor and now on Hermione's hands. I looked at Malfoy, his face was pure white and his eyes were wide with fear.
I ran over. Oh my God, I thought. Oh my God he's going to die and it's my fault, it's my fault. He was still awake, conscious, I guess, but he didn't seem to notice that we were there. He just stared straight ahead, lying on the ground as blood stained his clothing.
~*~*~*~SNAPE'S POV~*~*~*~
I feel myself being pushed with extreme force from behind as the two boys crash into me. I grab onto Granger's shoulder to steady myself and keep from knocking over both her, Blaise, and their table. But I feel something that just feels so wrong. A cold, hard something that I feel pierce through the flesh on my stomach. Just feeling the cold metal inside my body is strange and all I can think is that I want it out.
I can't speak or move, it's like I've been frozen in time. It seems like an eternity before she realizes that the knife is in me, and yanks it out, and that's when I first feel it- it hurts. A lot. I let go of her as my brain decides to alert me of the pain from the stab. As if I wouldn't know that it's bad without mind-blowing pain. My hands find their way to my stomach as I feel my knees collapse beneath me. I don't know why I grab it, it just makes it hurt more, but I do. I feel hot blood running over my hands as I collapse completely onto the floor.
My mind is filled with a fuzzy white fog, a haze that makes me want to go to sleep. But something is distracting me from sleep. What is it? Oh, there's pain, a lot of pain, but if I go to sleep I won't feel it, right? So that isn't what's distracting me. Then what is? People. There are people here. Who? I can't see their faces. Someone touches my hands, pulling them off whatever is paining me. What is it? Oh right, a knife, or was it a hex? I can't remember, but the fog is so soft, and I'm so tired, I think I should go to sleep...
But then someone grabbed onto my chin and shouted "Severus!" right before I would have gone to sleep. I blinked, trying to see through the haze and see someone with dark hair. I try to say something, but my voice sounds so far away, I can't even tell what I said. I remember that I had wanted to go to sleep, and I am about to, when the person shouts "Severus!" again. "Stay awake!" They shout.
"Why?" I think, and hear my voice say something, I can only guess it was the same.
"You must stay awake, you need to stay awake until we get you to the Hospital Wing!" The person cries. Who is it? A man? A woman? I don't know. Why am I going to the hospital wing? Did something happen? Oh right, the hex. Or was it a knife? Or a Gun? Oh god, I hope someone didn't shoot me, I always thought gunshot wounds looked painful. Wait, there is that pain... oh yes, it's a lot of pain...
But why should I stay awake if there's such pain? Sleep will keep me from hurting, won't it? Yes, I think it will. The fog is so warm and soft and inviting. I am so close to going to sleep when I heard someone shout something at me. I wake up a little bit and feel the bite of the pain. It increases as I feel someone touch it.
"No!" I hear myself shout. When did my voice get so loud? "Don't touch it!" I hear myself say.
Nobody responds but they keep touching the cut and it hurts, and I wonder if I'm crying. I suddenly have a strange thought, hoping that nobody is seeing me cry if I am.
I sink back into the fog and this time nobody wakes me up when I'm about to fall asleep. The white fog slowly blackens as I sink into the oblivion, the comfortable nothingness.
~*~*~*~
A/N: It's kind of a short prologue, but I just had this idea and I wanted to write it out before I lose the inspiration :) What do you all think?