A/N: So, I'm back – unfortunately not with a new chapter to one of my longer stories, but with another – very short – one-shot. I just find them easier to write, especially when I have as little time for writing as these days. So sorry to anyone who's waiting on updates to the other stories – they will come, I just can't promise you when.
Disclaimer: I own nothing but the plot.
Warning: Not compliant with some parts of 'Deathly Hallows'. NOT a HG/SS pairing, rather meant as HG/HP, though I've actually left that open for each one to decide it for themselves.
Keeping Him Safe
"I do not want to die yet."
It had been but the faintest of whispers, but Hermione had heard his words all the same. They sent goosebumps down her arms and across her whole body.
A little glance to the boys revealed that neither of them seemed to have heard him, being too much in a hurry to get out of there.
They were already back at the entrance beneath the Whomping Willow when Hermione decided that she needed to give in to her urge to go back there. He was still alive, even if barely and she felt like she should go back there, to do what she did not know.
"I have to go back", she told the boys, already turning around.
Harry and Ron looked at her curiously but didn't question her motives. That was one major advantage of being considered the brains of their group, they hardly ever questioned anything she did, just trusted that she knew what she was doing.
"Should I.."
"No", she interrupted Ron before he even got to finish his sentence. "You two go on ahead without me."
Harry gave her a calculating look, but seemed to be satisfied with what he saw, as he waved for Ron to go on. "We'll see you later", he said, with Ron echoing his words.
"See you", Hermione whispered back, the words as much a promise as anything else.
And then they were gone and she was standing alone in the narrow corridor. She was still not sure what had gotten into her, but there was no time to think about it, so she took a deep breath and started running back down the corridor.
She was out of breath by the time she got back in the room. There he was, a crumbled form on the floor, a shadow of the proud man she had known, and she was afraid that she was already too late.
"Professor", she whispered, but there came no answer. Hermione let out a ragged breath – his eyes were closed, was he gone already?
She let herself slip down next to his figure and gently wiped his blood-crusted hair from his face.
All of a sudden, his eyes shot open, and Hermione felt a strange presence in her mind. So this was what it felt like when someone used Legilimency on you, she though with a curious calmness.
His presence was not intruding, on the contrary, Severus Snape was using the only form of communication that was left to him.
He drew her into his mind and Hermione watched the scenes displayed in front of her with an eerie sense of fascination. It was like a movie, scene after scene playing out in his mind, of past events that had apparently happened, his calm and precise voice adding comments where necessary.
Faster and faster the images moved, with a growing sense of urgency behind him.
"I tried", he told her. "I tried so hard." His voice was so soft now, softer than it had ever been in real life.
There were tears in her eyes, she realised then, and she angrily wiped them away. "Life is not fair" had just taken on one more dreadful meaning.
"You have to forgive me, please", he pleaded with her. Hermione nodded her head, of course, what was there really to forgive. Meanwhile more tears had started streaming down her face.
"I was so stupid – and too damn proud to ever apologise", he went on, as a scene of him calling Lily Potter 'mudblood' to her face played out in his mind. "Then again, so were you. Sometimes I think we were too similar in that way."
Hermione frowned, not quite understanding what he was trying to tell her.
"If I could, I would take those words back, I've regretted them for the rest of my life."
His tone darkened even further as she saw snippets overhearing him the prophecy made by Sybill Trewlaney so long ago. "I never meant for you to die – not even for Potter – please, you have to believe me. I'm so sorry. I wish I could have taken your place.
"I tried so hard to protect him, him and his friends. I really tried.
"He looks so much like you, did you know that. His eyes, it's like I see a part of you whenever he's in the room.
"Gods, I miss you so much and I'm so unbelievably sorry. Just know that I did my best, and that I did it for you."
Realisation washed over Hermione then, and with it came a cold sense of uncomfortableness. Did he take her for Lily Potter?
She was trying to come up with a way to point this out to him, not realising that, as deeply as their thoughts were currently interwoven, he could follow her train of thoughts easily enough.
"Do you take me for a fool, Granger", he snarled at her, and for once he sounded like the professor she had known for the past few years.
"Of course I know who you are."
"But..", she broke off, unsure off what exactly she had been trying to ask.
"Because you're so like her in many ways you'll never know of."
Hermione fell silent, not knowing how to react to that statement. Her mind was in turmoil, trying to process all that she had just heard and seen.
"There will be time for you later to understand", he said. "For now, just promise me one thing."
"Anything", she replied eagerly.
"Promise me to finish for me what I couldn't complete. Promise me to keep him safe. Promise me you'll take care of him."
There was no question as to who he was talking about. "I will", she said. "I promise."
"Good." His voice sounded relieved now, as if a great weight had been lifted from his chest.
"Just one more thing: If ever anyone but you and Potter know about this, you'll regret it."
That request did not come unexpectedly, and yet she felt sad that he did not want people to know about this side of him. But she was not about going to let him be remembered as Snape, the snarky bastard either.
"I won't tell anyone about what I've seen, I promise", she assured him. "Though you won't be able to keep me, or Harry, from restoring your good name once all of this is done."
"Though that technically makes two promises and not just one", she teasingly added on despite herself.
"Insufferable know-it-all", Snape croaked out his favourite insult for her, the first words either of them had spoken aloud during this whole strange conversation. For once, however, the words were lacking any contempt.
The words had come out staggered, and he was coughing loudly afterwards. She felt him pressing her presence out of his mind. So this was the end.
A tear slowly rolled down her face and dropped onto his face, as his gaze became unfocused.
"Lily", she could have sworn she heard him whisper, before Severus Snape closed his eyes for the last time.
For a minute or two she was just frozen on the spot, not aware of her aching knees due to the uncomfortable posture she was in.
What had just happened? She did not understand it, and her mind was still unable to reconcile what she had just witnessed to the man she had known for the past six years.
Hermione staggered back to her feet unsteadily.
"Good-bye, Professor Snape", she whispered, before she turned around with a new sense of determination.
She would have enough time to puzzle things out later. For now, she had to find Harry.