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AN: OK this is my first Hermione/Snape fan fiction, I think I've read enough and should now write for my favourite ship. After all its not what your ship can do for you, its what you can do for your ship.

Summary: Hermione is alone in 12 Grimmauld Place tending to a potion she and Snape have created. Mortally wounded Snape apparates there. NOT a character death.

The Florence Nightingale Complex

Chapter 1

All for the cause, she repeated to herself, all for the cause. This had been her mantra for the past three hours and she was worried sick. Three hours ago the whole Order of the Phoenix, minus Hermione, had gone to defend Hogwarts. Dumbledore had sent them news of a plot Voldemort and his Death Eaters had hatched to attack using Giants and Dementors. She thanked the Gods that it was the Christmas Holidays so no students were in any danger. They were very fortunate to get the warning so early. Recently the attacks had finished before they found out about them. This was because Snape had been revealed to be a spy and had spent the rest of his time at the Order's headquarters creating the Potion in hiding under the protection of the Fidelius with Dumbledore as the secret keeper. A fate brought about by Lucius Malfoy with help from his son.

This was the reason Hermione had stayed behind at 12 Grimmauld Place. She needed to stabilise the Potion as she had been helping Snape and he was needed at Hogwarts more than she was, so she volunteered to stay. If they lost it now they would have lost weeks of work. This meant Harry and Ron were on their own, they had the rest of the Order with them, but that didn't help to ease her worries, she belonged next to Harry and Ron at what could be the last battle against Voldemort. The Potion though would be just as important in the orchestration of the Dark Lord's demise. They were losing too many of the Order and the Aurors were dropping like flies. The Potion would hopefully cure the drinker of all wounds, including the effects of the Unforgivables, except of the infamous Killing Curse. Making it highly valuable and so highly secret. It was particularly volatile at the point they were at when the call from Dumbledore came in, they had just added the Bezoar, used for its curative properties against poisons.

As she stirred the grey goo, which was much easier on the eyes as it had been bright orange before, she tried to hold back the tears. Ever since the Department of Mysteries she found herself doing this more and more. With the Potion merrily bubbling away, a complete contrast to her own mood, she found nothing to occupy her mind. She desperately tried to stop her thoughts from straying to the battle now raging at Hogwarts, to her friends who were putting their lives on the line.

She set her jaw clutching her wand and prepared to apparate to fight for her friends or die trying.

Just before she did however, she jumped from the pop and displacement for air as she felt a draft against her skin. Someone had apparated into 12 Grimmauld Place. Had their headquarters been compromised?

In front of her was her Potions Master, mortally wounded and shaking with the aftermath of the Cruciatus Curse.

"Professor Snape!" she gasped as she watched him fall, rushing to his side, she quickly assessed his condition with what she had learned from her voluntary work in the Infirmary. Her diagnosis was not good, with his injuries he would surely die. He could maybe hold on for an hour or two as she knew he was strong, but his death was inevitable.

"Miss Granger." His voice, normally powerful, was cracked and weak from screaming. "Give me the Potion." He caught her eyes and held them; they were glazed over with pain as they willed her to do what he asked. He knew his condition was bad and exactly what he asked of her.

"But Professor, it's neither ready nor tested and it might not work. The toxic properties haven't been countered and…"

"You said you couldn't wait to test it, why pass up a perfect opportunity? Give me the Potion, Hermione. I'm dead anyway." He hissed and grabbed her shoulder surprising her with his strength. She was still babbling about the Potion when she met his eyes again. She saw the resolve and pain, her heart ached for him. She nodded not trusting her voice and helped him onto the settee and lie back placing a cushion under his head.

Looking at him now she couldn't believe this to be Professor Severus Snape, Head of Slytherin House and Potions Master at Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry, Ex Death Eater, and spy for and member of the secret organisation the Order of the Phoenix. He seemed so vulnerable and, was that trust she saw in his eyes? Oh Merlin! She moved quickly away and hurried to the Potion. Ladling the grey goo into a glass, she smelt it and recoiled at the pungent odour of the pickled dragons liver. Please, please let this work. Oh gods let this work.

Glancing again into the cauldron she turned and walked unsteadily to the man on the settee. Thankfully he hadn't lost consciousness yet so she could administer the Potion, but that was the only reason to be thankful. His face was a mess, blood everywhere from his broken nose and his left eye was swollen shut, and this is what she could see, she already knew about the broken ribs and the internal bleeding, she just couldn't imagine the pain his must be in. The Potion would surely hurt his split lips.

Helping him raise his head, she brought the glass to his mouth to drink. He gurgled in protest as a red froth escaped at the corners of his mouth. Merlin! He had bitten his tongue and was going to choke on the blood. Think Hermione, Think.

"Accio bin." She muttered hurriedly pointing her wand at the wastebasket in the corner, whimpering as it bent her little finger back because it came too fast as she wasn't concentrating. Transfiguring it was another problem due to lack of focus and the wooden bucket she had planned on ended up with a tail. Helping Snape up she watched him spit the blood into the bucket.

"Ready, sir?" asked Hermione, in what she hoped was a soothing voice and not the panicked squeak which she suspected it was, wincing as he groaned while settling his head back against the cushion.

Snape nodded his head slightly with his eyes scrunched up and teeth clenched as another spasm wracked his body. He was going to curse Lucius Malfoy into oblivion even if it was the last thing he ever did. Malfoy's well aimed Crucio had had him writhing on the floor of the Great Hall for the last ten minutes. Ten very long agonising minutes waiting to be returned with the same hatred with which they were received. Opening his eyes he looked upon the Granger girl as she stared at him. She had sorrow and pity in her eyes. Hmph. Probably for herself because she was on her own stuck with a dying overgrown, greasy bat. Funny, during the years of serving the Dark Lord and Dumbledore, never had he imaging his death to be like this. He had expected to die alone, not with a whimpering Gryffindor know-it-all by his deathbed testing some bogus potion. Try as he might though, he couldn't help being grateful for her being with him, even when she didn't want to be.

Hermione again helped Snape to raise his head to take the Potion. He grimaced at the taste and the burning of his lips. In some sick twist of fate he was fortunate enough to not be able to smell it as his nose was still blocked with blood from the broken nose. He swallowed and gasped as it burnt all the way down the oesophagus to his stomach.

Hermione saw the reaction and felt her insides freeze. Oh Gods! I've killed him!

The Potion had reached his intestines in record time and was now in his blood stream. He was too drowsy to register the effects of the Potion, but he knew nausea well enough. He saw through his fevered state, that she was still and he proceeded to lean past her and vomit into the bucket, which according to his hallucinogenic state had a tail. His emeses were black and dissolving the wood. Hermione took a hysterical moment to wonder if everything about him was black.

There was smoke coming out of his ears indicating the Pepper Up potion's adverse effect; they had used it as a base to add all the other Potions ingredients to. She sensed him slipping into unconsciousness and panicked. No, he had to be awake or risk brain damage, if the Potion was working that is.

"Professor." Her squeaky voice called while shaking his shoulder; she cleared her throat and tried again. "Professor!" she called loudly, but he wasn't responding. "SEVERUS, stay awake!" she sighed with relief when he lifted his eyelids and scowled at her. To hell with the repercussions, she was trying to save his life dammit.

Snape was just about to fall into blissful unconsciousness when he heard her talking to him. He frowned at her in confusion, was the Potion still causing hallucinations or had she just called him what he thought he heard?

For the next half hour she had him recite dozens of potions to keep him awake, though she was anxious to ask him what had happened at the school. She needed to know if Harry and Ron were OK. If they had won or lost, or if the worst had happened and Snape was the only one left, and look what state he was in. Hermione was worried if she mentioned it he would get wound up and do himself harm. The fever was concerning and if he was going to recover it had to be broken.

Snape on the other hand was getting very annoyed with himself. He was getting potions wrong even first year Hufflepuffs and Neville Longbottom could do. When this happened he was not surprised to find she corrected him every damn time.

Hermione grew more and more hopeful with every passing minute as his accuracy improved, as did his condition. The swelling of his eye had reduced greatly and the internal bleeding had stopped. As she cleaned the blood off and bathed his face she tried more and more complex potions tactfully skipping the Polyjuice potion remembering the last time she mentioned it in one of their brainstorming sessions, he was livid when he had realised she had taken the ingredients that had gone missing during her second year and why. Snape had taken three hours to calm down enough to talk her without going completely off on a tangent about bloody Gryffindors and how the rules didn't matter to them. Hermione shuddered at the memory, recalling the small education in just how expletive the magical world's language could get.

"Snape's cure all potion?" she asked grinning when he stared at her calculatingly. "Fitting don't you think sir? The fever has broken and all your injuries are healed. It works! Thousands will be saved because of it. Because of you."

Snape looked at her in surprise at the outburst. Not at the name, he was going to call it something like that anyway, but that it had worked and that it had worked without needing half of the ingredients they were going to use. Trust Hermione Granger to be left with a potion he had spent years thinking about and planning, and accomplish what he hadn't in three bloody hours. Typical, bloody typical. Well look on the bright side Severus, its going to be cheaper to make. Looking down to surmise his exact condition he noted the sheet covering…his naked body?!

Hermione blushed when she was he had realised she had undressed him due to his fever. She had to do it without magic as when she had charmed off his shoes, they had gone flying out the window smashing the glass, which had turned into confetti when she tried to repair it. Struggling with his heavy body all the blasted buttons she had turned a bright red Ron would have been proud of. The Potion it seemed had a rather unusual side effect that made little Snape eager to come out and play. Taking another hysterical moment to recall that the rumour about men with long fingers was indeed true in Professor Snape's case.

Said Professor Snape was fuming at the intrusion into his privacy, when he also noticed the unusual side effect when he saw the tent made in the sheet by little Snape. For then Severus Snape did what he had not done since he was a teenager…blushing and attempting to cover a raging hard on.

AN: LMFAO! Aww come on Sevvie let him play! I loved writing this even if my muse said Professor Snape is glaring daggers at me. The angst was too much for me at the beginning and now this is going to be a humorous, smut filled as possible, romp through JK's marvellous world of Harry Potter, hopefully.

Peace out

serpensortit