Not entirely sure where this is going, but I wanted to get at least the beginning out of my head. Don't worry, the entire thing won't be in italics, I promise. This part is just a flashback, the rest will be in normal text.
Sometime in the midst of the celebration, Luna had provided the diversion necessary to allow Harry to slip under his cloak. Hermione had started a bit when Harry's voice came from nowhere, quietly in her ear, but not many were paying attention to her, so it went unnoticed. "Hermione, would you come with me? I need to go and get Sna-," he sighed, "Professor Snape's body." Something in his tone had changed, along with actively correcting himself, even though the man was now dead. She was quite curious as to what Harry had seen in his memories, apart from what Harry had said to Voldemort in front of the crowd.
In response to his request, she got up from the table discreetly and walked quietly toward the grounds, knowing Harry would follow her. She knew why he had not asked Ron to accompany them as well. Ron had hated Professor Snape, and Harry had no desire to pull him from his grieving family to retrieve the body of a man he reviled. Once they were out of the castle and beyond the courtyard, there was no one about, and Harry removed the cloak. "What did you see?" She asked him quietly as they made the long journey to Hogsmeade and the Shack.
"My mum," Harry said quietly. "He… loved her, so much. For all his life. That was why Dumbledore always trusted him. He switched sides as soon as Voldemort made known he was coming after her. It's why he protected me."
Hermione nodded thoughtfully. "That makes sense," she said slowly. "I always knew there was something more to him, something he hid."
"He was mad at Dumbledore, when he found out I had to die," Harry said quietly, obviously shocked. " 'You've raised him like a pig for slaughter,' is what he said."
"That's quite touching," she said. They were silent for several long moments. "And about Dumbledore…" she began hesitantly.
"Dumbledore made him. The curse in his hand was going to kill him, Snape had given him a year or so. Dumbledore made him promise to kill him, before the curse or Draco did."
Hermione looked at Harry in shock. "That's awful!" She exclaimed. Harry nodded solemnly. "I mean, in a way I understand, but nevertheless…" she trailed off, feeling tears sting her eyes before she wiped them away. "And everyone was calling him a traitor and all that rubbish, when he probably tortured himself about it anyway. Good Gods, the poor man…"
"He'd kill you if he heard that," Harry said with a chuckle.
"Yes, I suppose he would," Hermione agreed with a watery smile. They had, at long last, reached the Shrieking Shack, and slowly entered the room where his body lay, covered in blood and a gaping wound in his neck. Hermione looked at him sadly. "I wish I had known him better," she said regretfully, choking back a sob.
"So do I, Hermione, so do I. I made so many wrong assumptions and it turns out he was the hero all along. He certainly sacrificed the most, didn't he?"
"Yes, he did. If anyone deserved a second chance, it was him."
They both stood there for perhaps thirty seconds, staring at the prone body of the once strong man they had known for so long. "I want to clean him up," Harry declared.
"I quite agree, he deserves at least that much. Even in death, he deserves some dignity."
They nodded at each other, and went to him. Slowly, they moved him from his position of half resting against the wall to lay him flat on the floor, placing his arms at his sides. Harry siphoned the blood off his clothes and closed his eyes gently, while Hermione gingerly examined the ragged holes in his neck. Something about the wound prickled at the edge of her subconscious, and she struggled to recall it. The wound was still weeping, albeit slowly, but weeping nonetheless. Her eyebrows furrowed as she remembered a long ago muggle health class from primary school. When the heart stopped beating, a person no longer bled, except with the aid of gravity.
Harry noticed the puzzled look on her face as she inspected the wound closer. He moved over beside her, trying to see what she was staring at. "What is it?" He asked her. In reply, she pointed to where a slow drip of blood still came from his neck. He looked confused for a moment before it dawned on him. "He's dead," Harry said slowly. "So shouldn't that have stopped?"
"My thoughts exactly," Hermione said quietly. She lifted her wand and made a complicated motion over his body, murmuring quietly in a language he didn't understand. Above the man's actual body, a silver, body-shaped light formed, shimmering and translucent. Harry could vaguely make out internal organs, bones, and what could only be blood vessels. Hermione focused on it, and muttered some more. The form took on different colors in certain places, the area around the wound on his neck the most obvious, shining a brilliant crimson. Spreading out from that area, though not reaching far, were tiny lines of an odd, dull yellow color. The majority of his form was colored a shade of pink, which he guessed was blood, but it got lighter the farther away it got from the heart. Once Harry's eyes fell on the area where Professor Snape's heart and lungs were, he couldn't pull them away. Enveloping his vital organs was a bright, golden glow, pulsing every few seconds.
He looked over at Hermione for explanation. He had his ideas about what it may be showing, but she was the genius. Her hand was over her mouth, and her eyes were shining with tears. "What is it?" He asked quickly.
She took a shaky breath. "It's his magic. It's protecting him."
"So he's…" Harry trailed off uncertainly.
"Alive, but barely." Suddenly, Hermione seemed to snap out of her dazed state. "We need to clean this up and heal it," she said quickly, obtaining her usual businesslike manner. That was the Hermione he knew.
"What do you need me to do?" He asked quickly.
"Give me just a moment to get set up," she said quickly. With several quick flicks of her wand, a pristine white muggle stretcher appeared underneath the man's body, along with a clean, silver stand, and a muggle scalpel. She thought for a moment, then looked at Harry. "Back in second year, how did you get Fawkes to come to you?" She asked.
Harry struggled to remember. "I said…" he trailed off… "something about how Dumbledore will never have truly left the school, as long as there are those here who are loyal to him. Dumbledore told me that he came because I showed him true loyalty."
"My best chance here is phoenix tears, Harry," she said quietly. "Otherwise, I'm afraid the damage will be irreversible."
"Right," He said. "Well, you do what you can, I'll -er- give it my best," he said uncertainly. Harry stood in thought, trying to think of what he could say that would reach Fawkes, if anything. He didn't even know if Fawkes would show, if the bird was even alive. He did not know what happened to phoenixes whose masters died. Next to him, Hermione put her wand down and quickly unbuttoned Professor Snape's collar and top buttons, giving her ample working space. She picked up her wand and cast a spell that made his skin become transparent, and another that made different parts of his neck glow different colors. Reminding himself to marvel over her wandwork later, Harry reflected privately as Hermione gently used the scalpel to open up the wound further, to see what had been damaged.
Harry closed his eyes and spoke quietly. "Help will always be given at Hogwarts, to those who ask for it. And right now, Fawkes, I'm asking for it. Professor Snape needs you."
Several moments later, there was a bright flash of light, and the bird appeared. Harry smiled and held his arm out. "Hey, Fawkes." The bird consented to land on his arm, and Harry lowered his arm to the bed, next to the open wound in his neck.
"Oh, I do hope this works," Hermione fretted. "It's bad." Even Harry could see that, though he didn't know what all was damaged. The snake's fangs were evidently much longer than they seemed to be, and the flesh seemed to be burned. Harry figured that was from the snake's venom.
They watched Fawkes with trepidation as the bird looked quizzically at the gash and gently opened flesh, before ducking his head and letting several fat tears fall into the ghastly wound. They held their breaths, but the effect was immediate. The burned areas turned pink and the ripped, brutalized flesh quickly began to knit back together, until there was no trace of a mark. Hermione looked at the shimmering model above his body, and her expression became troubled. The golden glow around his organs had all but dissipated, along with the crimson glow where the now healed wound was, but the dull yellow tongues were spreading quickly through the pink.
"Damn," Hermione swore, before conjuring a muggle syringe and what appeared to be a small, clear funnel. Quickly, she pulled the plunger from the top of the syringe, and stuck the funnel in it's place. Then she held the combination under Fawkes' head. "I need more," she said quietly, "there's venom in his bloodstream still,". The bird seemed to nod, before letting more tears drop into the funnel and flow into the syringe. Quickly, Hermione restored the plunger, removed the cap over the needle, and pushed it through the still-transparent skin into the pulsing artery of his neck, injecting Fawkes' tears directly into his bloodstream.
She looked up again, and grinned in satisfaction when she saw the yellow disappearing. "Finite incantatem," she said with satisfaction. Hermione waved her wand, and the man's breathing deepened, evening out. "He's going to be fine," she said in a relieved voice. "I put him in a deep sleep until we get to the hospital wing, and things calm down a bit." Harry nodded his approval, and hugged her gratefully.
"I don't know what we'd do without you, Hermione," He said sincerely. She hugged him back, choking up again.
"I don't know what I'd have done without you two," she returned.
With another wave of her wand, the hospital-esque setup disappeared, and the stretcher was replaced by a simple litter that hovered in midair, waiting for them.
They had trekked back to the castle with Fawkes trailing behind Harry, and brought Professor Snape up to the hospital wing, where he lay in his enchanted sleep for three days, until the rukkus had calmed.
