Chapter 2:

A/N: Thanks for all the reviews and story alert ads! Definitely a boost in confidence for this author. I plan on writing this story to completion (don't we all?). So far I have a vague outline for 10 chapters or so. We'll see how it goes. The plan is to update as often as I can. We're packing and moving into a house within the next month so times are a wee bit busy.

Please do feel free to leave reviews with criticisms and suggestions as well. And as always… read, enjoy and review!

His first conscious memory in weeks was of swimmingly bright lights and an excited voice that belonged to a man he once considered among his friends. Lucius Malfoy was fidgeting as Severus Snape attempted to open his eyes. For Lucius, fidgeting was akin to practically dancing.

"He's waking up! He is!" Lucius gleefully accounted to the doctors. Healer Trump gasped as he saw Snape's bleary eyes and exclaimed, "He's still in too much pain! And healing! We have to sedate him immediately!" The team of doctors bustled around his bedside to put him back into the oblivion.

Lucius' long blond hair cast shadows upon his face, making him look more sinister than usual and stood over Severus and told him in his usual cultured, aristocratic voice, "Dear friend, it looks like you'll be out a while longer. Ah, but I have good news. Our side has won! We defeated Potter! And took down that meddling old fool Dumbledore at the same time! Victory is ours!" His maniacal grin settled into the cultured half smile Severus had come to expect from Lucius, "We will celebrate properly when you're awake again. After all, the spoils have gone to the victors…"

And with that, Severus slipped back into the sweet grace that is oblivion.

Break

Hermione was told to walk to her new room by the beautiful woman she had met at the carriage. And so she did. She learned that this woman was Madame Jacqueline Limantour. She and her husband, whom Hermione had not yet met, owned the brothel. Madame Limantour took great pride in two things; her French heritage and running The Petite Bourgeoisie Brothel.

Hermione was informed that as soon as she was locked into the room from the outside, the wards would allow for the Imperious curse to be released. The Imperious would be replaced every time she stepped out of the room by the wards. The Imperioused Hermione nodded her head and stepped into the room that was to become her home. The door was locked and Hermione became aware of herself again. She was sickened to discover that she had understood and watched everything that had happened to her while she was under the Imperious. It was not the 'blackout' affect that some described from experiencing it but a sense of helplessness to be trapped in her own consciousness.

Disgusted with her own conformity, however out of her control, she ran to the attached bathroom and proceeded to dry heave everything she had not eaten. After the moment had passed, she cursed the porcelain gods and lay on the cold floor in order to soothe herself. She inspected the dark gray tile and white grout that ran through it for it was the only thing in her vision at that moment. And she suspected that it would be one of the few things in her new life that she could focus on without cringing. She wondered at the last time she had eaten. Had it been yesterday? Perhaps the day before?

Suddenly she was aware of more than the tile and the grout. She was aware of two feet that stood in the doorway and the person attached to them.

Alicia Spinnet, former Gryffindor chaser stood above her. Hermione vaguely remembered that she had graduated 2, or was it 3 years ahead of them. 2, she decided, she was 2 years ahead. And slowly, Hermione raised herself off the cold, comforting floor and stood to greet Alicia, who she presumed was her roommate.

Alicia gave her a grim smile, "Hermione, I'd hoped that the rumors weren't true." Hermione shook her head and gave a rueful quirk of the lips, "So had I." The girls proceeded to tell each other their stories. It had been many long months since Hermione had let herself connect with another person. She had feared what the companionship might cost her. 'But here', she thought, 'it can't cost me much. It's not like it could get much worse!' It turned out that Alicia had heard of the battle raging at Hogwarts and, as an Auror in training, she rushed to the castle in order to help and disobeyed her superiors' instructions.

"I spent a long time wishing I'd obeyed their instructions to stay put at the Auror Academy. Wishing I hadn't let myself be captured, tortured and taken to this," she gestured around her, "place of desecration. But I'd only be running for my life. I grew up in the muggle world, like you. They'd never have accepted me or let me be." Hermione silently agreed with her and pondered out loud, "I wonder if anyone from the Order survived. I wonder if they're still trying to fight back." Alicia looked at her with a small amount of hope in her eyes, "I'd heard that the Order existed. Its true then?" At Hermione's nod she continued, "That's wonderful news! I'm sure some of them escaped! Although…" she trailed off in thought. Hermione completed the thought for her, "I know, I know. What's an organization about defeating Voldemort without Dumbledore and Harry Potter? It's the only hope we've got though. Not much to count on but still, it is something," she told herself, giving herself hope as much as she gave to Alicia.

After another hour of talking and taking immense pleasure in each other's company, something neither of them thought they'd experience again, the women turned to separate tasks. Hermione decided to clean the grime and filth that had accumulated upon her body in the past weeks by taking a shower. She climbed into the upright shower and was surprised to find it clean, although dreadfully dreary. At first, she couldn't find the right temperature. Too hot, too cold. 'Ah, that's right', she thought as she remembered something she'd read in a medical textbook, 'after effects of the Cruciatus curse leave the victim with extreme sensitivity to temperature changes.' Eventually she was able to find comfort in the steaming shower and understand it for the luxury that it was.

She thought of the countless showers she'd taken in her lifetime. She'd taken so very many things like this for granted. Hot showers, house elf cooked meals, conversations by the fire with her friends… Tears sprung to her eyes as she thought of Ron and Harry and the fact that they'd never see each other again. But she refused to cry, having spent weeks crying at the thought of either of them already. No, it was time to put her grief for others aside and try to survive in her new world. The tears she shed for her best friend and her young love would not help them anymore.

She eventually emerged from the shower, feeling somewhat better than when she'd entered. She went to the bedroom and found a clean set of grey robes upon her cot. Angela was already wearing her set. The robes were ankle length and without decoration save an insignia upon the left breast pocket. Eyeing it with closer detail, she realized it was a house crest, like the house elves of the old pureblood families wore. Alicia interrupted her thoughts, "It seems that we belong to Monsieur and Madame Limantour now." She scowled with disgust but tossed her robes on as well. 'At least they're clean', she thought. When I was imprisoned after the Hogwarts battle, I wore the same filthy school robes for months. Until they oh so graciously gave us the house elf clothing. Bah.'

Alicia continued, "Someone stopped by while you were in the shower. We'll be summoned for dinner soon…" she trailed off and both girls wondered at what else they'd be summoned for as the night went on.

Break

He first became aware of the amount of moisture in the room, being that there was practically none. 'St. Mungos', he grimaced, 'Always has the driest air. Constantly re-circulating through the rooms. Would it kill them to open a window instead of keeping this place less pleasant than Azkaban? At least there they have lots of fresh, salty air.' He almost smiled to himself. He could hear nothing but the sound of his own breathing and heart beat, 'Ah well, at least they got that right. No noisy children or shrieking patients.' He pondered that for a moment, 'Since when has St. Mungos ever been quiet? And why exactly am I here again?'

Severus Snape's eyes shot open in surprise when he remembered… well, what did he remember? He remembered traveling through the catacombs of underground London, in search of the prophesy that both Lord Voldemort and Dumbledore had sent him to find. He remembered an ambush of Aurors that attacked him and his team of Death Eaters. He remembered watching Mulciber's head fly through the air, no longer attached to his body. And then he remembered nothing but the dark. He'd been in the dark for quite a while, it seemed to him.

Though his face betrayed nothing, his mind ran through the events of his last awakening, the only time he'd surfaced from the dark. Lucius and his proclamation that the Dark had taken the Light. The world had fallen into the perfect chaos that the Dark Lord had promised them. Or so he assumed. 'Where are those blasted healers?' Severus thought to himself. Much to his own displeasure, he realized he might have to call out for someone to relay his condition to him. Just before he started to voice his request, a healer appeared, not wearing the usual color of St. Mungo's robes but rather a deep shade of red without emblem or sign of designation.

"Ah, Mister Snape! Glad to see you've come around. We've been expecting it for some time. I'm Healer Commonwealth," said the supposed healer. He had an odd look to him, as though his facial features were all a centimeter too far to the left. Snape considered him and asked in a raspy, unused voice, "How long have I been unconscious? I recall someone coming in to see me and…", Snape realized that he needed to know the answer to the question he was afraid to ask, "I heard something about a great battle. Can you tell me what's become of the wizarding world?"

Commonwealth gave him a shrewd smile and replied, "We've won of course! Well, the correct side has won anyway. Lord Voldemort destroyed both Dumbledore and Potter in the Final Battle of Hogwarts, as they're calling it." Snape's expression betrayed nothing of the turmoil and confusion that was rolling beneath his skin. The healer straightened his robes with a look of superiority upon his face, "They've cleared out all of the major wizarding world companies of those lower than us purebloods. I was quite pleased with the command's decision to have you as my patient. We only treat those who are worthy to be saved now. As it should be!" Commonwealth declared and turned a crooked smile toward his patient.

"And my condition…?" Snape asked dryly. The healer flushed, embarrassed apparently at his lack of professionalism and stammered, "I, uh, er, yes, well… You're in good shape now. You've been here at St. Mungo's for about 3 weeks-" at which Snape's eyes went wide, "You were struck with a curse that gave you continually rupturing aneurysms. Its why you've been out for so long." Commonwealth licked his lips and continued with a dark, far off look in his eyes, "They had to persuade Auror Pinkins to tell us what exactly you'd been struck with. Bastard wouldn't give it up for some time. We had a hell of a time keeping you alive until they threatened to kill his daughter, filthy muggle that she was, to get the spell's name from him." He cleared his throat and shook his head, bringing himself back to the present.

The healer gave Severus an attempted smile and spoke, "We've been able to devote as much attention to you as needed. We have a much lower employment rate than we did before, as no one is allowed to work for Mungo's unless they've sworn fealty to Lord Voldemort. But with the lower patient count, it's all evened out…"

Severus half-tuned out the healer as he went on to explain the greatness of Voldemort's overhaul plan for the wizarding world. Severus knew the plan forwards and backwards from living years and years under Voldemort's boney thumb. Commonwealth hesitated in his long winded speech and the worlds that came out of his mouth were most surprising to Severus Snape, "It's a pity that he isn't around to see it right now. Not that he's dead of course." At Snape's questioning eyebrow, Commonwealth exclaimed, "Merlin's beard! I didn't tell you about that, now did I? That damn Potter struck Voldemort with some obscure spell right before Voldemort killed him. He's still in a coma." He wrung his hands in despair, "We've looked everywhere for the spell, to figure out what The Brat Who Lived did to him but we haven't found anything just yet." He put on a smile and faced his patient, "But his legacy lives on! And we will have the wizarding world the way he wants it when he's ready to enter it again."

Break

Eventually the bumbling healer disappeared and Severus was able to don his long black robes and get ready to leave St. Mungo's. Still without the strength to apparate, he waited for the secretary to clear his floo access. His mind was a whirlwind of thoughts. His treachery had not been revealed to either side. And now he had a decision to make. Could he attempt to find what remained of the Order of the Phoenix and continue to uphold the bargain he made to Dumbledore over 20 years ago? Or would he follow his Slytherin heart and make the best of the situation he was in? After all, he could live a life of luxury as one of Voldemort's Inner Circle. 'Yes,' he thought, 'I could finally live in peace and do the potion's research that I've been fascinated with yet unable to do for two decades now.'

Snape's brow continued to furrow as he thought of morals, consequences and his own fate as he grabbed a handful of floo powder, tossed it into the fireplace and said, "Hogwarts."