A/N- This chapter I think is a bit shorter then the rest. you can blame that on the fact that I have been studying for my finals all weekend. They're scheduled for Wednesday, wish me luck! Anyway please enjoy.
Hermione apparated a few yards away from Harry's home, as she had for the last two weeks. She had felt a little better ever since her impromptu sob session with Malfoy but she still came every day, fed the cat and sat for an hour on Harry's couch just in case they appeared while she was there. It hadn't happened. Hitching her breath to prevent a snivel from escaping Hermione took the steps two at a time. When she opened the door a blast of dark magic washed over her. She took three frightened steps back and whipped out her wand. The entire flat absolutely stank of dark magic. It seeped from the walls and piled around her feet. She shuddered as a bit of it brushed against her thigh and made her way into the kitchen.
Tigger crouched under the small table, spitting and growling at the living area. He was puffed up to twice his size, his tail twitching horribly back and forth. Hermione absently reached down to calm him before inching into the living area.
At first glance there was nothing to be seen, the room so thick with rot and dark magic that only the barest of details filtered through the black.
"Lumos." Hermione muttered and her wand lit up, banishing the ick to the furthest corners. A warbled gasp dragged itself from her lungs and she rushed to the couch where a soaking wet Harry was clutching and equally drenched George. They were both pale and bruised, George was unconscious or… dead. Harry swung his head around when he heard someone approach his eyes large and eerily lamp like.
As she came closer Hermione saw that George's chest was rising and falling and she released a painful gulp of air.
"Harry…" She breathed, "What happened. You were gone for nearly three weeks." She knelt next to him and pushed the sopping hair from his forehead. It was growing out again. Harry shuddered at her touch and took a few calming breaths.
"Medical attention." He rasped his voice barely above a whisper.
"I'm sorry Harry, but I can't take you to St. Mungo's they'll recognize George I- Harry what did you do?"
"Then take us to someone you trust." His voice grew weaker and he struggled to prop himself upright on the arm of the couch, one arm still clutching desperately to George.
"Harry, you need to tell me what happened-"
"Fuck Hermione! Just take us somewhere!" Hermione recoiled upon herself staring at Harry with wide eyes.
"But Harry, the dark magic…"
"Will you just do what I asked you? George doesn't have much time left and I'm already sharing my life force with him, so will you God damn do some good and get us somewhere!" His breath hissed from between clenched teeth and he collapsed atop George, energy spent.
"Okay, okay but, Harry I don't know. I don't know where." She cursed herself for her inability to think clearly, and do something. And then, as though a light bulb had been screwed in she knew.
Apparation was tricky, especially if you didn't know where you were going. It took either an extremely powerful wizard or an extremely meticulous one to apparate to someone directly. Holding on to both men as tightly as she could Hermione closed her eyes and prayed she had studied the art hard enough.
Severus Snape was prepared for anything, he reasoned. Paranoid enough to even be ready for the rebirth of the Dark Lord, should such a thing ever happen, Merlin help them. What he was not prepared for was the arrival of three Gryffindors landing in the middle of his bed at eight in the morning. The Granger girl looked up at him, hair tangled and coiling around her head, and gave a shriek of delight. Practically launching herself at him.
"Snape! Thank Merlin, you have to help us, George is dying and Harry is sharing his life force with him and I'm sure that one of them cast some very dark magic and now they're both hurt and if we don't help them soon they're going to die and they can't die you see, because this was all my fault in the first place." She was clutching the front of his bed robes by the end, crushing the delicate silk in her grip. He peeled her off him, showing her as much contempt as was humanly possible. After pushing her off the bed he turned his attention to the two idiots. The Potter brat was conscious, though barely, and was staring at him with a strangely blank expression on his face. He moved to sweep his wand over him, intending only to cast a diagnostic charm, but Potter flinched and moved back.
"George first."
"It's only a diagnostic charm Potter, calm down." The boy shook his head, spraying water all over Severus's duvet. He glowered at it distastefully and returned his attention to the brat who was now backing away, yet his fingers still curled around those of Weasley's.
"This is not a situation where it would aid you to protest Potter, or do you wish to die so badly you would jump at any chance to do so?" The sneer cut through his words.
"George first, or I'll make a fuss. He's worse off than I am. It'll be much quicker if you would simply attend to him rather than bearing out my tantrum if you try to heal me first." Harry glared, and nudged George's body forward as a final argument.
"Such a child." The potions master hissed while waving his wand over one of the Weasley twin's body. He was sure they had said his name a few times, but he couldn't bring himself to listen, too distracted by the sheer unadulterated stubbornness of the little Potter twit. The spell revealed that the twin had indeed been hanging onto life by only a thread. Harry's life force was the only thing keeping him breathing; he had been right on insisting the redhead be healed first. Not that he still hadn't been annoying about it.
"Granger," He whirled on his heel, even his bed robes fanning out behind him in a bat-like manner, "Go to my laboratory, outside this room, turn left its five doors down and on the right. Bring me the red colored potion with bits of white sediment on the bottom; it's on the third shelf to the left, eight potions down. Then bring me two doses of Pepper Up potion, I trust you know what that looks like by now, they are on the second shelf also to the left. Also there is a dark green potion first shelf to the right and two vials down, it's to replenish Mr. Potter's magical core, as it has been severely drained." He stared down his nose at her and then barked when she didn't move right away, "Now Miss Granger." She started and turned around so quickly that she nearly tripped on his carpet.
He watched her go with a snort and began to cast the first of multiple spells at the Weasley boy.
"Sanguismederireparandummanat…" Potter watched him as he chanted, his eyes lidded and his hold on the other man never wavering. Severus ignored him concentrating all his energy on completing the spell.
Only when the twin's color had returned to a normal pink instead of that clammy off white that was usually only present in those very near death did he break the connection between the two. He took another look at their wet bodies and cast a quick drying spell, wondering why he hadn't thought of it before.
He chalked it up to the fact that they had surprised him in bed.
"Potions Master Snape!" Granger gasped stumbling into the room, arms full of potions. He barely spared her a glance before levitating them from her hold and examining them. She had at least managed to follow directions and find the right ones. He picked up the red one and opened Weasley's mouth pouring it directly down his throat and making sure that all the bits at the bottom went with it as well. The potion was an early form of the Omnis Medela. It cured most wizarding aliments but none of the muggle ones, which was the point of the potion after all. It would cure whatever after effects any dark magic had on the man.
Sure enough once the potion slid down his throat he began to cough and regain some more color on his cheeks, Severus gave him the Pepper Up potion next. At the redhead's level of exhaustion it wouldn't wake him, but it would supply him with some more energy. With a shake of his head Severus braced himself to treat Potter.
He was still awake, partially sitting up, his green eyes boring holes into him. Severus had to look away for a moment as a sharp memory of Lily overtook him.
"You will take this potion, as I said before, it will restore you core, it took a large hit and surely any witch or wizard less powerful then you would have died. You are lucky that Miss Granger found you when she did." He glanced back at the aforementioned girl, who was standing in the doorway, twisting the fabric of her skirt in her hands. He twisted back around and held out the potion, eyeing Potter as he made up his mind whether or not to take the potion. In the end he ceded and downed it in one go.
"This Pepper Up is for when you wake up, now go to sleep. Somnum." He flicked his wand and Potter's admirable cognizance gave way to the spell. Satisfied that both men would be fine Severus fixed his scowl on the one other person in the room.
"Explain."
Hermione gulped. Even after all these years, she couldn't get over her slight fear of the retired potion professor. It was the way he stood. She decided. Leaning over everyone with his height, hair falling around his face like a curtain, forcing her to look directing into his eyes.
"Well, sir, professor- I mean Potions Master, sorry." She took a deep breath and counted slowly to ten in her head, "Harry and I, well we went to break George out of Azkaban. He was put in there after Ron, reported him to the Aurors. Anyway, everything was fine until Harry tried to get rid of this last ward. It was really old and malicious and I think some part of it attached to Harry, though I'm not entirely sure about that. Anyway, we tripped some sort of silent alarm and the next thing we knew there was just this wall of dementors and Harry made me apparate back to his flat. They've been missing for almost three weeks. I'm actually surprised nothing was in the papers."
"And Potter did not think to apparate himself and the Weasley to safety? What did he think? That he could take on that many dementors on his own?" He snorted and sneered at Hermione, "Gryffindor arrogance."
"Well that's it, the whole story. From what I know at least, I couldn't get Harry to tell me what he had done to get them out of there, but I do know that he used some sort of dark magic. It was practically leaking from the walls when I got to his place, even the muggles were looking about with a sense of foreboding." Hermione wrinkled her nose, remembering the way it smelled.
"I am sure Potter will delight in detailing his heroic's to us when he wakes, which won't be until several days."
"You don't know him at all." Snape's head snapped up and he leveled is old student with a stare that could cut diamonds. "You think he revels in the attention he gets. It's the opposite, but you are too busy with your head up your arse to notice that your unfounded assumptions about him are entirely off base."
"Such kind words for the man who just saved your friends lives. I could have let them die you know."
"You wouldn't." It was a statement.
"And what makes you think that Miss Granger?" Snape's voice had become velvety, in the way Hermione remembered it becoming when someone was about to get house points deducted. But they weren't at Hogwarts anymore. She stood a little straighter and brushed out the wrinkles in her skirt that her squirming hands had created.
"Because you need Harry's help. Letting him die would only-"
The door to Snape's room pushed open and Hermione turned to see a beady little man walk through. At first glance she thought he could be attractive, but it was his eyes and the way he walked that had her thinking he wasn't so pleasant after all. He looked at her and gave her what could be a smile, or a grimace. And walked into the room as though it were his.
"Sev, what is-" He pulled up short when he noticed the two men sleeping on, what Hermione assumed was, his lover's bed. Barring his teeth at them he slunk over to drape himself over Snape. Hermione was reminded harshly of a rat. The man showed her his teeth again and she all but snorted at his display of possessiveness.
"Who are you girl. You aren't welcome here."
"Jealous?" Hermione mocked before turning her attention to Snape, this man wasn't worth her time and if she read him right ignoring him would irritate him the most. Just like Peterson he was. She swallowed what words she had to say when the look on Snape's face caught her eye.
His mouth was pinched shut and his whole body vibrated with the need to escape. His eyes bulged slightly and the fingers of his left hand continually clenched and unclenched.
"Off, Donald." Hermione started, Donald?
Donald made a noise that closely resembled one of Tigger's purrs and slid liquidly off the ex-professor. Even in an action so simple as that Hermione felt a wave of revulsion come over her. How Snape could manage to be near him was baffling. Donald gave her another sneer and sat in one of the plush armchairs that adorned Snape's room. She sent in a scathing look in retaliation and fixed her attention once again on the greasy git.
"Is there anything else you need me for? Only I have to be at work soon, would it be alright if I left them here with you?"
The dark haired man gestured to his bed, "I don't think that question requires a proper answer. Be gone with you, you can return tonight. Though please, take my apparation coordinates with you. I would hate for you to barge in on my bathing the same way you did my sleep." Hermione blushed a bright crimson and took the transfigured parchment with his coordinates on them. She threw him a half hearted wave and left.
As she closed the door behind her Hermione had to wonder if it was more dangerous to leave them in the care of Snape…
Or Donald.
Please review and tell me whether or not you would like me to bring Ron more into the story.