Chapter 8: The Formidable One
{A/N: Here's another update...late post...}
My Thanks To All My Reader And Reviewers...Enjoy S.S
The Infirmary, Hogwarts Castle, Wizarding World...
Unbeknownst to Severus Snape, sorrowful amber eyes had been watching him. The Potions Master had been carefully laid out in bed with crisp white sheets and an even more bright white comforter covering his broken battle weary form. The constant beeping and buzzing had been the only sound that filled the room next to his labored breathing as the bushy haired witch continued to watch him. She had not honestly known what had compelled her to come to this place day after day and look over the sleeping wizard. The anguish of the final battle had still been felt even one month after the decisive conclusion. She still had been in a state of shock when she and Harry both raced back toward the shrieking shack and put Severus Snape under stasis before heading off to face Voldemort. It had been a largely unspoken thing between them as they returned to find him still clinging to life despite the powerful venom and the serious amount of blood loss.
The two of them wordlessly levitated the dour wizard needing to save him for reasons they dared not share with one another. Once they got him into the infirmary, Harry persuaded Madam Pomfrey to do him a favor and do whatever she could to ensure that Snape survived, and to keep his apparent state a secret. At first the old Med-Witch had been skeptical, recalling how Harry informed the entire school of Snape's betrayal and murder of Headmaster Albus Dumbledore.
When the green eyed Gryffindor explained that Snape had been acting on the older wizard's orders, she pledged to help, but it had been a long way from clearing the broken Slytherin's name. Harry and Hermione agreed to visit Snape in shifts whenever the other had class or needed to offer assistance elsewhere.
Tears streamed down the pale cheeks of a silent Hermione Granger as she continued to watch over the sleeping Potions Master. She had seen first hand the many scars that Snape had when assisting Madam Pomfrey with his care. She wondered about each and everyone of them but knew that to get the story she would have to ask the man himself. She had not held out much hope about him giving her an answer to her numerous questions even as she dipped a sponge in water and gently wiped away the sweat and soot from his battered lean pale form.
"I'm so sorry." she said softly as she saw no sign of even a conscious twitch from the ailing wizard.
"Me too." said the voice of a sorrowful Harry Potter as he entered the infirmary.
His emerald eyes never leaving Snape but the concern had been etched across his own pale face.
The grim atmosphere of what the war had left behind still seemed to burrow itself into the very core of their being as they stood watching him.
"D-Do you think he'll ever awaken?" asked Hermione not at all looking at Harry Potter as her amber eyes remained on Snape, his lean chest rising and falling with each aid given breath.
"He's got to." said Harry more than determined to see the Potions Master back in his previous state of living.
The tears continued to trickle down Hermione's cheek as she recalled just how Snape ended up in this position.
( The Shrieking Shack had been an ominous place before the war, with Sirius Black and Professor Lupin making their way to the now ghastly place. The scent of old wood and mountains of dust had not been pleasing either. Hermione Granger had huddled in the darkness beside Harry Potter, whom had taken the lead in following the seemingly unawares Potions Master, Ronald Weasley, and Voldemort, accompanied by Nagini.
Harry had been bitter about Dumbledore's death and quite angry with Snape as a result. Hermione herself felt a bit indifferent, while she had been floored by Dumbledore's loss her ever functioning mental capacity had been at the helm when she went with Harry to the Shrieking Shack. She couldn't seem to understand why, after all Snape's years of service to Dumbledore, and his status as Spy within the Order of Phoenix, not to mention his apparently close ties with the staff of Hogwarts, would he betray them all for a snake-faced lunatic whom feared death as well as his own shadow.
None of this made any sense to her that night as she watched Snape seemingly stare out into the looming sky, his sallow pale face truly a sorrowful sight. They had merely seconds before Voldemort arrived and she noted instantly that Snape had been aware of their presence. He caught sight of Harry first and simply put a finger to his lips. The gesture startled Harry and Hermione both as all the rage seemed to dissipate in that instant.
Maybe it was force of habit. Maybe it was blind instinct but trusting Snape in that moment had been the difference between life and obvious certain death when the leader of the death eaters came slinking into the shrieking shack, his hideous pet snake slithering along the dusty wooden floor boards.
It had been clear that Voldemort had been upset about the Elder Wand not responding to him as he had anticipated. Snape who's spine had been laced with steel seemingly since the day of his birth had done a mediocre job of feigning fear of what was about to come, it had been as if he had known all along what Voldemort had been planing and awaited the outcome patiently, playing his part one last time.
"The wand does it truly answer to me?" hissed Voldemort in a sort of patient yet enraged tone. "Where does it's true loyalty lie?"
Snape placed his hands behind his back signaling them to stay put.
"With you of course, my lord." replied Snape like a good little soldier.
Voldemort looked upon Snape with a kind of gesture akin to pity.
"The elder wand cannot serve me properly because I am not it's true master." replied the despot. "The elder wand belongs-s-s to the wizard who killed it's last owner...you killed Dumbledore, S-Severus-s-s...while you love the elder wand cannot truly be mine..."
As Voldemort rambled on, Hermione noted the strange expression file across Snape's sallow pale face as if he had been bracing himself for some violent impact.
"You have been a good and faithful s-s-servant, S-S-Severus-s-s, but only I can live forever." continued Voldemort.
Snape continued to behave as if he knew nothing about what Voldemort had planned for him.
"My lord..." he said, his final words to the despot.
Hermione had not been sure but she believed there was a hint of gratitude in his tone despite the horrible ordeal that would follow.
Voldemort slashed his throat via magic and Snape's weakened body dropped to the floor with a thud that sent chills down the bushy haired witch's spine. His gasp at the impact while his crimson blood spilled all over the hard dust covered floor had made her heart stop. More fear had gone through her like ice water in her veins as she heard the hiss. The distinctive and merciless hiss of Nagini as the greedy snake coiled ready to strike.
Hermione had not realized she had been holding her breath as she heard the command from the despot to his accursed familiar.
"Nagini, Kill." the words had seemed to stop time as they were uttered.
The strikes came in rapid succession, punctuated by the frequent thuds of Snape's weakened body against the structure that held the young Gryffindors from the despot Voldemort's view.
One.
Snape's body hit against the mercifully build structure that obscured the despot's view of them.
Two.
Followed by a choked out gasp from the Potions Master.
Three.
Tears had begun to fall from a shocked Harry Potter's emerald green eyes.
Four.
Tears were streaming down Hermione's own pale cheeks.
Five.
It amazed her that he had made no sound other than the gasps which were no doubt painful and equally involuntary.
Six.
The number of times had been all together inhumane.
Seven.
Even Ron had been stunned into tears. He had resented Snape for much of his life and could not imagine a worse fate for anyone.
Eight.
The despot and his serpent left the shack without so much as a backward glance. Snape's blood had been everywhere as his body continued to twitch from the pain and venom. Harry had been the first to go to him as if compelled by something without name. His heart had been beating rather frantically in his chest. He had hated this man his whole life and now...now he found himself fearful for the first time as he looked upon him in a pool of his own blood.
There were no words as he quietly kneeled beside the ailing Potions Professor. An understanding between them that not even Hermione could decipher.
Tears streamed down the broken wizard's face as freed himself from all the emotions he hid behind that clever mask of indifference. So many questions ran through Hermione's mind. She didn't doubt the same about Harry as he tried to stop the bleeding with his own hands not at all giving a moment's pause with this helpless Slytherin in need.
"T-Take them." said Snape struggling amid the gurgling blood that oozed from his mouth.
Harry had been a bit numb to the scene of his dour Potions Professor with tears streaming down his sallow pale cheeks. It had been sobering to see that after all those years of hate and calling him a dungeon bat, Severus Snape was indeed human and felt real emotions just like him.
"T-Take them please..." said Snape pleading.
Hermione rooted through her pack and produced a small flask and Harry quickly collected the fresh tears that streamed down Snape's cheeks.
"T-Take them to the pensive..." he instructed his former student one last time.
Harry had not known what to say. He had not been the only one shocked into complete silence. Then Snape said something that changed everything.
"Y-You have your mother's eyes." said the Potions Master as he drew what would have been his final breath had Harry not impulsively cast a stasis spell.
It had been the first time Snape had said anything about his mother. For years Snape compared him to his arrogant bully father but never once said a word about his mother...now to hear that Snape seemed to have known her too after all these years his tone had been fond and almost whimsical despite his condition. Harry had to know more. The questions that burned in his mind much to great to just let this man go.
Hermione had felt the same simultaneously casting the stasis spell with Harry to ensure it held while they were away. Snape had been a mystery as far as she was concerned but there had clearly been more to it. }
"He's going to have to be moved." said Hermione wiping the tears from her eyes.
"I know." replied Harry, "I plan to take him to Grimmauld Place, I can look after him there."
"Y-You plan to do this alone?" asked the bushy haired witch slightly resentful of Harry trying to take Snape away.
"He doesn't have any relatives..." said the green eyed wizard.
"What about the Malfoys?" asked Hermione. "They were close you know."
"No." replied Harry a bit bitterly.
"Harry." said Hermione.
"I said no...I don't want them around him." said the green eyed wizard. "Besides...they have their own problems with trying to stay out of Azkaban."
"But..." began the bushy haired witch.
"Nobody else is going to get Snape." said Harry with a look of determination filed across his pale face. "He's coming home with me and that's final."
Hermione sighed. Harry was quite impossible to reason with these days.
"Fine." she replied folding her arms across her chest. "But I'm coming too."
Harry had been stunned by her words.
"Hermione..." he began.
"I said I am coming Harry James Potter." said Hermione with a look of determination of her own.
It was Harry's turn to fold his arms across his chest.
"Fine." he replied. "But...don't get in the way."
Hermione rolled her eyes. She had no idea what Harry had planned for Snape but she knew she was going to be with them in that rather large old house left to him by Sirius Black, the former Headquarters of The Order Of Phoenix.
To be honest she had not known why she had been so desperate to go to 12 Grimmauld Place with Snape and Harry, but it seemed she couldn't or rather didn't want to be away from the dour wizard. Not when she had grown so accustomed to seeing him everyday even in his comatose state. Both Gryffindors continued to watch the sleeping wizard hoping against hope for a sign of life from him. The past month had been nerve-wracking to say the least.
