**I don't own these characters or the stories they belong to**
"Are you ready, Hermione?" asked Harry.
Hermione's increasing nervousness had abated momentarily with the wonder of what they had just seen, but it was returning now with a vengeance.
Hermione answered, "I need to tell you something first, Harry, and ask you both a favor," she added to Kingsley.
"What is it, Hermione?" asked Harry kindly.
Hermione began moving towards Severus as she talked. "Just after Ron left us, I found out my parents were dead. I don't know how or why, I just have this," she said, handing him the watch.
"Hermione," said Harry hugging her close, "I am so sorry."
She closed her eyes and bowed her head briefly. "Since it's likely that it will be a long time or maybe never before I regain my magic, after this will you help me go and find out what happened to them, help me make arrangements?"
"Yes, of course," he answered.
"Thank you, Harry," Hermione said. She finished walking towards Severus and began pulling the sheet down from his face. Her heart rate sped and her body fluttered with nerves.
Kingsley gasped when he saw it was Severus Snape under the sheet. He looked at Hermione astonished, understanding what this would mean for her - utterly flabbergasted at the idea.
Harry could see that Hermione was not equal to giving an explanation just now so he gave Shacklebolt a brief recap of what they had learned in the Pensieve and how and Snape had died.
"He was the bravest of us all," Hermione added.
"Yes, it seems so," said Kingsley.
Hermione looked at him. "He too is likely to be without magic either for a very long time or perhaps forever, depending on if and how much he continues to loathe me. For my part, I admire him a great deal, but he has never liked me overmuch. I don't know how this will turn out, but I have to try..." Hermione trailed off. "Kingsley, can I ask you to help him settle somewhere? It will need to be somewhere far away and all-Muggle, I think. Somewhere where he will be safe from anyone recognizing him. His father was a Muggle, so he should be able to cope, but it would be nice if he maybe had neighbors who think they have known him a long time and care enough to look out for him. I'll follow later if you could both help me settle somewhere close to him after I find out what happened to my parents. Don't tell him it's me. Tell him what happened, but help me out of here before he sees me. It may make it easier in the long run, I hope. Help us both out of here without us being seen, without this becoming common knowledge. Will you please help me?"
Kingsley could only marvel at the bravery of Hermione. He knew he would be very busy with the re-building of their world, but he couldn't not help her as she asked, not when he considered all that she was willing to give up, and all to save an unrecognized hero, who would, if his past behavior was anything to go by, never thank her. "Yes, Hermione. You have my word," he answered.
"Thank you. Thank you, both," she replied, standing a little straighter and squaring her shoulders.
Some of the weight of worry had been lifted; now she just had to conquer her nerves and face the unknown. "Okay, Harry. I'm ready," she said.
Harry pricked his finger again, and Hermione took a drop of his blood on her tongue. "Take of my essence," he said.
Hermione couldn't see the swirly-blue glow on herself that she had seen on the others, but she knew it must be there. Now she kneeled down next to Severus and her breathing became rapid and shallow, betraying the nerves tingling in her skin and the butterflies dancing in her stomach.
"With breath to share life," Harry said. Hermione placed her hands on the sides of Severus' face, gently placed her mouth over his, closed her eyes and gave him a breath. She pulled her face back, leaving her hands in place, and she could see that swirly-blue glow on Severus now.
"With kiss to share death," said Harry. Hermione looked at Severus' face as she slowly leaned down and kissed him, closing her eyes as her lips pressed softly against his.
Immediately, the pain, which she had expected, engulfed her. She slumped sideways beside the one she had chosen. There was a stabbing pain in her neck where the great snake, Nagini, had bitten Severus and a burning pain began to radiate out from the bite. Her heart stuttered, her skin felt like it was bubbling and her scalp tingled and crawled. It seemed like an eon, but the pain began to slowly fade.
Hermione was still nearly insensate, but she heard Harry say, "Wow, look at her!" and she heard Kingsley say, "I know, look at him!"
Harry and Kingsley were amazed by what they were seeing. It was clear that Snape and Hermione would both look like they'd survived the bite of a vampire with the two large hole-shaped scars on their necks, but their transformations were more drastic than the others had been. Harry wasn't sure if it was the snake venom or what, but Hermione's hair had darkened to a richer, darker shade of brown and it had straightened into a soft wave. He didn't know how to describe what had happened to Snape's hair other than it looked healthier, not-greasy, more luxuriant. Snape wasn't de-aging or anything, but the lines caused by worry, exhaustion, and lots and lots of scowling were smoothing out and disappearing. Hermione wasn't aging, but her looks did change in a way that was hard to define.
In the last couple of years, Hermione's features had grown into a delicate and lovely beauty. Her features were now transforming subtly into a soul-deep and almost haunting beauty, transforming in a way that enhanced and added to her beauty without taking anything away from its delicacy or changing the essential loveliness that was hers. Somehow, she now looked more mature without at all having lost her youth. Hermione had been lovely before, but people usually missed it, never looking deep enough, never looking past her mass of fuzzy brown hair. Harry had a feeling that no one who looked at Hermione would miss her beauty now.
More than returning to his normal sallow color, Snape appeared to be taking on some of Hermione's healthy color. And then he took a shuddering indrawn breath, he began breathing.
Severus had been climbing to a fuzzy awareness but felt weighted down, unable to move. He heard a girl scream as if she were far away down a tunnel, and then voices. Potter saying "Wow, look at her!" and a man (Kingsley Shacklebolt?) saying, "I know, look at him!" After a time, Kingsley said, "It's time Harry, say the words." And Severus heard Potter say the weirdest words, words that were frankly alarming. "The hearts of the rescuer and the rescued shall be entwined; their magic bound until the two are bound in life and in union joined."
What in the name of Merlin was going on? And then he heard the girl's soft voice call out to him, "Sev, " and he felt a soft hand brush his face, and he knew he would never forget that voice or touch, it would haunt his dreams.
"Come on, up you go," Kingsley was saying to someone. Severus opened his eyes wanting desperately to see the girl, but his eyes needed time to adjust. When they finally cleared enough to look around for her, all he saw was a glimpse her dark hair as Kingsley carried her out of the door. He wanted to call out "wait!" but nothing was working right yet. In a few moments, he regained his senses and his movement. He saw Potter as he sat up-definitely not who he wanted to see. Actually, he had a fuzzy memory of Harry/Lily's eyes filling his vision before going, somewhere?
"Potter," Severus said, still struggling to regain his memories and his wits. It was starting to come back to him now. Where was he? He felt his neck where he had been bitten, there was just a healed scar. What had happened? How was he here, alive?
Harry could see Snape's confusion and he had no wish to continue a life of animosity with this man.
He said, "If you could call me Harry, you might see your way to not hating me so much for my father's sake. For my part, the animosity between us is gone."
Severus considered this but didn't say anything. He was still trying to figure out what in the world had happened to him.
"You're probably thirsty and hungry and have a boat load of questions," Potter...Harry said. "Kreacher," he called.
A decrepit house elf appeared suddenly. "Kreacher, have their families been gathered? Can you fetch some drink and food now?"
"Yes, brave Master," the elf replied, sounding like a bullfrog. "The families of the Brown girl and Weasley boy is happy with many tears and is wondering how they lives. Kreacher will bring what Master needs," the elf said before disappearing.
He reappeared shortly with a tray bigger than he was, heavy with food and drink. "Thank you, Kreacher. Will you help Kingsley now, and see if there is anything that he needs? I will come to switch places with him in an a half hour or so." Potter...Harry said, taking the tray.
"Yes, Master. Kreacher is happy to help," the elf said before disappearing again.
"Here," Harry offered, setting the large tray in front of Severus.
Severus looked uncertainly at the tray that he was offered until Harry grabbed one of the bottles of butterbeer and chugged it. Harry sat, leaning tiredly against the wall and told him Voldemort was defeated, He then began filling Snape in on everything, leaving nothing out about the Horcruxes, the Hallows, or the prophecy, withholding nothing but Hermione's name and the fact that she had seen Snape's memories in the Pensieve. Severus ate and drank his fill, asking a few occasional questions which Harry answered in full.
It was a bit tricky when it got to discussing Snape's memories in the Pensieve. The last time Harry had seen Snape's memories in the Pensieve, it had been a disaster, and it didn't matter that the dying man had given him permission to see these other memories, Harry knew he had never intended to live with Harry knowing what he now knew. He skated as delicately over the matter as he could, not wanting to anger Snape. Severus was extremely mortified, but Harry wasn't pestering him or acting horrible about it and Severus was still too confused and full of questions to blow up in anger over it just now. Harry was politely and matter-of-factly telling him all he wanted to know and surprising and impressing him with a great bit - not that he let on - and Severus withheld his usual snide and angry comments so that Harry would keep telling him what he wanted to know.
Harry finally got around to handing Severus a parchment with a prophecy on it that contained those disturbing words to do with entwined hearts, life-bonding, and bound magic. Harry explained that the prophecy had come from Sybill Trelawney before the battle, and after the battle, they had realized what it meant. Arthur Weasley and Kingsley Shacklebolt had helped them rescue him, Lavender Brown and Fred Weasley from death. And here they were.
Only Harry never did mention who the girl was who had saved him, and Harry had no way of knowing how much Severus wanted to know who she was, how much he felt like there was a hole in him that hadn't been there before, a hole that felt like it had to do with her...because Severus, of course, said nothing of it and asked no questions about her. It was bad enough that Potter...Harry knew of his past with Lily; there was no need to add to an unbearable situation.
