***AUTHOR'S NOTE: As much as I wish it were so, I don't own Harry Potter or anything HP related. Thank Queen J.K. Rowling for that.***
***This one's a doozy. Strap in.***
Hermione broke the mental connection with a sharp gasp, her body sagging against the cold earth beneath the tent's thin fabric. She grit her teeth against the fierce Legilimency migraine and waves of nausea that were currently battering her stomach to and fro as if they were on the roiling seas, rather than solid ground. She should have known it wouldn't be so easy; she should have known Voldemort's soul would not be so compliant.
"What is it?" Her younger self touched her quivering shoulder gently, sweeping the thick curls back from her hidden face. When she didn't respond, the girl's grip tightened. "Are you alright? Is… is Harry alright?"
"It has such a hold on him," Hermione whispered in horror, wide eyes still locked on her fists. "It wants him desperately. I didn't think…"
Ron came barreling over, shoving his teenage friend out of the way so he could yank at Hermione's shoulders roughly, "You said you could get rid of it!" He snarled, bright blue eyes flashing in barely restrained fury. "You said you could do it!"
The young witch was tugging on his arm none too gently, "Ronald Weasley! Let her go this instant- what on earth has gotten into you?!"
"She fucking lied to us!" He snapped. "She promised she could save him!"
Hermione was vaguely aware that the teenagers around her, with the exception of the unconscious Harry, were screaming at each other but she couldn't bring herself to the surface of it all. She had seen the inky blackness of the horcrux inside Harry; she had touched the vile, corrupted shimmery slime that had wound its way around the boy's innocent soul. And the moment she touched it, it had spoken to her.
Tears burned her eyes at the memory of what it had said.
It knew. It knew her. It knew her deepest fears and darkest terrors. It had seen them all.
It had laughed at her.
Hermione took a deep breath, forcing the worst of it behind her still shuddering Occlumency walls. She needed to remember that this wasn't about her. This was about removing the sliver of Voldemort's soul from Harry so that she could finally free Severus from his first master once and for all. She was exhausted, physically, mentally, and emotionally, but if she could just be strong for a little while longer…
Think. She commanded herself. Take a step back and think.
The knife would be crucial- that much was clear. But it was also clear that the soul fragment, though not the strongest, would fight back even if it meant killing its host. It wanted Harry with a desperation that frightened her and she was certain that it would not leave the boy without one hell of a fight.
So how to remove it?
Hermione though back to what she knew about horcruxes. If put into an inanimate object, they were fairly innocuous- unless touched, worn, or kept in close proximity for long periods of time, anyway. But she seemed to remember that living horcruxes were different, less stable due to the volatility of such an evil entity being within something alive. She closed her eyes, thinking back to the book she'd read so many years ago. In her mind, she could see the words on the page as if the book was right in front of her again…
Her eyes snapped open.
Of course. The soul fragment needed another living host in order to let go of the boy.
Hermione forced herself to her feet, swaying slightly when she finally managed to remain upright. Ron caught her arm in his vice-like grip before she could make her way to the tent's entrance, "Just where the bloody hell do you think you're going? You're not finished here!"
Her last shred of self-control shattered. In the amount of time it took the boy the blink, Ron was face down on the ground with his arms twisted painfully behind his back- a knee pinning them in place against his spine and a vinewood wand at his throat.
Her voice was low as she growled close to his ear, "Manhandle me again and I will hex your fucking bollocks off. Do you understand me?"
Ron's voice was muffled by the frigid ground but he managed a strangled: "Gerroff me!"
She pushed more weight onto her knee, his face scrunching in pain as she dug the tip of her wand into his throat, "I'm warning you, Weasley. I am not your friend. You would do well to remember that."
He continued to struggle against her, "Fucking crazy bitch, get off—"
And then she saw a glint of candlelight catch on the heavy chain around his neck. Hermione rolled her eyes- were they really that stupid? In one quick motion, she curled her fingers around the chain and yanked hard enough to break the clasp. The heavy golden locket fell to the ground with an audible thunk and almost instantly, Ron stilled.
"Better?" She asked as she removed her knee from his back.
He nodded as he struggled to his feet, a fierce blush creeping over his freckled cheeks. He rubbed the back of his neck sheepishly, "Much. Sorry 'bout that."
She was about to give him a rather scathing lecture about his glaring lack of common sense in wearing a fucking horcux when, from the corner of her eye, she noticed the younger witch reaching for the locket. Hermione snapped it up quickly, before the other girl's fingers even came close. Before the newest idea could even finish forming in her mind, she plunked the locket down on the wooden table, whipped out the pearlescent knife from beneath her shirt, and stabbed it directly in the center of the serpentine 'S'. Horrific black smoke burst from the locket with an unholy, demonic bellow- knocking the three of them across the tent to slam against the hard, unforgiving ground with a sickening crack. A few seconds later, as quickly as it had appeared, the smoke dissipated into the air.
Well, it was nice to know that her theory about the knife working against horcruxes was right.
"Is… is everyone alright?" Hermione managed through pained breaths.
"My baaaaack…" Ron groaned somewhere to her right. "Merlin's bollocks…"
"I caught my shoulder on the ground, but otherwise I'm alright," the younger Hermione murmured, rolling onto her side until she could see them both. "How about you? Are you hurt?"
Hermione pushed herself up, "Just mild whiplash I think."
Ron eventually managed to sit up as well, albeit slowly, and looked towards the table, "Was that…?"
"Yes, the locket's been destroyed," she looked up to see the young witch holding out the knife to her and she took it gently. "Thank you."
The girl sat back on her heels, eyes flickering between the still unconscious Harry and the older version of herself, "Is there really no way to get it out of him?"
Hermione shook her head, "I didn't say that. It just won't be easy and I won't be able to do it on my own. I'll need some outside help."
"Outside… help?"
The two women contemplated each other for a moment before Hermione turned, "Ron- you go and take watch while we prepare to remove the horcux from Harry. I will need to leave for a bit so we need to make sure it's safe for me to do so."
The redhead nodded somewhat reluctantly before lumbering out of the tent and into the cold.
The young witch's voice was low, "Just tell me what you need."
Hermione dusted off her black clothes and waved her hand at her hair, the curls winding in a knot atop her head, "I need to bring someone back with me if this is going to work, but you have to trust me when I say he is on our side. Can you do that?"
There was exactly six seconds of tense silence before the she answered, "It's Professor Snape, isn't it?"
Hermione's eyes widened.
The younger girl sighed, "I had my suspicions about that for a while now. It's… rather nice to know my assumptions were correct after all and that I wasn't just going mad. But Ron and Harry won't understand—"
"Then we make them."
"I really think you're overestimating their capacity for trust, especially when it comes to Professor—"
Hermione spoke so softly it was almost a whisper, "I can't do this without him."
"Oh…" She breathed, tired eyes sharp with understanding. "He was your husband, wasn't he?"
Verbal confirmation wasn't needed. The way she shifted away her gaze and bit her lip was enough.
A small, warm hand covered her own and she looked up to see the other her smiling a little sadly, "Do what you need to do to get him here with us. We won't move unless it's necessary and if we do, I'll send you a patronus. Let me know when you're outside the wards and I'll dose Ron with Dreamless Sleep and stupefy Harry again. Whenever you return, I'll be ready."
Hermione could feel the cracks in her mask widening, the fissures spreading across her brave and fearless façade that threatened to expose just how terrified and inadequate she really felt taking on this entire war by herself. But she was unwilling to give the other girl a reason to doubt her and her strength, so she pulled her into a tight embrace instead, "I will do the best I can for Harry, I swear it."
The young witch chuckled softly, "Of course you will. You're me."
x-x-x
She was already cringing when her Apparition landed her back in the Headmaster's office, eyes squeezed shut in preparation for the verbal onslaught she was certain was forthcoming.
"It's just me, my dear."
Hermione opened her eyes to the empty office, confirming Albus' assertion. Her gaze flickered to the clock- 2 in the morning. Had he not awoken yet?
"Severus came down looking for you about an hour ago. He said he would be awaiting you in his chambers when you returned."
She bit her lip; ahh, this was bad, "And did you tell him where I went?"
The portrait's expression was annoyingly hard to read in her exhaustion, "You asked me not to, remember? I simply told him you stepped out."
Oh fucking hell, that was even worse. Severus was likely going to eviscerate her if he was truly under the impression that she was simply flouncing around this world as if there wasn't a war going on. Hermione rolled her shoulders and her neck before touching her fingertips to ensure her wand was still strapped to her forearm.
The old man chuckled, "Preparing for a fight, my dear?"
"With him, you never know," Hermione rubbed her forehead. "Just tell me- was he upset?"
"Of course he was. He awoke to find you had disappeared, with no clue as to where you'd gone. He was even less pleased when he asked me what I knew and I told him you specifically instructed me not to tell him."
She grit her teeth, cursing the annoying portrait under her breath as she trudged towards the Headmaster's chambers. The moment she stepped over the threshold into his rooms, the door slammed shut violently behind her and her back was pinned to the door by a looming figure all in black.
Before she could even blink, he was baring his teeth and snarling down at her, "Are you mad?! Have you completely lost your mind?! Or are you so keen to meet Death again that you've simply thrown all self-preservation to the wind?!"
As she stared up into his beautiful burning obsidian eyes, so full of recrimination and anger, Hermione finally felt her mask slip. Her face crumpled and her fingers fisted in the front of his voluminous black robes, sobs ripping from deep within her chest and dampening his clothes. She felt him let out a deep, shaky sigh and he pulled his arms from trapping her against the door to pull her against his chest instead.
"Do you have any idea the panic… when I awoke and you were gone, I feared… even that bumbling old fool wouldn't tell me where you'd gone and I just…" Severus' grip on her tightened. "Merlin have mercy, Hermione you cannot fucking scare me like that. Have you forgotten that I'm an old man?"
If she tried to say anything, it was lost between the wracking sobs that shook her entire body.
"Oh sweet girl, don't cry," he crooned, lips pressing against her temple over and over. "I shouldn't have let my temper get the better of me like that. I… I'm… sorry."
It took a few minutes of him murmuring comforting nonsense for her to be able to pull herself back together, but when she finally did, she felt stronger. She was still exhausted and afraid of everything that was weighing so heavily on her shoulders, but she didn't feel like she was holding her breath while balancing on a ledge anymore. This was the path she had chosen, so now there was no other choice but to follow it- whether she ended up falling off that precarious ledge or not.
"I'm sorry," Hermione said into his chest, her voice slightly rough. "I know you hate that."
"When it's you, I find it doesn't matter as much," he swiped away the tear tracks with his thumb and lifted her chin with his long, slender fingers, obsidian eyes searching hers. "Now tell me where you were, Hermione. Tell me what's going on."
She sighed darkly, "More work thanks to Albus, of course. Is it ever anything else?"
His heavy, elegant brow furrowed but he didn't break his gaze, "The entire Outer Circle has already been apprehended. If the Order had begun to work on the others who are left, I would have been summoned. What—"
"Horcruxes."
Severus froze, his eyes hard, "As in more than one."
"Yes."
"How many exactly?"
"Seven."
"Gods damn it all," he growled, eyes slipping shut. "Of fucking course he would have made bloody fucking horcruxes."
Hermione's fingers brushed his sharp cheekbones, her voice soft, "Three of them have been destroyed and the others are being taken care of. There is only one I need your help with."
Severus let out a rather breathless chuckle, his dark eyes warm and somewhat astonished as he looked at her, "Merlin woman, you are a wonder. Is there anything you can't do?"
But her mood did not lighten as her fingers reached his lips, "I can't destroy this one without you, Severus. And we don't have much time; we need to leave as soon as we can."
"Of course I'll help, my little lioness," he kissed her fingertips. "Just tell me what must be done."
She took a deep breath before meeting his gaze, "Harry… Lily's son… he's a horcrux. It was an accident but it happened nonetheless. And we can't defeat him until all the pieces have been destroyed."
Every time Hermione thought nothing else could possibly hurt her, that she had experienced all the pain that was possible for one person, she was inevitably proven wrong. This time was no different. At the mention of Lily's name, Severus physically flinched. At the revelation that her son, who had the woman's undeniably striking emerald eyes, was a horcrux, Severus pulled away from her. At the word 'destroyed', he stumbled back and collapsed onto the couch, shoulders hunched and face hidden behind his dark curtain of hair.
Her heart twisted painfully in her chest at the sight of him in such agony but a deeper part of her was railing, screaming that it was just so unfair. She sent a silent curse up to the Gods, wondering why the hell they couldn't seem to escape Lily's grasp no matter what life they were in. Severus may have all the memories from her other life, he may be able to feel that he loves her, but even with all of that, he still didn't seem able to let go of Lily.
She could almost feel the words tattooed on her arm sneering at her, mocking her. Second best, they taunted even as she scratched at the inky letters under her sleeve. Always second best.
Hermione shoved it all away; deep behind her Occlumency walls. There was no time for wallowing right now; she could dwell on it all later.
She came to kneel in front of him, hands on his sharp knees, forcing her voice to remain steady and assured, "Severus, I know it sounds bad but I think I have a way to remove the soul fragment without harming him. I just can't do it alone. Will you come with me? I went to see the three of them already, to see if it would even be possible, and Harry's subconscious is receptive to me. I am almost certain I can get it to let go of him and Hermione agreed to have both of the boys unconscious when we arrive so they don't see you."
He sounded so much like the hurt, broken Severus she remembered from that time in the Hospital Wing during their 6th at Hogwarts that it physically hurt, especially because he didn't sound that way because of her this time, "We can't let him die. He's all that is left of her."
Internally, Hermione recoiled and vomited and raged and wept. Externally, she was still as stone and just as calm. "I won't, Severus. I promise. But if we're going to do this, we need to leave while you can still get away from the school. Will you come?"
He did little more than nod.
x-x-x
"The wards are close, can you feel them?"
Severus nodded silently, straightening his spine and squaring his shoulders in preparation of donning his usual 'Professor Snape' persona. She could physically see that acerbic, sneering mask fall into place and the early morning air felt that much colder on her skin.
Deep in the privacy of her own thoughts, she could finally admit to herself that she desperately missed home. She missed the life she had and the husband who wore her matching words, who loved her unconditionally. She missed the man who made her laugh and taught her Legilimency and couldn't bake worth a damn and gifted her books with magic so powerful they could have a baby. She missed the way he pressed his lips to her words and made love to her in every room, on every surface and whispered words of love and adoration when he thought she was asleep. She missed his griping about her hair clogging the drain and his whining when he was ill and his doting when she was the sick one. She missed her soulmate.
There was a nagging, constant thought gnawing at the edges of her mind that told her Severus, this Severus, would never entirely be hers. That all of those precious things she had taken for granted were lost forever.
It was almost too much.
Hermione hadn't even realized she'd stopped walking until she heard Severus' deep, silky baritone cut through the wooded silence, "Are you unwell?"
Three words. Three innocuous, little words that most people would be grateful to hear coming from someone as outwardly cold as him. But Hermione could hear what was underneath those words. She could hear that he was reverting back to being formal with her, that all the progress they'd made was slipping away. She could hear his loyalty to Lily superseding anything he felt for her.
She shoved all of it tightly behind her Occlumency walls, pulling out her wand, "I'm fine; I just need to let Hermione know we're here."
After casting a quick patronus that swam through the air for a moment before disappearing, the wards quickly melted away to allow Severus through without issue. Hermione led him into the tent where Ron was already passed out on a small bunk bed to the far left and Harry was unconscious on a single bed in the back.
The young witch quickly came over to give Hermione a short but familiar embrace, "Glad you were able to make it back so quickly without any issues." She gave a small nod to Severus. "Professor Snape. It's good to see you again."
He snorted derisively, crossing his arms over his chest.
The younger girl wasn't deterred, "So what now? How do we get that horrid thing out of him?"
"We don't do anything," Hermione said, removing the knife from her waistband and moving to the back of the tent where Harry had been stupefied. She sat on the bed next to him, gently prodding his scar with her pointer finger from a few different angles. "I think his scar connects him to You-Know-Who much the same way that the Dark Mark connects the Death Eaters. They both channel Dark Magic, just differently."
"So what do you propose?" Severus drawled as if completely bored by the situation.
Hermione chewed her lip for a moment, "Horcruxes created with living hosts are incredibly rare but from what I remember, they are extremely volatile. They don't want to give up their host and they will fight hard to prevent it being taken from them. But I think, if I remove his scar the same way I remove a Dark Mark, I can isolate the soul fragment in his body and block the connection with Vold- ahem, him."
"Blocking the connection is all well and good but that would have been much more useful two years ago," he almost sneered.
Her retort was sharp, though she didn't look at him, "Well I wasn't here two years ago, was I?"
"Mmmm."
The younger Hermione's gaze was flickering confusedly between the two before finally settling on Hermione, "Okay, so you isolate the soul fragment and block the connection. What then?"
"According to what I remember…" Hermione let out a shaky breath. "The horcrux will only let go of him if it has another, more enticing living host to move into."
The atmosphere inside the tent was so thick it could be cut with a knife.
The girl was the first to speak, "I'm sorry, surely I misunderstood you. You're not suggesting that you take on the soul fragment… right?"
"I know it isn't ideal but I don't know any other way to get it to let go of Harry. Not without killing him, too."
"It isn't ideal?" Severus whispered before exploding into a furious roar. "IT ISN'T FUCKING IDEAL?! HAVE YOU LOST YOUR MIND?!"
She finally looked up at him, at his heaving chest, clenched fists, and face contorted in rage, "So what would you have me do then, Severus? Kill him? I thought we were trying to avoid that."
His mouth opened and closed several times before he was able to form a coherent sentence again, "That tiny piece of his soul is so evil, it will destroy you. It will eat away at you like it's necrotic until you are but a shell of yourself! It will twist and warp you into a being filled with nothing but anger and hatred and fear!"
"Not only that," the other witch interjected, brow furrowed in thought, "but won't someone have to kill you to destroy the fragment anyway? All you'd be doing is moving it, not destroying it."
Hermione unsheathed her knife, eyes unfocused as she looked somewhere beyond Severus' shoulder, "No… I remember something Albus said about him, about when he was still Tom Riddle and I think I can use what he said to… maybe not destroy it but… I don't know… purify it? Cleanse it, maybe? I'm not entirely sure."
Severus scoffed in disbelief, "You are willing to risk becoming a fucking horcrux of the Dark Lord and you aren't even certain if your plan will work? No, this is ridiculous and I will hear no more of it! We will come up with another way to—"
"There is no other way and even if, by some miracle there was, we don't have time to look for it!" She snapped. "With each horcux that is destroyed, he is bound to feel it more and more until he finally realizes what's happening to him. What do you think will happen then? We have to get rid of them quickly, before he's decided that he's waited long enough to end this war! If we try to fight him while he's still technically immortal, we will all die for nothing!"
"Well you should feel right at home then!" He snarled viciously. "You'll be able to give Death a proper greeting this time!"
Hermione visibly recoiled and then the younger version of herself finally stepped in between them, "Professor Snape! That is quite enough!"
He stalked forward, his voluminous robes billowing around him ominously, "Listen here, you impertinent, insufferable little chit…"
Hermione shoved the younger girl behind her and brandished her wand right at his ridiculous nose, "If you don't want to help, leave. I am going to do this with or without you."
Severus paused in his advance, obsidian eyes narrowed as he searched her gaze. His jaw clenched and unclenched several times before he finally fell back into a casual stance with his arms crossed over his chest, "You are making a mistake, Hermione."
"Perhaps, but I thought you were more concerned about the last remaining part of Lily remaining unharmed?"
His eyes widened and his arms fell to his sides as he ran a hand over his face, tone much gentler, "That isn't what I meant, Hermione. I never meant that you were dispensable."
"Didn't you?"
"Of course not! How could you even think—"
"If you intend to stay, then pay attention," Hermione turned back to sit next to Harry without waiting for him to finish. "After I cut his scar out, I'll use Legilimency to gain access to his mind and once inside, I'll find the soul fragment and try to entice it to let him go. If it works, I imagine you'll be able to tell. If you can, Rennervate Harry to make sure he is okay."
The young witch nodded in understanding, "Alright. And… and you?"
"If I end up taking the soul piece into myself, then Severus will need to Apparate me back to Hogwarts."
"Why?"
"So I can fight it, somewhere far away from Harry," she rolled her shoulders and undid the zipper on her tight black outer jacket, eyes flickering to Severus only briefly. "Understood?"
"Understood," the younger girl repeated.
"Severus?"
He at least at the decency to look ashamed as he nodded in acquiescence.
x-x-x
Cutting out the scar was easy, exactly the same as removing Draco's Dark Mark. With five small, precise cuts, the hunk of flesh had fallen to the ground and sizzled until it was nothing more than a black, charred mound.
"Ready?" She asked the other two conscious occupants of the tent.
"Ready," the other witch confirmed, moving behind her for support.
Severus came to kneel beside her, dark eyes soft as they roved over her face, "Ready."
Hermione took a few deep breaths before gently lifting Harry's heavy eyelids. She leaned over his body and breathed, "Legilimens."
She immediately went tumbling into the calm, soothing abyss of his unconscious mind. Panic was already threatening to overtake her but she forced herself to focus; after all, it wasn't likely that she would get another chance if she messed this up. There is no way the soul fragment would fall for the same trick twice.
Hermione extended her senses in order to find where the vile, corrupted parasitic soul was hiding. She felt it in the distance almost immediately, winding its way hungrily around a string of Harry's most potent, happy memories with the intention of blackening them. She took hold of that particular string of memories and pulled herself along until she felt thick, icy ooze under her fingertips.
The moment she touched it, soul fragment whispered to her in a sibilant hiss. Hermione Ssssnape. Sssso lovely to ssssee you again.
Let him go. She commanded, grip tightening.
I can tassste your anguisssh. Sssso deliciousss. Did he hurt you again?
Hermione tried to be more forceful. Let Harry go. He doesn't have anything more for you.
And you do?
Yes. I do.
The soul fragment let out a low, dark chuckle as it wrapped itself around her wrists like shackles. Then ssshow me.
Even if she had tried to resist, it wouldn't have mattered. The black ooze wound around her chest and caressed the area right above her heart with one evil tentacle like a lover before plunging inside of her sternum.
Sssso much pain… sssso much ssssadnesss… mmmmmm sssso ssssweet.
Hermione tried to shut out the onslaught of memories that were battering her psyche but the evil little piece of Voldemort was throwing them at her intentionally, forcing her to relive them all over again to maximize her pain.
Doessss it hurt to know that he preferssss a dead woman to you? The soul fragment crooned, caressing her wild curls with another black, sticky tentacle. Doessss it hurt to know even your ssssoulmate did not love you assss he sssshould have?
Please. Hermione begged, sharp stabs lancing through her heart at its words. Please stop.
He never forgave you for killing hissss sssson. He didn't even fight his Death in the end.
She began to thrash against the tentacles, desperate to get away from them. Hot tears stung her eyes and her throat burned. No. No Severus loved me. He loved me!
Did he? Are you sssso ssssure?
Hermione struggled harder, sobs building in her throat, but the soul fragment tightened its grip on her until it was painful.
Why would he want you when he could have Lily? Sssso perfect, sssso beautiful. He wassss trapped by his ssssoulmate wordssss. Even then, he didn't want you. Even when he knew about hissss wordssss, he wanted her. Alwayssss her. Alwayssss.
She started screaming.
But it did not relent. I have sssseen your heart, Hermione. I have sssseen your deepesssst fearssss. Alwayssss second best, alwayssss leasssst loved. The ssssecond option. You can end the war for thissss Sssseverussss, but he will never love you. You will only be there to warm hissss bed.
No! No, you're lying!
It chuckled again. Perhapssss you cannot bear children again, Hermione. Perhapssss you losssst your only chance. Why would Sssseverussss want a woman sssso broken?
Hermione was screamed as she clawed at the tentacles until her nails were bloody but it made no difference.
It doessss not matter how many Death Eaterssss you kill. You will never be the woman he covetssss. You will never be his choicccce.
The soul fragment burrowed beneath her skin and she tried to claw at her arms to stop it.
You made all the wrong choicessss, Hermione. You killed your sssson, you killed your hussssband. They are dead becausssse of you. How doessss it feel? Doessss it hurt? Let me tasssste your agony…
Something broke the Legilimency connection because suddenly Hermione could feel the cold earth beneath her knees and her thick curls wound around her fists and the grating of the early morning air on her throat as she screamed.
"No! NO! It wasn't my fault! Severus! SEVERUS!"
"Hermione! Hermione, it's alright! Open your eyes, I'm right here!"
The words sounded as if underwater. The only thing she could hear clearly was the horcrux mocking her, throwing horrible accusations at her with a smile. She curled in on herself further as she screamed, her throat being torn to shreds with the voracity of it.
Long, slender arms wrapped around her back and pulled her into a warm embrace, "Gods above, please open your eyes Hermione. I'm here. I'm right here and I promise I am not going anywhere."
"Severus," Hermione sobbed, gripping her hair so tight she was almost pulling it from the roots. "Severus, I am so sorry. Please forgive me. Forgive me! I didn't mean to. I made the wrong choice, always the wrong choice! I killed you, I killed you and I'm so sorry. I'm so sorry!"
"None of it was your fault," he soothed into her hair. "None of it. You can't listen to it, Hermione. It's lying to you. It's feeding on your despair and amplifying it."
The tears wouldn't stop, "Our baby. Our boy. It's all my fault. I should have listened to you. I should have… I should have… all my fault! All my fucking fault!"
"You have to get her back to Hogwarts, Professor," the younger witch said from somewhere behind her. "You have to get her in a safe place where she can be calm enough to fight it. Right now, it's running rampant through her; you need to get her somewhere safe where you can help her to remember what's real and what isn't. She can't tell the difference right now."
"Take care of Potter, Miss Granger," he said gruffly, pulling Hermione in tighter.
"And you take care of her, Professor. She needs you."
When Severus' Apparition landed them in his private chambers, it was 5 in the morning and while she was no longer screaming, Hermione could not seem to stop the sobs that wracked her body.
She could feel Severus' arms around her, but she could only hear the soul fragment cackling in her ears, recounting all the ways in which she failed those most important to her.
***It's a horcrux, a part of Voldemort's very evil soul- did you expect it to be nice?***