"Hold still, Professor."
A disgruntled noise was her only response. Hermione sighed heavily as she tried to get a better view of the lines on his stomach. He wasn't doing her any favors by keeping the damned jacket on. The fabric was too thin, unlike the coats she remembered him wearing and though she had managed to convince him to at least release the bottom buttons he had refused to remove it completely. He flinched every time she'd get close enough to press the salve into the irritated line, and it would also cause the shirt underneath to shift. She suspected he had partially splinched himself thus irritating the lines already present, but the stubborn man had refused to allow her to look him over. It had taken nearly ten minutes to convince him to let her put on the salve. He was being impossible. She gave the material a harder pull glaring up from her bent position before pressing the salve into the raised flesh a bit more firmly than necessary.
"Merlin woman!" Snape hissed and took a full step back causing the Gryffindor to sway. She huffed indignantly at him and gave him a rather impressive scowl.
"This wouldn't take so long if you'd just lie down and let me open your shirt, sir." She had fallen into the old routine of addressing him by title, it kept her heart from fluttering and kept her mind on task. Though at this rate they'd both be gray by the time she finished.
Severus was stalling, he knew it. He had hoped that the time would have run out before she would actually get to touching him. He wasn't in a great amount of pain at least by his standards the splinch marks were hardly a 1 on his personal pain scale and he had been easily able to avoid processing them before she started touching him. Her touch was both soothing and alarming. In all the time he'd cared for her she had never been in the position to care for him. Sure she had touched him even removed his clothes but she had never had to care for him. It was an odd sort of role reversal that he was having a rather hard time wrapping his mind around.
The woman in question slowly got to her feet, her jaw was set and it looked like she was about to enter into a lecture when her eyes went crossed. She let out a small 'Oh,' and promptly pitched forward. Snape had just enough time to catch her under her arms before she could land face first onto the floor. With a small grunt, he adjusted his hold lifting her under her arms and onto the edge of the bed. She let out a low whine of pain while her eyes rolled back and he carefully rolled her onto her stomach.
It was the moment he had been waiting for, the potion Poppy had given her had run its course, it would leave her knocked out for approximately 3 hours if the mediwitch had dosed her properly. He sighed through his nose and pulled her legs up onto the bed with her. He could leave, he told himself, shatter the wards and just escape, run, like a coward.
Snape snarled at his own conscience and turned down picking up the salve she had been attempting to put on him. He hastily added it to the marks over his stomach before setting it aside. He looked down at her, he didn't know the extent of her injuries, what he did know was that Poppy never used that particular potion on someone who wasn't in extreme pain. He made a face as he tried to decide what to do.
He argued both sides of the coin with himself way longer than he should have before finally reaching forward and pulled the ebony wand from her pocket. He ran his fingers down its short length, it was strong. He could feel it accepting him and turned his wrist toward the back of her shirt. It was a place to start. With a deep breath, he dragged the tip of his wand down the back the material.
His jaw ticked as he looked down the line that bifurcated her otherwise flawless skin. The crease itself was much smaller than it had been but the skin around the edges was greatly irritated, a spot near her lower back was the worst. He leaned forward running his fingers over the dip, he could feel parts of her skin that had been taken away, and a piece of bone that had been reformed, its edges a bit sharper than natural bone. He would hazard a guess that they had to mend her spine. It was a tricky process, even under the best circumstances, he had no idea what condition she had been in when she had been healed. Nor how competent the healer was. From the looks of it, the healer had done a fair job, but she had definitely not been making it easy. A muscle rolled under his finger and he pulled back, he watched her left leg twitch as a response and heard a soft whimper leave her throat.
He frowned as he pressed his wand into the muscle, a little spell of his own to help combat the cruciatus curse, from the corner of his eye he could see the muscle relax and her leg go still. He wracked his brain as he thought of what the healer would have given her to help stave off the pain. He was sure he didn't have anything stronger than mild pain draughts and numbing salve. He hadn't really needed anything as serious in his emergency kit, it had only been designed to keep one alive not manage pain.
She needed proper care, proper potions a clean place to stay. He was no more fit to care for her than he had been at the beginning.
"Severus...?"
Snape's head snapped up, her eyes were barely open but he could easily tell she was out of touch with reality. He jerked slightly when her hand touched him.
"Hold me... please?"
His brow ticked, that definitely wasn't a tone he was used to hearing. It was, caring...soft like a lover begging their partner to join them in bed.
"Before you leave me...hold me..."
His eyes widened, had she really seen through his entire plan? There was no way, he hadn't had the connection open. He had been so careful. His face contorted slightly as she reached for him again.
Her eyes were glassy but didn't waver, Severus felt a sharp pull on his heart. As cold of a bastard as he was. He found that he had very little to say in protest. His eyes left hers for only the time it took to mend her shirt. He glanced back to see if she was still watching, she was, before he moved over her. He kept his body from touching her but when her head dragged heavily to face him he let his heart control his hand. It came up slowly, running down the tops of her eyelashes, she blinked instinctually and he repeated the process until they finally remained closed.
A soft breath left his nose and he could feel his own body sinking into the bed, he was tired too, that quick nap in the hollow hadn't done him any favors. His fingers lightly traced the ridge of her cheek before lowering to rest over the back of her shoulders. He kept his arm tense so as not to put too much weight on her, his fingers even moved in lazily soothing circles. He didn't want to, he didn't want to care, but he was tired. Tired of all the pain that had become his very existence, so, like the other times before, he let himself relax to the comforts she provided. His eyes slid closed as he allowed himself to rest. Just an hour, he told himself, just an hour and then he was as good as gone.
oOOo
Harry jerked awake as his work alarm went off. It was a specially charmed bell that would ring when their presence was requested in an emergency. Only the captains had them but it was their responsibility to send out a Patronus to their team. Harry threw his legs over the bed touching the floating bell so it would shut up when he pulled back his hand the ribbon revealed the address for which he was requested.
Ginny groaned and rolled over, her eyes were heavily shadowed as she hadn't been able to get much rest, she looked up tiredly at her husband who had gone still. "What time is it?" She mumbled and rubbed at her eye looking to the muggle clock on the nightstand. The green letters were blurry for a long moment before she could read it clearly, 4:03. "What's going on? Why do they need you so early?"
"I don't know." Harry pulled off his pants and summoned over his uniform.
"Is it Hermione?" Ginny sat up a bit more rubbing the sleep from her eyes.
"No, it's just an address."
"What address?" Ginny could tell he wasn't telling her everything.
"Spinner's End." He stepped into his shoes and pulled his wand from the nightstand. He called forth his Patronus sending the address to Travis before looking at Ginny's widened eyes. "It'll be alright." He leaned over giving her a chaste kiss before disapparating away.
oOOo
Hermione's eyes snapped open. She had the sudden feeling she was no longer safe. Her heart thudded heavily and she squinted against the fading darkness. Her first thought was that the bed next to her was empty. It was still early, the sun had just started its rise. Her back felt stiff but otherwise alright. She could still smell him, through all the dust and she knew he had lingered for some time. Her entire body thrummed with adrenaline as her senses flooded in. She could hear voices downstairs, harsh militaristic commands and she turned her head just a fraction. The door to the bedroom had been closed, and if the key in the old style hole were anything to go by, it had been locked as well. It gave her time.
She turned her head the other way and pushed herself up onto her hands, it was then she felt something poking at the crook of her elbow. Confused she pulled up the sleeve of the jacket she was very sure she hadn't been wearing when she had gone to sleep. Saving that analysis for later she looked down at the brown leather that was strapped to her forearm. It was a wand sheath. She rolled her arm around and let out a soft breath as she saw her ivory white wand in place. She heard someone starting up the stairs and quickly pushed her legs over the edge of the bed. Her movement was stiff but surprisingly ache-free. Her eyes turned to the side table and she paused. Two potion bottles sat atop a handwritten note.
'They're coming.'
Hermione pursed her lips, she wasn't sure if that was a warning or meant to comfort her. She looked to the two dust-covered bottles, the labels were illegible with time but she recognized the color of one, it was a pain potion, similar to the one she had been taken on a regular basis, the other was a deep purple, she had never seen a potion that color before. She could hear someone reach the top of the stairs and decided to risk it. Taking the orange one in hand she downed it in two swift gulps. Unsure of what the purple one would do she put it into the front pocket of the coat she was wearing. It was then that it struck her that she was wearing a frock coat, his frock coat. Albeit adjusted to fit her frame, and the collar unbuttoned, she recognized the inner silk lining against her arms. It was thick and very warm. It would do nicely if she were going to run. She could hear whoever was coming slamming open the doors to the other rooms in their haste. She looked at the note once more before noticing the brown leather satchel sitting behind it.
She had seen something very similar to it sitting on the bed when she had tried to help him with his wound, she could make an educated guess as to what was inside. Another slam of a door hastened her analysis, she pulled the bag from the table opening the flap, a quick glance inside confirmed her suspicions and she quickly wrapped the strap around her shoulders. The handle on the door jiggled and she whipped her head around. It was now or never, she could stay or she could run.
She held her breath as Harry's deep voice spoke through the other side of the door. The lock clicked and the hairs on the back of her neck stood on end. She had made her choice. His wide green eyes were the last thing she saw before she apparated away. A soft pop and she was on the run. The note from the table fluttered down to the floor disturbed by the magic.
Harry swallowed down the lump in his throat. His eyes caught sight of the paper that had fluttered so gracefully to the floor. He entered the room, mentally taking note that the bed had been mussed, before leaning down to pick up the note.
"They're coming?" His eyes narrowed as he recognized the familiar handwriting, however, before he could process he heard Travis calling out his name as he jogged down the hallway.
"Did you find anything?"
Harry quickly crumbled the paper in his hand slipping it into the front of his jacket before turning around, "Nothing." His face was set as he looked to his partner. He had never lied to him before. It hurt to do so even now.
"Well the sneak-o-scope you put up seems to have caught something. Taylor was just going to play it but I told him we should come get you first. The chief is here and he's not at all happy."
Harry made a face but nodded his head as he turned to follow after, he glanced behind him back to the bed, a long strand of brown hair was laying across one of the pillows and his heart sank. She had been there, he was sure of it, he was sure he had seen her. His heart ached, he was already ready to beg for her forgiveness, he felt so stupid as he thought about all he had done to try and keep her safe. He had failed her, and he knew it.
"Ah, Potter."
"Chief." Harry inclined his head slightly as he joined the rest of the team in the kitchen.
"This little gadget here may give us some insight on who the hell just tore our wards to kingdom come." He set the modified sneak-o-scope onto the table. "Let's just hope it captured a clear image." He gave the little device a tap with his wand.
It had been designed to activate at the first sign of movement, similar to a muggle motion capture camera, except it would record a lasting image for up to 20 seconds at a time. It could hold only 2 minutes worth of footage before becoming full. It had actually been a device George Weasley had come up with before the ministry bought out the rights to use it. He had made quite a bit of money from his little invention. It was an invaluable tool for the Aurors in capturing and tracking vagrant death eaters and the like.
Harry swallowed thickly, he'd forgotten they'd even set that up, his mind immediately went to Snape, would he have come to his house? They still hadn't known where he'd gone. More importantly, how had Hermione gotten into his house? How did she even know where it was? That information hadn't been revealed until after she had been in a coma. Something wasn't adding up and it was making his stomach tight.
The image slowly clicked, like an old projection reel before settling into place. The sneak-o-scope had been set up in the hallway as it would have been the most likely place to catch anyone entering or leaving the house. Everyone watched as the deep orange lights took shape. Nothing happened for a few seconds before a head cautiously peeked around the archway of the living room.
Harry held his breath, the image was rather distorted, he could easily make out her identity but only because he'd seen her before, he only hoped that no one else could recognize her hair.
"She looks familiar." Travis tilted his head a bit, he'd been to Harry's house for dinner on multiple occasions, he'd seen all the pictures he had up in his living room. "Harry, doesn't she kind of look like your friend? The one that got hurt?"
Harry tried to keep his face passive, "I don't know, possibly."
The chief leaned in just a bit more, "Come on broad, look at the sneak-o-scope, show us your pretty face."
Harry grimaced, his chief was crass at the best of times, but hearing him talk that way about his friend made his blood boil. Still, he held his tongue and watched her slowly come into the hallway.
The image started to warble as the time limit was up, the last image it showed was of her looking sharply up the stairs as if she'd heard something. Harry let out a slow breath as the light faded out.
"Damn." The chief pulled the small ball back to him turning the dials to see if there were any other recordings.
"Here chief, let me just," Taylor took the scope from him slowly turning the dial, "There's one more recording." The younger man set the ball back onto the table and tapped it with his wand.
The image relit clicking into place, the hallway was empty for the longest time before a large male figure appeared from the stairs. He turned slowly towards the sneak-o-scope and stared directly into it. Everyone leaned back in shock as the face started to become clear.
"This...this thing can't pick up ghosts can it?" Travis looked to Harry then to his chief.
"This can't be right. Someone's messed with it." Their chief shook his head and looked away. "Let's focus on the woman, Taylor get a sketch artists description and the image into the prophet if we hurry we can still make the morning edition." The man tossed the scope over to the man who gave a sharp nod and popped out.
Harry looked like he'd seen a ghost, his tongue felt exceptionally heavy. He wasn't sure if anyone had paid attention to the time stamp but it told him that Hermione had come here shortly after leaving the hospital wing while the second image showed Snape possibly leaving just 10 minutes before they arrived. He wasn't sure how he had managed to sneak past it before, but he knew they were easy enough to fool. He was quite sure he had left his image behind as a warning. To whom he wasn't entirely sure. He took a shaky breath and ran a hand through his dark hair. This was a full-blown disaster.