Chapter 10: Almost Black

Her skin burned even though the fire did not touch it, blistered it even just the breath off it. The scalding wind blew back her miserable hair from its sticking places and made her eyes water. She squeezed them closed.

The rock upon which they stood hanging over the sea was trembling, cracking underfoot and birthing like a dark iceberg columns that fell into the sea. The water burst into white fizz and quickly swallowed them up.

"JUMP!" Harry screamed.

"What?" She asked breathlessly.

Harry seemed to know her body would betray her and freeze to the crumbling spot. He tugged her hand with all his strength and wrenched them off hurtling towards the water.

A tremendous roar tore after them, but nothing as she fell was a coherent picture. Her eyes watered, the world flipped, and the pieces fell away.

She was surprised when she hit a solid wall, or floor. As soon as the water filled her gasping mouth, she realized it was not solid at all but a floor of water. They had hit it hard from too high up. She could feel her weak body bruising. But she could still feel, so there was hope. She tried moving, an ugly jerking motion.

Kicking towards the surface, feeling nothing but the need in her lungs and that her arm was still tight in Harry's grasp, she struggled. Sure, the surface might be on fire, but she still needed that air! She would breathe fire if she had to, but she had to breathe.

At last, her head broke through the restless surface. It was difficult to see anything other than the grey water stretching endlessly at all levels. Harry's head bobbed, dazed, next to her. He was bleeding profusely from his head it appeared. She put aside thoughts of sharks. They had enough to contend with at the moment, the very cold moment. Rocks still tumbled into the sea from the great cliff, missing them by yards or inches, making waves slap them in the face.

In the distance, she could just spy pebbled shores and heathered, greenish hills. But something flew over the sun above, no below it.

The beast, a dragon of some type she figured, circled the tiny prey floating alone in the water.

"Harry!" She yelled, coughing incoherently. "Harry! Summon a boat!"

Harry tried to move with some coordination, but failed, gurling some bloody, watering nonsense. She grimaced.

Rage warmed her stingingly frigid body from the inside out. This was Harry Potter, her best friend, a Hogwarts teacher. He was the Boy Who Lived, for Merlin's sake! He had survived Voldemort. He was not about to be killed by some young wanna be.

But wasn't that what always eventually happened? Voldemort became more fearsome than Grinderwald, and even Dumbledore was eventually outdone… This might be the very end after all.

Funny, she had thought the rest of life was going to be boring unspoken arguments, and endless inventories, and reading by the fire, and eating the same tired dinners night after night. And that was fine with her really, a lost cat, a late cycle, hell even an affair if that was what he was sneaking about... Children or no children or perhaps adopting a child..that would be marvelous... married or unmarried… it hardly mattered now. She had not missed this adventure. She still did not like heights. Her life had been perfectly fine as she'd left it.

But she had left it, and now she might not get back.

There was a whistle of air above them. She trembled with nerves and freezing cold, knowing time was short. She grabbed the wand from Harry's grasp. "Accio boat!"

Her hand was thin above her head, her mouth full of cold salt water, his skin a strange color. She watched it like it was someone else's hand as the beast's massive body covered and uncovered them in shade. It was lower. She knew it.

"Accio boat!" She growled. Come on! What was taking so long?

Harry's body was getting heavier, the water trying to swallow them. It was winning. Courage was getting them nowhere. They needed something to hold them up even if it made them an easier target; they could worry about that then.

The surface bubbled without heat and released the algae covered skeleton of some old shipwreck. Impressive though it was, it would never get them to the shore. In a moment, it was gone, dust falling on the water and covering her face like powder.

And then it occurred to her: the water was the only place to hide. They had to go down, down deep.

Recalling Harry's second task back in fourth year, she cast a bubblehead charm on them both, a sticking charm to their hands, and with all her remaining strength fired a propelling spell. Under the darkness of the water, they tore fast towards the shallows. They sped through the tunnel like a muggle roller coaster until unexpectedly they burst into the icy air. Hermione gasp, her skin protesting, muscles cramping. Even her mind stopped until their bodies skidded and collapsed against the sand and rocks.

As easily as she could have slept into sleep, she struggled to sit half stand up. From the picturesque and empty shore, she watched the dragon like, stone-colored creature screech angrily, unable to travel far from his perch, she saw. Still, she shook, watching him as Harry laid half in the water, unconscious. Her friend looked so white in the sun, like the inside of an oyster.

If anyone saw them, they might mistake them for driftwood, or dead bodies.

They might not be wrong, if it took much longer. The dragon did not come closer. She began to miss its fire as hypothermia approached. She tried a half hearted drying and warming spell, but found herself lying down on the beach as well. The distant growling continued in the distance as she fell asleep in the surf.

-00-

"WIll you help me?"

"Of course I will." Draco told his old friend and professor, or at least he told the man who resembled him. It was hardly possible to say anything else, not to a man in that condition. Snape's eyes were hooded with shadows and circles. He looked half dead already, which Malfoy silently guessed his girlfriend was. "But what can I do?" He asked, pouring them some firewhiskey.

"What can you do?!" He snapped. "You-you can...can…" He collapsed the rest of the way into the leather armchair, holding his tired face. "I don't know. I can't think anymore."

"I am sorry this is happening to you. I haven't heard anything, but I can offer a bigger reward. Surprised Potter has not already…" Draco was scribbling and the sound was unusually bothersome.

"They think she might be pregnant." He added, not looking up as he spoke.

"She wasn't." Draco dismissed without pause.

"They said she feared she was...hoped she was not."

"And did you," Draco pondered slowly, "Did you want children?"

"I want whatever she wants." He said simply, not giving it much thought.

Draco sighed, making Severus feel even more pathetic.

"I don't believe she was pregnant. Granger would never be able to contain such a secret."

There by the fire, with only Draco, Severus finally swallowed his firewhiskey and let slip the words in a whisper that made it all worse. "I should have gotten her a kitten."

Draco either did not hear or pretended not to. "I should have told her what I was working on."

He took another bruning swallow.

"I should have married her." He threw the glass at the fire, hoping it would make him feel somewhat better. The leaping flames did nothing to him.

Malfoy wordlessly repaired it. "Are you alright? You're acting strange."

Snape glared at him.

"But do you know something even stranger…I hardly thought to mention it," Draco whispered. "Luna Lovegood doesn't think that's Harry Potter at the school."

"What?" His head shot up.

"Thinks he's an imposter still." Draco admitted with some skepticism. "You know Lovegood is loony."

"She's bright, though." Snape said slowly. "And she worked closely with Hermione."

"So she might be onto something, you think?"

"She's not to be underestimated." He said sternly. "But I am very tired." He sighed.

"Her theory is that Hermione is close, maybe in the Chamber of Secrets."

"But Potter has checked."

"Alone." Draco's said darkly. "And if he isn't Potter…"

"That means they cannot apparate out of there…because it's in the castle."

"And Rex would be able to access it…being a Parseltongue."

"I'll demand he take me down there personally at once." Severus stood surprisingly sturdy. "And you meanwhile advertise the reward."

"It's sent. I'm coming with you lest you do anything rash!" But Severus was already leaving, his cloak fanning out behind him. It had been a gift from Christmas. It really was a good cloak, though it wasn't quite his usual shade. She had insisted on a little color in his wardrobe; she was always insisting. It was dark green, almost black.

A/N: Trying to post the end of this for you all after the originals were lost and a long hiatus. Thank you so much for your interest in this story. I'm not sure the end will be as well written, but there will be an end. All My Love, Elsie.