Disclaimer: I own none of this. The original fanfic was posted under the pen name Emilee Genna Svahy however my email for that account no longer is active and I can no longer update the fanfic. Thus I am reposting and will be updating with some regularity as the story is mostly written thanks to NaNoWriMo
The Sands of Time
Chapter 11
Hermione
The world stopped spinning as Hermione's feet landed upon solid ground. As she took in her surroundings she realized that she had been there before. At the end of a narrow dingy street was the door to Severus Snape's familial home on Spinner's End. Now it was just a matter of figuring out when she was. With her wand tucked up in the sleeve of her coat Hermione made her way to the door of Severus's home.
Before she could even knock on it the door flew open and she stood face to face with a rather frantic looking Severus. He reached out and pulled her into the house without even saying a word.
"Well, hello to you too, Severus. I'm well. The weather in my time is alright but I wish there could be a break in the rain every now and again. We've had Some-"
"It's the twenty seventh of June 1995. You just completed your fourth year, and might I add that I have never been more terrified for you before than when Dumbledore decided that it would be a clever idea to put you in the lake for that idiot Drumstrang boy," Severus seethed.
That last bit hit Hermione like a ton of bricks. Had he really just mentioned that he knew that Dumbledore had put her in the lake for the Triwizard Tournament? He knew she was not just Melody... he knew that she was Hermione. He knew. He knew everything about her deception. At the end of her last visit she was over the moon. Now, she felt as if the world was being ripped out from beneath her feet.
"You... you know who I am?" She let out in a whisper.
He looked at her and his eyes grew wide as he nodded.
"How long have you known bout me?" questions flooded her mind as her world... her disguise fell further away.
"Since the end of your third year. So many of your mannerisms started coming out in you then. The way your eyebrows furrow when you are concentrating on a task whether it be difficult or simply mundane and tedious became something that you do very often around Potter and Weasley," Severus explained as he ceased everything he was rambling on about.
His eyes rested on Hermione and she smiled at him. Even though he knew who she was, that little know it all Gryffindor with a head full of memorized facts and two best friends who would stand by her until the bitter end, he seemed to still look at her with that longing that she had seen for the first time on her last visit. Hermione reached out and touched his hand gently. His eyes darted to where their hands made contact.
"On my last visit it was my birthday. I landed in your chambers at Hogwarts and you told me that you had just left me on the other side of the door. You told me that I had just slipped away and then reappeared a younger version of me inside your rooms. Do you remember those visits?" Hermione stepped a little closer.
"Of course I remember. They were the only ones that you have had back to back. You got to have your birthday three times last year. I have not seen you since then," Severus said closing the gap that was between them before he entwined his hands in her mess of hair and kissed her tenderly. "I've missed you."
Hermione stood there held by the man she was starting to see very differently, the man she was starting to fall for, her head resting on his chest as she listened to his heart beating within. She knew it was wrong to tell him what she knew was going to happen in just a few short years, there was no need to tell him after all he would only berate her on just how unethical it was to divulge foreknowledge to a person no matter what they meant to you. History had to run its course. Events had to pan out the way that they ultimately did for if they did not then Hermione knew that everything could change completely in the blink of an eye. People who live could die if so much as a single person gained knowledge of events to come. Hermione had no desire to change the course of the history that she lived through, the history that she was part of texts books on. She had no desire to cause more pain than already existed in her world and in Severus's future.
As these thoughts ran through her mind she realized that the Severus Snape that held her so closely in that very moment was now facing the very real reality of answering to two masters. Voldemort had returned just days before and he was now living with the biggest unknown target on his back as a double agent. He was not the master of his fate, then again he never really was.
"He's back isn't he?" she whispered into his chest as she held him close to her. The strong aroma of sandalwood filled her nostrils as she breathed in his scent memorizing it as best she could knowing that there would not be many more opportunities to hold him this intimately.
"You know just as well as I do, Hermione, that he's back. He's back and there is nothing we can do. I've known you longer than I have known any other soul and I know that this is useless to ask but I shall ask it any way. Is there any chance for me in this fight? Do I have so much as a hope of surviving?" There was a note of desperation in his voice as Severus asked Hermione about his fate.
Hermione reached up and took Severus's head between her hands. She moved a few hairs off of his face and kissed him gently and as they kissed she prayed that she wouldn't slip away. "Severus, you know that I cannot say anything. You know if I could tell you about what is to come I would."
His hands that had been cradling her face fell away as he looked into her eyes. Slowly he let his eyes wander her face. As he did so she hoped beyond all chance of hope that he would not pry into her thoughts and memories.
"You don't need to tell me. I don't want to know. All I want is to sit in my study with my only friend in silence until she needs to leave me."
Hermione nodded and laced her fingers with his. "I can do that." With that she let him lead her into the book filled study to be held in his arms as they drifted off to sleep not to wake until she was back in her own room feeling the pain of leaving without him even knowing.
