Author: Of Crimson Moonlight

Author's Note: Uwaahhh so short! This chapter's so short! I'm so sorry! I hate cliffhangers and I left you one I'm so sorry! Sorry! I pulled an all nighter and this is all I got? Well, I guess I didn't want to write a fight scene. I got to many of those in other things so I got tired of those. We need emotional parts! Yes! Heart-touching, soul-reaching, stories! Okay, enjoy this chapter please. Thank you for the reviews! My heart is touched. You know who you are! And you all who have added me or this story to your alerts or favorites, I thank you!

Disclaimer: J.K. Rowling is the only one who could have thought up the exciting and thrilling world of Harry Potter. It makes us all wish we could use brooms to fly. Actually, I'd like an umbrella that makes people know who I am. Then I could be friends with Tom Felton or Daniel Radcliffe. Read the chapter!

Spare the Kiss of Life

"Get Dumbledore!" Hermione shouted.

Ron grunted when a hit to the jaw knocked him down. The Hufflepuff he'd been holding up began to run. As Ron was about to draw his wand, Harry stopped him.

"Forget the coward!" He yelled, "We have to help Snape and the girl! Hermione, you get a professor, or-Hagrid! He'll know what to do!"

"What about you?" Hermione was reluctant to leave the boys alone. "You can't go in, you'll freeze to death!"

"Well what are we supposed to do? They need air! We need to get them out!" Ron yelled, then added when he saw Harry looking at the water eagerly then at Weasley. "…Not that I want to go in. That'd be crazy. Right, Harry?"

"Melt the ice! That way they'll have somewhere to come up." Harry took out his wand. "Glacialis Redire!"

That was all he was going to do? Hermione gave an uncertain look to her friend. She highly doubted that Harry would do nothing brash, but now wasn't the time to make sure he wasn't lying. "Don't do anything stupid." With those last words of warning, she was off.

Harry watched as Hermione left, and took a glance at the circle of water where the two people had vanished. He still could not believe what she had witnessed.

The same man who had made his years of Hogwarts uncomfortable, the same man whom his father and godfather detested was now risking his life for another person other than himself. Snape was actually a good person? When the girl had called out to Snape, it looked as if the Professor's heart had stopped. Then he did the unthinkable. He started to run after the girl, and when he was close enough, he jumped to grab her hand. She screamed his name again before going under the water and never had Harry seen Severus Snape's face so desperate and panicked.

The two had been submerged for more than four minutes. In that time, the trio had witnessed a green glow underneath the ice among others, red, purple, but there was no sign of the two having resurfaced. If they didn't come up for air soon…

Gasping and coughing interrupted the wind's sighs. It was the girl! She had finally come up to one of the breaks through the ice, near the shoreline.

"Ron!" Harry motioned to the red head and hurried to the girl. Her hands were shaking as she clawed at the breaking chunks of frozen ice. "Are you alright? Where's Snape?"

The girl's breathing was quick-paced. It was clear that her body was going through shock. The human body could only take so much cold.

"Well, come on then!" Ron held out his hand to pull the girl up, but she wasn't paying him any attention. She was too busy looking around the lake. "He didn't come up."

Ron and Harry both grabbed an arm and pulled her carefully onto a hard surface of lake. Harry expected anger, rage, sadness, thankfulness, but she didn't do anything. When he and Ron had let her go, she sank to her knees and just sat there. Crying.

The redhead rested a hand on her back, but she started to wail. It wasn't an ugly loud insensitive wail; it was the type that showed such sorrow. In a way, it sounded beautiful, but so heart wrenching at the same time.

"I'm sorry, but…I don't think there's anything we can-" Ron was interrupted by a splash. When he turned to look at Harry, he realized that his friend was gone. All that was left was the boy's coat near the edge of the water.

----

So this is how it would end?

Severus didn't try to struggle anymore. The creature was already dead but its cups to ensnare its prey were determined to hold Severus till death and beyond. The black ink from the dead corpse had spread around the two and it was impossible to see anything now. Hedwin got away. That was all that mattered.

Or, so he tried to tell himself.

Truthfully, he didn't like this ending. Potter would get the glory, again.

Everyone would see that boy as the hero.

No…that wasn't why he was so bitter about dying right now. She would see the Hogwarts Celebrity as her hero. Not him, Severus, but she'd only have eyes for the other boy, Potter. To hell with everybody else, he would have been happy if she saw him as the knight for once. Not the demon of the dungeon.

Severus swore. He couldn't hold his breath for much longer. Only one hand was free and the other was against his body. The long tentacle had wrapped around the armed hand and his person leaving a useless arm. Otherwise he could probably make a mask or something.

He was really going to die here, then?

Well, he had a good run. At least now he can die peacefully. Peace…. If he had been able to, Severus would have sighed. When he thought of the word 'peace' he remembered the phrase 'holy peace'. It was the same phrase that was could be transformed into the latin word 'Hedwin.' If he were to die here, who'd take care of her?

His relaxed position went rigid.

Would she be crying? She must be crying. The girl could cry an amount of the entire River Styx.

He struggled for a bit as he remembered the time of when they first interacted. Not the time when he bit her, but when they had gone out. She wasn't disgusted with him.

Severus started to tear at the creature's suctions and began ripping some flesh. Both from him and the monster's.

Her smile, that stupid smile that said 'everything would be fine', or 'nothing in the world matters as long as you're okay' or, 'talk to me, I'll listen' even though some of those were absolute lies, it made him feel…loved. That time when she had played that ridiculous song…she really cared for him, didn't she?

Severus gritted his teeth and began to shred through the dead corpse surrounding him. He just needed to get his wand free, but would he be able to make it to the surface on time?

Don't think about that yet. Concentrate on what has to be done now.

----

"This be all my fault!" Hagrid blubbered through his words as he tried to compose himself. The gently giant was keeping up with Hermione as fast as he could, but every so often he would started to slow down as the guilt began to weigh heavy in his heart. "It'll only get worse, I tell yeh!"

"How could it possibly get worse?" Hermione asked before she saw the split in the road. One leading to the lake and the other to the castle. She would have to get the Headmaster, or at least Madame Pomfrey. The both of them would be best!

"Yeh don't know, do yeh?" Hagrid started to cry louder. "The way Squishy-"

"Squishy?"

"That be 'is name."

"Of course. Hagrid, please hurry!"

"When 'e touches a thing with 'is sticklers they leave a black mark, they do. When that mark mixes with the water it…it..."

"Hagrid, what?" Hermione shouted.

"It paralyzes yeh!"

"Oh no! Hagrid!"

"Ah know, Ah know, Ah've killed 'em." Hagrid buried his face in his hands. Hermione almost dropped to the ground in defeat, but instead she made a fist. "Hagrid, we have to try! We have to!"

The half giant looked at the muggle born Gryffindor and nodded slowly with his tears already smudged around his face. "Alright 'Mione, we'll try."

----

It's getting more and more difficult to reach the surface-is it because of fatigue?

The silence of being in the water was almost too much for Severus that he wanted to scream. Remembering that he couldn't afford to waste his air supply, he kept his mouth shut. The quiet was unbearable, but he had to tolerate it. The time it was taking him to reach the top of the lake seemed unreasonable now. It was then that it hit Severus.

I'm slowing down! It's me! I can't move anymore!

His body went limp just as a hand reached out for him and a quick flash, Severus was sure it was a hallucination, of green eyes. So much like Lily's.

----

Five minutes had passed, and there was no Harry, no Severus, and no Squishy. Hagrid had gotten to the lake and ever since then, he hadn't stopped playing the flute. He kept hoping the creature would rise, but something was wrong. The giant suspected that the creature was dead, but what of the other two?

"Snape's been in longer than Harry…he might be…" Ron gave a frightened look to Hagrid. "Why isn't Hermione back yet?"

Hagrid didn't stop blowing through the flute. Not even to answer the boy.

Hedwig had stopped her wailing, but she was still crying. Her tiny frame shook in a rhythmic beat as she cried and tried to breath at the same time. He was dead! Severus, Severus was dead!

"Help!"

I was supposed to help him…and instead-instead- She was even crying her in mind- Instead, I get him killed! He tried to save me and I let him die!

"Help!"

Severus…I'm sorry!

"Are you all deaf? I said help! Hagrid, stop blowing that stupid piece of hollow bark and help me!"

Ron tapped the giant's side and pointed out a distance a bit farther from them. "It's Harry! And he's got Snape!"

"Hurry! He's heavy!"

Hedwig stood up and began to limp. Her legs had been numbed from the ice and to top it off, they were very hard to move. Hagrid, seeing her difficulty, picked her up and started to slide over (he feared he might break the ice) towards the two others. "We're comin'!"

Ron was the first to arrive near them since he could move faster. He knelt down and kept the two afloat until Hagrid was near and able to lift the two out of the water with ease. Ron draped over Harry's coat around the freezing boy and started pat Harry's back. "You alright?"

"Yeah. How's Snape?"

The guys looked at the motionless body with the girl leaning over him on her knees.

Hedwig placed her hand on his face, but he wasn't breathing. She put an ear to his chest, but there was no heartbeat. She started to shake him gently but he didn't wake up.

What-what do I do? What do I do? Wake up! Please wake up!

She started to pound on his chest, but there wasn't any sign of life. Hedwig buried her face in the Potion Master's chest and started to cry. He was dead.

No, no, no, no, no, no! You can't die! Hedwig started to pound harder. You. Can't. Die!

With her antics, everyone failed to see the water coming out from the man's mouth, and the slow, yet steady up and down from the man's breathing.

"Wait!" Harry said seriously.

Everyone turned to him.

"I know this thing muggles do. CPR." Harry scratched the back of his neck and kneeled down on the other side of Snape. "Have you all heard of it?"

Hagrid and Ron shook their head.

Harry groaned. "I'm going to give Snape air."

Hedwig looked up at Harry. Oh! She knew what that was! When she had submerged below the water, she couldn't breath. Severus gave some of his air to her so she could hold her breath longer.

"Don't think what I'm about to do is gross, it's to save his life!"

Hedwig nodded.

Ron's eyes widened when he saw his best friend leaning in towards Snape with lips first. "What are you doing!"

Harry paused and shouted nervously, "The kiss of life!"

"I'll…die…first."

Everyone looked to where the deep voice had come from. It was the Potions Master.

Ignoring everyone else, Severus looked at Hedwig who already looked like she was going to cry again. "Are you going to cry?"

Hedwig shook her head.

"Are you lying?"

She shook her head again.

"Liar."

She nodded.

Severus sighed and put his hand against her face. "Don't cry. It's exhausting to watch and it makes me uncomfortable." It's painful to see you cry. "And…I'm sorry I called you dumb."

He coughed. "I didn't mean you were incompetent. 'Dumb' actually means 'mute'. I don't think you're stupid, so don't cry."

I almost lost you! How could you expect me not to cry? Hedwig was holding back. She was trying so hard to not cry and the more she tried not to, the more she wanted to.

"Sev…" She covered her face with her sleeve.

The man pulled down the arm that covered her face and gave her a very small smile. "I'm very proud of you, Hedwin."

She didn't cry.