Disclaimer: All rights and characters belong to JKR and co. This story is only for fun and not intended for profit.
AN: Oooh, that was a long hiatus, my apologies to everyone that was following.
"soul meets soul on lover's lips." Percy Bysse Shelley
At first I couldn't move, or speak, so much I wanted to leap off whatever I was lying on, feel pain, grit my teeth and move to action…but my desperate messages were all thwarted, my body could not answer. Slowly and without knowing how long, I found the will to open my eyes. The room was quiet and dim, I was lying on what seemed a couch. A young man sat at a writing desk, his wavy dark hair in contrast with the white wall behind him. He continued to write, dipping his quill and sometimes smiling and laughing to himself.
Perhaps I was dreaming…or dead. The events of the evening were coming back to me, I could see the hand on my arm, who had grabbed me? I looked at the hands of the writer, they were long and useful, not to slim nor pale. I remember the hand now that grabbed me, it was smaller and rock hard, it was a desperate pinching grip,but the writer before me had no desperation about him, he seemed in complete control, his pen flowed and I could tell he was happy with himself, congratulatory in a way…My mind floated in and out and sleep had claimed me for I'm not sure how long…when I awoke again, the writer was gone but a few yards away a figure was slumped in a chair. I had to stare long and hard to discern the boundaries of his hair, cape and boots because only textures separated their blackness. Recognition dawned, it was Severus, young…my age. I concentrated all my effort and strained to move, whatever I had been hit with, spell or potion, the effects were wearing off and I was able to crawl off the couch.
On all fours I swayed for a moment and then inched toward him. I used his knees to draw myself up, as soon as I touched him the flaccid feel of his muscles worried me.
"Severus..?!" I spoke softly not wanting anyone else to hear us.
He stirred, his long dark hair lapped at my cheeks and fell softly onto his shoulders, his face was so young, the wrinkle that deepens between his brow whenever he is angry or frustrated is gone and tears well in my eyes, I am afraid that he is not my Snape anymore.
"Miss Granger?…Hermione?" He is tries to place my voice.
"Yes, I am here? What happened." I shake him slightly to rouse him and he responds listlessly and opens his eyes…I recoil in fright, it is all black, his eyes are as black as his hair, no whites.
He closes them, dropping his head forward, hair covering them so as to shield me.
"Voldemort knows our plan…he rested me of the love potion I had concealed and he threw some in my face…He knew all along…about the fugum"
I shook my head in disbelief. "It's impossible…how?"
"I suspect Longbottom was somehow manipulated." His words came out in a sigh.
I couldn't take it all in…we needed to find a way out. "Your eyes…what happened to them…can you see at all?…We need to get away quickly."
"I have been blinded by love." His hair swayed slightly back and forth with the admission, as if he were resigned to his fate.
"Blinded by love?" I don't understand. We must find a way out…come let's hide at least."
I grabbed his hand but I felt nothing.
"I am incapacitated with emotion…" his arm fell back to his side and he struggled to explain… "Everything is love, all my thoughts and feelings, I am at one moment so deeply moved and at another desolate with heartbreak, my body has responded with a pervasive numbness…." He rested his head back and lifted up the aquiline of his nose… "a protective reaction I am sure."
The effects of my abduction had worn off enough to allow me some vigor.
"Well I will carry you then if I have to." I stood and moved to slip his arm around my shoulder when the door opened.
The writer walked in but now I knew it was Voldemort.. I had never seen him at this age but Snape had described him to me when he had been at Malfoy Manor, it occurred to me that's probably where we were.
"Miss Granger…Tom Riddle, I don't think we've met." He approached me with an extended hand and all the humility and friendliness of a wellbred English schoolboy. I sidestepped him and placed my body between his and Severus'.
He smiled but his eyes burned red at the edges.
A tapping at the windowsill drew our attention away. Voldemort motioned and the window raised. An eagle flew in and transformed, it was Malfoy. I looked at his hands and knew it had been him that grabbed me in the dungeon. His long blond hair, usually imbeccably groomed, fell loose from a leather tie. He was visibly winded but he drew himself up to convey his message.
"I have delivered the note to Dumbledore, Potter will be here within the hour. It seems Miss Granger here means a great deal to the Hogwarts teachers.
"I can't imagine why? She's ugly, ignorant and look who she chooses for a protector?"
Voldemort motioned to Snape.
"Mmm, I never did trust him my Lord."
"And Longbottom?"
"At the bottom of the lake by now."
"And for that you will be compensated Malfoy, you have done well." Malfoy broke into a disgusting self serving smile and then without provocation Voldemort raised his hand and cast the cruciatus on him. He fell to the floor writhing in pain. I kept Severus shielded, knowing I needed a plan to get us out of there.
"You have done well indeed Malfoy, but don't forget who is the master!"
Another tapping on the window made me jump and Voldemort looked away to see too and in that moment Harry burst through the door. It was Hedwig and Fawkes at the window, they must have followed Malfoy, with Harry holding on to Fawkes.
Harry let off a series of spells but Voldemort was so lightning fast they never touched him. He raised his arm in retaliation and Harry dropped and rolled behind the desk.
"Did you really think you could fool me with your potions and powders?" He directed his gaze at me and I was blown back against the wall. I crumpled in a heap, more shocked than hurt.
"You see your lover makes no move to defend you or save the boy who lived"
"He is not my lover."
"Your lying is pathetic, even for a Gryffindor…you bore me."
"But I am not lying…we have never kissed, never declared anything." A faint whisper in my ear told me to keep going. It said.. "tell him to look inside your mind." The prospect of having Voldemort inside of me made me shudder but I obeyed the voice.
"Look if you don't believe me."
"I don't need your permission girl." He was angry and before I had time for another breath he was inside me. I watched him rifle through my memories like a greedy child. The past few weeks had been difficult and I could tell he was pausing at particular events. My love for Harry at the order meetings, cradling Hedwig when I had found her hurt, my attraction for Snape the night I lay on the ground outside of Hagrid's, my fear of disappointing him when I had ventured out without letting anyone know, my tender love and compassion for him every time I had to read one of his notes, and of course my confused emotions towards Neville. The memories with Snape he paused the longest, observing, curious, as one studies another species. It was the most recent memories of only moments ago where he lingered last. I tried to hide my feelings, at this point I'm not sure why, but Snape's vulnerability brought out my maternal instincts, and I knew for some reason these would be the hardest for Voldemort to view.
He exited with the same forcefulness as he entered and I had to breathe deeply so as not to lose consciousness.
Voldemort was silent, he turned his back on us and stalked a few paces away.
Harry popped up and cast the Killing Curse at him but Voldemort caught it behind his back and threw it into the fireplace, it exploded in flames and quickly the curtain next to it caught on fire as well.
I got up and started to run to Snape but Voldemort caught me in his arms, he held me and looked into my eyes. He was searching for something, desparately trying to make a connection and for one moment my eyes softned for him, he was a boy, lost in his own anger and violence. It was at that moment that Snape sprang to his feet and doused Tom with a potion. We all stood motionless, Snape's pupils had constricted back to normal and both he and Voldemort were aging back to themselves. Voldemort grabbed me by the shoulders and kissed me quickly as if he knew he hadn't much time.
All the passion, pain, the inhuman and the wounded boy poured into that one kiss and a voice whispered in my ear, "…respond as if it were me."
It was Snape's voice, I was sure of it. I responded back and I could see faintly that Voldemort was aging more rapidly, his wavy dark hair growing gray and his demeanor more snakelike. I pushed him away before the transformation was complete and Severus caught me up in his arms.
"Harry, now!"
"On Snape's command Harry leapt over the desk and positioned himself just in front of us. Voldemort was staggering about, his once handsome face aging into a grotesque form. I looked away, it was to much.
"How is it that you are alright?" I looked up into Snape's eyes.
"Miss Granger please…" his voice exasperated and his frown line between his eyebrows firmly in place… " you do not really think that I would trust Longbottom with my life do you, a little credit, please? I was never affected by the fugum, early on I created a shielding potion, a sort of antidote to its effects… my mood and behavior I'm afraid was an act to convince Malfoy and Voldemort that we were trying to drug him. I couldn't let on, if you were captured your memories had to seem real…for that I am sorry" He bowed his head in true forgiveness.
The fire burned and Voldemort staggered about before us, Harry raised his arm to cast the killing spell but all I could do was throw my arms around Snape.
"Oh… I love you." I hugged him with all my might.
"I allowed myself to hope for that." He smiled as I had never seen him before, he knelt his head and kissed me, at the same time he placed his hand on Harry's shoulder augmenting the force to three souls with which Harry brought down his wand on what was left of Voldemort.
AN: Epilogue to follow. Merry Christmas and Happy Holidays.