Hi! thank you for all your lovely reviews and story follows and favourites!
I now have a beta, the lovely Lost O'Fallon Girl, who is brilliant by the way! She has made my scribbles and ideas into what it is below. Hope you like it. x
Severus sat quietly on the dark side of the Hospital Wing. The lights had been turned off, due to the patients being required a good night's sleep. No one else remained in the room with him, except for Hermione, who was the current patient. Severus had sent Longbottom away earlier that evening when Hermione didn't seem like she was going to be showing any sign of improvement. Poppy had been quick to assure him, that her sleeping was aiding in her recovery and helping her boost her magic and energy levels.
Severus had sent Longbottom away, with a promise held in the young lad's heart. A promise to send word, should anything change with Hermione's condition. Longbottom nearly refused, however it was clenched when Severus made mention of Hermione's pure intentions towards her friends and how she wouldn't want Longbottom to drive himself into exhaustion. Severus had almost laughed at the expression on Longbottom's face, as he watched it grow paler before he nodded and agreed to go off to bed, however Longbottom had also mentioned he would be back after breakfast.
Severus simply did not have the energy to refuse the boy, and simply just waved Longbottom away.
So Severus continued to sit at Hermione's bedside. Her condition unchanged and it had been five hours, since he sent the Longbottom boy away. Poppy had been very pleased with Hermione's rate of improvement, even though Severus could see no apparent change. According to Poppy, Hermione's life signs, heart rate and brain activity were steadier than they had been from when she was originally brought in.
Severus didn't find these facts rather assuring, he would prefer to see her awake in order to assure himself of her improving health. He needed to yell at her for her idiocy before locking her up in his chambers for the next 15 years.
He had been able to keep himself going the day prior by promising himself, that he would make her see reason and see how ridiculous this so called "day trip" had been. He would also assure that she would promise him that she would never have him go through that ever again. He could scarcely believe that six children had left the school 12 hours ago, when he felt like he was running on empty for days.
But he refused to sleep. To be honest, he didn't think he could sleep. Every time he closed his eyes all he could see was blood, Hermione's blood and her chest torn open. He had his fair share of nightmares from the revels, murders and his initiation into the Death Eaters being his regular night-time companions. But seeing Hermione like that...with her chest torn open, blood, so much blood...he could foresee his dreams changing for the worse.
He would remain awake. He would make sure Hermione stayed safe until she choose to awaken. He had failed in keeping her safe until this point, she was nearly destroyed by Sirius and Umbridge whilst under his care. So he would do his best to keep her safe now.
He didn't feel himself drift away, but startled himself awake with a snort. He blinked slowly against the early morning sunlight that had filled the room, which had caused his eyes a mild discomfort as they fought to adjust to the brightness. He shifted warily in his seat as he wondered what had caused him to awaken. But that was before he saw Dumbledore step besides Hermione's bed.
"Albus." Severus spoke with a gargled throat. He cleared his throat before taking a sip of water from the glass on Hermione's bedside table.
"How is Miss Granger?" Albus asked with a smile, although, when Severus took a closer look. Albus appeared to look older, tired and worn out.
"Poppy seems to believe she will survive. I'm certain, you must be...very disappointed," hissed Severus, as he automatically took into account, where his wand was. He refused to be caught unaware ever again.
"Severus, you must know. I didn't want this to happen," Albus stated in a calm voice, as if he was trying to calm down the anger that was building in Severus.
"You knew Sirius was growing worse, and yet you didn't prevent this from happening. You knew Black disliked Hermione and threatened her. You didn't even discourage him. You seemingly allowed him to verbally attack and threaten her. He attempted to kill her...and now...she lays here unconscious because of that ruddy bastard. I am annoyed he's dead...because it would have been a great privilege to kill him myself for what he has done to her!" Throughout Severus' speech he had stood up and leaned over the bed in order to catch the Headmaster's eyes. His voice only had grown louder until he reached the end of his tirade.
He bellowed, "You allowed a prophecy to cloud your judgement! You nearly allowed Black to kill her because you feared she would endanger your boy wonder. She is a young Muggle-Born with the loyalty of a labrador and is the personification of the house of Gryffindor. She had never given you the impression she was turning to the dark side. You easily forgotten the four years of dedicated loyalty and 'good standing' record all because you discovered a prophecy in the Department of Mysteries."
Severus sighed as he fell back into his seat. He shook his head which caused his hair to fall in front of his face, which in turn caused him to push it back in annoyance. He then turned to observe Hermione, who remained unconscious even throughout his tirade. He could feel the twinge of guilt as he had disturbed her calm and relaxing environment.
"You could see the man wasn't sane, Albus. Why did you allow it to continue?" Severus asked with a long, hard sigh. He looked down to his hands which he simply pressed together.
Severus heard Albus exhale as he sat down with elegance on the spare chair. Severus looked up and watched Albus shake his head sadly as he looked towards Hermione, which almost caused Severus to stand up and hide Hermione protectively from Albus. Albus' ignorance and blatant disregard to her person had caused her to be in the hospital wing. Severus wanted to hide her from him. She wouldn't be safe from Albus, while he believed her to be dangerous to the cause.
"I believe...I may have exacerbated his madness. By not allowing him to leave his house over the past year." Albus said sadly as he shook his head. "It was such a shame how he had turned out. When as a child, he had such potential."
"He began to show his mental instability when he was a teenager, Albus. He attempted to kill a fellow student using a werewolf, which doesn't sound like he was the most stable. You defended his actions even when he needed to be reprimanded. You simply praised his ability to escape his family's tendency to be sorted into Slytherin. In the end, his brother: Regulus, who was sorted into Slytherin was more honest and more trustworthy than Sirius, but you never acknowledged him." Severus said with an exasperating sigh. Too tired to argue. For the last two years, Severus had told Albus over and over again that Sirius Black was becoming more unstable and erratic, as his mental abilities were in a steady decline. It seemed like they had paid the ultimate price, Sirius Black was dead, Potter would be inconsolable and Hermione had been critically injured, all do to a wizards decline into insanity.
"I know, you believe we didn't attempt to help Sirius...however, over the past year, Remus and Molly had attempted to help him. They attempted to talk him through his demons and allow him to settle down and remove his erratic tendencies and become a more suitable godfather to Harry." Albus paused as he stroked his beard in thought. "Molly noticed Sirius' intense dislike to Miss Granger, after she was forced to leave Grimmauld Place because of it. Molly had a long talk with Sirius and she had thought she finally got through to him. Sirius had told Molly he would back off and leave Miss Ganger alone. Molly will be truly devastated that Sirius had misled her and Sirius had caused Miss Granger harm."
Severus nodded. He was glad that someone had attempted to stop Sirius from his nasty behaviour. He could only hope that at the time, Molly had shouted and berated the man for his idiotic and childish behaviour. He didn't understand why Albus was telling him this now. Albus had mistrusted Hermione all year and believed she would turn dark and give Potter up to the Dark Lord with a green bow tied around his head.
"Albus, what's the point in saying all this now? After you spent an entire year believing the worst in Hermione and having me stopped from going to the ministry to aid her; why are you saying this now?" Severus asked as he released a long tired breath. He had only been doing this for two years, between his two masters, teaching and keeping Hermione and her friends out of trouble, and he felt like he was running in circles trying to keep everyone satisfied. He was so tired.
"I stopped you from going to the Ministry because of your position within the Inner Circle of the Death Eater's is important. How would you explain to Tom, that you went to the Ministry to save your muggle-born 'godchild' by fighting on the light side against his forces? You may have been killed or injured, and you would have lost your position as a double agent, spy for both myself and Tom." Albus said as he frowned, acting as if he was pleading with Severus to understand his position and why he had stopped Severus from collecting his godchild.
"The Dark Lord understands the importance of family more than you do, Albus. He had given me a permission of a sort to rescue Hermione from Potter's foolish schemes. He knows in order to keep my loyalty, no harm should come to Hermione. He always protects his followers children and chosen partners, unless of course that follower decides to defect. He might be psychotic, but he isn't stupid. He needs his followers to remain loyal to him and threatening the families of his followers would cause him to lose many." Severus said as he raised eyebrow. The Dark Lord may have lost Severus' loyalty, and yet the Dark Lord would protect his daughter, whilst the light would seek means to destroy her and that was truly ironic. "You never explained why you had a change of heart in regards to Hermione. In over the past year, I would not have put it past you to attempt to smother Hermione with her pillow, what has changed, Albus?"
"Don't be childish, Severus. You know I wouldn't attempt to harm Miss Granger." Albus stated flatly with a scathing glare, "I still believe the girl will turn dark, but there is nothing I can do about it, at this moment in time. I shall watch, wait and deal with her as the time comes. However, Severus...I will ask that you remember where your loyalty lies. Dark times are ahead, the Ministry can no longer deny that Tom has resurrected, nor the fact that Tom will become more dangerous and the attacks will continue and increase. I shall need my spy focused and not worrying over his daughter. In the future, there may come a time when you must return to the Dark Lord's side. It might be best for you, if you slowly cut your ties with Miss Granger. So that neither of you will be hurt in the future. There also may be a time, when you have to chose between the light side and your daughter. What will you do, if you discover Hermione has grown dark and is standing besides Bellatrix Lestrange during a revel or aiding her in murdering someone? It might even be you, who has to kill Hermione before she becomes too strong. The prophecy implies that Miss Granger will be a danger to life as we know it. It will save you a lot of hurt, if you simply take a step back."
Severus shook his head in disbelief. The old man might have implied he should take a step back from Hermione. How could he? That would leave Hermione to her own devices, but it seemed that Albus truly believed she would turn evil.
"Whatever you say, Albus. Hermione will not turn dark and she shall prove it to you as she grows older. However, I shall thank you for taking a step back. It's nice to know that you will no longer hound her. I trust that is what you meant with your little speech, is it not?" Severus sneered and internally sighed when he saw Albus nod, to his posed question. "Good, and as far as my loyalty is concerned, how can you question me, even after all these years?"
"I know that your loyalty is bottomless and never-ending, Severus...What worries me, is which loyalty will win...to me...or to your daughter." Albus stated as he stood up, and brushed off the invisible creases from the sleeves and the bottom of his robes. Albus didn't even bother to look up at the shocked expression that filled Severus' face, before Albus turned to leave he paused in his movements to look back and smile at Severus. "Firenze has a message from the forest. Apparently, Brian has become very restless and threated to come to the school. I think you can understand why that cannot happen."
Severus nodded. Albus walked out of the room, as Severus had seemed he wasn't going to say anything more. He left, leaving a confused Severus with a sleeping Hermione behind.
Severus didn't feel comfortable leaving Hermione behind, but he had left her with Longbottom sitting at her bedside and he had extracted a promise from Poppy that she would send a Patronus as soon as there was a change in Hermione's condition. Severus had left the Hospital Wing, and descended into the Forbidden Forest towards Brian's clearing. He didn't like it, but he knew he should see Brian.
As though thinking his name had summoned him, Brian had appeared in the pathway in front of him. "My Bairn." He said with a gasp as he pulled Severus to his chest and hugged him tightly. Severus always pretended that he hated how demonstrative Brian was with his affection, but in reality, he loved the affection that Brian had shown him. Having had such an abusive childhood and a bullied school-life, it had been a nice change to have a person (or beast) who cared so much for him. It was kind of sad, how much he thrived on the fatherly affection that he had gained from Brian.
"How is the sprog? Tell me she is okay. I have been feeling your heartache all day and all night. Tell me the darling ain't dead." Brian stated in a rush as his eyes filled with tears at the thought of his bairn's sprog being taken from them.
"She was injured after she left here. Black attempted to kill her." Severus paused when he heard Brian had begun to growl and he shook his head as he grimaced. "There is no point in working yourself up. After his attempt on Hermione's life, Black managed to gain himself a hero's death."
"Always the way," hissed Brian before he sighed loudly at sat down upon the log in his clearing. Severus hadn't even realised they had continued to walk. "Is the darling going to be alright?" Brian asked as they continued their conversation.
"Poppy seems to believe she will recover. Hermione survived the critical time period and is currently recovering in healing sleep. Poppy said that she would send a patronus if Hermione awoken."
They sat side by side, as they contemplated how close they had come to losing Hermione as they listened to the nature around them. It might be one of the most dangerous areas in magical Britain, but it could also be called beautiful. Wildflowers had filled the meadow and the birds sang their songs of happiness as they clearly enjoyed the summer sunshine.
"Brian." Severus stated as he frowned when he finally broke the silence that had come between them. He turned to see Brian had begun to study him seriously as Brian's eyes had narrowed as though he was considering whether he would need to shout at the wizard like the young boy he often saw him as. "Albus implied that in the future, I might need to go back to the Dark Lord's side..."
"YOU WILL DO NO SUCH THING!" Bright bellowed as though he was talking to an idiotic child. "YOU COULD BE KILLED BY YOUR ALLIES AS THEY COULD EASILY MISTAKE YOU FOR THEIR ENEMY!"
"It might not even come to this, Brian. Calm down." Severus sneered as he ignored how it was obvious that Brian saw and treated him like a young child. Apparently, it was the side effect of being his bairn, yet it could still be frustrating. "Just listen to what I have to say. If and I mean IF I have to go back to the Dark Lord's side, will you please, please look after Hermione for me?"
"You know I will but.." Brain said as he furrowed brow.
"There is not but. I will be happier knowing she has you to guide and protect her." Severus sighed.
Brian frowned, as he fiddled with a piece of bark that sat upon the log beside him. "I don't like all this talk...of you leaving. You know I like you close by. You get up to mischief when I'm not there to keep a close eye on you."
Severus rolled his eyes in exasperation as he looked up towards the heavens, "I have a small hip-flask of firewhiskery, here with me. Do you fancy a few sips, before I leave to go back and check on Hermione?"
"Sounds divine. You may tell me about your week as well, my Bairn." Brain grinned, showing his many teeth. "Tell me what happened to your darling as well."
Severus nodded as he continued to tell his beast about the past week and the night that almost cost him his Hermione. Severus was happy to have a moment's peace, after having a very stressful past 24 hours. It was nice to simply talk about it.
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