Songs for this chapter: Can't Stop by One Republic and High Road by Fort Minor

HPOV

I could not decide if I was worried, afraid, stress, or irritated by the fact that Severus and Sirius had not yet returned. I was also unable to decide how I felt about the fact that I was due for another appointment at St. Mungos, and I was going to have to go without Severus if I was going to make it at all. He would be very upset with me for going anywhere outside of our chambers without him, but he would also be unhappy about me skipping an appointment when my health just seemed to be turning around. I felt that I could not really win no matter what choice I made, but ultimately I could not stomach the idea of not going and possibly regressing in my health, or my magic somehow getting even more out of control.

It had been hard enough going to be the night before without Severus home. I had tossed and turned, worrying, as the night grew longer and he still hadn't returned, only drifting off for a few minutes here and there before jerking awake once more. The lack of sleep did not help me avoid exhaustion, and I felt like I was back in a time when potions where destroying my quality of life by the time the morning came and I needed to drag myself out of bed. I dressed slowly, noting that I may actually have to shop for new clothes soon, and then I set to pacing. I was aware of each second ticking by, drawing me closer to when I would have no choice but to leave for the appointment without Severus.

He did not show up at the first benchmark I set for myself twenty minutes out from the appointment. Nor did he show up for the secondary benchmark at fifteen minutes til. I was on the verge of having an all out fit when it was ten minutes until I was scheduled to be sitting in Smethwyck's office and Severus still wasn't there, but I forced myself to remain calm. Sure it was now 8:45 in the morning, and Severus had been gone on his attempt to break into a prison for over 12 hours now, but I had an appointment to keep and despite his direction that I should not leave the chambers without him I was certain he would be more upset about me ignoring my own health. So with a heavy heart I grabbed a pinch of floo powder into the crackling fire of our sitting room.

My heart stuttered in my chest when the flames did not turn green. Was my magic so off that I couldn't use floo powder now? An old memory of Arthur Weasley suggesting we move my parents via floo powder rolled to the front of my mind and with it came the knowledge that even a muggle could use the floo. So the problem couldn't lie with me. I drew my wand, dubious of how successful I might be, and cast at the fireplace in an effort to determine if the floo was working. I smiled when I heard a thunking sound, happy that my magic had cooperated with me, but then the real panic set it. Someone had disconnected our floo.

The three vases holding different bunches of flowers that Severus had bought me recently shattered as my magic surged out from me in tandem with my rising emotion. I folded in on myself to avoid the spray of jagged glass and tried to control my breathing as I heard books raining down off their shelves and an unearthly wind kicked up in the sitting room. My attention was split between fear over the absolute lack of control I had over my magic at the moment and terror over the realization that I had been set up. My floo was closed, guaranteeing I would have to leave my chambers to get to my appointment. And Dumbledore was certain to intercept me at the direction of Scrimegour when I went looking for another floo. Everything froze in place around me when the truth sunk in. It would be worse than that. Scrimegour was smart enough to make sure I would not find a working floo in the castle, forcing me down to Hogsmeade. Would he realize that it wasn't just that scaring me, but the prospect of trying to apparate in such a state?

I couldn't put the appointment off though. The books hovering mid air around me just waiting for a fluctuation in my magic to take place again said everything that needed to be said about not seeking medical attention for all of the changes taking place in my body. I drew a shaky breath in an effort to calm myself and the books wobbled in the air. I stepped forward, biting down on a yelp of shock that tried to break free of my throat as all of the books went crashing to the ground, one nearly missing my head. I hurried out of the room with my wand clutched tightly in my hand, praying to any god that would listen that I wouldn't have to try and use it.

The castle was eerily quiet when I stepped out into the dungeon corridor leading to our home, but I did not get all that far before I heard footsteps approaching me. I slowed my walk a bit and hid my hand within the folds of my robes in an attempt to look normal. I was not at all surprised to find Dumbledore rounding the corner ahead of me with a slightly distracted look on his face. I tried to stay calm and remind myself that this was not really Dumbledore when the anger rose up in me, but knowing that he was being controlled by Scrimegour did not make me feel any better, or any safer for that matter.

"Hello Mrs. Snape," he said as he came within a few feet of me. "What brings you out and about today?"

"I'm just off to an appointment in London," I told him politely, hoping to direct him away from me quickly. "I expect I'll be back quite soon if you were needing me."

"Oh I just wanted a quick word," he said with a dazed smile, and I honestly thought no one else would notice that he wasn't quite himself because he seemed so put together without the twitching from before. "Why don't I accompany you on your walk to the edge of the wards and talk along the way?"

"I suppose," I said tightly, knowing I'd cause more trouble than I could handle trying to put him off now when I had no way of escape. At least outside I had a chance at getting away from him if he attacked.

"Good, good," he said, grabbing my hand and placing it in the crook of his arm.

It would have seemed gentlemanly if he didn't keep his hand on top of mine pressing it down into his arm so hard that I had no hope of pulling my hand free without injury. I was just about as trapped as I could get without being bound by ropes and it set my heart beating much too fast. I felt that otherworldly breeze kick up around me once more, but somehow it did not seem to gather any attention from Dumbledore.

He led me out of the dungeon, through the entrance hall, and out onto the grounds without speaking a word. If anyone were to have witnessed our journey they would have seen him with a smile on his face out for a leisurely stroll with a wane looking witch. He could easily explain it away as him being my escort to see a healer for how ill I looked. I thought I may actually get sick from the way fear was turning my stomach, but I just tightened my sweaty hand around my hidden wand and tried to think my way out of the situation as we traversed the grass covered slope that drew us closer to the edge of the wards.

As the wrought iron gates came into view I decided that my best course of action was to simply attempt to apparate even with Dumbledore holding onto my hand. At best I'd pull him along with me to St. Mungos and be able to run from him when he was put off balance by the unexpected travel. At worst I would splinch the poor man, but I would still get away. This was all assuming of course that my magic cooperated with me. I took deep breaths as we drew closer to the gate, knowing I would need to be as calm as possible to make this work.

"Expelliarmus," his quiet voice said when we were still a few steps away from the gate.

I did actually gasp in shock as my wand slipped through my sweaty fingers. The only luck I had was that when he lurched to grab my wand out of the air I was able to tear myself away from him. I could feel absolute panic flare up in my chest as I staggered toward the gates with him trying to get a proper hold on my robes to stop me from getting away from him. For the first time since this new symptom had developed it worked in my favor and my magic flared up of it's own accord and it cause some sort of shock or stinging hex to burst out from me and Dumbledore released me with a shout of pain.

I overcorrected when he was no longer holding onto my robes and my knees slammed into the ground, scraping my hands on rocks and debris on the ground before I could scrabble up and throw myself through the gates. I was trying to think quickly of how to escape, but I knew that I had no chance of apparating without my wand so I focused my efforts on first trying to get my wand back. I turned to awkwardly run backward while trying to wandlessly summon my wand to me. Dumbledore was hot on my tail again, and he had much to firm a grip on my wand for me to bring it out of his house with un-channeled power.

I didn't think things could get any worse, but I skidded to a stop when I saw Scrimegour stepping out of the trees from the corner of my eye and I realized that I was well and truly screwed. With a sigh of regret I knew that my only recourse now was to use necromancy if I wanted to get out of this situation alive. I supposed in that case that I was lucky I had just drawn blood on my hands with my fall moments ago. I squeezed my hands in tight fists to force more blood to pump out of the cuts and I murmured in a language that only Dumbledore would recognize as I drew upon dark magic to erect a shield around me.

I could see Scrimegour out of the corner of my eye pumping all of his focus into Dumbledore as the Headmaster began to throw curse as me with his wand as well as my own. There were multicolor flashes of light as they bounced off of the air between us that was beginning to shimmer with the magic I was using to protect myself. Dumbledore continue on without emotional response to his spells failing to land or any sense of growing weary, and I wasn't sure if that was a testament to his magical prowess or if it was the spell Scrimegour had him under.

Ultimately though I didn't have the luxury of trying to wait him out. I could feel my power draining quickly as I fought to maintain the protection around me, and I knew in the back of my mind that Scrimegour was waiting for just that. I was certain that the second my shield faltered I would be faced from attack on both sides when he joined the fray. No, I realized with a sinking sensation that my only hope was to break the spell he held over Dumbledore and sway him into defending me instead. Particularly since I did not have the means currently to enact any sort of offensive attack without further weakening my person to feed my necromantic magic.

I could already hear Severus shouting at me for my stupidity as I enacted a reckless and frankly terrifying plan, but I could see no other options. So with a heavy heart I released the spell I was holding in place and let my shield fall long enough for the yellow light of a slicing hex to get through. I winced at the sensation of the skin of my arm tearing open but I did my best to think around it as I first erected my shield once more and then offered up the disturbing large amount of blood running down my arm as a sacrifice for the powerful spell I needed to do to break into Dumbledore's mind once more.

We both gasped when I breached the stronger mental shields that were holding him tighter in the imperious this time around, but I was aware of his arms falling to his sides as I pushed further in. The majority of my mind was focused on navigating the foggy and obstacle filled mind of the man who had been brought into complete subjugation by a man that was supposed to love him, but part of me was aware of the rapid drain of my strength both magical and physical, as well as being aware of the fact that Scrimegour had now begun an onslaught in an effort to drop my shield.

There was a sensation of almost falling as I punched through the last of the magic holding Dumbledore captive and while I had finally freed him from the spell I had completely disoriented myself. My magic was officially out of my own control and I found myself unable to properly pull myself from his mind. Instead I catalogued the sensation of my legs giving out on me and my magic flaring up and bursting away from me as it drained me entirely, while watching the current situation unfold around me from Dumbledore's eyes instead of my mind.

I saw that Scrimegour had been engaged by an elderly wizard that I did not recognize but suspected to be Grindewald, absorbing every feeling Albus had about this, as I fought to end the spell I was using and failed spectacularly. Instead time seemed to be bother frozen and to be moving forward too quickly. Albus was standing in place as if his body would not respond to him, watching as I fell to the ground and one lover battled another before him. I tore my mind away from the altogether disturbing experience of my own body collapsing to the ground in front of me, or appearing to do so because of my current mental position, and instead watched in both horror and fascination as Scrimegour was hit with a spell that caused him to freeze in place and then shatter to pieces.

Everything had taken on a sparkling quality and I knew without really thinking about it that I was losing consciousness, though I was not sure if I would be taking Dumbledore with me or not. I couldn't force my mind to try to think through that as it grew sluggish while trying to absorb the fact that in the place that had just seconds ago held Scrimegour the dirty and crazed looking form of Lucius Malfoy stood with his wand poised for attack and his teeth bared in what looked like a feral scream. I wondered vaguely why I couldn't hear that and then I lost my tenuous grip on consciousness and everything went black.

SPOV

The journey back from Nuremgard had taken longer than anticipated. As had the argument over where exactly to take the man while we figured out the next step. It was only the realization that I needed to get back to Hogwarts to take Hermione to a healer appointment that forced our unlikely threesome into Hogsmeade, and thank Merlin for that. We appeared on the road leading up toward the castle that should have been abandoned and instead found ourselves in the middle of a heated duel, if it could really be called that.

My heart lurched in my chest when I saw Hermione between Dumbledore and Scrimegour locked in a magical battle. It seemed to stop entirely when I saw that she was wandless and there seemed to be blood coating her arm. I could not fathom why Sirius reached out to hold me in place when I drew my wand and tried to run to her. Instead it was Grindewald who flew forward throwing hexes first without asking questions. I tried to break loose from Sirius but his arms tightened like steel bands and he did not release me despite the fact that Hermione had fallen to the ground and was incredibly vulnerable.

"Wait, just a second, wait," he begged. "Give me a second to establish an alibi for us."

I stopped struggling when I realized he was right. We needed not to be linked with Grindewald when this all blew up. So I stood impatiently in place when he released me. I watched Hermione with growing horror when she did not move from the ground, relieved only slightly by the fact that Dumbledore had dropped to his knees at her side and seemed to be attempting to administer first aid rather than attack her.

"She broke him of the spell again," I murmured as Sirius shoved what looked to be shopping bags in my hands.

"Is that all you see mate?" he asked in a clipped voice. "How about the fact that the Minister of Magic just shattered like glass and turned into bloody Lucius Malfoy."

My eyes jumped over to the other duel and I saw that he was right. I couldn't even begin to process what I was feeling about that, not when Hermione was still lying limp on the ground and Dumbledore did not seem to be able to do anything for her. Instead I threw all caution to the wind and I began running forward.

"Hermione," I called as I ran to her. "What… Hermione?"

I barely felt a stray hex from the duel between Grindewald and Malfoy graze me as I passed them, focused instead on Dumbledore looking up at me with real concern on his face as I closed the gap between us. He held up his hands in supplication, and I was torn between trying to process the thought that he viewed me as a threat right now and that his hands were covered in blood.

"I'm so sorry," he said as I dropped to my knees beside them. "I was not in control of myself. I injured her, but did not render her like so. It appears to be magical depletion in combination with the blood loss. I cannot revive her currently but she has a pulse and is breathing."

"Just get away…" I choked, dropping the stupid bags Sirius had given me and pulling her limp form into my lap.

I couldn't think. I knew I needed to do something more, but at the moment the only solution I seemed to be able to come up with was holding her against me in such a way that her head was tucked under my chin and I could feel the steady rise and fall of her chest. I clutched her like a lifeline, aware of the sensation of her blood seeping into my robes as my eyes were drawn to the chaos unfolding before me.

"How on Merlin's green earth are you even here," Lucius shrieked at Grindewald as they remained locked in a heated duel.

"Clearly you'd know all about breaking out of a prison wouldn't you Malfoy," Grindewald spat back.

I vaguely registered the quiet murmur of Dumbledore at my side, continuing to cast healing spells on Hermione while I cradled her to my chest. My eyes were still locked on the spells flying between the two dueling wizards, but beyond them I saw a crowd gathering, and it seemed to have been drawn by Sirius who was screeching about dark wizards or some other nonsense like a witch without a wand. I thought perhaps he was trying to ensure there were plenty of witnesses to this whole debacle, but I couldn't rationalize any of it.

"Calling it breaking out is an overstatement," Lucius said with an evil laugh. "It give the guards of Azkaban much to much credit. They made it far to easy to slip away."

"Oh, figured out how to slip through the bars like the rat that you are?" Grindewald said as he cast a volley of hexes that caused Lucius to loose several feet of ground and get dangerously close to being backed into a tree.

"Used a bloody house elf didn't I?" he panted. "A real flaw in the wards, but what can you expect from a ministry inept enough to put you in a prison that is guarded only by your family."

"Good thing she got tired of her duties then isn't it," Grindewald said back with a fairly evil laugh despite the fact that it wasn't even true. "But none of that explains why you were masquerading as the Minster."

"Oh, that's truly my best work yet," Lucius panted as he tried to counter the onslaught of magic raining down on him with only minimal success. "I don't know if I was luckier to realize Albus was a necromancer or that he was in love with the stodgy poof Rufus. Only a few small steps from there to murder the one, and subjugate the other."

I sensed Dumbledore going absolutely still at my side then. Despite my focus on other things I could feel the emotional pain radiating off of him. I could only begin to fathom the pain he must be in at the realization that his lover was gone. I thought it seemed pretty clear that he no longer had any sort of regard for Grindewald, but he did for Rufus even after thinking he was the one cursing him this entire time.

I could not even begin to try and process that tangled web, or what else was happening with the duel, when the reassuring rise and fall of Hermione's chest stopped. Everything within me lurched into utter silence and lack of motion for one terrifying moment and then I launched into action. I shot up from the ground with her in my arms as if she weighed nothing and I was immediately turning to the side and pulling her with me through space as I apparated us to St. Mungos.

"Help me," I called out when I appeared in front of the welcome witch who I'd grown quite used to seeing often. "Help my wife."

She sent a patronus flying off into the hospital as she came out from behind her counter to help me. I felt almost dizzy as she conjured a cot hovering in the air between us and silently gestured for me to lower Hermione on to it while casting diagnostic spells.

"What happened to her Mr. Snape?" she asked me quietly as she cast a spell that I didn't recognize and thankfully Hermione's chest began moving once more.

I was so overwhelmed with relief that she was breathing once more that I nearly collapsed. My knees gave out on me temporarily but I managed to catch myself on the cot and push myself up to fully standing once more. I met her eyes over Hermione's prone form.

"You wouldn't believe me if I told you," I said shakily as Smethwyck appear and lead out strange triangle of people back into a medical room.