Author's Note: Thanks to Liza for betaing!
Written for...
(Writing Club) AU of the Week. Prompt: Reincarnation!AU
Pairing the Character. Character: Severus Snape
(Writing Club) Showtime. Prompt: Dreams
Together Again
488 words
Lois.
His first thoughts upon waking are about her, the stunning blonde woman from his dream. He doesn't know who she is, but while he was asleep, she was his everything.
He doesn't remember dying, but Granger is there and she explains everything to him how he was saved from the venom. She explains how she volunteered to care for him while he was in a coma for a month.
Severus listens intently. He sees the uneasiness written on her face. She expects him to lash out, to react badly to being in her house, in her care. He's too busy processing what has happened to be upset. He can't keep Lois off his mind.
He looks into Hermione's eyes, and though she looks nothing like the woman from his dreams, he sees Lois in her.
:-:
He dreams of her every night.
She drives a car and wears clothes that are long outdated. Her face lights up when she sees him, and she calls him Gene.
She is nothing like the young woman who cares for him in the day, but he cannot look at one without seeing the other.
:-:
Weeks pass slowly, forced to pretend like he isn't losing his grip on reality. The more time he spends with Hermione, the more he pictures her in scenarios he's seen Lois perform in his dreams.
Laughing, dancing, kissing.
He thinks he's losing his mind until one night she makes him watch a film with her and it gives him the answer. Reincarnation.
Almost dying must have uncovered all of the buried memories of a past life. It's the only way to explain the recurring dream without thinking himself insane.
It naturally follows that Hermione was Lois, and the thought doesn't scare him as he thinks it should. She's his former student, a thorn in his side from the moment they met, and yet she's held off on looking for her parents to care for him.
:-:
He does his best to keep his thoughts and feelings to himself, even after he realizes that he's fallen in love with Hermione. She will never want someone like him after all he's done, without remembering their past together.
He's healthy by the end of the summer and no longer needs her help.
There's a party to celebrate the re-opening of Hogwarts. She makes him attend even though he wants to hide in his quarters. He's happy to be back in the dungeon, but he knows he will miss her.
Everyone toasts to the new term and Severus drinks himself into a stupor to forget the past he longs for.
Hermione is still by his side by the end of the night, guiding him downstairs, helping him into bed.
"G'night, Lois," he slurs, losing himself in her kindness.
She smiles, even as a distant part of himself tells him to panic. "Goodnight, Gene," he thinks she whispers back.
In the morning he's sure he dreamt it.