For Stormcrow4, the author of the 400th review of this story! And what a joy it was to read!

I love you all guys! Thank you for being here with me!


CHAPTER 54

Neville woke up with a start, gasping. He was covered with cold sweat and immediately clutched his hands protectively to his body in an attempt to keep them safe from the monster of a professor.

Damn, it was the worst dream he had ever had; Snape above him, pulling out his nails and slowly torturing him to death by chopping off various parts of his body while he was still conscious.

Merlin!

Still shaking and with quickened breath, he noticed that his hands were bandaged, each finger carefully wrapped in a white gauze and smeared with some kind of balm. And the room he was in was DEFINITELY not his dormitory. Not even the cell he had dreamed of before...

Damn! Was that real?! Or is he dreaming now?

He bit at his lip till he could taste blood in his mouth. Still it didn't hurt as much as it was supposed to. Was he drugged? Or hallucinating? He remembered Snape fed him with some potion...

Looking around himself once more and concluding that this dream was surely preferable to the former one, he decided to not bother with it anymore. He would see either way, wouldn't he?

He was now sitting on an old sofa in what seemed to be a library - numerous books lined every wall of the room, leaving no place for even a single picture to be placed on it. Then there was an ancient armchair and a wobbly coffer table with his wand, a few small vials and an open white envelope on it.

With his curiosity piqued, he reached his bandaged fingers towards it and struggled clumsily for a minute to pull out the parchment from inside to read it. Finally, he succeeded.

"-"

Mr. Longbottom,
Take the potions you can see next to you as soon as you wake up - they will fasten you recovery considerably. All of them are meant to be digested except for the green one - it's a balm to be applied on your fingers if your nails have not fully regrown back by now.
On that note, I apologize once more for my recent actions towards you; I deemed them necessary for your survival even as I am well aware that you are innocent of the crime. Now you are considered dead by the Wizarding Society so try to use it to your advantage.
The house you are currently residing in belongs to me (although it will have been transferred to Miss Granger by Monday); it is warded and completely safe except for the Death Eater guards who are watching it from the outside. They cannot enter the grounds so you do not have to panic, still I recommend you to exit the building using the Floo (the powder is hidden in the mantelpiece) that leads into my Hogwarts office. The ideal time for that would be on Sunday as I expect most Death Eaters to be summoned and busy then, enabling you to find your way through Hogwarts and into Hogsmeade unhindered. You are free to use and/or take whatever you would find useful in the house - or what was left from it.

Best regards and my deepest apologies

SS

P.S. Should you desire to find company of likewise troubled wizards, look for them in the smallest fisherman's cabin at the banks of the Loch Lomond lake.

"-"

Neville only stared at the words, the small handwriting making no sense to him at all even after several minutes and readings.

WHAT?!

Was this really from Snape? Did the man torture him in that horrendous way to save him?

That did not make sense. Not at all.

Snape was a Death Eater - everyone knew that. He killed Dumbedore and was Voldemort's best lapdog. He had terrorized the school on a daily basis since becoming the Headmaster, always joining the Carrows while they had been interrogating, inspecting and torturing the students...

Why for Merlin's sake would he help him? Neville Longbottom, the student he hated and scorned the most for his ineptitude and general clumsiness? And how did he know he was innocent?

Furthermore, what was that about some company camped by a lake? Was Snape trying to bait him out? But why?!

His head swam with questions and confusion.

Wait, did he say the house would belong to Hermione on Monday? Why Hermione? Why on some specific day?

Merlin, had Snape been the one to help Hermione getting out of the fortress she had been imprisoned in? The one Death Eater who was on their side that she had not wanted to tell him the name of?

By good Godric...

It had taken about an hour for him to decide to take the potions, trusting the words of the man he feared the most in the world to heal him and erase the weak yet persistent pain in his body.

Surprisingly, it worked. He even felt rather well after he had drunk them. Still, he was too chicken to take off the bandages and look at his hands; somehow it felt like it would make the whole thing real to see the proof on his body. He would rather wake up in his dormitory in the Tower...

Choosing to go and explore the house instead, he grabbed his wand and got to it.


Merlin, the house was a mess.

He did not know what had happened in there; it looked like there had been some battle of a herd of Hippogriffs against a hurricane or something on that scale. Not a single room was usable except the library he had woken in. It was a miracle the structure even remained standing after what it had been put through...

And he had found a wand in one of the rooms that he would swear belonged to Hermione. Another mystery added to the list...

He at least repaired the windowpanes so the light rain from outside would not pour into the rooms. He might need to stay there for a few more days, surviving somehow on the few bits of food that remained undamaged and unspoiled in the wrecked kitchen; he really needed answers from the man. And he needed to say a 'Thank you' if he gets them.

And if he will dare to bring this whole affair up with the man at all, not running away at the first sight of him, he admitted to himself, cringing.


Sunday night had him pacing in front of the windows, nervous and looking out every few minutes or so. Snape had said that if he wanted to bolt, the best time for it was today. And this today was nearly a yesterday already...

Merlin, if only he knew what was right!

There was the telltale crack of an Apparition and it made him glue himself to the window in alarm, watching out for the source of it.

A dark clad man appeared, crawling to the house, a small and thin figure running to him immediately and trying to help him to stand up. Even in the dim light he could see the man was injured!

The man wrenched himself free from the other person - was it a girl in men's clothes? - and was nearly at the door now so he ran down to open it; Snape had said that Death Eaters could not cross the wards of the house so it hopefully was no Death Eater. He had to help him!

Swinging the door open, he froze as the man crawled blindly by, slouching on the ground limply.

It was Snape.

Yet he was as far from Snape as he could possibly get, the mutilated face nearly unrecognizable if not for his big nose and the black hair surrounding it.

The smell of blood and burned flesh hit his nose in full then and he jumped aside, scared and startled.

What had happened to him?!

Something flew past him, landing in the man's outstretched hand.

He thought there was nothing that would be able to shock him even more when he noticed the second person who had entered the house.

"Hermione?!" he asked, not believing his eyes. She did not look that well either, yet it was definitely her!

"Neville? What are you doing here?!" The same shock that he felt was mirrored in her face too.

"I... Snape... It's complicated," he stammered, not being able to explain properly at the moment. "What happened to you? What are YOU doing here?!"

"I... I will explain later. It's complicated too. For now please just give me a hand with him, he seems to be injured somehow and won't answer or let me help him. Did you happen to find a wand around here?" she asked him, her speech quick and her face rather worried.

He took the wand he suspected was hers from his pocket and pressed it into her hand without a word. Snape really did not seem to be in a good shape. Hell, he didn't seem to even be able to open and reach whatever he had summoned to himself in the small bottle...

"Thank you," Hermione said hastily and immediately lifted Snape up to levitate him straight to the library. She seemed to know the house well although he noticed her glimpsing at the omnipresent piles of splinters and debris with some kind of consternation.

In a few seconds, she deposited Snape gently on the sofa and immediately began to undress him from what was left from his clothes, no hesitation in her actions whatsoever as if she was doing it everyday.

Damn, what was happening here? He was rather sure he was missing something important.

"Neville? What is he doing with that bottle?" she asked, some alarm in her voice even as she did not even slow down in her systematic work on the buttons in his blood soaked and torn shirt.

"Don't know! He is probably trying to open it. It's some sort of potion I would say. He wants to drink it if you would ask me..." he offered his opinion, watching the man from a few feet away - just to be sure.

"Potion? Take it from him!" she told him, the worry penetrating to her voice too now.

"Why?" he asked. The man was a Potion Master, he surely knew what he was doing...

"He has a history of wanting to poison himself when injured. Summon it to yourself, if you don't want to touch him," she said then, her tone rather strict and commanding now. He obeyed.

"Accio bottle!" he said, pointing his wand at Snape, yet nothing could make him expect what happened next.

Just as the bottle began slipping through the man's bloody, dirty and disfigured fingers, the professor launched after it, gripping at it with such a strength that it made Neville summon the potion WITH Snape attached to it, both colliding with him forcefully and knocking him down to the dirty floor. He felt the small vial in his hand, yet Snape was clutching at it too, trying to wriggle it out of his grasp with a crazy zeal that made him unbelievably strong.

"Hermione, help me!" he called her even as a blow landed on his cheek, the man crawling and tearing at him like a rabid dog in its frenzy, fighting for the bottle as if it was the most precious thing in the world.

He heard her trying to put him to sleep, casting the charm. Nothing happened. Not even on her second and third attempt.

Neville had troubles breathing as the man's hands had wrapped around his throat.

"Stun him! Stun him!" he called hoarsely, desperate and out of breath.

"Stupefy!" he heard and finally the man sank limply to the ground, his swollen eyes shut and face losing that crazy grimace it had held a minute ago.

"Fuck!" he said aloud although he never swore, wiping at his sweaty forehead. Never except for now. Damn, this was bound to haunt him in his dreams for years!

He was about to push the man's weight away from himself when Hermione stopped him in that.

"No, don't! You will hurt him even more! Let me lift him!"

Damn, why did she care? The man was a crazy killer!

Merlin, he would swear it was an Inferius that only USED TO be Snape for all the mad wheezing, growling and rattling sounds that he was making a few seconds ago!

Still, he let her levitate him back to the sofa and continue in her effort to undress him fully.

He could only gape when she finally managed that, not even registering the total nudity of the man for the state of his body.

How came Snape was NOT an Inferius?! How could he even breathe, let alone fight with that?!

His whole body was misshapen, distorted and disfigured so much that it gave the impression of someone trying to tear it apart bit by bit with pure brute force; his left hand was barely even attached to his body, the legs all broken and at odd ankles with his torso. There was not a place on his skin without a burn, ugly bruise or a cut on it and he was rather sure something was sticking out of the man's belly that REALLY should have stayed inside with anyone who would dream of surviving the day. Blood was still oozing out of the man's mouth and there were ribs and various other bones protruding through his bruised flesh.

He knees gave up under him and he sank to the ground again, fighting his urge to faint and vomit.

Damn, he had never seen a body so... so... utterly destroyed. Not even his tortured fingers could begin to compare to THIS!

Yet Hermione did not waver for a single second, simply cleaning the man of the filth, clay and blood and working with the same focused efficiency he had seen her apply during her studies back at school.

"Neville, go to the bathroom and say 'help'. Bring me the potions that would appear on the shelf," she ordered him.

"Quickly!" she prodded him, when she obviously thought he was too slow in getting up.

Damn, she probably really cared!

He did what she had said, depositing the potions on the coffee table and watching her in shocked amazement as she fed the potions to the man skillfully, not a hint of hesitation about touching the naked and scary professor. Not missing out a beat and no disgust at smearing a big glob of a salve on the nasty burn just an inch from his naked penis, only a worried frown creasing her forehead...

There was something really wrong with this. Especially her hurrying so much with everything despite the man obviously being out of the worst after the half an hour that she had spent waving her wand over his stomach and tending to all the wounds... Why did she simply not call for Madame Pomfrey and leave?

He did not dare to ask though, for there was some strict air of duty and responsibility about her that he had no courage to disturb or question. She certainly looked like she knew what she was doing; much better than he did in any case...

Finally, she put all the empty bottles aside and conjured a blanked to cover his body, turning to him.

So they would talk at last, explaining this whole mess!

"Neville, I need you to leave now. Take the Floo and go to his office. Stay there till I come and fetch you," she told him, her cheeks slightly flushed for some reason.

Merlin, why?!

He stared at her, incredulous and unable to speak.

"Neville, I am sorry but I can't explain now. Just trust me and do it, please!" she all but begged now and he nodded dumbly.

Hell, he hoped this was something that even COULD have some explanation!

He found the remnants of the fireplace and collected a bit of the Floo powder that had been spilled all around it, throwing it in and entering. The next second he was in Snape's office, the man's presence so palpable and strong there that it made him crouch a little, looking around the empty room sheepishly. The portraits of the headmasters were all sleeping by now so it was eerily quiet in the room.

Selecting the armchair in the corner that seemed the most secure and hidden, he clutched his wand forcefully in his hand and stared out of the darkened window, worry and questions swarming his mind.

Damn, this waiting felt just too long already...


I guess you know what will happen in the next chapter now, right? It will appear in a few days again :-)

I will probably have no time to answer the reviews for this chapter as I expect myself to be rather busy and I apologize deeply for that in advance. Every single letter of it will be still much appreciated and treasured though!

Thank you so much for everything!