Chapter 46: A Closed Door Encounter
{A/N: Here's Another Update...}
My Thanks To All My Readers And Reviewers Enjoy -S.S
The Snape Residence, Cokeworth, England, Muggle World...
Hermione believed that she'd never have gotten away from Hogwarts given the sudden interest both Harry and Dumbledore had taken in her as of late. She had been at her "wit's end" when a message from Snape had gotten her attention. He had been quite careful to ensure that only she received it and that no one other than her could obtain the information within, something of forced habit given his spy status. She had been eager to know what he wished of her and she'd found herself shocked by the simplistic nature of the message.
{"I need to see you, meet me tonight...you know the place."} had been all he wrote.
Of course, Hermione didn't need to decipher what he meant, given he had always ventured to the same place whenever they were at Hogwarts together. It was to be the abandoned classroom below the castle where he felt the most comfortable not being beneath Dumbledore's gaze or tracked via Harry's map. As it turned out the map only had view of the used spaces of the castle and it made the lower levels a safe haven for a young Severus Snape whenever the bullying from the Marauders got to be too much to handle and Slytherin Prefect, Lucius Malfoy, was outside of the school.
The clever young Gryffindor witch managed to give her rather nosy friends the slip and made her way down to the dungeons careful not to alert any of the students or staff down there as she reached the classroom, where a silent Severus Snape stood in the darkness giving indication that he had something on his mind.
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Abandoned Classroom, Hogwarts Castle, Wizarding World...
Shutting the door behind swiftly behind her and locking it tight, The newly arrived Hermione Granger turned her attention to the figure looking in the shadows as if to be nursing one side of his body. Severus Snape made himself known to his long lost and subsequently de-aged wife, seeking out her familiar amber eyes as they were the only true indication that this wasn't all just some uncharted dream given way to a nightmare, for they remained as they always had, beautiful, brilliant and full of wonder as well as a quiet knowledge unspoken. The Potions Master had been quite upset that Dumbledore chose to sift through an old journal than hear his latest update in terms of his service as a spy for the Order of Phoenix, a fitting name if ever there was one.
Hermione gasped when she took note of the new wounds that had come with the newly obtained information.
"Severus..." she said caught off guard and quite worried.
"I-I'm alright." he attempted to reassure her. "It's nothing I haven't encountered before."
"Nothing you haven't encountered..." began Hermione immediately rushing to his side intent on getting him proper medical assistance. "There's several gashes here...all bleeding."
Snape looked down at the worried young witch.
"It's alright love, as I've said...it's nothing I haven't encountered before." he replied.
Hermione sighed choking back the sorrow that had begun to make itself known as she had a flash of all he must have endured in her absence given the number of scars that lined parts of his chest and back.
"Severus..." she said in a tone that had been a weighty combination of disbelief and sorrow.
Snape had not wanted her to see him this way, knowing how it upset her...but there had been so few opportunities to see her when he wasn't injured.
"Have you taken a healing potion?" asked Hermione wiping away a wayward tear as she continued to examine him.
"Can't...too much too soon." replied Snape trying his best to disguise his silent agony.
He simply needed to see her. He'd gladly bleed out in the confines of their former meeting spot if only to have a few more moments in her presence.
"You need a salve then." said Hermione setting to work on stopping the bleeding. "It should fix you right up."
"I haven't got any here." replied Snape wishing he'd replenished his stock before hand. "I use the last the week before."
Hermione seemed a bit alarmed by this but regained her composure and thought of an alternative course of action to get him healed properly without drawing attention to them.
"Do you keep some hidden...like a spare container?" she asked thinking quickly.
"As a matter of fact, I do." replied Snape recalling that he still had some already brewed. "But it's at Spinner's End."
"Then we'll go there." said Hermione relieved to know that treatment for him was around the corner.
"Hermione, it's far too dangerous for you to be traveling outside of the school grounds." said Snape with a good deal of concern in his tone.
"Don't you dare lecture me right now, you know very well that I can take care of myself." she said. "Besides it isn't as if you can tend to yourself given your current condition, who's to say you'd even make it back to Spinner's End and still be conscious enough to tend to your wounds before you bleed out?"
"Hermione, you are not going to..." began Snape as his obsidian gaze flickering with a bit of annoyance. "You are not..."
A small spasm of pain saw to his reluctant compliance.
"Can you apparate?" asked Hermione putting aside her minor victory in reaction to his pain.
"I..I..can..." the ailing wizard panted.
Hermione quickly took his hand and Snape focused on the effort he'd have exhort in an attempt at such fast travel, but they had to be at Spinner's End and back to Hogwarts before anyone suspected their collective absence.
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The Snape Residence, Spinner's End, Cokeworth, England, Muggle World...
A tale tell clap of thunder resounded as Severus Snape and Hermione Granger landed at Spinner's End. The uncomfortable flight path had gotten them there mostly intact given Snape's previous injuries and it had only taken a moment for Hermione to get her bearings and set to work with seeing to her (former) husband's care. Snape for his part had been sulking in silence, both due to having to return to the home he resented and for her folly in insisting that they did. While neither of them had spoken of their time together during their last visit, but it lingered in the backs of their minds.
Hermione moved about the house knowing every room from memory, Snape made his way to his father's old arm chair in the semi-darkened sitting room. The scent of smoke, old ash, and dust filled the room as Snape managed to make it to the chair closing his eyes as he leaned back nearly drifting off due to being light-headed.
"Severus?" said the voice of a newly returned Hermione Granger.
Exhausted, the ailing wizard opened his eyes taking in the sight of her worried expression. She had taken the liberty of spelling off his frock coat and shirt noting how soaked they'd been due to the loss of blood from his wounds. His pale chest had been pink in color due to the slick crimson that oozed out of the many gash wounds delivered to the Potions Master via magical assault.
"It's routine by now." he told Hermione. "Part of the job."
"It shouldn't be happening at all." said the angered witch as she set to work cleaning his wounds to apply the salve she held within her hands.
"Was worth it for information...even a small amount." replied Snape. "Potter must be kept safe at all costs."
"Severus, why do you do this?" asked Hermione not at all understanding how the teenage Slytherin boy she fell in love with had become a death eater and a subsequent go to target for the despot's wrath.
"Some other time." he said plainly despite feeling himself start to drift off in combination of the young witch's warm touch and the application of the salve against his battered flesh.
The busy witch continued to apply the salve unsure of what to make of the sorry sight her beaten husband had been in after his meeting with the despot but she wasn't in the least finished with her inquiry into his past, but she was not about to wake him now that he'd earned his rest.