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Warning for Fairytale!AU, mentions of character death, and a slight bit out of character due to the AU that was used. Also, I would like to point out that Hermione is aged up to be the same age as Severus in this story. Word count is 2,358 words. So, without further ado, I hope you all enjoy To Forgive a Witch.
Once upon a time, the world ended. Or at least that was how it seemed to be to me. Most of you are probably wondering who am I and how the world could have possibly ended. To answer at least one of your questions, I am Severus Snape. Prince Severus Snape of Spinner's End. The other question is rather tricky.
In order to understand the story that I am about ready to tell you. You must first understand that after Lily spurned my advances and married James Potter, I was devastated. I was more than devastated. I was down and out depressed. I was a shadow of the man that I once had been when she'd been my friend and there had been hope for more.
Secondly, you must understand that I hadn't been able to break out of my funk until I met a spunky younger Princess from a nearby kingdom. Princess Hermione Granger, of the kingdom Allcastle. She was much like Lily in spirit but with a much prettier face. Her brown hair looked like it would be soft to the touch. Her gentle brown eyes looked like they held all the understanding in the world. She was everything that I was looking for in a possible future queen to be.
Now that you understand these things I can begin to tell the story of how my world ended or seemed to in earnest.
It was not too long ago when there was a rumor that Lily Potter, the ex-love of my life, and her husband James had ruthlessly taken over the kingdom of Allcastle from the Grangers. It was said to have been a bloodless exchange which I highly doubted. Seeing as both the king and queen had been lying in state for a week now. Their daughter Hermione nowhere to be seen or found.
Then the wanted signs started to appear. Signs with Hermione's smiling face upon them. Calling her the perpetrator of her parents' murders. Calling for her blood and for justice for the ex-king and queen of Allcastle. I personally couldn't believe that pure sweet Hermione Granger was responsible for her parents' deaths. She could hardly harm a fly.
"Do you believe this, Prince Severus?" asked one of my guards, handing over one of the flyer with her face upon. "She always seemed so kind and sweet. To have her turn out a murderer is just so unexpected, don't you think?"
"She's not capable of this," I had said, looking at her smiling face upon the flyer with the words 'wanted dead or alive' over top of it. "You know as well as I do that she wouldn't have done this at all. She loved her parents more than anything."
"Queen Lily seems to think she's still out there," the man said, amber eyes looking at me for some sort of confirmation. "Or else why would she put up wanted posters searching for the girl?"
"Remus," I had said, watching the man carefully feeling like he was trying to hide something from me, "do you perhaps think that Hermione Granger is still alive out there? I, of course, do not know if she is and if I did I wouldn't be the one to turn her in for anything."
"But the reward, Severus," he said, pointing towards the bottom of the page. "The reward is more money than either has ever seen in our entire lives and that is with you being a prince and all."
"Money isn't everything, Lupin," I said, trying to keep the ice off of my voice and failing miserably. Remus Lupin was one of James Potter's friends. "Can you honestly tell me that King James and Queen Lily do not intend to harm Hermione? They captioned the flyer wanted dead or alive."
"Perhaps it was a misprint at the printing shop?" Remus replied far too fast to be appropriate. It sounded much like he was fishing for a way to keep his friend and his wife out of trouble. Or keep the people of other kingdoms from finding out what the Potter's of Allcastle were capable of in regards to taking over other people's kingdoms.
I looked over my shoulder and could see the small frame of the blond-haired man that would be taking over for Remus. I had never been more thankful in my entire life to see Peter Pettigrew before.
"Peter is here to take over the watch," I told Remus, pointing out the small man as he walked towards us.
"Peter," Remus hailed the blond, waving him over to us. He sounded like he was rather disappointed in something. Perhaps he'd thought he'd have some information to take back to James and Lily Potter about Hermione Granger's whereabouts. Served him right.
Peter was about to say something when I stopped him short. I pointed towards Remus's retreating back and he seemed to get the gist of what I was trying to say without speaking. We waited until we were sure that Remus was truly gone.
"Do they suspect that we know where Princess Hermione is?" Peter asked, eyes sparkling with an unknown fear.
"I think they do suspect, Peter," I said, looking down at her smiling face upon the page once more. "We might need to reach out and tell our friends to move her to another house soon. I don't know if they have people following us…."
"People following us?"
"Yes, Peter. People following us. They are trying to find the one person who could bring their stolen kingdom crashing down around their ears and stop her from doing so. Don't think they aren't capable of having people follow us without our knowing it. A desperate person is capable of anything."
Peter nodded, face going the color of curdled milk. "What are we going to do?" he asked, watching me. "About getting the news to Hermione and our friends that is."
"I have a plan."
I pulled Peter close and whispered so that only he could hear what I was saying to him. The plan was a simple one. One that even an idiot like Peter could have pulled off without getting caught. Peter and I would take our pursuers into the woods and try and lose them. If one of happened to lead them in a false direction that would be fine too. I certainly knew that Peter was capable of that much.
But what I hadn't suspected was that they'd been following us all along. The whole entire time that we were helping Princess Hermione hide from James and Lily they knew exactly where she was. This was evident when I walked up to the small cottage where my friends had hidden Hermione only to find them laying her to rest in a glass coffin.
"What is this?" I asked, jumping from my horse and running over to the glass coffin. "What has happened here?"
"We came home and found her like this," Amelia said, watching Hermione sadly. "She was clutching this in her hand when we found her and this was not too far away." She held out an apple with a huge chunk bitten out of it and a note on stationary that looked familiar.
I took the note and read it. Then I reread and reread and reread it again. Trying to make the words make sense and fit with the Lily Evans that I used to know. But I just couldn't do that. This wasn't the Lily that had been my best friend during our youth. This wasn't even the Lily that had stood up to me for calling her that word.
"What are we going to do?" asked Edgar, watching me with eyes that were filled with tears.
These people hadn't known Princess Hermione long but still, they were affected by her passing as heavily as I was. I put my hand on the blond man's shoulder as I stood deep in thought. I looked at the apple in my hand.
That's when I noticed the strange feeling of the skin of the apple in my hand. It had a sort of waxy feeling that I was pretty sure that Hermione would have felt and not taken a big bite out of it.
"Draught of Living Death," I whispered to myself, realizing that the texture of the apple greatly associated with something dipped into the said potion.
"What was that?" asked Peter who had just joined us.
"She's not dead. She's just been put to sleep with the Draught of Living Death. It must have been upon the apple when she took a bite of it. You can tell by the waxy coat of the skin when you touch it."
"But wouldn't Princess Hermione have known not to eat the apple?" Peter asked, saying one of the far too few smartest things he's ever said.
"It looked like there were signs of a struggle when we arrived," Kingsley said, looking over at where Hermione was lying. "Her hair was mused as though someone had been holding it."
"What are we going to do?" Peter asked.
I closed my eyes and tried to think of any known antidote to the Draught of Living Death. I had a story once before where there was one but it was most ridiculous. Kissing a person couldn't wake them from that deep a sleep. That would be a last resort action.
But try as he might nothing worked in waking Hermione. All his exhaustive knowledge of potions and antidotes and none of it was working. He let out a frustrated sigh and lifted the lid of the glass coffin. He stroked the soft hair around her face and then leaned down.
"Hopefully this works," he said, closing the distance with a gentle kiss. He pulled back and waited for a bit.
Hermione's eyes fluttered and opened. She sat up and looked around at the gathering of people who had sworn to protect her. She then spotted the apple.
"Who did this to you, Hermione?" I asked, holding her hands. "I will make sure that they are unable to do this to anyone ever again."
Hermione shook her head. "It wasn't who you think it was, Severus," she said, looking into my eyes. Her own shining with tears. "It was King James who forced the potion upon me so that he could keep the crown that he'd taken from me and my family. Queen Lily and her son are innocent in this."
"Are they?" I asked incredulously. "Queen Lily knew what her husband was planning and didn't tell anyone. She's as guilty in all of this as her husband is, Hermione. Why can't you see that?"
"Perhaps she only did what she did to protect her son and what her husband said was her son's inheritance?" Hermione suggested. "Either way, I plan to forgive her and her son for everything when we take back the palace and my kingdom."
The next few months and years passed in a hard-pressed battle to regain the kingdom of Allcastle for Hermione Granger. It was a long arduous war with many casualties on both sides and upon the end of the war, Hermione was true to her word.
The ex-Queen Lily and her son were drug before Hermione and me as we sat upon the thrones that had once belonged to Hermione's parents. The woman that had once been the love of my now my bitter enemy was kneeling and pleading for her life from Hermione. Her husband having already been sentenced to execution by beheading and awaiting said punishment in the tower of Allcastle.
"Please, my son and I are innocent in all this," Lily said, looking up as tears flowed down her face. "I didn't know that James was going to do what he did to your parents. I wouldn't have condoned what he was going to do if had…."
Hermione held up a hand to silence the quaking woman on her knees in front of us. She stood and walked down from her throne. Gently she lifted both the woman and child to their feet. She smiled kindly at them. The wisdom of her decision that she'd just made shining in her eyes.
"I know that you had nothing to do with your husband's schemes," Hermione said, putting all her kindness and caring into her voice. "I know that you did what you did in order for your son to have a better life and for that, I forgive of the crimes that your husband has led you to commit. I also forgive your son for these crimes as well. He is only a child and knows nothing of the ways of the world yet. I ask only that you teach him not to go down the path that his father led. Can you do this for me, Lily?"
Lily blinked in confusion and then looked at her son, Harry. She quickly nodded, wiping her eyes and smiling. "I can, Queen Hermione," she said, bowing once more.
The small boy seemed confused but followed his mother's lead and bowed once more to the new Queen.
"There is another matter that I wish to speak to you as well, Lady Lily," she said, motioning for the redhead to stand up once more. "Seeing as Severus has asked me to marry him and be his Queen too, I will need someone to watch over the kingdom and pass down rulings for me. The castle custodian says that you are a fair and honest woman. I can think of no other person besides yourself for this job. Will do you me the honor of ruling in my absence until I can be here personally?"
"Hermione," Severus said, jumping to his feet.
"Severus, I know what I am doing." She turned back to Lily smiling encouragingly at her. "What do you say, Lily?"
Lily nodded.
Once upon a time, the world ended. Or so it seemed and what came out the other side of this situation was something much better. A new world and a new age for all of our kingdoms to shine in.
The End.
I hope you all enjoyed To Forgive a Witch as much as I enjoyed writing it.