Disclaimer: Harry Potter belongs to j.k.rowling, blah de blah de blah. But, the plot is all mine, hah!
Author's Notes: Here it is everyone, the next chapter! I am so sorry I didn't update last night, I totally planned to, but then I went to the cinema to see 'The Importance Of Being Earnest', which is actually quite groovy! In this chapter everything is pretty much explained, but if I have written it too confusingly and you still don't get, feel free to send me an email, or leave your email on the review page along with what you didn't understand, and I will get back to you as soon as possible! Hope you enjoy this chapter; it is quite long and was actually quite difficult to write. Depending on your feelings towards violence and death (although it doesn't go into much description), this chapter is probably PG-13. The R rating will definitely come later!
Thanks to reviewers, individual thanks below.
Enjoy, and please review whether you liked it or not!
*Flashback*
"Ah……………!" Hermione screamed as she dodged yet another deadly curse aimed at her with fateful accuracy. Her heart pounded in her chest, and her thumping head felt as if it were on the verge of explosion. Ducking into the dark hall, she ran flat out until she reached the kitchen door, which she flung open in desperation, causing the glass panes to shatter into minute shards. She heard the thundering footsteps behind her, but they seemed in another world as slammed into the kitchen of her family home, and stopped curtly, skidding a little, and saw her worst nightmare portrayed in front of her very eyes.
Her mother, Geraldine Granger was kneeling over her father's prone body, crying into him softly. Realisation struck Hermione, and she let out a strangled sob. This caught Geraldine granger's attention, and she sat up on her heels as Hermione ran into her arms.
They were still clutched together as the door was violently smashed open. Hermione's mother screamed as white-masked, red-robed demons burst into the room, hurling curses at every step. Hermione pushed her mother under the large kitchen table and quickly followed. She groped for her wand, and horror struck her as she realised she didn't have it. Thinking rapidly, realisation dawned upon her, as she decided that she must have dropped it during her frantic rush to reach and defend her parents.
With a blast that shook the whole house, the heavy mahogany table was flung across the room into the wall. Still clutched together, Hermione and her mother backed into the wall; the now silent deatheaters forming a semicircle around them; one stood forward with his wand raised.
For a fleeting moment, Hermione wondered if Professor Snape was among the faceless, soulless, emotionless fiends in front of her, before closing her eyes and waiting for the inevitable, 'Avada Kedavra!'. It never came.
********************
One street away, under the soft glow of a nearby street lamp, Severus Snape apparated with a pop, and began running. He was now merely houses away from Hermione Granger's family home.
He stopped abruptly, and groaned loudly when he spotted the dark green, sparkling dark mark lighting up the pitch-black sky above her house. He collapsed onto his knees on the dank pavement, his palms flat against the cold granite. His breath was coming out in gasps, and unknown tears pricked the back of his eyes. It was too late. Perhaps the most intelligent, beautiful young witch of the century had perished because of him. Because of him, she would simply become another statistic. The tears threatened to overflow as he repeated in his head, as if taunting himself;
*It was you. You as good as killed her. You let her down. You, all you!*
Severus weakly raised his head to take one last, long look at her house. His gaze misted over before he saw it. Not believing it, he impatiently brushed his hand over his eyes; pushing back the unshed tears, and forcing his vision to clear. Glancing back up, he saw it again. His heart leapt and he scrambled to his feet, reprimanding himself for getting caught up in his emotions; for missing this before for wasting precious time. His feet pounded on the ground, his leg muscles complaining painfully. But he didn't care, he just focused all his concentration into the one, shining light in the house, and the two, taut shadows.
He covered the distance in seconds and dashed through the open front door noiselessly. Racing down the hallway to the open, smashed door at the opposite end, and extracting his wand from his robes at the same time, he realised he didn't like the deathly quiet. Skidding slightly as he stopped at the door, he crept through it, his breathing shallow.
The death eaters before him had not realised anybody else was in the room, and Severus took advantage of this. Bracing himself and poising his wand, he took a deep breath and bellowed,
"Avada Kedavra!"
As the silence split, all the deatheaters spun around, and Severus downed two of them with his single curse. After a moment of confusion, the deatheaters began launching curses his way, which Severus avoided expertly. His 'deatheater instinct' kicked in as he flung curses at everybody available. Out of the corner of his eye, Severus saw one deatheater move from the pack and edge around in front of Hermione and her mother; wand at the ready – pointed at them.
"Hermione!" Snape roared, and hurled 'Avada Kedavra' at the sneaky bugger. The next few seconds seemed to go into slow motion for Severus. The deatheater positioned exactly in front of Mrs Granger cleverly dodged the impending curse, and horror struck Severus as he predicted what would happen. Geraldine Granger let out a piercing scream as the curse hit her in a burst of green light, before her lifeless form hit the floor.
"NO………….!" screamed Hermione, with a sob which tore Severus' heart in two. The deatheaters still surrounding them, having achieved what they set out to do, disapparated away with a collective pop.
Hermione had dropped to her knees, staring in mortification at her mother's prostrate figure. There were no tears, Severus was sure they would come later. Tucking his wand away safely in the deep black folds of his robe, Severus bent to Hermione.
"Miss Granger, I, I am so very, very sorry," he spoke in barely more than a whisper. Hermione turned her face to her feared potions professor, and saw the immense sorrow upon his face. She threw herself at him, burying her dirt-smudged face against his warm shoulder. The tears began to fall.
*End Of Flashback*
A/N: well, I hope you guys liked this and are satisfied with the story! I am aware that Snape is probably very OOC in this chapter, but I will try to rectify that in the upcoming chapters. I hope to get chapter 5 up tomorrow if I get enough reviews, so please review!!
Thank to all reviewers, please keep it up!
Kylee, thanks for being the first reviewer of chapter 3! *blushes* glad u like it, and I am trying to increase the length of chapters!
Phoenixfeather7, glad u like my writing – no one's ever said that to me before!
Darkfire, glad it is all making sense now, lol! That is sweet of u to say it will be one of ur faves – I really hope it will be!
Cherry7-up, thanks for your review, pleased you liked the chapters (and got to them lol!)
Tracy, thanks very much. Well here it is and I promise next chapter tomorrow!
Jenthewriter, great, can't wait to read the next chapter! Glad u liked the chapter
Lizzypotter13, groovy, you liked it! And I promise to update!
Goddessnmb1, am trying to put in as much description as I can, hope this chapter was descriptive enough! Glad u liked the godson bit!
Rosebud, am trying to make the chapters longer!
Maddy, yeah, you! You always use cliffhangers lol! I know, I can't believe I've managed to keep the suspense am either!
LV02, thanx so much for reviewing – I totally love your story!
Kaira, very sorry for stopping there! Hope u like this chapter too! So sweet of you to add me to ur faves, thanx!
Thanks to everyone, next chapter either up tomorrow or later tonight if I have the time!
Please R & R!