Disclaimor: All things Harry Potter belong to J.K. Rowling.

Corazon thank you for betaing this!

Hidden Truths

Chapter 4

Over the next two weeks Hermione helped Snape three more times. Each time he was in the same shape as the first time. Hermione would be studying late when she would get the owl from Dumbledore. She would immediately get ready and dress in plain school robes with no hint of her house colors, put on the Glamoure Charm, the invisibility spell and head down to the Entrance Hall.

Hermione would wait for Snape to enter and take off the invisibility spell before going to him. She always tried to support some of his weight knowing he didn't have much strength. "Hospital Wing or quarters?" she would ask every time. He had given up on fighting her when she offered help. He must have figured it wasn't worth the effort.

"Quarters," was the standard answer from him.

Hermione would say nothing else. Though he would.

"Who are you?"

When she wouldn't answer he would demand in his best classroom voice thus wasting energy, "Who are you?!"

Hermione would never answer though; she would just continue to help him into his bedroom and onto his bed. He tried to stay awake and demand a few more times or try to ask different questions. The common ones were 'How do you know when I am summoned?' and 'What house do you belong to?' or 'Why are you doing this?' Hermione would normally sit in the chair closest to his bed and wait for him to fall asleep. Sometimes she waited for ten-fifteen minutes before he would eventually fall asleep.

When she was positive that he was asleep she would charm off his dirty, blood stained clothes. The blood on his robes appeared to be his, usually. Hermione would take her time in healing him ensuring no bruise or bone was left unhealed. She would then charm on his nightclothes and leave him to sleep.

After leaving Snape, she would check in with Dumbledore and let him know how Snape was. Nothing else was said between them. Dumbledore seemed to know Hermione didn't want or have the energy to talk more. Supporting Snape's weight and healing him drained her energy and she would always want to return to her room to sleep herself.

Potion's classes remained the same. They finished the polyjuice potion. Snape still took off Gryffindor house points and gave detentions. Hermione would finish her work early and then work on other potion related work when she wasn't sneaking glances at the Potions Master. Each day after she helped him, he appeared the same like every other day. Hermione didn't know how Snape could do it. The physical abuse and mental games he was doing had to be a drain on the man but he never showed it except whenever he came back from being summoned. Hermione wondered why he would always return in such shape. She would have thought Voldemort would tire of beating the same man repeatedly.

Whatever the reasons and no matter how many times Voldemort would beat Snape, Hermione would make sure she helped the best she could.

~~~~~~

The beginning of the second week in October found Severus coming back from Voldemort's latest torture session. The meeting was worse than usual. Oh, Voldemort used his favorite curses and hexes on him and Voldemort's specialty of Cruciatus, but he added a more personal touch this time. Voldemort swirled the serrated blade most of the night while cursing Severus. It wasn't until the end when Voldemort decided to plunge the eight-inch hunter's knife into Severus' left thigh. Voldemort knew exactly where to stab Severus, by missing the artery so Severus wouldn't die from loss of blood or injure his leg where it would leave Severus with a limp.

For once Severus was hoping the lady would be there to help him. He would have to go to the Hospital Wing for this injury if not, but with the lady's help he could stay in his quarters.

After Voldemort left, Severus apparated from the isolated location where he had been tortured. Severus was able to put a charm on his wound to stop it from bleeding for ten minutes. That would give him some time to reach the castle and his helper. The fifteen-minute walk was slow and painful. Usually it was only a ten-minute walk after Voldemort's summons and six minute walk when Severus was healthy. Severus could tell he was getting worse. The stab wound was bad, but he was treated with more curses than usual. He would have to take a potion in the morning to be able to move. Before he had his helper, he would have to take a mild pain killer potion after every meeting after he healed his wounds. Since the woman healed the wounds the same night, the pain in the morning was not enough to warrant a painkiller.

Severus mentally cursed Voldemort. The dark wizard would beat him badly on a Sunday night and Monday's first class was Potions with the two house rivals of Gryffindors and Slytherins 7th years. Severus had been lucky enough until now to not have this particular group of students after an extreme beating, but apparently his luck ran out.

Severus carefully opened the door to the Entrance Hall. It was a strange feeling having to hope that the lady would be waiting for him or he would have to go to the Hospital Wing immediately. Once Severus was inside and the door closed behind him, he searched the hall seeing no one, but had the feeling he wasn't alone. When he first came through the doors he would see no one, but then the mysterious lady would greet him. He had tried to figure out who she was but after the meetings he was too sore and tired to interrogate her properly. Severus started walking to the dungeon stairs when he felt an arm go around his waist and another hand lift his arm over a shoulder.

"Hospital Wing or quarters?" The woman asked always never saying anything else.

"Quarters." Severus said in relief.

When Hermione saw Snape come in she hesitated at first. There was more blood than before. He was also favoring his right leg a lot when putting weight down. She looked to his left leg to see if perhaps he had broken it, but it was worse than she thought. There was a tear in his trousers and surrounding the tear was blood, a lot of blood. She snapped out of her trance and put her arms around him and asked the normal question. Her heart was still beating rapidly; she almost wanted to holler in anger at seeing him like this. She wanted to kill Voldemort for this alone and not considering what else he had done.

Snape gave her the normal answer; she was tempted to go to the Hospital Wing instead, but she would do as he wished. If she needed more help she could moblicorpus him to the infirmary. Hermione was thinking she might have to make a potion to clean the wound. Wand healing was good but she wasn't advanced enough to do such wounds. The process down the stairs was slower this time and she supported much more of his weight, but they both were able to get down and continued to his quarters.

Disabling the wards, they both headed into the private chambers. Severus didn't even think about how the girl would reset them when she left. He decided to forego the few questions that he would normally ask, since he didn't have the energy. He was hearing her speak which surprised him.

"I'll need to make a potion for your leg."

Severus didn't think about that but she was right. Only a mediwizard/witch would be able to heal his stab wound with a wand. Apparently his helper was not a mediwitch.

"Use my private lab," Severus managed to say. He wanted to say more like, "don't make a mess", "no, I'll make the potion" but he didn't have the strength. His private lab held everything any Potions Master could dream of. While he trusted only himself and the Headmaster to use his lab, this was an exception. He could grant her permission or go to the Hospital Wing. While he knew Promfrey was a great mediwitch, he greatly desired his privacy and didn't want to run the risk of students seeing him laid up in a bed even if it was for the night.

Severus settled onto his bed gratefully. The pain in his leg was worse now that he had to walk on it for so long. He closed his eyes and tried to relax. He felt his clothes disappear off his body. He knew normally she would have waited until he was asleep, but she must have felt she needed to attend to his leg. After he felt his cracked ribs fixed his breathing became easier. He didn't feel the tip of her wand for a while, but he did feel a blanket cover him in warmth but not his left leg.

Hermione quickly healed Snape's ribs and left him alone after covering him with a blanket, but making sure it didn't touch the left leg. She went to Snape's private lab and got to work. If she had time and was not worried to death she would have looked around and realized this was her dream lab. Hermione took in most of the lab and was impressed with it. It readily had everything she needed for the cleansing/disinfecting and healing potion she was working on. While the healing potion had to simmer for ten minutes, Hermione fetched some towels from Snape's bathroom and brought the cleansing potion to the nightstand. Hermione took great care in cleaning the dry blood and dirt from the gash. When she was studying healing potions she took time and effort to find a simple potion for cleaning and disinfecting such wounds, but made sure it contained properties so it wouldn't sting on contact. She knew her emotions were in upheavals, but she pushed them down to deal with them when she knew he would be all right.

When the healing potion was ready, Hermione applied it to the wound and waited. That was one of the problems with healing potions that it had to be directly applied and it would take several hours for the wound to heal. Perhaps a second dosage may have to be applied, but most likely not. After applying what she needed to, Hermione went to work on the other bruises and small cuts. Once completed, she covered him back up with a blanket leaving the left leg uncovered and let him sleep. Hermione knew she would have to stay most of the night but could sneak out a few hours before dawn to be safe.

Within thirty minutes Hermione was asleep but she set her internal clock for four am. She was one of those people who could wake up at an hour they need to when they wanted.

~~~~~

Severus was always one to go to bed late and wake up early. He never required much sleep. Before opening his eyes he could tell he didn't have clothes on, only his boxers - which was normal for him when he wasn't called to Voldemort's side the night before. Whenever he was called to Voldemort's side he ended up sleeping in his clothes - at least until she came along. Now he would wake up with one of the few sets of pajama's he did own. Severus remembered drifting off to sleep around the time he felt her cleaning his gash. Severus focused on his left leg. The pain was gone and he tried to move it slowly, and still no pain, it was just a bit sore and stiff.

Severus opened his eyes slowly and sat up in bed gingerly. He looked at his leg closer. There was barely a scar as far as he could tell in the dark. Whoever the girl was she knew her potions....

That was when he noticed a slight shift in the chair that was a few feet from him and in the corner of his bedroom, but still the closest chair to his bed. Looking closely it was a girl also, he assumed his helper, but she had never stayed the night before. Severus silently accio'd his wand. He was powerful enough to achieve such wandless magic.

"Lumos," Severus whispered holding up his wand.

The dim light from his wand was enough to shine light on the sleeping figure, but long brown wavy hair blocked Severus' chance to see the person's face.

Hermione woke up. A light disturbed the darkness of the room and that in turn disturbed her sleep. She slowly roused out of the uncomfortable sleeping position and buried her head in her hands for a moment. She turned to the bed where her teacher was laying and was surprised it was him with his wand that woke her up. She knew instantly he would not be pleased to know it was her who had been helping him and she knew her Glamoure Charm wouldn't have lasted this long.

"Ms. Granger?"



To Be Continued...
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Tabii - sorry didn't mean to be that evil!

Ezmerelda - thanks!

Xploiting Hypotheories - very true! I just hope I live up to the standards.

hpz26 - thanks!

NotQuiteFamous - actually the story is done but its being beta'd and RL (real live) is always interferring. :)

DragonFireAngelVWP - thanks! I hope you got my email about the update.

hi - thanks!

Beccs - its fun making him suspicious!

NaNook - here's more!

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