Title: Lucidi l'anima anitqua (Shine the Ancient Blood)

Rating: PG-13

Pairing: Hermione/Snape

Summary: A prophesy foretells the coming of a savior in whose blood runs the blood of the Hogwarts Four. A savior from whose tainted soul will rise a power greater than the world has ever known. ; Hermione Granger is the first to discover that the secret to defeating Voldemort does not lie with the famous Harry Potter, but Professor Severus Snape.

Author's Note: Okay, here's the second chapter. This was very hard to write, so I'm sorry if it's a little confusing. Thanks to everyone who reviewed, you are great!!!! Oh, and a note about spelling errors, grammar, etc: I have no beta, and rarely read things over thoroughly before I post them. So if there are any mistakes, I apoligize!!! And if anyone want's to beta-read, let me know!!! Again, thanks for the lovely reviews, and please continue to review. I especially want feedback on this chapter, so if you have anything to say that is at all contrsuctive or kind, please do so!!!!!

Bubbletoes ~***~***~**~

Chapter 2

The soft tones of the piano finally ceased, as Professor Severus Snape stilled the motion of his hands and ran them through his hair. The silky locks caressed his fingertips, and he heaved a heavy sigh. Playing the piano had not relaxed him tonight, as it usually did. He was actually wide awake, burning with energy and emotion, and for the life of him, he could not understand why. Severus hadn't slept soundly for more than two or three hours for the past week and half, and one would think that the basic laws of human anatomy should demand that he feel even slightly tired.

Frustrated, he swung his long legs over the piano bench and prepared to leave the room. If he absolutely could not sleep, then there was always prowling the corridors. Maybe he'd get lucky and come across a couple of students to terrorize, although he would not wish it on even Sirius Black to cross paths with him tonight. Prolonged lack of sleep always put Severus in a foul mood, and caused him to be very prickly. Not that he wasn't always prickly, but his chronic insomnia caused that rather unappealing personality trait to double in intensity.

With a flick of his wrist, Severus doused the torches lighting the music room, and made his way to the door. As he walked through the archway, his foot caught on something large and solid, and he practically landed flat on his face.

"Dammit, what the hell was the that?" he murmured, as he groped his way towards the bundle on the ground. The soft feel of wool met his wandering hands, and Severus proceeded to tug the thing over to face him. His eyes grew wide, as he took in the shadowy face of Hermione Granger.

She looked as though she was either dead, or sleeping very soundly. Her chest barely rose and fell, but her skin was pale and icy cold. Severus shook her gently, trying to wake her and finding that she was unconscious, as he had expected. What on earth had happened to the girl, and why was she just outside the music room?

Severus decided quickly that Miss Granger needed to go to the Infirmary immediately, and without a second though, he swept her up and into his arms. She felt like a block of ice against his chest, and he unintentionally pulled her closer, trying to warm her up. With his long stride, he reached the Infirmary quickly, and barked at a house-elf, telling it to wake Madame Pomfrey at once.

He set Miss Granger down on the nearest bed, and began to take her vitals. Though he was no mediwizard, Snape knew enough to get her basics, and to make a primitive diagnosis. Her heartbeat was slow, so slow that he was surprised that she was alive at all, and her lungs were hardly filling with air.

"Severus, what on earth happened?!!" cried Madame Pomfrey, as she bustled into the infirmary still wearing a pink nightgown.

" I found Miss Granger in this condition of my way out of the music room," Severus answered grimly, even as Madame Pomfrey pushed him away from the bedside, and hurriedly took over Hermione's vitals. Pomfrey's mouth made an 'O' of surprise as she took in the girls condition, and a worried frown creased her brows.

"Merlin, Severus, it's a wonder she's still alive!"

"Will you be able to stabilize her Poppy?"

"Of course, of course. She's going to be fine." Madam Pomfrey waved her hand dissmisively, and started a basic healing spell. "What I can't understand is how Miss Granger came to be like this. She was not stunned, nor did she simply faint. If I didn't know better, I would say that our Head Girl had overdosed on magic enhancers."

"That's highly improbable, Poppy. Hermione Granger, take illegal magic enhancers? You're more likely to find an honest Slytherin.," sneered Snape.

"Yes, I know, Severus. It's simply that she has all the symptoms, and I can't think of any other explanation right now. I'm sure that we'll find out what happened when she wakes up. Speaking of which, go and rouse the Headmaster. He'll want to know about this, and I'm sure he'll want to be here when Miss Granger comes to."

Nodding slightly, Snape glided out of the room towards Dumbledore's quarters. Even if he had been tired, there was no chance Severus was going to get the luxury of sleep tonight.

* * *

A soft ray of sunshine shone across Hermione's peaceful face, bathing her skin in a warm glow. Slowly becoming aware, she opened her eyes slightly and peered through half-closed lids. Though the image was fuzzy, Hermione could tell that she was currently in the Infirmary, and had obviously not made it back to her quarters the night before. Strange, she thought, the last thing she could remember clearly was searching the hallways before she went to bed. How had she ended up in here?

"Good Morning, Miss Granger," said a voice close to her right. Hermine opened her eyes fully, and became aware of the fact that Albus Dumbledore was sitting very near her bed.

"Professor Dumbledore," she breathed amid a smothering yawn. "What's going on? Why am I in the Infirmary?"

"An excellent question, my dear. You somehow lost consciousness last night on your sweep of the corridors, and Professor Snape stumbled upon you on his way back to the dungeons. He carried you here, and brought Madame Pomfrey in to aid you."

"Professor Snape carried me?" Hermione blurted, her voice barely masking her disbelief.

" Yes, Miss Granger. Why do you seem so surprised?" Dumbledore asked her calmly. "Professor Snape very nearly saved your life. If he had not found you, Madame Pomfrey believes that you could have easily slipped into a coma."

" Sorry, Professor," Hermione had the grace to look ashamed. " I don't mean to be ungrateful, it's just difficult to imagine Professor Snape carrying anyone, let alone myself. Where did you say he found me?"

"I did not say, but I believe that is was just outside one of the music rooms."

Hermione's face suddenly became drained of all its color. The memory of last night painfully rushed into her mind, and she braced her hands against the bed. The exhilarating music, the tension as her emotions rose, and the vision she had as the music reached a crescendo branded themselves into her brain until her head was pounding. Hermione kept replaying the memories over and over again, until finally reaching the part at the end where she recognized Professor Snape's face.

"Ohhhh," she moaned, clutching her hands to her forehead and bending over slightly.

"Are you alright, Miss Granger?"asked the Headmaster. He rose from his seat surprisingly quickly for a man his age, and started away. "I'll get Madame Pomfrey immediately, don't worry, child."

"No," Hermione called pleadingly after him. "No, Professor, I'm okay. Please, I need to talk to you"

Dumbledore returned to his chair swiftly, and fixed his attention on Hermione, waiting patiently for her to begin. However, she remained silent and stared blankly at the wall. For some reason, Hermione was suddenly having trouble talking.

"Miss Granger, are you sure you're alright? Perhaps we should wait to talk until after you have some more sleep..."

"No, Professor," she interrupted him, voice squeaky but functional. " I assure you, I'm fine. It's just that I remember what happened to me last night, and to be frank, I'm more than a little frightened."

"What did happened, Miss Granger? You weren't attacked, were you?"

" No, no, it was nothing like that at all..." Hermione began to speak rapidly, her sentences and words blurring together. She told Dumbledore the entire story, punctuating her points with wild arm movements that nearly sent the Headmaster's glasses flying off his nose. By the time she was done, Hermione was sweating terribly and her mouth felt like it was full of cotton balls.

Dumbledore was silent for a moment, thoughtfully stroking his beard. His eyes were still held their customary spark, but he seemed very absorbed in his musings. After a while, he returned his gaze to Hemione and spoke. "So you say that you did not recognize Professor Snape at first? That you only realized it was he after the music began to die down?

"Yes, sir."

"And in your vision, you say that he did not look like a man at all, but you knew it was him?"

"Yes, sir. He had a human silhouette, but his body appeared to be made of a brilliant white light."

"Interesting," Dumbledore said, as he continued to stroke his beard. "Very interesting, indeed."

" Do you have a guess as to what happened, Professor?" Hermione asked him when he did not elaborate any further.

" I do have a guess, Miss Granger. I believe that you began to channel some of Professor Snape's magical abilities and powers while you were listening to him play piano."

"You think that I channeled his powers?" asked Hermione incredulously. " I don't mean to be rude, but is that even possible? I've read countless books which say that a wizard's magical aptitudes are his and his alone. It would take an extraordinary amount of power and concentration to even begin to emit personal magical energy."

" You are correct, child. It does appear to be impossible, but then, so do many things that happen everyday. Magic itself is an impossibility by Muggle standards. But let me ask you a question, Miss Granger. Have you ever heard of the Libertá Totale theory?

Hermione racked her brains for a moment, trying to come up with something. She knew she had read about the theory, but was having difficulty remembering the specifics. "Yes," she said uncertainly after a few seconds. "It's the idea that through focusing utterly and completely on a sole activity, the mind reaches it's highest state of intelligence and ability. Supposedly, the mind is freed through the simpleness of having only one action to perform. But achieving the level of concentration required for the mind to reach the Libertá Totale state is extremely difficult. Only those who are very intense mediators have ever achieved it."

"Very Good, Miss Granger! I'm quite impressed." Dumbledore beamed at her a moment, and pride was evident in his words. "Now, do think it at all possible that the Libertá Totale state could be attained through playing an instrument?

Hermione saw immediately where Dumbledore's thought process was headed, and she became excited despite herself. "Yes, I suppose that if the person playing the instrument had the capacity for such intense concentration, then it would be entirely possible!"

Dumbledore smiled at her again, and waved his hand for her to continue on her own.

"So...." he prompted.

" So what you're suggesting is that Professor Snape, who we all know to be capable of doing anything that requires intensity, had reached Libertá Totale while playing the piano last night, thus freeing the most fantastic abilities of his mind ( i.e. his magical talents)!" Hermione's eyes shown, and her she wrung her hands together with excitement.

"Bravo, Miss Granger! Bravo!" Dumbledore clapped softly. "But now we come to a dilemma. For I do not believe that Professor Snape meant to reach Libertá Totale at all. In fact, he plays piano at night to settle his mind, not engage it. So how he managed to achieve so powerful a state of mind as to literally radiate his magical abilities is beyond me."

" I think I'm just as stumped as you are, sir," admitted Hermione, as she leaned back into her pillows and rubbed her forehead. All that intense thinking had made her head ache something dreadful, and she desperately wanted to go back to sleep.

"Yes, well, I believe our conversation has gone on long enough. Madame Pomfrey keeps sending me dirty looks, so I think I had better leave you to her."

'But Professor Dumbledore, shouldn't we try to figure out exactly what happened? Or least, shouldn't we tell Professor Snape something about your theory? I mean, after all, it involves him a great deal, and I think he would want to know." Herminone bit her tongue almost as soon as the words left her mouth; what did she care if Professor Snape knew or not? She decided that she really did need to sleep.

"That's very thoughtful of you, Miss Granger. I will inform Professor Snape, but do not worry about trying to understand the particulars of what happened. It was probably a fluke accident, and can most certainly be prevented from happening again. The most important thing is that you are all right." Giving her a warm smile, Dumbledore patted her on the head and turned to go. "Feel better soon, Miss Granger."

"Thank you, Professor, I will."

Almost as soon as Dumbledore had left, Madame Pomfrey came bustling over to Hermione's bedside, tutting her tongue with every step.

"Honestly, sometimes I wonder what is wrong with that man! He knows better than to over-exert my patients when they are in such a fragile state!"

Hermione laughed softly at this, as Madame Pomfrey began administer a Dreamless Sleep Potion. She was very glad that Professor Dumbledore had told her about his theory on the previous nights events; he had treated her like a grown-up woman, not the student that she really was. But Hermione did not believe he was being entirely honest with her about the importance of finding out what really happened. In fact, she imagined that the whole concept was much more important than he was letting on. She would have to tell Harry and Ron about, and see what they thought But she could do all of that, because right now Hermione wanted to do was sleep.

As she drifted off, a question popped into her brain.

"Madame Pomfrey?" she asked dreamily.

"Yes, dear?"

" I remember that someone was holding my hand through the night. Was that you, or Professor Dumbledore?"

"Actually, dear, it was Professor Snape. He volunteered to stay the whole night with you, while Albus and I went back to bed."

Hermione was beyond shocked. Not only did Professor Snape help save her life, he also kept watch over her!!! Barely able to form a coherent thought, she asked the only thing she could think of.

"Where is he now?" Hermiones voice sounded raspy, like she could barely breath.

"Oh, I imagine he's down in the dungeons. He left about ten minuets before you woke up. He said that he was the last person you'd want to wake up to, and Albus agreed with him."

" I'll have to thank him, " she mumbled, as her mind could think no more and she fell into a soothing sleep.