Shadows of the Past, Part 2
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Hours passed as Hermione waited helplessly at the doors for the return of Severus Snape. It was one hour before classes were to begin for the day, and there were already students that had started filling the Halls. Each curious as to why Hermione, so sad looking, was waiting at the doors with a look on her face that said she had lost her best friend.
All the the two she counted as her dearest friends in the world were still by her side, loyally so, Hermione still felt as if she were the only one left in the entire School. Neither understood her feelings for the Professor, or how she could ever see anything more in him than being a nasty old Git. But she did see something in him that no one else did in the entire Magical World. A warm hearted gentleman that hadn't been looking for love but had found it nevertheless.
No one had seen the side of him that she had in all those late nights with the Order, all those plans against Voldermort they had carefully laid out, and finally seeing the truth themselves. They had somehow fallen madly and deeply in love with each other along the way.
The nasty old Git and the know-it-all.
Hermione couldn't phantom the idea that was all it was going to be for them. After finding a man she adored she was going to be robbed of him forever.
Hermione never thought she would ever find someone that would want to love her. She had long frizzy hair and a very noticeable over-bite. Her skin was oily and she had less than a perfect complexion.
The only two guys her own age that did bother to give her the time of day was Harry and Ron, and both had fallen in love with girls other than her. Harry had been dating Cho Chang since their early Sixth Year and Ron had been dating a Hufflepuff named Emily Huges since late Sixth Year.
Harry, only seventeen years old, had already talked about asking Cho to marry him after Graduation. Ron wasn't quite that serious with Emily yet though. Ron declared he liked her mightily enough, but Marriage wasn't a step for them yet.
BANG!
Hermione gasped at the sudden, abrupt sound, and looked up with hopeful eyes from her place on the floor where Ron had been holding her as she cried for her missing lover.
"Severus!?"
Hermione rushed to her feet and ran at the black robed form entering the Entrance Hall with dirty clothes smeared with deep blood stains. Hermione tossed herself against him and carefully pulled him into a firm but easy embrace. He was hurting but she had to hold him at least once.
"Severus, I'm so happy you're alive," Hermione whispered against his dark hood that hid his face from her. "Please, let us never be apart again? I don't care about anything anymore but you. I love you so much."
Hermione moved to take off the deep black hood that separated her from kissing him like she had been dying too for hours now. She didn't care if Harry and Ron would see. She didn't care if over half the School watched.
Her lips touched his as she closed her eyes and she gasped as if stunned cold by freezing water. She opened her green eyes and gasped in horror.
She wasn't in the arms of her beloved. She was holding up in her embrace a half dead looking Lucius Malfoy. His usually beautiful long blond hair lay matted about his strong shoulders, and his stunning blue eyes wore a horror that Hermione could never dream of understanding.
"There you are, love," Lucius said softly, touching her long hair with a dead looking hand. "I've been looking everywhere for you. I never thought I would see you again. You know, I do really love you, Narcissa. I know I've been a terrible cad...but know that I love you."
"What?" Hermione gasped. She couldn't believe that he thought she was his wife. She would almost find that touch of showing humanity in Malfoy almost touching if it were under different circumstances. "Severus? Where is Severus, Mr. Malfoy?" Hermione demanded.
"Narsissa, why are you looking for Severus?" Malfoy slurred. "If he's been bedding you behind my back, I'll-"
"Dammit, Malfoy," Harry hissed, yanking Malfoy off of Hermione by his neck. "This is Hermione Granger. We want to know what happened to Professor Snape? Tell us, now!"
"Severus?" Malfoy choked. "Oh, dear. His Hermione...Dear child, I'm so very sorry.He wanted me to give you this."
Malfoy pulled out from his coat a sliver pin that Snape used to wear on his teaching robes to bind the dark materials together. Lucius slowly placed it inside of the palm of Hermione's out stretched hand.
"Hermione," Ron whispered, genteelly touching the now shaking young woman by her shoulders, as she gasped the pin inside of her hands, staring down with heartbroken brown eyes. "Mione, we are so sorry. We know that you loved him. But we're here for you. Harry and I. You'll never be alone in this. I promise," Ron declared, sounding more adult like that Hermione could ever remember him being.
But his kindness was the last thing she wanted right then. Sobbing hysterically, Hermione pushed him off of her, and ran down the corridors more lost than she had ever been in her entire life.
Ron went to dash after her but was stopped by a firm hand to the chest by Harry. It was the last thing Hermione needed right then and both knew it.
"Give her time alone." Harry whispered. "She won't welcome our comfort right now."
"I know," Ron agreed softly, tears welling in his eyes at seeing
her in so much pain. "Believe me, I know." He whispered sadly.
Hermone ran and ran until her legs gave out from underneath her. She ended up on the floor of the Dungeons sobbing her eyes out infront of his door. She felt guilt over not declaring their relationship more publicly months ago, as she considered how much time her selfishness had ended up costing them together.
All that time they could have been together and she had wasted so much of it.
It was a wonder why he had loved such a selfish, self-centered girl, like her, at all.
"Severus, oh my love," Hermione sobbed heart brokenly onto the cold hard floor, as she felt as if she was dying inside. "Please forgive me. Please!"
Hermione cried until there was nothing left and then slipped into
a deep dark sleep.
"Where did you find her?" Pomfrey demanded, as Ron Weasley brought an unconscious Hermione Granger into the Hospital wing, and laid her onto a bed.
"Out like a light infront of his rooms," Ron said worriedly. "I thought she'd be there after she didn't return to the Tower tonight."
Pomfrey touched the girl's cheek and frowned. She murmured a soft charm and then looked up at Ron with wide eyes.
"You'll have to ensure she takes care of herself, Weasley," Pomfrey said softly.
"Why?" Ron asked, confused at her lack of concern.
"Because, boy, Granger is pregnant."
That was when Ron's eyes rolled up into his head, fainted dead
away, and nothing was ever the same again.
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