To Save the Saviour

By DaenerysTargary3n

Author's Note:

Firstly, the Harry Potter universe (inc. characters, places, plots, quotes from films and/or novels) does not belong to me, though I wish it did. Secondly, this fanfiction features graphic sexual (and violent) content commencing in Chapter Two so please be advised and if this is not to your taste or likely to upset or offend, please stay far, far away from this story. This is my 3rd Harry Potter story and my first Severus-Hermione pairing (the other two are Harry-Hermione – please do have a look for Lady Diligence and A Great Deal of Bravery on my profile page if you would like to explore what I do with a different pairing) so I am experimenting slightly but this is also a pairing I believe in more than any other in this 'verse, so please do review and offer criticism but I am pouring my heart and soul into To Save the Saviour and am very excited for the 15 instalments of this story and the sharing of them with you. Please enjoy and review and favourite away!

DaenerysTargary3n

Prologue:

Two hours after the fall of Lord Voldemort

"Wait, Harry, where are you going?!" Ron bellowed after him as the Chosen One walked away from the carnage laid out in the Great Hall.

The Saviour of the Wizarding World had no more to give to the corpses lying in wait for their friends and families to claim them and remove them from their sordid surroundings. The Weasley family had lost a son – Fred – in the fight and all were bawling and heartbroken around the young man's corpse, all except George, his twin brother, who stood aside refusing to take any comfort from his sister's arms which held him in her tight embrace. Harry walked past Lupin and Tonks, who were weeping over the body of Andromeda, who had pushed herself in the way of Dolohov's curse that would have taken her daughter and son-in-law away from little Teddy forever.

So many souls had been blotted out of existence this night on both sides in the decades old fight between good and evil. Good had lost so many battles – the Potters, Sirius, Dumbledore, Moody, Snape – but Harry had dealt the final blow that won them the war. It was finally over and he could just get on with the rest of his life. Or, he could as soon as he found some peace and the fallout from the final battle blew over. He had heard his name called out and people wanting to talk to him, thank him (of all things) and some even wanted pictures of him as he turned every corner in the castle he used to call home. All Harry yearned for was some peace and quiet and sleep before he faced the onslaught of the mob.

As the corridors grew colder, Harry became aware of his surroundings. He was in the catacombs of the castle and close to the portion of the building that was under the Black Lake…the dungeons. He had seen the memories of Professor Snape that he had bestowed upon him when he had succumbed to Nagini's bites. The man was a hero and had given his life to save him, simply because he was Lily's son.

Harry then grew curious and wound his way through the dreary halls that extended after the potions classrooms and eventually found himself at the deceased Professor's door that led to his old office and behind, to his quarters. Harry's curiosity about the man he had always believed to be his enemy had peaked in the aftermath of viewing his most closely guarded memories. The man would never return to his sanctum and no one would think to look for The Boy Who Lived in the former headmaster's office. As he pushed the door open, he chuckled remembering how Slughorn refused to take the Potions professorship if he had to inhabit the same quarters as his predecessor. Harry knew that no matter how many Potions professors came, none would ever relish the dankness and isolation of the dungeons as Snape had.

The office was as he remembered it. The walls featuring potions ingredients too toxic or valuable to be kept in the classrooms and the personal potions tomes of one of the greatest brewers in history. The desk was simple but vast, covered in pieces of parchment and various shades of scarlet ink for marking. Behind the worn emerald green chair there was an ebony door that led to the professor's chambers. Harry gulped in anticipation as he clasped the silver doorknob and turned.

For a set of rooms in the dungeons, Snape's personal chambers were surprisingly lavish but with a homely spin that surprised Harry. Harry had expected walls decorated in Snape's precious Slytherin colours and with sparse pictures and furnishings that were rarely used and attractive but uncomfortable. Instead, the living quarters of the domicile were large for only one inhabitant and had a light mint coat of paint with a striking black moulding. There were no portraits or photographs of people on the walls but beautiful Scottish landscapes of rolling hills and wide, open lochs. The fixtures were soft and well-used, matching the décor in a delicate grey that could have been Slytherin silver were it a few shades darker. The couch looked too inviting to resist and after setting up a few basic wards that Hermione had insisted he put up no matter where he was sleeping, Harry threw himself onto the couch and let himself simply be.

Just as Harry was on the cusp of sleep, he heard a commotion from behind the second door leading off the large room.

"Someone is already here…" Harry murmured to himself, grabbing his newly repaired wand, and adopting a defensive stance.

As the door opened, revealing a young woman around his own age, he relaxed somewhat.

"Who are you and what are you doing down here?" Harry asked aggressively, not caring about the girl's teary eyes or blotchy face.

"My parents are dead. I think they died during the fighting and I have nowhere else to go." She replied fearfully, cowering from her interrogator.

"For which side?"

"I'm sorry?" She sobbed.

Harry stepped forward aggressively, "For which side did they die? Who were they fighting for?"

"For you, Harry…they fought, always, for you. Ever since you were found alone while your parents lay dead, and all through the years as you fought through Devil's Snare, basilisk attacks, dementor attacks, the Triwizard Tournament, dreams sent from Voldemort, Horcruxes. All through that they were with you and protected you as best they could. Now they're dead and all you can do is interrogate me!" The young woman hissed, her eyes venomous through her tirade.

Harry backed up until he was sitting back on the couch, holding his hands up in surrender, "I'm sorry. I had to make sure. You're old enough to fight. It's been a long day and I was just looking for some solitude, I guess, when I came here. I wasn't expecting anyone else to be here and I put wards up and everything so I'm sorry I came across hard. I don't think I knew your parents though. Who were they? What were their names? How is it you know so much of my life, bits that aren't public and never will be, but I have never met you or even know who you are?"

Finally looking up and seeing her, Harry noticed the young woman's beauty. With smooth, jet-black hair but warm hazelnut eyes and a lean, muscular body, she was stunning, even though she had recently been crying. Her blood orange robes clung to her lithe figure perfectly and she was only an inch or two shorter than Harry. Her wand was strapped to an elegant leather holster on her left forearm with silver lettering 'MES' embossed onto the fabric.

"Wait, sorry, I didn't ask. What's your name?" Harry asked, having completed his onceover of his svelte companion.

She smiled shyly as though she guarded a great secret and glided over to the armchair before she gracefully sat down.

Wiping her eyes that continued to shed tears for her lost parents, she was so hoarse from weeping she almost whispered, "Now you're asking the right questions, Potter. I know you because we've basically grown up together, though I was ever in your shadow, unseen and unheard. I am the greatest secret that this castle has kept. This place is the true Chamber of Secrets for it has been my palace and prison since the day your parents were murdered. My parents pledged their lives to your protection and in doing so they gave my childhood up for you. I felt my father's death four hours ago, and my mother's shortly after Riddle died. My father was your greatest protector, though he too was that in secret. My mother was your greatest strength and it is her sacrifice alone that has kept you alive for seventeen years. As for me, my name is known to no one still living, and as I said it has been kept secret since my infancy for my family's safety's sake. I am Morgana Eileen Snape and my parents were Severus Octavian Snape and Hermione Jean Snape."