R&R sorry for the late post. There are more chapters to follow it is not over yet.

Chapter 8

Poppy cast sonorus on her vocal chords and yelled for Hermione to come quickly. She then removed the spell and went back to scanning Severus. Again his heart was beating erratically once every ten seconds this was not good and she did not trust herself to do the technique Hermione had explained in detail. Poppy looked up when the young witch burst through the door wand in hand hair a mess and still in her rumpled clothes.

"What happened?"

"I dozed off and I woke to hear him moaning I found him here curled up in a ball. Help me get him back on the bed his heart is not beating right again." The mediwitch said as she grabbed one side of the frail man. Once placed on the bed again Severus' heart beat stopped.

"Damn! It stopped again, quickly Hermione do that shock thing again." Poppy yelled as she scanned his body for any sign of life. Hermione placed her wand point to the man's bare chest and said the spell to shock the heart to beat again. Needless to say he was being stubborn, as it took 5 more tries to get the heart to beat regularly. Sighing she moved back out of the way allowing Poppy to administer the vials of potions he needed to keep his heart beating regular.

"Why did this happen again?" the young witch asked as she flopped down into the nearest chair.
"I'm not sure Hermione, but I can guess that he was trying to get to Harry or he has just given up the will to live."
"He can't! He has to stay alive for the children. I know things are not working right between Harry and him, but it will work out I know it will. Severus just can't give up."
"Well then I suggest you keep a good eye on him, maybe you can do more help for him. He is a stubborn man and has never listened to a word of advise from me. I hope you have better luck in making him see that his health is important."
"Thank you Poppy, I believe I will stay here for a week or two just to make sure his heart is better and he doesn't give up."
"When he wakes up it will take the both of us to keep him calm and in that bed. I hope you can handle being verbally abused." Poppy snickered.

"I had him as a teacher of potions for 7 years, and I am a Gryffindor. I have managed to stand up to his verbose words that long; I should be able to get through this. Along with the fact that he did marry my best friend." Hermione shook her head as she looked down at the sleeping man. Yes he would give them his slytherin best fight but the Gryffindor courage would keep her by his side until he was well again.

Over the next few day's, Severus' condition improved, though he was still in a deep healing sleep. When he woke up that would be the test, to see if he had the will to go on or not. Knowing this would be hard work; Hermione devised a plan of attack that she hoped would get through to the man. Hoping that he would live for his children's sake, if not for himself and the chance that he and Harry could someday return to being a family.

The daily news brought a second owl, little Freeze. She smiled and fed the bird a bit of her toast that she was eating in the kitchen. Removing the letter from Harry she began to read.

Dear Hermione

I have received all the paperwork that you sent me, thank you. You don't know how much this means to me. I am still trying to come to terms with the way things ended with Severus but I could let things go on the way they were heading. The place I am staying is wonderful, the kids are enjoying themselves and Julian adores them. He has expressed to me that he would take the place of Severus in my heart if only I would say yes. He is very sweet to me, I couldn't ask for more than what he has offered me. I am just not sure I can be what he wants or needs. Maybe in time we might become more but for now I only see this wonderful man as a friend. Does that make me a bad person? I hope not.

The other day I passed out in the bathroom, Julian found me clutching at my chest, he said I kept mumbling Severus and didn't know what was wrong with me. I guess it was just after shocks from what happened because I am fine, so nothing to worry about ok. I just thought I'd tell you that it was strange, felt like my heart was being ripped out.

How is Severus? Did you get a chance to visit with him to make sure he is ok? I don't know how to feel about all this, sometimes I just want to run right back to him and pretend none of this ever happened. Enough of this talk, well I hear a few strange noises down stairs so I better go see if Jonathan and Julian are up to something.

Thanks for all your support, Love Harry.

Hermione sighed as she put the letter down on the table. "How am I going to tell Harry what happened? And what was that all about him passing out and clutching his chest in pain. Is there more to this bond than either of them know?" She looked at the little bird and continued. "Stay right there Freeze, I will be back with a note to sent back to Harry."

The little owl hooted then returned to eating his treat.

Sitting in the study she penned a letter back to her friend hoping to give him as much information as he would need to lay his mind to rest. Reassuring him that Severus was fine now and not to worry for she planned on staying with him for a few weeks to make sure he got back on his feet again. Sealing the note she walked back out and gave it to the little owl who quickly took flight again. Waving her wand she cleaned the kitchen and made a pot of tea and a bowl of broth hoping that Severus might wake soon. Placing a heating charm on the items along with a few crackers she put them all on a tray and levitated it up behind her to Severus' new room. Opening the door she was surprised to see that he was indeed awake but lay there with his eyes unfocused on the ceiling.

"Severus, how do you feel?"

He did not answer as he continued to stare blankly into space.

"Severus, I know this is hard for you but you need your strength."
"For what." He choked out not moving his gaze, the only thing different was that his eyes began to cloud over with unshed tears.

Noticing this she quickly turned to set up the tray for him. When it was ready she levitated the sickly man up and added a few pillows behind him so that he could drink the broth.

"Here is some broth for you, its been a few days since you've had anything worth while in your stomach. I brought a few crackers too in case you feel up to something a bit more solid."

"I'm not hungry."

"Yes you are and if I have to force this down your throat don't think I won't." Hermione said as she folded her arms over her chest. This brought the wizards eyes towards hers.

"Why?"

"Why what, Severus?"

"Why bother, I should be dead I don't deserve to live after what I have done." He said as he turned away again, only to be stopped by a hand that made him face the witch again.

"You didn't know what you were doing, I saw what happened. I know you would never intentionally hurt Harry. I'm not sure what or why it happened that way but you must get past this."

"How would you know if I didn't mean it."

"I found you the day you hit your head, Severus. I went back down to clean up the room and found your pensive. I viewed it as a objective person, I'm sorry for invading your privacy but I needed to understand what happened to make you so upset that you would pass out and hit your head on the table."

"You saw?" this only made him choke back a sob as he tried to dislodge the hand holding his chin so he could look away in shame. "Then you know what I did, it is unforgivable."

"Yes it is and we will find out why it happened so it never happens again. First off you will get well then we can work out why it happened."
"I have nothing to live for now. Harry is gone."
"What about your children? Do they not count as someone to live for? Severus Snape do you want your children to grow up thinking you did not love them enough to live for them?"

"That's not what I meant!" he lashed out, hurt by the words and knowing damn well that she was right.

"Good, so all you need to do is get better so you can see your children when you can. I'm sure you don't want them to see you looking like the crypt keeper."

Severus shook his head and sighed in defeat before saying in a low voice. "That was a very slytherin thing to do, by bring up my children."

"Oh didn't I tell you?" she said as her wand moved the tray over to his lap. She stood up and tucked a napkin into his shirt before finishing. "Well you see, the sorting hat knew that a certain young man was going to refuse his original house choice. It therefore asked me if I would be willing to be placed in the house of the lion. I asked it why and it said. 'You will need to help a few of the young lions. They will meet great peril without your knowledge and cunning. Your destined house is Slytherin with the next being Ravenclaw. I see that you will be needed to keep the lions in the den and out of harms way.' It also told me that being a muggleborn I would have to use all of my cunning to live in the snake pit and would not have time to learn as much as I wanted to. So I thought about if for a few brief moments and then agreed to the arrangement."

"You were suppose to be a slytherin?" Severus was intrigued now and unknowingly began to sip on the broth as he listened with rapt attention.

"Yes, can you imagine how Malfoy would have taken that." She laughed and sipped at her cup of tea. "How would he have dealt with a muggleborn in the great house of Salazar."

"Indeed that would have been a trying time had you been sorted there." Severus said as he picked up a cracker and began to nibble on it.

"So my dear, should have been head of house. It is now time to get cunning, you will heal and help me in my search for answers and not give up before you even begin to fight. I know you love Harry more than life itself. We need to find out what really happened that night and I plan to investigate all of the angles."
"Investigate?"

"Yes, oh sorry muggle thing. There are a few television shows about crime. One of them is investigating how the crime was committed following through with all the evidence that can be discovered."

Severus' eyebrows perked up, "What do you mean, do you think that this was some sort of magic that cause me to do what I did?"
"I think so, do you ever recall a time when you got so drunk that you could not remember what you did?"

"No I've never had trouble before." The wizard tried to think of a time when his memories of a drunken night were not clear the next day. Finding not one incident he looked back to see the brilliant witch smirking.

"There you have it, something or someone is responsible for this. I don't know what their reasoning is but I can guarantee that if it had Harry Potter and a Ex death eater involved then it must be a plot to separate you both."

Hermione got up from her chair and retrieved a few vials from the stand and held them out for Severus. "Here take these and get some sleep, we have a lot of things to go over tomorrow and I want you to get a good nights rest."

Severus sniffed the vials before looking at the witch and nodding. Downing the vials he was almost asleep when she removed the pillows and the tray. Hermione covered him up and kissed his forehead and whispered. "Good night Severus, we will find out why this happened, then maybe we can fix all this mess."

Levitating the tray out with her she stopped only once to douse the candles leaving the room in darkness.