A/N: Okay, a lot of you are going: What do they need to talk about?!?! Well, you can interpret this in any way you want, but how I write it is how it'll be. This is going to be the last chapter for a while. I am going to take a break and yank out the other HGSS fic I've had toggling around in my head. (Don't hurt me though.) I will come back to this story; I'm just burned out on it, ok? Thanks for your feedback, it really helped!
Chapter 5: Where Will You Be?
"What about?" Hermione replied nervously. What did he want to talk about? Did he know something she didn't? Why was he doing this? Her thoughts were swirling, slowly mounting into a full-blown, uncontrollable panic.
"Hermione, I want to talk to you about what's happened," Harry said gently.
"I DON'T WANT TO TALK ABOUT IT! DON'T YOU PEOPLE UNDERSTAND?!" Hermione shouted, completely hysterical. She broke down and began sobbing, the weight of her experience too much to hold, and she hated to make Harry the victim. But wasn't she the only victim here?
"Hermione! I want you to talk about it! You can't just hold this all in and feel sorry for yourself, and you cannot act like it never happened!" Harry said, shocked at her reaction, but only raising his voice a notch. Hermione grabbed him around the shoulders and clung to him, tears flowing freely and the sobs racked her body, and Harry just held her tightly, his hand stroking her back comfortingly.
"It was so horrible, Harry! I was so scared when Lucius and Draco j-jumped me. Then they grabbed me, and I c-couldn't get away; they were too strong! They, ri-ripped off my clothes, and Lucius started attacking me, so I bit and kicked him, but it didn't do any good!" She was soaking his shirt, but he didn't seem to mind. "He, r-raped me, the bastard raped me! It was so p-painful and horrible, Harry! I just wanted to die… Then Draco hit me, and all I remember is hearing more voices and different Death Eaters raping me; Voldemort was there." Harry stiffened, his nails suddenly digging into her back. She choked back another sob and began to hiccup, and he relaxed again. "That's all I remember, I kind of blacked out after a while, my whole body hurt so bad. I thought I'd never feel clean again… My pride was gone, Harry." Harry said nothing, and Hermione's sobs decreased to occasional sniffing. Harry conjured some handkerchiefs and Hermione blew her nose and wiped her tears away from her face. Hermione watched Harry through red-rimmed eyes; he was still holding her silently.
"Mione, I'm so sorry you had to go through that," Harry said, his voice sorrowful with traces of disgust and contempt at the men who did this.
"I am sorry too, Hermione." Hermione whirled to find Severus leaning again the doorway, watching them. She broke away from Harry and ran into Severus's arms, surprising him with a huge hug. Harry simply stood, his shirt soaked from her tears, and allowed them to embrace. Severus watched discreetly the expression on his face, and realized there was no trace of James in him whatsoever. His face was set in a grim mask, and his lips were tight. His green eyes were horrifying to look at, the sparkle replaced by pure fury that Severus could feel radiating from him twenty feet away. He looked at Harry, and their eyes met, and Severus suddenly realized that he saw himself, nineteen years younger.
"Were you there the whole time, Severus?" Hermione said quietly, but audible enough for both men to hear.
"Through most of it, yes," he replied. "I asked Harry to come visit you, thinking that you would open up to your best friend more easily than me." Hermione heard a faint implication of sadness in his voice, and suddenly felt rotten that she had refused to talk about it with her own husband. But Harry was her best friend, her only one, with Ron dead and her parents murdered a short while ago. He was all she had left of their childhood, and that was important to her.
"You were right," she said, and looked back at Harry, and her eyes grew wide in alarm. "Harry! Are you alright?" Severus looked knowingly at Harry; he knew that face. He put an arm around Hermione to keep her at a distance from Harry.
"I'll kill him," Harry said evenly, but he wasn't anywhere near the calm he displayed for Hermione.
"Harry-"
"I'LL KILL HIM!" He shouted, cutting Hermione off. "I'LL BLOW HIM TO PIECES, ALONG WITH EVERY OTHER DEATH EATER BASTARD! THEY WILL PAY FOR WHAT THEY DID TO YOU, TO ME, AND RON, AND EVERY OTHER PERSON THEY'VE KILLED! THEY WILL PAY!!"
"Harry! Please! Calm down!" Hermione pleaded, running to him and grabbing his hands. He shoved her away, and she fell on her knees on the hardwood floor, shocked.
"Leave me alone, Hermione! Don't you understand that you finally have your first taste of what I have had to deal with all my life?!" He shouted, his volume lower, but the uncontrollable fury still crackling behind his eyes. Without warning Severus steps forward and places his hands very forcefully and firmly on Harry's shoulders. At first Harry stands still, stunned. He then tries to shrug off his grip, but he only holds his shoulders tighter, holding his eye contact, obsidian eyes to emerald eyes. Hermione watches this silent confrontation with apprehension and awe. They used to hate each other, and she still didn't know how much they put up with each other, but she felt like she was watching an entire conversation, but she was deaf to the words that seemed to be passing between them. Suddenly Harry relaxes, and Severus took his hands away, and surprisingly, they shake hands. Now Hermione is even more confused.
"Thanks sir," Harry says firmly, but it is not a distant formality at all when he calls Severus 'sir'. It's almost like he is someone who suddenly has helped him realize what he needs to do and why. It wasn't brotherly, nor like a son and a father, but like two men who have found a common ground in which they can stand together, united, with an understanding that had not happened until now.
"Harry. Just do what you have to do," Severus replies quietly, and Harry nods a silent goodbye to him and then to Hermione before departing the room to let himself out. Hermione is so at a loss for words that she hardly notices that Harry has left the room.
"What just happened, Severus?" At first Severus is passive, and then a small smile.
"I don't know if I could really explain it to you."
"But what did you do to make Harry calm down?"
"I simply let him know what I went through, and that I didn't want him to end up like I did," he said after a moment. Hermione had a thought.
"Did you use Legilimency?" Hermione asked, watching Severus's face. He smirked slightly.
"Yes, a form of it, and of course, Harry has never come back to me about learning Occulmency, so it was quite easy," he replied smugly. Hermione smiled in silent laughter, and Severus lost the smirk and grew serious. "Hermione, are you okay now? You were reaching the end of the line, I was afraid you were thinking of suicide, and questioning your existence. You understand my worry, do you not? I just want to know: where will you be after this?" Hermione said nothing for almost a minute, and then she stepped forward to wrap her arms around him. He embraced her, glad that she did not flinch anymore, and felt her steady heartbeat and looked into her amber-colored eyes and for the first time in weeks saw a new kind of hope, the wall of grief and self-pity lifted to reveal happiness and relief.
"Right here," she whispered.
A/N: Last chapter for a while. The last chapter and this one are basically the same time frame, but I separated them. These two chapters were based on a phrase I thought up, which made up the title. "At the end of the line, where will you be?" Just so you know… Anyway, I will be moving on to another HGSS fic of which I have mentioned. I think I'll have that up soon, it depends. Thank you reviewers!
