Disclaimer- I don't own Harry Potter!

Chapter 2 : Dark Reflections

Snape opened up his dungeon classroom with his counter spell and key lunging inside, just as a pair of Ravenclaw girls came chattering down the dungeon hallway.

He heard the Ravenclaw fifth year mutter to the third year, "Hermione Granger was shot with a very dark curse during the final battle yesterday. Rumors say that Mr. Malfoy was one of the people who shot it at her and that the real target of the curse was Snape."

The third year piped in, "Such a shame about her condition. Her grades were extraordinary. Why did she have to get in the way? It is not as if Snape needed to live through the final battle."

"Be careful! We're near the old bat's classroom. We wouldn't want him to hear your death wishes for him!" the fifth year scolded her younger classmate with a whisper.

Snape softly slammed his door shut before either of them could tell he had listened in. These words shot right through Snape to the core. Even though Hermione had often annoyed him with her foolish questions during his classes for the last seven years, he had eventually become accustomed to her inquisitive nature and appreciated her talent for Potions.

After a long discussion with Dumbledore after the "accident", he had found out that with his attempted suicide, he had single- handedly wiped out anything and everything that he and the rest of the Hogwarts staff had ever taught her. He would never tell anyone that this predicament had been the result of his foolish wish to end his pathetic life.

He wanted to concoct the most poisonous potion he was capable of and murder himself, but now he had a responsibility to fulfill. He had to reacquaint Granger with the wizarding world all over again. Never had he considered that someone would try to help him when he lowered his defenses to Malfoy; the fact that the Death Eaters had not planned on killing him never entered into his mind. After seeing Harry strike the Dark Lord down, he thought the best thing for him to do was just let someone kill him. After all, his services were no longer needed. A certain bushy-haired student had changed everything.

"Oh God Hermione, why did you have to get in the way?" Severus sighed into the palm of his right hand. He walked into his office and just about collapsed onto the chair behind his desk.

'Oh great, one remaining, untouched member of the Golden Trio,' he found himself thinking sarcastically. "Well, Potter will have one less adoring fan whenever he wakes up", he voiced aloud to himself. This last statement led to another wave of guilt, and soon Snape was fuming with even more self-hate. He slammed his fist against his desk and yelped in surprise as the power of the impact knocked over an open bottle of bubotuber pus, causing the contents to ooze all over his left hand and lap. He jumped back in severe pain and tore off his outer robe, throwing the smoldering robe onto the floor with disgust at his violent outburst. He bolted back into his classroom where he quickly found a bottle of dried nettles. Clutching his bleeding hand close to his chest he took out a small cauldron, lit a fire under it with a flick of his wand, and poured in a small amount of dandelion pulp, next throwing in the nettles. He stirred with his right hand over the mixture five times clockwise and three times counter clockwise, barely able to keep the count as his left hand felt like it was burning away. He then put out the fire under the cauldron with his wand and threw his burnt hand into the mixture. At once, the dissolved nettles closed in around his severely burned hand and together with the dandelion pulp formed a dense paste. He withdrew his hand after a few moments and walked over to his desk once again, taking out bandages and wrapping up his hand.

"Idiot," he voiced to himself.

After putting away all of the supplies, Severus began the long trek to the hospital wing. He needed to have Pomfrey look at his hand as soon as possible. He had temporarily forgotten that a certain Gryffindor was at that moment staring at the ceiling of the hospital wing from her bed, feeling extremely lonely after a confused Ron Weasley had left her in the darkness.

Transylvanian- thanks so much for reading my story and reviewing I must say I also love The Giver and have read it three times!

Pathatlon- Thanks for the review (:D) -You write very well in English- 100 times better than I can in my second language (Spanish)

JTBJAB- Thank you for the encouraging review! I must say I totally agree with you that exams sometimes suck…He He – especially with my two Advanced Placement exams coming up at the start of May…

Natsuyori- THANKS! The review was so nice of you- I am actually half way through your story –A Teenaged Snape? – I can't wait to finish it :)

I will continue this story- it might be some time before I update (A.P. Exams), but I promise I will continue as soon as possible! Thanks again for the reviews!