Enjoy this one – there's one more to go, and if I don't get it done tonight, I will put it up first thing in the morning. I don't dare rush through them, but I don't want to miss my deadline, either. I hope you liked that last and caught on to my little piece of mischief. As for DD approving or not… I can't imagine that, if love were real, he could disapprove, simply because that's his theme, plus they're adults and, just to clear one last hurdle, when Dumbledore was either of their ages, men twice Snape's age routinely married girls half of Hermione's. (Ok, I'm exaggerating; 9 year olds were a little uncommon. 12, however…) He wouldn't appreciate the strain to the school, however, I'm sure.
Touch the Air Softly
by Jessa L'Rynn
Disclaimer: I do not own these characters. J.K. Rowling created them and writes them with a genius that has never been equaled. Warner Bros. owns the right to do dumb things with them and doubtlessly will once Jo's finished with them, unless she kills them all. I try to fight the urge to put words into other people's visions. But every once in awhile, something yummy like this comes along and I find myself committing what I have been told is both crime and honor. With all due respect to Jo Rowling and her marvelous world, here is my attempt to "steal from the best".
Chapter 20: 'Til Heaven
Dumbledore looked up from his book, to find an angry Potions Master storming across his office, robes billowing, his face the very picture of rage. "Something is wrong," Snape snarled, the moment he knew he had Dumbledore's attention.
Dumbledore nodded, and turned his face to the plaintively whimpering Head Girl trailing Severus like a suppliant, one small hand clutched on the corner of his robes. "I see," he said. "Is Miss Granger hurt?"
Severus' face became, if possible, even darker. "Yes, and we were fools not to notice it."
"I'm not hurt, Severus," she said in a sweet little voice. "I'll be fine, but I think I really should get some sleep before class."
Dumbledore's heart ached to hear that sound. It was so unlike Hermione, so he knew Severus' assessment to be correct. However, it was not only her voice but also Severus' face that made him so terribly sad. He didn't pry and couldn't get an exact sense of what was happening, but what was obvious was that something was torturing Severus and there was nothing he could do about it. "What's happened?"
The Potions Master escorted the Head Girl very close to Dumbledore's desk and very tenderly tilted her face up toward the light. Dumbledore was more interested in reading the ache in Severus's face, and the unhappy pallor in Miss Granger's for a moment before he realized what exactly was wrong. "I take it she hasn't charmed her eye color?"
"No!" the younger man shouted, "Why would anyone do a stupid thing like that? She's enchanted."
"What are her symptoms?"
Hermione stomped her foot and glared at first one man, then the other. "I am not having symptoms. I am in love with him. I admit it was a rather sudden confession, but what did he want? A full page ad?"
"Don't you dare, you silly child."
"Oh, we're back to that, now, are we?" she snapped.
"A moment of your time, Miss Granger, and then I'll send for Professor McGonagall to escort you to the hospital wing."
"I'd rather stay with him," she said softly.
"I see," said Dumbledore. "I need to speak to Severus alone, Miss Granger. I'll send him to you as soon as I can."
She nodded and they all waited in silence while he floo'd McGonagall and she came to get Hermione. The saddest thing about it, in Dumbledore's opinion, was the way she reached for Severus with one hand, and how he reached out, seemingly without thinking about it, and touched her for a moment before he caught himself and jumped away from her like a repelling charm. There was a bitter taste in the old man's mouth as he heard his deputy start up the stairs - the loneliest man he had ever known had finally found the potential for great love, and every thing about it was completely, utterly wrong.
"Minerva, would you be so good as to escort Miss Granger to the hospital wing?" he asked as soon as she arrived.
She nodded and waited for Hermione to join her. "I really think I'd better stay with Professor Snape," Hermione said calmly.
Severus sighed and reached into his coat. "Hermione, love, drink this. It will help you feel better, and I'll come see you as soon as I can."
She beamed at the Slytherin, even as her Gryffindor head of house stood in the back ground with her hand over her open mouth. "Count backward from ten for me," he said as soon as she'd drunk the blue potion.
"Ten nine... eight... seven...sevenus... Severus... Love you."
He picked up her hand and gently placed it over her chest, then conjured a stretcher for her to ride on.
Minerva maintained admirable control and guided the stretcher out of the room, closing the door gently behind her.
"I'm so sorry, Albus," Severus said, his face in his hands.
"For what? I saw no impropriety on your part."
"That's because you weren't on the astronomy tower," said Snape. "I've failed you, I..."
"What happened?"
The story Severus told was beautiful, but so sad as he was fighting tears with every single word he said. "I don't think I can bear to see the disgust in her eyes when she wakes up tomorrow."
"You don't think she meant it?"
He snorted and proceeded to embed a pencil into an apple from the desk in front of him. "No one loves me, Albus. I'd lost my mind to even entertain the notion."
Dumbledore shook his head. "Severus, I do not think she will be free of this curse in the morning. This is not some unlikely childhood hex."
"What do you mean?"
"There's something familiar about it, but I can't place it. Still, I know where you must start from the information you gave me last night."
The younger man gaped at him blindly for a moment, then rose from his seat as Death rising from his black throne. "Bellatrix," he snarled. "I'll kill her."
"I need to know what the curse was," Dumbledore said. "Don't forget that in your fury."
Severus nodded.
"I'm sorry you've been hurt, Severus."
"I don't feel a thing," he lied, though Dumbledore couldn't think why he bothered, since they both knew better.
"I wish you a speedy recovery from nothing, then. Please be careful - she'll never forgive you if you aren't."
"She'll get over it as soon as the spell breaks," he said sadly.
Dumbledore studied him closely. "When you find out about the spell, see if you can find out why your eyes are turning blue, too."
Snape snuck quietly through the bushes outside the dilapidated old building the Dark Lord was currently using for headquarters. He was looking for a convenient distraction.
Around the second corner, Wormtail was puffing away on a cigarette, blissfully ignorant of the world around him. Snape decided to summon the world around Wormtail to make the animagus more aware. Specifically, he summoned a piece of lead piping over Wormtail's head and watched it drop. Wormtail crumpled and collapsed, snoring heavily, onto the damp carpet of pine straw around the trees. He considered killing the useless creature, again, but he needed the vile creature to set his plan in motion.
He used a sticking charm and glued Wormtail to a tree branch and charmed his clothes to sparkling red and gold. It made the lapsed Gryffindor stand out vividly against the dark wood and the dark house. In the distance, morning was starting to break loose, and Snape was exhausted, but he was going to see this resolved before he even considered sleep. Not that he would actually sleep, with Hermione's perfect, flowerlike face turned up to his every time he closed his eyes.
He hexed Wormtail's trousers so they would fall down any time someone said "You-know-who". What he was planning for Bellatrix would have to be done carefully. But Pettigrew could inherit the full brunt of his annoyance without undue effect.
"Morsmordre," he murmured, then apparated to the other side of the lawn as the Dark Mark rose, malignant and glittering, above the tree where Wormtail dangled. Performing another quick charm with his wand to clear it just in case, he ducked into the shadows as the Dark Lord himself went gliding by, followed by the dry, rasping sound of the alarmingly large snake, Nagini, following her master.
As soon as he entered the mansion, he found her, smiling proudly from a chair by the huge bay window. "Good morning, Severus. Our Lord has gone to investigate a strange occurrence."
"Oh, and what's happened?" he asked her dryly.
"The Dark Mark has been cast here," she said, her voice husky and excited.
"That's new," he murmured. "Tell me, Bellatrix, what did you mean when you said that the girl would follow me?"
She smirked at him malevolently and crossed the room to his side, looking him over with an appraising eye. "I meant that she would follow you, that she would come here with you willingly. Why? Lonely?" She growled low in her throat and sidled up to him with her long fingers extended toward his arm.
"Don't touch me with that, you don't know where it's been."
"Very funny," she snapped. Then her eyes glittered and she inched closer again.
Snape had never actually understood why she always tried her seductive maneuver on him and decided once and for all to find out. "What do you want from me, you psychotic shrew?"
"Nice alliteration there," she said, and began to sway, snakelike, in front of him. "I want you, obviously. So tell me, what do you want to know about the girl?"
"I want to know what you did, of course," he said, and raised his hands to cup her shoulders and hold her still.
She made some other animal noise and reached for his face with one blood-colored fingernail. "What will you give me if I tell you?"
Every single drop of rage and pain this night had inflicted on him when thrumming through him like the chords of an off-key violin. His hand snapped up and he crushed it, tightly, against her throat. "Tell me what you did, Bellatrix, or you can join the rest of your disgusting family in hell."
She closed her eyes briefly, then opened them and grinned at him. "I always knew you'd like it rough, Sev. Just don't hit my face, people will ask questions."
He tightened his grip and she shivered, actually shivered and gave a moan that was clearly not from pain. "Oh for the love of evil and black magic!" he roared. "Control yourself, woman, this is not foreplay."
"Feels like it to me," she said. "Don't like it – try something else."
"When did you become such a sad, pathetic little slut, Bella?" he sneered.
She snorted. "What's the matter, Sevvie? Don't have pretty little Gryffindors pursuing you yet?"
He dropped her and she crumpled up on the floor. "No, the intolerable little wench has started following me everywhere, and I want to know why."
Her brow crumpled. "That's not right," she said. "It should take longer."
"Bella, what did you do!"
"It's Vivienne's Curse, do you like it?" said the high, cold voice from the doorway. "Fascinating work, with the tree, Severus, but was it really necessary?"
"I don't know anything about a tree, my Lord," he said, carefully shielding his mind and looking the Dark Lord directly in his cold, red eyes.
"Ah," said the Dark Lord. "Dumbledore knows about the spell, does he, and you think he is questioning your loyalties." He smiled his cold half-smile again and added, "If I didn't need you there, Severus, I might feel guilty to leave you with a master who changes so quickly."
"Normally, Dumbledore wouldn't suspect me, but innocent little Gryffindors don't fall in love with greasy Death Eaters very often." He rounded on Bella. "Thought it was funny, I suppose? Nailing some filthy little mudblood know-it-all to my tail? Do you have any idea how dangerous that was?"
"It is a very old curse," she said. "I needed to test its efficacy before I turn it on Potter. You said she was the intelligent one, the logical one. If it can override her intelligence, it will certainly override his fragile defenses. I haven't decided who, yet, but I'll be taking volunteers, if you'd like Potter to join the ranks of your admiring fans."
"That won't work – Miss Granger would claw his eyes out."
"Now, now," said Voldemort, "don't be ungrateful. You can have her, you know, she's yours for a plaything. Bring her to me so I can question her and if she survives, she's yours, or you can take her back to Dumbledore as her brave rescuer for all I care. And, as your reward for loyalty, I might let you kill Bella, since you want to so much."
Her head snapped up and then she flung herself on the Dark Lord's feet, wailing and pleading desperately to know what she had done to offend him. "I am your most loyal servant," she implored him, all trace of her haughty demeanor vanished in begging for her life.
The Dark Lord laughed that unnatural laugh of his, and turned to Snape who was retreating slowly to the door. "You may go."
Snape nodded. "Thank you, my Lord," he said.
"And I don't need to remind you, my Severus, but if you don't bring me the girl, I'll let Bella kill you, instead."
Snape stalked out into the blue and perfect early morning light. As he apparated back to Hogsmeade and began the trek back to the school, he couldn't help thinking that he didn't care. He would never stop loving the soft, golden skin, the rich, rosy lips, the warm, welcoming smile. And, if he had to leave the world and wait 'til heaven to see it instead, then he was better off and better for it.
Reporting to Dumbledore did not help him feel any better. He found the old man in the hospital wing, watching over Hermione, with Miss Lovegood for company. "Your eyes are turning, too," Dumbledore said, "and I don't know if I have a book on that curse."
Snape looked at himself in a medicine chest and realized, to his astonishment, that Dumbledore's proclamation was absolutely correct. His formerly black, angry eyes, were swirled through and through with vivid streaks of palest blue.
"It's in the 'Merlin' section, under Nimue," said Luna.
Dumbledore nodded. "That would be the place for it, of course," he agreed. "I feared without Miss Granger awake the library would be lonely. Could you go retrieve that book, Miss Lovegood? Send it with Mr. Potter, if you wouldn't mind, I need to speak to him as well." Dumbledore seemed to be waiting for Miss Lovegood to leave, because he did not speak again until the doors closed behind her. "What you told me last night – is that all of what passed between you?"
"Yes, sir, everything that happened." Dumbledore looked at him strangely. Snape looked down at the girl. He had told Dumbledore of every real moment they spent together, every real touch they shared – how sitting on her veranda with a wine glass he had let her hold his hand. How could he say that before that, they had shared an entire, long lifetime of dreams and thoughts and memories together, at least in his imagination? He had confessed that he first kissed her on the astronomy tower. How could he admit that, not two days before that, he had been so caught up in the idea of making love to her that he had believed without a doubt it was happening?
Dumbledore smiled at him and let it go. "The book should arrive shortly, and I'll need to talk with Mr. Potter. I want you to think back on when something first passed between you and Miss Granger – a look, a smile, anything?"
He sighed and realized that one of these things he'd tried so hard to hold in would have to be spoken aloud. "I've used legilimency on her before," he confessed.
Dumbledore smiled. "There's no harm in keeping in practice, as long as you didn't invade her privacy. Lie down there on the next bed and think about it for a while. Let me know when you remember."
As soon as Snape's head hit the pillow, so too did his exhausted body hit its limit. He was gone, and knew no more.