Disclaimer: never did and never will own it. J.K. Rowling does.
Spoilers: Order of the Phoenix
Thank you to my beta, Nakhash Mekashefah!

Living On Borrowed Time - Banish Sorrow, Banish Care, Grief Should Ne'er Approach The Fair

In the Slytherin common room, late in the night, Lawrence Higgs was frowning at the fire dancing in front of him. Alone in the quiet room, he was trying to figure out the puzzle that was Isadora Nott. At first, he had been pleased to see her join – though not officially – his little group, but since then, she had had time to surprise him. Her acting talents were normal for a Slytherin witch – especially considering one whose father was a Death Eater. That she helped him for Snape's sake was not out of the ordinary. What was frightening was the way she kept after Percy Weasley. She had framed him and it should have stopped there. But it hadn't.

She had gone to his trial, destabilising him even more. Though nobody knew it, she had been there when he had come out of Azkaban, and, somehow, she had managed to place herself in his path when he had come back from Arsenius Jigger's house. And now, she was following every move of Ronald Weasley, looking at him like a hawk looked at a mouse. In Lawrence's opinion, it was an unhealthy obsession, especially considering that the Minister and his friend Potter were at Hogwarts every day because of the surprising orange glow.

This led him to think about the Minister. His conversations with Ronald Weasley had gone quite smoothly, compared to those with Harry Potter. Obviously, the Boy Who Lived hated Slytherins in general, and everything in particular, that reminded him, even from afar, of Draco Malfoy. Lawrence had not appreciated the not-so-veiled remark that his band was quite similar to Malfoy's. He prided himself on having friends, not gorillas, and, anyway, he resented Draco Malfoy. The little ferret had been the reason for Lawrence's brother being kicked off the Quidditch team despite his past successes. Family bonds were even stronger than loyalty to Slytherins and he would not forgive Malfoy any time soon for the slight to Terence.

Thinking about it, he knew of some Slytherins for whom family bonds were nothing. There had been that man Black, who was, disgustingly enough, a Gryffindor in a Slytherin family. And there was Theodore Nott, who had rebelled against the idea of becoming a Death Eater or one of You-Know-Who's followers, despite the example of his family. Then, who knew what Isadora thought of all this? She was willing to help Snape, and the Potions professor, though having been a Death Eater, was not known now to hold them dear.

He sighed. Once again, his thoughts had led him to Isadora. She baffled him, and Lawrence didn't like to be baffled.

His bafflement reached new heights when the door of the common room was vigorously kicked open. Nobody dared to enter, in such a disrespectful manner, the Serpent's Den. In a heartbeat, he was standing, wand at the ready.

"Ah, Mr Higgs," said a silky voice, its calm belying the way its owner had opened the door, "just the person I wanted to see."

"Professor Snape?" said Lawrence incredulously, slowly lowering his wand.

"Don't standing here gaping, Mr Higgs! I need a quick account of what's happened while I was away."

"Er…"

Lawrence sat down rather brusquely when he saw another man behind his Potions professor, a man with odd eyes. The young Slytherin had heard more than one tale about Death Eaters and their victims, even though some people were rather closed-mouthed on the subject, and he knew about the wizard with the orange eye.

"He's supposed to be dead," he murmured, bewildered.

"So am I," replied Severus sharply. "What happened? When did the glow begin to spread?"

"I don't know exactly, two weeks maybe?"

"And you didn't do anything about it?"

"The Minister, Harry Potter and Professor McGonagall are trying everything they can!" he defended.

"Where did they put her?"

"In her old quarters, but I was led to understand that the Headmaster added some spells of his own to keep her place undisturbed."

Severus grunted.

"I can imagine. Come, Caradoc. Mr Higgs, please keep an eye on Miss Nott for me."

With those words, the door was closed and the common room was once again quiet, the fire dancing gaily in the fireplace. But the turmoil within the young man sitting beside it had increased tenfold.

The air in the Great Hall was still a definite orange colour when breakfast started, but it wasn't what made Isadora Nott frown. Even though some students were quite upset by the strange phenomenon, Isadora couldn't care less, especially once she had known it came from what was most probably Hermione Granger's resting place.

What made her frown, though, was seeing the Minister at the staff table. He wasn't alone and the wiry wizard accompanying him wasn't Harry Potter. In fact, he was someone she knew only too well, the only person she really cared for. Theodore Nott was speaking with the Minister and even laughing at some of his remarks.

Once breakfast was well on its way, Isadora felt a heavy gaze on her. She looked up to meet Minister Weasley's eyes and the message they held was clear to her: Harm my brother in any way and yours will pay. Somehow he had figured out that she would never do anything to endanger Theodore. Regretfully, she renounced her plan to be along Percy Weasley's way this very afternoon, since he had announced to Professor McGonagall that he would come investigate the suspicious orange glow. But Isadora was not someone who was easily deterred and she formed, on the spot, another plan: targeting Ron Weasley instead of his brother.

She made herself look very dedicated to her breakfast, though she would have been quite unable to say what it consisted of, and only looked up when she felt someone sit next to her. Only Lawrence had the nerve to sit by her, and she turned her head toward him to greet him. She closed her mouth without having said a word.

"You look terrible," she finally said.

"Thanks," he grumbled. "Good morning to you, too, Isadora."

Obviously, Lawrence's mind wasn't on what he was doing, since he kept putting marmalade in his cup rather than sugar, and then absent-mindedly poured orange juice in his porridge. Isadora winced when he took his first mouthful. She decided to put the kippers and sausages a bit further away on the table lest he dipped them in his tea.

"Tough night?" she asked, stealing the nearest dish of eggs and bacon from him before he could reach for it.

"You could say that," he replied, frowning at his plate. "I don't know what they did to that porridge, but it's inedible."

"It may be because you put orange juice in it instead of honey," she said helpfully.

"I did? How strange; I don't like orange juice."

Isadora sighed. "Lawrence, what happened?"

Suddenly, the orange light around them disappeared, provoking instant chaos. Young students shrieked, older students jumped to their feet and, interestingly enough, Ron Weasley darted toward the dungeons. Minerva McGonagall glanced wistfully in his direction, but stayed behind and endeavoured to calm the students.

"There, now you know what happened," yawned Lawrence before sprinkling a soft roll with corn flakes.

Severus and Caradoc had spent the whole night hammering at Hermione's door. It was impossible to see the outline of it in the dense orange fog, but Severus had led them to the entry of her quarters without any hesitation, and Caradoc had asked no questions as to how he was able to find it blindly. They were at the thickest of the glow and couldn't even see their hands in front of their faces. He had disarmed the first wards quite easily, but the last one was holding firm against him. Finally, Caradoc pushed him to the side and carefully probed the spell on the door.

"It has Albus's touch," he murmured. "A fine charm, if I may say so. A bit as if it were saying 'Look elsewhere, I'm not here' and, at the same time, a smugness of 'You will never get pass me anyway, I'm too clever by half'."

"How typical."

"It reminds me of something he gloated about… A spell he had devised to hide the Philosopher's Stone, I think… Does that mean something to you?"

"I want to find it but not to use it," groaned Severus. "How did he apply that to Hermione?"

"Well, Mr Weasley would want to find her, but not save her. Or would he?"

"I don't think Weasley cares a bit for Hermione. His only worry is for his advancement."

"But we want to find her and to save her," said Caradoc softly. "So it would seem to be the contrary to the previous spell."

"But that damned door still isn't open."

He leaned his head against the cold stone, almost as if he could hear her behind the wall.

"No, Caradoc," he said quietly. "We don't want to save her; we want to save me and wake her."

Before the old Potions master could answer, a very soft click told them the door was open.

Caradoc remained behind as Severus rushed inside. The younger wizard knelt besides Hermione's bed and reached for her hand, stopping just inches from touching her.

"Hermione," he murmured, "do you hear me? I'm here; I'm back. You'll be able to live again, to breathe again."

Like so many previous days, like Ron before him, he had the impression he saw a brief smile on her lips and heard a wisp of wind breathing his name.

"I wonder if you expected me to come back or not. I hope you didn't think I would abandon you. It would have been beyond my strength," he added in a whisper.

Ignoring Caradoc's presence, he leaned forward and, as he had done when he had left, he softly kissed her brow before standing up and looking around critically. The older wizard made as if he had not noticed anything out of the ordinary, while inwardly he marvelled at this unknown side of Severus.

Obviously, the house-elves had not dared to intrude, and the room was covered with dust. Severus took care of the problem with a quick wave of his wand. For good measure, he also cast a cleaning charm on Hermione, who didn't look very neat after so many days without care. Caradoc thought it prudent not to mention the quantity of foolish wand-waving Severus was practising and ground his teeth almost as loudly as he at Hermione's state.

"They could have taken care of her!" he exclaimed indignantly.

"Albus probably didn't think that he would soon be leaving after sealing her in. For all we know, Poppy tried to bring down the wards to care for her, but couldn't enter. I'm not even sure she knows the location of these quarters," replied Severus absent-mindedly, peering intently at the orange fog.

Then, out of the blue, he added, "We need to find Crookshanks."

Caradoc almost groaned aloud.

"For goodness' sake, Severus, wake her up and have it done!"

"You don't understand, Caradoc. That ugly cat of hers will convince her better than words that she's awake."

"And she will think Albus used Polyjuice to become you because you never were that attentive to her before," grumbled Caradoc.

So they looked for Crookshanks everywhere in Hermione's quarters, since Severus was quite sure that the cat would never have left her alone, no matter Albus's wards. They had searched in every nook and cranny and Crookshanks was not to be found. Tired, they stopped again in front of her bed.

"I guess we will have to proceed without Crookshanks, then," risked Caradoc.

Severus shook his head furiously and strode to the huge armchair beside the bed.

"There you are, you ugly hairy old rug," he said, seizing a big orange cat. "You were there the whole time, weren't you? Typical from you."

He put the purring half-Kneazle on the pillow next to Hermione's head and knelt again. With a tenderness that Caradoc would never have guessed he could have, Severus murmured the counter-spell to the sleeping charm Hermione had cast on herself. Seeing the dark silhouette hovering next to her bed, the older wizard felt like an intruder and he silently stepped back. During the past weeks with Severus, he had discovered a new depth to his former apprentice, but looking at him now made him doubt everything he thought he knew.

"Hermione?" whispered Severus. "Hermione, wake up!"

She still hadn't opened her eyes but she began struggling weakly, grasping blindly for her wand.

"No! He'll die if you do that! Let him live! Leave me alone! He'll die," she continued in a keen little cry. "Don't let him die…"

The orange glow was slowly fading, until only Hermione herself was shimmering. Crookshanks was purring as loudly as he could, butting his head against her cheek while she was trying to find her wand. Severus imprisoned her hands in his and talked to her softly, too low for Caradoc to hear him above Hermione's cries.

It was how Ronald Weasley found them and, unfortunately, it didn't take long for Harry Potter to arrive next, Ron having warned him of the change. There was also a young wizard with them whom Caradoc didn't recognise, and he shrank further in the shadows, reacting by instinct after so many years in hiding.

"He's torturing her!" exclaimed Harry, his wand already drawn.

"Don't be stupid, Harry," snapped Ron, his tiredness getting the better of him. "He wouldn't hurt her."

"I told you he was still with the Knights of Walpurgis, but you didn't want to believe me!"

"Good morning, Professor Snape," said the young wizard.

Severus looked briefly away from the struggling Hermione.

"Nott, come here and help me instead of looking at me like a fish! Weasley, do something! Can't you see she's not waking up properly?"

It took them at least ten minutes to notice that her eyelids had been magically sealed and to find the counter-spell. Severus was furious with Albus and himself; after the pains he had taken to insure she would awaken without panicking, Albus had to ruin it all with a stupid – and useless - spell.

When she opened her eyes at last, her gaze focused at once on Severus and her face twisted with grief.

"Why did you do that? I wanted you to live…" she whispered sadly. "Why didn't you leave me like I asked you to?"

"Oh, he did leave you!" said Harry with a sneer.

But neither Hermione nor Severus paid attention to him.

"Because I would have been living a borrowed life, to quote your own words," he replied softly, his gaze intent on her. "And I don't want that anymore. It's gone on too long."

Her eyes filled with tears.

"I don't want you to die…"

"I won't die, Hermione. I looked for a cure and, with Caradoc's help, I found it. You and I will both live."

"Caradoc?"

"Also known as Arsenius Jigger."

Hermione opened and closed her mouth several times, then took Crookshanks in her arms and burst into tears, burying her face in the welcoming fur. Nobody noticed the two slim Slytherins silently entering the room.