They rode back in silence, Hermione's thestral doing an excellent job of keeping her from falling to her death. She had summoned one of her pepper-up potions, which was probably the only thing keeping her going at this point. Snape's thestral was very close to her, if the occasional huffs of breath were any indicator. She got the impression he was worried about her.
She may have even drifted off at one point, although how she wasn't sure (trying to ride a flying creature wasn't the most comfortable thing when one felt perfectly fine) but she managed to make it back in one piece, and that was what mattered.
"We only have about five minutes left," said Severus, raising his voice over the wind. "Are you capable of landing safely?"
Hermione giggled to herself, and in the back of her mind realized that it was a very bizarre thing to do. She couldn't help it. Severus Snape asking her – in his own way – if she was alright, well that was a new one. "I'll be fine," she answered, almost as an afterthought. She giggled again when she imagined that Severus would be pursing his lips like he did when someone got a particularly simple question wrong.
Her manic giggling turned into a groan of pain, as she realized they were descending. She tried to stay upright, but every time she moved her stomach, another white hot flash of agony would hit her. Beads of sweat formed on her brow, and her eyes were furrowed in concentration. They landed without any incident, thankfully, and Hermione waved off the disillusionment charm from her and her thestral. She was plastered to it's back, and was having a great deal of trouble convincing herself to move.
Before she could get up the energy to move on her own, she felt herself being lifted once more off the ground. "Severus, c'mon. I've got this," she slurred. The thestral licked the sweat off of her brow interestedly. She lifted a hand to swipe it away, but gave up and let it lick her.
"Seeing as I've waited three minutes already for you to do more than stir, I doubt that immensely." He pursed his lips, looking just like she thought he would. Despite her better judgement, she giggled. Bizarre.
She didn't get a response. She must look very silly, she realized, giggling to herself while Professor Snape held her practical dead weight. She hissed out in pain every time he moved, and was honestly quite glad she didn't have to move on her own. She didn't want to know what her torso looked like, for it was bound to be ugly.
"We need t'replace our old selves," Hermione muttered. "Dunno if I can turn back 'ny time soon." Her head was spinning, and the world was starting to fade again.
"We already have." He kept walking. "They disappeared a few minutes ago, I waited behind the trees until they left."
Hermione processed that somewhere in the back of her mind, and gave a nod of appreciation. She wondered what Snape would say if someone were to run into them – something highly derogatory of her, she was certain – but couldn't bring herself to care too much. When she could focus on more than the pain she was feeling, she would deal with the rest of the world.
And to her surprise, they arrived at Snape's quarters. "Not Gryffindor tower?" She asked. "Why?"
"Do you think I would send you back to your dormitory without examining the options for healing you? I thought you were intelligent, Miss Granger."
She knew there was an insult in there, somewhere. But it didn't really matter, and then she was being set down.
"Oh Merlin!" She heard from across the room. "Bloody hell Severus, what happened to her?"
It was Draco, who had apparently decided to wait here for their return. He blocked out the light above her, and she opened her eyes slightly to see him. "'lo, Draco," she gave him a very weak grin. "We got it."
"Never mind the horcrux, what's wrong with you?"
Hermione lifted her sweater up past her stomach, revealing a nasty, mottled patch of skin. "Salazar," she heard above her. The voice didn't come from Draco, like she thought it would, but Severus. "What did I do to you?" He whispered.
"You did this to her?" Draco's voice returned. "Godfather, if you did this, I shall have to disown you. She's… she's… scarred for life!"
"It was my curse, yes," he said evenly.
Draco exploded with sound, making Hermione wince at the volume. "What the hell, Severus?"
"I set this curse when I placed the horcrux, many years ago," Snape continued, sounding a bit defensive. "She decided to pull the curse so we could get to the cup."
And suddenly, Draco was whirling on her instead. "What the hell, Hermione? Why would you do that?"
Hermione felt a pang of annoyance, and with more energy than she had felt in hours, quipped back, "It was th'best course of action, Draco, stop it. And pass a healing potion."
Draco turned to Severus. "What sort of healing potion works on this? It feels a bit like sectumsempera," he said. Severus must've looked quite surprised, for he continued, "Oh, yes, we know about that one too. Potter got your potions textbook in sixth year and cast it on me, so I know just about how Hermione is feeling now."
"It's worse than that." Snape replied. "Sectumsempera will put you out of your misery. The pelincidus curse will boil the skin and keep you burning. It won't kill her." She heard shuffling, and the room suddenly became a lot lighter. Eyes closed, all she could see was the red of her eyelids. A bit more shuffling, and the darkness returned. "Drink this," he said, and a small vial nudged at her hand. She grabbed it and uncorked the top.
"I cannot heal the damage that had already happened," Severus said, voice low and incredibly calm. "But this will stop the curse from continuing to spread."
"But I thought I pulled it?" Hermione said.
"Drink. We will discuss it afterwards." She downed the potion.
Immediately, a wave of warmth overcame her, sinking into her skin and wiping away all the pain of the curse. "Shit." She said eloquently. "Thanks, Severus, that's much better."
"Imaginably." He replied. "While you did pull the curse, it is designed to affect the invader even after contact. If I was unable to treat you, the burn would likely have spread much farther than your torso."
"As it is," Draco added, "I hope we can reverse this. It's nasty, Hermione, I won't lie to you."
"I've never been beautiful, Draco. It's a small price to pay for the horcrux. Plus, Severus said it was all cosmetic. I'll still be able to function, and that's all that maters." She said resolutely. She meant it, too.
A silence followed her words, and she looked from Slytherin to Slytherin questioningly. Draco turned to Severus, looking equally confused. "Hermione," said Severus slowly. "It isn't completely cosmetic."
"What do you mean?"
He shifted uncomfortably. "There is a high chance that, due to where the curse landed, you may be unable to reproduce."
Draco gasped. "No, that's not right! We can fix it, it can't have gone that deep. We'll get Poppy – it's about time we brought her up to speed, anyway – we'll fix it!"
"It's alright, Draco." Hermione said quietly.
"It's not alright, Hermione. How could this be alright?"
"It's alright. Like I said, it's a small price to pay for defeating Voldemort." She didn't expect to truly live that long, anyway. Just long enough to kill that bastard, then… "I don't think I want children, anyway." That was a lie. She had thought about it, when she had dated Ron for the briefest period in the future. Not anytime soon, no, but maybe one day- well, that was a pipe dream, now.
"Hermione," Draco said pityingly. He knew her better than anyone, and she knew he could see through her falsity. "Hermione, we can-"
"Drop it, Draco. I don't want to talk about it." She said icily. She felt much better, physically, but there was a gnawing pit in her stomach. "We don't even know if it's one hundred percent impossible, yet. And if it is, I don't want to speak of it."
"Miss Granger…" said Snape lowly.
"You stay quiet, too," Hermione snapped. "We've all made sacrifices. This is no different." She turned her face away. Although the pain from the curse was more like someone poking her side than someone continuously stabbing her with knives, she had a pain of a different sort.
She had never given much thought to children, since returning to the past. In the three months of victory, the interwar peace, she had thought about it. But after all they had suffered at the hands of Voldemort's third rise, it would've been a miracle if she had been able to have kids then either. Nothing had changed, really. She wasn't a Lavender Brown, who wished for her entire life to have a big family with twenty kids and a doting husband. So why did it make her heart sink?
It was just another dream that Voldemort had taken from her. That was all. And the sooner he was dead, the sooner she could find some semblance of peace.
"We need to destroy the cup," she said suddenly. "Let's do it tonight, we'll get this over with." She reached for her time turner, ready to make a few turns. But it wasn't there. She started looking around, searching desperately for the necklace.
"It fell off as I was carrying you." Severus brought the necklace forward. It was warm to the touch, and she accepted it back gratefully. "And there's no need to travel back to destroy it."
"Why is that?" Asked Hermione.
Draco responded instead, "He destroyed it already."
"Oh." She sagged back into her armchair. "That's good, then."
"Come on, Hermione. You've done enough. Let's get you to bed." Said Draco, pulling her upright. "I'll walk you to Gryffindor."
Hermione followed him blankly, still absorbed in her own thoughts. Draco filled the silence, chattering about inconsequential things. He seemed to realize he wouldn't get an answer from her, though, so she didn't bother trying to muster up the concentration to reply.
"We're halfway through the year already," he was saying. "Can you believe the Yule Ball is tomorrow? I certainly can't. And I'm taking Astoria, this time. She was quite pleased, you know, since she wouldn't be able to attend without a partner. But Pansy feels quite shunned, if you believe that. She's been sour all week, since she found out I wasn't just trying to ask her fashionably late."
Hermione nodded vaguely, and let him lead her through the winding passages up to the tower. "You should have some fun with Krum. I know you like him enough, and he's a gentleman; give yourself a night off, ok?"
They reached the tower finally, and Hermione turned to give him a hug goodbye. "Thank you, Draco." She whispered.
"It's nothing," he said flippantly.
"No, really," She hugged him tighter, and he returned it, comfortingly warm around her shoulders. "I really appreciate you. I was so alone, before you came back. And I kept just making mistake after mistake, and I don't think you realize how much I love you."
Draco stiffened in her arms. "Hermione… you know that ship sailed long ago. We're not meant for that."
"Oh you dolt," she laughed slightly. "I love you like a brother. Like a best friend."
"Then I suppose I love you too, Hermione." He said, slightly stilted. He had never been good at expressing his feelings, not that she was particularly amazing at it either. "But it's time to go, alright? I shudder to think what the Hogwarts rumor mill would think of us hugging at two in the morning."
That got a genuine laugh out of her, and she unwound herself from his arms reluctantly. "Maybe after all this is over, we can mess with the rest of the school."
"It's a date," Draco said, and laughed with her. "Goodnight, Hermione."
AN: Don't hate me, guys! Lots of developments happened in this chapter, what was the most shocking?