Disclaimer: The same as the previous chapters. Thank you Moonvale for helping me out with this chapter as well. :)

Chapter 5

Inhaling sharply, Severus Snape jerked himself free from the grip of the two young men and all but turned away from the prying eyes of the room's occupants. He walked up to the long windows and stood stiffly with his back to the room. The twisted image of his face reflected off the rain-drenched glass aided him in hiding all those raw emotions rushing past his face. To shrink away even more, he dropped his head letting his long black hair curtain his watery eyes away from the inquisitive world.

Minerva, his confidant, friend, family, and Deputy Headmistress had the presence of mind to usher Potter and Longbottom away in the pretext of getting those two to get some late-night super in the kitchen. Draco chose to stay back.

The present potions apprentice at Hogwarts, who was diligently working towards his mastery, gave the strongest occlumens some quiet time to gather his wits. For only Draco and Minerva knew how, if subjected to strong emotions, Severus' shields would quake and make him lash out unexpectedly. On those occasions, the best thing was to let the man gather himself.

Slowly he walked up and stood quietly beside his godfather. In moments like these, he wished Severus was his real father. Unlike what the world believed, the dour man had been beside him all through his growing years, especially when his father Lucius had neglected and belittled him. Even in his strictness and demand for discipline, Snape was always extending a helping hand to those who needed it. Most days, the Slytherins didn't even have to approach him to solve their troubles. He would be there giving them the stoic shoulder to lean on to get a grip on themselves.

Draco was the first one to break through the uncomfortably icy silence.

"You know what I just said was right."

"Do I?"

"Severus, I have been around you and close to you more than anyone of my age. You can be a closed book to the world but to me, you did reveal some of your nuances."

To shake off the growing feeling of distress, Snape tried to pin the man with a very different question of his own, "What interest do you have in Miss Granger's strange predicament?"

Giving him a dry chuckle, the young Malfoy retorted, "We can play this game, but right now let us deal with the inevitable."

Pausing to give the man next to him a temperamental look, he continued, "I remember those occasions when I was a toddler and you would visit the Manor. It was quite fun to watch you feel ill at ease when I would launch myself into your arms. You were never the cuddling person. Still, your halfhearted hugs were all I had to count on. I find it quite strange, why is it that I had never once got a glimpse of that pendant you wear around your neck?"

Instinctively Snape fiddled with his cravat and, realizing his folly, threw a threatening look at his godson before withdrawing his hand. As if nothing had happened, Draco smiled and continued, "It was Granger who saw it first."

Draco could remember the day like a dreadful bedtime story. He had managed to toss his wand at Potter as part of their plan and the Dark Lord was finally killed. Sensing now was his time to free both his mother and himself from the clutches of his oppressive and lunatic father; he turned and trapped the man with a spell he had invented. The wait for the Aurors was not short enough knowing his godfather was lying in the Shrieking Shack. Making sure his mother was safe with his Aunt Andromeda; he had dashed across the battlefield. Granger had joined him midway. Poking the knot on the tree and trudging through the dark tunnel below it, he heard Granger constantly pray under her breath, "Be alive. Please, please be alive."

When they had finally reached him, Draco tried hard not to slip on the pool of blood. However, Granger was strong and had the nerve to look past the blood and partially torn up neck of the potions master. She brought out a tiny beaded bag and from it phials of potions and a bezoar flew out into her waiting palms. Turning to him, she barked, "Get down here. Support his body Malfoy. NOW!"

Nodding like a subservient elf, he acted accordingly. He was too afraid and all the blood had brought back dreadful memories of the very witch working over his godfather. Just a couple of months back Granger had been bleeding and suffering horrible torture under that twisted hag Bellatrix.

She asked him to put pressure over the open wounds on Snape's neck as she administered a Blood Replenishing potion. The wound had been too deep and quite a lot of blood was already lost but Granger was not giving up. She pried open Snape's blood-soaked cravat and massaged the rest of the potion down his throat. Next, she shoved the bezoar through his narrowly opened jaw. Draco was mesmerized by how little the blood now coating her fingers affected the war-hardened witch. It was then she had found the pendant tied around the dying man's neck with the chain nearly torn. He watched her with piqued interest as she brought the thing closer to her eyes for further inspection Under the bit of light pouring through the window, Draco too could see a small leaf of sage and a small petal of lilac swimming inside a golden liquid within a prism-shaped phial.

Mesmerized by the beauty of it, he was thoroughly startled when the witch had all but launched herself over the prone man's body, crying and howling, "No. This can't be. I cannot lose you too. Please, please come back to me."

Draco, being trapped halfway under the man, had a hard time getting the distressed witch off. He yelled at her and kicked her with his free leg then just like that, Hermione's head snapped up and she stared at him with odd interest. Then, as if getting hold of a solution, she placed her hands over Draco's right over Snape's battered neck and started singing a spell. He knew it was an old spell because the words and the cadence were quite off. He watched her magic pool around their joined hands and somehow started entering his godfather's prone body.

A couple of minutes later she had gone limp and rolled off, thankfully this time not over the two men in front of her. Worried, the Slytherin called out to her. For the first time since he had arrived in that dark room, he had felt Snape's pulse, weak and throbbing. After Potter had so thoroughly ripped him apart with his godfather's invention, Severus had taught him both the Sectumsempra spell and its counter spell. In exchange for the vow, he will use it only on an enemy and Potter was not one.

Realizing that things were depending on him and his abilities, he cast the counter spell and had heaved a sigh of relief when the wound started closing up. He had let go of Snape as soon as he had started getting a bit warmer and revived Granger. Back to her senses and still a little dazed, the girl had found Snape was still alive and his neck looked better. She tackled Draco into a tight hug and kissed his cheek! If that hadn't knock him out then what she whispered sure had, "Thank you for saving him! Thank you for giving him back to me!"

Granger had gone barmy. The war and the adrenaline pumping in her had finally tossed her brain cells into some weird knot and the Brightest Witch must have lost it. He had clumsily patted her back and then the two had taken turns to handle the energy-draining Levicorpus spell they had cast on the professor's unconscious but alive body. The trek back to the castle was hazy and Draco was quite thankful for not remembering it.

"I know you feel it in your veins and that your heart must be aching right now but please give Granger a chance. She is the Brightest Witch of our Age and this is not the way she must die."

Severus turned and took a deep breath, cocked his head at the pleading man beside him, "Is she the person sending you those morning owls, once a week? The very ones I have found you looking out for?" Once a spy always a spy! Malfoy huffed.

A slight pinkish blush crept up Malfoy's pale cheeks and he nodded confidently, "Yes, she is."

Allowing himself a ghost of a smile, the Headmaster asked his godson to join him by the fireplace. Once settled in the armchairs and conjuring up more for the others, he added, "We will wait for Minerva to escort those two dunderheads back from the kitchens. I would like to hear what Potter has to say."

A/N: Is me, or others think each time Snape called the students dunderheads, he was smiling behind all that air of pure disgust? That word only sounded best when Alan Rickman said it. RIP.