Disclaimer: the same as previous chapters.

Chapter 54

All it took was just one simple hug to set him free. That simple touch broke his years' old wall of indifference and cursed them under its feet. As a kid, he had watched Mrs. Evans and Mr. Evans hugging their daughters from a distance. He would hide among the trees to watch how the lovely mother would kiss their two daughters goodnight after reading them bedtimes stories. When was the last time did his mother touch him to show him the power of affection? She was always this withdrawn person. Later on, she withdrew further into her shell, truly frightened and afraid of his father. Lily had hugged him as a friend. And he could still remember how she had guided his stiff hands around her, giggling," Silly Sev, it's just a hug, I am sure you know that, moms and dads do it all the time?"

That Christmas, after giving her red ribbons as a sorry excuse for a present, he had to reveal he was not familiar with this simple act of affection. He stole from his father's purse in order to buy the pool of sparkling red ribbons from Penny's multipurpose shop. How his father got wind of it, he had no idea, but he found it quite difficult to hide his bruises from Lily. Just where his father's fingerprints were smarting over his cheek, she had rubbed some snow and giggled after gifting him with his first kiss on the cheek. He had blushed mercilessly…

Here sitting on the floor of a ripped off containment room, Severus Snape hugged Hermione with all his might, burying his face in her matted hair, he kept mumbling the word sorry again and again till he choked and gasped. She knew, and she did everything to make him live, heal, and be surrounded by people whom he would not push away. The thoughtful girl took the onus of wandering around the world hunting for those unheard of Horcruxes all by herself.

He tried to remember the times when he had the luxury to actually touch her. A handful of times. He bit his tongue hard enough in shame because back then, he had laughed at the cat ears and whiskers and the furry face and swishy tail of the little girl lying unconscious in the hospital bed. He bit his lips and hugged her tighter because he had ridiculed her countless times.

"And she could have actually died during several of those stupid adventures." Once when the three baboons had literally got themselves trapped in front of Lupin. The werewolf had quickly transformed under the full moon before them. Snape tried to remember if he had held her while guarding all three of them.

He had just given her mere glances while she lay petrified after the basilisk incident, the chick had the clue tucked in her palm though! Solved his riddle of potions in the first year and what did he give her in return?! Dumbledore had made him heal her after the battle at the Ministry of Magic. He had been so clinical about it.

All through her school life, she was so lonely, how many times did he see her cry in her secluded reading nook at the library. "Oh!Merlin! Please! Please!" rocking her slowly he continued to mourn over his past mistakes, his horrid behavior, his absolute lack of judgment.

He felt the presence of someone else moving around him in circles. It was Astrid Norman. The elderly woman along with Minerva MacGanagall was building up the protective shields that the unconscious woman in his arms had shattered through wandless magic.

It was then that he noticed her arm and the words mudblood curling on their own over the ashen skin. Dark Magic. He realized at once, some form of Dark Magic was residing inside Granger and the witch was desperately fighting against it. Shifting her on his lap, he looked at the words etched out by a knife. He tried to run his fingertips over them. Thin hair-like tendrils of dark fume rose up as soon as his fingers brushed over.

Snape took only a couple of minutes to rein his emotions. Picking up the girl, he walked up to the bed and slowly placed her over it. Looking up, he urgently sought the Healer's help. "Norman, show me her wound, that one which is on her back, the one that…"

Pushing him aside, the old Healer turned the girl to her side and bunching up her blood-soaked gown, she yelped," Trust me, Severus, it was not there before, how?"

"Let me, get a better look at it!" bent on his knees, he scooted close to the bareback, the wound was raw and half-healed, but definitely open. Though, it had stopped bleeding for now. Muttering loud enough, he informed the others," it is thin slit, looks deep enough, but miraculously missed major organs, an inch long and fingernail wide…" shaking his head," no doubt a magical object did it, Norman, would you allow me to…"

The Knights of the Undead were still present in the room, guarding it. It was one of them who spoke up. Snape felt his words sail through his mind space, though others only saw him turn and look back at the ghostly apparition standing right at the foot of the bed. "She will respond to your spells only, because from now on only blood will protect the one you love, the one she loves with all her heart, mind, body and soul."

Nodding back, Severus took a deep breath and muttered the counter curse, a variation of Sceptrumsepera. While the wound started healing under his magical influences, all of them witnessed the erratic magical fields vibrating and shrieking like a beast in pain, And a blob of tar-like substance oozed out of the wound and crystalized once it came into close contact with the air around.

Minerva produced a glass orb and in it, Snape managed to transfer the strange substance. Without turning to the older women, who did look exhausted and spent, he mumbled, "Can you, leave me alone with her for some time? I...I...would." Squeezing his shoulder, the deputy headmistress left him and Norman muttered, "Take you time. We will be at my office." Peeping through his long black hair, he watched Potter guiding McGonagall out of the circle and Finnigan offered him a puzzled look and then nodded curtly, spinning on his feet, he guided the intern called Liza out, leaving him alone with Hermione.

Rubbing his hands over his face, he noticed, he had been crying, and those dunderheads saw it all! Norman had scourgified the gown and had turned her on her back, before she left them alone. Her eyes kept fluttering and her lips trembling. He couldn't help but run his fingers through her hair.

He would never understand what made him do it, but his body had bent forward and he had kissed her forehead with a new sense of love and tenderness foreign to him until then. His action did shock him but there was something else that made his blood run cold. The smell of dead rotting flesh, pungent acid, and seawater. He heard the faint growl of a snarling beast and the brush of malicious magic over his own. Looking back at the Knights of Undead, he thought, " What…?" They retold his own words, "Think boy, think because time here is on great essence!" Hermione chose that very moment to mutter, "Home...go...home."