As soon as Severus stepped through the hearth of the fireplace his entire being knew that something was wrong. His eyes quickly scanned the office but found nothing amiss. His feet quickly made their way towards his private chambers where the feeling of dread only grew.

"Miss Granger? Hermione? Please? Oh, Merlin..."

Severus' jaw ground as he heard Minerva's voice. She had promised him that she wouldn't try to communicate with Miss Granger in her human form. He had told her that her mind was much too fragile. The tone of her voice was the only thing that kept his temper in check.

His eyes followed the sound of her voice to the pillar that obscured the door to his small lab. Whispers began to fill his ears as he drew near and it was then that he could begin to piece together what must have happened. His heart jumped when he quickly came to shadow the now open doorway. The sound of the memories that filled the air in the room buzzing in his ears.

"What did you do?" Severus had already begun to move even as the words snarled passed his lips.

"Oh thank Merlin!" Minerva looked up with desperation in her voice.

She could only send thanks to the fates that Severus had returned. He'd been gone for hours while she watched over Miss Granger's rest and she had truly believed he would have been out all night. She had prepared herself for the possibility of having to cancel her morning class just to keep her promise of watching over Miss Granger. Though as her brain steadily took in his face she was sure this was the last time she'd be spending any time with the young woman during her recovery.

"She came in here on her own. I tried to stop her but..." Minerva's words trailed off when she realized he hadn't really been looking for an answer. Her eyes turning to watch him so artfully recapture the swirling lights that had started to fill the room. It was a rather beautiful sight of wand and spell mastery, reminding her very clearly that the man before her was more powerful than he appeared.

Ignoring Minerva wasn't so much as a choice as a necessity. The cacophony of sounds that had been mere whispers before we're starting to become an undiscernable mass of sound as he pulled the escaped memories into one of the larger vials he'd picked up from the table.

He had hoped that the pensive solution would have released the orb's memories, while successful it wasn't his intention to give them all to her at once. His original plan had been to return them slowly, carefully, when the time was right. He had no idea what they held as he had only set the orb inside recently. He hadn't even been completely sure it would work. He had been merely following his instincts.

"Severus-Severus, she's stopped breathing!"

Minerva's tone of urgency cut through the returning quiet. The last few floating memories quickly recaptured before his eyes shot down to the girl in her arms. Hermione's eyes were still open and he was just able to see the last of whatever memory had actually made contact slip from her eyes. Her face had grown pale and her lips were beginning to turn blue.

"The bed. Now!" Severus' last act before following them out was to set the pensive back onto its stand. His brow ticked when he saw the orb just below the surface of the remaining waters. It was cracked open, like an egg but there were still more memories inside. How much of her life had she hidden away?

Minerva laid Hermione down with calm and focus, moving aside as Snape came from behind. She was, of course, a wholly capable witch but this was a situation she knew nothing about. A life, a young life, hung in the balance. She knew when it was time to step aside.

"Pensives aren't supposed to do that... "

"There was something inside it." Severus didn't want to have this conversation while the girl he'd been trying to keep alive for the past few months slowly suffocated but he didn't have the mental strength to have a battle of wits.

Minerva snapped her jaw shut when he split open the front of her shirt, pushing it aside so that he could press his wand into her ribs. The sight of her near skeletal frame boldly reminding her from just where she'd been. The scars that covered her skin broke Minerva's heart in more places than she could count.

"The poison...poison...it reacts to..." Severus had run out of space in his mind to organize his thoughts and had begun to mumble to himself. She was having an allergic reaction to something inside the pensive waters, similar to the one she'd had when she'd put the numbing salve on his back. His brain cycled through any possible connection between the two. Going from ingredients—none shared—to preservation methods—none shared—to alternative uses—none shared—to more complex cycles of intended use.

"Emotion, physical response..." He turned away making haste to his alchemist cabinet. He dug into the very back taking out an aligar stone, it was the only thing he could think of that would stop the two potions from interacting. It wouldn't remove the poison but it would temporarily stop the harmful reaction to it. Pensive water wasn't dangerous and would clear on its own if he could just stop the interaction.

Minerva had instinctually taken over the charm he had begun to restart her lungs. She wasn't incompetent, just out of her field, "What is that?"

"It'll help." Severus leaned over, internally grateful that his trust that Minerva would be of some use hadn't been broken.

His thumb worked Granger's jaw loose quickly enough and he was able to push the small pea sized sphere into her mouth before using his wand to guide it down into her stomach. There was a bright green glow from beneath her skin and he knew he had the right choice. His hands cupped her cheeks then, his brow furrowing when her lashes fluttered ever just so.

"Stop the spell." Severus was so close that he almost looked like a fairytale prince about to give the cursed princess her first kiss, "Miss Granger?"

Minerva held her breath as she waited for anything, anything at all. When a soft choking noise came from over his shoulder she could have collapsed with relief.

"Slowly, now..." Severus pulled back just a fraction waiting for her eyes to open. As chocolate met obsidian his world began to tilt. There was only a small flash of recognition, a small tick of a smile before her eyes rolled back, "She's passed out..."

"Is...is that supposed to happen?"

"No." Severus frowned further, gently thumbing open one of her eyes. It flicked back and forth as though she were trapped inside a dream and he could only hypothesize that some of the memories had returned home.

"What can I do?"

"Get out."

Minerva opened her mouth to protest but her heart told her to be silent. She would be remiss if she didn't take notice of the intensity with which the man had moved. The care in which he touched her former pupil. He had become protective over her, whether he realized it or not. He cared about what happened to her.

It was these observations that stilled her tongue and moved her towards the door. When she spared a glance over her shoulder her heart beat just a bit warmer for the man she had never believed capable of anything more than callousness. The way he covered her, the way he brushed her hair from her cheek with the backs of his fingers.

oOOo

"Hermione would be ashamed of you."

"I know..."

Ron didn't dare look up from the cup of morning tea held in his trembling fingers. Bill had been laying into him non stop since he'd taken him in. A tongue lashing he was more than overdue for but hurt all the same. He didn't even have the comfort of Hermione's picture as it must have fallen from his pocket when he'd slept on Helenia's couch.

"Let ze poor boy eat Bill." Fleur spoke gently as she set a small plate of bacon and beans on toast in front of Ron, "Ze past is in za past."

Ron gave her a mumbled thank you for the food but didn't make a move to eat, "We're just going in circles. We have no idea what we're even doing out there."

"You're fighting this war. Just like the rest of us." Bill leaned over the table to catch Ron's eye, "If you can't fight for the world, then fight for her. For the battle, she couldn't win."

Ron couldn't stop the tear from rolling down his cheek. Filled with shame and regret. He knew he had to let her go, he just wasn't ready. Not yet.

oOo

Severus rubbed his tired eyes before turning the dragon in his hands. He had forgone trying to look for any more books on the device's creation and had taken to dismantling it himself. It was exhausting work, not like taking apart an old muggle radio with a screwdriver. No this was something much more complex.

The stone had been hand carved but had been put together in sections using complex spell work that took a careful hand to dismantle. The core, as he'd taken to calling it, was the most complex. It had been designed to cause discomfort and pleasure simultaneously. He'd been able to find the chamber that held the poison and was presently trying to remove the small sphere in which it was encased in.

Granger had slept completely through the night. The first time in a long time where her nightmares hadn't roused him. She'd hardly moved at all, even when he'd laid down beside her. He had found himself waking periodically on his own to roll onto his side to take her in, assure himself that she was still with him, leaving his own rest broken.

The five students he'd sent to the snake's den had returned via his floo just before breakfast. Faces pale, eyes hollow. They couldn't even raise their heads to him as he sent them away. He could see that they had been broken but there was nothing he could do for them.

Lunch was quickly approaching, a fact that was easily ignored with his present task. He'd brought his work table into the central room so that he would be nearby if he was needed. Thus far the only thing that had happened was a growing headache behind his eyes. He'd idly thought about waking her himself but he didn't know what that might do to her mental state and thus had busied himself with one of his other many tasks.

"Ouch." Severus jolted when a small hook that was designed to hold the potion bulb in place speared his thumb under his fingernail. A small bead of blood dripped down before he could stop it, falling directly onto the bulb where instead of rolling off like he would have expected, it became absorbed.

A heavy clicking noise turned his head towards where he'd left the outer piece. Curiosity tilted his head at the inner ring, one he guessed was designed to hold the core, that began to turn. A soft green light filled the inside and as he made to bring it under the light a small clink thunked against the bottom.

Using his wand, he called up the teardrop shaped glass and brought it under the light. A deep blue liquid shined back at him and for a moment he found himself perplexed, then just as he was about to set it aside, the core let out a small click and the hold that kept the other potion in place released.

"The antidote...?" With his other hand, he called the red potion from the core and replaced it with the blue. The entire core started to turn and shift even though the pieces had been dismantled. The sharp barbs that had been meant to elicit pain turned inward shifting into something that—he could only assume—were designed to bring pleasure.

With a wary eye to the shifting pieces, he picked up the outer sheath once again and carefully guided the red potion into the empty slot. The sheath responded similarly, the aggressive-looking outer design shifting into something more calming. The entire process took no more than a few minutes but when it finished He sat there trying to understand just what exactly this new information meant.

A theory was forming as he picked up the now reassembled core and slowly slid it back inside. The dragon's eyes at the very end of the core glowed a soft purple before releasing the ring to fall onto the table, the snarl that it held slowly turning docile. His eyes snapped to the side when writing began to glow a deep gold as if being written by an unseen hand.

"Blood in... blood out... The willing, become free..."

The words burned out, leaving his mind turning. He set the entire device down carefully on the center of the table becoming lost in a sea of theories. He remained that way for a long time. His eyes losing focus on the world around him. His body still as stone. It wasn't until a soft groan disturbed the stillness of the room did he blink and raise his head.

"Miss Granger?" His own voice felt too loud for his ears and he actually winced before coming to his feet.

With silent grace, he covered the distance between, coming to stand at the edge of the bed. Her face had turned towards him now, relaxed and seemingly at peace. However, as he looked closer he could make out a small puddle of tears that had begun to silently collect under her cheek. They glistened unnaturally in the light. It took him only a moment to discern why and when he did, his heart lowered to his feet.

She had rejected the memories. Her soul too broken to accept the happiness they held within. He of all knew how bitter happiness could taste. How the sight of a warm summer smile could hurt so much. How the sound of laughter could make a heart ache.

His own face expressed the sorrow she was unable to. Curious, he pulled the memory from the sheets and pressed it into his own mind.

A soft summer breeze glided over his cold heart and he heard her mother's words of adoration and love. Words he had never heard himself. A kindness he had never felt. A bond between mother and child that was supposed to be unbreakable, infallible.

His eyes were glossy when they reopened and he carefully pulled the memory free. He conjured a small blue vial before placing the memory safely inside. Setting it down inside his bedside drawer, he took a moment to collect himself. Remind himself of who he was, what he had become.

Severus turned back towards the table. His eyes narrowed with purpose. If he couldn't give her happiness he could at least give her the strength to fight the demons who had stolen it from her. A power he himself had fought for in his youth. A mistake by some, to him a necessary evil for survival. He wasn't just going to make sure she survived this war, he was going to make sure—she—was the victor.

oOo

"Have you heard anything more from Harry?" Neville kept his voice low as he took a small bite of potatoes. Since their last incident, the both of them had decided that they should try and avoid using the RoR unless it was absolutely necessary as they couldn't risk the 'other side' finding out about it.

"Not since I told him we couldn't get the sword..." Ginny picked at her chicken, her heart too heavy to eat. She glanced up towards the head table, "Something's happened though..." She nodded her head just so in McGonagall's direction. She looked unbelievably exhausted, something that immediately stood out from the normally stem-faced woman.

"Yeah, I noticed too..." Neville set down his fork, everything tasted like dirt nowadays.

"Should we ask about it?"

"I think she'd tell us if we needed to know..."

"Yeah, I guess..." Ginny sighed and turned her head towards the Ravenclaw table, "How's Luna?"

"She's alright... we meet in the library now. She's able to get a few hours of sleep before I have to head to detention." Neville couldn't help the small smile that ticked at the corner of his lips.

"She seeing any more angels?

"No..."

Ginny nodded and turned her eyes down towards her plate, "I've got potions next. Slughorn might not be as acidic as Snape but he still has high standards."

"I'm just glad I don't have to take potions anymore."

Ginny chuckled dryly pushing herself up from the table, "See you in detention?"

"Wouldn't miss it." Neville gave her a soft smile before turning back to try and eat just a bit more.

oOo

Hermione woke to the feeling of a warm cloth gently running down her cheeks. Her brows twitched as her brain struggled to take control of her limbs but her heart told her that she was safe. When the coth pulled back she let out a soft noise before forcing her dry eyes open. The room took a few seconds to come into color but when it did she found herself looking up into a very familiar face.

"Hey..."

Severus arched his brow to her soft greeting before setting down the towel, "How do you feel?"

"Weak..." Hermione took a slow breath dragging her hands up towards her head. She rubbed carefully at one of her eyes before tucking her fingers under her cheek.

"You've been out for a while, I suspect food would make you feel better."

"Mm... What's on the menu?"

"Chicken. Can you sit up?"