A/N: Many thanks to RenitaLeandra and Keladry Lupin for all their hard work. I am sorry this was late- I know I told several people I would have this out sooner, but life got away from me.

Chapter 18

"Hermione!" she heard a hoarse voice say and she strained to open her eyes. "Hermione, wake up!"

She moaned and opened her eyes.

"Severus?" she whispered. The man kneeling over her gave a weak smile. His face was bruised and bloody, but he was alive and in one piece. She threw her arms around him. "I thought you were dead!"

"Luckily, no. You are lucky as well. Foolish woman, throwing yourself in front of the Dark Lord. Gryffindor courage indeed!" She supposed he meant to sound sarcastic, but the words sounded sincere.

The last moments before she lost consciousness flooded back to her, and she struggled to remove herself from his arms.

"Where's Harry?" she asked frantically.

"I'm here, Hermione," Harry said in a tired voice from across the room. Hermione looked up and saw him standing, wand in hand, over a cowering Wormtail.

"What happened?" she asked trying to rise to her feet. She felt a wave of dizziness pass over her, though, and she was forced to sit back on the floor.

"Believe it or not, Wormtail here finally repaid his life debt to me," Harry said pointing at the other man. "He killed Voldemort. Who would have guessed that the only one in this room the cast the Killing Curse would be Peter Pettigrew?"

Hermione looked at him in shock and then her eyes traveled over to what looked like a heap of robes lying in the middle of the room. She could see now that there was a body in those robes. It was amazing that this dark wizard, most feared of their time, looked so human once he was robbed of his life. His face no longer held the terrifying menace and anger that it did in life.

"It's over?" she asked looking up at Severus.

"Not quite," he said. "Some of the Death Eaters are determined to fight to the death. I suppose for some of them it is preferable to life in Azkaban."

He reached down with a hand and pulled Hermione up. She still felt dazed, but was able to keep her balance this time, with the help of Severus's arm wound tight around her. He gave her an appraising look.

"You're going to need to get to St. Mungo's," he said. "You've lost quite a bit of blood. That gash on your stomach will need looking after. Apparently Healing charms are the one thing you can't do."

Hermione couldn't help but smile and nodded in agreement. She looked back towards Harry and Wormtail. Harry was staring at Wormtail with a look of confused frustration and Hermione could understand his conflicting emotions. This man was responsible both for Voldemort's return and his demise.

"What's going to happen to him?" she asked Harry.

"I don't know," he said. "We'll be turning him over to the Ministry for them to deal with. I don't envy the Wizengamot's job on this one."

"Please…" Wormtail whimpered. "I don't want the Kiss. You will defend me, won't you? You will tell them that I switched sides?"

Harry gave a snort of disgust. "You only killed him because you knew that all the Horcruxes were destroyed and he was mortal. You don't deserve any leniency."

Wormtail whimpered. "Please, Harry… Your father wouldn't want…"

"Don't speak to me of my father!" Harry shouted, making Hermione jump. "I don't know what my father would want, thanks to you! Besides, we don't know what they will do since the Dementors were on Voldemort's side. But the Kiss is no less than you deserve, you pathetic piece of filth!"

Hermione cringed at Harry's words but did not stop him. At least his rage was finally directed at someone who was actually guilty of the crimes they were accused of. She turned to leave the room with Severus's help; Harry followed, pulling a bound Wormtail along with him. As they stepped into the hall, which was much quieter now, Severus handed her back her wand.

"You will need this," he said. "There are still plenty of Death Eaters around here."

They walked outside into the dreary light of the overcast day. It had finally stopped raining, but it was still cold and windy. She could see many Order members, and even some Ministry Aurors, engaged in battles with the remaining Death Eaters. Other Ministry officials had some Death Eaters in custody and there were Healers from St. Mungo's attending to some of the wounded. As they began to walk across the field, she saw a flash of movement from out of the corner of her eye. She spun around just as Bellatrix Lestrange reached her, a dagger in her hand and a look of enraged insanity in her eyes. Hermione felt a sharp pain as the blade sliced into her flesh, and she fell to the ground. Bellatrix fell on top of her and reached up to stab her again.

"Avada Kedavra!" Severus shouted, and Bellatrix collapsed on top of Hermione.

"Hermione!" he said reaching down, pulling Bellatrix off of her and removing the dagger that was still clutched in the dead woman's hand, just inches from Hermione's throat. He raised his wand and moved it along the wound in her side. It continued to bleed, although a bit less freely than it had been.

"We need to get a Healer," he said to Harry who had run over to them. Harry nodded and shouted for the nearest Healer, a slight young man who looked very pale and tired. Both he and Remus, who had seen the entire thing, came hurrying over. Hermione tried speaking, but somehow her mouth would no longer form words. It felt like both her mind and body were sluggish and wouldn't quite do what she wanted them to.

The Healer pulled out his wand, murmuring spells that Hermione did not know, yet she still felt darkness closing in around her. In a panic, she grabbed a hold of Severus's hand and he held onto it tightly.

"We need to get her to St. Mungo's," the Healer said. It sounded very far away as if she was in a tunnel, and then she did not hear or feel anything more.

Severus sat in an uncomfortable armchair, staring down at the seemingly lifeless body of Hermione. She was not dead; he had to keep reminding himself in order to believe it was true. She had lost a lot of blood, not only from the knife wound, but also the wound to her abdomen that she had ignored for far too long during the course of the battle. They had given her a Blood-ReplenishingPotion and had been able to heal her wounds. She was now resting as comfortably as possible.

The ward was full of various Order members who had been injured during the battle. In the bed next to Hermione was Neville, who had ended up on the wrong end of a nasty hex from Goyle. Fred and George were both a few beds down, although they seemed to be recovering nicely and would probably be leaving soon to make room for more people. Harry was on the other side of Hermione, but rather than resting, he was deep into conversation with Ginny. Severus guessed that they were about one heartfelt confession away from snogging. He tried not to gag at the thought.

There were also some people who had been taken back to Hogwarts. Draco had been taken there after he was checked out at St. Mungo's. There had been a nasty curse on the bite he had sustained from the snake, but once that was dealt with, the Healers said all he needed was rest. Tonks was also there; she had come out in pretty good shape, but had collapsed from exhaustion just as soon as the last Death Eater was captured.

His mind drifted, though, to the people that were not lucky enough to be at St. Mungo's nor Hogwarts. Sturgis Podmore, who had died trying to guard the door they had gone in; Ernie Macmillan had bravely tried to fight Bellatrix Lestrange early in the battle, but had been no match for the witch. Both Lee Jordan and Seamus Finnegan had gotten caught in the crossfire during the most intense of the fighting.

Severus then looked down at the woman lying in the bed. She looked so pale and frail. He was amazed when he thought of everything she had accomplished since their first Occlumency lesson together. She had fought the most feared wizards and witches of their time, spent more than a week as their captive and, in the end, was willing to give her life in order for Potter to survive. He wasn't sure he had ever seen such an amazing and foolish display of bravery in his life.

Yet, as he looked down at her, trying to contain so many intense emotions, he knew that any relationship right now would be next to impossible. There were Aurors standing outside the hospital doors, waiting to take him to Azkaban. Harry and Remus had both argued with them, trying to explain that things weren't as they seemed and that he had been helping the Order. But the Ministry of Magic was a bureaucracy and all they knew was that he was to stand trial for the murder of Albus Dumbledore. Their only concession was that he could continue to remain at St. Mungo's, under guard of course, until Hermione woke and he could explain things to her. Regardless of his situation, though, he reminded himself of how young Hermione was. She should not be wasting her life away for a man that had as haunted a past as him.

Hermione stirred and he picked up her hand, rubbing his thumb against it. She gave a small moan of pain as her eyes opened.

"You mean I'm still not dead?" she groaned. Even with all the heavy thoughts going through his mind, Severus could not help but smile.

"It seems that you have more lives than a cat," he said. "I think that Potter made a good tactical decision when he picked you for a friend. Before long they'll be calling you The-Girl-Who-Lived."

Hermione gave a weak laugh at this. Harry heard her and he and Ginny moved over to the side of her bed. She turned to look at them, smiling at Ginny, but when her eyes met Harry's she had a confused look on her face.

"I don't understand," she said. "The Prophecy said that one would have to die at the hand of the other. How is it that Wormtail killed him?"

"Well," Harry said sitting down on the edge of her bed, "I asked Snape and Remus the same thing."

"What you have to keep in mind," Severus said, "is that Wormtail only killed one seventh of the Dark Lord's soul. Most of his soul had already been destroyed by then. Harry was responsible for the destruction of four of the Horcruxes. So, in fact, most of the Dark Lord was destroyed at Harry's hand; just not the part that was inside his body. That is the problem with prophecies. They are notoriously hard to predict."

Hermione thought about this. It had never occurred to her that someone other than Harry would be the one to deliver the final blow. She supposed in the end, it didn't matter how it happened as long as it was done.

"Where is everyone?" she asked. "Who… who didn't make it?"

"Well, some of the Order are here," Harry began, shifting uncomfortably. "Some of them are at Hogwarts. We were pretty lucky, all things considered. But we lost Sturgis, Lee, Ernie and Seamus."

Although Harry tried to sound matter of fact about it, he failed miserably and Hermione could feel tears well in her eyes. These were people she considered friends. Two of them had been in her year, and she had attended class with them every day.

"What about Draco?" she asked, afraid of the answer.

"He will be fine," Severus said. "He is resting at Hogwarts."

He didn't mention the Aurors that he knew were also there, waiting to take Draco once he regained strength. She relaxed a little at this news and closed her eyes for a moment. Harry moved back to his bed, also lying down.Severus sat in silence, watching Hermione and wondering how he was going to explain things to her. Before he had a chance, though, a Healer came over to check on her. He moved away from the bed as the Healer pulled the curtain around to give her some privacy. From where he now stood, he could see the Aurors just outside the door.

"You need to tell her," Harry said quietly. "They're not going to wait out there much longer."

Severus did not look at him; he did not want to see pity in the eyes of his greatest enemy's son.

"Tell me what?" Hermione's voice called from the other side of the curtain.

"Quiet, Miss Granger," Severus heard the Healer say. "You need to lie still while I am examining you. You sure have been through a mess."

Severus heard Hermione huff impatiently and then the sound of rustling sheets. He did not respond to her inquiry, knowing that lying still was the last thing she would be doing once he told her all he had to say. Finally, after what seemed an eternity, the Healer came around to the other side of the curtain.

"She will make a decent recovery," she said to both Harry and Severus. "She has been through a lot, though, and I don't expect that leg of hers will ever heal completely. I don't know what curse they used on her there, but I've never seen anything like it. She should have come here straight away when it happened."

She paused for a moment as if expecting some sort of explanation as to why Hermione had never sought professional treatment. When none was forthcoming, she continued.

"Aside from that, though, she should have no lasting damage beyond a few scars. She is still in a very fragile state, however, and I suggest you don't upset her too much." She gave Severus a pointed look and he tried to refrain from rolling his eyes. Did the whole wizarding world know his business?

"I will keep your opinions in mind," he said to her in a tone that implied he would do no such thing. She just glared at him and walked away to check on the twins, who looked like they were already conspiring on a way to wreak havoc on the rest of the ward.

Severus glanced toward Harry, who looked at him and then turned to Ginny. "Why don't we go down and see what the twins are up to?" he asked her. They both left as quickly as their injured bodies could carry them. Severus just sighed and moved around the curtain to where Hermione was now sitting up, a pillow propped against her back.

"What is going on?" she asked warily. "Why do you need to talk to me?"

"Potter needs to mind his own business," Severus said,feeling frustrated with the situation. Hermione just rolled her eyes.

"Honestly, can't we put all that behind us?"

"No. We can't," Severus said shortly. "I suppose that is the point. Just because the Dark Lord is dead does not mean that the world is all sunshine and roses now."

"What do you mean?" Hermione asked. She had thought that everything would work out now.

"I mean, that even though you and your little band of friends think that I'm innocent, the Ministry of Magic does not share your opinion. I am being charged with Albus's murder, which is rather unfortunate, considering I am guilty of it."

"What?" Hermione said trying to rise from the bed. Severus reached out and placed a firm hand on her shoulder. "Have they lost their minds? Didn't Harry tell them?"

"Yes, the little hero told them everything," he said as sarcastically as he could manage. "Unfortunately until it goes before the Wizengamot, it doesn't matter what he says. In fact, I'm sure that Albus could come back from the dead and proclaim my innocence, and they would still insist on holding a trial."

"This is insanity, Severus. I'm sure that we will be able to sort everything out."

"We are not going to be doing anything Hermione," Severus snarled and he saw her pale visibly from his words. Bloody hell. This was going to be harder than he thought. Why did she have to look at him with those big, tear-filled eyes?

"Why are you talking to me that way? Don't you want my help?" She tried to reach out to him with her hand but he backed away suddenly.

"Hermione," he said trying to control his voice and his emotions, "you are very young, hardly more than a child…"

"You certainly didn't seem to think I was a child last night," Hermione shot back at him. She should have known he would try to push her away.

"Damn it, Hermione!" Severus said, frustrated. "I'm trying to make this easy on you. You don't understand. Even if I were a free man, this still wouldn't be right. You are so young and your emotions, rather than your thoughts, control your actions. Hermione, you haven't even had a chance to mourn the loss of your friends yet. You haven't had a chance to deal with your captivity. Not to mention, we barely know each other; not really. It would never work right now."

Hermione felt tears rising to her eyes. She had thought that once the attack was over that they would be free to continue their relationship.

"Hermione," he said quietly as he sat on her bed, the malice now gone from his voice, "what about Mr. Weasley? Have you even had a chance to mourn him?"

Ron, Hermione thought, images of their time together flooding her mind as she felt an overwhelming sense of guilt. How could she have forgotten him like that? It seemed that Severus knew her thoughts and he stroked her hair.

"Do not blame yourself," he said as she looked up at him. "You found yourself overwhelmed by the situation, and it is natural to turn to someone for comfort at such times."

Hermione felt the dampness of tears on her cheeks, but even as she did, she could recognize the truth in his words. She didn't really know him. She had been attracted to him for the protection that he had provided, not because of who he was. She wiped the tears off her face and looked up at him.

"I will still help get you out," she said.

"I'm glad I can provide you with a new cause to fight for," he said with a smirk, and he leaned forward and pressed a kiss to her forehead. "Perhaps you can start reading up on wizarding law? I believe Hogwarts had an extensive section. Too bad it's probably destroyed now."

They shared a smile and she leaned against him, resting her forehead against his chest. They stayed that way for several minutes as Hermione thought about everything he had told her.

"What about Draco?" she asked suddenly looking back up at him. She saw his expression drop to a frown and she knew what he would say even before he opened his mouth.

"He is also going on trial for being a Death Eater. There are Aurors at Hogwarts waiting to take him into custody."

This launched Hermione into a new string of profanity that Severus could not help but admire, both for its creativity and accuracy. Finally she calmed down, but her eyes still blazed with fury.

"Someday, this will all be over with," Severus said when she had run out of insults for the Ministry officials, "and perhaps then we can reconsider things. I am very fond of you."

Hermione nodded and he rose to his feet. She felt her throat close up, and she was afraid she would not be able to speak. He leaned over her and pressed a kiss to her cheek.

"Good-bye, Hermione," he said.

"Good-bye, Severus," she whispered, and she watched him walk around the curtain to the Aurors she knew were waiting for him. She laid back on her bed, and after a minute Harry came around. Hermione could tell from the look on his face that Severus had been taken away.

"You all right?" he asked.

"No," she said honestly. "But I will be someday; and that is good enough for now."

A/N: Ok, ok, don't kill me now. That WAS going to be the end... however... the idea was I was going to write a sequel and that sequel never happened. Therefore, instead, there is a three part epilogue (which is already written). So, no this is not the end. There are three more chapters to go. :-)