CHAPTER 43

Dumbledore stared down at Harry.

"I have come too late," he whispered. The Headmaster's long beard was singed and he was holding his right arm stiffly. He looked old, tired and not at all triumphant about Voldemort's death. The blue eyes glanced at Voldemort's corpse for a moment and back at Harry.

Severus did not want to let go of Harry. He pressed a kiss to Harry's yet warm forehead. He felt another jolt rush through his body, similar to the one which had brought him to his knees. The disbelief about what had happened was deep, all right.

"He is still warm, he is still warm…" he murmured, his voice and eyes dull with shock. He didn't notice Aurors rounding up the remaining Death Eaters, or people attending to the injured and wounded. Some people had fallen in battle, and not all of them were Death Eaters. Dumbledore knelt down next to Severus and stretched out his hand to touch Harry's cheek.

"DON'T TOUCH HIM!" Severus bellowed. "LOOK AT HIM! LOOK WHAT YOU HAVE DONE TO HIM!"

"Severus, he was the only who could kill Voldemort…"

"At what a price, Albus. At what a price! Look at him!" Severus's face was contorted with sorrow, and the tears ran freely down his thin face. He remembered what he had promised Harry. It was impossible to keep that promise. How could he ever find happiness again?

"I am carrying him home," Severus said softly, ignoring Dumbledore's mild rejoinder. He grimaced as he stood up slowly, lifting Harry up in his arms. He glared daggers at a Mediwitch who approached him.

"Go away! Leave me alone!" he snapped at her.

"Severus, you are injured-" Dumbledore started, but he was interrupted by Severus's glacial tone.

"No one will take my husband from me or touch me until I have taken him home to Hogwarts, Albus."

Dumbledore nodded slowly and handed him a Portkey.

"You do not have enough strength to Apparate; at least use this, however much you may blame me for what happened."

Severus took the Portkey, and he was on the Hogwarts grounds within seconds. People were hurrying up and down over the lawns; traces of a fierce battle were in evidence at Hogwarts as well. No one paid attention to him; everyone was too busy and distressed. Severus walked up to the castle, his tall thin figure bowed with grief and the weight of the body he was carrying. He had stopped weeping. His face was rigid as stone. He sank down on his knees as his back protested vehemently; he bent over Harry in pain, and his cheek brushed Harry's as he did so. He did not pull away; instead he remained in that position for a few seconds, closing his eyes as he felt Harry's firm cheek against his own. The tiniest breeze seemed to flutter against his ear. Severus's eyes snapped open, and he stared at Harry's face. Had it only been a breeze? Or wishful thinking? A figment of his desperate imagination? He pulled out the mirror and held it against Harry's nose and mouth. A faint mist covered the glass. Severus stared. With trembling hands, he snatched up Harry's wrist and searched for the pulse. Was that a heartbeat? He wasn't sure. It seemed so faint…Maybe it was his mind after all, stunned with grief and playing tricks on him…But the mirror…? He recalled the two jolts which he had ascribed to shock. What if they were connected with Harry? Things began to click in Severus's tired brain. The first jolt…Harry's heart standing still. And the second one…Harry's heart beating again. About two minutes between the shocks. The human brain could be damaged after three minutes without oxygen, perhaps even earlier…Severus staggered to his feet; his knee and side were burning like fire. Just then, his name was called, and he saw Hagrid running towards him.

"Hagrid, take him…take him…as fast as possible…hospital wing…" Severus gasped. Hagrid immediately took Harry from him. His eyes were full of questions, but he knew that there was no time to utter them.

"Professor Snape!" Ron and Hermione came running towards him. Hermione's cheek was scratched and bleeding, and the seam of her robes was ripped; otherwise she seemed undamaged. Ron's hair was singed, and there was a scorch mark on the arm of his robes. Severus swayed; Hermione and Ron immediately supported him on either side and followed Hagrid to the hospital wing. Most of the beds were already full, and nearly everyone was nursing injuries. There were deaths, too. Four Aurors had been killed – including Alastor Moody. Others had been Portkeyed directly to St. Mungo's.

In the hospital wing, Severus was received by a grim-faced Poppy Pomfrey. She was bending over Harry. Severus opened his mouth, but the witch was faster.

"He is alive, Severus – just barely. His condition is critical. We might have to send him to St. Mungo's-"

"Please do all you can to save him," Severus said, clutching at a table. Ron and Hermione had darted towards Harry's bed with exclamations, but they were warded off by a wizard; additional Medi-wizarding staff had just come inside the room; Madam Pomfrey could not possibly handle so many patients on her own. Ron and Hermione were led away to have their own injuries attended to. Remus Lupin and Tonks were sitting close together on one bed; Tonks was sobbing into her hands. Her parents had been killed by Death Eaters. Remus was holding her against his chest, on the verge of tears himself. Severus had been forced to lie down on a bed while he protested and twisted his body in order to see Harry.

"Stop being so uncooperative!" Pomfrey ordered, "or your back is going to be mightily unhappy."

"I don't care about my back – Harry-"

A potion was thrust into his hand.

"Drink that. I don't need to tell you what it is, obviously, since you brewed it yourself."

He obeyed with a glare, and the pain was numbed within a minute.

Dumbledore swept into the ward.

"Where are Severus and Harry?" he asked.

Pomfrey hurried towards him and led him to the two beds, repeating that Harry was only just alive.

"Poppy, please put the beds together," Dumbledore said when he saw Severus staring at Harry's bed.

Madam Pomfrey obeyed without delay. Severus stretched out his hand and touched his husband's fingers.

Dumbledore's eyes glistened with tears at the sight of the unspoken love Severus felt for Harry. He himself had always been hopeful that the two would be able to overcome their resentment, but the love which had blossomed between them had been a beautiful surprise even for him. Something stirred in his pocket; Dumbledore took out a wrinkled baby Fawkes with great tenderness, cradling him in his hand before carefully setting him down on a table. The faithful bird had saved his life yet again by swallowing a Killing Curse aimed at him.

"I need to check him again, his heartbeat has to be monitored," Pomfrey rapped out. Severus shut his eyes, completely worn out.

"His heart stood still for about a hundred seconds," Madam Pomfrey announced to Dumbledore, standing protectively in front of Harry.

"Less than two minutes without oxygen," Severus stated, shaking off his tiredness and opening his eyes again. He sat up and twisted his hands.

"Any amount of time without oxygen is critical, but it is near three minutes that the first damages to the brain occur. Harry should be fine…as fine as he can be in his present condition. I have found something singular, however." She stepped aside and gestured at Harry's exposed chest – she had undone his robes to check his heart. Severus uttered a soft exclamation, and Dumbledore blinked. The rebounding curse had left another scar on Harry's chest; but this one was in the shape of a bird of prey – a falcon.

Severus looked up at Dumbledore.

"It's Harry's Patronus," he breathed.

"The symbol of protection. The symbol of his love for his husband and Protector – for you, Severus."

"The blood bond…"

"Yes," Dumbledore said. "It prevented him from fully relinquishing his life. He is currently in a coma, wandering between life and death."

Dumbledore slowly sat down on a chair.

"You see, Severus, it had to end the way it started. Lily sacrificed herself to protect Harry – and the curse rebounded…"

"…and Harry sacrificed himself to save me…"

"Yes. That was the power which destroyed Voldemort for once and for all, Severus. Harry's love for you. But there is something else. Voldemort included Harry's blood in the potion which resurrected him in Harry's fourth year. He carried a part of Harry within himself, a drop of innocence and love. Aiming the curse at Harry was aiming it at himself. Voldemort has always considered forms of magic attached to love and emotions as inferior and negligible. Harry's blood and the blood-bond between you and Harry, Severus, were too much for him."

"And what if it was too much for my husband as well?" Severus asked coldly.

"Severus, only you can bring him back."

"Bring him back? From where?"

"You will need Legilimency, determination, your love for Harry and an hour's time."

"What-?"

"Severus, listen to me. This is no ordinary coma. Harry is dying slowly. You need to establish a mind bond with him and try to bring him back with you."

"Are you telling me that he is in some kind of…wizarding underworld?" Severus said with a sneer.

"So to say, Severus. Your blood bond contract is still valid because Harry is yet alive, and it is because of your bond-" he gestured at the falcon-scar on Harry's chest, "that his heart started to beat again. But the Killing Curse is still trying to make Harry succumb to it. Severus, my dear boy, I know how tired you are-"

"-and I will do everything I can to bring Harry back. I want to…" his voice broke for a moment, then he regained his control. "If I fail, then he will be free, even if I am to live without him. Now he is imprisoned. If I can't take him back with me, then he shall go on to his next life."

"Yes, he will go on, Severus, and maybe you will meet again in the next life…"

"But I want him with me in this life," Severus growled.

"You have an hour, Severus, before the curse saps his life force completely. You know the ritual."

"I need the two vials containing our bonding blood – I cannot establish eye contact with Harry…" Severus said.

"Dobby!" Dumbledore called. The house elf appeared, his arm in a sling – the house elves, too, had joined the battle against foul creatures which had issued forth from the Forbidden Forest.

"Please fetch the two bonding vials in Professor Snape's quarters as fast as you can."

The elf was back within thirty seconds; Severus took Harry's wand which had been placed on the bedside table and lay down next to his husband, gazing upon the beloved face for a few seconds. He draped his arm around Harry's waist, his face close to the young wizard's.

"I am ready to begin," he announced. He muttered a charm to unseal the bottles, tapping them with his wand, and pulled out their stoppers. Dumbledore wordlessly held out a small porcelain bowl; Severus poured a few drops out of both bottles and resealed them; Dumbledore received them back, holding them reverently. Severus dipped the tips of his and Harry's wands into the scarlet-gold mixture and placed the wands above their heads, tip to tip, with only a small distance separating them. Dumbledore extended his own wand, and, chanting musically, cast an ancient binding spell on the wands. The wands began to hum; their tips glowed, and a fiery red thread connected their tips. Dumbledore withdrew; Severus closed his eyes and pushed his fatigue aside, concentrating on the power of the Legilimency spell. The hum and glow from the wands became faint as he sought a way to access the depths of Harry's mind.

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