A.N. I'll be amazed if anyone who started out with me is still holding a torch for this story, but if you are this one's for you.

Disclaimer: I do not own Harry Potter.

Eternally Yours

Chapter 22

A Flip of the Coin

It was a quarter after noon and Hermione was emotionally exhausted. She'd finally made it to her quiet room and warm bed, but her restless mind and the thought of Severus in danger kept sleep at bay. Finally, after tossing and turning in her bedclothes for what seemed like hours but really amounted to mere minutes, she got out of bed and blinked any traces of sleep from her eyes.

She strode to the window and looked out over the grounds. The sky was overcast and ominous; the face of the lake was like glass, milky with the reflected sky. A flock of ravens winged silently across the grounds, through the still air. The whole scene before her gave Hermione a distinct feeling of unease.

Hermione shivered and moved back away from the casement. Her eyes scanned the room as she moved back toward the bed; they fell on her book bag and triggered something inside her.

She lifted the bag off the end of her bed and pulled the drawstring open. Severus' bathrobe was the first thing to hit the mattress, and she gathered it up at once. She breathed in Severus' scent and slipped the robe on, almost managing a smile. Having Severus' robe wrapped around her made him seem safe and close. How could he possibly be in danger when she could smell him and almost feel his arms wrapped around her?

Hermione gathered up her other belongings; bottles of ink, parchment, and quills. She shoved them back into the bottom of her bag carelessly and almost didn't notice the small leather-bound book as she lifted it off her bed and made to stuff it in the bag. It was the neat silver lettering on the cover that caught her attention; Amalthia Deviro Snape. It was Severus' mother's journal. Hermione didn't even remember putting it in her bag.

Hermione slumped back onto her bed and opened the book. An odd feeling was making itself apparent in the pit of her stomach. She wasn't sure if it was just worry over Severus or a solemn knowledge that the words she was about to read were written by a dead woman.

Severus apparated back behind The Three Broomsticks. His pulse was hammering in his head. He couldn't believe his luck. Not only had he managed to be conveniently absent when the Dark Lord drank a potion that might bring about his fall from power, Lucius Malfoy would take the fall for him.

And to think that, moments ago, he had been hoping that the potion would fail. Before he'd fallen in love with Hermione his life had seemed a paltry sum to pay for the Dark Lord's demise. Now, after his relationship with Hermione had bloomed seemingly out of nowhere, he put a little more value on his life. If the potion had worked with him in evidence he'd likely end his life on the receiving end of a death curse. He was more than happy to let Lucius Malfoy take his place.

Lucius entered the Dark Lord's chambers soundlessly and closed the door behind him. He was feeling confident after his run-in with Snape, almost cocky: a dangerous state to be in around the Dark Lord.

"My Lord," Lucius bowed elegantly.

"Lucius. What are you doing here?"

"I've brought your potion, my lord," he said, proffering the goblet.

Voldemort took the goblet in one pale white hand. "Where's Severus?"

Lucius bowed his head to hide the smile that played across his lips. "I do not know, my lord. I have brewed your potion myself at his request, but am ill informed of his affairs."

Voldemort held the goblet to the candlelight and turned it in his hand. The light reflected off the amber liquid. "You're proving your worth Lucius. Perhaps soon you will be in a position to delegate your responsibilities to Severus in return."

The Dark Lord gave the potion one last approving inspection. The dark ruby ring on his forefinger glittered in the candlelight as the Dark Lord drank the entire contents of the goblet in one long gulp.

Hermione was enthralled with the diary, almost enough to occasionally forget just how much danger Severus was in. Amalthia was a mere seventeen when she was forced into a marriage she did not want with a man twice her age. The diary was a wedding gift, and within its pages she spoke of a great deal of apprehension surrounding her new husband, who was prone to outbursts of rage.

She wrote of her worries over the outcome of her pregnancy. She was afraid that she would give birth to a daughter and incur her husband's wrath, but not nearly so frightened as she was to bear a son and ensure an heir to the Snape legacy. Not only would this remove her usefulness, it would also give her husband a protégé to groom in his own image.

Amalthia's diary revealed a very frightened young woman with little to find solace in.

Severus Snape burst through the portrait hole into the Gryffindor common room, panting from his run across the grounds. He parted the awestruck students like the red sea.

He hurried up the staircase into the girl's dormitory, dispensing the protection spell with a quick flick of his wand. That particular charm he'd picked up from an older student in his fifth year. He may have been hook-nosed and pizza-faced, but he was in Slytherin where a decent (or preferably not so decent) family name was all you needed to uncross your fair share of legs.

All such things forgotten as he burst through the door into Hermione's dormitory.

Hermione looked at him, startled, and let out a sigh. She sounded both relieved and disappointed.

"The potion didn't work," she said, getting to her feet.

Severus grinned and shook his head. "I have no idea. Lucius took the goblet from me; he wants to take credit. He blackmailed me into it because he thinks I'm sleeping with his wife." He didn't tell her the other thing.

Hermione grinned, wrapping her arms around Severus. "I was so worried," she whispered into his hair. "Is the potion going to work?"

Severus shook his head, a great deluge of possible outcomes were whirring around his brain. "I don't know."

Lucius was panicking. He'd locked himself in the Dark Lord's office. Voldemort himself was gibbering in a corner.

Something had happened with the potion and Lucius was trying to figure out exactly what it was and whether it was a good thing or a bad thing. He could only stay locked in this office for so long before the other death eaters discovered what was going on.

And what was Severus playing at? What was in that goblet? There was too much happening; Lucius need to make a move.

Lucius glanced over at the Dark Lord again, babbling unintelligibly over in the corner, and took his wand off the desk.

Really there were only two choices: either let the death eaters in and tell them the truth or kill the Dark Lord and take over. Either way he still had Severus to deal with, but that would be easy, enjoyable even.

In the end it wasn't much of a choice at all. He held his wand out before him and advanced on his master.

A.N.

Well that's it then. I sort of stopped writing this after Half Blood Prince came out for obvious reasons, but I figured I might as well finish it up before the new book comes out. It's almost finished now anyway.

I just want to thank anyone who's still with me again. I'm a horrible person, but thanks for your patience (or at least lack of outright threats.)