Just one more chapter to go after this one! I'm so glad I got round to finishing this story in the end, it's been weighing on my mind for years! Thank you all so much for your follows, favourites and reviews, they keep me going!

Severus awoke at dawn, feeling better rested than he had done in a very long time. Hermione's head was still resting on his chest, her beautiful curls fanned out. One of her arms was slung over his waist and one of her legs had curled around one of his. Severus couldn't help but smile - this was a situation he would be happy to find himself in again.

He reluctantly started to move away, gently lifting her arm and leg from him. As he laid her head back onto the pillow, she started muttering something and he recognised his name - "Severus", she had said. He couldn't help but bend down to her again to brush his lips against her forehead.

But as he was pulling on his shoes she continued - "Severus, it will be alright, everything will be OK." Her voice was a low, comforting murmur, but the words tugged at a part of his memory. When had he heard those words before? He was certain she hadn't said them to him since she had returned to Hogwarts. Then why had his heart rate sped up, why did those words send a shock of recognition through him?

Severus stood there a moment, gazing at her and trying to rack his memory. But before long he became aware of the sun starting to shine through the windows - he had to leave before Madame Pomfrey came to check on Hermione.

After giving her one last glance, trying to commit her expression of peaceful rest to memory, he strode out of the hospital wing and back down to the dungeons. He knew what he would spend the morning doing, what he would devote every spare minute to until he had found an answer - he had his distraction now. He would find the cure for the after-effects of the Cruciatus, and he would do it soon.

...

"Severus, it will be alright, everything will be OK..." Severus woke up gasping, drenched in sweat. His nightmare had been so realistic. It had started as they often did, with him entering the shrieking shack to see the Dark Lord during the final battle. Their conversation had been burned into his memory word for word, and each time he heard the words again in his mind, his insides drew together in nausea and fear at the remembered realisation that he was about to die. And then the snake, that vile fucking snake, came from out of nowhere and darted at his throat. It would seem to move in slow-motion, Severus standing stock still in horror, its gaping mouth showing off glistening fangs, its eyes cruel, calculating slits echoing those of its master...

and then everything would go black.

But this time it had ended differently. The blackness had faded again and instead an unfocused image had hovered above him, of pale, blood-stained skin and curly hair and a low, soothing voice. He could feel pain, such agonising, debilitating pain, but he could also feel a soft hand stroking his hair, running over his forehead, wiping away his sweat and his tears. "Severus, it will be alright, everything will be OK," the vision murmured and he could feel something pressed against the hole in his neck and potions running down his throat.

The image began to focus and Severus had immediately recognised Hermione hovering above him, her expression simultaneously distraught and determined, and still her melodious voice flowed over him, around him, murmuring assurances, comforting him and giving him something to hold on to.

And then he had woken up. And he knew - that had been no mere dream, but a resurfacing memory, drawn out from the depths of his mind by the words Hermione had muttered in her own sleep back in the hospital wing a month ago.

…...

Hermione walked back to Gryffindor tower from the library. It was late at night, way past curfew, and she was hoping that she wouldn't be caught by Filch. She had immersed herself in research over the past month, spending most of her free time bent over books and manuscripts in the library. Since her night in the hospital wing, the after-effects of the cruciatus curse had made themselves known again on two separate occasions, but they had been mild and passed quickly. She hadn't told Severus, he already knew about the problem and after all, what would he have been able to do?

She was worried about him. Ever since they had shared a bed and she had woken up alone, Severus had seemed withdrawn and distracted. He still responded to her letters, but they were shorter than they had been at first and didn't reveal much of his thoughts or his state of mind. While they still shared glances when they saw each other around the castle, occasionally he would pass her by without sparing her a look, seemingly unaware that she was even there.

Despite their mutual admission of admiration and desire for a relationship, and their agreement to keep a distance, Hermione was worried that he had changed his mind. After all, they had only kissed a couple of times and had spoken to each other at length only once. Who could blame him if he didn't feel ready to wait for her for so many months on such a fragile foundation? The thought was agony to Hermione. Her feelings were unchanged, if not stronger. Through all her classes and her research, thoughts of him were always at the back of her mind.

But before she could dwell on her fear and doubt for too long, Hermione found herself grabbed by the arm and pulled into an empty classroom. Before she could react she found herself pressed up against the back of the door with Severus looming over her.

"It was you" he said, fervently, before Hermione could say anything. "You were the one who saved me. You gave me life, even before you knew I had been Dumbledore's all along, and now you have given me a reason for living it." And with that he pressed his lips against hers and cradled her head between his hands as if she were something infinitely precious.

Hermione was shocked but responded immediately, relishing the contact she had been so missing. He continued caressing his lips with hers but didn't deepen the kiss, keeping it relatively chaste. His thumbs stroked the side of her face and one hand moved to run his fingers through her long curls.

Hermione wanted more and sucked his lower lip into her mouth. Severus groaned into her and responded passionately for a moment, before pulling away and resting his forehead against hers, his hands still softly caressing her.

"Why didn't you tell me, Hermione?" he eventually asked.

"I didn't know how to, it's not the kind of thing you just drop into conversation, is it? And I didn't want you to feel like you were indebted to me. You have done so much for me, so much for the wizarding world, and you deserve to live unfettered by debt or duty."

"Being fettered to you would hardly be a hardship," he said, granting Hermione one of his rare, glorious smiles. She felt her heart warm in response. "Thank you for saving me, Hermione. When I first awoke, thanks for being alive was the last thing on my mind. But you saved me then, and you saved me again when you came to Hogwarts and pulled me out of my numbness, out of my dreary existence. Without you then I'd be dead, and without you now I'd be nothing."

Hermione couldn't stop her eyes from welling up at his words, and it was all she could do not to start crying. "I saved myself. I didn't know it then, but without you alive Severus, I'd be nothing as well."

Severus gently kissed her again in response. They had never felt so close, so in tune with each other, as they did then.

"You've been so withdrawn lately," Hermione said when they had pulled apart again. "I was so worried that you'd changed your mind."

"Never" Severus swore. "What I feel for you cannot be changed. But I have been distracted. I'm working on something, but I'm afraid I can't tell you what it is, not yet. But I promise you, I will tell you about it as soon as I can." He didn't want to get her hopes up about his cruciatus project before he was done, even though he was determined not to fail. He wanted to surprise her with the finished product. It was thoughts of her which kept him working deep into the night and through all the barriers and dead ends his research came up against.

"OK," Hermione said simply, and leaned up to kiss Severus softly on the lips, loving that she felt at liberty to do so. He responded eagerly, but still wouldn't let the kiss escalate as it had done in the past. She still couldn't quite believe that he was hers and that he wasn't going anywhere. Little did she know that he was thinking the exact same thing as his tongue gently nudged against hers.

Eventually they parted, each satisfied by the reaffirmation of the other's feelings.

By the time Hermione reached her bedroom she had reached a decision. They would not be waiting until July to be together, she would make sure of it.