As promised...


Blowing over the tips of her middle and front finger, she lightened the small pile of wood they had collected in the Forest. Pansy and Luna both sighed contentedly as the warmth spread over them – it may have been spring, but the nights were still chilly and Hermione's fires were the best.

As they huddled together by the fire to cook a rabbit that Pansy had hunted down earlier, they were about to mindlessly indulge themselves in the pleasures of eating fresh meat, when a loud crack interrupted their Idyll.

Looking up Hermione extinguished the fire as she saw the black figure falling from the sky.


Snape was haggard.

The Carrows were eating away on his nerves, with their constant tortures of innocent students. Minerva's mistrust that he had knowingly called upon himself grated on him – she had been his confidante, had been the only friend he'd made in the walls of Hogwarts and now she would not even look at him anymore.

Draco's fear made him bear burdens that had never really been his to begin with – true, Narcissa had left the country a few years ago and it had been a wise decision to do so, but Lucius missed his wife and Draco his mother, and neither Malfoy really wanted an open war. Pure-blood idols were one thing, homicide something else entirely.

Potter did not make it easy on him either. Of course the young man had no idea about his true allegiances, gladly or the whole plan would have been for nothing, but it still grew harder for Snape to look into the face of the man he had once hated and see the woman he had once loved and then realize that they had produced a son that he now protected. But this very son apparently had enough of cowering the whole school year.

Ever since Marlene had passed away, things had drastically dwindled out of his grasp. The students had no longer found a pole of peace and strength that Meredius Midas had been for them, and wished for nothing more but revenge – the DA grew at an amazing speed, and while Severus continued to watch them and occasionally correct them under his Disillusionment spell, he also realized that some of them were starting to grow cocky.

Open fights had started between the followers of Voldemort and the DA and Snape could no longer pull the wool over the Carrows, which in turn reported to the Dark Lord themselves.

And that was the reason he was now here. Writhing over the floor in agony, teeth clenched and mouth shut as it hailed Cruciatus curses over him. He cursed Potter.

If only the stupid bint had learned a bit more of discretion, he wouldn't be in this position. Merlin be damned, if Potter would not have started the war earlier than it was to start then Voldemort would never have had an idea about the DA to begin with! Why would the idiot give away his biggest asset?

"Stop." The Snake hissed and upon his command, the onslaught of Curses stopped immediately – he twitched with the after-effects of the gauntlet-run and from the ground looked up at the pale, snake-like man, Merlin he'd love to simply decapitate him right here and now, but everything needed its time and place.

"You have disappointed me, Severus." Tom said placating as he neared him and Severus struggled to maneuver his body into a natural position and then to avert his eyes in shame.

"I am truly inconsolable, Master." Riddle hummed and nodded then.

"Very well, we will strike soon anyway. They will not have the force to strike back then. Go!" Severus needed not to be told twice – though he had no idea why ever he apparated to a Forest.


"Professor?"

Hermione listened as the black-clad man in front of her groaned before another shock-wave hit him and she watched him twitch helplessly. Luna reacted before she could.

With a gleaming hand she bent down to touch the twitching man, easing his convulsing muscles back into normalcy and successfully stopping the after effects. Hermione reacted on instinct as she drew a flask of muscle-relaxant from her beaded bag and bent over the man.

"It's a muscle relaxant, sir, open your mouth and drink it, please." She was surprised at how easily the older man complied. Pansy stood some steps away from the three of them and Hermione looked at her.

"Pansy, I think it would be prudent to set up camp somewhere else in case he's been followed or in case he's come here to get us captured. Grab it and inform us as soon as you've set it up again." Pansy was gone in an instant. When she turned her head back to her professor, she found that his eyes had regained focus.

"Miss Granger, finally we meet in person." He croaked, coughing a little.

Ireland, summer house. Pansy sent the two of them and Hermione nodded to Luna who apparated with a silent snap – they were alone. "How long have you known, professor?"

The man beneath her looked worn, paler than she was used of him and when she checked their surroundings, she found that no one had actually followed him. But that didn't mean that he wouldn't try to infiltrate and catch them nevertheless… "Since your fourth year." He breathed. "You fell asleep in the Restricted Section." And the dreams started around that time too…

She pulled a face, indecisive what she should do – play along or call it an all out? "Indeed, the faults of a green-horn." Hermione decided to play along – for now, it was her safest bet: give him a little truth and try to find out if he was trying to find out more of things she didn't want to tell him; although she didn't trust her plan as ultimately as she usually did, trying to outsmart this particular Slytherin could very well mean her demise.

"How far are you with the Horcruxes?" the man asked – switching the topic. Hermione did not answer for a moment. How did he know? Should she tell him? Could she trust him? Again…!

"What are Horcruxes?" she asked instead.

Snape tensed visibly during his attempt to sit up, but Hermione, observing him ever so carefully had noticed and her fingers were already closed around her wand, hexes and jinxes prepared in her head – one wrong move and she would not hesitate, could not hesitate.

"Is it not… what you are after?" he asked tersely, turning towards her. "Albus… had made it his objective to find them and destroy them, instead of Potter, but since Potter is still at the school, I assume that, instead, it is you three who seek them."

But how did she know that Voldemort hadn't told him that?! While Harry and Riddle had a unique mind-connection that the Boy Who Lived could not prevent during his sleep, Hermione had made sure to occlude his mind herself, locking the important memories away from any onlookers – a tricky deal, but she wasn't Hermes Granger for nothing, now was she?

"The only ones missing are the ones in Hogwarts… plus the Cup." She answered finally, coming clean – it would be on her head if this went south. "Marlene has found them out for us. All we need to do is to destroy them and then there's only Harry and the Snake left."

Snape nodded, Hermione quirked her eyebrow. "How do you even know of the Horcruxes?" The man smirked.

"As I said… Albus tried to destroy them on his own – you might have seen the disastrous result that was so clearly depicted on his body." The man's face scrunched up. "But when Hera… Sif stopped turning up and would only return for food now and then, I knew that someone was taking care of them – otherwise you wouldn't run down the poor owl so much. She looks more haggard than I do." He smirked.

"Sif is yours then." She smiled – remembering a night when he'd visited the Leaky Cauldron and had glared at a spot above her shoulder. She'd been too tired that night to notice that Sif had been sitting right on that particular shoulder, she'd never noticed he'd glared at his own owl. Her smile vanished. "That's the reason she's been so scared whenever she came back to me… you sent her to deliver your messages."

It made sense now, of course. Death Eaters did not even respect other wizards with other opinions, why should they respect animals – Sif must have had some really hard times. Snape had at least the decency to look uncomfortable on the ground. "I needed to – she is an owl after all and it would have looked suspicious to anyone else if I would have sent another bird to the Death Eaters. People would have started to ask questions. I admit that I'm sorry that Sif had to endure that… but nowadays it's unnecessary anyway, and she feels much more comfortable on the run with you lot."

Hermione leaned back when her professor started to sit up. "You need to act quickly, Granger, Voldemort wants to move. Potter loses his patience – the DA are outing themselves, think they can somehow intimidate Voldemort or his followers; they're too inexperienced to know that fight is exactly what their adversaries seek."

A flashback of the dream she had not a few weeks ago came to her mind as she watched the man hide his face in his hands from behind – it seemed as if the burden of the whole world weighed on his shoulders. And for once she threw all caution in the wind.


Her arms felt strange around his torso and for the split of a second, he tensed up, unused to contact, unsure if he could trust her. But the young witch persisted, gently cradling him in her arms, her front against his back.

"Harry was never a strategist, that post has originally been saved up for Ron, but I wouldn't rely on him too much either at this point. He's probably scared out of his wits for his family – the Weasleys are known to be a part of the Order for ages now. He wants to act, he's growing restless and wherever Weasley goes, Potter follows."

He snorted at her words, relaxing into her embrace. He felt encouraged by her arms, by the willingness to come close to him, to touch him even though he'd done what he'd done. It was close to salvation.


"But I agree – we have to act quickly. We're just too far away from Hogwarts and the Cup – it might take us some time to arrive there. We need to keep on a low profile or we get caught, and we do not have the time for that."

Indeed, being caught now was hardly an option. They would lose time and the advantage of the surprise. "And you should return to Hogwarts – should you not? The longer you're away the more the Carrows will get suspicious. It wouldn't do for them to search you and find me."

He snorted at her attitude, but nevertheless let her stand up. She smiled up at him, when he stood in front of her, tall, dark and now less intimidating. She had certainty now that he was not Voldemort's man, she knew now that her heart had been right to stay in its place. Pushed by the surprise discovery, she pushed up on her tip-toes and pressed a tender kiss to his lips.

It was just like in her dreams.

His lips were surprisingly soft and yielding to hers upon the first brush of her lips against his. He tasted coppery, but she minded not – his arms came to wrap around her and pull her closer even to his form and she relished in the fact that the man from her dreams was in no way a derivative of the real one that she was right now kissing.


Severus could not believe it.

If he had known that Potter sending out his troops would end up with him kissing his Hermione, he'd have encouraged the idiot to do it sooner… That, or perhaps the gods smiled at him for once instead of striking him down with their relentless flashes.

She tasted of herbs and her lips were as pliant and soft as they had looked back then in the Leaky Cauldron, they were as soft as he remembered them to be from his dreams. But this was something else entirely – this was the living thing, the real one. Never again would he have to ask himself if she only gave in to him in her dreams, for here she was, right after she had healed him from his torment and she was willingly kissing him. She had even initiated it.


Hermione fell in love all over again.

She understood not why her heart had latched to him the way it had, but she could not find it in herself to complain – not now that he was kissing her like she had dreamt. But the kiss was over far too soon for her tastes, as he gentled it to tender nips and finally they stopped the kiss altogether.

"You should go." She whispered again, almost afraid to break the silence that had settled around them – she huddled closer to him, hugging him one last time, before finally stepping away.

"You are right." He said. "I should." And right as she stepped out of his arms and away from him, right before he spun, he smirked at her. "Look out for me in your dreams, witch." And then, in a dramatic swirl, he was gone.


I like this reconciliation =)