Don't take that sinner from me
Chapter 14: He's good and he's bad and he's all that I've got
A/N: I own nothing except my mistakes. Also, your support and love is beyond amazing. Honestly, you have no idea how happy all your sweet replies make me. You all truly are the best, thank you so much!
She had taken up his advice when she woke up the next day with all her muscles aching to the point she ended up crying by every small move she made. Having finally gotten a hold of the potion, she gladly gulped the contents down and let out a relieved sigh upon feeling her aching muscles soothe.
Wiping away her tears, she got dressed for the day as she made her way to the Great Hall for breakfast, rather nervous to face her friends after they had apparently seen her when they came back from the Malfoy manor.
However, they at least didn't ignore her anymore as they called her over, apologetic smiles on their faces. "Look, Hermione, I can't even begin to say how sorry I am. What happened yesterday should have never happened." Harry apologized the minute she sat down, leaning over to her so they wouldn't be overheard by the growing amount of students in the Hall who had all returned from their homes.
"Just know that what's carved into your arm, is absolutely not true. You're not-" A loud cough behind them interrupted Ginny from talking, and Hermione turned around in time to see Snape shaking his head at the girl.
When Hermione looked back at Ginny and saw her nodding in understanding, she watched as Snape walked away and then turned back to her friends. "Since when does he care? Isn't he supposed to be all evil?" Harry asked as he, too, watched him walk away.
"Evil is a strong word." Hermione whispered as she looked down, prodding her toast with her knife. Looking back up, she noticed the exchange of looks between the other three and she frowned as she looked at each one of them, "What's wrong?"
Ginny smiled, "Nothing. Now, instead of torturing that piece of toast, how about eating it?" Hermione visibly cringed at the word torture and Ginny's smile immediately fell. "Oh god, Hermione I am so sorry, I didn't mean to." Hermione smiled weakly and shook her head, "That's okay, Gin. You're right, I should probably eat indeed."
"How about we go into Hogsmeade today, 'Mione?" Harry suggested as he helped himself to some bread as well. Hermione nodded as she swallowed her food, "Sounds good." Her gaze turned to the red haired boy on her right, who hadn't said a word at all ever since her arrival.
Hermione caught Ginny shaking her head at her from the corners of her eyes. Upon looking at her, she mouthed the words 'Just let him be' and Hermione sighed as she figured Ron was still angry with her.
Finishing up their breakfasts, they all left after making sure they were nice and warm before stepping into the February cold. Hermione felt relieved when they were finally sharing their laughter once more, even though Ron was trailing behind. Although, when they entered Zonko's Joke shop, he seemed to lighten up a bit and that made it a lot more bearable to be around with as they were now enjoying their butterbeer at the Three Broomsticks.
"Dean!" Ginny suddenly exclaimed with a smile and excused herself from them, walking into a corner along with her current boyfriend. At the same moment, Professor Slughorn approached them and Harry made a nice chat with him, trying to get on his good end for whatever Dumbledore had told him to do.
Having spent a couple of hours at Hogsmeade, they figured it'd be wise to go back to the castle. Classes would be starting soon, and not to mention the upcoming exams as well. Not that her friends worried about those yet, after all, they still had a year before they would actually be taking the exams, but she wanted to be well prepared for when the time would come.
Parting their way with her friends, she headed up to the castle alone for they had plans on going to Zonko's Joke shop once more. Heading straight to the dungeons, she retrieved her schoolbag from her bedroom and headed back up in the castle to the library, where she started to summarize her Charms textbook with a smile on her lips, happy to have had a successful day with her friends.
When it was a bit before dinner, she forced herself out of her books as she walked back down the marble stairs, stopping at the Transfiguration classroom as she saw Professor McGonagall, Professor Snape and Ron and Harry standing around a necklace that Snape was examining.
His eyes flickered briefly to hers, but then focused back on Harry as he spoke: "It was Malfoy." Hermione watched as Professor McGonagall's eyes widened in surprise – listening to Snape commenting on his accusation.
After Professor McGonagall suggested for them to leave for dinner, she told them she was right behind them as she waited in the doorway for Snape to come out of the classroom. Walking with him, she made sure they would not be overheard by any students or portraits as she leaned in closer to him to talk.
"What was that about?" Hermione questioned and Snape examined the corridor as well, looking for any listening ears. "Katie Bell has been cursed. Potter is under the conviction that Malfoy's behind it." Hermione frowned as she turned to look at her husband, "Is he?" Snape seemed to debate whether he should be honest or not, but then nodded. "I am quite positive he is, yes."
"How can you be sure?" Hermione asked, pressing the matter as they kept their voices down, waiting a couple of minutes until they were out of the earshot of portraits. "I have my reasons to believe he is, Hermione. None of those are your concern."
Hermione scoffed, "So much for trust in marriage." She muttered grimly under her breath and he turned to look at her, a stern expression on his face. "This has nothing to do with trust. The Dark Lord has forbidden me to talk about it, I'm sure you are capable of understanding why I can't grant you that knowledge." Hermione sighed and gave nod, parting her ways with him as they reached the Great Hall.
The months seemed to have been flying by as she spent a great deal with her nose in the books – more than she'd usually do. As well as several meetings at the Malfoy manor, which had been almost all rather successful as she was starting to control her fear, as well as her friendship with the boys and Hermione had become stable again, helping the matter greatly to avoid mistakes at Voldemort's commands.
Harry had managed to successfully extract the memory from Slughorn, allowing his lessons with Dumbledore to continue smoothly. Hermione, however, made sure to be extra careful not to let any of it slip to Voldemort whenever she was in his presence.
Even though Dumbledore had been absent a lot over the year, he still made time for her to arrange their meetings – talking over her new findings on the enchantment. Or well, for as far as they could talk about it. The enchantment really limited their conversation, but at least they got to talk about her emotions within it. And that was great, to just have a listening ear who fully understood every word she was saying.
He had asked her once more if she had become clearer to what she was so deeply confused about months ago, and she had told him that she had some guesses, but wasn't willing to give him a definitive answer yet.
Hermione awoke startled as she felt the unpleasant familiar burning in her left arm, grumpily turning the candles on as she checked the time. It was nearing midnight, and she had honestly no idea why she was being called out. But as she heard the faint distant cries, she jumped out of bed and got into her Death Eater clothes, hurrying up to the commotion – up to the front doors of the castle on the ground floor.
And then she understood why her Mark was burning: countless of Death Eaters and people from the Order were fighting one another. Seeing Death Eaters run up to the doors of the Astronomy Tower, she followed quickly behind them, making sure to keep her footsteps light as she followed them in the shadows.
Hermione's heart was about to break loose from her chest as it beat wildly, lingering behind on one floor lower than the floor above her that was out in the open. Watching through the wooden floor planks, she could make out Dumbledore and Draco pointing his wand at him, the other Death Eaters surrounding him – urging him on to do it.
Another pair of footsteps behind her made her wheel around, her wand held high in the air as she faced the person behind her. The dark outline of his robes were swaying gently because of the gentle breeze of the night's air. His own wand pointed at her as well, but then he lowered it as he brought a finger to his lips, indicating for her to stay silent.
Oh Lord, Oh Lord, what have I done?
I've fallen in love with a man on the run
Oh Lord, Oh Lord, I'm begging you please
Don't take that sinner from me
Oh don't take that sinner from me
Hermione swallowed as she nodded, her wand lowering as she watched Snape walk up the spiral staircase that led to the next level and watched the display above her: Draco lowered his wand immediately upon seeing Snape entering the scene, and Hermione looked nervously into the eyes of Dumbledore, who had seemed to acknowledge her presence as he looked back down at her through the floor planks.
Oh Lord, Oh Lord, what do I do?
I've fallen for someone who's nothing like you
He's raised on the edge of the devil's backbone
Oh I just wanna take him home
Oh I just wanna take him home
Snape's eyes were lowered to the ground, and never had she seen him any more human than now. She saw it written on his face – how he looked so heartbroken, and Hermione couldn't understand why. "Severus, please." Dumbledore begged him, and Hermione suddenly understood his feelings, as the incantation left his lips. "Avada Kedavra."
Oh Lord, Oh Lord, he's somewhere between
A hangman's knot, and three mouths to feed
There wasn't a wrong or a right he could choose
He did what he had to do
Oh he did what he had to do
Hermione watched the lifeless body falling backwards of he Astronomy Tower in utter horror, not being the least bit prepared for what had just happened. Her eyes glided back to the people that were still up in the tower, watched how Draco's face turned absolutely broken and horrified himself, but Snape grabbed him by the shoulder as he had composed himself, and pushed him to the spiral staircase.
Hiding in the shadows, she waited for the people to pass and was about to follow them until she noticed the boy running down the stairs, pushing his cloak into his robes as he ran after them. Not once had she realized that Harry had been watching the scene just like she did, and her heart went out for him because she knew how much Dumbledore meant to him.
As horrible as she found the loss, she could not say she had the same bond with the headmaster as Harry had, so she could not relate to his rage – his sadness.
Give me the burden, give me the blame
I'll shoulder the load, and I'll swallow the shame
Give me the burden, give me the blame
How many, how many Hail Marys is it gonna take?
Making sure that Harry had advanced greatly on the others, she came out of the shadows and followed behind the rest – through the castle and the forest until they arrived at Hagrid's cabin. It had been set on fire, and Harry was trying to hex Snape, but he had blocked every try Harry made.
She arrived just the moment Harry had fallen down, and she looked between the two men as she felt them both staring at her. Both wondering who she would choose – and she was wondering the exact same thing. Her mind told her that it was obvious: Harry would be the one she'd turn to, her best friend through all those years.
But it had seemed to be her heart that made her decision. Her feet having taken control before she realized that she was walking. It tore her apart to leave Harry behind, but she had no choice. Whether she had ever wanted it or not, her future was with Snape – and she was going to be making damn sure that she would not part ways with him.
"Will you, Hermione Granger, promise to stay loyal to Severus Snape until the day you die?" Her Unbreakable Vows rang once more through her head as she approached the man whose face was filled with countless unnamed emotions. "And will you promise to stay by his side, through the good and the bad?"
Her mind was made up when she stopped in front of him, grabbing his left hand as she felt the wedding ring for reassurance. This was her life – this was the man that she had sworn to never leave.
Her loyalty lay with him.
Don't care if he's guilty, don't care if he's not
He's good and he's bad and he's all that I've got
Oh Lord, Oh Lord, I'm begging you please
Don't take that sinner from me
Oh don't take that sinner from me
A/N: It's incredible to have finally reached the chapter that inspired me to write this entire fanfiction, and I am so thrilled to know that you have all stuck with me so far through this story. No worries, it's not ending here yet. We still have a war to fight, don't we? As for the song, it was an incredible motivation for me, and it's an absolutely amazing song as well. You'd do well to check it out! It's called: The Civil Wars – Devil's Backbone.