Hermione woke to find Severus was gone, leaving nothing but a pile of rumpled sheets half strewn from where he'd tossed them back to get up. Her mouth went dry. She rose, hair sticking in all directions, and glanced around the room for something easy to grab to cover herself. She caught sight of one of Severus's shirts draped over the back of the chair she'd once curled up in as a lioness, and slipped it on. It hung down to her mid-thigh, leaving her feeling comfortable enough to leave the room and begin searching for Severus.
She entered the living room and felt her stomach drop. He wasn't there. She'd been hoping that she might be over-thinking; that he was an early riser and was probably lounging around reading or working on lesson plans. Wait, what time was it?
Oh. It hadn't even been three hours. It was the middle of the night and Severus was gone and she was here and they'd had sex and where in the hell was he?
"No, no, no..." Hermione mumbled under her breath. She strode into the kitchen, hair whipping about her face and the t-shirt billowing like a skirt around her legs as she spun back around to pace down the hallway, bursting into the extra bedroom.
"Severus?!" An idea struck her and she ran towards the door to Severus's laboratory, bare feet slapping as she stumbled down the stairs. Her hands bumped over the ridges of the cold stone wall, drops of dew coating her fingertips, and he wasn't there.
Racing back upstairs, Hermione yanked open the door to the study and burst through, feeling all hope vanish as her eyes swept across the vacant space.
Had she done something wrong? Scared him off? It had been rushed and urgent but it seemed like he'd wanted it just as badly as her, and she felt very strongly that it had to have happened in order for-
The door to the study opened and Hermione's thoughts slammed to a halt.
"Severu-"
"Hermione!"
"Ron?"
"Blimey!" Ron paused and stared. "Uhh..." His face reddened, and he brought a hand to the back of his neck to scratch awkwardly.
"Hello, Ronald." Hermione said with as much dignity as she could muster while her best friend's thoughts ran wildly about her and Severus.
However, something more important seemed to be occupying Ron's mind because he almost immediately recovered and moved his eyes from the t-shirt draped over her frame and said, "Harry's gone."
"What? Where? What do you mean he's gone?"
"Bloody hell, Mione, I don't know, that's why I'm here! He isn't... He isn't here, is he?"
"No, why would he be? Is he supposed to be?"
"Well, no... But he hasn't stopped going on about you and Snape -"
Hermione's mouth parted and Ron stopped.
"He's gone, too." Hermione said softly.
"Snape's gone?" Hermione nodded, and Ron visibly shrunk. "I was worried about this, but I never thought he'd do it."
"What?!"
"Ah, 'Mione. This isn't good."
Hermione brushed a wild tendril of hair out of her face and began pacing the study swiftly. "Harry, no... You don't really think he would...?" She paused and looked at Ron desperately. Ron faltered, unable to reassure her.
"Oh, no. Oh, god. He's... Severus will... He'll annihilate him!"
"Something's different about Harry, 'Mione. I'm telling you, he's gone bonkers. Ever since you..." Finding a lack of words sufficient to describe the situation, Ron waved his hand in the air, "Y'know, he's been... He's had this, this edge to him. This raw, like, Malfoy evil to him, you know?"
"Ron," Hermione sighed automatically, the familiarity of that particular argument offering her some comfort, "I don't think Malfoy is evil."
"And he keeps going off and he won't say a word to me about it! He's secretive and he's closed off... We're hardly friends any more, to him anyway. It's awful, 'Mione. He's not... Harry."
They looked at each other for a moment, the air heavy under the burden of the situation, and Hermione felt the anger rise inside her again, boiling and turning her blood black with unfathomable hatred.
"Let's find him right now."
"Who, Harry or Snape?" Ron's head shifted back in surprise at the sudden sternness in her voice and the certainty of her words.
"Both of them."
"Yeah, alright. Where in the bloody hell are we supposed to look, though?"
"Let's split up and search the castle. If you find them, don't do anything rash, alright? You won't be able to intervene on your own. Send your Patronus out to me, or I will to you."
"Alright."
"I'll start over by the Astronomy tower and work my way up towards the Owlery. You go over towards Ravenclaw tower and work down from there."
"What about here?"
"He isn't here."
"You looked?"
"I know he isn't, Ron. He can't be down here and not be here." She glanced towards the door to the quarters and clenched her jaw with determination. "You go on, I've got to get my wand."
Hermione crept along the stair well to the astronomy tower, ears straining. She wished she could have the physical abilities of the lioness without having to be the lioness.
"You don't understand!" Malfoy screamed, his voice echoing throughout the spherical structure.
"I can help you, Draco." Hermione could hardly hear the soft voice of Dumbledore. She crawled up another few steps. Was this... Was this it?
"Do it, Draco!" Hermione winced as the blood-curdling screech of Bellatrix Lestrange shattered her ears.
"Draco, I can help you."
"No, you can't!"
"If you don't do it, I wiiiiiiillllll," Bellatrix sang.
"No! I'll do it."
Hermione held her breath, trying to remain completely silent as she crawled up another step.
"Mmph!"
A hand covered her mouth and Hermione thrashed, only to be brought to a solid chest by two firm arms.
"Hush. Stay here. Do. Not. Move."
He was gone as fast as he came. She caught a glimpse of the tail end of his cloak and he was gone, up and over the last two spirals of the staircase and on to the landing of the Astronomy Tower. Oh, Merlin, no. No... This was it.
She couldn't breathe. She couldn't move her chest or expand her lungs, her brain couldn't process anything above the single thought over and over and over again in her mind of him as she crawled up the stairs, past Harry who was curled beneath the banister just as she had been. She didn't hear him as she passed, her eyes peeking over just enough as she watched the lips move and the bodies stiffen and the look in his eyes as he raised his wand and it made sense to her then, the cruelty and the unnecessary manipulation as their gazes met and those blasted blue eyes didn't sparkle, and Severus steadied his hand and she watched, gut twisting, and she knew it was now if it was to happen at all.
"Please, Severus."
"Avada Ke-"
Nyota pounced forward and used all the power in her hindquarters to sprint towards her enemy. He turned his head, eyes wide, and she snarled, saliva dripping from her jowls as she snapped at the air, hackles raised. She passed her mate, who stood frozen, the remaining syllables of a spell dead on his tongue. He stood helpless, caught entirely by surprise and far too slow to stop her.
Nyota launched herself into the air a few strides away from the enemy, a mere fraction of a second after emerging over the top of the stairs. As she landed, she wrapped her giant paws around his head, claws digging into weak and wrinkly flesh. It ripped off like tissue paper, so she dug in tighter, deeper, through layer after layer until she carved against the bone of his skull. He crumpled beneath her weight and she drove her incisors into his neck, obliterating the crucial artery that bulged out. She could taste the adrenaline in the blood on her tongue. She hungered for the last of it to drip out of his still corpse. Ripping out a mouthful of his flesh, blood gurgling and covering her chest, she stood and roared triumphantly into the silent night.
"Severus. Come to my office immediately. It is of the utmost importance."
Severus started, gripping and pointing his wand at the apparition hovering beside the bed. He mentally forced himself to relax against the pillow just as the hex he'd fired off burst into the wall. He glanced at Hermione, who stirred, and he pulled her closer to him, hoping to comfort her into remaining asleep. Her eyes fluttered.
"Stay here, Hermione. Sleep." He leaned over her, whispering against her ear, "I'll always come back to you." And then he rose, dressing in the same orderly fashion as he always did, lost in routine as his mind wandered to what Albus might want this time.
It better be fucking important, considering the bastard was dragging him out of a bed with the woman he'd just made love to.
"Fucking prick." He growled under his breath.
He left the bedroom and let out a much louder and more colorful insult before silently stalking out of the dungeons and towards Albus's office.
"Pardon?"
"He's a Horcrux, Severus. You heard me. Don't make me say it again."
"I'll make you say it as many damn times as I please, considering you kept this "crucial information" from me this entire fucking war."
"Severus..."
"This whole time... You've been raising him like a pig for fucking slaughter."
"I haven't either -"
"You've been primping and priming him, like a prize little runt, only you're still going to ship him off."
"That's enough of this metaphor, it's crude."
"It's the fucking truth, Albus. It's exactly what you've been doing."
"You seem awfully upset. Don't tell me now, after all this time, that you've finally come to care for the boy?"
"The boy? The boy?! He's Harry Potter, the Chosen One, as you've been so keen on reminding me... Of course I don't care for him, I need him! I've fought this entire war, sacrificed myself again and again in ways you can't even imagine in that "brilliant" mind of yours, and now you're telling me it was all for naught? That he's supposed to die... That he has to die?"
"Part of Voldemort's soul attached itself to him that night..."
"So you've said. I hope you're pleased with yourself, Albus. Do you think you're the one who has lost the most in this war? That you truly bear the weight of every life we've lost? Of every sacrifice? You don't. Oh, you don't. How I've wished to die, so many times, but I never have because of that "boy", because of "the Light". The light and the dark are becoming the same shade, don't you think, Albus? And you're just going to go off and die. You don't have to feel a fucking thing. You never had to, because you knew, this entire time, what it would come to. You're going to die before him, so it won't hurt you to see the face of every single person you've swindled and tricked and, for Merlin's sake, blackmailed into fighting for you in this war. You don't have to see his ragged, lifeless body. And you even made sure to touch that bloody cursed piece of shit, didn't you? Well, you don't get to die that way, Albus, because I'm going to fucking kill you. I'm going to fucking kill you."
Severus turned and stormed out of the room. Albus watched him go... One eye twinkling just a little.
"Hermione, no." Nyota turned at the sound of her mate's broken voice, her ears twitching with uncertainty. A pale young male stood beside him, jaw slack, a wand gripped tightly in each hand. Behind him danced a tall female with a large mane of hair. She cackled with the crazed look of a hyena and pranced forward a few steps.
"My my my! That took a turn!" She shrilled. Nyota snapped her jaws, blood splattering as her lips smacked together. "Oooooh! Feisty!" The female stayed in place, turning towards her mate. "Sev-eruuus."
He held her eyes for a moment, and Nyota shrunk down just enough to show her acknowledgement of his anger, tail swishing in irritation and uncertainty. What she had done was right, she knew, but it did not make him happy.
She didn't move from her position with her legs braced over either side of the bleeding body. She would not move until every last ounce had drained away, taking all of her enemy's life with it.
"So this is Hermione, huh? Potter's little pocket dictionary, hmmm?" She glanced back at Nyota, twirling her wand, "I wonder what our Lord will think of this. This was supposed to be Draco's task… Draco's..."
Her mate dropped his eyes and glanced at the female absently.
"Bellatrix." His voice could crack stone, and Nyota felt the energy in the air change as he asserted his dominance over the female. She shook with constrained defiance and Nyota snarled again, raising a lip to taste the static of energy in the air.
"Ooooooohhh, well, we best be off, lest we want troubleeee." The female lurched forward to grab the young male, pulling him towards the stairs. "Dumbleeeedore is deaaaaad! Hehehehehe..." She rounded down out of sight, the male pausing just long enough to look back at her, the fallen body beneath her, and her mate, who stood completely still across from her. "C'mon Snivellus!" A spark of colored light shot into the air for a brief moment, and Nyota growled at it.
"Hermione."
As soon as they were gone, her mate fell to his knees, then his hands, and crawled towards her.
"Hermione..." His voice was hoarse and cracked, a sad growl, and she trembled.
He smeared through the rising puddle of blood, bringing wet red hands up to grip the loose skin of her cheeks. "Hermione. Hermione..." He didn't seem capable of saying anything other than that word, over and over again. It meant nothing to her, a mere sound, but it was a sound he spoke, and he said it like it was as important to him as the blood was to the enemy at her feet.
Severus stared into wild, empty eyes.
"Shit... Let's go, Hermione. Come on." He rose, his blood logged cloak sticking to his legs as he leaned forward with crimson fingers to grab at the scruff of loose skin between her shoulder blades. "Come on."
The lioness rose, snarling as she glanced away from the body of the dead Headmaster, and Severus released her as she followed obediently behind him. They sprinted down the stairs, Severus taking them two at at time, wand raised and ready.
He couldn't hear or see the lioness, but he could feel her beside him, even with his every stride.
They burst out of Hogwarts, making their way at a full sprint towards the forest. As they neared Hagrid's hut, the lioness snapped at the air before surging ahead of Severus, stopping abruptly at the edge of the hill.
Severus reached her and came to a halt as well, sweat dripping down his hollow temples. Hagrid's hut was completely aflame. Bellatrix danced around it, shooting spell after spell at Hagrid's home.
"Fuck."
Severus tore his eyes away as the lioness stiffened at his side and turned towards a figure approaching behind Severus. One glance was all he needed to regain his composure and stride menacingly towards Bellatrix.
"Stop playing, Bellatrix. We must leave."
"Ooh, Severus! You always ruin the fun!" She flicked her wand and cackled; a geyser of fire bursting from the roof of the hut.
The lioness at his side growled.
"Ahh, your little cub! What a spunky bitch she is!"
"Snape! They trusted you!"
"Leave, Bellatrix. Report back to the Dark Lord. I will be along shortly." Rubbing her hands together, Bellatrix skipped a few steps, and disappeared with a snap.
Severus turned towards the approaching Potter boy, who was stumbling over rocks and tripping over his own feet as gravity carried him down the hill. He shot sloppy curses towards Severus, causing the lioness at his side to roar, tensing to attack. Severus lowered his hand to her head and gripped her tightly under his fingers. She remained in place.
"Sectumsempra!"
"Expelliamus!"
The boy fell to his knees as his wand flew from his hand; furiously wiping away the tears that were falling from his eyes as he began crawling towards Severus.
"You dare use my own spell against me, Potter?" Severus fumed, his face a pale moon in the dark night. The fire from Hagrid's hut flickered over Harry's fallen form, and all the boy could see as he looked up were two black, seemingly lifeless eyes staring down at him with nothing but a single spark of flaming fury in each pupil.
"You're - wha-?" He sat back on his knees, taken by surprise.
"Yes, I am the Half-Blood Prince. That's where you got the spell...My own bloody potions book." The boy's mouth parted slightly, and his eyes widened as Severus bore down on him. "And then you... used it... on Hermione."
"Don't you da-" Severus kicked him in the chest, knocking the wind out of the boy as he slammed into the ground.
Severus looked down at him for a moment, meeting his eyes. "She trusted you."
"Ahh, Severus... Severus..." Upon his arrival, the Dark Lord rose from where he was seated at the head of the large table, moving to the side so he could watch Severus approach.
"My Lord."
"I hear you've done right by me... By us all..." The Death Eater's craned to see him as he strode into the room, lioness tucked out of sight beneath his cloak. He stopped before his Master, cloth settling over the lioness.
"I only did as you requested, my Lord." Despite what he had just witnessed, Severus' heart was still, his mind clear. He had done this for years. Deceived the thing that was now the most powerful wizard in the world.
"Oh, but you did so much more. Look at that little pet you've brought along. Is it true? Has she... been... converted?"
Voldemort beckoned for Severus to approach, and he did. He motioned for the lioness to stay where she was. A few Death Eater's stirred at the sight of her. Severus did not look back, kneeling in front of his lord to kiss the hem of his robes.
"Rise." Severus stood, and moved out of his line of sight. He stared forward, intent. "Yes. Let me see her."
The Dark Lord lazily opened his palm towards her, serpent like fingers reaching outstretched. Severus nodded to the lioness, who slunk forward.
"Come, come." The Dark Lord cooed, inviting the lioness inches from his knees. He leaned forward to cup her chin, smiling as drops of blood trickled onto his skin. "So, it's true..." He stroked her cheek with his thumb, then brought his fingers to his lips, sucking the blood off them, letting them slide from his mouth with a gruesome 'pop!'.' He tilted his head back, eyes rolling as he ran his hands over his bare skull, nostrils flaring.
He grinned, red smeared across his serpent teeth, and refocused his eyes on the gathering before him. "Hermione Granger, Harry Potter's dearest friend, has... killed... Albus Dumbledore!" He rose and laughed maniacally as the Death Eaters hooted and cheered in response to the confirmation of the news. Nagini slithered into sight and began winding herself around her master's leg.
Turning towards Severus, the Dark Lord licked his lips. "And I have you to thank, Severus." He returned his attention towards the lioness. "Though... I am ever so curious as to how..." His eyes glazed over and Severus stilled. He forced himself to focus on the small beads of cold sweat running down his skin.
It felt like hours until the Dark Lord finally ripped himself out of her mind. The lioness crumpled into a heap on the floor, and Severus's leg jolted as he stifled the urge to run to her. It was becoming harder for him to uphold his role.
"Well... That was most fascinating."
Severus tore his focus away from Hermione and turned to his master with the most convincing look of respectful curiosity he could muster.
"You've achieved such great things, Severus. Look at your masterpiece." He swept his arm towards Hermione. "Look at the monster you've created." He glanced down at the still form of the lioness, eyes glistening. "She's beautiful."
"A monster, my lord?" Severus strategized instantly for the best response. He went for an uncertain humbleness. He continued with the slight vulnerability of acceptable ignorance. "Forgive me, but I do not understand. She is merely an Animagus..."
"Oh, Severus? Haven't you realized? There is no one in there! Though I would have loved access to her mind, hmm, yes... So many insights to Potter... So many memories... This... This will serve us, yes, very well. I am satisfied with your work, Severus."
Satisfied, yes, good. He was satisfied. Dumbledore was dead and… Severus' mind caught up suddenly, as if his brain had been purposefully trying to withhold the information but was unable to succeed… No one in there? No one in…
"She's quite fond of you, Severus." Severus felt himself slipping, but his Lord's attention was on Hermione, buying him a few moments.
"She killed him for you… She knew you wanted him dead. Feline intuition, I suppose." He observed her curiously, then tilted his head to the side, eyes narrowing. His hand met Nagini's head as she poked out of his cloak, thin tongue quivering in the air. The Dark Lord's long nails raked down over her scales and the snake rose beneath his touch. "Hmm… Not just feline…" He offered his arm to her, hooking his elbow beneath her as she slid up his body to wrap around his neck and shoulders. She opened her mouth with a hiss as her master discarded his brief musings to raise his arms and declare, "Let us celebrate! Dumbledore is dead!"
A/N - Ahh, hello strangers! God, it's been 6 months and I don't want to waste your time explaining b/c it's a long story but I promise you that my absence was anything but intentional. It was such a shit thing to be like "I'm gonna be updating every week!" and to then disappear off the face of the earth and then to come back with this chapter... But I'm finally able to come back so let's focus on that ;) Also, if it makes you feel any better, my friend was torturing me by sending me bits of the last chapter I wrote (yes the sexy one I'm paranoid about my teachers reading)(also I fixed all the errors in it, so sorry about that!) and my dad for some reason got the text messages on his phone since my iPod uses imessage through itunes and his phone is linked and HE READ thE FUCKING SMUT AND THEN SHOWED MY MOM AND OLDER SISTER. So, if you want cruel things to happen to me in return for being a stupid cruel author then don't worry, I got my due. ;)