Chapter 26: A Will And A Way

{A/N: Here's Another Update...}

My Thanks To All My Readers and Reviewers...Enjoy S.S.

{"I am done pretending...You have failed to find what's left...I will suck you dry again...Some are not worth saving...You are such a pretty mess...I will choke the life within...Now you want to take me down...As if I even care...I am the monster in your head...And I thought you'd learn by now...It seems you haven't yet...I am the venom in your skin...And now your life...Is broken...After the lights go out on you...After your worthless life is through...I will remember how you scream...I can't afford to care...I can't afford to care..."} Light's Out, Breaking Benjamin

Snape's Estate, Unknown World...

Fear coursed through the hearts of Hermione Granger and Minerva McGonagall as they did everything they could to escape the rampaging wizard known as Severus Snape following their attempt to keep him from forcing himself on Hermione. They managed to barricade themselves in the master bedroom as Snape pounded on the door unleashing both his monstrous rage and blows to the hard wood door via his balled fists.

"MINERVA!" he shouted in a fury riddled growl as he continued to force his way into the bedroom.

Hermione had never seen her former Potions Professor so angry. For the first time in her life, she had genuine fear of the ebony cloaked man.

"What are we going to do Professor?" she asked turning her attention to the elder witch.

"I-I don't know." admitted Professor McGonagall stepping in front of Hermione as Snape burst through the door rage seeping from his every pore.

The shattered pieces of the door flew in every direction as Snape entered the master bedroom, a billow of black robes and seeping coldness that struck true terror in the hearts of both Gryffindor witches.

"Professor please..." said Hermione trying once more to appeal to Snape's sense of reason despite his cured state. "I know you're in there somewhere..."

Snape seemed to ignore her as he grasped Professor McGonagall by the throat and tightened his grip. The elder witch struggled against his hold as he glared rather murderously at her.

"I shall deal with you later." he growled clearly not amused by her latest act of defiance.

"S-Severus...please." she said pleading as she met his cold obsidian gaze.

She couldn't believe the monster before her had been made due to the dealings of the once revered Albus Dumbledore in a bid to destroy the lonely boy whom had called Hogwarts home since he'd been a boy.

"Severus Please." mocked Snape narrowing his eyes at her. "You are beginning to sound like that sod Dumbledore."

Fearful of what the cured wizard had in store for herself and her former Head of house, Hermione attempted to recall what she had discovered in the ancient tome Snape himself had given her.

"Say his name..." said a very weak voice as it entered her mind.

The amber eyes of the young witch widened in recognition. It had been the very weak voice of the Potions Professor from somewhere in the depths of darkness reaching out to her amid the brute's rampage.

"S-Say it...Granger..." he urged before it faded again.

The twisted monster that had been Severus Snape continued to strangle the elder witch ripping at her attire and parting her legs in a bid to put her back in her place in the wake of her defiance.

Gathering her courage, Hermione approached him determined to stop his assault of the elder witch.

"Let her go." she demanded in true Gryffindor fashion.

Snape glared at her, rage and contempt almost palpable as it filed across his ghastly pale face.

"I think not." he replied turning his attention back to a teary eyed Minerva McGonagall. "You may as well wait your turn like a good little girl."

"I said release her...right this instant!" she demanded.

"And what are you going to do if I don't?" he hissed in annoyance as he'd been moments away from burying his enormous appendage into the aged witch once more.

"Then you leave me no other choice...Ardyn." said Hermione not taking her eyes of the fiend in her former Potions Professor's body.

At the mention of that strange name, Snape hissed drawing back from McGonagall only to attempt an advance upon a shaken Hermione only to be stopped dead in his tracks by none other than The Potions' Master's will himself.

The fiend growled as black tears began to stream down it's cheeks and muscles ripped along the body of the Potions Professor as the internal struggle seemed to reach an all time high point.

Snape dropped to his knees gripping the hard flooring via his fingernails as he struggled to contain the monster that dwelled within him. His eyes had never left those of the amber eyed girl as he found himself in weakened but in control of his body for the first time in years.

"P-Professor Snape?" asked Hermione looking him over.

Snape gasped feeling only pain as he looked back up at the young witch.

"M-Minerva..." he said panting as he turned his attention to the mildly shaken up elder witch. "S-Save her..."

He collapsed shortly there after blacking out in the wake of the strain.

Hermione did as he had instructed tending to the ailing elder witch whom had been stunned by what they had both just witnessed.

"H-How did you know what to do?" she asked rubbing her throat where Snape's large pale hands had been squeezing the life out of her.

"He told me...and I recalled what I had found from the tomb he made me study." admitted Hermione looking down at the unconscious wizard. "I said before that there might be a way to help him...but he...he might not like it given everything that he's done..."

"So you've found it then?" asked Minerva with an arched brow. "The way to save his life..."

Hermione nodded before looking back down at unconscious wizard.

"It involves going back to Hogwarts." she said meeting the eyes of her former mentor.

Minerva had been confused as to how going back to Hogwarts was going to save Severus in the long run but dared not question the small aspect of hope that the girl had found in the chaotic world undone by the makings of an unleashed curse.

"So be it."agreed the green eyed elder witch. "Anything is better than being sexual prisoners of a monster."