Chapter Eight

"Some of it's just transcendental"- Peter Gabriel

A/N big things between Severus and Hermione in this chapter. Hope you like it. Plix review, helps write better.

Severus stumbled through the fireplace, directly to the infirmary. He hit the floor as fire roared through his veins. The Dark Lord was not happy with his lack of information, which resulted in about an hour under the Cruciatus Curse, along with letting Bellatrix loose on him with her favorite knife. He had several deep laserations on his arms and his cloak was soaked in blood. As he hit the floor he heard a gasp and hurried footsteps. Poppy helped him up and to a bed, he hissed as his back made contact with the mattress. He heard Poppy call for an elf, she whispered something to it before it popped away again. "Alright Severus, let's get started." Poppy said as she started feeding him potions. He swallowed each one with disdain, after about four his vision started spinning and he felt very light headed. "Poppy…" He called before his blacked out.

*HGxSS*

Hermione was awoken to something pulling at her hand, She grabbed her wand and cast Lumos and found a small house elf starring at her with big eyes. "Miss Pomfrey be askin for young miss." The house elf said. "Oh!" Hermione said as she jumped out of bed. She put a dressing robe on and ran from the room towards the Infirmary. Hermione pushed the large oak doors open and stopped as she took in the scene before her, Madame Pomfrey was pouring potions into the mouth of a bloody, twitching, Professor Snape. He eyes were closed and his head was tilted back. Poppy looked up and called Hermione into the room. "Go get a bowl of cold water and a cloth from the bathroom and start cleaning his wounds." Poppy said surprisingly calmly. "Wouldn't it just be easier to use magic?" Hermione asked. "Magic will do more harm than good right now." The mediwitch told her, "Get the strong stitching salve why you're in there." She told her as Hermione was filling a bowl with cold water, she grabbed a large clay jar with orange paste in it. Hermione walked back over to the bed as Poppy was undressing Snape. Hermione gasped slightly when she saw just how bad the cuts were. They ran in deep lines across his chest. She soaked the cloth in the water and started dabbing at the blood, Snape jerked slightly under the first touch be didn't wake up.

It took Hermione and Poppy about a half hour to clean the blood off him and start closing the wounds. Hermione was working on a deep one on his arm when he started waking up. "Poppy…" He moaned

"Yes, Severus?" Poppy asked him

"Hurts…" He said quietly.

All of a sudden his started spasming and screaming. Hermione jerked back quickly but Poppy yelled at her. "No Hermione! Stay with him. Talk to him. He needs to know he's safe." She said as she went to get more potions. Hermione walked up to him and grabbed his hand, his head snapped to the side and their eyes locked. Hermione gulped when she saw the fear in his eyes. "You're ok Professor. You're safe here in the infirmary. Poppy and I are helping you. You're ok." She said gently. Poppy came back and started spelling potions into Snape. "You're doing good Hermione keep going." Poppy said quietly. Hermione kept talking to him, telling him he was safe and that they were helping him, she got bored of repeating herself though so she started just talking to him about nothing, what she did over the summer, what she thought of her assignments so far, just nothing.

Eventually the spasming stopped and he was gasping for breath. "Poppy…" He said quietly.

"Yes, Severus?" She responded

"I'm ready."

"Ok." She said as she grabbed a pink potion from the table.

"Dreamless sleep?" Hermione asked

"Yes." Poppy said

Severus downed the potion and laid back. He opened his eyes and looked and Hermione. "Thank… You…" Snape said and he drifted off to sleep.

Hermione looked at Poppy, "That was bad." She said.

"It was." Poppy responded, "Worse than usual." She took another bottle of the same pink potion and handed it to Hermione. "Don't worry about classes tomorrow. Just sleep." Poppy told her as she ushered her out of the room. "Thank you for your help." Poppy said as Hermione walked away.

Hermione laid down in her bed with the potion on her bedside table. She didn't want to miss classes and she doubted she'd have that much trouble sleeping. The nightmares that plagued her that night were terrible. All she could hear was Snape screaming in pain, the terror in his eye swallowed her over and over again as she tried to help.

She awoke the next morning tired and sore. She made herself look as presentable as possible as she headed down to breakfast. She sat next to Harry and Ron and made herself a little breakfast. "You look like crap Hermione." Ron told her, she saw Harry elbow him. "What was that for?" Ron asked while rubbing his ribs. "You ok, Mione'?" Harry asked her. "Yeah, just nightmares." She told him. He rubbed her shoulder and grabbed her stuff for her as they headed for potions.

She took her seat next to Neville and waited for Blaise and Daphne to show up. They had a practical lesson today, she noted the cauldrons and ingredients. Blaise and Daphne showed up a couple minutes later followed shortly by Professor Snape. He started lecturing and Hermione noticed a slight rasp in it. He also seemed to be trying his best not to make eye contact with her. Hermione brewed the potion and avoided conversation. She didn't have the energy for it. Thankfully Blaise helped Neville with is potion so Hermione could just focus on hers.

An hour and a half later class was dismissed. She grabbed her stuff and made her way to the door. "Miss Granger." Professor Snape called to her. She turned, "Stay back a minute." He said as the rest of the class left the room. The Gryffindors gave her sympathetic looks and most of the Slytherins sneered at her. Once everyone was gone she approached Professor Snape. He gave her a serious look before speaking, "You are not to mention last night to anyone except Madame Pomfrey, is that understood?" He drawled.

"Yessir." She responded.

He looked at her for a minute, then he looked down at his desk. "Don't think any thing of this next statement but, Thank you, for helping last night." He said quickly.

"You're welcome sir." She said skeptically.

He looked at her for another minute before dismissing her. She left the room quickly with a slight smile on her face. The dungeon bat just thanked her.

*HGxSS*

Severus was confused as to why exactly he did that but it felt right, which was even more confusing. He pulled himself together before his next class, and refused to think about it for the remainder of the day.