"Take… it… take… it…"
A terrible rasping, gurgling noise issued from Snape's throat.
Something more than blood was leaking from Snape. Silvery blue, neither gas nor liquid, it gushed from his mouth and his ears and his eyes, and Hermione knew what it was, and knew exactly what to do —
She quickly conjured from the thin air a flask, and thrust it into Harry's shaking hands. Harry lifted the silvery substance into it with his wand. When the flask was full to the brim, and Snape looked as though there was no blood left in him, his grip on Harry's robes slackened.
"Look . . . at . . . me. . . ." he whispered.
Green eyes found the black, and Snape gargled on his own blood, the crimson oozing from his lips. Harry quickly wiped it away with his collar, a sudden ache in his chest for the man he had hated. It was an unnatural feeling; was it pity or sadness? He didn't know.
"You have your mother's eyes," Snape rasped, "and her heart."
The words he had heard a million times since he was eleven became so meaningless over time that he no longer believed them, but hearing them from Snape made them somehow feel truer than they ever have. Harry gripped his Professors hand and wished he could understand this man.
"Go." Snape said, wheezing as the air became harder and harder to gasp.
Harry stood, gripping the flask in his palm and pushing past both Ron and Hermione. Ron followed him, both stopping at the entrance to the shrieking shack when Hermione doesn't follow.
She stood over Snapes mangled body and watched him struggle to breathe, his eyes closed over unshed tears.
"Hermione lets go, there's nothing we can do to help." Ron called out, but she didn't turn around. Instead she removed her cloak and kneeled over him, placing it over his shivering form.
"I have to try, you two go, there's not much time." She said, removing her beated bag from her shoulder.
Ron moved but was stopped by Harry's hand on his shoulder. "Let her, she'll only blame herself if you don't."
Ron sighs and nods, sending Hermione's back one last glance before both of them leave the shack in a hurry.
Hermione is left alone, the cutting wind and sway of the shack barely drowning out the Professors labored breaths.
"Go.." Professor Snape struggled, his eyes drooping so much that they appeared almost closed.
"I'm not leaving you like this, not when I may be able to save you." She said softly, putting out several healing potions and a bezoar. "I can heal you, the venom is our main problem, I don't carry antivinin, which I should."
Talking seemed to help her focus on the task, so she continued her little ramblings while pouring essence of dittany over the wound slowly.
"Argh.." He groaned, a harsh grimace taking over his face while his eyes squeezed shut, allowing for his tears to pass over his cheeks.
Once the wound closed she pressed the bezoar over his lips, "You must bite Professor, please."
He opened his eyes slowly and did as she asked, biting down on the bezoar with as much force as he could manage. Her stubbornness just might save him, but all he could think about was the fire that was burning on his throat as the venom slowly made its way through his veins, he didn't have much time left.
"Now what to do about that venom." She thought aloud, her eyes scanning her supplies for some sort of potions that would miraculously heal him.
"It's no use, without antivinin there is no way to save me." He rasped, his voice significantly better, "Now run along before a stray death eater finds us and I have no way of protecting you from your idiocy."
"Do you not want to live, Professor? You have a long life ahead of you and you have never been married to my knowledge nor do you have children, I know you aren't really a people person but don't you want these things? Why are you so insistent on me letting you die?" She said, meeting his eyes just as Harry did and brown meet black.
"Because there is no hope, and who in Merlin's name would ever want to be married to me, even if I did wish to go on living." He said, raising his hand to touch the sensitive skin on his neck.
Hermiones shoulders began to sag with defeat, at least she tried. "You've come all this way and you won't even try to survive this war?"
"It was never a matter of surviving the war, Miss Granger," He said, "But rather choosing the right time to die."
He could feel the heat of the venom making its way down his chest. It was only a matter of minutes.
It almost seemed as if he wanted to die, but no one wants to die.
"Well is there anyone you would like to say good bye to so that I may relay the message." She said, wiping a stray tear from her cheek.
"No, not really." He rasped, "But, you can do a dying man one favor."
She met his eyes once more, "Anything."
She gripped his hand and pulled it to her chest.
"It is exactly one minute before I die and I intend to live life to the fullest in the next sixty seconds." He said, clearing his throat.
She furrowed her brow, "How?"
"As inappropriate as it may be, I would like to ask you to allow me to kiss you, Miss Granger." he said, using the rest of his gathered strength to push himself up so that he may look down at her instead of up.
"Professor…" She said, wondering why this was his last wish, it was an odd request.
"Just one kiss, Hermione, can't a man mark one thing off his bucket list before he dies." He said, grunting as he tried with all his might to hold himself up. He pulled his hand from hers and brushed the hair from her face.
She looked down, a flush of red gathering on her cheeks.
"I apologize, it was wrong of me to ask." His face fell and a mask slid over his features, his warmth washing away and being replaced by his cool demeanor she was used to.
"No!" She exclaimed, grabbing his hand, "It's not that… I… I've never kissed any one before."
He turned his head and thought for a moment before a careful grin stretched his lips. "Me either."
She looked up to him with surprised and her expression softened. "Alright."
"Alright?" He asked, wanting to be sure this was okay with her, that it was what she wanted.
"Kiss me." She breathed, her eyes flickering to his lips.
He didn't waste a second, and before she had time to register what was happening, his lips were pressed against hers. They were soft, softer than they appeared, and a warmth bloomed in her chest as one of his hands moved to cradle her face, his thumb brushing her flushed skin.
She wanted more, more of this, more of him. She pulled at his robes, losing her hands in his hair, which was ridiculously soft. She pushed him back against the wall and straddled his lap, deepening their kiss.
After a moment, he pushed and she sat back, breaking their entanglement. "One minute left to live and that's when the universe gives me something to want to live for."
They sat in silence for a few moments before it dawned on her. "If I place you into a coma using a ventus spell and encase your head within a bubble-head charm, it could act as a ventilator."
"I suppose," Snape said, "but there is no guarantee it would work even if we did try it. It would need a constant source of magic to keep functioning, and since I'll be in a coma, so will my magic." He met her eyes, "No, I won't allow it. That much magical power draining from you would put you into a coma too."
"Not necessarily, and it'll only be until they can brew the antivinin." She explains. "Which only takes two days to brew."
Snape thought for a moment, considering. "No." He said after a moment of thought. "This could kill you, and even if it didn't, I would still owe you my life in return."
He looked straight ahead and said, "And I..."
He struggled, grasping his neck and throat and opening his mouth, his face was slowly growing red.
"Snape, what is it? Snape, Severus?" She moved off of him and forced him to lie down on his back while she began CPR. "Hang on, hang on."
His face grew purple while she blew air into his mouth, making sure that his airway was clear before blowing once more. His eyes rolled to the back of his head, and he closed his eyes.
When that did nothing for him, she quickly cast the bubble-head charm, modifying it so that the ventus spell would blow small amounts of swirling wind into his nose, allowing him to breathe. Once his color returned to normal, she cast the comatose spell.
There was only one things left to do, but how will she do it. There are only so many ways to renter the castle and she was sure every direction was guarded or riddled with deatheaters who would love to find her alone. Taking a moment to think, she peaked out of the front door of the shrieking shack. The lights of Hogsmeade could be seen just beyond the trees. There was only one thing she could do. Dumbledore.
Casting a quick disillusionment charm over first Snape and then herself, she pulled his levitated body out of the front door and made her way towards Hogsmeade.
It wasn't hard to find, it was just hard to get there. One wrong move and the wrong witch or wizard could call out Voldemort's name and she and Snape would be dead. So she crept quietly and gradually towards the Hogs Head, stopping every few seconds to allow a civilian to run by. The small town was quiet, there was nearly no one on the streets. If Aberforth was who she thought he was, he wouldn't be in and the doors would be locked. She was sure that he, along with order sympathizers were already in the mist of battle at Hogwarts. So getting into Hogs Head unnoticed shouldn't be to much of a challenge. Especially since she and Snape were disillusioned.
Once outside the inns door, she pointed her wand to the latch and whispered, "Alohamora!"
Without a fight, the door unlocked itself and opened with a loud creak. Relief washed over her and she pushed Snape into the inn and moved him to a bed chamber up the stairs, being sure to lock the doors behind her as she went.
"I don't know if you can hear me, but your safe. Aberforth won't be back until after the Battle and as soon as he is, he'll know what measures to take just in case I can't return." Hermione said to the unconscious man. She sighed, she didn't know what she was doing. One amazing kiss and she was ready to die for the man, but something told her that she's been right about him all along. Something in her gut, and her gut was rarely wrong about such things.
Easing him gently onto the mattress with special care, she removed the disillusionment and levitating charms and tucked him into the bedsheets. She stood before him, her mind reeling with what she should do next.
"I'll be back for you, I promise. And if somehow I'm not, then know I am dead or injured." She said sadly, casting one more diagnostic spell and checking his vitals before casting an alert spell on the door and on him. These were just precautions. Once the battle was over she and Aberforth will return him to Hogwarts so that Madam Pomfrey will be able to look after him. She just needed to make sure he survived the night.
"I'll be back, I will." She said this more to herself than to the unconscious man, praying to whatever gods their were that she would be. Without another glance back she hurriedly locked and warded the door, leaving a note for Dumbledores brother on the counter by the front entrance.