25 January 1977

It might have been the longest day of classes Hermione ever had to endure. She couldn't concentrate on anything any of her professors said, since her entire focus was on testing her antivenin. Twice she even tried to talk Severus into taking the day off, and testing the potion instead, but he refused.

"It's in the Potions classroom, Hermione," he reminded her exasperatedly, in the middle of the corridor before lunch. "I imagine it would be quite difficult to test it in the middle of his Second Year lesson."

Hermione rolled her eyes. She hated when he was right.

"Fine," she snapped. "Eat dinner quickly tonight. We're going there immediately after."

It was Severus' turn to roll his eyes.

"I hate when you get like this, have I told you that before?"

Hermione cracked a smile. "Only a few times."

When Hermione sat down at the Ravenclaw table in the Great Hall she didn't take any food. Instead, she took out the notebook she had been keeping her notes regarding the antivenin, and a quill. She sat chewing on the end of her quill, as she began to reread her notes for, what must have been, the hundredth time, scribbled here and there, and wrote in some of the changes she and Severus had made. She then tried to figure out the correct dosage that would have been needed to work on a fully grown adult, if the potion proved to work later on.

"Hello to you too," Amelia said across the table from her.

Hermione stopped scribbling, and looked up at Amelia. She was almost surprised to see her sitting there. She didn't really notice her when she sat down.

"Amelia, I'm so sorry," Hermione told her. "I suppose my head is elsewhere today."

Amelia nodded in understanding.

"You're testing your project tonight, correct?" Amelia asked.

Hermione nodded.

"I'm just trying to figure out if there are any last minute changes I need to make," she explained.

"Hermione, you're going to give yourself a migraine," Amelia said, as she reached across the table and pushed Hermione's quill down.

Hermione shot Amelia a dirty look.

"It has to be perfect, Amelia," Hermione snapped. "I can't afford for even one thing to go wrong."

Amelia rolled her eyes and let out an exasperated sigh.

"Hermione, it's going to be fine. You and Snape spent ages working on it. Between the two of you, I can't see how it wouldn't work."

"But-" Hermione tried to go on.

"But nothing, Hermione. Stop. Eat something. Please," Amelia said, filling up a plate for Hermione.

When Amelia passed the plate to Hermione, she took it reluctantly, but gratefully. Now that she had food in front of her, she realized how hungry she actually was. With a defeated breath, she closed her notebook, and put it and the quill away in her bag.

"Thanks, Amelia," said Hermione. "You're probably right. Besides, there really isn't much more I can do about now anyhow."

As Hermione tucked in, she did feel a little better. Even at seventeen, Severus was brilliant when it came to potions work. And, she was more than confident in her own abilities. Amelia was right. The antivenin would be alright.

After dinner that evening, true to her word, Hermione dragged Severus down to the Potions classroom. When she took a step towards the desk, Severus grabbed her wrist to stop her. Hermione spun around to look at him.

"What is it, Severus?" She asked.

Instead of responding, Severus took her face in his hands, and leaned down to kiss her. Hermione wrapped her arms around his waist, and pulled him in closer to her. A small moan sounded in the back of his throat, and Hermione pulled away, before they became too carried away.

"For luck?" Severus said, with the smallest hint of red tinting his cheeks.

"I'll take it," Hermione said, then smiled.

Hermione made her way to the table, and began taking the vials out of her school bag that she would need to test the potion. She set them up in a row, and asked Severus to get the potion out of the cupboard they have been storing it in.

After she reached in her bag for the venom she took from her trunk that morning, then placed it on the table, Hermione took out her wand.

"What are you doing?" asked Severus.

"Cursing the venom," she answered.

Severus raised an eyebrow.

"The Ever Bleeding Curse you were researching," he asked.

"Yes," Hermione responded testily. "Now hush, so I can concentrate."

Hermione waved her wand in a circular motion, and whispered the incantation, "Sanguinem In Perpetuum."

The venom hissed, and a small spiral of red steam rose from the vial.

Hermione then filled the first vial with some of her own blood that she gathered earlier that day, not in the presence of Severus. She knew he wouldn't have approved of her cutting her palm to produce it.

She placed the vial of venom next to the one of blood, before adding more blood that was to be combined with venom, in the third and forth vials.

The final vial she filled only with the antivenin, then she placed it alongside the others.

Hermione held the remainder of venom, and took a deep breath. Her stomach was churning.

"Well," she whispered. "Here it goes."

Hermione tipped several drops of venom into two of the blood filled vials. The effect was instantaneous. She watched as the blood turned nearly black, it was so dark, and began to bubble.

She looked at Severus, who scrunched his nose as the blood, which also became much thicker than normal, began to slowly ooze over the edge of the two vials.

"Ugh, that's disgusting," he said.

Hermione nodded. She had to agree with him, it was, but it was necessary.

Before there was too much of a mess made, Hermione reached for the small bottle of antivenin that Severus had poured for her, and dropped a few drops of the antivenin into one of oozing blood vials.

This was it. Everything she had been working on for weeks, all came down to this moment. Her arms suddenly felt very heavy, and almost numb. She swallowed convulsively because she really was quite sure that she was going to vomit.

Hermione held her breath as she watched. The vials containing only blood, only venom, and only antivenin remained unchanged. All sat perfectly normal. The other two, however, were a different story entirely.

The blood from the cursed vial continued to sluggishly spill onto their table, and then, she noticed, the one in which she poured the antivenin began to look different.

Hermione exhaled audibly, and pointed at the changing blood.

"Severus!" she gasped. "Look!"

Slowly the blood had stopped bubbling over, and she watched as the color of it lightened to match the vial containing the uncontaminated blood. The consistency appeared to be much thinner than the cursed blood. It… it appeared to be cured.

Hermione's head snapped up, and she saw Severus was smiling at her.

"It worked?" She asked in a tentative whisper.

Severus nodded, still smiling. "It worked."

"It worked!" she exclaimed. "Merlin's Beard! It worked!"

Before she could stop herself, she ran around the table and threw herself into Severus' arms. She couldn't help herself, and began to cry tears of pure joy, as he held her.

"I knew you'd do it," he said into her hair. "I am so proud of you, my love."

After all of the weeks of worry, work, tears, and crippling anxiety, it was over. The antivenin did what it was meant to, which meant that Hermione had a better chance than ever before of saving Severus' life. If the jubilation she felt in that moment could have been bottled and sold, she would have raked in the galleons.

ooo

31st January 1977

Hermione knew she should have told Professor Dumbledore that her work in the past was completed, and she should return home, but she couldn't bring herself to do it. She wrestled with the guilt of not telling him, for nearly a week.

However, just because the antivenin was a success, didn't exactly mean her work in the past was finished, she tried to tell herself. Her ultimate goal was to help Severus realize how important it was for him to fight for his life, when the time eventually came. To not stand there and accept his death as inevitable. Had she done that, she wondered? She couldn't have been sure.

However, when she received a note that Monday morning at breakfast, from Professor Dumbledore, asking her to join him in his office at nine that evening, she knew he would be questioning her, once again, on when she planned on returning home. She honestly didn't know what she was going to say, as she had run out of excuses to stay.

"Everything alright?" Amelia asked, after Hermione folded the letter from Dumbledore, and shoved it in her school bag.

Hermione rearranged her expression into one of casual nonchalance as she shrugged.

"Suppose so. That was from my Uncle. He wants to have a chat this evening," she explained.

"Fun," Amelia said with a laugh.

Hermione rolled her eyes. "Loads."

Severus, she noticed, stood from his seat at the Slytherin table. Hermione caught his eye, and he jerked his head towards the door, silently asking her if she wanted to leave. Hermione nodded then put her fork down. Truthfully, she lost her appetite after reading the note from Dumbledore.

"Severus is finished," Hermione said to Amelia. "I'm going to go walk to class with him."

Amelia turned her head towards the Slytherin table and looked at Severus, then turned her attention back to Hermione.

"Joint at the hip you two are," Amelia joked.

Hermione snorted as she stood.

"Hark who's talking," she said, as she turned and saw Remus heading towards their table.

Amelia let out another laugh.

"Fair," she said with a smile.

"I'll see you in class," said Hermione, as she waved to Remus, then walked over to meet Severus.

"Good morning," she said brightly, taking his hand.

She tried to keep her mood cheerful, not to raise any suspicion.

Severus lifted their intertwined hands, and kissed the back of hers, before they walked out of the Great Hall together.

"So," he began with a slight upturn of his lips. "Our next Hogsmeade weekend is the twelfth."

"I saw that on the notice board in our common room earlier," she said. "Would you like to go?" Hermione asked a little hesitantly.

Their last two Hogsmeade weekends didn't exactly go smoothly. The first one, there was the run-in with Malfoy and Yaxley. The second one, they did not visit the village together, but later that evening he overheard the tense conversation between her and Lily, which led to him avoiding her for days. Truthfully she wasn't entirely sure she wanted to go this time.

Severus shrugged. "I mean, it is the weekend right before Valentine's Day," he said, a little too casually.

"It is," Hermione agreed. Her lips twitched, as she fought a smile.

Severus cleared his throat.

"I didn't know if you wanted to do something," he said in an almost bored sort of tone.

Hermione had to stifle a laugh. He really was working hard to make it seem as if he didn't care that it was Valentine's Day weekend.

She supposed that maybe they should go. It was certainly clear Severus wanted to, regardless of how nonchalant he tried, unsuccessfully, to act about it. Who knew if she'd ever have another chance to celebrate it with him.

Hermione stopped walking, and pulled his arm so that he faced her. She took a step towards him, and leaned up to place a gentle kiss on his lips.

"I would love to go, if that is what you would like to do," she told him with a smile.

Severus smiled back and wrapped his arms around her, squeezing her tightly.

"I would," he said, then kissed the top of her head.

"Alright then," she said, and they both started walking again. "It's a date."

"It's a date," he repeated.

She looked up at him, and saw the smile that spread across his lips at those words.

Now that she thought about it, the two of them really haven't had a proper date. Slughorn's Halloween party seemed to head in that direction, but definitely didn't finish that way, after they almost kissed and Hermione bolted for the toilets. However, even if someone were to count that night as a date, this would be the first one as an official couple. She suddenly felt butterflies in her stomach at the thought.

Later that evening, Hermione knocked on Dumbledore's door.

"You may enter," she heard him call out, then she pushed open the door.

"Good evening, Professor," she said, as she crossed the room.

Hermione sat in her usual seat in front of her desk, and folded her hands together.

"Good evening, Hermione," he said after she sat down. "I hope that everything is going well."

She had a feeling that his words had a double meaning. That he was not simply being polite, but that he was also asking if her mission was going well. Honestly, it was, she believed.

"Everything is going very well, as a matter of fact," she told him.

Professor Dumbledore smiled at Hermione. It looked completely genuine.

"That is wonderful news, Hermione. Truly, I am pleased to hear this," said Dumbledore.

"Thank you, sir," Hermione said, waiting for what she knew would come next.

Dumbledore took off his glasses and began to clean them with the hem of his robes. He let out a deep sigh.

"I expect you're tired of my asking, but I must know-"

"When will I be returning home, Professor?" she cut him off with a rueful grin.

Dumbledore chuckled softly.

"Yes, I assumed you would guess I was planning to ask just that."

It was Hermione's turn to let out an audible breath. Truth be told, she could have probably left as soon as the next day. As much as she did not want to admit it to herself, and for as much as she did not want to leave her Severus, a part of her was anxious to return home, and save his life the night of the Final Battle, if things still played out as she remembered them. Hermione's eyes closed as the memories of that horrific night ran through her mind.

Hermione knew that she couldn't guarantee Severus would live, with her stuck in the past. Her reasons, at this point, for staying were purely selfish. She wanted more with him now. She wanted more time with Amelia, and Remus. She wanted more time with her other friends. She wanted more time with people who had not yet been victims of war.

But, what Hermione wanted was not the most important thing. It was what she needed to do that mattered.

"I suppose soon, sir," she whispered, with her eyes still closed.

"Very well," Dumbledore said gently. "I will make sure all is in order with the Time-Turner. I would suggest you begin preparing to say your goodbyes to your friends," he hesitated for a moment. "And Mister Severus Snape."

A lump grew in Hermione's throat and her eyes filled with tears, as she thought of saying goodbye. She looked up at Dumbledore.

"How?" she asked in a choked voice. "How do I say goodbye?"

Dumbledore's eyes were warm with compassion and understanding. Hermione wasn't sure if she appreciated that, or hated him for it.

"With love," he answered simply.

ooo

A/N - Hey! I know, it's been ages since I've updated. I am truly sorry for such a long wait, but I just had no will or desire to write for a long time. My husband and I sadly had to say goodbye to the best cat in the world last month, and my heart is absolutely shattered. That sweet little boy was curled up by my side while I wrote thousands and thousands of words of this story. And, for whatever reason, about 2 or 3 weeks ago, I started to come back to this story. I guess it was a way to distract myself from grieving. I've written out a lot of the end of this story, but mostly out of order. I have the chapter after this partially completed, and then 2 or 3 later chapters completely finished, and another partial chapter written out. I started publishing this on HPFF, if any of you remember that archive (it doesn't exist any longer), under a different penname, Unicorn_Charm, in 2014. As it is now 2023, I figured its about time to wrap it up haha. I can't make an promises on when the next update will be. I might try to wait until I finish the story completely, then just release the remaining chapters 1 week at a time, until they're all posted. But, I just wanted to get this one out, as a thank you to everyone who has stuck by me and this story for so long. I promise , more is coming, and this story will never be abandoned, even if it does take me literally a decade to complete it. I hope that you are all doing well! For any new readers, welcome! And to any old readers, welcome back! I hope that you enjoy the story, and the latest chapter. More is coming! Promise!