"Lumos."
Hermione peered through the darkness, breathing in the now-familiar damp smell as she noticed the boathouse was completely empty now, devoid of any signs of the trauma that she just left behind. Or ahead. Whatever the semantics, she only had seconds to come to terms with the situation before she heard footsteps. Stealthily, she headed towards a storage rack at one side, and crouching behind it, disillusioned herself. To her surprise, the arrival of Snape and Voldemort elicited no emotion; for she knew what was to come, and had enough peace of mind to realise that every second of this chance must be used constructively. Tuning out the talk of the two dark personalities just metres away, the witch took a calming breath. The previous questions which had plagued her over the best Time Turner intentions must be put to rest, for as she had to come to learn, most magical artefacts - particularly those involved with Dumbledore - had a sole purpose, and arrived with deliberate intent, not to be trifled with. With those worries allayed, she remembered the lasting image of the future from whence she had travelled.
Why was there not more blood on Snape's collar?
She didn't realise just how much time had been spent pondering this until she heard the trio arriving and surrounding Snape. Looking up, and noticing the pressure Harry was putting on Snape's neck, an idea struck her. A stasis charm. What else would stop the blood from flowing so freely, and what other options were there - and if no other options seemed available - why would the Time Turner have presented itself? So many questions flooded her brain, but she shut them all out with the logical clarity that had resulted in her title as the brightest witch of her age, reasoning that there would be time later for more plans to form - time that could be bought with a stasis charm.
Silent stasis charms had never been her forte, however right now she couldn't risk being heard by Harry, Ron - or gods forbid herself. Placing the Time Turner carefully in her concealed bag, she closed her eyes, summoning all of the emotions and pain of the past year. A tingling sense of power spread from her heart out towards her finger tips, and almost subconsciously she sent a stasis charm towards Snape's slumped body just as his final word was uttered. Hermione opened her eyes, expecting to see an entirely improved scene before her. Foolish girl, she soon realised - stasis charms just result in nothing progressing, after all. She rocked back on her heels to wait out the rest of the events she knew lead up to her future self being whisked away, using the time to plan out her next steps.
—
Through blurry, unaware eyes Severus watched impartially as the insufferable-know-it-all disappeared. He knew that he should feel hope from hearing Albus's voice; feel affronted by being stabbed by Granger in the heart; or be filled with all kinds of emotions after his exchange with Potter - but Severus felt nothing. Turns out the brain fog surrounding death's door numbs all kinds things. Speaking of which… Why was he still at said door, not experiencing the kind release of death? And why could he no longer feel the pain drenching his neck?
Before anymore thoughts could pass through his mind, Granger reappeared in front of him, staring intently into his eyes with a scheming look. Severus went to open his mouth but it then struck him, he was paralysed. Locked into his own body. As if Granger read his thoughts, she spoke with unease. "Don't panic Professor, I've placed a sort of stasis charm on you. I don't entirely know how it presents under these circumstances - which I hope you'll provide some snarky comment on later - but I didn't know what else to do. It's bought us some time to get rid of that blasted snake's poison and heal you before you bleed out, at least for now, so please stay with me."
Severus eyed his former pupil with resentful gratitude and an unfamiliar emotion in light of Gryffindors… Pride. The Dark Lord's attempt to kill him might just be foiled by the very thing he wars against - a mudblood. Lost in the irony that Granger's muggle knowledge of anatomy, combined with her encyclopaedic memory for the beasts and venoms of the wizarding world meant she of all people might just be able to undo Nagini's handiwork, Severus failed to notice he was being levitated away from the wall.
A deafening silence surrounded him, and murky water burned his eyes, as Severus fought to move his muscles and swim, finding he could not. The underwater world faded from view as a shock of hair swam towards him, pulling him into an embrace as its owner swam him away from his watery grave. Then nothing.
—
Hermione choked up foul water as she heaved Snape's body onto a raft she had rapidly transfigured from nearby broken wood. How she dreamed of Gillyweed right now! Once they were both securely out of the water, and her senses had returned, she inspected Nagini's bite wounds. Their trip into the lake had definitely cleaned off the blood, but beyond that Hermione could not yet tell if her plan to wash the pooled venom out had worked. Theoretically, the stasis charm combined with the bleeding should have kept the venom fairly local to the wound. There was only one way to know if the plan had worked: Reaching into her bag, Hermione pulled out the extra-strength Dittany potion she had been working on over the past year, and poured some into the bites, and some into the potion professor's open mouth. Steeling herself for failure, she removed the stasis charm, massaging Snape's throat as she did so in order that he swallow the potion and not choke.
His eyes fluttered shut, and his muscles relaxed into the raft and - to her surprise - Hermione. Adjusting them both to support Snape's weight, she disillusioned them, magically propelling their raft across the lake to a hidden point along a steep bank. Exhausted by the large amounts of magic involved in getting them this far, and deciding that there was little she could do for the war efforts elsewhere in this state, Hermione embraced the slumber that engulfed her.
