66. When love and death embrace
Where are you now?
Are you lost?
Will I find you again?
Are you alone?
Are you afraid?
Are you searching for me?*
"Stop!" Hermione stopped, listening. "I hear someone's voices."
Her legs were shaking from the effort. In the last few minutes, they had stumbled upon the smoking ruins left by the Aurors and the Death Eaters three times. She still remembered the look in the eyes of one of the dying men as she moved closer to see if anyone had survived. He looked at her as if he was looking from the bottom of the most painful, most terrible abyss imaginable. He couldn't speak, but she could see the silent pleading in his eyes. Begging for death.
And she couldn't do anything to help him...
They later ran away again when they were spotted. They managed to lose the pursuit and move away from the battle line, but they still encountered groups of people running in a hurry. They had to be very careful. Death Eaters seemed to be everywhere.
Hermione frowned, listening to the approaching voices. She should grab Ron and get out of here as quickly as possible, but she needed... information, any clue. She felt like they were both wandering in the dark, and to some extent they were.
"Wait," she whispered to Ron, dropping to her knees and pointing her wand at her legs. "Tacitus Gressus."
"What are you doing?"
"Be right back. Don't move from here," she whispered, moving on all fours towards the voices.
"Hermione!" Ron crouched down, whispering her back. "Come back! Do not go there!"
She wasn't wrong. She heard them more and more clearly. Several Death Eaters combing the area looking for more victims. She stopped, lying on the ground and trying not to even flinch. She saw their dark silhouettes moving in the thick smoke. She tried to understand what they were talking about, but only fragments of sentences reached her ears. She hoped they would mention Harry or at least Voldemort, but they didn't mention anything that would help her, so she backed away quickly, listening if they're going to turn toward them, but they moved away.
"And?" Ron asked as soon as she managed to get back to him. She straightened up, looked at him, and shook her head.
"Nothing. Not a word about Harry," she sighed, taking a deep, shaky breath.
She was so tired... At times she felt as if she was dreaming. As if this was just a nightmare from which she would soon wake up, and she would be at Hogwarts again, and everyone would be there. Everyone who... have gone… And they would be preparing for their exams as always, and her only concern would be getting the highest possible result in her NEWT exams next year...
She shuddered and crossed her arms, rubbing them. She glanced at Ron. He looked at her with furrowed brows and... with something that looked like annoyance.
"I don't know why you did it. What did you expect? You won't learn anything from them anyway," he said bitterly, spitting on the ground.
The girl looked at him without saying a word. Ron looked extremely tired as well, but she didn't blame him at all. She could barely stand herself, and they seemed to be as far from finding Harry as they were when they arrived. Everything was going... wrong.
"We'll find him, Ron," she said quietly, grabbing his hand and squeezing it tightly.
"How? You saw all those corpses yourself!" He waved his hand desperately, pointing to the smoky area. "How do you know we didn't lose? Maybe they all died long ago and we are the only ones left here, running around like lost dogs?"
"Stop it!" She yanked her hand from his grasp. "It certainly didn't happen. Lupin would've told us-"
"Lupin doesn't know anything! In my opinion, we should stop this pointless running and look for my family!"
"Your family definitely sticks together and supports each other, and Harry is there alone!"
Ron's eyes burned wildly.
"Harry is my best friend and I have always sacrificed everything for him, but this time there is nothing we can do! You don't have family here! You don't know what it's like to be afraid for someone!"
Her hand shot up before she could control the wave of fiery anger flooding her chest. Ron, surprised, staggered back as she punched him in the collarbone.
"I'm afraid for you, you idiot!" she shouted, raising her hand to strike again. "I'm worried about Harry! I'm afraid we won't see him again, that we might both die here, that one of these bodies we encounter might be Luna's, or Neville's, or-"
"Maybe a little quieter, Miss Granger, unless you want to get all the Death Eaters in the area here."
Hermione turned abruptly, raising her wand.
Faster...
Faster.
Faster!
As she ran, she passed the blurred silhouettes of combatants, jumped over bodies, and cast spells whenever she noticed the suggestion of a black hood.
"Tonks, watch out!" The shout of Arthur Weasley fighting the Death Eater warned her of the impending curse. She dodged and, running in a bent position, knocked out the Death Eater with a stinging spell. She ran past Molly and her daughter, and a few meters away she saw Fred and George Weasley in the smoke, throwing blindingly exploding pellets at two Death Eaters.
Bellatrix was moving. Tonks could hear her laughter moving closer and further away.
She sped up. She hurled spells at anyone who got in her way. She saw a glow of flashing magic. And that meant there was still a chance... that Luna was still defending himself.
As she ran, she deflected a ricocheting spell and the smoke seemed to suddenly part, revealing the small figure, kneeling on the ground with her wand raised up and the bushy blonde hair now ruffled and caked with mud.
"Protego maxima!" she shouted, stopping right in front of her and shielding her from the stream of blue light rushing toward her. The shield she had conjured shook and shattered, but the curse was blocked.
Tonks only had a second. She turned her head, looking straight into the blue eyes, wide with surprise.
"Run!" she screamed. Merlin, if only she had a little more time to grab her and not let go until she apparated with her to a place where she would be safe.
She turned back around just as Bellatrix emerged from the mist. Her face contorted in momentary surprise when, instead of the helpless victim she almost had in the grip, she saw an Auror aiming at her. But that surprise quickly turned to amusement.
"Hello, my dear niece," Bellatrix drawled, smiling as if the only thing missing to make her even more intimidating were fangs. "Don't you know that it's rude to interrupt someone's pursuit of such a small, agile monkey?"
Tonks licked her lips, dry from running and smoke.
"Don't you know, dear 'aunty', that it's not nice to try to catch other people's monkeys?"
Surprise. This was exactly what she wanted to achieve. And she took advantage of it immediately.
"Fractum!" she exclaimed, taking a step forward.
Bellatrix managed to block the spell with the greatest difficulty.
"DO YOU DARE ATTACK ME, YOU FILTHY FREAK?! CRUCIO!"
Tonks jumped to the side, quickly regaining her balance and throwing a shock spell at Bellatrix. And without waiting for its effects, she immediately started throwing more. One after the other. Over and over again so that her opponent doesn't even have a chance to think about attacking.
She was attacking, moving forward, completely disregarding the defense, just to destroy her, to burn her on the spot, once and for all, so that she could never lay a hand on Luna again! Her hand was almost trembling with rage, her fire-filled eyes seemed to sting, but Bellatrix deflected almost every spell, even though their strength forced her to constantly retreat.
"Conbustum!" she finally exclaimed hoarsely, casting one of the strongest spells she knew. Its heat almost blinded her, but Bellatrix managed to conjure a protective shield in front of her, and although Tonks pressed with all her might, she was unable to melt it until she heard Luna's voice coming from behind her to her right:
"Reducto!"
She heard an angry scream from Bellatrix, who had to jump to the side to deflect Luna's spell, removing her protective shield, and Tonks' spell hit a dried bush behind her, which immediately burst into blinding flames.
The explosion was too strong. Tonks closed her eyes and her sense of vision was blurred for a split second as she fought against the white spots that appeared before her eyes.
She looked around quickly, trying to pick out the dark figure from the flood of light, but it was nowhere to be found. Nowhere!
Consuming rage turned to horror as she turned, eyes searching for Luna.
She disappeared.
"Well, well, I must admit, you're a tough bitch..."
Despite the heat emanating from the burning bush, Tonks' body was covered in frost as she slowly turned her head and saw two silhouettes.
Bellatrix was standing behind Luna, holding her by the hair and holding her wand to Luna throat, her smile resembled a hungry shark, approaching fast.
"Professor Sinistra," Hermione sighed, lowering her hand and almost feeling relief trickle down her skin.
"Are you injured?" the teacher asked, coming closer.
Hermione shook her head. Although her arm was still throbbing, the wound was not serious enough to be mentioned.
"Did you see any injured people along the way? I'm transporting them to Hogwarts."
Hermione shook her head. They only encountered the dead ones. Or those who can no longer be helped in any way...
"Did you take anyone from my family?" Ron asked hurriedly.
"No. But I met your parents, twin brothers and sister. They were fine."
Hermione saw the deep relief on Ron's face.
"What about Professor Dumbledore and the rest?" she asked.
Professor Sinistra looked around the area warily.
"Let's get out of here. It's too dangerous to stay any longer in any place."
They both followed her, trying to see something in the thick smoke.
"The Headmaster is in the middle of the valley. He can neither get out nor change position. He uses Fiendfyre to shield himself from hordes of enemies. The Auror who gave me this information said he had never seen anything like this in his life. Apparently the ground around is strewn with the ash bodies of Death Eaters who were affected by the Headmaster's spell."
Professor Sinistra stopped to examine the wizard's body on the ground, but even without doing so, Hermione was sure the man had not survived. Nearly half of his skin was charred. She quickly turned her head to stop the heaves.
The Professor sighed heavily, got up and moved on.
"The last time I saw Minerva, she was fighting the Carrow siblings," the teacher continued, moving through the smoke so fast that the clouds seemed to part in front of her. "Unfortunately, Professor Flitwick has fallen and Professor Sprout is seriously injured. At the moment we are trying to survive and waiting for reinforcements. Hagrid stayed at Hogwarts. He gathers an army of centaurs. They'll be here soon."
Hermione looked at Ron and saw the shock on his face at all this information fighting with the hope welling up in his heart. Did she look the same? Probably yes. As soon as Hagrid and the centaurs arrive, they will have a chance to win. Let's hope it's not too late!
"Longbottom!" Professor Sinistra's shout brought her to reality in an instant. The teacher ran to Neville who was lying on the ground.
The hand with the wand he was pointing at them fell to the ground, and his pale face contorted in pain. He was injured. And only when Hermione got closer did she see how serious he was injured. His left leg... it was gone.
She stepped back, covering her mouth with her hand.
Ron stood next to her, his face as white as paper.
"I didn't think I'd see you again," Neville muttered quietly, looking at them with his eyes bloodshot with pain. "Although you look more like ghosts than people." He tried to smile, but his lips only turned into a bitter grimace. "It looks bad, doesn't it? But I was still luckier than Dean", he said, nodding behind him. Hermione followed his gaze while Professor Sinistra placed her bag of medicines on the ground, searching through its contents.
Dean's body lay a few meters away. Or at least she had to take Neville's word that it was Dean's body, because there was nothing left of it except bloody... 'thing' that was once Dean. She felt like fainting, but her eyes quickly moved to a familiar figure sitting on the ground next to Neville, rocking back and forth.
"Seamus!" she exclaimed, running to him and crouching down next to him. He didn't seem injured, but his eyes were focused somewhere in the distance. The arms he wrapped his legs around with were covered in blood up to the elbows. "Can you hear me?" she asked, placing her hand on his shoulder and shaking him slightly. "Seamus! Professor, there's something wrong with him," she said, her voice trembling, looking at Professor Sinistra, who was uncorking one of the bottles. The teacher glanced at them quickly and said in a heavy voice:
"You won't help him now. I'm taking them both to Hogwarts."
"It's Bellatrix," Neville said in a hoarse voice. "She's been chasing us since we separated. We had no chance..." he stopped for a moment, taking a shallow breath and wincing in pain. "But Luna lured her away."
Hermione jumped up and looked at Ron, still standing in the same place.
"Which direction did they run?"
Neville struggled to raise his trembling hand and point in the direction, but at the same moment Professor Sinistra rolled up his torn trouser leg and poured an unknown potion on his bloody stump.
Neville howled in pain as he fell to the muddy ground, but almost immediately the teacher cast Silencio on him, looking warily from side to side.
"He lost consciousness, but it's good", she said, standing up and slinging her bag over her shoulder. "Less risk of splitting when will we Apparate." She looked at Hermione and for the first time her tense face relaxed. "Come with me. You've seen too much blood. This is not your war. I will patch you up and you will wait safely at Hogwarts."
Hermione bit her lip.
"If it's not our war, then whose?" she asked quietly, looking straight into the teacher's eyes. "All our friends are here. We can't just leave them here and let them fight alone. Please don't worry, we will take care of ourselves. Come on, Ron." She walked up to Ron, taking his hand and pulling him in the direction Neville had indicated.
Ron swallowed. She saw him turn around, looking at Professor Sinistra, who was leaning over Neville, but very quickly he caught up with her, staring at the slowly rolling clouds of smoke and raising his wand.
"You don't mean to tell me you're going to fight Bellatrix?" he whispered. She already knew him perfectly. She knew that this question, asked in a casual tone, concealed a whole range of emotions - from nervousness to paralyzing fear.
"Why not? We would finally do something useful", she replied quietly, looking around the ground for what she was most afraid of seeing.
She didn't think they were that far from the battle line. But on the other hand, there simply could have been much fewer combatants, judging by the number of bodies they encountered. She could still hear distant screams and shouts, and some powerful spells lit up the sky over and over again.
Ron surveyed the area while she combed the muddy ground covered with footprints.
Suddenly, an icy current ran through her body as she noticed light-blond hair lying in the mud a few meters to the left. She should come over there. She should come forward, but her body didn't want to listen to her. She was just standing motionless, staring at the slowly dissipating smoke, revealing the two silhouettes pressed together. The body above seemed to shield the small, blond figure beneath it, and Hermione stopped breathing when she saw the ashen, naked back.
There was no doubt. They arrived too late.
"Lower your wand, or this little angel will get hurt very badly..."
Tonks gritted her teeth as she felt the ice creeping inside her, seizing her heart in a breathless grip. Her hand holding the wand was shaking. She felt as if her mind was fighting her body in a murderous battle.
Luna was standing motionless, her head tilted back and her teeth bared in pain. Tonks could see her blue eyes staring at her with a pure, fearless gaze.
"You know... what you did wasn't very smart." Luna's soft voice rang through the air, causing Bellatrix to look at her with surprise, as if she was surprised that bugs could talk. "Someone else might think you're a coward for hiding behind me."
Tonks saw Bellatrix's face contort with fury. She pulled harder, hissing straight into Luna's ear:
"Maybe I'll start with your naughty tongue, huh? I'm sure my niece would know how to use it..." Her loud laugh almost hurt Tonks ears.
Tonks bit her lip, gripping the wand in her hand even tighter. Her heart seemed to almost beat in the throat. It was struggling like a caged bird, making it increasingly difficult for her to breathe.
In any other situation, she would have known how to react. How many times had she practiced similar actions? How many similar events has she participated in? But now... now she was just staring at the wand pressed against Luna's throat and her senses were going crazy, and she couldn't- she couldn't-
She saw Luna's hand move imperceptibly upwards, grabbing the pendant hanging around her neck and closing around the amulet.
Tonks felt a pang in her chest. Luna liked these weird, useless pendants so much. She believed in them. She believed that thanks to them nothing would happen to her; that they would save her...
"I'm counting to three," Bellatrix said sharply, tugging Luna's hair again and pressing the tip of her wand even harder into her exposed neck. "And I'll rip her guts out..."
Tonks' shaking hand began to fall.
As Bellatrix's lips stretched into a ghastly smile, a terrifying scream pierced the air. Tonks only had time to see the light coming from Luna's necklace before the entire world was drowned in a cacophony of almost eardrum-shattering howling.
Bellatrix instinctively grabbed her ears and Tonks saw Luna throw herself to the ground. And that was enough for her.
Her wand raised into the air, but before she could cast the spell, she saw Bellatrix's wand pointing at her and Bellatrix's mouth moving and speaking the words of the curse. And although years of training had taught her that defense was the most important thing, this time... she didn't have time for it.
"Avada Kedavra!" she screamed without thinking.
Tonks saw two rays. The green one hit Bellatrix square in the chest, knocking her body back like a rag doll, and the light blue-
Tonks felt a strong impact, her whole world turned upside down and suddenly she was surrounded by... silence.
"Ron..." Hermione tried to say it louder, but the whisper was barely audible, as if a noose had tightened around her throat, preventing her from speaking.
She shouldn't have done this. She shouldn't have come here. She might not have seen it. She should have left as soon as she saw those two bodies, but she had to make sure... she had to.
"Ron, stay where you are. Don't come here." She didn't recognize her own voice.
"What happened, Hermione?"
She heard his footsteps approaching.
She turned and glared at him tremblingly.
"Ron, I... I'm so sorry."
Ron eyes widened. He lunged forward, pushing her aside, and when he looked down...
It wasn't Luna. She discovered it immediately when she got closer.
"No..." That quiet, broken whisper was worse than a scream. It seemed to come not from the throat, but from the soul itself. "No. No Bill..."
When she saw Ron drop to his knees, her heart dropped with him.
"He covered Fleur with his body," she whispered quietly, kneeling down next to him and placing a hand on his trembling shoulder.
She wished she could hug him, but she had to stay alert. In this situation, only she was able to keep them safe, because he seemed completely oblivious to the world around him, staring in disbelief at his brother's body and silently moving his trembling lips.
Merlin, how much she would give to stop this, to end this madness, so that none of their loved ones would suffer anymore... but only finding Harry could bring them closer to victory, even though she was fully aware that it also meant the meeting with Voldemort. And none of them was prepared for this.
A sudden movement to her left caught her attention. Hermione quickly turned her head and lost her breath for a moment when she saw a dark silhouette and a wand pointed at Ron.
"Expelliarmus!" she screamed, pushing Ron aside. The spell whistled just under her shoulder, hitting the ground and splashing wet mud sideways.
The Death Eater's wand landed a few meters away from them, and as she jumped up to run for it, she saw the man lunge at a surprised Ron, pinning him to the ground and wrapping his arms around his neck. She pointed the wand at him, shouting:
"Reduc-"
To the left of her, she saw a bright yellow beam of a curse and had to quickly duck to avoid it.
There were two of them.
She stood up and looked around desperately, trying to locate the other Death Eater. She saw Ron struggling, trying to throw his opponent off of him, but he punched him right in the face. However, she could no longer see anything more than the blinding light of the curse thrown at her.
"Protego!"
The shield shook but managed to stop the attack. Hermione took a few steps back, almost falling into the mud.
Another curse shattered the shield into pieces.
"Protego!"
The second one was much weaker, but withstood another blow.
Her eyes darted around and she saw Ron. His face was covered in blood, but he continued to fight, punching the Death Eater on top of him in the chest and stomach.
"Stupefy!" she screamed, aiming at the source of the constant attacks, but the Death Eater easily deflected her spell and the moment she aimed at the one who was fighting Ron, another curse almost hit her in the face. She smelled burning hair.
She had only one, only option. Get the Death Eater away from here.
She lunged forward, aiming over her shoulder at the man charging at her.
"Impedimento!"
She heard a bang behind her and the laughter of the Death Eater chasing her.
"You've missed, cutie!"
Right after that, she heard another bang coming from behind her and two familiar voices shouting:
"Leave our brother, you scumbag!"
The relief was so debilitating that Hermione almost tripped and fell into the mud, but another curse that whistled past her shoulder got her going.
"Reducto! Stupefy! Petrificus Totalus!"
Hermione cast spells blindly, just to slow him down, just to give herself some breathing room. She almost bumped into the short, stocky witch, but before she could warn her, the curse of the Death Eater chasing her hit the woman, sending her flying several meters, but Hermione couldn't stop. She kept running, turning sharply to confuse him. She jumped over a corpse lying on the ground, resembling the tiny body of one of the elves working at Hogwarts, and too late noticed the flashes of spells in front of her.
She ran straight between several fighting Aurors and Death Eaters.
"What are you doing, girl?" she heard one of them scream as she dived towards the ground, ran between them almost on all fours and continued running. She turned around only after several dozen meters, but the pursuer was nowhere to be seen. Apparently he wasn't as lucky as she was. However, she preferred not to turn back to check it out.
Hermione stopped and breathed heavily for a moment, hands on her knees. When she regained her breath, she straightened up and looked around carefully. She heard screams and explosions coming from the distance. And suddenly, somewhere nearby, a painful howl rose into the air, sending an icy chill through her body.
She recognized that voice...
She gripped her wand tighter and moved in that direction.
She should be around here somewhere. Her laughter came from exactly this direction. The laughter interrupted by that strange, piercing scream - a scream that was neither like the scream of a tortured victim nor anything Severus was familiar with, although he had a vague feeling he had heard it somewhere before.
He slowly slipped into another cloud of smoke, looking carefully around. He got past a completely burned bush.
He had to be careful. He certainly wasn't the only one who heard that sound. The echo carried it so far that he was almost certain that all the Death Eaters nearby were heading there at the same moment. Like a pack of wolves drawn here by the promise of a substantial meal.
Over there!
A few meters away he saw a body dressed in black lying on the ground. Severus came closer, looking around, and only when he was almost over the corpse did he look at the face of Bellatrix, frozen in an expression of utter surprise.
The mud he was standing in suddenly became much muddier than before. Like it was trying to swallow him up. The hand in which he held the wand fell, and a dark shadow covered his eyes, extinguishing the faint glow that gleamed at the bottom of them.
His key to find Potter... The only key...
His legs involuntarily led him down. He knelt down, reaching out and touching the cold hand of the dead woman.
Had... had the Dark Lord made a mistake by entrusting his whereabouts to a person who could have been defeated?
Impossible.
Maybe it wasn't about what Bellatrix knew, but what she might have had with her...
His hand ran along her side, searching for a hidden pocket.
For a hint. Any kind of hi-
His senses screamed a warning. He jumped up abruptly, but he didn't have time to raise his wand. The curse hit him with such tremendous force that his lungs constricted for a moment, cutting off the air, and he fell to the ground, his entire body feeling like it had turned into a pain reactor.
A moment of inattention. It only took one moment...
His insides were on fire, his body was convulsing and struggling as if it was trying to free itself from the torture, his head was hitting the ground again and again and the whole world seemed to be just an endless scream coming from his throat.
Someone stopped over him. He saw the hem of a black robe and a distorted, sardonic voice mocking him.
He saw the wand raised, preparing to strike another blow. He wanted to lift his, but his body didn't listen to him, torn by violent spasms and the feeling as if someone was ripping his insides out alive.
He looked up at the face of the Death Eater standing above him, wanting to know who he was to haunt him from the afterlife, and the moment he recognized him... the sneer disappeared from Macnair's face, replaced by a surprise, and his body fell right next to him, face first into the mud.
Someone's face broke into the spasmodically vibrating world, red with exploding pain. A familiar face.
"Professor Snape, can you hear me?"
Granger. By Merlin. Of all the people, Granger. He had a chance to get out of this...!
The potions. He had them in a hidden pocket. But his senses had almost stopped functioning, battered by torture. He couldn't make a sound, couldn't even raise his hand.
With all his willpower, he forced the twitching muscles in his right arm to work, lifting it off the ground and pulling it closer. His hand was shaking uncontrollably, but he managed to lift it and press it to his chest.
It worked. The girl quickly understood what he wanted to show her and after a short search, she discovered a hidden pocket and took out all the potions from it.
His body was slowly turning into a limp limb, racked by discharges of pain, and his teeth cracked as he tried to clench them to hold back a scream. He saw Granger uncorking and smelling all the potions one by one, checking their color and consistency.
His eyelids drooped, no longer able to fight the pain that was gripping him more and more. He almost couldn't feel his limbs anymore, and his insides-
Suddenly, a potion poured into his half-open mouth. Severus felt it flow down his throat, cutting off the pain as quickly as if someone was blocking its way. His throbbing muscles relaxed and feeling returned to his limbs. His lungs began to function, and the feeling of burning from the inside was replaced by a pleasant coolness, a gentle relief spreading throughout his body.
He breathed deeply for a moment, gathering his scattered senses and bringing his mind back into tight control of his body.
He lifted his eyes and saw Granger still leaning over him. Her tense face relaxed visibly when she saw that he was alive.
"I've been looking for you everywhere, Professor," she said in a trembling voice, pulling away.
Severus rose to a sitting position, although his movements were still severely restricted. He tried to stop the dizziness, but it wasn't easy. He blinked several times and then focused his gaze on Granger. The girl was kneeling next to him, staring at him with fear, relief and determination at the same time - an unusual mixture.
"Do you have any information about Harry?" she asked quickly as soon as she felt his assessing gaze on her "He's nowhere to be found. Neither Voldemort. He had to take him somewhere."
Severus didn't answer. He glanced at Macnair's body lying next to him. The Death Eater's eyes were closed, but Severus could clearly see that he was still breathing. The girl just had to stun him.
Despite the painful throbbing of his muscles, he rose to his knees, grabbed Macnair's head with his hands, and with one quick jerk, twisted it one hundred and eighty degrees, breaking his neck.
Granger squealed, stepped back and fell into the mud.
Severus shot her a sharp look, conveying all his disapproval of her carelessness and use of such a poor and weak spell.
"Give me back the potions," he growled, trying to return his hoarse voice to normal.
The girl bent down, picked up the vials and, with trembling hands, handed them to him without a word. Before Severus put them back, he glanced at the Dolorelevum Potion she had administered to him. There was half left, so it looked like Granger had not only recognized it, but had somehow calculated the right dose to break the curse without turning him into a plant.
The absurd thought came to his mind that if they were at Hogwarts, he might even break his rules and award her a few points for demonstrating such extensive knowledge, but then his gaze fell on her trembling hands and her wide-open eyes as she was staring at him. with a mixture of terror and stubborn courage. They weren't at Hogwarts. There was a war going on around her, and she had just witnessed her teacher killing a man with his bare hands... Here, all the values were redefined.
"Control yourself, girl" he said sharply, zipping the pocket in which he hid the potions tightly. "If you don't give me a reason, your neck will remain intact."
Granger swallowed and blinked.
"That's not the point. I just... I know you're doing it for him."
Severus pierced her with a murderous look. She seemed to shrink into herself, but she still looked straight into his eyes.
He suspected she would figure it out. Who else but her? But it didn't matter now. At all.
He didn't react. He turned his head and looked at Bellatrix's dead body, hearing the girl let out a relieved breath.
"I suspect Bellatrix might have been the only one who had any information about their whereabouts, but someone got to her before I did," he said, leaning down and reaching for his wand lying in the mud. "But that doesn't change anything. I will find him."
He felt her gaze on him. He turned his head and saw her frowning in thought. Her eyes moved as if she was rapidly searching her mind for useful information.
"I don't know if this will help, but I overheard a conversation between several Death Eaters. They were talking about Malfoy."
Snape's eyes changed like a rapidly approaching storm, lit by deadly lightning, filling with an entirely new, much more powerful force.
Malfoy! Of course!
His hand shot forward, grabbing her arm with all his strength and squeezing so hard she almost screamed.
"Tell me everything you know!" he drawled, jerking her closer.
"I don't know anything else," she replied hastily. "I only heard them mention that Malfoy was not taking part in the battle and was waiting somewhere. At first it didn't seem important, but-"
He let go of her, pushing her away from him.
Of course it was Malfoy. Bellatrix knew nothing. She was too unstable for the Dark Lord to entrust her with such a task. And since Severus had fallen out of favor, it was certainly Malfoy who had become the Dark Lord's right-hand man.
Granger rubbed her arm, examining the man with a frown, as if she had seen something on his face that made her deeply confused.
"Do you think he's still alive? Harry?" she asked quietly, looking him straight in the eyes. "That we have a chance to win?"
Severus took a step toward her, accidentally knocking over one of the vials that Granger must have missed. Her eyes widened when she saw the look on his face.
"I don't know if you have any chance, but I will wipe out anyone who gets in my way. And if there is to be any winner in this war... I assure you, it will be neither Dumbledore nor the Dark Lord."
The girl just stared at him with wide eyes for a moment, and Severus could clearly see them filling with disbelief, horror, and pain...
"So I won't see him again..." she whispered quietly, swallowing.
Severus had no intention of wasting any more time. He stepped back and knelt down, fishing a discarded vial out of the mud and wiping it on the edge of his cloak. But the girl clearly had no intention of giving up. As Severus pocketed the vial, he heard her muffled whisper:
"When you find him... tell him I was wrong about you. And that... I understand now."
Severus shot her a piercing look, his lips twisting into a sneer to let her know that he was completely uninterested in this type of useless gibberish.
At the same moment the air trembled, filling the world with greenery and a vengeful voice coming from an unknown direction:
"Avada Kedavra!"
Unexpectedly, the curse hit straight into the back of Granger standing over him-
-and Severus watched, stunned, as her eyes rolled back into her skull, filling with an icy emptiness, and her face froze, devoid of the soul leaving her.
The limp body fell straight onto him, shielding him from another curse, but before it could arrive, Severus quickly found the target and sent the most brutal curse he knew straight at the Death Eater standing among the clouds of smoke:
"Lacrima!"
An eardrum-shattering howl pierced the air as the man's body fell into the mud, writhing in it like a larva whose skin was slowly being removed, inch by inch, with almost surgical precision.
He looked around, but saw no one who could pose a threat to him, so he carefully pushed the dead body aside and stood up.
He looked at the long, light brown hair scattered on the ground and the hazel eyes staring into the void. Her frozen features now resembled the face of a wax doll rather than the study-absorbed, focused student he had always thought was extremely big-headed, but who ultimately turned out to be... exceptionally brilliant.
She could've achieved a lot. With her drive for knowledge and unlimited mind, she could've conquered almost anything. And that blank, unmoving expression... didn't suit her.
But that was the price. And Severus knew from the very beginning that it could be really high.
He knelt down and placed his hand over her eyes, closing her still warm eyelids.
The fallen Death Eater's scream had already turned into a death rattle as Severus straightened up, intending to get away from the place as quickly as possible, but the pitter-patter of feet in the fog forced him to raise his wand and remain on high alert.
First, a hand clutching a wand emerged from the smoke, but it quickly turned out that it belonged to... a Weasley.
Her eyes widened in surprise when she spotted the teacher, but relief quickly flooded them.
"Ron! Guys, come on! I found Professor Snape! Maybe he saw Herm-" Her gaze slid downwards and all the blood drained from her face.
Severus only had time to lower his wand and step aside when a few pairs of feet turned into Ron, Fred and George Weasley, and Greg Lipswick, who - seeing the teacher in front of them - suddenly stopped and their eyes quickly moved to the three bodies lying at his feet and-
-the air seemed to fill with a vibrating silence, as if the world needed a moment to take a breath and take in everything that had happened... and the silence was suddenly broken by the sound of Ron's wand falling to the ground and a dull, disbelieving whisper:
"Hermione...?"
He lunged forward with an expression on his face as if he was falling into an abyss and nothing could stop him. He grabbed the limp body, lifting it from the ground and shaking it.
"Hermione! Stop playing... Wake up, please... Hermione, can you hear me?"
His trembling fingers stroked the pale face, the half-open mouth, and the long, tangled hair. He acted like he really believed she was just sleeping, and that she will wake up in a moment... He just needed to convince her...
"Do not do this to me. I promise that I will work hard to study... I will pass all my exams with outstanding results... Just open your eyes... please..."
He pressed her against him with such force, as if he hoped that when he warmed her, her closed eyelids would open.
Severus couldn't see his face, but he could hear the tears in his voice. Flowing down the throat in a salty stream of despair.
"Hermione... please... You can't… you can't..." he whispered vaguely, rocking her in his arms. "It's not- We were supposed to find him... together... You can't- Without you-" His voice broke like a broken branch - something that cannot be put back together and has only one fate... to wither. He bent in half, sinking so low to the ground that he seemed to want to sink into it. As if he wanted the cold and darkness to consume him. His shoulders were trembling so much as if someone had taken away all the support, forcing him to carry what was left alone, and a piercing, spasmodic sob escaped his mouth, tearing the air into single particles of pain that fell to the ground in the form of magical frost.
Ginny broke away from her brothers and, sobbing loudly, walked over to Ron, who was sitting on the ground and holding Hermione's limp body in his arms. She dropped to her knees next to him, placing a hand on his shoulder.
"Ron, she-"
"Do not touch me!" he growled, pushing her away with his elbow with such force that she fell onto the slowly freezing ground, right under Severus' feet. She stood up, wiping the tears streaming down her face with her hand.
Severus looked around searchingly.
They were in an open area, and this whole show had been taking far too long. At any time, any of them could join their friend. The wolves, attracted by the noise, were certainly getting closer... And he had no intention of paying for their mistakes.
"You should get out of here as soon as possible," he said commandingly. "Take her body and-"
"You killed her..." The voice that came out of Ron's mouth was like an animal growl. Severus looked at the boy sitting on the ground, who was staring back at him with red, bloodshot eyes, in which only one feeling was burning at the moment - a hatred that was consuming him from the inside, poisoning his mind. "You killed her, you son of a bitch! You are on their side!"
Severus's grip tightened on his wand as he watched the boy put her body down and rise on shaky legs. There was something in his eyes that couldn't be called anything other than... madness.
He was surrounded by silence. And darkness. And cold. A piercing, icy cold that seemed to dig its claws deeper and deeper, tearing his body apart and letting in the creeping, writhing... fear inside.
Something hard was pressing against his side. He tried to lift his eyelids, but they seemed frozen, as if frost had settled on his eyelashes. Only after several attempts did he manage to peel them off.
He opened his eyes.
The first thing he saw was... a white fog. Pierced with uneven cracks.
He blinked a few times, but it wouldn't go away, and only then did he realize... his glasses were frosted over, and one of the lenses was completely cracked.
He looked up higher. There was something in the air. Some dark silhouettes. Circling above him like ravens. And as the frost disappeared under the warm breath, he saw more and more of them... and more... and more...
And his heart, wrapped in an ice cocoon, stopped beating for a moment when he suddenly realized who they were...
They were Dementors.
And then, in one sharp breath... Harry remembered everything.
I tried to walk together
But the night was growing dark
Thought you were beside me
But I reached and you were gone
Sometimes I hear you calling
From some lost and distant shore
I hear you crying softly for the way it was before
You took it with you when you left
These scars are just a trace
Now it wanders lost and wounded
This heart that I misplaced
Where are you now?
Are you lost?
Will I find you again?
Are you alone?
Are you afraid?
Are you searching for me?
Why did you go? I had to stay
Now I'm reaching for you
Will you wait? Will you wait?
Will I see you again?*
* "Hymn for the missing" by RED