AN: Thank you so much for all the support! It is very deeply appreciated!

"I, I don't understand," Hermione rubbed Severus' hand. "His brain swelling went down days ago, but he still hasn't regained consciousness."

"Poppy said some traumatic injuries take longer to recover from than others," Neville fluffed Severus' pillows. "Perhaps his body isn't as recovered as it needs to be in order for him to wake up."

"I need him to recover now though." A tear came to her eye. "I don't want to live without him."

"You won't have to. He'll come back to you when he's healthy enough to do so."

"He needs to do it soon, preferably tonight. My demonstration is tomorrow, and I need him there. I need his encouragement, or else..." Her throat tightened until she could no longer speak.

"If he was awake he would be encouraging you right now, telling you how you are already prepared for what lies ahead," Neville softened his voice.

"I need to hear the words though. I need him here with me now."

"Even if he can't speak to you, he's with you right now."

"I know in my heart that we'll always be together," she sniffed. "But that doesn't mean I don't want to hear him scolding me for spending all my free time beside his bed, or telling me to go over my routine one more time. Even if he can't help me physically, just hearing his voice would be enough to give me comfort. I need to hear him say that I'm prepared and that I can do this."

"Do you think you're prepared?"

"Yes, I practiced my demonstration this afternoon."

"How did it go?"

"Everything went perfectly." She massaged her shaking leg. "Flying was more difficult than usual with the snow falling, but I managed to work through the pain with the methods Severus and I devised."

"The snow is supposed to clear up by tonight," he answered. "The weather should be dry tomorrow."

"I know, and I'm grateful for that." She raised Severus' hand. "I just want to speak with him one more time before the presentation, just to hear him tell me I'm doing well, hear him say that he loves me, and hear him say that whatever happens, we'll work through it as a team. I want to hear him say we'll be together forever, and he'll never leave me."

"If he was here, he'd say all those things. You know that in your heart."

"Yes, I know," she kissed her lover's hand. "That knowledge will have to be enough for me."

"In the meantime, you may want to sleep in your own bed. It has to be more comfortable than that cot."

"I told you, I can't bear the thought of leaving Severus. If he regains consciousness in the middle of the night, he'll be alone. He's woken up alone so many times. I don't want him to do it ever again."

"Yes, but you will sleep better on a more comfortable bed."

"No, I'll be alone if I go back to my quarters, thinking about how he's alone. I won't get any sleep, and I'll have a lingering feeling of guilt."

"If he woke up in the middle of the night, Poppy would rush to his side. He wouldn't be alone for long."

"But I would be."

"Crookshanks can keep you company."

"No, he won't leave Severus' lap."

Neville turned to the feline stretched out on Severus' lap. Eyes closed, Crookshanks purred and curled his front right paw.

"Severus has stolen my familiar," Hermione kept her eye on Crookshanks.

"Indeed he has," Neville answered. "Which is touching given how much Crookshanks hated Ron."

"He despised Ron." Hermione stroked Crookshanks' back. In response, he stretched his body further. "He never sat on his lap, and would growl at him every morning. If Ron gave him food, he'd refuse to eat it. That's why I always had to feed him. It got so bad Ron threatened to rehome him, though I told him he would never see me again if he did that. After we broke up, I thought Crookshanks would never approve of anyone I dated."

"Crookshanks has given Severus his blessing. He knows Severus will always be by your side and will always treat you well."

"True, but Severus needs to learn to stop spoiling him." She scratched behind Crookshanks' ears. "He glares at me when I give him his regular food now. Then, he looks at Severus as if he's starving. He's used to rubbing against Severus' legs and getting a treat for existing."

"They are two of a kind," Neville chuckled. "They are the two males who will fight hardest to stay in your life, and the two who love you the most."

"I know." Hermione balanced herself on the bars of Severus' bed and gave him a kiss on the cheek. "They are the two males I will fight the hardest to keep in my life, and the ones I love the most."

Neville gave her a small smile. "Have faith in Severus' love. Somehow, some way, he will find a way to return to you."

"I hope so," she looked at his sleeping for once more. "I don't want to live without him. I never want to know what life would be like without him coming into my quarters every evening, talking about everything and nothing, hearing him say, 'I love you.' I don't know what it's like not to be loved again."

Neville walked over to Hermione and embraced her. She returned the embrace, thankful for his friendship, even as she wished it was Severus' arms which were around her.


Severus had a plan. It had taken a few hours, days, or was it months, to complete? How long had he been in this hell? No matter! All that mattered was that he had an escape plan now. Hermione needed him to be there for her demonstration, and he was going to be present regardless of how much damage he did to himself.

"Albus," he called in the weakest voice he could manage.

"Severus?" Dumbledore opened the slot on the top of the door.

"I, I think I'm fading," he lay on the ground and put an arm over his face in the most helpless pose he could muster.

"What do you mean?"

"It means I see a small light."

"A small light?"

"Yes," Severus rasped. "And it's coming closer to me."

"Closer?" Albus asked.

"Yes," He extended his free arm. "And I think it's going to absorb me. Once I touch it, I will be transported into the afterlife, or oblivion, whichever one death has condemned me to."

"Oh dear." Dumbledore shut the slot and opened the door. "You were supposed to recover, not fade further."

"I see it. I see the light," Severus moaned. "I hope Hermione knows I love her. The two weeks I spent as her lover were the happiest two weeks of my life. It is a shame they could not have lasted longer. I hope she finds someone else who will love her just as ardently, someone who is much younger and stronger than me. I'm sorry I couldn't tell her I loved her before I died."

"You have to fight," Albus grabbed his shoulders. "You have to fight to stay alive."

"I know." Severus sneered before throwing Albus against the wall.

"What?"

Before Albs could react, Severus slammed the door behind him and raced out of the tower. The stairs were endless, but he kept running down them. Somehow, he was escaping this prison, even if it meant he awoke with a massive headache.

Once he reached the bottom of the stairs, he saw a light. For a second, he considered stepping away from it. Still, it beckoned him. Something inside of him told him the led led to his home. If he stepped through that light, he would be with Hermione.

With confidence, he stepped into it, and braced himself for whatever would come next.


Hermione sat at a table which resembled the one found in her kitchen, a blue cup of black tea before her. The carpet was emerald, but the walls around her were nothing but white light.

This was a place where she'd gone to several times in her dreams. When she was calculating ways to restore the memory of her parents, she came to this room. A few days after Ron had kicked her out, she returned to this room. Although she didn't receive any revelations from her visits, she did find peace. In the starkness, there was calm and a sense of comfort. As her waking life was collapsing, her subconscious had a place for her to settle in for the night.

"Hermione?"

She sat up straighter in her wheelchair. Nobody had ever invaded this space before.

"Hermione." The voice was stronger, closer, and the right distance to where she could turn her wheelchair and not crane her neck.

"Hermione, love, are you here?"

Hermione turned the wheelchair around and looked at the man before her. She blinked a few times just to make sure the vision before her was clear. He remained. Had she been awake, tears would have been streaming down her face.

"Severus!"

"Thank Merlin I found you," he ran to her. He clung to her as if she was the only person keeping him afloat in the tumult of life. Although she couldn't feel his touch, she could feel his love radiating through her being.

"Is it really you, or just a dream?" She looked up at him.

"I'm here although," he stopped and glanced around. "I fear I don't know where 'here' is."

"This is a place where I go when my waking life is too stressful," she said.

"So I didn't escape my hell hole of a nightmare," he shook his head.

She frowned. "I'd like to think this isn't a hell hole."

"It is not," he glanced around. "It is quite nice actually."

"I don't know if I'd call it nice," she smiled, "but it is tranquil."

"Perhaps, though I wish I was in my waking life, and not in another dream."

"No, but you're getting closer to awakening, or at least I think you are."

"I don't know how close I am to awakening or how this has happened," he admitted. "I've never invaded another person's dream before."

"I've never had anyone invade my dreams, though," there was a mischievous gleam in her eyes. "I have dreamed about you several times."

"You have," he purred.

"Yes," her body may not be reacting to him, but her soul felt the ecstasy of his proximity. How could this man touch her entire being in a way nobody else ever had, or ever could?

"Have you dreamed of telling me not to be such a git?" He asked in an uncertain voice.

"Oh no," she purred. "In my dreams you were begging me to stop being such a tease, and whispering the dirtiest things imaginable in my ear. We did other things as well."

"Other things," his voice was the tone he knew drove her to distraction.

"Yes," she took his hand. "You have no idea what kinds of things can be done with a cane and a kitchen counter."

"Now I am intrigued."

"I know, but," her smile faltered. "I don't want only to dream of them anymore. I want to live out my dreams with you, and not just the ones where you are exposed before me, pleading for my touch."

"I know." He ran his fingers through her hair. "And given the kinds of things you've been saying to me these last few days, dreaming up our wildest fantasies should not be our first concern, pleasurable as that is."

"Y-you've heard me speaking to you?"

"Yes. Granted I don't hear you all the time, and I may miss some of what you say. Still, when you speak to me," he kissed the top of her head. "I listen."

"Then you know that you need to wake up now."

"I've tried," he twirled a tendril of hair around his finger. "I've done everything I can to escape that Azkaban prison cell, but I was only able to leave tonight. Even then, I could only come here."

"Azkaban?"

"Indeed, I've been trapped there for days," he stilled his hands. "Apparently my subconscious believes I should be in Azkaban."

"You shouldn't be there at all," she argued.

"When you say that, I almost believe it."

"Believe it." She took his hands. "You deserve only the most pleasant things in life, not a dirty cell in Azkaban."

"I will remember that the next time my subconscious wishes to imprison me."

"I would hope your subconscious never imprisons you again."

"As would I."

She leaned her head against his chest.

"I apologize for leading Judith, er Marietta, on for too long. I should never have had a second date with her, nor should I have used her to get out of any further blind dates. I put your life in danger by letting her into mine. Had I known who she was, I would've left the second I saw her."

"This isn't your fault," she replied. "I'm just sorry Lucius didn't discover her identity sooner."

"That was quite Slytherin of you to tell him to research her." Severus smirked. "It seems you've learned more from me than most other Gryffindors did."

"When you spend most of your free time with the Head of the Slytherin House, you tend to think like him."

"Indeed." He kissed her cheek.

"That being said," she brushed her finger along his chest. "My demonstration is tomorrow."

"I pray my injury has not inhibited your ability to practice."

"No, I've practiced as long and as hard as I would if you were with me." She put her hand at her side. "Still, I'm terrified."

"Why?"

"I don't want everything we've done to be for naught. I don't want us to have a colleague who doesn't accept us because of your past. I don't want you to feel as if I've wasted your time."

"First of all," he looked into her eyes. "Not one minute I've spent with you is a waste of my time. You are anything but a waste of time. Never believe anything different."

"Thank you."

"Second of all, if you do not get that job, it is because Minerva and the Board were dunderheads, not because you were not good enough."

Her eyes betrayed her doubt.

"Your routine is amazing and revolutionary. If they cannot see that, they are the biggest dunderheads I've ever met."

"Knowing some of the members of the Board, that is a distinct possibility."

"Indeed," he put a hand on her shoulder. "You will be amazing at your demonstration. You can do things the other candidates have only dreamed of doing, and you are qualified for the job. Never forget that."

"I won't," she promised.

"Also remember," he bent until he was eye level with her. "I love you. Regardless of what happens, I love you and only you."

"I love you too," she answered.

"I will find a way to be with you," he promised. "Even if it is just sending my love from deep within my subconscious, I will find a way to show you I love you."

"I know you will, and I've never doubted your love for me," she took his hands. "I know you love me, and would be with me if you could."

"Exactly," he kissed her on the lips.

"That being said," her lips curled upwards. "When you recover, we will live out some of my dreams."

"Only if you reenact some of mine."

"Oh?"

"Indeed, you'd be surprised how many ways a cape can be used."

"I look forward to you making a full recovery so you can demonstrate them to me."

"As do I." He kissed her on the lips again.

The walls of the room grew brighter as the table deteriorated into the ground.

"I'm waking up," she warned.

"Indeed." He brushed his lips against hers. "I love you, and will find my way back to you. You will do great in your demonstration. When you are finished, we will celebrate however you'd like. Granted, it may take a few days for me to recover, but we will find a way to celebrate."

"Thank you," the light grew so bright that it was difficult to see Severus. "I love you, and I am with you too! When you come back to me, I'll show you just how much I love you!"

"I eagerly await my awakening."

With that, Hermione awoke, more rested than she'd been since Severus was injured. Even if he couldn't speak to her, he was with her.

That's all she needed to know in order to get through the demonstration.


The rising sun illuminated the shadowy Forbidden Forest. From his vantage point, Severus could see Hogwarts. It was at that moment he knew what to do.

He needed to get into the castle. Once he was inside, he would find Hermione's quarters. That would send him home. The second he rediscovered Hermione was the second he rediscovered his home.

With a lightness to his step, he made his way to Hogwarts, eager to return to his life.