In the month that followed, Severus found himself completely and utterly distracted. Very few things had an effect on him with his years as a spy and his lifetime of hardship. But the dead look in Hermione Granger's eyes when she admitted that in the end the greatest danger to her parents had not been the evil despot they fought or his followers, but the weapon of an unhinged muggle. From what information he could glean, neither side knew about the deaths of the muggleborn's parents.

No one in the entirety of Hogwarts and probably all of wizarding Britain knew of their fate except for Miss Granger and himself. With every meeting with the Order and the Headmaster he expected the news. Anticipating the somber festivities of a funeral and another example of why they fought the war they were fighting. It never came. He didn't know what to do about it. The knowledge was eating away at him for some unfathomable reason.

Severus had begun to watch her whenever they were in the same vicinity. She did not resemble the broken girl who had slipped off the tower welcoming oblivion when she was surrounded by her peers. The spy's experience alone was what allowed him to catch the moments when the emptiness returned to her eyes. When she was left to her own devices, it was a completely different story. The facade dropped and it seemed the light in her eyes would dim to nothingness.

Every night he patrolled the castle and the Astronomy tower. So far he had only caught her out after curfew once. She had walked the empty halls of the castle in the very early morning when the castle was at its darkest and most quiet. He had not made himself known and simply followed her for over an hour until she returned to Gryffindor Tower.

She had not returned to his office. It had not bothered him at first but as the weeks wore on and more news of crimes against muggles and muggleborns increased he worried that she may spiral. As was his wont to do, he used more manipulative measures to get some assurance of the young woman's sanity.

"Minerva, after all these years I had nearly prayed Miss Granger would cease her incessant verbatim prattling. But now the girl has had the audacity to simply ignore me when she was called on to assist another student. I had half a mind to give her detention but was enjoying the rare silence." He remarked to McGonagall at dinner one night.

"Miss Granger you say? Well that just doesn't sound like her at all," Her Scottish brogue thickened with her indignation. "I'm sure she was just thinking ahead and couldn't hear you."

"No, he's right Minnie. She's more quiet now," Flitwick interjected next to him. "I would credit it to maturity but she actually forgot to do an assignment and turned it in late, without permission! Not an apology or anxious entreaties. Not that she would have needed it, one infraction after a perfect record her entire schooling wouldn't have mattered. I don't think the lass is sleeping from the looks of her eyes."

Vector nodded and chimed in, "Let's not get too hasty and think this is something 'wrong' with the girl. I daresay the war may have finally caught up to her. Realized that grades aren't all that important when she's been fighting to survive since she was a first year."

"But that's just it, isn't it?" It was Sprout's turn to join the conversation, having made her way to their end of the head table, hovering over Vector's shoulder. "She's unfortunately been in danger from the moment she entered the wizarding war. On top of it she's Harry Potter's best friend. If mortality were the reason for her to start acting like a normal student then it would have happened sooner. She killed a mandrake the other day by using the wrong harvesting method!"

"It seems you have your work cut out for you, Minerva," Severus glanced at the now worried witch. Her concern mirrored in his eyes if anyone dared to notice. He summoned his snarky tone, "I won't hesitate to give her detention if her unsatisfactory behavior continues."

"Well, I daresay, I had no idea. She has been as studious as always in Transfiguration," Mcgonagall was thoughtful as she looked out over her Gryffindors, no doubt seeking out the girl. "But then again she has always found the class to come quite naturally. No matter. I will check in with her. She had spoken to me over the summer about her desire to be an animagus. It will be a perfect time to ask after her well being. Thank you all for bringing this to my attention. Were it any other student I doubt we would be so worried."

With that the deputy headmistress stood and left the table. The other professors continued their light conversing while he felt the tension in his back loosen marginally. Minerva is far more suited to see to Miss Granger and her needs.

Two weeks later

The knock at his office door stirred him from his brooding. The last few days had been a whirlwind as the Dark Lord increased his attacks and was putting pressure on him to release the locations of the Order's safehouses. The excuse of them all being secret-kept was losing its value. After the last two summonings he had barely made it back to Hogwarts alive.

The knock at his office door came again. He didn't have the energy to pull his frock coat back on and just rolled his sleeves down, not wanting the damned mark to be on display to a student, regardless of how many already suspected he had one.

Severus waved his office door open. To his surprise standing in his doorway was Miss Granger. She was panting like she had run there from a great distance. Her eyes looked slightly crazed and her hair was sparking with barely controlled magic.

"Miss Granger, what-"

"Shut up!" The girl snapped. She had cast a wandless silencing charm. When Severus tried to release the spell nothing happened. He reached for his wand and was surprised to not find it up his sleeve.

He looked up at the same time that he felt the same pulse of fiery hot magic that had stopped their descent to the earth over a month ago. That empty part of his being once more filled with its warmth. It distracted him from noticing that she had his wand. Anger flashed through him and he lunged for her as she strode toward him.

Ungrateful wench! My wand?! Ambushing me in my own office!

Another spell and he was frozen in place.

"I'm sorry Professor but I know you won't agree to this on your own so I will have to force you," Hermione stood in front of him. The crazed look in her eyes was tinged with some remorse. She raised her wand to his forehead then darkness came over him.

"Animam communicati, animam rapine,"

Severus was slowly coming to awareness. He was on a stone floor that made his back ache and brought on a chill. His limbs were pinned, his arms above his head and his legs slightly spread. His eyes fluttered open to the soft morning light shining down from an intricate stained glass dome above him. His vision swam as he tried to place himself.

"Animam acturam, donum vitae"

His memories rushed back to him. Granger! The Potions Master tried to sit up but didn't budge. The silencing spell was still in place. The only thing he could do was shift his head back and forth, catching a glimpse of the girl up above him with her hands pressed into his pinned forearms.

A pulse of her magic rolled through him. He willed his jumbled thoughts to focus. This had to be old magic. But what was she doing, why would she go through such lengths. Granger's voice grew with vehemence as she chanted. Her skin felt hot on his. Burning him.

"Acci tu, commo eu, hoc memento!"

Magical winds buffeted them as the burning sensation raced through his limbs, his very essence, down to his core and into that empty space where he had lost part of his soul. If he could be heard his screams would be deafening. The pain was unbridled. He forced his occlumency shields up to save his sanity. Is this how I die? Some botched ritual at the hands of a crazed student?

Another pulse of magic and it was over. The room, eerily still and quiet.

Severus gasped, sucking in lungfuls of air. He turned to his side and gagged as awareness came to him. There was no pain. No heat. All enchantments on his person had been lifted.

Thud

He whipped his head around. Granger lay where his hands had been pinned, having fallen to her side. Her body glowed slightly but she was breathing, barely. The brunette mass of hair upon her head was wind tousled and frizzy, sparking with residual magic.

There was evidence of tears on her face, sweat dripping down her forehead and neck. The sound of his labored breathing filled the room. His eyes glided down her form, still processing what was happening. At the sight of her forearms he jerked forward, taking her wrists in his hands.

There were three long cuts down the inside of each forearm. Starting at just below her inner elbow and ending just above her wrist. It was then that he noticed his own forearms covered in blood, his shirt sleeves folded up above his elbows. He was covered in her blood.

Next to her their wands laid side by side. With practiced ease he cast a patronus, not looking at it as he spoke his message and sent it to Dumbledore. He didn't know where they were but he needed to get Miss Granger to Madam Pomfrey.

While he waited for a response or aid, he pushed Hermione onto her back and ran diagnostic charms. The cuts on her forearms were her only physical injuries. But her magical core was depleted. More than the last time. More than he had ever seen in anyone alive who wasn't a muggle or squib.

Severus cursed under his breath. He would need Pomfrey's help to stabilize her core. Until then he started to draw his wand along the cuts on her wrists.

That's when he noticed. Beneath the blood on his forearm his skin looked too clean. His heart began to race. It can't be. With shaking hands he cast a cleansing charm on himself.

The clear, unblemished skin of his forearms greeted him.