Chapter Two

Severus didn't take her to the hospital wing. As extensive Poppy's knowledge was, nothing she knew would help the young witch in his arms. The hallways were desolate and dark, holding no interference for Severus. He quickly arrived in his quarters and kicked the door shut behind him. Hermione murmured softly, her eyebrows knitting together at the loud noise. He glanced downward at her muddy face as he crossed the room and gently laid her on his bed. Hermione opened her mouth, trying to speak, but only fixed questioning eyes on him when she found she didn't have the strength for words.

"Sleep," he said in a low tone.

He left again quickly, his mind set on the task before him, and rummaged through a cupboard in his private lab while his cauldron boiled. It wasn't a difficult potion to make; it required pure milk, rain collected from the cloud (a very wet job), and three petals of a white lily. However, there was one more ingredient. Severus paused, holding his hand over the cauldron.

Giving Hermione the potion as it was would do nothing for her but leave a sweet tang on her tongue. She wasn't in any mortal danger, but she would take a long time to heal if he didn't act. Assuming he was her charge… but he had to be. He was the only one she healed. She was waiting for him to return, and then jumped to reach him. Of course, the jump would have been perfectly safe if she had known how to use her wings. The instinct shouldn't have harmed her, but then again, Hermione didn't know better.

The knife sliced against his palm and Severus watched as his blood spilled into the potion. The liquid turned white and he spooned some into a cup before returning to the witch on his bed. She rolled her head to the side weakly.

"Professor?" she said.

"I'll explain," he said, and then offered her the cup. She grasped it in her shaking hand, but then spilled a few drops on her mud-caked neck, so Severus helped her tip it to her lips. The dirt began to disappear from her glowing skin. Her hair untangled itself and the scratches healed themselves. He couldn't stop his eyes from glancing over her hair, now completely white, like he knew it would always stay. Her skin color had finally settled to a dark olive color and her eyes looked like melted gold. He looked away as she stopped drinking for a second, taking a breath, and then finished it off. Severus dug an extra pair of robes out of his wardrobe and tossed them on the bed.

Hermione watched as he walked quietly from the room and shut the door to give her privacy. She rose to her feet, letting the cloak fall around her feet and stretched to test her body. Her shoulders were still sore but the potion worked miraculously. Even though she fell so far, she felt almost no pain. The robes dropped over her head easily, since they were so big on her, and she had to hold the bottom up so she didn't trip. Hermione took a deep breath, and poked her head out the door.

"Sit down," Severus said flatly. Hermione eyed him as she shuffled into the room and plopped onto the sofa. Was that a look of discomfort on his face? "I can tell you about your changes—"

"Wait," Hermione said suddenly. She stood hurriedly and took his hand, his pale skin clashing against her warm color.

"You'll only make yourself tired again," Severus said, annoyed. "I'm going to explain."

"I… can't help it," Hermione muttered and healed the cut on his palm. When his skin was once more unmarred, she hurried back to the sofa and looked at him expectantly.

"You are," Severus began, resting his hands on the arms of his stiff-backed chair, "a very rare sort of witch."

"You called me eluvia," she said quickly.

"Don't interrupt me," Severus said in annoyance. "You are an eluvia. There is no known reason why. We only know that witches are sometimes, rarely, born with the eluvian quality. There has only ever been a handful throughout history. Of course, no one can tell until the witch turns seventeen. That is when she begins to physically change."

Hermione's mouth opened as if she might throw forth a torrent of questions, but Severus' hard glare silenced her.

"The skin tone changes as yours did. The hair color becomes white within a short period of time, and the eyes become a striking color. They haven't all been golden, as yours are. That seems to vary with each eluvia.

"There are other changes triggered by a specific person. This person is not handpicked in any way; it is only determined by fate. That person is the one the eluvia protects," he said.

"You're him," Hermione breathed. Severus halted the need to curl his lip at her look of awe.

"Quiet," he replied shortly. "Eluvian hold powers that other witches do not. They can heal their charges without wands, although their own strength is drained each time and it will take a certain amount of time to recover, depending on the extent of the damages healed."

"The potion you gave me healed me," Hermione said and pulled her legs under her, "but there had to be something special about it, wasn't there? Otherwise, an eluvia would just take a Pepper-Up Potion, which is certainly fouler. Something to return my strength… I'll bet there was an exchange of… blood?"

Severus tilted his head to the side a little, examining the witch. She was quick.

"Yes, my blood," he said. "Mixed with the right ingredients, it can restore you."

"My back still hurts," Hermione said pointedly.

"That is unavoidable. Once you gain enough control, you can produce your wings at will, and then make them recede again. The skin of your back is not yet accustomed to your new appendages," he said and watched as Hermione reached under the neck of the robes to feel her back. "You won't find any marks and your wings certainly aren't out right now. They'd fill half the room if you willed them to appear."

Hermione pursed her lips, still massaging her back. Severus could tell she was fighting off the urge to make them appear.

"Another power you don't yet know of," he continued, "is the eluvian resistance of curses."

Hermione looked up at him, her face lighting up with curiosity.

"Any curse?" she said.

"Every one; even the Unforgivables," Severus replied. "It didn't come into effect until your seventeenth birthday either. There is a bitter side to this blessing, however. Your blood can provide the resistance to curses."

Hermione's face fell, knowing immediately what he meant.

"If someone takes and drinks your blood, they will be resistant for a period of time. It will typically last for a month before they need more."

"That's horrible," Hermione gulped, paling slightly. "Will people try to…?"

"No," Severus said quickly, waving a hand in the air to dismiss the question. "No, not here; that is something of an equal to killing a unicorn."

"Oh," Hermione breathed, sitting back. There was a short silence as she looked away and played with the folds of the oversized robes, her forehead wrinkled in thought. Then she peered up at him.

"Ask," Severus sighed and she sat forward again eagerly.

"What if I wanted to give my blood? What if I gave it to someone to help them?"

Severus stared at her, knowing fully well what she had in mind. It baffled him at first; he… hadn't thought of that.

"You mean to help Potter fight the Dark Lord?" he said quietly. She nodded, her eyes shining. "I don't recommend it."

"Why?"

"You can only give so much," he said, feeling uncharacteristically anxious now. "Your body will naturally produce more, but for some unknown reason, eluvian can only give so much. After about a year or two's worth of blood, they fade away. It's as if they've given so much that there's nothing left."

Hermione saw a grieved expression float across his features, but it was gone quickly.

"It would only have to be once, maybe twice," Hermione persisted.

"As a last resort!" Severus snapped loudly. Hermione stared at him and then nodded slowly under his unfailing glare.

"So," Hermione said, "what happens to me?"

"You are…" he trailed off, not quite sure how to tell her and wondering how she would react. "As an eluvia, you have a person to protect. You can sense when the person needs you, even in unconsciousness, and your instinct will take you to your charge. As you grow, your power will grow and you will be able to heal larger wounds while maintaining some strength."

"So, it's something like a guardian angel? For the rest of my life?" Hermione said quietly, biting her lip.

"Yes," he returned just as softly. She glanced up at his momentary compassion.

"Is that person you?"

"It seems so."

Hermione fidgeted, not quite sure what to do.

"How do you know so much if eluvian are so rare?" she asked. His expression darkened.

"Any true non-Muggle knows the 'myth' of eluvian," he scowled at her. "Wizarding children were told an eluvia always watched over them, when they got scared of the dark or monsters."

"I don't believe you; there's something else," Hermione retorted after a moment of studying him. His hard eyes nearly made her sit back but she held her ground.

"And that's none of your business, witch," he growled. Hermione felt something sweep her mind and tried to put up a wall. Severus sneered at her.

"Eluvian are horrible at Occlumency due to their annoying tendency to wear their hearts on their sleeves. My advice: don't even bother," he said mockingly. Hermione returned a scowl that mimicked his. "It's late," he said and suddenly stood.

"Wait!" Hermione said, standing also but instantly tripped over the robes and fell back on the couch again. He kept walking past her. "There's got to be more!"

"There's more," he said lazily, "but I'm tired and it can wait. Let yourself out and don't test out your wings. You'll only fall again."

He shut the bedroom door behind him, leaving Hermione alone. She huffed indignantly, balled the extra length of the robes in her hands, and stormed out, slamming the door hard behind her.

Severus opened his wardrobe and felt the wood shake as she made her exit.

"She'll fix that damn door, too," Severus muttered. He was not pleased at all with the situation. In fact, he was furious. He didn't want some chit watching over him, healing him every time he got a paper cut. It was ridiculous for a man his age, of his expertise, to have a nonsensical child protecting him. Unfortunately, regrettably, there was nothing Severus could do about it.

Hermione slipped into quietly into the Head's common room, careful to shut the door softly to avoid to usual loud clicking noise.

"Hermione!"

"H-Hi…. Blaise!" Hermione yelped, jumping around to find him sitting in the armchair with a long piece of parchment before him and his reading glasses resting on the tip of his nose. Hermione cringed when his face fell into utter surprise.

"What happened to you…?" he breathed, taking off his glasses and setting them aside. "Your hair…" He ran a hand through his own dark locks and blinked hard.

Hermione chewed her lip. She and Blaise had reached the level of civility when they realized they had to live together. It wasn't all that hard, as Blaise was much less prejudiced and more mature than Draco Malfoy. Occasionally, they could hold intelligent conversations, but they tended to go their own ways and rarely spent ten minutes alone together. It was an unofficial agreement.

"I was cursed," she said quickly.

"Looks more like an enchantment," he said, "and you're a dreadful liar." Hermione didn't know if she should blush or scowl, so her expression accommodated both.

"Shut it," she snapped.

"Good night," he said with a smirk, still eyeing her changes warily as she crossed to her bedroom.

Hermione returned to the mirror, wrapping a spiral of white hair around her finger and studying herself. She did look better than before, but she didn't want the whole school to know it. She didn't like that sort of attention; it was impractical. How could she hide it? Hermione shrugged and fell into bed, listening to the storm continue to beat at her window.

Eluvia. She didn't know what to think of it; the entire thing hadn't even sunk in yet. She was going to protect him, Professor Snape, for the rest of her life. How… disconcerting.

Hermione laughed suddenly, the giggle rolling from her throat before she knew why she was laughing. Then she rolled over and let her face sink into a pillow.

"This is bizarre," she sighed.

Maybe if she tied it up under her hat again? Perhaps she should just dye it… Hermione fixed a look of concentration on her features, pointed her wand at her white hair, and said the glamour spell. Her hair turned brown for barely a second before it was white again.

"Bloody hell!" she hissed and threw up her hands. She closed her eyes hard and opened them again, cocking her head to the side. "Well, maybe it's not so bad…"

Any objective opinion wouldn't have said "not so bad." They would have said exotic, striking, or in Severus' former private thoughts, "stunning."

Hermione disregarded her make-up. Before, she would have had to touch up, but now her honey skin was clear. Screwing up her courage, she donned her usual school robes and made her way to Potions.

"You may hand in the essay now, Miss Granger," Severus said as she took her seat. Hermione's jaw dropped and she glared at him.

"What?" she seethed.

"Don't you have it? Then meet me for your detention tonight," he sneered. Hermione was so distracted by his injustice that she didn't notice the stares of her classmates. Several had fallen from their seats once Severus mentioned her name.

"Is that Hermione?"

"Hermione Granger?"

"No way, a cousin at best."

"Quiet!" Severus snapped and turned away from Hermione's infuriated, red expression. When she finished her potion, she harbored the urge to throw it at his face but he snatched it from her hand before she got the chance.

"See me after class, please," she said quietly, amused with the black glare he swung upward at her. Then she sat at her desk again and waited for everyone to leave. Her gold eyes followed his and they both watched the door close behind the last departing student. Then Severus rose and walked to her, placing his fists on her desk and towering over her.

"You are still my student," he growled.

"And you knew what I went through. There was no time to write a twenty page essay," she retorted.

"Then you can write it in your detention tonight," he said and his eyes glanced over her appearance swiftly. "You're attracting a lot of attention from other students."

"I tried to hide it," Hermione said defensively. "Glamour wouldn't work."

"Of course not. Eluvian can't change their appearances, only hide it," Severus said and crossed his arms across his chest.

"I didn't know that," Hermione said and stood also. She didn't like him glaring down at her like that. "You're supposed to teach me!"

"I don't have to do anything," he snapped.

"Then how else will I know?" she cried and smacked the desk with her palms. He looked at her calmly, his eyebrows rising slightly at her panicked display. She could see that her professor wanted nothing to do with her. "You've got to help me because I have to help you. You've got to help me because I don't know anyone else who can. You've got to help me because I need you!"

They stared at one another for a silent second. Hermione didn't regret what she said, but she hadn't expected her emotions to get the best of her, as they often did. Severus looked into her mind out of curiosity. She really thought it necessary that he should help her. He hated what he was about to do.

"During the detention tonight," he sighed in resignation, "we'll work on your flight."

Disclaimer: I don't own Harry Potter.

Second chapter went up rather fast! How good of me... ;) Thank you for your reviews!

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Love!

Soline