Sudoriferous

soo-duh-RIF-er-uh-s | adjective

1: bearing or secreting sweat

Severus doubled over, hands on his knees, and gasped for breath. Merlin, he was out of shape. He couldn't have been running for more than ten minutes, but still he could hear them behind him. Their voices mingled together so much that it was impossible to pick out single words, but just the sight of them had turned his skin to ice. He'd bolted before any of them could speak to him or get near. He certainly wouldn't be allowing any of them to touch him. He swiped his forearm over his face, wiping the sweat out of his eyes.

It was dark out, but that only highlighted the ominous glow from their bodies. Each was marred by the marks that had killed them. He recognized each and every one of them. He'd been the one to kill them, after all. Every person who had ever fallen by his wand or his knife or his poison was here, following not-so-slowly behind him. The fear churning in his gut was palpable. He glanced over his shoulder. The leader of the pack – a tall, dark-haired girl with a ripped shirt and blood smeared down her arms – was closing in. There were dark prints left behind on the sidewalk as she walked toward him. She was dead, how could she possibly be bleeding?

He ran again.

It was less time than the last before he had to stop again, unable to breathe. Looking behind him, a sob wrenched from his throat. He was no further from them than he had been when he'd begun to run. They were going to reach him. He walked backward, staring at their faces. He could see the man that he had murdered when he was seventeen to prove his loyalty to the Death Eaters walking in step with one of the last women he had been forced to rape at the end of the war. Just in front of them was the woman he had brewed poison for, for lying to the Dark Lord.

"Severussss."

The sing-song voice from behind him nearly stopped his heart. He whirled to face her, turning his back on the rest of them. There she was. There was blood on her temple. The deep gouge in her side was there. Thank Merlin her organs at least seemed to be in place this time. "No," he whispered. "No!" He took a step back from her glowing form. "I didn't kill you. I didn't!"

"You did," she disagreed. "You killed me, Severus."

He fell to his knees on the pavement as guilt and pain washed through him in waves. "No, I would never."

"I would never have been in that shack if not for you, Severus." She moved closer to him. "I died because of you. Because I saved you."

"I didn't…" The tears mingled with the sweat on his face, running in rivulets down his cheeks. "I didn't kill you, Hermione."

She smiled and repeated, "You killed me, Severus. I died because of you." She stepped closer.

"Please," he pleaded as she reached out a hand toward him. "Please, no. I accept their accusation. I killed them. Not you. Never you."

"I saved you, Severus, and you killed me." She touched his face.

He screamed as fire erupted in his veins. The others were on him now as he collapsed to the sidewalk, their hands reaching out to touch him. There were too many to crowd around him, and he sobbed at their number, his agony soaring with each new touch. Too many. Too many.

His eyes flew open and he stared around the dark room. His arm instinctively snaked forward, looking for her body in the bed. The sheets were cold. She was dead. He knew that now, his mind waking up and pushing the nightmare to the back of his mind. It was one he'd had many times before. The sheets beneath him were soaked with sweat, and he rolled out of bed. It was only three forty-seven in the morning, he saw, glancing at the clock on the nightstand, but he might as well begin his day. He wouldn't be getting any more sleep tonight. Ten years she had been gone, but still she haunted him. He thought maybe she always would.

A/N: I apologize for the feels twice in a row.