What The Future Holds

Chapter 7 - Revisited

By Ehann

The brown haired woman dressed all in gold heard the explosion and threw herself face first to the ground. Her arms protectively over her head, she craned to see what the hell had just happened. Harry was also laying face first in the dirt, a few feet away from her. He clutched his wand and then pointed it straight at her.

Hermione yelped and rolled. The jet of red shot out of Harry’s wand and struck the one legged Death Eater who had been crawling toward Hermione. Ropes coiled about him and Hermione flashed a grin at Harry in wordless thanks. Then she was abruptly hoisted into the air, by her arm.

She struggled, rearing backward with her free elbow. Her legs dangled above the ground and she kicked with all her might. A fist caught in her hair, and then she was face to face with Severus Snape. He was dressed in his Hogwarts robes, not a big surprise considering they were directly outside the school of Witchcraft and Wizardry.

“Hermione,” he said, surprised.

“I’m trying to battle evil, here,” Hermione said. “Do you mind?”

His eyes widened, focused on something just behind her left shoulder. “As you wish,” he said, then threw her aside. His wand was out and he cried, “Expelliarmus!” The blast threw the hooded figure against a tree where he slid down bonelessly.

Ron Weasley, also dressed in gold, was fighting hand to hand, having been disarmed. Damn him, Hermione thought. Always so blasted arrogant. Oh, no, why bother with a wand when I can get killed so much faster without one! Honestly. She aimed carefully and when she had a clear shot, took it. “Stupefy!” she yelled and Ron’s opponent went down.

The fighting was going on all around her, curses and hexes flying. She wasn’t worried at all until she heard the screaming coming from behind the castle, where the secret passageways were. She took off at a run, barely noticing that she was joined by two others—Harry and Snape, she guessed.

She ducked a couple of Stupefys, and threw a few Leg Lockers. Harry finished them off rather easily, she noted happily. Then the screams got louder and she didn’t feel so happy anymore. She ran faster, mentally cursing this huge castle where she’d spent seven mostly wonderful years. Snape was right next to her, keeping up fairly well, for an old man, she thought nastily. Harry looked murderous and as his hair flew back in the wind, she saw that a thin trickle of blood dripped from his lightning shaped scar.

“Harry—” she began.

“Yeah, I know,” he panted. “’S all right, don’t worry.” Then he shook his head and pulled Hermione to a halt. Snape stopped too, inhaling quickly. “Look,” Harry continued. “He’s back there. Voldemort. He’s trying to take us. Right here…right now. If we lose…”

“Yes,” Snape said impatiently, “We know, we’ll die horrible deaths.” He glanced briefly at Hermione. “There’s worse things.”

“Oh, shut up,” she told him. “I can’t believe you’re bringing that up now, of all times.” She wiped her wand on her sleeve. It had gotten dirty from when she had taken a header before. She didn’t much care if her robes were dirty but if she was going out, her wand would be clean. The screams stopped suddenly. The three of them look at each other, knowing the victim had probably just died.

“Fuck,” Harry spat.

“Don’t get sentimental now, Potter. There are more people to save, never fear.” Snape looked decidedly grimmer than Hermione had ever seen.

“C’mon,” Harry said. His golden robes billowing behind him, he strode forward, ready to meet his destiny…or his maker.

~~~~~~~~~~

The sounds of battle had faded now, Hermione found. Almost clinically, she noted that everything thing seemed clearer. The space between one breath and the next stretched out and she felt something on her right. The air shimmered and Lucius Malfoy materialized, green light already shooting straight at her.

In slow motion, she twisted her body, somehow evading the curse as it shot inches past her side. It hit a huge tree and it just…melted. Melted into a charred mess, complete with steam rising from the heap. “Hey, ferret breath,” she shouted. “What did that tree ever do to you? Ever hear of—” a brilliant orange light shot from her wand. It coalesced solidifying around him into a clear, thick sphere. “—Conservation?” She finished. Lucius was shouting inside the Clear Sphere, his face contorted with fury. She smiled. The beauty of this particular spell was that— Now Lucius was jumping up and down, a blob of green light ricocheting off the walls and bouncing every which way. He leaped and twisted, attempting to avoid it. Thankfully, it was also soundproof. Hermione muttered, “Good riddance,” and jogged ahead to help the others.

She stumbled on a root, and went down, cursing herself. Nearly before she hit the ground, she was pulled back up, again, by Snape. “This becomes tedious, woman,” he growled. “Are you an Auror or aren’t you?”

Their heads snapped around in unison, as they heard it.

 Crucio. And Harry screaming.

“We have to save him,” she said desperately.

“I agree,” Snape said. “Try and distract Voldemort, “I’ll…” His face hardened. “I’ll use the Avada Kadavra, if I have to. Hermione, I swear,” he said fiercely. “Potter is the boy who lived…he’ll live through this, too.”

Her voice gone, she nodded.

“And when this is over…” he touched her hair. “You and I will talk. But now, we go.”

He took her hand, and staying as close to the building as possible for cover, they moved. Finally they reached the last turret. Hermione gathered her courage, swallowing convulsively. “I’m a Gryffindor, she muttered.

Snape caught her chin in his hand. “You can do this,” he said intensely, never budging his eyes from hers.

She took one last deep breath and stepped out into the open. “Hey!,” she shouted.

Then she felt sick. Harry was lying on his stomach, writhing. His mouth was foamy, and his lips were blue. Voldemort stood over him, his wand pointed down. His red eyes snapped up, and locked on Hermione’s.

“My God,” she breathed, “You are one ugly bugger.”  And it was true. When Voldemort had returned to full strength, he had acquired a healthy human body. Now, after using it for nearly six years, it had started rotting from the inside out. Such evil could not coexist in a mere human shell. The body was being mutated by the powerful magics channeled through it.

Her wand was out and she tapped it nervously against her legs. “We have you surrounded,” she called in a tone of voice much more confident that she felt. “And Harry’s going to put you in the ground, for good this time.”

“Is that so, you foolish child?” Voldemort turned his wand upon her, eyes blazing.

She gripped her wand. This was it. She was going to die. Right here. Right now.

Behind Voldemort, Harry was coming around. He lifted his head, and when he saw where Hermione was, he looked horrified. “No,” he gasped.

“Crucio,” Voldemort said, almost conversationally.

Time stopped. Her muscles locked up. Fire leaped along her nerves, in her blood vessels. It sizzled under her skin, and it went on and on.

Harry got to one knee unsteadily. He threw up, wiped his mouth, then somehow got to his feet, hatred emanating from him.

“What’s this?” Voldemort inquired easily.  He waved his wand, releasing Hermione. “Severus, my old friend. We do have some business, you and I.”

“Do you think so?” Snape sounded bored. “What do you even bother with these…children… for? Potter’s half dead, and this one—” he indicated Hermione, “is a fool, unworthy of your skill. See how she was reduced by the Cruciatus?”

“Severus, Severus, how little credit you give me.” His wand again pointed at Hermione. “Have I been living in a vacuum these last six years? I think not.” He sounded reproachful. “I am fully aware what this girl means to you.”

Snape laughed. “What she means to me? This chit who can barely hold up her head? You think this girl would make me foolish enough to face you in her stead? She and Potter have been thorns in my side these many years, and I would shed no tears at their respective demise.”

“I see. Perhaps I have been misinformed, Severus. At any rate, I will give you the opportunity to prove yourself.” He paused, then said calmly, “Kill her. Now.”

Snape raised his wand. He took his eyes off Voldemort for a second, and looked down where she laid facedown, her fists in the dirt.

Her fists in the…?

Dirt flew up, hitting Voldemort in the face. The Dark Lord roared in anger, and Hermione shot to her feet, albeit unsteadily. Snape pushed her roughly back down with his left hand, extending his wand with his right and yelled, “Avada Kadavra!”

Green light hit Voldemort from two sides. Harry had come from behind and issued the Killing curse at the same instant as Snape. Voldemort writhed under the doubled assault. He screamed, the unearthly sound drawing goose bumps to uncovered flesh. Then he fell, dead. The green streams of light dissipated on the wind, until there was only Harry and Snape facing each other on the grassy hill behind Hogwarts.

The three look silently at each other, before reality hit. Voldemort was dead, but there was still a battle to be won. Snape glanced down at Hermione, then reached down for her hand. She took it and held on, leaning against him heavily. He said over his shoulder, “Come on, Potter. There is still work to be done.”

Cries for help and curses could still be heard from the main entrance to Hogwarts. They went back the way they had come. Hermione tripped over a root again and then said, “Uh, oh.”

The men responded instantly. “What?”

“Well, it’s just that—” Time seemed to slow down again and suddenly there in front of her was Lucius Malfoy, escaped from his Clear Sphere. His wand was already out and the curse had been cast. She watched in horrified slow motion, frozen in place as the green light headed directly for Snape. Harry yelled something and—

--Then she was on the ground with Snape lying heavily on top of her. “Severus?” She shoved at him. He didn’t move. “Severus! Wake up!” Was he even alive? She cautiously rolled him onto his back. Her fingers slid along his neck. Just on the side of his trachea…there. A pulse, slow and steady bounded underneath her touch. But he wasn’t breathing. “Oh, god.” She checked again. No, he really wasn’t breathing. What was she supposed to do? She leaned over and tilted his head back, praying he didn’t have an injury there. Then she covered his mouth with hers and exhaled deeply. His chest rose with her breath and quickly, she gave him another lungful of her air. “Please, oh, please…” He coughed then and sputtered, but did not regain consciousness. She raised one of his arms over his head and carefully turned him on the side, bending his knee and using his other hand to prop him there. Words from her Auror training, completed nearly three years ago, ran through her mind.

It’s a Muggle skill, but it may come in handy someday, especially if you’re without a wand…Remember, Airway first, then breathing, then circulation. Those are your priorities in a rescue situation…Once you have the victim stable, remember, if you have to go, leave them on the side, that way if they vomit, they’ll be sure to have an airway…

His chest rose rhythmically now, and his heart beat steadily under her palm. She laid her head down on his chest. “Please, don’t go,” she whispered. She closed her eyes and did something she had not done since childhood. She prayed.

~~~~~~~~~~

It took some time for anyone to find them. Somehow, when Harry had saved them he’d  accidentally Apparated them halfway to Hogsmeade. Ron Weasley had used a locating spell after much of the dust had cleared. He found her still kneeling next to him, holding his hand to her cheek. Snape didn’t look anywhere so scary when he was out cold, Ron thought.

“Hermione,” he said, “We have to get him up to Madame Pomfrey.” He took a step closer. “Hermione. We need to get him…” He trailed off. Hermione had raised her head. Ron let out a deep breath. Tear tracks were plainly evident on her face. “Well. This is different. Crying over Snape? One might think all that vile you’ve been giving him was just a ruse.”

She laughed and sobbed at the same time. “Shut up. You don’t know a damn thing, Ronald.”

He knelt down beside her. “I know that he’s going to be all right. I know that we have to get him to help, though. You’ll stay with him. I promise.” He took her free hand and gently tugged. She came up. “Mobilicorpus,” he told Snape.

“So are you ever going to give about the crack about ‘education beyond Potions making’?”

She wiped her nose on his robes. “Don’t make me hurt you,” she said. “Because I’m pretty sure I can take you, Weasley.”

He laughed and put an arm around her shoulders.

~~~~~~~~~~

She refused to move from his side. At first Madame Pomfrey tried to insist that she leave. When Hermione remained firmly in her chair next to his bed without raising her head, the mediwitch sighed deeply. “Well,” Poppy said, “There’s a possibility that he won’t wake up. The Killing Curse only brushed him, that’s true, but since we don’t exactly have a great store of information about that particular…What I’m saying is…you may need to accept—”

Hermione raised her eyes and Pomfrey flinched from the coldness there. “You don’t get to say he’s going to die. If he dies, it’ll be by my hand, not anyone else’s, you can be sure of that.”

“Child,” Pomfrey tried again.

“Don’t,” Hermione said in that cold voice. “Just leave me alone.” Her eyes were pleading and haunted now. “Please, I just…need to be here. With him. Give us that, would you?”

After the mediwitch had gone, she leaned over and laid her ear over his heart again. The strong beat comforted her. She lifted her cheek from his chest and looked at his face. His sallow skin was quite pale; his lips had hardly any color. His hair laid limply against the white pillow. Only his hands looked as they always had. She raised his hand to her lips and carefully kissed the tip of every finger.  “You were a bastard, you known that? Leaving me the way you did. Oh, it took me a few years, but I finally figured it out.

“You were trying to do the right thing. By walking away. And I walked right along your pretty little path didn’t I? Accepted the insult without question. But I never let you know that I…” She lowered her head. “Do you know, even now, it’s so hard to say? When I felt it the first time, I was eighteen, and not even in my right mind or time. I knew the first time I drank that potion…You know the one—Sight Out of Mind. Remember?

“I was in my own body. It would or, will happen in one year. So, I know that you’re going to live, Severus. I know because every single part of me is telling me that it’s true. So don’t you dare think of not coming back. And don’t you dare to give up.

“You have me to deal with,” she said, crying now. “And I have never been one to let go without a fight….Just that one, foolish time…” The thought that she might never hear him snap at her again, or never see him walking about the dungeons, sneering at students…There were so many ‘never agains’ to consider, that she was having trouble breathing. Her tears came fast and hard now and she let them come.

When she had cried herself dry, and her head was thoroughly pounding, she closed her eyes, took his hand and laid her cheek on his chest. She fell asleep, listening to his heart beat.

~~~~~~~~~~

When she woke, it was dawn. Light streamed in through the Infirmary windows. Her face was hot and there was some sort of drum under her head. And, regarding her head, why did it feel like it had a ten stone weight on it? She lifted her head and heard a thud. Blinking, she realized that his hand had been resting upon her hair.

But…it hadn’t been there when she’d fallen asleep.

“Severus! Severus!” She said sharply into his ear. “You have to wake up, Severus. It’s Hermione, I’m here, and you need to wake up now! Severus! Open your eyes, damn you. I know you can hear me!” she demanded.

“Not so sharp, if you please,” he croaked, cracking his eyes open. “It’s splitting.” His hand cradled his temples.

“Humph,” she snorted, but her heart was singing. “Serves you right. Why, if Harry hadn’t saved you, you’d be a corpse right now, did you know that?”

“That might have been preferable,” he muttered darkly, still holding his head.

A red rage filled her mind and she lashed out without thinking. She slapped him across the face as hard as she could. Fire exploded in her hand, and she shook it out, bringing it to her mouth. “I can’t believe you’d rather throw your life away, you idiot! After all, it’s been four years. Isn’t it time you accepted your feelings? And I know you have them.” She leaned forward, furious. “I see it every time you think I’m not looking, the expression on your face. Severus…”

He didn’t respond for a long time. His eyes drifted shit again, and he seemed tense.

Hermione couldn’t take anymore. She took his hand and brought it to her face, cupping it against her cheek. “I know I don’t give a damn about what anyone else think, and I can’t believe that you do.”

His eyes were bleak when he opened them and he turned his face away. “Go away, Hermione,” he sighed. “The last thing you need…is an ex Death Eater, these days. Who knows, I might even end up in Azkaban, with the current state of the Ministry.” He glanced back at her.

She didn’t believe him. No, it couldn’t be true. Life couldn’t be that cruel. “No,” she shook her head. “If you felt nothing for me, you never would have kissed me back. Never would have made love to me.” She leaned forward, her hand on his cheek so he couldn't look away. “You can’t just take it back like it never happened.” Her voice softened. “It happened. It was real.” She swallowed. Gambling, she told him, “If you tell me that you regret it, if you can look me in the face and tell me that you don’t love me, then I’ll walk away, no questions asked.” It was a lie, of course, but he didn’t need to know that. Yet.

He looks miserable, she thought. And lonely.

“Hermione…you know we can’t…can’t be together…”

A sob escaped her that turned into a laugh. “Tell me you don’t love me, God damn you!” She cried. “If that’s the way you feel, then make me understand. Are you the man who loves me, or the man who leaves me? Severus…please. Tell me. Who are you?” Her voice broke, and she could no longer hold back the tears that filled her eyes. They dripped from her jaw and fell onto his hand.

With surprising speed, he had her by the back of the neck, bending her down to him, kissing her, taking her breath away. Her insides melted and she responded instantly, tangling her fingers in his hair, and licking his lips, his tongue… He had her so tightly that it was hard to breathe and she didn’t care a bit…As a matter of fact that felt perfect…Then he was saying harshly against her mouth, staring into her eyes, “The one who loves you. Merlin help us, Hermione, I’m the one who loves you.”

She sobbed then, emotion so filling her that she had to let it out. She buried her face in his neck, loving the feel of his warm, warm skin against her. “I love you,” she told him. “Don’t ever put me through that again, or I swear, I’ll kill you myself.”

“Okay,” he whispered, touching her hair. “Okay, it’s all right, I’m here.” She felt a deep rumble under her ear as he chuckled. “With a threat like that hanging over my head, I feel that I can safely say, I’m not going anywhere. And If I do, you’ll be at my side.” He kissed her cheek and closed his eyes.

Chapter 8 >>