Chapter 23

This chapter is dedicated, with love, to R.

A/N: Thanks and praise to JKR for allowing me to put her characters into some truly terrible places, to beaweasley2 and Clairvoyant for helping me to do it, and to my readers and reviewers who tell me what they think of it.

Here we go....

*********************

Chapter 23: Apocalypse

"Hermione!" Harry shouted, catching hold of her arm and instinctively throwing his weight atop her on the levitating gurney. She was fitting, her body twisting and shaking, her legs pulling up to her chest as she writhed.

"Bloody hell!" Ron grunted, throwing a worried look at the lift door as they descended to the ground floor level. Hermione was still invisible, but Harry was not. The sight of his friend hovering in mid-air and holding down a threshing and invisible form would certainly have drawn attention.

"Do we go back up?" Harry asked Ron urgently, his body still flattening Hermione's. One of her knees caught him a glancing blow on the side of his head. "Ow! What do you think?"

The lift 'pinged' softly, and the door began to slide open. Ron quickly stabbed his finger on the 'Doors Open' button. Obligingly, the doors slid back into place. He looked at Harry. Harry looked back.

As quickly as it had begun, Hermione's fit ended. Harry lay across the now-still body of his friend, panting with the effort it had cost him to subdue her.

"Is she okay?" he gasped at Ron. Ron's eyebrows raised – clearly he had no way of telling. "Finite Incantatem," Harry ordered, and Hermione's body shivered into view.

"She looks okay, well...," Harry said helplessly after a few seconds.

They both looked at her for another moment. She was breathing, but her face, once pale, was now flushed. She did not move.

The lift door pinged once again.

Ron's face was set, his lips thinned. "It's now or never mate," he said to Harry. "We push her out and Apparate with her straight to Hogwarts. You do it. I hate Side-Along, remember?"

Harry nodded and took hold of Hermione's arm. He hoped that they were doing the right thing.

*********************

As Hermione reeled, clutching hard at her chest, Marcella and Restitutus grabbed her on either side. Her body twisted and contracted in the vicious cramp that had caught her in its grip. As the waves of discomfort grabbed at her, she felt Restitutus lower her to the kerb. Marcella kept hold of her left wrist, petting and rubbing it. Hermione screwed her eyes shut and concentrated on panting out her breaths, surprised and frightened by the sudden onset of the pain. It was a cruel exaggeration of the odd-reaching sensation she had been feeling for days now – that sense of loss that, she had realised earlier, came with not having Severus near to her. She wondered at their apparent connection, not knowing what it meant.

She had to find him. Fast.

After a few moments, she was relieved to feel the constriction in her chest begin to dissipate and leave trembling aftershocks behind. Her breathing eased, and she was able to straighten up. She looked upwards into Marcella's worried face and forced a smile. Her chest still hurt, but the discomfort was manageable now.

Restitutus pulled her to her feet. She rubbed at her chest. Her heart was still racing, but she had restored a certain degree of equilibrium. Nobody else in the busy market place had seemed to notice them. Restitutus' eyes were wide and staring. His face had lost its colour. Marcella, too, was looking at her with frightened incomprehension.

"I'm okay," she tried to reassure her companions. "Just a funny turn, I hope. Come on; I think I know where Severus is. We have to get to him."

***

"This pain is unnesssesssary, potions man. All you need to do is tell me your sssecrets, and it can ssstop ssso easily...." Sabazios leaned towards Snape once more, the god's face mere inches from the panting and sweating man before him. Severus' damaged shoulder, arm, and chest were full of fire from the twisting and wrenching that the curse was engendering. In amongst the desperate, crushing pain of the Cruciatus, Severus gritted his teeth together as hard as he could and wondered whether his previously injured shoulder and arm were still usable.

"Finite."

A secession of pain.

Snape collapsed against the ropes that held him.

"How did you cheat death and ssstay ssso beautiful, mmmm?" Severus heard the rasp of his stubble as Sabazios' nails caressed his cheekbone, followed by the unpleasant sensation of a snake's head rubbing against his cheek. One of Sabazios' familiars, he thought, revolted. He flinched, still keeping his eyes shut, trying to clear his mind.

"Issss it a ssspell?" Sabazios urged. "How did you do it?"

Severus shifted his body again, trying to ease his injured shoulder and arm, his body still sagging between the taut ropes that held his arms out to either side. Sabazios' hands continued to roam over his head, face, and neck, probing and curious. Severus tried to concentrate. Think, damn you, Severus! he told himself furiously.

"Is there another potion you can make?" the god continued. "Sssomething else that your clever fingers can do, perhapsss?"

Snape remembered Marcus' words of an hour previously: "He will awaken soon and want to talk with you. After that, I think you will probably be dead."

Say something. Keep his interest. Talk!

Snape coughed and ran his tongue over his lips to try to moisten them. "Perhaps," he managed in a dry whisper.

Abruptly, he felt the constriction on his wrists fail, and he collapsed hard onto the marble floor of the Temple's portico, his forehead slapping against the cool stone. Pain flared at his temple as he hit the floor, but it was soon dwarfed by the hot agony from his hands as the circulation began to return to them. He screwed up his eyes against the burning sensation and whimpered softly as he pulled his fingers into his chest, trying to flex them as the feeling came back.

But he was free of the ropes. Relief coursed through him, and he felt a stab of hope flare in his chest. Perhaps he could survive... take advantage... find Hermione... escape the volcano.

Perhaps I can actually win this time.

The thought was improbably optimistic, and he became almost lightheaded with it. He considered the other times in his past when he had been shackled by poor decisions and damned by bad choices. Here and now, in this place, things were more simple. Do the right thing. Have courage. Find your advantage and take it. Sabazios had miscalculated in freeing him. He could use that miscalculation and exploit Sabazios' desire for more information as how Severus had supposedly survived death....

This bizarre feeling of confidence and optimism grew within him as he lay, taking deep gasping breaths of recovery, on the marble floor slabs of the Temple. He was surprised by the emotion, but it seemed to give him strength, and he grasped at it, feeling stronger within himself as he did so.

He could hear Sabazios moving in front of him, the rasp of the god's mutated, reptilian body on the floor. What to say...? he thought to himself. Come on, think, damn you! How did you keep Riddle at bay? You need time. You need to buy yourself time. You need to make time....

He shuffled his legs underneath his body and slowly raised himself to his knees. Keeping his head bowed, he moved his hands out beside him, palms open and upward.

He allowed his breath to exhale in an apparent sign of defeat and acceptance, ducking his head and keeping his eyes downcast, hoping to all that was holy that he could maintain the illusion that he could defeat mortality and, therefore, keep Sabazios with him for a few more hours.

"My Lord," he began, carefully modulating the tone of his speech to the right level of long-remembered and loathed subservience. It was important to show the right level of reluctance, the right level of possibility, if the lie were to be believed.

"I will do what you wish.... I will create a potion that will put a stopper in death."

Sabazios made a satisfied noise in his throat, clapping his hands together. His familiars, entwined about him, hissed their approval.

***

"Hermione, what do we do now? Where is Conviva?" Marcella's voice was rough with anxiety. Hermione could sense her panic even as she continued to scan the Forum in front of her, trying to formulate a plan. Beside her, on her other side, Restitutus hovered uncertainly, shooting worried looks across the Forum to the north towards Vesuvius.

Restitutus had said that Sabazios was in the Temple of Apollo. She could not remember the design of the building in enough detail, try as she might. Her mind filled with various temple sanctuary floor plans – a large paved courtyard filled with small altars, religious statues, and votive basins, a raised dais at the northern end of the courtyard supporting the temple itself, a huge building reached by a central flight of stairs with rows of columns surrounding a central cella – the windowless, hidden inner sanctuary which housed the most important element of the Temple complex – the high altar. To the left or right of the temple building, in the cloisters surrounding the sanctuary courtyard, would be housed side rooms for the priests and storage and other bureaucratic offices.

She had a vague recollection that the Temple of Apollo was an amalgam of Greek and Roman design, but she just couldn't remember exactly where things were. She cursed her memory, hating the fact that she was insufficiently prepared to launch a rescue and worrying that she would mess any such attempt up. It had always been Ron or Harry who had made the dramatic gesture, who had gone haring off on the next mad adventure. She was the back-up, the thinker, the person who made them stop and wait and consider their actions....

Marcella grabbed at her hand again, shaking Hermione out of her thoughts. With a scowl, she rounded on the older woman, but before she could say anything, Restitutus shouted, "Brother!" and the two women spun around to see a battered and bruised Conviva wandering out of the building of Eumachia, blinking into the sunlight.

Marcella screamed and joined Restitutus in running straight for her husband.

*********************

Harry and Ron manoeuvred Hermione's comatose body carefully, under Poppy Pomfrey's stern direction, into the Headmaster's office. It was no easy job to guide an unconscious body up the spiral stone staircase, and Harry was perspiring freely by the time they had levitated Hermione into place. Septima had insisted that she needed to be in close proximity to the portrait so that they could monitor the effect of the experiment she would be conducting on Hermione's body directly.

Poppy had set up an impromptu medical centre in Filius' main room. In addition to the hospital cot that had been placed in the room, Harry noticed an additional bookcase filled with jars, pots, and bottles.

Under the irascible direction of the redoubtable matron, Harry carefully levitated Hermione's body from the hospital gurney and to the bed, watching his friend's face all the time for any sign of movement. Poppy bustled forward as Hermione settled, hovering over her and running her wand across her body while muttering diagnostic spells.

"So now what?" asked Ron, casting an expectant look at Septima Vector, who was standing next to Filius and watching Poppy fuss over Hermione's still body.

The tall American witch frowned, clearly uncomfortable. "Umm," she began, "I'm down the rabbit hole here, gentlemen," she said. "I deal in statistical possibilities, not practical solutions."

Poppy made a quietly disparaging noise from Hermione's bed, her back to them.

"No matter, no matter!" Filius clapped his hands together, "I'm sure that whatever you suggest will be a good idea, Septima. Your ideas have brought us this far, after all...."

Ron shared a look with Harry and rolled his eyes at Filius' behaviour. Harry rolled his eyes in return and shrugged, grinning.

"Weeeeell," Septima spoke and rubbed her jaw with a well-manicured finger, "I guess we start by taking some blood and seeing if that will activate the portrait...."

"Right... right," Filius agreed readily. "Poppy, if you would be so kind...?"

"I would feel better if she could be in our sick bay," Pomfrey grumbled, readying her wand and a small glass vial in preparation. "And don't think I am happy that the boys..." she glanced at Harry and Ron, "kidnapped her from St Mungo's to bring her here, Headmaster."

Harry felt a deep flush creep across his face and neck. It was amazing how easily Poppy could still reduce him to acting like an incoherent teenager. Beside him, he heard Ron shuffle his feet and knew that she had had the same effect on him. He wondered how long it would be until their deception was discovered and the Aurors would arrive.

He hoped that it had been worth it.

**********************

"What in Hades happened to you, brother?" Restitutus asked.

Conviva's forehead was marred by a tremendous, swollen bruise, and he was a little wobbly on his feet. Marcella had him in a great hug, her arms wrapped tightly around him, her head buried in his shoulder.

"Me? What the hell happened to you?" He hugged his wife back, kissing the top of her head as she cried into his tunica. "You were supposed to be on the boat for Salernum! Where are the children?"

"The children are fine. They are on their way," Hermione reassured him quickly. "Have you seen Severus? Do you know how he is?"

"Severus was running about, trying to find you! Holy hells, but I've never seen him so bothered about anything." Conviva turned his attention to Restitutus. "I went to our meeting last night, brother, but you didn't turn up. I stayed in the bar until I was thrown out, and then I came over here to the Forum. There was a hell of a row happening ahead of me, although I didn't see anything of what it was because I got hit in the head by some drunkard who was running out of here screaming rubbish about giants and magic.... I woke up a few hours later – thank Mercury no one had robbed me – so I came in to the Forum to get some breakfast." He looked down again at his sobbing wife, then back at his brother. "Restitutus, what is going on?"

Restitutus' head dropped, and he took his brother's arm. "Brother, I..." he began wretchedly.

Before he could say anything further, a low rumbling noise sounded once again around them, and the ground began to shift beneath their feet. Other citizens around the Forum began to mill about as the tremor shook the ground and shouts of alarm filled the air. This tremor seemed to be more extreme than other recent shocks, rivalling the one that had ended the Vettii's dinner party a few days' ago. Hermione felt her heart begin to race again and the familiar, faintly nauseating, sensation of adrenaline rushing once more through her body.

Before the ground could stabilise again, however, there came the sound of a thunderous, rending explosion from the direction of the volcano that drove any other sensation from her body or thought from her head.

*

Time...

... stopped

*

And began again.

*

Too early!

Hermione cried out in alarm as she looked towards the northwest and saw, to her horror, a plume of black smoke shooting up towards the sky above the town's houses. As she looked on – frozen in fear, shock, and panic – she saw the mass of black, spuming smoke and debris form a giant mushroom cloud above the ravaged summit of the volcano, like a twisting and blackened version of the foliage of the local umbrella pines. The ground shook with elemental power. Hermione watched in horrified, terrified fascination as the smoke boiled upwards, higher and higher. She had seen a recording of the eruption of Mount St Helen's in 1980 as part of her orientation visit to the Vesuvius Observatory, but being physically close to such an explosive eruption was another experience altogether. Thousands of tonnes of superheated rocks, dust and debris were shooting into the sky, creating a giant tower that clawed ever upwards towards the troposphere. Within the black heart of the mass, Hermione could see flashes of lightning bolts as the super-charged dust particles within the volcanic eruption column collided.

It was as if the mouth of Hell had opened and all its demons had been released.

The sky began to darken.

The effect of the explosive eruption was immediate. People started to shout and scream. Market stall holders began to grab their goods together and stuff them back into the baskets and holdalls beneath their tables. People began to move quickly from the Forum, calling out to each other. Many were running eastwards in the direction of the docks.

"The volcano! The volcano!" Marcella shouted frantically, grabbing at Conviva's chest. Hermione watched the plume of smoke rise, her heart hammering in her chest, her body frozen in place.

"Is it happening?" Restitutus' voice was high with panic. "The volcano is erupting? The apocalypse?"

"Apocalypse?" Conviva looked between Hermione and his family, shaking his head rather stupidly. He still looked concussed from the night before. "Volcano? What?"

The sun was now obscured by the dark cloud above, and small sharp rocks and stones began to rain down on the flagstones on the ground around them. Marcella cried out and recoiled as one hot, jagged pumice stone landed near to her. About them, a silent rain of ash flakes began to fall, dusting the ground. Very few people remained in the Forum now: some had fallen to their knees, their arms outstretched in prayer, their heads covered with their cloaks, and others were wailing and screaming in impotent horror, unable to move, fixated on the devastating image before them as the cloud of ash continued to grow and expand and blot out the sun.

Hermione knew, with a horrible certainty, that the three Pompeiians in front of her, clutching onto each other as the world about them convulsed and burned, would not be able to escape by themselves now. She cursed her assumption that she had known exactly what the future held. The main eruption was supposed to happen at twelve noon! she raged in her head. Bloody Pliny! Bloody, sentimental, inaccurate, fucking Pliny!

Her desire to find Severus had blinded her to the needs of the Muggles in front of her. She had her skill, strength, and magical powers, the spells she could cast, the curses she could throw; they had nothing but their own skins.

She had to save them. All of them. It was too late for the boats and conventional methods of escape. Hermione knew that she had some time, a matter of hours (if Pliny was to be believed), before the column of ash collapsed and the city would be engulfed fatally by a series of pyroclastic flows. Time was running through her fingers if she was to put into practice her plans for their escape.

More pumice stones began to fall among the ash flakes. Hermione cast a quick Protego, covering all four of them with a shield to protect them from the superheated falling stones, and then she spun around and grabbed folds of Restitutus' tunica.

"We have to get Severus!" she shouted, pulling him behind her as she began to run across the emptying space towards the Temple of Apollo. After a few seconds, she could hear Conviva and Marcella following behind.

***

At the sound of the volcanic explosion, the Temple shook, and Severus stumbled and lurched forward where he stood.

Sabazios recoiled at the noise from outside the building, hissing in alarm, his eyes widening, and the slits within the irises clearly evident. The god pressed himself back against the great gold-encrusted doors of the cella – the inner Temple sanctuary. The doors opened slightly inwards under the weight of his body.

It was impossible to see above the Temple in the direction of the volcano, but Snape knew instinctively what had happened. The column of superheated gases and molten lava had finally built up sufficient pressure beneath the mountain's peak to cause the final explosion, which had blown the top off the volcano and begun the catastrophic eruption, which would lead to the death of everything and everyone within the city walls. The extraordinary vibrations he was feeling was that of the eruption column being ejected upwards from the shattered crater. Snape knew that the explosion he was experiencing would eject millions of tonnes of volcanic material into the atmosphere before later collapsing into a series of pyroclastic flows that would devastate the city and surrounding areas.

It had happened earlier than he had thought it would, from his dim memories of Pliny's account, but Snape experienced a sudden energy as he realised that the time had come for him to confront Sabazios and prevent him from escaping Pompeii, dominating the Empire, and spreading his foul influence to the rest of the Roman world. He just had to hang on until the pyroclastic flows began. He was not sure how long that would take.

Sabazios looked about him as the ground continued to shake and the thunderous noise of the mighty eruption continued. There was panic in the god's body language as he looked about him and tried to understand what was happening. The sky had darkened and thick flakes of ash had begun to fall around them.

"Brothers!" Sabazios called into the cella to his supporters within, his voice filled with the harmonics of compulsion. The Temple continued to shake, and some of the plasterwork on its walls began to fall away from the brickwork and smash onto the floor. Sabazios reared upwards, balancing on his prehensile tail, clearly preparing to flee. Severus felt a build up of power within the creature before him.

It was now or never.

***

Severus. Oh, gods!

She could feel the thumping of her heart as she stumbled forwards towards the entrance to the Temple sanctuary in the Via Marina, almost dragging her companions with her.

She could sense a powerful magical event occurring within the Temple.

As she ran towards the entrance of the walled precinct of the sanctuary, a wave of nausea swept over her – she really did not want to go in that direction.... Every sense in her body was calling to her to move away. She gritted her teeth and forged onwards, knowing that the Repulsion Spell that had been placed on the area would fade after she had crossed through its barriers.

Marcella reared back, clearly also feeling the unpleasant sensation radiating from the building.

"What... what is it, Hermione?" she shouted above the terrifying, roaring noise of the volcano.

"Someone has put a spell on the building – trying to make us not go in there!" Hermione bellowed back in Marcella's ear. "Can't you see that nobody else is going near it? We have to keep moving!" She yanked Marcella's arm again and pulled her forwards towards the imposing columns that surrounded the Temple of Apollo.

Beside her, she saw Restitutus' long robes stirring up wafts of ash flakes from the floor of the Forum as he walked and pulled his brother with him. Conviva was stumbling in the increasing darkness, casting frequent looks up at the shattered volcano; he was clearly finding it impossible to tear his attention away from the horror unfolding above their heads.

Hermione moved towards the Temple entrance, opposite to the entrance of the Basilica, feeling a slick sensation of relief pass over her as they passed through the revulsion wards. She readied herself, trying to push all her doubts and anxieties to the back of her mind, and she hefted her wand lightly in her hand. It had been a long time since she had prepared to battle enemies, and truth be told, she was strangely energised and excited by the prospect.

As she crept around the corner, flattening herself on the nearest pillar, she could hear the sounds of a scuffle happening in the entrance to the Temple. She heard male voices shouting among the noise of magical surges and discharges.

She risked a look around the pillar and was shocked at what she saw.

*********************

Poppy sighed and straightened up, rubbing her lower back reflexively as she did so. "No change," she reported flatly.

"It didn't work." Harry fought to keep the disappointment out of his voice as they all looked at Hermione's unmoving form. He turned away from Hermione and looked again at the portrait, his hand still raised to it with a smear of Hermione's blood on his fingertips.

"Wait!" Harry practically shouted, "Look! Something's changing!"

The portrait was indeed moving, the tiny tessellating squares that made up the picture before them were shifting and altering, the image growing darker and blurring as the tesserae changed. He felt a swift surge of elation. Perhaps they'd done it...!

"What is it? Shift out of the way mate – no-one else can see!"

"Yes, move out of the way, Harry!"

Harry moved sideways just as the image began to stabilise.

"Oh, bloody hell," said Ron succinctly.

*********************

Snape cast a silent Protego on himself and launched himself at Sabazios, bearing him to the ground. With no wand to focus his magical energies through, he was left with using his body, something he was normally loath to do because it wasted so much magical energy. He preferred using his power in a more refined and focused manner. Duelling without a wand was practically impossible, so he decided to adopt a more directly physical approach. Pouring as much energy into his core as he could muster from his depleted stores, he held on, refusing to allow Sabazios to settle for long enough to Apparate, hoping that his reinforcement of the wards, which Sabazios had originally set around the city, would hold.

It was unorthodox – but it was, at least for the time being, effective.

Sabazios shrieked, and Severus felt a bolt of energy sweep through him as the god fought to cast him aside. He gritted his teeth.

When he had been about seven years old, he had put his fingers on an exposed wire coming out of his mother's electric kettle. The sensation of Sabazios' Expulso was not unlike that unpleasant electrical shock.

Quickly, he sent a pulse of energy back into Sabazios' engorged flesh, feeling the god's body stiffen in response. Severus could feel the thrashing of Sabazios' tail as the god fought for purchase in order to throw him off.

***

From the entrance to the Temple's deserted courtyard, Hermione could see the twin figures of Snape and Sabazios locked together just inside the entrance to the main Temple building. Energy snapped and crackled about them as they spun around behind the entrance pillars to the central chamber, a swirling vortex of bright light in the darkness of the ash fall and the subdued lighting of the Temple flares. The vortex whirled and writhed, sometimes on the ground, sometimes writhing into the air, as Sabazios tried to throw Snape off. They smashed into a column on the portico, causing the stone to fracture from the force of the impact.

Above the Temple, the volcanic cloud roiled and burned. The ash fall was getting heavier.

"What in fucking Hades is that?" Conviva's voice was astonished as he watched the fight.

"Hades is right, big brother!" Restitutus shouted back, his voice barely heard over the din of the volcanic eruption and the magical fight happening in front of them. He grabbed Hermione roughly by the arm. "We can't do anything here! We've got to get to the harbour, get to safety!"

Hermione shook her arm free and rounded on him. "You can't – it's too late for that! Your only hope of escape is to stick with me.... And I'm going in there to help Severus! Come ON!" Not caring to see if they followed, she took off across the courtyard, dodging between the various statues, small altars, and votive basins that were scattered throughout the paved space. As she ran, she held her wand held high, trying to think how she could direct any curses at Sabazios without hitting Snape.

She slipped and skidded across the polished travertine flagstones of the Temple precinct, covering the distance in a few moments. She ran up the steps to the Temple entrance and then took aim and fired a quick hex at Sabazios' back as he twirled around. As her curse hit home, both cried out, and Snape's hold on Sabazios broke, the god throwing him unceremoniously into a nearby pillar. He bounced off it and fell in an ungainly jumble of arms and legs, down the steps of the Temple's dais to the floor of the courtyard. Sabazios wheeled about, his face contorting into a furious grimace. The snakes that writhed about him reared up. Hermione stumbled backwards, focusing her intent and sending a Stinging Hex at Sabazios. It hit him square in his face and sent him reeling backwards on the portico, screaming with rage, and clawing at his skin. Hermione ran to Snape, who was breathing in great gasps at the foot of the steps. Behind her, she heard the sounds of running feet.

"Severus!" she cried, running her hands along his face, neck, and shoulders, checking for injuries. "Oh Christ! I'm sorry – are you okay? I thought I'd only hit him and then you..."

A stinging bolt of energy hit one of the courtyard sculpture's plinths above their heads and blasted a chunk of sculpted stone out it, showering them with debris. Someone screamed ...Was that Marcella? No time to look! She ducked, thankful that she hadn't cancelled the Protego shield above her head, which was now protecting them from the falling shards of stone as well as the ash and pumice from the volcano. She turned and sent another hex up at Sabazios, this time a spell that surrounded the god in a web of crackling energy that pinned him to the floor of the portico. She watched for a second as the god scrabbled ineffectually at the magical bonds and screamed his frustration and anger before turning her attention back to Severus.

"Are you alright? Gods, you look dreadful! Are you conscious? Can you talk?" she babbled, checking his pulse at his neck, putting her hand on his chest to feel his heartbeat, cupping his cheek in her hand. His skin was burning hot to the touch, but it seemed to cool under her hands, her fingers spreading like a balm across his skin. "Oh, Merlin, Severus! I've hurt you again! I'm so, so sorry, I..."

She stopped abruptly as she felt his fingers against her lips. "Granger," he said weakly, but evenly. "Are you trying to kill me? Get off me, woman, and let me up!" He was glaring at her, but Hermione could only gasp and grin at him like an idiot.

He was being rude – so he was feeling better. She felt like bursting into tears.

Before either of them could say anything further, she became aware of the scrabble of boots on the floor further inside the Temple, and a group of Sabazios' supporters emerged from the cella. The men were wide eyed with terror, both at the rending noise of the eruption above their heads and at the scene that faced them. They stood swaying and fearful, calling out to Sabazios for direction.

A moment later, the energy web of her spell surrounding Sabazios seemed to implode and dissipate. Sabazios was free, but Hermione noted he was not moving. He appeared to be concentrating on something. Beneath her fingers, she could feel Snape tense, his body thrumming with suppressed energy. After a few heartbeats, the thin golden shield around the god strengthened and became more opaque, shimmering in the light from the votive cauldron fires in the portico.

"Ssssomething is keeping me here! Is it you, potions man? Releassse me! I command you!"

Hermione stood up slowly, her wand outstretched still, its tip wavering slightly as it pointed at Sabazios. Beside her, Snape reached up his hand, and she clasped it, pulling him to his feet. His fingers remained entwined within hers. Snape's brow was furrowed in concentration. She could feel magical energy crackle through his skin.

About five breathless seconds passed before Snape, with a wrenching shout, appeared to pull away from something, and Sabazios also recoiled. The god rocked backwards, then sent a series of energy flashes at them, which Hermione barely had the chance to parry. She pulled Snape into the limited protection of a low altar to their left and shot off another series of Stunning Hexes to try to keep the god at bay. Beside her, Severus was breathing heavily.

"Are you okay?" she asked again worriedly, glancing at him. His skin looked stretched across his features, his cheeks sunken, and his eyes unnaturally bright in the lightning flashes from the volcanic cloud. He was shaking from exertion.

"Got... to keep... him here," he muttered and coughed roughly. She darted a look quickly around the side of the altar, then dodged back again. Snape was still slumped on the ground. She was shocked to see how thin he appeared. Through his ripped tunica she could also see the remnants of the bruises from his recently healed shoulder and collarbone.

She crouched down beside him once more. "Are you okay?" she asked again, fighting a rising tide of panic.

She was almost relieved to see him scowl. "Will you stop bloody well asking me that, woman?" he retorted, although his voice lacked its usual power. "Of course I'm not 'okay'"! Where's my bloody wand? Why did you Stupify me? Why aren't you miles away from here by now?"

Her exasperated reply was cut short by another Stinging Hex from Sabazios that narrowly missed them but blew the arm and most of the head off a votive statue of Mercury behind them instead. Reflexively, they ducked down to avoid the flying fragments of stone despite her shield.

"You have ssstrengthened the wardsss around the city," Sabazios hissed, his voice magically amplified, echoing eerily around the Temple's precinct. Peering quickly around the edge of the altar again, Hermione saw Sabazios' head cocked on one side. "We can't have that, potionsss man. Oh, no."

Sabazios held up one hand, its fingers blackened and clawed from the magical energy he was expending, and pointed at the roof of the Temple portico. With a shouted word of command, a huge blast of energy tore through the ceiling, and a ragged hole appeared in the roof, raining bricks and shattered roof tiles down. A heavy flurry of ash flakes and pumice stone began to cascade onto the porch. With a flick of his hand, Sabazios sent the fallen bricks and tiles towards Severus and Hermione, his face further contorted with savage intent. Hermione's shield buckled underneath the weight of the debris, and she cried out in alarm, ducking instinctively away and closing her eyes, waiting for the rain of broken masonry to hit.

Suddenly, she felt her shield strengthen and looked to see Severus crouching beside her, his face a mask of concentration and his hands out beside him, reinforcing her protection. His magic flowed through her for a moment, an echo of their previous connection, and Hermione was almost overcome with the feelings that it brought.

She closed her eyes to savour the sensation before snapping them open again and, bolstered by his support, sending more curses flying towards Sabazios. At her side, Snape seemed to draw his energy into himself once more before sending a barrage of the rubble, which had bounced off their shield from the collapsed roof, hurtling towards the raging god. Sabazios blocked both assaults, diverting the roof debris harmlessly to crash on the floor to his right and absorbing the energy of her attack within his golden casing.

Snape and Hermione fell back again against each other behind the low altar.

"This is hopeless," Snape muttered. Hermione nodded, sucking in breaths and trying to calm and steady her magical energies. "We can't get through his shield," she agreed. "He blocks everything. The bigger and heavier the object, the more easily he appears to be able to defend himself."

Just as she spoke, another piece of ballistic debris struck their hiding place, exploding on impact. Hermione cringed out of the way of the shattering stone. She looked about her, searching for inspiration. Her eyes fell on the broken arm of the statue of Mercury that had been destroyed moments earlier. In among the fragments of the arm and the ash flakes on the floor, she could see the edge of a sharp piece of twisted metal. It was the remnant of Mercury's caduceus, the staff that held been held in the god's hand. It was about eight inches in length, a wrought-iron spike wound about by the images of two serpents. Hermione grabbed it quickly and hefted it in her hands. It was not unlike a simple dagger.

She turned to Snape, her eyes wide open. "When I was in the cavern, I saw him drinking the potion through his concealment charms," she said breathlessly. "They didn't falter or change." Snape frowned, not understanding. "A slow blade might penetrate the shield," she pressed on, holding the caduceus up in front of him. Wordlessly, he plucked the heavy object from her fingers and curled his own hand around it. He looked like he was trying to think of something to say.

Before he could speak, however, Sabazios sent another huge lump of stone towards them, hitting their shelter and causing the brick and marble stone of the altar to shudder with the impact. She retaliated without thinking, diving around the edge of the altar to send a quick Blasting Hex pouring out of her wand towards the Temple's portico, only to see it lap harmlessly at the god's feet.

Sabazios' laughter resounded once more around the courtyard, echoed by the dull roaring of Vesuvius. She stared across the precinct towards Sabazios, locking her eyes with his for a moment.

Hermione could see that the skies were darkening further and the ash fall seemed to be increasing to a thick rain of grey-white flakes. She could feel the rumbling of the ground beneath the thin sandals on her feet, could picture the molten lava within the magma chamber. The lightning flashes from the static energy in the eruption column lent an otherworldly atmosphere to their confrontation. She wondered if the first pyroclastic flow was imminent, now that she knew that Pliny's account could not be trusted, and the image of the dead Pompeiians from the Pompeiian museum sprang unbidden into her mind. A question formed in her mind lazily: what isss a "pyroclastic flow"?

And suddenly, she realised that Sabazios had been inside her head. He had seen her thoughts and knew about the threat that Vesuvius posed. She watched in numb horror as the god looked about him to his men, many of whom were still huddled in terror in the open doorway to the cella.

He knows.... Oh, sweet Merlin, he knows! was all her mind kept repeating.

"I tire of this sssport. Bring him to me – I want him!"

Rather than obeying the god, however, those men that remained – about half a dozen – began to scatter and run in fear down the steps towards them. Sabazios frowned and pushed both hands outwards. Hermione readied her wand again, prepared to defend herself and Severus from them, but she did not need to. With a scream of affronted rage, Sabazios swept his hand in a vicious slash, and his men fell to the floor, lifeless. Hermione recoiled in shock at the cavalier way with which Sabazios had destroyed his own supporters.

Sabazios hunched his shoulders and seemed to concentrate before flinging his hands wide again and sending a wave of flames out from his body. The flames did not reach Hermione and Severus, washing instead over the bodies of his dead followers. Confused, Hermione looked at Sabazios. Why did he miss? She shared a look with Severus, whose eyes were as wide as her own, although his lips were pursed and his brow knotted as if he had a good idea about what had just happened. Severus jerked his head, silently telling her to look again at the dead bodies of Sabazios' men.

Hermione, her heart thumping a loud tattoo in her breast, turned to follow his direction. Slowly, and with unnatural grace, Sabazios' dead men rose up and began to advance towards them.

Inferii!