SNAPE / HERMIONE

The Epilogue: Nettie follows this chapter

Chapter Nineteen: Snape / Hermione

Severus Snape knew the possibilities that all three of them would make it out of Hermione's mind were slim. He also knew that without Potter helping them, the possibilities of just him and Hermione getting out were nil.

While Arithmancy had never been his strongest subject, he had still been quite good at it. In every single equation he had worked out over the last seven hours, plugging in this variable or that, all three of them had only ever managed to get out in one instance. One instance in fifty. The odds were not good.

Sighing, he pushed himself away from his desk and wandered into his bathroom, filling the small sink with cold water and splashing his face, before looking in the mirror.

He almost didn't recognize himself. His eyes were deep and hollow, his skin so white it was almost translucent; stretched so tightly across his gaunt face he expected his cheekbones to slice through the pale flesh. He hadn't shaved in several days, and the black hair on his face was a stark contrast against that alabaster pallor. He looked like Death himself.

He had known for days of his diminishing appearance – that he was starving to death – but he couldn't bring himself to eat outside of Hermione's mind. He wasn't hungry. He ate with her, when he visited, and even though he knew none of that was real, it still filled him up. He knew Albus was worried about him. So was Nettie. Even Minerva and Sybill had expressed their concern, but he just couldn't bring himself to do anything about it, so instead he made excuses.

'I am eating,' he would tell them. 'Researching the curse has occupied much of my time. Once Hermione is free, things will return to normal – trust me.'

And what could they say, really? What could they do? They had no choice but to take him at his word. It wasn't like they could force him to eat.

His face was still slightly wet and cold from the quick cleansing he had given it. He walked over to his closet and quickly changed, pulling on a clean linen shirt, before layering his vest and frock coat over top of it and adjusting the cuffs.

Walking back to his desk, he quickly rolled the sheet of arithmantic problems, tying them off with a small piece of leather before sliding them between the desk and the wall. He neatly straightened up the other papers lying there in an orderly pile, pulling the picture he had drawn of Hermione out and placing it on top of the stack, along with a sealed letter for Albus and one for Hermione.

Snape was a man who believed in being prepared.

Taking one last look around his suite of rooms, he realized that this was it. He was going to free Hermione, and in freeing her lose himself. Whispering 'nox', he turned on his heel as the lights slowly died out, and made his way down the hallway towards Hermione's rooms. He needed to talk to Potter somewhere Hermione wouldn't overhear them.

~~~~~~~~

Severus wasn't entirely convinced that Potter would follow his instructions. He had told the boy to get Hermione out, regardless of what was happening to him – Harry had promised to do so. Yet... it wasn't in Potter's nature to leave anyone behind, even someone he disliked as much as he did Snape. It was his Gryffindor spirit, Snape supposed. Everyone might think it brave, but Snape himself just thought it foolhardy. It was impossible to save everyone, as much as Potter had always thought the opposite. The younger boy should realize that by now – how many people did one have to lose before one started saving only those that were most important? Hermione was important – more so than he could ever hope to be. If anyone was worthy of being saved, it was her.

As for himself, he had given up on the idea of salvation long ago. He knew what he was, what he had done – things he was still capable of doing, if the need ever arose. The thought should have made him bitter, but it didn't because he had been saved in the end after all.

He had been redeemed by her love, by her belief in him. Her kisses had baptized him and set him free, and no matter what lay before him now – whether or not he managed to get out with Hermione – he realized that in all the ways most important, fleeting salvation had found him for a brief and precious time.

And now, here he was, standing beside Hermione's comatose body, surrounded by people he realized were his friends. It was ironic that he had found love and companionship too late for it to make a difference. He was grateful of course, for Albus' firm hug and for Nettie's tears, but they would change nothing of today's outcome. His only comfort was that none of them would treat Hermione wrongly for his sacrifice – they understood him, perhaps they always had, and they would know why he had chosen to walk this path.

It terrified him that he didn't even need to concentrate on falling into her anymore – entering her mind had become as easy to him as breathing. It was a dangerous taste of what the curse had been able to do to him without his knowledge. The passage was painless, effortless, like stepping through a doorway from one room to the next. He could feel Potter grabbing his hand when he was instructed to do so and concentrated on pulling the younger man through. It took longer than it should have – it felt as if Potter was up against some barrier and Snape was dragging him through. Snape didn't even bother to make sure Harry was all the way in before moving across the foyer.

Something was not right. Hermione was not there.

'Hermione!' he called out, 'I told you to be here waiting for us. Where are you?'

There was no reply, just the sound of his voice echoing down the empty hallway. 'Hermione!'

He could hear Sybill's disembodied voice, like the buzzing of a gnat in his ear, 'Severus, your aura is blending with Hermione's, just like before. The colors remain strong, however. Harry is unaffected.'

He barely registered what she was saying. Looking down at his waist, he saw the link between himself and Potter pulsing strongly, but the link that should have attached him to Hermione was barely visible. Instead of the warm yellow glow the occupied the other rope, the link to Hermione stretched thinly, looking like a dried umbilical cord. He gave it an experimental tug to see if it was tensile and was relieved to feel it pulse slightly against his fingers.

'Snape,' Potter called out, 'What's going on?' The younger man was moving away from the outer edges of the foyer, into the middle and closer to Snape, against the older man's explicit instructions.

Snape turned and glared at the younger man. 'Stay where you are! Have you already forgotten what I told you?'

'Where's Hermione!' Harry responded. 'Why isn't she here?'

'I intend to find out.' Snape looked at the link again and moved into the area it seemed to be stretching to, 'Stay there – and do not move.'

The hallway was dark, full of shadows that only appeared worse when Snape's muttered 'illumina' lit only every other candle sconce. The air was turgid and damp; every breath seemed to coat his throat in slime. 'Hermione!' he called, as he opened doors which led into empty rooms, 'Hermione!'

With each step forward, he became less aware of Sybill's voice; less aware of the young man linked to him and more aware of the smell of decay and rot that seemed to be filling the hallway. Hermione's mind looked worse than it had that first day he had found her in his potions classroom, half mad with solitude – it felt deserted and empty, as if Hermione had never really been there at all.

Snape fought down the sudden panic he could feel twisting in his stomach; swallowing the bitter bile that rose in his gorge. He realized he was petrified.

The link between Potter and himself was stretched thin as fishing wire now, still pulsing with a dim light but completely insubstantial looking. The link between Hermione and himself was glowing faintly, becoming thicker the further into her mind he journeyed. He hadn't a clue where she was or what was going on.

In the distance, he could hear a steady dripping, his sensitive nose smelling wet mold and stagnant water, his ears catching what sounded like the occasional moan. Try as he might, he could not reconcile this dark and dank place with the mind he had come to be so comfortable in – Hermione was in Hogwarts, not Azkaban.

Not Azkaban.

Not Azkaban...

Snape stopped and looked around him again, more slowly, as realization suddenly hit him. This wasn't Hermione's mind anymore – nor was it his, not really. While elements of Hermione's constructs remained, they were overlaid by memories of his visit with Draco. Just – 20 paces more? 30? – and he would find the room he had waited in when the guard had gone to retrieve the younger man.

The dripping was getting louder, echoing eerily as it bounced of the moss-covered slate. '... the dripping never stops... never...,' Draco's voice whispered in his ear, 'I don't want to be alone anymore....'

'You're not really here,' Snape muttered, 'it's all in my mind.'

'I'm here... I've always been here, waiting... waiting for you dear Severus, wanting you, waiting...' The voice he had thought was Draco's was deepening into that of his father with every whispered syllable.

'Lucius, you're sick,' Snape hissed into the darkness. A delirious chuckle reverberated around him.

'You've done something, Severus, something naughty arse-licking Dumbledore lapdogs shouldn't do... made yourself a potion did you?... you seek me now... my dear, dear Severus, come to me at last, to make you mine....'

The voice, louder now, hovered just over his shoulders, tickling the side of his neck and sending shivers down Snape's spine. Lucius' voice was mad with dementia, a haunting replica of his son's forced insanity. It was more dangerous sounding than he'd ever heard the man before.

'You're a sad and pitiful ghost of a man who was even more pathetic in life,' Snape replied acidly. 'I'm not here for you, nor will I stay. Where's Hermione and what have you done with her?'

'Lost, Severus?' the voice crooned, teetering on the edge of a chilling laugh. 'You never knew it looked like this did you... a Mudblood's mind is so filthy... dirty, horrible, impure, wretched bitch...' As Lucius spoke his voice divided, then divided again, until all Severus could hear was a polyphonic cackling, multiplying exponentially, echoing and reverberating all around him. It was the sound of utter madness.

Severus halted his steps, and cast his eyes upon the closed iron doors around him. The twisting shadows around him clung to their warped faces and oozed through the cracks in the bars. Behind every door the promise of a lonely, chilling death awaited.

'This is not her mind. It never was. Don't play games with me Lucius, it won't work.'

The voice – Lucius – the curse – didn't respond, just kept laughing at him. Snape let out the air in his lungs and tugged at his link to Hermione again. At the end of the hallway, past the visitor's waiting room at Azkaban, he saw the door to his private suite and headed towards it.

'She's a tasty little dirty treat,' Lucius offered suddenly, his rich voice redolent with malevolence and an odd sort of pride, 'Such a mind, such a joy; so easy to manipulate.'

Snape was beyond being concerned over playing mind games with the curse. Instead, he flung open the door to his rooms and walked in. Everything was as he had left it last night. Looking at his desk, he realized the notes he had left for Albus and Hermione weren't there. 'You don't know everything,' he muttered. 'Where is she, Lucius?'

'In bed, where I left her,' the voice chuckled. 'Such a tasty little morsel – and the things she dreams about you, Severus... my, my....'

Snape moved carefully towards his bedroom, trying to remain calm as he opened the door.

She was lying on his bed, wrapped in gray chains that looked as insubstantial as mist. Her eyes were closed, as if in sleep, her mouth open obscenely as a gray tendril forced its way down her throat.

Severus gaped and felt the air catch on its way into his lungs. 'Hermione!'

'I have her, Severus, I've always had her, she's a part of you, I'll have you both now, you'll never be free, she's part of you, part of you...'

Lucius' voices were whispering to him, pushing past his ears to wrap around his mind, almost hypnotic in their intensity. Snape felt a strange torpor invade his limbs. It would be so easy to just lie down beside her and let the gray wrap around him too. He couldn't live without her; wouldn't leave without her....

'That's right, Severus, come closer...come closer...forget about the link...you are not like Theseus... be with the one you love... never leave her... never...'

Snape was standing at the edge of the bed now. Lucius' curse was chanting seductively in his ears, exhorting him to give up. His hand unconsciously wrapped around the weightless link between Hermione and himself, the cord still pulsing weakly. The thread to Harry was almost invisible.

Thread.

Link.

Snape lifted his free hand to join the other holding Hermione's link, both hands gripping it tightly. His fingers tightened convulsively, grasping the flickering thread for a tense heartbeat before ripping it apart.

Hermione sat up in his bed, screaming.

All around them, the curse was hissing angrily, 'It won't work Severus... I'll have you both... you can't get her free like this...' As if to emphasize its point, the chains still wrapped around Hermione tightened and writhed like living snakes, bringing her back down hard on the bed.

Hermione's eyes focused on Severus, her voice coming out small and scared. 'Severus, what... what's happening?' She struggled weakly against the bonds, twisting and squirming on the blanket.

Snape's right hand moved towards his robe, before returning to rest at his side. 'Don't struggle, Hermione' he commanded, praying he was going about this the right way.

'What do you need her for?' he asked aloud, lacing his voice with contempt. 'Why take the Mudblood when you could have me?'

The gray chains loosened their wriggling hold and seemed to still, as if contemplating. They began slowly sliding free of Hermione, a few seeking tendrils coming closer across the bed to where Snape stood. 'Offering yourself instead, Severus?' the curse hissed, sounding hungry.

'Freely,' he agreed, fighting the urge to step back as the gray reached out and stroked him down the length of his frock coat.

On the bed, Hermione was staring at him with wide, confused eyes, but comprehension was struggling to flicker through their brown depths. When the chains had released enough of her to allow movement, she bonelessly slid off the other side of the bed, watching Severus all the while. He hoped his eyes were readable to her perceptive gaze.

'So good... so good...' Lucius' voices crooned, mocking in their tone, 'sacrificing yourself for the bitch... so easy, so weak... come to me Severus, I've been waiting...'

When the first chain coiled around his left arm, Snape was ready. He dove into his robe with his free hand and pulled forth a short dagger that flashed gold in the room. He swung in an arc across the mist in several places, and felt a heady satisfaction when the curse screamed loudly in an inhuman shriek of pain.

Close beside him, Hermione stood with only a few clinging bits of mist on her body, looking ready to flee at any moment. Snape turned and grabbed Hermione by the hand, dragging her out the door of his rooms and up the hallway, slashing the chains off her as they ran. Behind him, he could hear the curse bellowing, 'Kill him, kill him, kill him, kill him!'

Hermione was still not fully herself, stumbling like a broken marionette with half its strings cut. He heard the scurrying of a thousand rats, the angry slither of a hundred snakes, and knew the curse had recovered enough to chase them.

He pulled free the last chain of gray from her as they burst into the foyer.

'Don't look back!' he was screaming at her, 'Just keep moving! I've got you, you're safe. You're safe!' He looked up when he heard Potter screaming her name and realized the younger man, against all reason, was moving towards them

'Stay the fuck where you are, Potter! I told you not to bloody move!'

'Harry!' Hermione cried suddenly, pulling Severus' arm with surprising strength as she struggled to move forward. Their mutual progress, however, was slowing considerably since they'd emerged into the foyer. The curse was not ready to allow them to leave quite yet.

'The gray... it's coming. You must hurry!' He could hear Sybill again, her voice loud with fear. Snape managed to pull Hermione in front of him, wrapping her in the slack of his connection to Harry as they moved towards him, and tying her in between them with a slip knot.

The air around them was turning to ice, crystallizing with each breath. He felt like he was running through mud, thick, cold and remorseless, clinging to him with every step. Potter was trying to move backwards now, towards the entrance, pulling on their link as if by sheer force of will he could get them closer.

The foyer was turning silvery-gray, a wind emanating from the hallway with the force of a nor' wester, a thousand Lucius' gibbering madly, 'He tricked us, he tricked us, he tricked us....must catch him, must catch him, must catch him....'

Hermione was crying, her tears freezing on her face as her hair streamed wildly behind her, struggling to get to Potter despite the thickness of the air, but the curse was gaining ground.

They were so close. So close. Potter was almost at the exit now – if Snape could only get Hermione to him, at least they would be safe. He had promised her... but he didn't want to give up himself yet, either. Not if it meant never seeing her again.

There was one chance – just one. Lifting his hand, the blade of his concealed dagger glittered in the air. Gold, the color of highest good – and cut the link between himself and Potter with it.

The result was immediate – the curse started hissing and cackling as if in triumph, and Hermione snapped forward as if on the end of an elastic, right into Potter.

The thickness around them disappeared suddenly and Snape started running as fast as he could, watching as Potter pulled Hermione into his arms, hugging her fiercely against his chest. 'Hermione, oh Hermione!' the younger man cried jubilantly.

'Get the hell out of here!' he screamed at them, vowing to personally hex Potter six ways from Sunday if the younger man didn't pull his head out of his ass and move while the curse was momentarily incapacitated. Snape didn't know how long Potter would stay in Hermione's mind without the link to him.

Hermione turned back to look at him, eyes wide and fearful as she saw how far away from them he was. 'Not without you!' she insisted, 'Hurry Severus, hurry!'

As if to verify her statement, Sybill – whose voice had gone silent when Snape had cut the link between himself and Harry – was yelling now, 'Get out of there Severus! I can't see...I'm losing your colors, get out now!'

He could feel it reaching for him and tried to pick up his pace, 'Run Potter! Pick her up and get her out of here!'

The younger man finally did just that, grabbing Hermione and throwing her over his shoulder, turning from Snape and running towards the entrance. Snape could see Hermione struggling against him, wincing as one particularly well placed blow almost caused Potter to drop her.

'Severus!' she was screaming, 'Severus!'

A gray chain suddenly materialized out of the floor and wrapped around his leg, causing him to tumble to the floor. 'We have him, we have him, we have him...'

'Get out, Potter! Get her out of here!' he shouted again, slashing madly with his dagger as the chains enveloped him.

Potter had put Hermione down. The curse was gleeful, chanting in his ear and echoing through his head, the voices seeping into his very pores. The chains around his ankles tightened and moved farther up his legs. 'We'll get her too... a tasty treat... dirty, filthy Mudblood...'

'You can have me, you bloody beast!' Snape snarled, still struggling wildly, 'Just leave them alone and let them go! Potter! Get out – get her out of here!'

His body was pinned to the floor. Snape felt the chains slither around his legs and back, trapping him against the cold stone. His arms remained free only through reflexes a hair ahead of the curse's attempts to completely twine around him. But it was a losing battle.

His head snapped back as a gray chain suddenly wrapped around his neck. Both hands lifted to pull at the wispy cord, a frustrated snarl leaving his throat. He broke the chain with little effort, only to find his left arm pinned against his side by a thicker chain, another one circling his chest. He attempted to slash it with the dagger, managing to damage a few, but deep in his gut he knew the curse was toying with him; enjoying his struggles for freedom.

'You're ours now Severus... don't resist us... give in... give in... she's left you Severus, the Mublood's left you to die... come with us... come....'

Snape grunted as his shoulder connected painfully with the hard floor. The chains were completely around his body, writhing like living creatures, shivering and tightening as they secured their hold on their prey. He felt the chilling slide of chains against his neck , over his cheek, across his forehead, before a muffled scream left his throat and the world went black.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Hermione Granger was furious. Furious and fearful. Severus had lied to her – he was trying to sacrifice himself to save her and she wasn't having any of it. She refused to leave without him.

She didn't know what had happened to bring them to this point – the last thing she remembered before Severus had started dragging her down some moldy hallway was falling asleep in his bed just moments ago, imaging what it would be like to finally sleep with him beside her.

Yet, it couldn't have been moments ago, because Harry was here, and she was running back to Severus' side. His body was now nearly completely shrouded with the gray chains that had clung to her upon awakening from her sleep.

Her heart was beating with adrenaline and fear – she would not leave without Severus. She would not take back her life at the cost of his own. She loved him; she refused to live without him. She refused to look back at Harry to see if he was even still there when everything in her life that was most important to her was forward. 'I will not be Eurydice,' she vowed. 'Neither Severus nor I have to give up our lives – we can save each other.'

She could hear the curse laughing now, as she got closer. Severus was wrapped in its coils, his eyes barely visible through the opening of the chains as his head was yanked back suddenly so she could see his blank, lifeless eyes.

'You can't save him,' Lucius' voice, the curse, hissed, 'stupid Mudblood, so easy to manipulate....'

'Let him go!' Hermione demanded, kneeling beside Severus' body to yank viciously at the misty chains surrounding him.

'Never!' the curse hissed back, 'he's mine, as you are... forever and ever and ever...'

'He's mine!' Hermione retorted. 'You can't have him.'

'I'll have you both,' was the sneering reply. 'You can't get free anymore... you're stuck here too....impure girl, stupid bitch....'

Hermione launched herself with renewed determination at the curse, fingers curled into claws as she ripped into the chains holding Snape. 'I refuse to let you have us!' she screamed, her voice like a banshee of fury.

The curse laughed. 'You cannot win,' it sneered, 'I have used you to trap him... it's all your fault... stupid girl....'

Severus was suddenly struggling again, Hermione's voice and efforts to free him awakening him from his drugged stupor. 'No...' he gasped, as Hermione flinched at the curse's words, 'Not true....'

Lucius' voice grew strangely hypnotic, the chains wriggling and trapping Hermione up to her elbows against Snape, 'Is true, is true...' it sang. 'She's been the bait...I fed her dreams, I fed her heart....I made her fall in love with you, pathetic fool... did you think she could love you without my influence...' The gray was spreading as it spoke, traveling over her shoulders, curling into her hair, 'You don't love him, you don't love him....'

'I do,' she insisted, even as the gray overtook her, 'I do. Don't believe what it says, Severus. The curse doesn't control my heart... if I didn't love you I would have left with Harry. You cut the link and freed me, didn't you? If I was cursed to love you, my feelings would have disappeared when you broke the link.'

Severus was still struggling, but she could see his eyes. They were infinitely sad, painful to behold, as if all the dreams they had ever held were being shattered. He believed the curse.

'I'll stop fighting you if you let her go,' he murmured brokenly, 'You've no need for her if you've got me.'

'Noble, so noble,' the Lucius-curse mocked, 'I'll never let her go... I have you both... the traitor and his bitch...'

'Severus,' Hermione pleaded, tears coming to her eyes. She had managed to break through some of the gray to grab his hand. 'Look at me. We can fight this! You promised me you'd get me out of here and you never break a promise. You need to free me and I won't leave without you. I love you, Severus. I love you. Gods, gods, please...'

'How can you love me?' Severus muttered brokenly, sinking away from her into the nest of chains, 'when I have failed you so badly?'

'Never! ' she replied vehemently, 'You have saved me. Time and again, you've saved me. I want to save you this time. Lucius can't beat us – not unless we let him. It's elemental magic. Love is more powerful than hate – and I love you. Believe me, I do!'

'I love you too,' Severus replied, but his voice was tired, automatic.

The gray around them pulsed and cackled, drawing Hermione deeper into the writhing mass. 'I love you, Severus!' she repeated again, her eyes widening as his fingers suddenly clenched tighter around hers.

'I love you too, Hermione.'

'Fools,' the curse whispered, 'you don't know love.'

'Yes,' Hermione retorted, 'I do. I love him. You cannot have us.'

'You cannot have us,' Severus reiterated, 'Not when I've finally found a life worth living.'

The chains around them shuddered, weakening, 'You have nothing... nothing... weak fools!'

'Yes, Severus,' Hermione insisted, gripping his hands to pull with all her strength, 'Live with me. Stay with me, please. Don't give up, don't let him win, we can beat this together.'

Snape's arms were suddenly free and around her, letting her pull him away from the curse, which was shrinking and disappearing through the floor. 'Hermione...'

'No, no, no, no...' the curse tried to shriek as it faded away, leaving the hall empty and cold.

They were standing, wrapped around each other, in the middle of the foyer. Hermione was crying and Severus gently wiped her tears away before leaning down to accept a relieved kiss. After a moment he broke away from her, smiling as he gripped her hand firmly in his own and pulled her to the entrance.

'Let's go and live my dear.'

Hermione felt warm light envelop her, and then her inner world dissolved.

~~~~~~~~~~~

Harsh, blinding light assaulted her first. She blinked against the intensity, and heard a loud shout of happiness erupt from her left side. Before Hermione had a chance to make sense of what was happening, she suddenly found her body crushed into a warm hug that tore the air from her lungs.

'Hermione!' Harry's voice was close to her ear, and through her blinking eyes a stone ceiling lit by sunlight resolved itself. 'You got out! You came back! Oh, Hermione!'

'Mr. Potter!' a sharp voice cut through Harry's elation, and Hermione felt the warm body of her friend remove itself from her left side.

She turned her head slowly, feeling muscles sting and nerves tingle with the long forgotten movement. She was really out. Everything felt real, for the first time in so long. Tears prickled at the edge of her eyes as she looked upon Harry, his glasses askew and green eyes overflowing with happy tears.

'Harry,' she croaked out, coughing slightly.

'Now, now, give the girl some room Mr. Potter. Oh my, Miss Granger, you gave us such a fright there. Here drink this dear, you'll be able to speak better.'

A cup was brought to Hermione's lips and cool liquid slid down her throat, soothing her unused vocal chords. A familiar face smiled down at her, framed by brown hair graying at the temples. But the appearance didn't matter, she would have recognized Nettie's voice anywhere.

Hermione licked her lips and smiled. 'Nettie,' she greeted softly. 'Where...?'

A movement on her right side prompted her to look down. She realized then that her right hand had remained firmly clasped in a much larger one, long fingers and a clammy palm pressed against her own. Lanky black hair spilled across her forearm and a few strands lay against her stomach. The body clothed in black stirred and the head lifted slowly, face averted from her vision.

'Severus,' Hermione breathed, squeezing the hand that clung to her.

Snape's head whipped around then, black eyes wide and glittering, almost as if he was surprised to actually see Hermione awake and speaking. She offered him a shy smile that he didn't return. Instead he sat up straighter beside her bed, but his hand didn't leave hers.

'You did it,' she pressed, wanting that look of disbelief to fade from his eyes. She was so happy that she knew those eyes so well, that even in the real world they looked the same as they had in her mind. 'We got out, you saved me.'

Professor Dumbledore came into her line of sight then, coming to Snape's side. He put a bony hand on the man's shoulder and gave it a firm pat, relief and something that sparkled suspiciously like tears at the corners of his periwinkle eyes. 'Excellent job, my boy,' he congratulated.

Hermione found herself grinning, knowing full well the expression probably looked ridiculous on her face. Snape looked positively haggard – dark circles sat under his eyes and his hair lay in greasy clumps all over his head. He looked far worse than she'd ever seen him in her mind, but that hardly mattered. It was still the face of the man she loved.

'Severus, you look positively wretched,' she teased.

That seemed to get a reaction from him, but it wasn't the one she'd been expecting. He pulled away from her suddenly, dropping her hand as if he'd been burnt, and stood up quickly from the edge of the bed.

Hermione blinked, worried. 'Severus...?'

'Miss Granger,' he cut in, voice stiff. 'I am glad to see you well. It seems the extraction was a success.'

'What the hell are you blabbering about, Snape?' Harry snapped from her other side, a scowl on his face.

'Severus...' Dumbledore began, trying for placation.

'Shut up, Potter. I'm alright Albus, just a bit tired from... the...' Snape swayed on his feet, his eyes suddenly becoming unfocused. There was a small groan from his lips before he keeled forward, landing ungracefully beside Hermione on the wide bed.

Nettie rushed forward and checked Snape, putting a hand to his wrist and then his forehead. 'Exhaustion,' she announced after a few seconds.

Hermione breathed out heavily in relief.

'He'll need to go to the Infirmary,' she continued. 'He needs a least a day's full rest uninterrupted and the chance to eat a real meal.' Her eyes met Hermione's apologetically. 'He's been pushing himself so hard for you dear.'

Hermione nodded in understanding, dropping her right hand to rest lightly against the side of Snape's head. 'Please take care of him, Nettie. I'll come by to visit once I feel well enough to move.'

The nurse smiled. 'I thought you might say that.' She turned to Harry, 'Watch over her, I'm going to take Professor Severus to see Poppy.'

With a wave of her wand, Nettie had Snape's body lifting from the bed and gliding silently across the floor towards the floo. Hermione settled back on the pillows of her bed, ignoring the urge to laugh out loud. Severus really was stubborn, whether it was here or in her mind. She just hoped he didn't make her wait several months again before he allowed her to kiss him.

~~~~~~~~~~~

Luckily, it seemed Hermione didn't have to wait that long. When Snape awoke in the infirmary the next day, the first thing he saw was Hermione at his side, curled up in a chair and reading one of the library's newest copies of a charm textbook. She smiled at him, touched his arm, then his cheek and hair, the touch so familiar and yet so new to him now that it was a part of the real world. His heart still fluttered and thumped in that strange, giddy way when she was near him. He still found it hard to believe this brilliant witch loved him.

She stayed and talked with him, carrying most of the conversation herself until he finally started opening up again. When his food came, she fed him herself off the end of a fork, and smiled and teased him for the surly looks he gave her when she cut the pieces of meat into tiny, easy to chew cubes. Snape let her sit closer as the afternoon wore on, until he finally allowed himself to touch her gently. It was only a fleeting caress on the back of her head, but she felt it, and beamed at him before pressing a kiss to his stubble-covered cheek. He knew in that moment he had been forgiven for doubting her.

Two days later the news was all over the school. The Welcome Back Feast was everything they had expected it to be and more. Albus had outdone himself, and the tables of Hogwarts were groaning under the weight of the spread. The students of Hogwarts, who had never seen their potions master happy before, watched in trepidation as he smiled often at the woman sitting at his side: the legendary Hermione Granger, who had miraculously been rescued from the curse that had incapacitated her for almost two years.

Nettie Pomfrey and Harry Potter had both been given places of honor at either side of Snape and Hermione. Every once in a while, Madam Pomfrey would lean across Snape to say something to Hermione, or reach up and pat Snape on the arm almost as if trying to reassure herself he was really there.

Potter, for a change, did not scowl once at Severus nor did the older man scowl at him. When word got around a few days later that the two men had actually worked together to free Miss Granger, more people tended to believe it then not.

It came as no great surprise when Professor Snape and Miss Granger announced their engagement a few weeks later. When Snape decided to give up teaching for a private life of research, Albus Dumbledore and Minerva McGonagall were the first to congratulate him and tell him it was about time he was able to do what he wanted to do.

The couple bought a small cottage just outside Hogsmeade – it had an excellent lab for them to work together in – and was close enough to Hogwarts to encourage visitors, while far enough away to ensure that no one ever outstayed their welcome.

They traveled the world for their three month long honeymoon – Severus taking his young wife to the places he had always visited alone: the pyramids of Egypt, the ruins of Atlantis, the Great Wall, the Mayan libraries, and Greece – where Hermione learned he wasn't kidding about the tan lines.

Severus Snape, bastard-extraordinaire, ex-Death Eater, ex-Spy, ex-Greasy Git and newly-minted man-in-love finally learned what it was to be accepted by all the people that mattered most.

And Hermione Granger-Snape? She got her happily ever after.

If – Bread

Then you and I would simply fly away