Chapter 20

Disclaimer: I'm just playing with the characters, I don't own them.

Thanks to my beta and reviewers.

Chapter 20

Severus awoke with a start as something rapped on the window. A handsome eagle owl peered in, blinking in the driving snow. Beside him, Hermione murmured a protest as he got up, shrugging into his robe. She rolled over and yanked the covers over her head, grumbling. He shook his head; she could be a monster before her first dose of caffeine. Worse than he was!

The owl didn't stay around, just long enough for him to open the window and snatch the offered letter. Severus shivered in the cold draught before slamming the window closed. He noted the seal with a dark scowl then tore it open. The letter burst into flames moments after he'd finished reading it.

Hermione sat bolt upright, clutching the covers to her chest in an attempt to ward off the chill. "What was that? Your heartbeat just started racing."

"We've been 'invited' to Christmas Dinner, at lunchtime. The Dark Lord will be our 'gracious' host." His teeth ground together, his anger almost great enough to speak Voldemort's blackened name. They'd reached the winter solstice with no loss of Hermione's control, even with the darkness rising ever higher within her. But exposure to the Dark Lord might break that hard won control.

"We'll have to go, won't we?"

"Yes. Bastard whoreson can't leave us well enough alone! Christmas indeed. I bet he only ever got coal." Severus stalked over to his bed, tearing off his robe and climbing back in to bed, pulling her close.

"Don't you need to let the Headmaster know?" she asked before he cut her protests off with hard, intense kisses... and more.

Later on, after Severus had dressed and gone to alert Dumbledore as to Voldemort's new command. Hermione lay back on the bed, recovering from their love making. Well, it was a little too rough to be called that... sex, maybe?

'Alright, not sex either. That was nothing more or less than fucking.'

It was probably just as well that Harry and Ron had departed the day before for the Burrow, as it was, she'd have to use the odd glamour to conceal the obvious signs that she'd been shagged senseless. Bruised lips, love bites, whisker burn... and that was just from the neck upwards. She'd be aching for days if she wasn't a witch with access to healing potions.

The last vestige of the aftermath of her climax faded, leaving a leaden weight in her stomach at the thought of meeting with Voldemort in just a few short days.

'I've got an awful feeling about this...'

As he swirled the last of the antique wine from the Malfoy cellars around his mouth, Voldemort observed the interactions of Severus and Granger (although now that she had eaten at his table, perhaps referring to her by her given name would be an idea). While he did not believe in love, he could see that strong emotions were at work on both sides, with the body language passing between them. Perhaps it would be better to test Hermione in a different way... no. There was no time to come up with another plan, and while the girl was undeniably powerful, his own powers were sufficient to destroy her if need be. But to do so would be to ruin his plans, and Severus would object violently. His servant was sufficiently emotional for Voldemort to read in his guarded mind that he fancied himself in love, yet also refused to admit it, regarding it as a weakness.

The table and contents vanished as Voldemort set his wine glass down. He fixed his eyes on Hermione, observing her in silence for a moment. She didn't look down or away, allowing him to slip inside her mind, to investigate the memories he found. The bloody wreckage of a car crash was followed by the reading of a mysterious book. Remembering Severus's warnings, he shied away, leaving before he could be affected.

"You enjoyed the meal, I trust. Now you shall earn it. I can feel your potential power; show me what you can do..." He half shut his glowing eyes, summoning a Dementor. It drifted towards the girl as her face paled with the remembrance of her worst experiences. Her wand was suddenly in her hand, a look of grim determination on her features as her eyes drifted shut in concentration. A glowing, silver corporeal Patronus shot out, a large reptilian winged horse easily recognisable as a Thestral. The Dementor attempted to retreat, but was caught by the galloping silver Thestral.

Voldemort turned to the girl, noting the stunned look on her face. Either she'd acted without thought, or her Patronus had changed form. Possibly both, but now he was angry and not inclined to be forgiving. His first burst of the Cruciatus Curse caught her by surprise as she fell to the carpeted floor, involuntary screams escaping her writhing body. Severus stepped forward, probably to intervene, only to fall to Bellatrix's attack from behind.

The Unforgivable coursing through Hermione abruptly reversed, making Voldemort drop his wand with a startled cry. He saw a feral look cross her young face, her eyes darkening to the point where nothing but black could be seen. Voldemort felt a foreign flash of fear as he realised that he'd underestimated the girl. She was more powerful than Grindelwald... he breathed a sigh of relief as she twisted around to focus on Bella, who was absorbed in torturing Severus.

"Now, you fool, die! Filthy half-blood, besmirching my Master's house with your breath."

Voldemort saw a spark leap from Hermione's hands to the tip of Bella's wand. With a flash, and a roar of pain coming from the dragon heartstring core, his unhinged servant's wand was no more, leaving Severus in peace. But the enraged Necromancer hadn't finished.

Bella screamed as the spark travelled from the ashes of her wand to her hand. The piercing shriek was cut off within seconds as the incredible heat tore her apart into ash. Voldemort stared at the pile of soot mingled with tattered robes on the ground that had been his fanatically loyal servant.

'It was the wrong way to test her. Stercus!' Voldemort didn't approve of profanity, but when he swore, he used Latin. It certainly sounded less common.

He eyed the girl as she got to her feet, no tremble discernable in her limbs despite the curse he'd kept her under for long enough to keep her muscles twitching for an hour. Her face was white, but otherwise she showed no reaction to Bella's death.

Voldemort's eyes narrowed. While she was indeed powerful, he could still overpower her. He moved fast, snatching his wand up as he lunged at her. He grabbed her around the throat, but not hard enough to bruise. His wand dug into her pulse point.

"Bring her back, and I will let you live. More to the point, I will let him live. Severus has failed me if you are this..." he fumbled for a word. "...disobedient."

Hermione's eyes were slowly returning to brown, he noted, as she glanced down at the prone form of Severus. He'd fallen unconscious during Bella's tender care. Her lips firmed.

"I've never brought anyone back."

"You will manage. Necessity is, after all, the mother of invention." Voldemort stepped back, wand pointed at Severus. "Do it. NOW!"

Hermione took a shaky breath, stepping up to Bella's meagre remains. She closed her eyes, frowning in concentration, hands clenched into white knuckled fists at her sides.

Slowly but surely, the ashes trembled, rising into the air into a human shape. There was an acrid tang to the air Voldemort breathed in, with accompanying sparks of electricity raising shivers across his skin.

The Necromancer at work next to him bit her lip, droplets of blood trickling down her chin. A pained look crossed her face as her breath caught. With a rush of cold air, Bella stood once more before him, dressed in tattered robes with unblinking glassy eyes.

"Master." Bella's voice was hoarse, but she didn't sound quite as unhinged. Clearly, Dead Bella was an improvement already.

"You may take Severus and leave. Ah, I forgot... take this, it will Portkey you to the gates topped by winged boars." Voldemort took his graduation ring from his finger – which had been recovered by Lucius from his vault before his imprisonment – and tapped it with his wand. He waited until Hermione knelt beside Severus, grasping his arm.

"Wait... you're not going to mark me?" Hermione asked, looking overwhelmed.

"No. I never intended for you to be a Death Eater. You are an ally, not a servant. Ah, no hard feelings about the dose of Crucio. I'm rather addicted to casting it." He tossed the ring to her. Both of his 'guests' vanished as the Portkey whisked them away to the boundary of Hogwarts.

The winged boar topped gates hadn't opened upon their arrival. Hermione was just about to cast a Rennervate on Severus, when her wand began trembling in her grip. She cried out as it flashed red hot, scorching her; yet she couldn't drop it. The vinewood appeared to have fused to her hand; that or her muscles were simply frozen.

There was a roar of pain coming from the wand, echoing across the valley to Hogwarts and Hogsmeade. The trembling stopped suddenly, the wand quiescent and cold under her fingers. Hermione doubled over, the wand falling from her blistered grip. She fell to her knees, shaking, landing in the snow beneath her, which began to melt at her touch.

Roiling nausea made her feel like she was going to be sick, but she soon forgot about that as she suddenly felt as if her heart had been pierced by a shard of ice. Her entire body became numb, but that only intensified the sensations of what followed. Much like the loss of one sense intensified the others, the numbing of her body only intensified her perception of her own soul.

She could feel each and every hairline fracture lengthening and widening under the pressure of a limitless source of darkness. The last untouched bright spot in her spirit held for a moment, then shattered. Hermione screamed. The Cruciatus Curse was nothing compared to the agony of what felt like her soul turning inside out. Everything seemed to feel wrong, as if everything that was right had gone.

"Severus!" she gasped, her cry for help unheard by the unconscious man on the ground beside her.

While Hermione couldn't see it, she could feel her soul darkening with every passing second. What had once been white was grey, and what was grey was turning pitch black. She fell to the ground, shuddering with the chill within even as her clothes began to soak up icy water. Blood trickled from her mouth to seep into the slush beneath her, staining the off-white snowy water red.

Her body jerked as the last of the grey within her soul darkened. A strangled cry escaped her as she flopped onto her back, staring up into the deep blue winter sky. The glaring sunlight above the horizon faltered, as the complete darkness in her soul splintered her control over her Necromantic powers. No clouds swept in to block the sunlight, but the light dimmed anyway. Soon the afternoon light failed as night fell hours early.

The anguish within Hermione reached the point where her eyes rolled back in her head, her breathing erratic. Yet the pain was verging on ecstasy as she began to adjust to her now predominate dark side. Her awareness followed the contours of the earth beneath her, finding the places stained by deaths. Even as she absently began the process of awakening the dead, she could feel a great power fast approaching. A dazzlingly bright spirited live one was within fifty paces of her, the gates flying open. A booming voice shouted something that she couldn't understand in her current state.

"STUPEFY!"

Painful magic danced across her chest, but she remained conscious. Hermione's out-of-control powers automatically began to fight back.

"STUPEFY MAXIMUS!" the voice cried again.

The pain was greater this time, but she launched her own attack even as her mind tried to exert itself. She could feel the heartbeat of her attacker, hammering away. It slowed as her unleashed powers tried to stop it.

"HERMIONE, STOP IT! I don't want to hurt you, but you leave me no choice." The voice, which she recognised as Dumbledore's, continued with an unfamiliar spell that hurt a lot, but didn't stop her from inadvertently slowing his heart further. She cried out in despair as her mind failed to shackle her dark powers.

Dumbledore fell to his knees, struggling to keep going with a dangerously slow pulse. He launched several more ineffective spells at her then muttered an apology to Severus. "Sectumsempra."

It felt like she'd been impaled by several blades at once. Judging by the blood she could feel spurting out of the multiple wounds across her torso, that wasn't far off the truth. Light-headed from the loss of blood, her powers were finally within her control, even though she had no energy left to bind them. Darkness swallowed her even as wrinkled old hands pulled her close, a melodious incantation echoing in her ears.

Severus sat by the side of Hermione's bed in the hospital wing. Several Blood Replenishing Potions had been poured down her throat, but she was still unconscious. Albus had apologised profusely after reviving him, but he'd understood why the old wizard had used his speciality cutting curse. Hermione's dark side had been out of control, with no Stunning Spell having much, if any, effect. Instant blood loss had been the only fast acting option to knock her out.

Her pulse was strong and regular under his fingers, but Albus had decreed that it was inadvisable to wake her suddenly using a Revival Charm. She should be allowed to drift awake, in the hope that she would be able to retain control.

'Please let her be in charge; I don't want to lose her. Albus will be forced to kill her if she isn't in her right mind.' Severus's face contorted as he struggled to withhold bitter tears. 'If Bellatrix hadn't got the drop on me, she would be fine. It's my fault... Why do I always destroy anything I love?'

"Don't let your powers control you, Hermione. I can't lose you. Albus was right; I should have told you that I love you." Severus squeezed her hand before standing up to leave. He needed to do something to keep his mind off the comatose girl.

"Mmm, Sev'rus, wait..." At Hermione's murmur, he spun around, seeing her eyes blinking open. He breathed a sigh of relief as he examined them for any sign of unnatural blackness and found none. He helped her sit up, passing her a glass of water to relieve her dry mouth.

"Did you hear what I just said?" he asked, wary eyes fixed on her.

"Would you repeat it if I said I hadn't?" A small, wan smile appeared. "Yes, I did hear you." She grabbed one of his hands and brought it to her lips to kiss. "Love you, too... but you knew that before Halloween." There was a slight note of censure in her voice as she gave him a challenging look.

Severus sighed. "Yes, I loved you before then. Why do you think I awarded so many points to Gryffindor? I was relieved to know that you returned my... feelings." He fidgeted, uncomfortable with discussing such things. "Promise me that you won't let your dark side win," he blurted, levelling a piercing stare at her.

Hermione buried her face in her hands, dragging them back to run through her hair and wincing as her fingers were almost caught up in the tangles. "Severus, you do realise that I don't have anything but darkness in my soul now? How can I fight it, let alone beat it, with nothing to take its place?"

"My soul is hardly lily-white either. But mind and soul are two different things, yet inextricably linked. You cannot tell me that your mind is corrupted by darkness."

"Not entirely, no. But I killed Bellatrix Lestrange; my powers may have been out of control, but I made the decision to attack her because she hurt you. She was going to kill you..." Stark tears were running down her cheeks as her eyes slid shut.

"Bellatrix was an insane bitch who delighted in the pain of others. The world is a better place now that she's gone from this plane of existence," Severus said firmly, wiping her tears from her cheeks with gentle touches of his thumbs.

Desolate bloodshot eyes were raised to meet his. "You don't understand. He ordered me to bring her back, or he'd kill us both."

He stiffened, his hands dropping onto her shoulders. "You raised Bellatrix from the dead?" Severus shook his head, unable to believe what he'd heard.

"After reducing her to ash. Should I have refused?"

"No, the Dark Lord would have killed you," he snapped, regretting the action when she flinched. He mumbled an apology, stepping close as he pulled her towards him by his grip on her shoulders. Hermione relaxed into the offered embrace, her arms coming around his waist.

"She's been stripped of emotions," Hermione stated.

"Really? She'll be less of a crazy bitch, in that case." Severus stroked a hand over her tangled hair. "There might be a solution to your blackened soul... I'll need your help to research it, and possibly make it."

"A potion? Will it be a temporary or permanent fix?"

"Permanent, I hope, but it will require time to find amongst my collection of potions recipes. If only I had a memory like yours... anyway, I daresay Madam Pomfrey will be overjoyed to see the back of you. To my quarters on the double." Severus stepped back away from her, allowing her to get out of bed. He shrugged out of his Death Eater robe and draped it across her shoulders, leaving himself underdressed (compared to normal) in a shirt and trousers.

Twenty four hours later, they were ready to add the last ingredient to a hybrid between a purification and a restoration potion. The key ingredient was three precious drops of her own virgin's blood, to be added after it had been stirred forty two times in an infinity symbol. The catalyst was four drops of semen from the man responsible for deflowering the virgin: Severus.

The potion slowly turned the colour and consistency of unicorn's blood. It was ready to be taken. Severus scowled. He didn't want her to take an untested potion, but on their own or taken consecutively, neither of the components of this new potion would work permanently to return her soul to what it had been before losing her virginity. This way, the dark from Necromancy would still be there, but she would be able to use the Dark Arts with no danger of sullying her soul or lashing out at others with them. That is, if the Puriftoration Potion didn't poison her.

"Wish me luck!" Hermione dipped a vial into the cooling potion and raised it to her lips. She jerked back and looked at it suspiciously as the scent of it reached her nose. "That can't be right. It smells delicious, like... I don't know. But potions are meant to taste and smell revolting."

He investigated the contents of the cauldron himself, cautiously using his large nose to sniff at it, only to twist around to face her as he heard her swallow. Despite the suspicious qualities of it, she'd gone ahead, the imbecile!

With a strangled groan, she doubled over, summoning an empty cauldron as her face turned a sickly green tinge. Severus reached her side in time to hold her hair back as she vomited into the cauldron. It took a surprising amount of time to come out of her, for she hadn't eaten much at the meal provided by Voldemort. In fact, her appetite had been down ever since she'd learned of the Christmas meeting with He-Who-Wanted-A-Pet-Necromancer. Had they used a purging potion recipe instead of purification?

Finally Hermione strained up, her limbs shaking. Severus took a step back as he saw the contents of the cauldron. It was black, roiling about like smoke. Was that the darkness that had been in her spirit? He cast a containment spell, realising that this unknown substance could be dangerous.

Hermione was gasping for breath, the shake in her limbs spreading to her body. Her head snapped back as a blinding light flashed, outlining her body in a heavenly glow. Ignoring his own safety around the effects of an unknown potion, he wrapped his arms around her. The glow faded, taking with it the trembling as her breathing eased. Severus could feel his shirt growing damp, he pulled back to see her smiling widely through her tears.

"It worked, I'm almost whole. If not for this whole Necromancer business since September, I'd be fine."

Severus looked long and hard at her. Perhaps there was something he could do to make her feel more complete. He drew his wand, focusing on his feelings for the young witch in his arms. A complicated non-verbal incantation later, and he held a thin platinum band with a glowing white gemstone.

"Marry me, Hermione."