I'll Be There For You

A/N: Without Lariope, the ending of this chapter would be... well, crap. She knew exactly what I wanted to say and went back and forth with me on how to do it correctly. So, thank you, my dear. Without Lulabelle72, the middle of this chapter would have been just as bad as the ending. She told me it wasn't thrilling enough. So, a little bit of hard work and voila! Hopefully, you'll be on the edge of your seat in this chapter because LB72 pushed and pushed me. Many hugs and kisses. And lastly, to RedSkyAtNight: I know there wasn't much brit-picking to be done in this chapter, but your excitement after reading it was extremely encouraging. You really made my day. Thanks.

The early morning sun had been rising when Severus and Hermione had finally been able to lay their heads down after a long night of flying. But now, it was dusk, and it was time to get ready for their journey into the pyramid.

Snape slithered out of the bed, careful not to wake Hermione, and padded into the bathroom. He slowly and quietly pushed the door shut before lighting the sconces with his wand. Then, he looked at himself in the mirror.

And smiled as he recalled the hours he had spent next to Hermione, together in bed, in the complete darkness of the room.

It wasn't often that Snape fell into a deep sleep--always being on alert as a teacher, spy and Death Eater didn't grant him that luxury--but this time, he had been dead to the world. Perhaps it had something to do with the person he was sleeping with. In fact, he was certain that his restful slumber had everything to do with her. Severus Snape had always slept alone. He had never trusted anyone in his bed while he was not conscious. But when he had checked into the hotel and the little man behind the reception desk had lightly delved into his mind, discreetly asking him if he really wanted two rooms, Snape knew right then that he would finally know what having a good night's rest would feel like and had told the little man that one room would be fine. He would be with her--with his woman. In the same bed. And she was the only person he could trust to lie next to him. It was still a bit of a shock to him when he woke a few hours later as something bumped into his ribs and smothered his face.

He opened his eyes to a face full of hair. But this time, it wasn't his own greasy strings that tickled his nose. It was Hermione's bushy tresses. For a few moments, Snape lay there, inhaling her scent, feeling the soft texture of her curls as they lightly brushed across his skin. Then he noticed that her body was pushed into him. He carefully swatted her hair from his face and slowly rolled onto his side to spoon her. He tucked his right arm under his head, propping himself up.

"Hermione," he said again, sitting over the bed, leaning over her body and using his wand as a light to see her features properly.

Snape shook the memory of last night out of his head--he needed to finish dressing. He jumped into the cool shower to calm the heat between his legs.

He had told her that he had woken because he had a nightmare too. He knew he shouldn't have said that, but perhaps he hadn't truly lied to her. Thinking that Ron Weasley caught him feeling up his best friend had been a nightmarish experience.

But overall, sleeping with her had been exciting, dangerous, and very sensual.

Enough is enough. Keep yourself focused on this evening's task.

He stepped from the shower, quickly finished dressing, and walked into the room to wake Hermione.

It hadn't taken long for Snape and Hermione to arrive at the large pyramid. The hotel offered Side-Along Apparition, and a large, bald man took them both from northern Cairo to the Giza Plateau, located on the southwestern outskirts of Cairo. The guide had placed all three of them under a Disillusionment charm, warned them about ancient Egyptian magic, dropped them off in front of the Sphinx and then left them alone in the dark desert. Since they knew the location to the hotel, it would be easy to Apparate back.

It was surprisingly cool for a summer night, and the wind kept throwing grains of sand at Hermione's face. She pulled her wand out and whispered "Lumos!" Looking up at the enormous human head of the Sphinx, she said, "Let's get inside."

Snape also lit the tip of his wand and looked around him, head invariably tilting upward. Hermione knew he was in awe--just like she was. It wasn't every day that a person got to stand at the base of the famous Pyramids of Giza and the Sphinx, at night and utterly alone.

"Which one is it?" he asked, still looking at the structures in front of them.

"Harry said it was Menkaure's Pyramid, the smallest of the three," she said, pointing to the pyramid on the left.

"That's a long walk," Snape said.

Hermione looked at him. "Perhaps you could fly us over there."

Snape's eyebrow rose, surprised by her comment. "Are you sure?"

"It would be the best way. We don't have time to waste by walking over there."

"Very well," he said, walking behind her and wrapping his arm around her waist. She laced her fingers between his and whispered, "Just stay low to the ground."

Hermione was nervous. Not only about flying again, but about being so close to his body--especially after her dream.

"It will take about two minutes to fly over there--you'll be fine," he said as he Levitated off the ground.

As the night air rushed over them, Hermione was proud of herself for not being scared while flying--she had a gut feeling that he wouldn't let anything harm her.

As soon as they landed, she headed up the steel stairs that lead to the entrance.

"Have you got a plan to get inside?" Snape asked when she stopped at the stone door.

"A simple Alohomora and Wingardium Leviosa should do the trick," she said, pulling her wand from her pocket and waving it at the door.

She smirked at him as soon as the door moved to the side, lit the tip of her wand again, and walked inside the darkness.

She held her wand straight out in front of her and carefully walked down the narrow passageway, which descended deeply into the earth. She ran her fingers along the pink granite to keep her balance and listened to the crunching of the dirt below her feet.

As soon as they entered the rectangular chamber, Hermione felt a hot breeze pass over her skin. She stood still, waiting for something to happen.

"It's the first layer of magic that was placed inside here," Snape said from behind her.

"How do you know?" she whispered, still not moving.

"So, the know-it-all doesn't know the answer to this," he teased.

Hermione turned on her heel and pointed her wand at him. "If I knew, I wouldn't have asked."

He was sneering. "I felt it. Unlike the tingling sensation that you are used to, Egypt's magic is hot--each nation's magic feels different."

"Interesting," she said, turning around and walking into another narrow corridor. Then, she suddenly stopped again. "Do you think the magic is... hostile?"

"No. If it were, I'm sure the hot breeze would feel like a roaring fire. And if that was the case, we'd be in extreme danger."

She nodded her head and proceeded walking down the passage.

They walked in silence until they reached a large room that had columns carved into the stone sides. To the right was another passageway. However, it was split in two. The top passageway had a small opening, which was mostly blocked by stone, while the bottom was the same size as the corridor that they just came from.

"Here it is. Ron said that we needed to take the 'upper' corridor. It runs over the lower, which leads to the burial chamber. The Muggle tourist guide said that it was abandoned during construction when the floor of the antechamber was lowered. However, the wizard guide told Harry and Ron that the real reason was because there had been magic and other things in the chamber that they wanted hidden."

"How are you planning to get through the opening?" It's thinner than I am."

Hermione faced him. "Are you a wizard or not?" she said, grinning.

Snape grumbled something about being a know-it-all, then walked past her and began waving his wand over the entrance.

After several minutes, Snape said, "And this is why I escorted you here--you would've never been able to break that ward."

Hermione put her hands on her hips. "You know, you never give me enough credit--I would have broken it sooner or later."

"This has nothing to do with your intelligence. Only a man would have been able to remove the ward."

Hermione gawked at him. "That is--"

"Don't misunderstand me--no female would have been able to break that. It was a special ward that took a male wizard to break. It's an old tradition," he said, smiling.

"That's rubbish," Hermione said, pushing past and elbowing him in the side.

She flicked her wand and Levitated the stone wall down to the ground. She placed her wand inside the upper corridor and then pulled herself up into the passageway, struggling the entire time. As soon as she was inside, she picked up her wand, brushed her clothes off and said, "Your turn."

Snape flicked his wand and suddenly Levitated off the ground and floated into the upper corridor beside her. The implication that his way was easier was clear on his face. Hermione huffed and walked further into the passage.

It didn't take long to reach the end of the corridor. Hermione ran her hand along the smooth wall and felt the heat of the magic behind it. Snape was standing next to her, waving his wand furiously around, muttering under his breath while removing the wards.

As soon as he was finished, Hermione stood several feet away from the wall, pointed her wand at it and shouted, "Confringo!" The wall blasted apart, shooting debris across the passageway. She covered her face, waiting for the dust to settle.

"You could have warned me before you did that!" Snape brushed off his clothes and wiped the dirt from his face. "Do you realize how dangerous that was?"

"Sorry," she said, stepping through the hole she created. "But it was the only way to get through the stone."

Before he could lecture her any more, she pointed at the small chest and shouted, "We've found it!"

"Don't touch it!" Snape yelled as she ran over to it, falling to her knees and examining the designs around the gold box.

Snape kneeled down next to her and ran his wand over the chest. "Hmmm... There don't seem to be any wards protecting it."

"So I can open it?" she asked him, her hands hovering above the lid.

He nodded.

Hermione picked the lid up and placed it on the ground. Lying on the top of the pile of items was the book she was looking for.

She slipped her hands beneath it and attempted to lift it out of the chest, but it was too heavy.

Snape put his hands beneath the book, and together, they lifted the tome out and placed it on the ground.

"How are we going to carry this back? It's too heavy, and if we Transfigure it, we might damage the magical properties," she asked him.

"We can place it under a Levitation charm--the magic shouldn't harm the book like Transfiguring would do," he said.

Hermione ran her fingers across the front of the book, feeling the ridges and valleys of the carved pictures. Then she pulled the necklace that Dumbledore let her borrow from her pocket and slipped it around her neck. The pearl was glowing teal, signifying that it was activated. Hermione looked at the hieroglyphics and instantly understood what was written.

She flipped open the book and began scanning the pages. There was so much information for her to absorb, and she couldn't read fast enough. Potions, charms, deadly curses and many other things popped out at her.

"Hermione, have you found it?"

She heard him talking, but couldn't take her eyes off the page or find her voice.

"Hermione?" he said, nudging her.

"Hermione!" he shouted as he pushed her away from the book.

She blinked and realized that she was lying on her back, in the dirt. "Why did you do that?"

"You've been reading the book for a half an hour, and you didn't answer me."

"A half an hour!"

"Yes. Did you find anything about the Horcruxes?"

"N-no. I... I was just scanning the pages. Are you sure it has been half an hour?"

She sat up and smacked her hands together, brushing the dirt off.

"Damn it. No wonder this book is so dangerous. It's just like the Mirror of Erised--if you stare at it too long, your time will waste away."

"So what do we do?"

"We will have to read it in shifts."

"Let's take it back to the hotel room--I don't feel comfortable in here," Hermione said.

"Very well," Snape said, standing up.

Hermione Levitated the book off the ground and followed Snape back through the passageway.

"You know, we have been warned about ancient Egyptian magic several times--getting this book seems all too easy, don't you agree?" Hermione asked.

Snape stopped walking and faced her. "I was beginning to think that as well."

"You don't think there is a curse on the book, do you?"

"I've checked for them--the book has nothing protecting it."

"Hmmm," Hermione said as Snape turned around and continued walking.

When they reached the antechamber, he jumped down from the upper corridor and said, "Place the book on the ground. I'll help you get down; it's a large drop."

As soon as Hermione Levitated the book to the floor, the ground and walls began to shake violently, throwing her into the wall and onto the floor. She screamed as small stones and dirt fell onto her.

"HERMIONE!"

She flipped onto her stomach and crawled to the edge of the corridor. Snape was trying to stand up, using the wall furthest from her to support himself. He had a streak of blood falling down the side of his forehead.

"Severus!"

Suddenly a thunderous sound came from behind her. The corridor was collapsing, and the cracks in the walls were bleeding a metallic silver liquid. Hermione squinted her eyes, looking closer at the fast approaching stream and realized that it was not a fluid--it was tiny, silver beetles scurrying toward her, hundreds or thousands of them, running over each other and making a horrible clicking noise.

"Oh, fuck!" she shrieked as she scrambled to her feet. Another jolt from the ground hit, and Hermione tumbled out of the upper corridor. She fell hard on her stomach, her wand flying from her hand. She felt like she would never breathe again and tried coughing and wheezing to get a breath of air. Next thing she knew, something was running over her body, and she squealed, thinking it was the beetles swarming all over her.

"Come on! We've got to get out of here! I've got your wand!" Snape said as he lifted her up from the ground.

"T-the book!" she said in a scratchy voice, looking around to confirm that nothing was crawling on her body.

"I've got it!" Snape shouted over the sound of the cave-in as he pushed her toward the passageway that led toward the entrance.

Hermione looked back at the upper corridor and noticed a glittering object hanging from a crumbled rock. And the sea of beetles was almost upon it.

"THE NECKLACE!"

"Forget it, girl!"

Hermione whipped around and pushed past him. "We have to have it!"

"HERMIONE--NO!" She felt him tugging at her arm, but her mind was on getting the necklace, and she slipped out of his grip because not only had she promised Dumbledore to keep it safe, but they needed it to translate the book.

She stumbled across the rectangular room and yanked at the dangling necklace. Three tugs and it was in her hand. As soon as she pulled it down, the small insects began falling out of the entrance to the upper corridor. Hermione screamed, throwing a hand over her head to keep them out of her hair, then turned around to run across the room and get away from the disgusting creepy-crawlies as fast as possible, but the middle of the floor gave away, creating a large hole that emptied into blackness, leaving her stranded by the bugs.

Snape was all ready in the other passageway and tried to run out of it to help her when a booby-trap was set off. One of the walls in the corridor gave away, sending darts hurling at him. "SHIT! Protego!" he yelled as he fell down to the ground.

Hermione tried edging her way around the hole with her back tight against the wall, to get to him, but the ground trembled again and she was thrown off balance, flipping head first into the black hole.

Hermione shrieked as she fell. Her tears burned her eyes, and she flapped her arms and legs widely. It was just like her dream--when she had been tossed over the railing, but this time, she couldn't see what was beneath her. Would she slam into the ground? Or would she continue to fall into nothingness until she died?

Intense heat enveloped her, and she smelled something burning. She realized that she was going to fall into a sea of fire--into the very core of dangerous Egyptian magic! As terror shot through her, she began to scream, but her cries were cut short by a sudden pressure around her ribs, and just as quickly as she had fallen, she was rising upward. She opened her eyes and saw Snape. His arms were wrapped around her torso as he flew them out of the hole and back into the passage.

"Use your wand to Levitatae the book! I can't do both!" he shouted as they emerged from the depths of hell, a pulsing wave of heat still at their backs.

Hermione saw the book lying at the entrance of the passage, grabbed the wand from his hand and flicked it at the stone tome, lifting it off the ground, and Levitating it behind their flying bodies. She hooked her other arm around his neck, gripping the necklace tightly in her hand, and said a fervent prayer to any god that would listen to get them out alive.

But faster and faster, the passageway crumpled behind them, and her hopes dwindled. Several times, large stones hit their bodies, pushing them backwards or slamming them into the walls, but Snape kept his concentration despite every obstacle and flew them toward the entrance.

"MERLIN'S FUCKING BEARD!" Snape shouted as he stopped flying.

Hermione took her eyes off the book to see what was happening.

"Oh, my god!"

Blocking the exit, which was a mere ten feet from safety, was a small army of dead corpses. They were dusty and wrapped in old cloth, revealing their boney arms and rotting flesh. Each of them was holding a weapon--some were long spears while the others held large cutting axes. They looked positively evil with their red glowing eye sockets. In the middle, behind the protective wall of dead soldiers, stood the pharaoh, Menkaure.

His body looked as if he had never died and was as alive as Hermione or Snape. The only difference was that he had a blue-grey halo around his body, as if he were some sort of specter. His eyes were a piercing red--almost worse than Voldemort's.

The dead pharaoh hissed something in an unfamiliar language to them.

"What was that?" Hermione whispered in Snape's ear, her eyes never leaving the monsters in front of her.

"Must be ancient Egyptian. It's been a dead language for fifteen hundred years!"

"And I suppose he doesn't want us to leave with his book, does he?"

"No."

"But we need it!"

The dead guardians in front of Menkaure took a few steps forward, raising their weapons.

"I'm aware of that, Hermione," he grumbled out of the side of his mouth.

"Apparate us out of here!"

"And leave the bloody book? I can't do that unless one of us is holding the blasted thing!"

Again, the pharaoh shrieked at them. Then, the rocky floor beneath them began to crack open, and small flames began to shoot up at them.

"Transfigure the fucking book, put it in your pocket and use your wand against them as I fly us through them--"

"You said it would be too risky and could possibly damage the book!"

"It's the only fucking way we are going to get out of here with it, Hermione! Do it. Now!"

Hermione did as she was told without saying another word. After the book was safely in her pocket and her wand at the ready, Snape Levitated them well above the rising flames and took off flying at full speed toward the demons of the underworld.

"Expecto Patronum!" Her otter came flying out of the tip of her wand, knocking a few of the dead soldiers to the side. "Protego! Petrificus Totalus! Stupefy! Reducto!" she shouted, aiming for whatever was in front of her. Several of the zombie-like corpses were blasted to the side, or fell rigid, but it was the mighty pharaoh that stood his ground, casting spells toward them.

Snape dodged the flying hexes, and they were seconds from being outside the pyramid. His only obstacle was getting past Menkaure, and it was up to Hermione to destroy the evil mummy. She raised her wand, but before she could cast her curse, something cold and slimy grabbed hold of her arm and yanked her from Snape's clutches.

"Ahhhhhhh! Severus!"

One of the soldiers had stood up and snatched her, throwing her into the pile of dead bodies. Their hands were all over her, choking her, pulling her hair and attacking her body. Before she could scream again, a booming voice echoed through the passageway.

"SECTUMSEMPRA!"

The hands and arms that were gripping her fell to the ground like heavy stones. There was a horrible stinging across the skin of her arms, and for a moment she thought she had lost her limbs as well.

"Hermione! Give me your hand!"

Flying toward her was Snape, his arm out stretched as he reached for her.

She gripped his hand, and he heaved her upwards, grasping her tightly to his chest. As they flew out of the entrance, she noticed that the limbs and head of Menkaure had been severed from his torso and were lying scattered along the ground, burning in the flames that were jumping out of the cracked earth. The destruction of Menkaure had been like a massacre for his army. It had completely wiped them out.

The cool air from the night chilled her lungs, making it hard to breathe, but she didn't complain. They were safely out of the horrible pyramid. Snape nearly dropped Hermione from his grasp as they landed in front of the Sphinx. Then, he collapsed to the ground behind her, his energy depleted--the tip of his wand was the only light in the dark desert.

Hermione sat on her knees with her arms clutched tightly around her body, rocking back and forth and gasping the cool, sweet air. She couldn't believe she was alive. She should be at the bottom of that hole, being incinerated in that oven that had felt like the very bowels of the earth or in the clutches of the demonic mummies. She kept remembering the feeling of losing her balance and being thrown into the hole, and the frantic thoughts of never seeing her friends and family again. Not to mention, the fear of being burned alive or devoured by decaying corpses.

But he had saved her.

Snape had saved her life.

His hands came to rest on her back, and she quickly turned around and wrapped her arms around his waist and buried her head into his chest.

"I was so scared!" she cried, her heart pounding so hard that she thought it would beat right out of her chest.

"I know," he said softly as he rocked her.

She suddenly pulled back from him, draped her arms around his neck and devoured his thin lips. The force of her body against his propelled them both into the sand, but never once did she release her grip around him. He wrapped his arms around her body, squeezing her tightly into his chest, and slipped his tongue into her mouth.

"Tell me... Tell me we aren't dead," she said breathlessly in between their wet kisses.

Snape rolled her over, pressed his hard cock into her pelvis and in a low whisper he said, "Does this feel like we're dead?"

The rush of blood to her face was hot--her mind wanted to protest the situation. What was she doing kissing him? And what was he doing rubbing his cock against her like that? This was just the adrenaline running through her veins, through his--the desperate need to feel alive.

But he was kissing her again, and his hot breath in her mouth was connecting with the life of her own soul. She had wanted this, wanted him, for a while, but not until this very moment, locked with him on the cool sands of the Egyptian desert, did she decide that now was the time she could give into her wants.

To give into this man.

He finally pulled back so they could breathe, laying his sweaty and grimy forehead against hers. Both were panting heavily.

"I knew something was going to go wrong," she whispered. "Perhaps we should get back to the room before anything else happens."

"Indeed," he said in a soft voice. "I'll have to fly us. I can't Apparate right now--my mind is not steady. Just give me a moment to regain some energy," he said, then planted gentle kisses on her full lips.

Hermione couldn't wait. She wanted to be as far away as possible from the cursed pyramid.

And she wanted him.

All of him.

And lying on the sand in the mysterious desert wasn't going to do.

She hooked her heels around his ankles, grabbed his wand where it lay next to her, closed her eyes, and concentrated on her destination--an enormous, ebony sleigh bed covered in a pale blue duvet.

In a matter of seconds, they were back in the hotel room, lying on the bed, and bouncing a bit from their impact.

She was nervous as she opened her eyes. Would she find Professor Snape glaring down at her, upset because she went against his wishes?

No. It was Severus. The hunger in his eyes confirmed it.

"Hermione," he sighed as he tangled his fingers through her hair and pressed his erection into her groin.

As they fiercely kissed each other again, she knew at that moment that her life would forever change--she could finally admit that she had fallen in love with Severus Snape.

Well, that was a fun adventure, yes? ha ha ha.

Up next: Lemons, lemons, lemons.