Senses

Chapter 45

Severus woke to the jolting sound of shattering glass. His body jolting awake in an instant. He was out of bed with his feet taking him towards the source of the sound before his brain even properly processed his change in position. He stepped into the bathroom just in time for his brain to process the sight before him, his actions on pure instinct alone.

"Stop." His voice was a sharp bark, of warning and concern. His hands took her wrists in a bruising grip before pulling her back from the counter that was now covered in the shattered mirror.

Her hands had come up to claw at the fragile skin around her eyes, a look of pure anguish on her face. Her cry was silent, the mark of someone who had truly felt what it meant to feel their soul shatter. Her protests to his hold were sharp and grating. Her wrists strongly pulling against his grip in an attempt to continue their destruction. He thumped her hard against his bare chest her head knocking against his breastbone as he forced his hand over her eyes.

Hermione let out a small cry of pain, her hands coming up to try and pull his down, having pulled her wrist free from his clutch that had now shifted to holding her around her chest to keep her in place. Her desperate struggle turned to defeat, her body falling back heavily into his embrace. Her mouth opened and closed speaking the nonsense of a mind that could no longer tell the light from the dark but his hold on her never wavered.

Severus could feel the stickiness of blood under his hand, her nails had torn the skin no doubt, having left tracks on his own hand. He backed her away from the mess she'd made, his chest still heaving from the shock of what he'd found. As her weight grew, his hold over her eyes relaxed, slowly pulling back to check the damage. As he did, her head turned, hiding.

A deep sob rippled all the way down her frame and into his own, his eyes turning towards the heavens as he walked them back away from the mess she'd made. His hold relaxing only so much as to allow her to turn. When her warmth wrapped around his back and her nails dug into his scars he found himself at a loss of what he could possibly do.

Hermione couldn't have cared about their state of undress, though it was nearly impossible not to feel his morning condition against her stomach. Even so, the observation was hardly anything of concern as the weight of her wrongdoings pressed against her even harder. She turned her claws into paws when she felt her fingers dip into a hole of ripped away muscle that was one of his scars and felt his breath hitch. She didn't want to hurt him, she could never hurt him. Yet still, she had. She was sure.

She had no more tears, though she had desperately tried to cry, nothing had come. She had tried to bring them with pain, the pain she should have felt for all she'd done but still, she had nothing to shed, having bled herself dry just the night before when she laid under the starry sky of heaven waiting for her own justice to come.

Her hands came up, hooking over his shoulders as the weight of her body sagged against him completely, her nose taking in the smell of him just warmed from bed. His hand came to the back of her head, pressing her ear even tighter into his heart, his rapidly beating heart. The sound drowning out everything that was raging like a storm inside her.

"I killed them...I killed them...all of them..." Her words fell past her lips without filter, "They're dead..."

"Who...?" Severus tilted his head down trying to see into her face, his hand pushing back her hair that was sticking over her cheeks from the small crimson rivers she had created.

"All of them...Without cause I just..." Hermione thumped her head against his collarbone as his hold relaxed. Her hands came from under his arms to rest on his chest, quivering with the unknown. When his hands didn't leave her but rather came to take her by the arms, she managed to lift her head just enough to feel his eyes on her face though she couldn't open her eyes.