Minerva had just enough time to bring her arm up to her chest as the entire barrier shuddered and gave way with concussive force. All five witches and wizards flew back with a sharp cry as the shield dissolved in crackling flames, a the heavy smoke pushing outward dissolving under its own dilution.
Minerva was the first to get her wits about her as the force had merely pressed herself into the willow that she had stood against. Rasping, she tried to catch her stolen breath. When the center cleared, her heart ground to a stop.
Harry was next to come around, stumbling forward from the tree line, a large gash bleeding down his forehead he stumbled toward where Ginny had been. His voice desperately calling out for her.
More chorus' of cries echoed beneath the soft wail of Muggle sirens. Minerva suspected that the blast had undone all the protections of the place. She pushed herself forward tripping lightly in her haste. Where were they?
"Severus!?" It was Draco's voice that cut through as he ran towards the remains of the house. His wife sharp on his heels.
Ginny and Harry turned next as both sets of young adults turned their attentions to the smoldering ruins. Minerva picked up her pace panting heavily as her aged heart just couldn't keep up with the younger generation.
"Hermione!?" Harry desperately called out as he grew closer, his eyes searching through the lingering smoke. He gritted his teeth, climbing over a bit of the crumbled fireplace, using its dislodged stones to bring him onto the foundation. His heart jumped into his throat when his eyes took in the scene before him.
Hermione lay, almost just the same as when he'd seen her fall but the chair that had been under her had been crushed as if a great weight had pushed her down into it. Her face was covered with ash and blood turning her skin a sickly ashen brown. The hair around her head dark and matted, laying under a large stone. One arm was curled at an impossible angle beneath her, her shirt torn as if long claws had caught along the surface. Her other hand was stretched out over her head, lying precariously close to another-still. Dirt and blood crusted fingertips a hairs width away from actually touching.
It was Ginny's keening wail that jerked him from his observations. She pushed her way past him pulling the bit of stone that had come to rest along the back of Hermione's head. Ginny fell down to her knees as she sobbed heavily, her hands hovering unsurely.
It was then Draco joined them, pushing away the remains of the pocket door off of Snape, he grunted and hissed as he tossed it aside with strength only adrenaline could have produced. He too, fell beside his one-time mentor, a hand moving to the man's chest. Draco's eyes searched for any plausible sign that he was still with him. A deep sob caught in the back of his throat as cataloged the man's injuries, raising his trembling wand trying to decide where to start.
Severus was prone on his back, his lower half still partially trapped under the remains of a kitchen wall. His coat was burned and torn asunder leaving the white of the shirt underneath stained and dark. Five large deep gashes into the torn fabric coated were with the muck of ash and blood. His face was completely relaxed, Hermione's white wand loose in his grip at his waist.
"They're dead..." Harry's sob broke through the back of his hand, as he panted beside his wife. His wand hand curling tightly into her shoulder as she begged for Hermione to answer.
"Not yet. Mr. Potter." Minerva had finally come to join them, a stern look of focus on her face as she brought herself up with them. Her wand moved in a complex array moving over the both of them at once.
All parties suppressed their sobs as a soft glowing thread appeared inside a hazy circle. Minerva nodded her head with a tight jaw swiping her wand canceling the spell.
"What was that?" Ginny hiccuped wiping her face hastily.
"Their lifeline." Esmeralda offered standing strong beside Draco her eyes focused. She hadn't known Hermione specifically but Severus had been her teacher during her own time at Hogwarts. A year higher than Draco, she hadn't been present during the final battle, but she knew that he was of extreme importance to her husband. Her soft eyes watched as he wept over his Godfather.
"Right you are." Minerva turned on her heel as a large bear Patronus bounded for them.
"We're ready for you."
Minerva turned sharply moving down between them all. She pulled out a metal feline figurine tapping it once. "Everyone hold on."
Haste shuffles through the debris were drowned out as the sirens grew to a crescendo. Minerva took both of both of her charges wrists placing their cooling fingers upon the warm metal.
"Protect what is lost."
Everyone felt the tell tale sign of a port-key activating as the world around them swirled out of view.
After they landed, Draco was the first to realize where they'd gone a fear rising in his chest. "St. Mungo's? We can't bring him here!" His protests went unheard.
Minerva stood watching the back door she had used to secretly remove Hermione burst open, "Healer Darling."
"I have a team ready." His brow was worried as he looked at her with wide eyes.
"Can they be trusted?"
"Implicitly."
oOo
"Your Heaven is so beautiful."
"Is that where you believe we are?"
"Where else could we possibly be? This is certainly too peaceful a place to be Hell."
Hermione turned onto her side, propping her head on her palm to gaze down at him. His face was relaxed, eyes closed as he laid beside her on the gently sloping hill. A soft breeze blew a lock of hair over his cheek and she immediately reached out pulling it aside. She felt his face twitch against the back of her knuckles before deep obsidian eyes greeted her gentle smile.
"What was your heaven like?" His eyes didn't meet hers but the softness of his tone held no judgment.
"You'll find it completely predictable." She said with a sigh shifting back to lay beside him, her hand flopping down, lightly brushing against the back of his.
"Try me."
Hermione let out a solemn sigh, "It was a library." She frowned slightly at his suppressed snort. "That's right go on and have a laugh." The deep hurt in her whip-like tone wiped any semblance of humor from his face; his dark eyes shooting to watch her from the corner.
"Insufferable know-it-all Hermione Granger's perfect heaven is a library. If only the boys could have seen it they'd be having a right laugh." Her words though dripping with self-deprecation, held a deep heaviness of sorrow as well.
It was Severus' turn to roll and properly give her his attention. He watched her eyes grow dark before turning to meet his gaze. He knew she would miss them as soon as her memories returned, what he hadn't expected was the pain they brought with them.
"We weren't always so close you know." She sighed softly through her nose letting her eyes wander, "Do you remember my first year? When Querril let the troll in?" Hermione paused shifting bit "I didn't actually go looking for the troll. I had actually run into the bathroom to cry. Ron had made a comment about how I hadn't made any friends because of how pretentious and stuck up I was. He called me a nightmare." Her gaze shifted to his but his face held no answers to what he was feeling.
"Then, I lied to protect them. To protect myself, I didn't want anyone to know they'd hurt my feelings..." She snorted softly rocking her head back and forth, ambivalence on her lips, "Our entire friendship was based on my willingness to lie."
Hermione rolled her head back towards Snape looking into his face. She expected him to laugh, to ridicule her childish behavior, what she hadn't suspected was for him to mirror her sadness.
"Why did you stay?"
"I..." She had asked herself the very same question periodically through the years. But now the answer seemed so much clearer than before, "I was needed, they made me feel like...like my books and cleverness had a point to it...that I...had a purpose..."
"They used you." Not an accusation or an argument.
"I wanted them to." Hermione ran a hand slowly over her stomach, "I just...needed to be needed..."
oOo
"Come on, Professor stay with me now. I know the grim reaper's a beauty but she's got other suitors to see. Come on." The healer moving over Snape had been running his mouth the entire time. His wand was moving in exceptionally complex and precise movements.
The wounds had all been repaired, and the dust and muck gone away. Severus now laid, shirtless, on the small gurney in the smaller room. His chest was being forcibly raised by the steady rise and fall of the rambling healer's hand as he continued to work. It was an eccentric sight but no one in the room moved to stop the show.
Harry, Ginny, Draco, Minerva, and Esmeralda stood backs pressed against the wall. Watching with bated breath for the outcome. Harry and Ginny's eyes to the left where, thankfully, healer Darling and his assistant were silently working on Hermione. While to the right, Draco and Esmeralda watched over Snape. Esmeralda having to hold her husband back tightly to keep from cursing the absurd wizard.
"Come on there, don't you growl at me. Get back out here and yell at me properly." The healer narrowed his eyes as he pulled a long silver light from over his heart. His joking demeanor changed to one of strict concentration.
"Max."
Healer Darling turned his head slightly behind him, "That can't be."
"But it is."
Healer Darling turned his eyes back down to the girl under him. They had divested all of their clothes in favor of the hospital gowns early on though they had her on her stomach now as they were trying to repair the damage to her crushed spine and ribs.
"Keep working, we're not ready yet."
oOo
"Do you think you can have sex in heaven?" Hermione blinked as Snape rolled away from her. Suddenly coughing as if he'd swallowed a dung beetle.
Severus was indeed choking, on her words. He was grateful he was already dead or she may have well just killed him with her floaty question.
"I beg your pardon?" He ground out between breaths. Surely he had misheard her, yes that was it.
Hermione couldn't help but smirk. So as not to make her professor more uncomfortable, she turned her head away to rest her chin on her knees.
"Sex." She repeated barely concealing her mirth, "You know, that thing two people do when they-"
"I know what it is." His tone sharply cut her off. He pushed himself up watching her curiously. Why on earth would she bring that up?
"So?"
"So, what?"
"Do you think it's possible?" She turned her head to him then, her brows rising to the incredulous look on his face. She couldn't stop the smile that grew.
His eyes narrowed dangerously to her coy look. She could have been asking him what the purpose of asphodel or wolfsbane with the careless way she spoke. Still, he had to know.
"Why?" He drew his words carefully.
"It's just..." Hermione's face lost all confidence as she turned away to hide her face. Embarrassed now, mumbling her words unintelligibly into her her lap.
"Excuse me?"
Hermione let out a low groan lifting her head. She hid her red face behind her hands leaving her mouth uncovered, "I've never...had that experience..."
A soft snort caused her to peek between her fingers at his disbelieving look. Something bristled and she pulled her hands down.
"It's true!" She huffed puffing out her cheeks. "How about you then?" She rounded, surely at his age he had to have, though as she remembered all he had shown her of his life, her temper abated. He must have...right? She watched as he made a face like something bitter was laying on his tongue.
"I have had the...experience."
The way he said experience bothered something deep inside of her, yet still, her curiosity prodded and reared its ugly head. She leaned marginally closer. Her voice growing gentle.
"Ho...how many times?"
Snape's eyes snapped to her. Hermione's face showed nothing more than a thirst for knowledge that was just out of her reach. He sneered slightly barring his canine. He could simply ignore her, but a niggling feeling in the back of his brain insisted he give her what she was asking for.
"Willingly?" He let his word hang there, a warning as to what exactly she was asking for.
Hermione's eyes widened and she took in a slow breath. She backed off just a bit, curling her lips in as her mind wrapped around his admittance. Her courage pushed forward and she slowly released her lips, her eyes studying him.
"Yes..." It was barely a whisper, she watched his face and body go tense before he took in a breath to speak.
"Five."
"Lily...?"
Severus shook his head, he couldn't remember their names, or rather he refused to acknowledge his past transgressions. They had all simply used his new favor of the Dark Lord to raise themselves into the inner circle, his youthful naivete had taken to the task. But his wizened-self had long since pushed it all to the far dark corners of his mind, locked away for all time.
Hermione watched as his clenched fist slowly relaxed. Her eyes traveled up to his. They were looking somewhere far away, long ago. She swallowed and raised her courage once more.
"Unwillingly...?"She watched his face fall into deep regret, his eyes closing as his brow ticked.
"One."
Hermione's face twitched. She had asked, she had invited the pain into their conversation. Her eyes fell to her knees as she chewed her bottom lip mercilessly. She knew it was not beneath the Dark Lord to use such tactics. She could easily remember the cold fear that washed through her when the Werewolf had expressed his want of her.
oOo
Draco turned his eyes up to the newly conjured clock. Its red luminescent letters floating above Grangerband Severus. Its seconds counting down, but every now and then it would catch and go in reverse for a few seconds before restarting its countdown. Draco instantly recognized it as the same charm the healer had performed before his mother had passed. It was a Deathclock. A counter for when the soul would actually leave the body and fully move on.
"That's it, you stubborn hippogriff. Come on."
Draco's eyes darted to the healer tasked with his Godfather. The hand that had been assisting his breathing slowly pulled back. There was a deep rattling noise as Severus started breathing on his own. Draco's own breath caught in his chest as the healer moved his wand over his heart. A sharp spark left the tip and Severus' body twitched slightly.
Harry and Ginny were silent as Healer Darling drew back his hand too. His soft eyes watching as Hermione's back, also, started to gradually rise and fall. The healer waved his wand separating the clocks over each of their bodies respectively, a deep frown forming on his lips as their combined time split in half.
00:12
01:02
00:10
02:06
00:08
02:30
"Now."
oOo
Hermione sighed softly looking down at her feet. She felt exceptionally guilty for bringing up his dark past. She glanced towards the stoic man as he sat in deep silence. Her heart ached for him. Desperately wanting to bring him comfort. She was of her own mind now, all her memories restored. Even still, she couldn't see her hard faced, unapproachable, professor any longer. It was then she realized how much his tight control had shaped him. His iron will, not to succumb.
A bad man, didn't need rules. An evil man did whatever pleased him. But a good man...had rules. So many rules, rules he would never dare to break, even under the most trying circumstances. Her eyes recalled the many buttons of his attire. Each one snapped tight with such precision. Just like everything she could remember about the man. He never, did anything without thought. His entire life was scripted from morning to night and in those rare moments where she had worn his resolve thin-she could recall, a deep fear, a fear of uncertainty.
She didn't want him to be afraid. More so, she didn't want him to fear her. She had thought he had feared her reaction to his scars the night the ring compelled her to undress him but now, she understood it to be so much more. So much deeper than vanity. This was the fears of a good man gone to war. Tempted by the devil himself.
Demons ran, when a good man went to war.
Hermione was no demon.
Cautiously, she reached out. Her fingers exceptionally light as she laid her palm over the hand that rested over the arch of his bent knee. She held his hand, watching his face as she shifted herself closer. She felt exceptionally light as if he was the only anchor left in the world around them. She swallowed down her reservations and dared to move even closer.
Severus watched the woman kneel beside him and the path her free hand took to reach the side of his face. His eyes rose to hers and he wrapped the hand on his knee in turn. His face tilted ever just so as she grew closer.
Neither noticed as his body started to glow, both had shut their eyes against the world as their lips pressed so softly. A sweet release ran through them both as their unspoken connection spread out into the world around them. It was in that instant. That moment of hesitant bliss. That he was gone.
As the feeling of him left her, Hermione's eyes opened, searching for the man that had been just before her. The rolling hills and beautiful skies were gone instantly and she found herself inexplicitly alone.
"Severus?"
"Severus?!"
oOo
"Hermione..."
Severus felt cold, more so, he felt extremely heavy. Muffled sounds met his ears and he tried to force his unresponsive eyes open.
"He spoke! I heard him!" Draco was standing beside his Godfather now, his wide blue eyes searching for anything, anything at all. He swore he had heard him speak through his cold parted lips. Draco's eyes shot to the timer overhead that had started to quickly roll backward.
"Draco..." His wife's hand gently came to rest between his shoulders but he tried to shake her off putting his hand over Severus'.
"You're stronger than this!" He shouted hanging his head, "Wake up damn you!"
Harry and Ginny were similarly leaning over Hermione, her timer had gone still. He held Ginny tightly as the healers moved around her. The previously collected healer that had taken his time before was now muttering furiously. A soft light swirling from the tip of his wand.
He turned drawing it out to the side. It was like smoke on a laser. A red line faded in and out and he traced following its winding path over her body. Healer Darling continued the line, as it moved between the beds, he came around to follow it. His eyes narrowing.
The line dipped and twisted like an old forest trail, tangled in a mess near the floor, before starting to move up Severus' arm. When his wand came near the hand that Draco had placed on Snape's chest the line grew bright but became ensnared.
"Move." His voice was hard. He went back to murmuring the incantation bringing the tangled light back into focus.
Draco made to protest but his wife had made the decision for him taking his elbow and pulled his arm back. When his hand slid away the cords started to separate, untangling without snagging before just the soft red remained.
Healer Darling traced the path up to Severus heart where the cord dipped inside. He turned his eyes up to the clock over his head as it continued to spin backward. When it reached 99:99 the clock slowly dissolved away. He turned his eyes over to Hermione's.
00:01
He knew what he was about to do would be of serious consequence should he fail. There wasn't going to be enough time to re-enact the stasis spell should his hypothesis be incorrect. He turned trepidatiously to McGonagall.
"Are you certain?" Her voice was firm but held its own underlining uncertainty. She had never seen a fate line before. She had only briefly read about it a few nights ago. She had come to consult him then, having come to find that he was exceptionally gifted with bringing those back from the dead. It had been why he had been placed on Hermione's case in the first place. Though he lacked the occlumency skills, he had a special proclivity for saving lives.
"I've only done it once." He had to be honest, even though the both of them knew it was the only option left.
Minerva pursed her lips. Gambling with the lives of others was not something that had ever sat well inside her but that was where her faith in others had led her forward through life. She took a deep breath swallowing down her fear. With a slight nod of her head, she braced herself against the wall. The weight upon her shoulders intensifying.
"Everyone step back to the wall. Complete silence."
Everyone, even Draco, did as they were instructed. The two assisting healers stepped back to the corners of the room crossing their arms to hold themselves back. Neither one of them had seen what he was about to do, though they had briefly discussed it when they were asked to aid him in their secret task.
Healer Darling took a slow breath and lowered his wand down where the red line had twisted, he drew it up in small wafting circles using his other hand, seemingly, to pull it taut.
He stood between the two beds. His wandless hand feeding the red light over and into Hermione's heart. His eyes moved cautiously but quickly as his wand was only able to show him small parts of the line at a time, whenever his aim would be untrue, his hand would meet air and he'd have to start the process anew.
Life was messy, it was a constant twist of turmoil and pain mixed with pleasure and happiness. As he pulled the line from the floor he watched as the color inside started to shift. The soft red was giving way to a brilliant white and he knew it was time.
With another slow measured pull, the line between them unraveled into a straight line. Its twists and turns giving way to a straight path between them. Healer Darling closed his eyes and took a calming breath. He turned his head placing the tip of his wand over Severus' heart, the man's body gave a slight jerk before relaxing back down. A new thicker lighted thread wrapped around the line of fate. Healer Darling turned his head placing his index finger over Hermione's heart, even though she was laying on her stomach her soul still responded beneath his finger.
With great concentration, he pulled a similar light to the surface. Holding both, hovering above their respective owners. He turned his eyes towards his assistant and nodded his head. The witch took a slow breath and waved her wand in a slow arch.
"Finite Incantartum."
Harry's eyes darted to the clock that still hovered above Hermione's head. It shimmered slightly but remained at its mark. His eyes turned back to the Healer, growing wide as he pulled two thick and winding lights along the white line between them.
Severus' grey, swirling with a mixture of white giving it a marbled like appearance. Hermione's a soft pale blue mixed with speckles and swirls of a sort of off white, not exactly gray but not completely pure either. As the healer brought them to center the lines danced around the other, neither touching or pulling away. They swirled and circled around the other before finally finding a path through.
Hermione's lightly brushed the top of the marbled gray absorbing its colors into her own before dissolving completely inside. While Severus' continued its path unheeded into her heart.
Everyone's eyes turned to the clock still holding its place, a collective breath passed. The number on the clock faded as if to shift, its number malformed stuck between 1 and 0. The number shuddered before quickly rocking backward. Healer Darling let out a thick breath before slowly waving his wand over the line vanishing it from view.
No one dared to move, their eyes watching the time on the clock cycle backward just as Severus' had done. No one even noticed that the pair's fingers had started to twitch, nor the fact that their breathing had grown deeper. It wasn't until a soft groan came from Severus' lips did their eyes truly refocus. However, it wasn't until Hermione's eyelids fluttered did anyone think to move.
Always?
Forever.
They had won.