Dusk and Her Embrace

First off I do not own Harry Potter or any of the characters in it, they all belong to JK Rowling. I just take the characters and put them in strange situtations.

Please R/R

I started this story a long time and even I think might\'ve uploaded a few chapters, but then the computer with it on it crashed and I lost everything, so this is my attempt to write it again.

*All characters are of age*

Anyhow here we go:

Chapter One: Unbridled at Dusk

Severus had known this day was going to come. He had known it ever since he agreed to spy in Voldemort and the death eaters on that one day so many years ago. Yet at the same time, he thought it would never happen.

The waning moon shined in a starless ink black sky. The cemetery was dusted with a dirty blanket of muddied snow. Severus lay sprawled on the ground, his black hair matted with congealed blood, his entire body felt like it had been stomped on and broken into a million jagged pieces.

“ The Lord doesn’t take to betrayers kindly,” a high-pitched female voice babied. “Neither do we.” She raised her head in a kind of conductive manner at the circle of death eaters surrounding him and nodded.
“Crucio,” The cacophony of voices said. Severus winced expecting waves of pain and rip and ravage through his body… but instead he felt nothing, and suddenly everything went black…

Severus opened his eyes and found himself lying in a bed in the hospital wing. Dumbledore sat next to him, his blue eyes sallow and hollowed. “ What happened?” Severus managed to spit out. His eyes slowly came into focus; he noticed his bed was surrounded by a stark white curtain. Next to him on a night able were a pitcher and a glass of water, nothing else. “ Dumbledore, what happened? The last thing I remember was being surrounded by the circle of death eaters, and they were about to do a spell on me… but I don’t remember anything, how did I get here?”
“ We need to talk, Severus,” Dumbledore said, his voice sounding mournful.
“ Like hell we need to talk, Professor” a haughty voice screamed. His curtains were ripped open, and in front of him stood his two most irritating students, Mr. Potter and Mr. Weasley. Both their faces were in a rage. Mr. Weasley looking more red then usual, as angry blood boiled beneath his skin, and Mr. Potter’s green eyes lit up, bright with fury, both had their hands on their wands, and both looked ready to kill.
“ It’s your fault that Hermione’s… Hermione’s….” Mr. Weasley seemed unable to complete his sentence.
“ That Miss Granger is what, Mr. Weasley? Do enlighten me. What trouble did your haughty egotistical know-it-all witch get herself into this time?”
“ How dare you talk about Hermione that way!” Harry screamed, “ How dare you…” Harry tightened his grip around his wand… “ After she… after she.. her life… FOR YOU!!!” he spit out the last two words in a rage.
“ What on earth are you talking about, Mr. Potter?” Severus hissed.
“ Harry, Ron!” Dumbledore finally cut in. “ Professor Snape doesn’t know what happened at the graveyard… I was just about to tell him when you two interrupted.”
“ What happened at the graveyard, Dumbledore?” Severus interrupted.
“ Harry, Ron, please take a seat, and remain calm while I tell Professor Snape what he doesn’t know,” Dumbledore said. He flicked his wand, and two squishy looking purple armchairs appeared. Ron and Harry took their seats. He turned back to Severus. Ron and Harry silently fumed in their chairs.
“ As you know Severus, you were attacked by the circle of death eaters who wanted to punish you for betraying their lord although it wasn’t on Voldemort’s orders that they had initially attacked you… But what you didn’t know was that Mr. Potter, Mr. Weasley, and Miss Granger had followed you to the graveyard. Apparently Ms. Granger had seen you receive an eagle and had seen how frightened and disoriented reading the owl had made you, so out of consideration, they followed you under Harry’s invisibility cloak.”
“ Spying on me nonetheless,” Severus muttered.
“ What was that, Severus?”
“ Nothing, Dumbledore…” Damn that nosy Potty boy, just as arrogant as his father, still thinking the rules did not apply to him just because of a stupid lightning-shaped scar on his forehead… If Potter only knew how many scars Severus had on him due to work he did for the order… yet no one would ever consider him great…
“ Just as the death eaters were about to use the crucio curse on you again, Miss Granger ran out and threw herself on top of you screaming that they had hurt you enough… The death eaters grew scared that other people had seen them in the vicinity so they had apparated away… but the curses that were meant for you… hit Miss Granger…”
“ WHAT?” Severus sneered… a damn mudblood had saved him… “ That stupid girl!!!!”
“ How dare you call ‘mione stupid!” Ron screamed, he stood up.
“ Mr. Potter, Mr. Weasley I’d like you to remain calm,” Dumbledore said. He turned to the boys. “ Perhaps it would be best if you returned to your common rooms. I would like to spend sometime with Professor Snape, alone.”
The two boys haughtily stood up. Ron glared at him. “ I don’t know why the hell ‘mione would risk her life to save someone like you, Professor Snape,” he said his name like it was acid burning a whole through his tongue, “ You probably don’t even have enough emotions to appreciate it… Hell I don’t think you have any emotions. You’re just a cruel, heartless, piece of…”
“ Come on, Ron,” Harry said tugging at Ron’s purple with sweater with a large white R embroidered in it… “ Let’s get out of here… We can come back later…” Reluctantly, Ron followed Harry out of the hospital wing.

“Stupid stupid girl,” Severus muttered. “ She shouldn’t have risked her life to save someone like…” though at the same time he felt a slight twang of something, some sort of feeling overtaking him, yet he couldn’t quite place it, let alone recognize it, he chose to ignore it. “ Well, I suppose I should go to the girl and thank her for what she did although I don’t….” Severus stopped short when he noticed the headmaster’s forlorn and sullen face. “ Dumbledore?”
“ I’m afraid you won’t be able to do that, Severus,” Dumbledore said softly.
“ She isn’t… She isn’t dead is she???” Another feeling compelled him, he could actually place this one… perhaps it was guilt…
“ Oh no, she isn’t dead, Severus…” He looked down on the floor. “ Though I’m afraid her state isn’t much better…”
“ Dumbledore?”
“ She’s comatose, in a suspended animation… No one seems to be able to break through her. It’s like she’s put up a barrier, and I don’t think there’s enough love in the world to break that barrier down… Harry and Ron have been sitting by her bedside all day and all night, but still nothing… and her skin is so cold…. It’s like she’s frozen in the moment, living the attack over and over again… The affect of all those crucio spells it was too much for her to withstand…”
Severus was jolted with another feeling he couldn’t quite place… he only knew one thing. “ You must let me see her headmaster.”