For all the times he saved me

A/N @ WilliamSpike: haha I love your name! I mean, I adore it! The man is just brilliant, short (and I\'m short, but he\'s no taller than me^^), but brilliant. But getting sidetracked a little... To answer to your curiousity, so have I, and some of them do. Not a lot, but some. Don\'t get me wrong, I\'m not a fan and will never sleep with a bra on, unless I\'m totally knackered and have barely enough energy to pull my shirt of, and I will regret it come morning, but I hear it\'s doable if they aren\'t pre-formed. (is that a word? doesn\'t matter) Plus, I couldn\'t very well have her running around without one, right? I think it would\'ve given poor Severus a heart attack, don\'t you? So there you go. Curiousity stilled?



Just a short one, because I\'ve been having a bit of trouble with the next, so I thought I\'d post it in two parts. Tell me what you think.







Hermione was exhausted as she apparated in front of the gates. She had picked Rose and Hugo up at the burrow, after finding a note stuck to Ron\'s door. Ron had apperantly been off with some girl, and dumped the kids at Molly\'s for the weekend. She should\'ve known. At least the kids were in good hands. You could say a lot about Molly Weasley, but the woman did take care of their own. Molly had fussed over her, making her feel like she was thirteen again, but all in all, she could only be grateful for the woman. She had taken the kids to Diagon Alley and while they were visiting their uncle in the shop, she had run off to get a nice anckle lenth nightgown. She had decided she needed it. Affterwards, they spent a nice and quiet afternoon in the country side near the burrow. It had been wonderful, but tiring. After dinner with Molly and Arthur, she had promised them to come back as soon as she could.

For a moment, she held on to the gates for support. She might\'ve been even more tired than she had realised. She pushed open the gates with all the strength she had left, and staggered towards the castle.



Severus was pissed. Again. That seemed to happen an awful lot lately. Granted, he had never been a chipper man, but he couldn\'t remember a time he had been this angry this frequently. The wolf had spend the day in his quarters, which had calmed him down somewhat, and they had made the mistake of going to the great hall for dinner. Minerva had pestered him about their research, and how bloody great it was he had agreed to have Hermione help them, and, oh joy, Sybil had found another \'sign\' of his impending death. This time she told him he would choke on his biscuit. Sometimes, he just wished one of them would come true, just so he wouldn\'t have to listen to her whining ever again. He had even toyed with the thought of killing her himself, but he didn\'t think the insufferable woman was worth going to Azkaban for. Remus had tried to get him to play chess after dinner, but he had opted for a stroll around the grounds. It was a habit he had picked up from Albus. The old fool had been good for that, at least.

"Severus?" He looked up at the wolf. That one word had sounded more insecure than the man had ever sounded around him. It worried him a little. He raised an eyebrow in responce. The man to his left raised his eyes towards the sky. Looking at the moon, no doubt. Oh bugger.

"Do you think we\'ll ever find a cure?" Not this again.

"You know what I think." It was simple, and accurate. They had had this conversation many a time before. It always led to Severus having to restock his liqour cabinet. No. Not this time. With a great deal of difficulty, he managed to croak out what needed to be said. "We have help now."

Out of the corner of his eye, he could see Remus nod.

A few minutes passed in silence before he felt a hand on his arm. Remus stopped him, silently sniffing the air. He looked at him, his eyes big and full of terror. "Hermione." He breathed.



It was impossible to say who moved first. They spotted her lifeless form on the ground not too far from the castle. They reached her at the same time, but Remus was the one who turned her onto her back. There was foam on her lips, and her eyes were staring up, not seeing, empty, dead.

Time seemed to slow down. Severus felt all the world around him drop away. He couldn\'t breath. This was not happening. Not again. He could see Remus say something, but he didn\'t hear it. He felt the man punch him on the arm, and the moment in which he had been caught was gone.

All of the training he had had in his life kicked in, it took over his mind, his body. As if on autopilot, he summoned a bezoar from his quarters, and shoved it down her throat. That should give them some time. He picked her up and ran. Remus had the sense to open the doors for them, so he wouldn\'t have to even slow down when he reached them. He had a choice, the infirmary or his lab. He opted for his lab. It was closer. Besides, what sort of a potions master would he be if he didn\'t have the cure for poisoning? He just hoped that whomever had poisoned her was stupid, and the bezoar would take.

After placing her on the couch which Remus had quickly transfigured into existence, he checked her vitals. A heartbeat, let there be a heartbeat. Please don\'t let us have been too late. It was faint, but he found it. He thanked every deity he could think of, and then some. He nodded to Remus, who was shivering against his side. The man next to him sank to his knees and gripped the young woman\'s hand. But she wasn\'t out of the woods yet. It took him several precious minutes to perform the right spells, being a little out of practice since the war, but he got them right. Her heartbeat was picking up again, and so was her breathing. He breathed out a breath he hadn\'t even known he had been holding. Good. He stood up and moved to his desk. He could feel the wolf looking at him, but he didn\'t care. It wasn\'t long before he found what he was looking for. Was it right for him to do this? To waste the most precious ingredient he owned on someone who looked like she was going to be fine anyway? He decided, yes, it was. He took the small vial from the hidden drawer, and stalked back over to the girl. Remus looked up at him with large eyes, knowing full well what he was holding.

"Are you sure?" He croaked. Severus shook his head. No, he wasn\'t sure, but he sure as hell wasn\'t going to take any chances. They could be dealing with someone a lot smarter than it seemed. Someone who had wanted to make them think she was alright, only to have a dormant poison kill her when they let her sleep. He had seen it before. Hell, he had been the one to develop the stuff. He had made it under strict orders of Voldemort, during his first reign. The deceptive brew would assume all the signs of a \'normal\' poisoning, right up until you applied a bezoar. It would stop the symptoms, for a while, and the second part would do the rest. The ingredients he had put in would react to the bezoar, giving you thirty minutes to produce the second cure, the most rare thing he had been able to think of at that point, and one which he knew would be in the possesion of Albus. If not, the chemical reaction would start to slowly rot the victim from the inside out. He just couldn\'t risk it. He had to be sure. He poured the vial of phoenix tears down her throat.



Both men settled themselved in an armchair across from the woman, after Remus had taken her coat and Severus had replaced it with a blanket. Remus laid a hand on his lower arm, and kept it there. Good. Even though he had never been one for physical contact, he appreciated the gesture. The waited, watching her sleep.