Flame of Existence

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FLAME OF EXISTENCE
/ by Bella

Chapter Thirteen

The days passed by quickly for both Hermione and Snape, seeing as they were both busy. Hermione had found herself spending more and more time with the Head-Boy, a Ravenclaw named Stephen Cornfoot. Much to her discomfort, she saw less and less of the feared Potions Master with each passing day leading up to the end of the first month of the school year.

There were many activities and events that Hermione had to look after. All of the school\'s clubs and societies were starting up again, and she had to make sure that everything went smoothly. On top of all of that, the Halloween Ball was going to be held the following month on the 31st, and she had to work out a few kinks before the time and location would be set.

Hermione\'s hectic schedule seemed to have started at the perfect time - when her mind was in turmoil. With a heavy schedule now, Hermione was able to focus on other things other than the incident with Draco. Being Head Girl had once again turned into a blessing instead of a curse, as she had formally seen it before everything happened.

Snape had also been set aside in her mind, though not intentionally. By the time she finished all of her schoolwork and plans, she was dead-tired, and only had time to down a vial of the dreamless draught before she passed out on her four-poster bed.

Of course, she saw him during the classes, but neither of them directly approached one another for obvious reasons. Hermione did her classwork and turned it in, then left promptly after.

Evening detentions with Filch had been short -- he kept assigning her lines, but only required a set number before she could leave. He wasn\'t making her stay for four or more hours. He had told her that once she was finished with her task, she could leave... And so she did, every night for a week now.

Snape, on the other hand, was growing more and more fatigued with the growing stacks of essays crowding his desk. He found that after he finished teaching for the day, all he wanted to do was sit down in front of the fire, pop open a bottle of Old Ogden\'s, and read a good book.

He knew what was causing him to be so unfocused, much to his dismay. It was that bastard, Lucius Malfoy, and his bloody note requesting a meeting. Ever since his bloody bird had flown into the dungeons to present him the parchment, his mind has been everywhere but where it was really supposed to be.

Now, he felt he was forced to meet his idiot, old friend just so that he could clear his mind.

That\'s where he was heading, at the moment-- to Hog\'s Head, a dark and dirty pub located in Hogsmeade. Why Lucius picked that particular place, he was unsure.

His long, billowing robes blew out behind him as he walked quickly from the school. The sky was beginning to darken and the clouds were rolling in. Severus tried to push the ominous thoughts from his mind as he entered the nearby village.

As he slowed at the sight of the pub, he looked around warily. If anybody knew Lucius Malfoy\'s capabilities, it was Severus, and he wasn\'t naive enough to think that Malfoy senior rid himself of all evil the minute Voldemort was defeated the spring before.

Snape opened the door to the bar and was met by the powerful stench of alcohol and cigarette smoke. He saw Lucius at once and made his way to the corner booth at the back of the pub.

The blond wizard stood and greeted the darker one with an nod. “I trust you made it all right, Severus?”

Snape nodded and sat across from Lucius, looking directly at him with casual eyes. “That I did, thank you. I received your owl, obviously. Now, please tell me what this meeting is about.”

Lucius sat back with a smirk, expecting the curt reply from his old friend. “My dear, old friend, I just wanted to see how things are going for you. I haven\'t seen you in a few months and I just wanted to play catch-up.”

Severus sneered. “How was Azkaban? I heard you got off on a couple of months due to the fact that you were, what was it again? Oh right. You were under Imperius Curse during the time you were marked.”

It was Lucius\'s turn to sneer. “Did you come to get a confession out of me, Snape?”

Snape noted that his pleasant voice had changed. He liked feeding fire, so he did. “Certainly not, old friend. Why, I was just reveling at the fact that you can\'t remove yourself from the Imperio, and the little twit of a boy, Potter, can. Anyway, let\'s change the subject before things get too nasty.”

Snape\'s sarcastic words hit a chord with Malfoy, but he was able to control his temper. His eyes returned to their normal shade of gray, and he waved to the old waitress for another round of firewhiskey.

“In all honesty, Snape, I must say that you are one smart wizard. You saw Voldemort begin to fail, and you jumped ship. Hell, none of the rest of us had any idea that Voldemort was weakening. I\'ll give you a slap on the back for that one, Severus,” Lucius chuckled. He was, obviously, attempting to lighten the mood. “I mean, hell, if I had known, I would have done the same thing that you did.”

Severus was sitting back with both arms crossed across his chest, his shot glass of firewhiskey untouched. “Well, maybe next time you\'ll learn to chose who you worship a bit more carefully. Little do you know, I was with Dumbledore from the beginning -- ever since I received the mark when we were young. You were always just too caught up in yourself or some mindless witch you were mounting to realize that... Now, if you don\'t mind, tell me why you asked me here so I can leave.”

Lucius realized his was firmly clutching his wand and quickly released it, telling himself that it was not the time or place to act irrational. The last thing he needed was to be seen hexing Severus Snape in the Hog\'s Head, especially since the ministry was still keeping a close eye on him.

“Well, you are obviously still the bitter, old man that you were the last time I saw you. I had hoped that you had softened up a bit. Anyway, I just wanted to let you know that I am not pleased with how you treated my son after he got expelled for raping that mudblood.”

Severus felt his heart stop in his chest for a second. He didn\'t know if he was angry because Lucius called Hermione a mudblood, or because Lucius was just wasting his time with telling him that he was unpleased with him.

“You never fail to amaze me, Lucius,” Snape drawled. “To tell you the truth, I don\'t think your son deserves to see the light of day for all of the suffering he inflicted upon Miss Granger. On top of that, I don\'t give a rat\'s ass how you feel about me or my actions.”

Snape stood and threw some coins down onto the table, his eyes still on Lucius. “You have wasted enough of my time, Lucius.”

Before Snape could leave, Lucius grabbed his arm and said, “Well, I see how it is then. Don\'t think this is over, you blood traitor. In the end, you will get yours, and so will that mudblood. My son will give that horrid school a reason to expel him.”

Snape spun out of Lucius\'s grasp and left the pub to the sound of Malfoy\'s manic laughter ringing out after him.

Outside, the cool night air filtered through Snape\'s thin outer robes and chilled him. Wrapping his arms around himself, Snape walked quickly back to the castle where he went straight to his dungeon classroom.

Severus went to his spot at the front of the room and sat down silently, looking out over the empty desks, which were illuminated by the soft moonlight filtering in through the upper windows. He sighed and placed his aching head in his hands.

The last thing he needed now was to worry about Lucius Malfoy or his idiot son sneaking around Hogwarts and causing trouble for himself or Hermione.

From past experience, Snape knew not to take a Malfoy\'s threat as a grain of salt -- especially from the elder. The Malfoy\'s were like a plague that just wouldn\'t go away. You piss one of them off, and you\'ll have to watch your ass until someone else pisses them off more.

Snape growled softly, part from frustration and part from fatigue. He stood and walked over to the fireplace located in the corner of the classroom and grabbed a bit of floo powder, which was located in the locked cannister on the mantel.

He threw the powder into the fire and watched as the flames turned a bright green. Stepping in, he said clearly, “Headmaster\'s office.”

A few fireplaces flew past him before he was at Albus\'s office. He stepped out and wiped the soot off of his robes as the Headmaster greeted him.

“I\'ve been expecting you, Severus. What is troubling you, my boy?”

Severus took a seat down in front of the desk, half-heartedly remembering all of the nights he had returned to the Headmaster\'s office to report of the activities from some raid or another by Voldemort\'s followers. Snape rubbed the spot between his brows that held most of the tension from the evening.

“I just met with Lucius Malfoy in Hogsmeade,” he stated evenly as he looked up into Dumbledore\'s serious eyes.

“How very interesting,” Dumbledore said, smiling. “How is he, by the way?”

Severus grunted and sat up straight. “Well, I ended up pissing him off, to say the least. What\'s new, you know? Anyway, he said in a round-about way that Draco was planning something against Hermione.”

“Hm...” Dumbledore rubbed his chin thoughtfully. “And you believe him, Severus?”

Severus nodded. “I\'m not a pessimist, sir. If I didn\'t think Malfoy\'s words had weight to them, I probably wouldn\'t have brushed it off.”

“Yes, I see that now. You never were the one to taunt easily, were you, my boy? Was that all Lucius had to say?” Dumbledore sat back in his chair and popped a lemon drop into his mouth. He held up the can for Snape to take one.

Snape shook his head. “He is angry because of my betrayal to Voldemort - that was apparent. He said that in the end, I will get mine. I can handle my own. Lucius Malfoy is an idiot if he dares to show his face around here, wand raised and sending out Unforgivables. In any case, I doubt he\'ll be able to get away with the plea of Imperio again.”

“That I agree, my boy. However, we will have to keep a good lookout for trouble. You never know who Lucius Malfoy will sucker into being his \'friend\'.”

“Should we alert Miss Granger, sir?”

Dumbledore nodded. “That I will do, Severus, in the morning. Right now, I believe Miss Granger is catching up on sleep. She has been improving, don\'t you think?”

At the twinkle in the Headmaster\'s eye, Severus fought the urge to roll his own. “I would think so, sir.”

Snape stood and pushed his chair back a bit, and Dumbledore smiled at him. “Good night, Severus.”

“Goodnight, Albus.”

As Snape stepped into the green flames he heard Dumbledore call after him. “Don\'t let the bed bugs bite.”

This time, Snape did roll his eyes as he stated clearly. “Severus Snape\'s rooms, the dungeons.”

{--------------------------------------------}

The days drifted by, leaving in their wake new chills as the season turned from late summer to early fall. The halls of Hogwarts began changing to match the festive season - black and orange ribbons danced across the high ceiling, and students were now excited about the Halloween ball.

Heading towards the dungeons, were Hermione, Ron, and Harry, all with grim looks on their faces. They were making their way to their first class of the day - double potions, and were not very excited at all, Ron and Harry for the obvious reasons, and Hermione because she didn\'t want to be faced with his ignoring her again.

Thought, truth be told, she had ignored him as well, but that was only because she knew that they both had a lot to do. They way she figured it, she had the rest of the school year to lust after him.

Quietly between her two friends, Hermione chuckled and went to take her place in the line forming by the potions classroom. Ron and Harry\'s chatter continued as Snape opened the door to the classroom and ushered the students inside.

Hermione took her seat and removed the her large potions book from her bookbag, and threw it back down on the desk. The first twenty minutes of class consisted of Snape telling the students the properties of the different ingredients that were going to be used that day. After he finished, he waved to the directions on the board and told the students to get started.

Hermione got out of her seat and walked over to the material cabinet to get the ingredients and tools she would need for the class that day. Ron and Harry were close behind, talking of the the upcoming Quidditch game that was scheduled between Hufflepuff and Ravenclaw.

“Well, look we have here,” A deep voice said beside Hermione. She turned and looked up into the ugliness of Crabbe\'s face.

Harry stepped forward and pulled Hermione back a little. ”Don\'t come near her, Crabbe, or I\'ll personally de-face you.”

“Oh, tough aren\'t you?” He laughed a loud, gurgling laugh that made Hermione\'s stomach flip. ”What about you, Weasle? Have a pathetic threat you\'d like to throw my way?”

Hermione looked around to see if Snape was listening, but she saw that he was on the other side of the classroom talking to Pansy. Her eyes narrowed on the Slytherin girl, who kept glancing over anxiously to where they were standing as she spoke to Professor Snape.

Ron stepped forward on the other side of Hermione and withdrew his wand. Before he could get a spell out, Crabbe spoke quickly.

“Crucio.”

Ron\'s eyes widened fearfully a split second before he fell to the ground writhing and screaming in pain. Everything flashed before Hermione\'s eyes at once.

Snape removed Crabbe\'s wand from his hand and bent down next to Ron. When the initial pain and the worse of the shaking subsided, Ron sat up, clutching at his chest. His face had turned pale and his lips started to turn a blue color.

“Oh my god, Ron.” Hermione bent down next to him. ”What\'s wrong with him? Professor, why is his face pale? He can\'t breathe Professor Snape, do something ”

“Mr. Thomas, go notify the Headmaster what had just occurred and tell him that Crabbe will be reporting to his office immediately.” He voice was quick and demanding. Dean ran out of the room as Snape was yelling at Crabbe to get to Dumbledore\'s office.

Snape picked up Ron and started towards the fireplace. “The rest of you, finish your potions. Mr. Potter, Miss Granger, that means you too.”

Once Snape was gone, Harry and Hermione looked at each other before bolting out of the door to get to the Infirmary. They ran full sprint past Filch and Mrs. Norris, ignoring the yells behind them from the angry caretaker.

They arrived at the Infirmary quickly and ran inside to an even-bluer Ron and a panicked Madam Pompfrey. Snape glared at them, and turned them around by grasping onto the back of their robes near the base of their necks, and led them back out of the Infirmary. As they walked back into the corridor protesting, Dumbledore practically ran past them into the hospital wing.

“Miss Granger, and Mr. Potter, I believe I specifically told you two to stay in the classroom and finish your potions. You both have ignored a direct order from a teacher. Twenty points from Gryffindor. Now, go back and finish your potion.”

Herminoe wrenched from Snape\'s hold and scowled. “We want to stay with Ron What is wrong with him?”

“That is to be determined, Miss Granger,” Snape said shortly, looking at Harry. “For once, Mr. Potter, please have enough sense to obey. The last thing Madam Pompfrey needs right now are two teenagers in hysterics over their best friend.”

Harry nodded and stepped back into the hall, obeying the first actual request Snape gave him. He grabbed onto Hermione\'s sleeve and started to pull her back into the hall further, away from Snape and away from the hospital wing.

“I want to make sure Ron is okay, Harry--” she peered past Snape hopefully. At the look that both wizards gave her, she threw her hands up in the air and turned around. Tears sprinted in her brown eyes and she began to run down the hallway towards the front of the building. “Assholes ”

She continued out of the castle, tears running down her face. She headed to the cliffs that overlooked the lake and found a spot secluded enough so that she couldn\'t see the castle. Sitting under a leaning pine, Hermione wrapped her robes around her tighter and stared down at the placid waters of the lake where the giant squid resided. The tears leaked down her cheeks as she thought about losing Ron.

Ron can\'t die, she thought desperately. Oh please let Madam Pompfrey help him. Please... I\'ll do anything.

It seemed like she had been out there an hour when the clouds spread and began to water the earth below. Small raindrops fell on her, making her even more cold. She closed her eyes and lifted her face to the heavens; the rain mixed in with her tears.

Hermione didn\'t hear the approaching footsteps, but she felt the hand on her shoulder. She looked up into the face of Professor Snape, who was looking down at her with a blank expression.

“Miss Granger, you will get sick. Come back inside of the castle.”

Hermione pulled her robes tighter and looked away from him. “How is Ron?”

“He is stable.”

“Why aren\'t you in class?” She glanced back at him.

“Class ended a few minutes ago. Mr. Potter is, I am sure, looking for you right now. Come on.”

Hermione looked at his outstretched hand as if contemplating taking it or not. Deciding, she put her hand in his and allowed him to help her up. Once she was standing, she went to let go, but his hand was still holding hers.

“Sir?”

Snape was staring intently at her. “He will be okay, Miss Granger.”

Hermione nodded and stepped towards him. She lifted a hand and moved a chunk of wet hair that was resting on his cheek to behind his ear.

The rain continued to fall down around (and on) them as Hermione leaned up and placed a soft, sure kiss on Snape\'s lips.

Snape reacted quickly, shifting her closer and leaning down. He kissed her back for a few seconds before pulling back. “Miss -- Hermione. We have to get back. Dumbledore wants to get everyone\'s side of the story.”

Hermione nodded and stepped back, glad that it was raining hard enough that Snape couldn\'t see the pink burning in her cheeks.

End of Chapter Thirteen / To Be Continued

A/N: I\'ve updated early because I\'m going to be gone all of this weekend. Now, be good readers and leave Bella some feedback (reviews) so that when she gets home Monday evening, she will be happy. :)