Snape's Redemption

Disclaimer: If I was JKR, I’d be getting paid for this. I am not getting paid, therefore I must not be her. Bugger.

Chapter Fifteen – My friends forsake me like a memory lost

Hermione ducked out of the way just as Severus Snape was blasted into the wall behind them. The impact woke up the portraits, who began screaming out general obscenities.

Turning, she saw Bill Weasley bearing down on her, his wand out and a look of rage contorting his scarred and ravaged face. He brushed past her and stood threateningly over Snape, who was shaking his head, dazed by the impact of the blow he had received.

“Sectum…” Bill began.

“No!” screamed Hermione, dashing in between the two wizards. Crookshanks, still clasped in her arms, yowled in alarm. He struggled free and, once on the ground, dashed between Bill’s legs, disrupting the tall wizard’s balance momentarily.

“Hermione, get out of the way,” Bill ordered, just before he was hurled backwards by a non-verbal curse from Snape.

Severus rose to his feet, resting his hand on Hermione’s shoulder.

“Get behind me, Miss Granger,” he slurred out, his eyes dilated and unfocused.

“Professor,” she hissed in alarm as he raised his hand to shoot off another curse.

The falling chandelier narrowly missed them both. Snape, still dazed, continued to try and shepherd Hermione behind him.

“Stop it, use me as a shield,” she whispered furiously at him.

With a shocked look in his face, Severus turned to her, presenting his back to Bill.

“Don’t be ridiculous,” he began before suddenly lurching forward, collapsing on her.

They both fell to the ground, Hermione completely smothered by him. Abruptly, his weight was gone. She looked up to see Bill holding Severus up by the scruff of his neck. He negligently shook the older wizard.

“Out like a light,” he proclaimed with satisfaction and dumped him down in the corner.

Ignoring Hermione, Bill countered the original curse Severus had laid on the house, freeing everyone from their immobility. Soon the hall was filled with all the occupants, determined to take down the traitor. When they saw Snape unconscious in the corner, they tucked away their wands and converged on Bill, congratulating him and clapping him on the back. No one noticed Hermione getting to her feet and rubbing the back of her head. She brought her fingers around to her face, absently noting the blood covering them.

“Man, you got that bastard good!”

“Yeah, he thought he was so great!”

“Should we tie him up?”

“Naw, he’s out.”

“Greasy git’s never had to fight a real curse-breaker, has he?” Bill beamed around the circle of adoring faces. “Don’t worry, I’ve got his wand.”

Hermione gingerly propped herself up against the wall. Her concerned familiar crept out from his hiding place under the chair and wound himself around her legs, mewling out his worry. She bent down and gathered him into her arms.

“You alright, Hermione?” Harry’s voice rang out as he cast a quick glance in her direction.

Seeing her standing and holding her cat, he assumed she was fine and turned his attention back to the debate over what was to be done with Snape. Fred and George’s suggestion of using Snape as their guinea pig for new experiments sounded pretty good to Harry.

“We’d better take him straight to the Ministry,” Tonks stated, sounding strangely competent.

“What?” gasped Hermione. “No, Tonks we need him for the …”

“Horcurxes,” Bill interrupted condescendingly. “Not at all, Hermione. The Order is completely capable of retrieving them all.”

With a flourish, he produced a wand from inside his dragon-hide boots. The hall erupted in squeals and laughter.

“What is that?” Hermione asked, desperately trying to focus on the object in Bill’s hand.

“Rowena Ravenclaw’s wand,” he replied. “It used to be in the window of Ollivanders …”

To Hermione, Bill suddenly duplicated and both Bills began shimmering, moving in tandem like a wave across the sea.

The last thing she remembered seeing was the tiled hallway floor, rushing up to meet her face.

*~*~*~*~*

“What the hell?”

“Where’d he go?”

“You can’t Apparate here!”

“Find the traitor!”

Hermione cautiously opened her eyes and tried to focus on the hub of conversation just outside of the room where she lay. She felt something nudging her hand and became aware Crookshanks purring madly. Gingerly, she gathered him into her arms and petted his broad head. Obviously she had been moved in here when she collapsed. She had no idea how long she had been unconscious. Slowly, she sat up, noting that someone had placed her on the divan in the library. There was no blanket covering her.

“Hermione!” Remus exclaimed, glancing into the room. “Are you all right?”

Nice of you to think of me now, came the Snape-like answer in her head. Instead, she nodded wordlessly.

“She’s awake?” came Bill’s voice. “Then it’s time to get some answers.”

He strode into the room, Tonks, Arthur, and Molly on his heels.

“Boys, wait outside,” Molly instructed Ron, Harry, Fred and George. For once they nodded silently and, from the thumping noises following, Hermione guessed they ran upstairs.

“Well,” Bill began the interrogation. “Can you tell us where Snape would be?”

“The professor’s gone?” she queried groggily, rubbing her hands in Crookshanks’ fur.

“Yes,” Molly clipped back. “Without a wand, I might add. The gods only know how he did it. We should have tied him up.” She glared at Bill.

A look of consternation crossed his scarred face.

“Mum,” he whined slightly.

“What’s done is done,” soothed Remus. He turned to Hermione. “Hermione, we’re not here to judge you or interrogate you,” he shot a look at Bill. “We want to help you.”

“Help me? How?” Hermione looked at them all, confusion evident on her face and in her tone.

“To release you from Snape,” Arthur explained. “We called Bill back early to try and break the Vow you’ve made with him.” He smiled fondly at his eldest. “He also brought us back a gift.”

“Arthur,” Molly hissed, admonishingly. “She’s not to know!”

“Sorry, dear,” he mumbled.

Talk about closing the stable door, Hermione thought, remembering Bill waving around one of the recovered Horcruxes. She wearily rubbed her aching forehead, dried blood flaking off her fingers, as her confidence in Molly Weasley’s intelligence plummeted even lower than before.

“You don’t understand,” she tried to explain.

“Of course we do,” Remus assured her. “And we know that you cannot talk about it. But don’t worry, we’ll fix everything.”

“No!” Frustrated, Hermione tried to give information and circumvent the Vow. “We need Professor Snape. In fact, we need Professor Snape and me to … ummm ... continue with our … investigations.”

She winced at her vague response, but was honestly amazed that she could form any kind of coherent explanation.

“We don’t actually need him, Hermione,” Tonks interjected gently. Then she hurriedly amended, “Well, except to get the locket back.”

“We’d have that if we had tied him up,” Molly stated. “Anyway, what help has he been to us so far? All he’s done is taken one of the Horcruxes and made a scarlet…”

“Mum,” Bill warned.

Molly threw up her hands and began tidying the room, stacking all Hermione’s carefully sorted notes into one pile.

“Please leave them,” Hermione protested weakly.

Molly shot her a sharp glare and then studied the notes in her hands. She stiffened slightly.

“What’s this?” the Weasley matriarch questioned.

Tonks and Remus moved over to view Hermione’s notes. From the frozen looks on their faces, she could tell that they were not studying her calculations on how to make an Occlumency Enhancing Potion. No, knowing her luck they were reading the translations from the Medici diaries – basically, how to poison a whole dinner party and survive.

“I was just working on my Italian,” she justified. “It is a fascinating topic.”

They all looked at her, their expressions ranging from disbelief to disgust.

“Hermione,” Remus whispered, horrified. “Why would you want to know this?”

“It’s knowledge,” she replied, frowning and once again rubbing her aching head. “It’s important to learn everything that you can.”

“What on earth do you plan to do with this?” Arthur questioned, confused.

“What? Nothing. I was just learning,” Hermione explained, her eyes darting between all the adults. “You need to know everything to get a clear understanding.”

“She’s become a liability,” Bill stated. “We can’t allow …”

He stopped abruptly.

“Can we please leave now, Miss Granger?” came Snape’s weary voice. “At least before his bloody bride turns up and starts hexing me too?”

Hermione looked towards the door. Severus stood there, wandless, leaning against the doorframe. His eyes were ringed in dark circles and a huge bruise was rising on his cheekbone. Everyone else was once again frozen. He walked over to Bill Weasley and quickly frisked the taller wizard, eventually retrieving his own wand. Slipping it up his sleeve, Severus then bent down and felt about in Bill’s boots. Triumphantly he stood, Ravenclaw’s wand grasped in his hand, and smirked at the frozen curse breaker.

“Idiot,” he stated, shaking his head in mock disappointment.

Hermione sat there, dumbfounded; she could not believe that they had all been caught twice by the same trick. No wonder I want to learn from him, she reflected silently.

Pushing Crookshanks to the floor, Hermione stood and walked over to where the frozen adults were clustered around her notes; it had been the Medici translations. Sighing, she gathered up all her notes and moved over to Severus. She looked at all the older witches and wizards and realised that they believed she was a liability, just like Bill said. Oh, they wanted to help her by freeing her from Snape and the Vow, but they did not want to give her what she really wanted: knowledge and understanding. She was beginning to believe that even if she could have told them why Snape was needed, they would not have respected or trusted her enough to listen. So instead of trying to convince Severus that she should stay, she stood quietly next to him, her eyes downcast.

To her surprise, Snape reached out to her, his eyes never leaving his frozen foe and gently stroked his hand down the back of her head until he encountered the blood encrusted hair. A sound of disgust rose up from his throat and he moved his hand to extract the ubiquitous vials from his robe’s various hidden pockets.

“Drink these two. No, the yellow one first,” he instructed, as he handed them to Hermione. “Then pour this one over your head.”

Silently, Hermione complied. Her headache disappeared and the stinging sensation on the back of her head ceased.

“Now, Miss Granger, if you are quite ready, I suggest we depart.”

She nodded, bent down and picked up Crookshanks before following Snape out the door and back into the hallway. Looking up, she saw Harry and Ron caught in stasis on the stairway, extendable ears running down to the door of the library.

“Wait,” she demanded, catching Snape by the arm.

He turned to her, an eyebrow raised in query.

“Can you make them speak?” she asked, nodding towards Ron and Harry.

With a feral smile, Snape advanced on the duo. Hermione watched, beginning to feel slightly worried. However, Crookshanks took that moment to squirm out of her arms and raced to the kitchen. She chased him down, hefted him back into her arms and returned to the hall, just in time to see Severus secrete a vial in his robes.

“What was that?” she snapped out, eyes narrowed in suspicion.

“Veritaserum,” Snape answered smugly. “You have no idea how long I’ve wanted to administer that to Potter.”

“I just wanted you to alter the spell so they could speak,” she informed him, outrage causing her voice to raise.

“You did not say that,” Snape returned, smirking. “Your words were ...”

“Yes, I know,” she interrupted. “Here,” she continued, thrusting Crookshanks into the tall wizard’s arms. “Don’t let him escape.”

She walked up the stairs, ignoring the fuming cat and his captor behind her, and sat down on the step underneath her best friends.

“I’m sorry,” she began. “I didn’t expect him to do that. Do you believe me?”

“Of course,” Harry answered promptly. He smiled at her.

“I’ll never believe anything about you anymore, you filthy little whore.”

Shocked, Hermione’s wide eyes fastened themselves onto Ron’s red, angry face.

“Ron!” Harry yelled, unable to turn his head to look at his friend. “What are you going on about?”

Hermione ducked her head, hiding the tears from the boy she thought she one day might marry.

“She’s fucking Snape! Haven’t you figured it out, boy wonder? Man, you all think I’m dumb, but I’ve figured it out. Hermione’s a filthy prostitute, not worth the shit ... OWWWW!”

Hermione’s head shot up and she saw Snape’s black clad arm drawing back from Ronald Weasley’s now broken nose.

“I believe I have already informed you that only I can abuse my apprentice,” he hissed.

Drawing out his wand, he deftly waved it over Ron.

“Hurry up with Potter, Miss Granger. I grow tired of waiting.”

He stalked back down the stairs and gathered up the spell-bound ginger cat. Frowning, he attempted to flatten it’s fluffy hair, apparently ignoring Hermione and Harry.

“Wow,” Harry breathed. “Much as I hate the bastard, that was slick. One minute he was down there with Crookshanks, and next minute BAM! Ron’s rant is over. I’m glad I can’t move at the moment.”

“Why?” Hermione queried.

“I don’t feel like killing him at this precise moment. Hold on … moment over. I can kill him again.”

Hermione rolled her eyes. Then, chewing her bottom lip, she locked gazes with Harry.

“Harry, do you think I’m a liability?”

“Yes,” Harry responded, the truth ripped out of him. He hastily clarified his answer as Hermione’s eyes shone with tears. “But I also know that we need you. I need you, Hermione. I can’t do this without you.”

“Do you trust me?” she whispered.

Harry’s face showed his struggle against the Veritaserum.

“I can’t,” he gasped out, unwillingly. “Not while you’re under a magical obligation to him.”

Hermione took in a deep breath and let it out slowly.

“Do you want me to come back here again, Harry? Or do you want me to stay away?”

“I want you back, Hermione. Always. But only once you’re free of him,” Harry’s eyes now also shone with tears. “I’m so sorry.”

“Then Mr Weasley best live up to his dubious reputation as a curse breaker,” Snape’s voice cut in from where he stood at the front door. “In fact, I challenge him to find a way to break our bond.”

“He already knows, you slimy git,” Harry spat out. “We just need you, Hermione, and your bonder in the same room.”

Snape sighed theatrically. “Once again, Mr Potter, you exhibit your rampant stupidity. Everyone with half a brain knows how a bond can be broken.”

“Mr and Mrs Weasley didn’t, neither did Remus,” Harry blurted out, still under the influence of the Veritaserum.

“As I said, everyone with half a brain,” Snape repeated snidely. “However, that is neither here nor there. Just be sure to tell him that our bonder is dead. Now, Miss Granger, if you have finished your tearful interrogation of Mr Potter, come and relieve me of this cat at once!”

Hermione scurried over and clasped Crookshanks to her breast as Snape strode over to Harry.

“One last question, Mr Potter,” he hissed as he bent over the immobile boy.

“No!” Hermione protested.

With a flick of his fingers, Severus silenced her.

“Tell me what you know of the remaining Horcruxes,” he commanded.

Once again, Harry tried to fight the potent potion to no avail.

“One is definitely Hufflepuff’s cup, but we don’t know about the last one. We’re pretty sure that Dumbledore was wrong thinking it was Nagini. He has been known to be wrong about a lot of things,” Harry spat out.

Snape stood, wrapping his arms about him.

“You are a fool, Potter. A blind, stupid fool. It is a pity you did not inherit some of your mother’s brains, but it just goes to show that Mudblood is synonymous with weak blood. Hopefully you have enough intelligence to not forget to tell that arrogant curse-breaker what I have revealed to you,” Snape finished bitingly.

He turned and strode down the stairs and out the door, his black cape billowing out behind him. A guttural command floated back inside and Hermione’s trunk thundered down the stairs, frantically packing itself and narrowly missing the two frozen boys on the stairs.

With a soft, sad smile at Harry, Hermione turned and followed her trunk outside. She saw Severus shrink her trunk and stuff it into his robes just before he grabbed her and promptly Disapparated. They appeared in a forest glade which Capability Brown would have been proud to own.

“Professor,” she called as the older wizard stalked away.

Snape stopped and swirled around to face her.

“Why?” she questioned simply.

“Why what, you insufferable Gryffindor?” he returned.

“Why are you giving information to Bill about the Vow? I mean, I know one of the reasons you had me make it was to scare me, but aren’t you worried that if I’m free I won’t help you, you know, get the Horcrux?”

Severus tiredly rubbed his forehead. “No, Miss Granger, I am not worried. Would you like to tell me why?”

“What?”

“Tell me, Miss Granger, who else could accomplish this task we have undertaken?”

Hermione shrugged, and then began to pace, thinking aloud. “We have to have a pregnant witch to get that Horcrux, and you are the only wizard that we know of with the right genetic background. Of the Order, there is only me, Tonks and Ginny available for impregnation. If you used Ginny, the Weasleys and Harry would leave no stone unturned until you were completely destroyed. If Tonks, well, I don’t think you want to fight a furious werewolf. As for me …” she stopped.

“As for you?” he prompted.

“As for me,” she repeated. “You have done everything that I’ve asked of you. You have been honourable in that sense … and you’ve claimed me as your apprentice. So I … I won’t break my promise, be it magically enforced or not. I said I’d help you to the best of my ability and I will. Besides, if I’m the one to get the Horcrux, it definitely won’t end up in the wrong hands.”

Hermione raised her chin pugnaciously, waiting for a sarcastic diatribe to issue from the dark wizard in front of her. Instead, she felt once again a whisper soft caress of a hand over her hair.

“Very well then, Miss Granger,” Snape’s voice rumbled above her. “Come, we have a lot to do. My situation has changed rather dramatically over the last four days,” he continued, striding out of the glade.

Hermione scrambled after him, still holding on tightly to her familiar.

“Welcome to our new home,” Snape stopped at the edge of the trees and, with one arm, gestured grandly in front of him.

There before them in the valley below sat the most beautiful house Hermione had ever seen. Its golden stone glowed in the gloaming and its multifaceted windows glinted as the last of the sun rays hit them. A long, winding, tree-lined, gravel road ended in a spectacular sweep in front of a double set of steps leading up to the front door. As the sun finally disappeared, lights inside nearly every room shone out clearly, welcoming any who saw them.

Snape watched her face go slack with awe and smiled sardonically. He wondered for how much longer she would be enamoured of the building.

“Welcome to Malfoy Manor,” he intoned, smirking at the look of horror that crossed his young apprentice’s face.



~*~*~*~*~*

A/n Title comes from a poem by John Clare called “I Am”. Most all of the poems I use can be found on the Internet if you do a search. However, if you want, I can add them at the end of chapters. It’s up to you. Mention what you want in the reviews you leave me (gimme gimme gimme).

I’m so so so so so so sorry for the long wait – real life and all that jazz. Plus the job I’m in at the moment is very computer intense, so one of the last things I’ve wanted to do once I come home is sit in front of a computer again. But don’t worry – this assignment is finishing soon (yay!!)

Thanks once again to my fantastic betas - Claraminutes, GinnyW and JuneW. Without them, it would all be a big mess. Plus, they turn around the story so quickly - any delays in posting are mine, Mine, MINE!!!! Not that that\'s anything to be proud of.....

And to my wonderful, wonderful reviewers!!

Anon – sorry it took so long to update!! Hopefully, I’ll do better next time.

Luvssnape – I’m glad my Snape fits the Snape of your imagination!!

KatelynXM – Yes, Ron is very stupid! And sorry about the cliffhanger – hopefully this one isn’t so bad!

Killer Kadoogan (x2) – Sorry for the smutless chapter! Should be some coming up soon!

Pam – I’m so glad you’re enjoying it! Sorry to leave you will such an evil cliffy (no, not really). For a hint about the end, look to the title.

Jane – Thank so much! I’m glad you’re finding it original!

Kath – My pleasure!! And yes, I agree, we do love him because he’s a bastard.

SteffieSnape – Wow! Thanks for your effusive review! Ginny was a good idea – I hadn’t even thought of her!

Lemonade – Naw, Dumbledore’s dead. He’s not coming back for this story. I hope you continue to like Harry in this chapter too. Thanks for all your reviews – you’re an angel!!

Lee – The adoption thing? Who understands other people’s thought processes. I’m glad that you like my exploration of Snape – he’s a fun character to psychoanalyse!!

Estell Etain M – Of course your review means a lot to me!!! Every review is a payment for what I do!! Plus, it’s so nice to hear from another Aussie. Snarkyroxy (great author) is one too!!

Angel eyes – Hmmmm, the worst cliffy ever? I think I can improve on that …..