A Long Way Back ~ Editing

Disclaimer: All recognizable characters belong to JKR. All situations are mine. No $$$ is being made from this fanfic.
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Chapter 26 ~ Epilogue

"Run!" Severus yelled at Hermione as the first fireball shot past them.

The little witch took off like a shot. She didn't need to be told twice. She quickly cast a deflective spell around herself as Severus did the same. That would hold off the hot balls of fire from connecting with their flesh for a short while. Hopefully until they reached the passage.

Behind them, Eli shot blasts of water at their pursuers, running backwards. The elf was still quick despite his orientation.

They thought they had gotten away clean. They entered the dormant volcano through a hidden passage they discovered behind a few collapsed pillars left by the long dead people who once inhabited this island. A people who were the creators of the "dragon drink." Legend had it that the elixir still existed, hidden inside the "Silent Dragon" protected by the "Guardians of the People"

Severus had believed that any guardians would have long perished by now. That might have been true if they were human guardians, or even guardians made of flesh. But they weren't.

Severus, Hermione and Eli worked their way through the stone passageway, wands lit until they found themselves inside the volcano. Two rough-hewn stone statues stood next to the passageway.

A great roiling lake of lava spread before them, overlooked by a cliff. A small rubble-strewn path edged around the lake, leading up to the cliff. The path looked as if it had once been much wider, but obviously time and erosion had play their part and it was just large enough for the couple and Eli to navigate. After a few minutes of careful walking they followed the path upward to the high cliff over the lake of fire and found open ground.

It was hot inside the volcano, so hot that Hermione removed her shirt and tied it around her waist, traveling only in her sports bra. Severus opened his shirt, his pale chest bared. They were too focused on their mission to admire each other as they made their way through the volcano carefully and quietly, coming to a small stone temple, and upon entering it and lighting their wands, found a chamber, encircled by a number of roughly hewn stone figures. In the middle of the chamber was a pedestal on which rested a black bottle made of volcanic glass, the stopper in the shape of a dragon's head. Eli waited outside.

The elf started as he heard a rumble as if stones falling, then two small splashes. His ears flickered back and forth, but he heard nothing else. He looked furtively toward the temple, wishing the couple would hurry.

"That's it!" Hermione said excitedly as Severus looked around, his brow furrowed. This was easy. Too damn easy. He walked up to the bottle and looked at it carefully, then waved Hermione over.

"What do you think this weighs?" he asked her, opening a bag tied to his waist. Inside were a number of stones.

Hermione looked at the bottle consideringly, then reached into the bag and removed two stones, hefting them in her hand.

"These should do it," she said to the wizard.

Severus had learned to trust the witch's judgment. He reached out for the bottle as Hermione drew close with the stones holding her wand out in front of her. They wizard wasn't sure if there was some booby-trap that would be triggered by the bottle's removal. Better safe than sorry.

"Ready?" he asked the witch.

Hermione held the stones in her hand, very close to the bottle. Her face was set as she nodded.

"One, two, three!" the wizard breathed, lifting the bottle from the pedestal, Hermione replacing it with the stones in one smooth motion. They both winced and stood still, waiting to see what would happen. Nothing did.

"No protections," Hermione said, looking around the room.

Severus wasn't sure about that. He grabbed her arm.

"Let's go," he said, leading her quickly out of the temple and back toward the passageway in. He hadn't located a secret elixir yet that didn't have some kind of dangerous protection around it.

The moment they left the temple, the stone statues began to emit heat. The stone façade around them cracked, and beneath it, lava glowed. They pulled away from the walls and quickly followed the departing couple.

"I heard noises I did sir," Eli said, his ears flattened as he fell in step with the couple. Severus was putting on quite a stride. "It comes from the lake of fire. Falling rocks and splashing."

Severus nodded.

"Let's just get out of here," the wizard said.

And that was when the first ball of flame whizzed by his head.

"Shit!" he said ducking and breaking into a run.

"Run!" he yelled at Hermione who took off.

The wizard looked back and saw about a dozen stone men made of rock and lava pursuing them, throwing their hands forward and slinging balls of burning lava. Witch, wizard and elf ran for the path that led to the passageway.

"No!" Hermione screamed, skidding to a stop…her eyes wide as she surveyed it. "It's gone, Severus!"

The wizard looked and paled. The passageway was buried under a pile of rocks. The stone figures were gone and part of the path was broken.

"Those statues must have come to life after we passed and sealed us in. Then tried to pursue us and broke through the path, destroying part of it and falling into the lava," the wizard said, looking back at the lava men who were coming closer. He was almost burned by one of the lava balls, which stopped less than an inch from his face. The deflective spells were weakening.

"What are we going to do Severus?" Hermione cried, looking at Eli who was desperately sending freezing water at the lava men, slowing them down as they sizzled, the lava darkening for a moment, then igniting again. He couldn't hold them off for long.

Apparation would have come in handy right now, but Severus discovered that apparating in strange places where knowledge of the area was limited, resulted in splinching quite often. Luckily, he was able to return and retrieve his body parts the first few times, his limbs automatically reattaching. Now would not be a good time to splinch.

The wizard looked around desperately, finally looking up to the volcano's opening high above them. He looked at the bottle in his hand.

"Let's hope this works," he said, uncapping it.

"But Severus, if we use it, then we'll have nothing," Hermione said, her amber eyes resting on the bottle.

"If we don't, we'll be nothing but ash," he replied, "Eli, get over here and hang on to my neck!" The elf ran and leaped on the wizard's back as Severus drank half the bottle's contents and gave the other half to Hermione, who stared at it unwillingly. They had gone through so much to get it. The journey was fraught with peril. Monsters, unfriendly natives…cannibals at that. Now they would never find out the elixir's secret.

"Mourn later, drink now!" the wizard cried, starting to shudder.

The lava men were almost upon them. Hermione squealed as she was hit by a lava ball and felt the heat through her depleting shield. She drank the contents down.

Suddenly Severus and Eli disappeared.

"Severus! Severus!" Hermione screamed, beginning to shudder herself. The lava men were almost on her now. They had stopped throwing fireballs and had their arms extended to grab the witch. She'd be burned to a crisp.

Hermione screamed and closed her eyes as a lava man went to grab her.

But it never did. Something very large came between them and the creature was gone.

Hermione looked up to see a large pale black-eyed dragon grinning toothily down at her, its tail lashing. It was flicking the lava men away with a large scaly toe. They couldn't burn him.

"Severus?" she said.

"Yes," the dragon said in thought-speak.

Hermione could see tiny Eli clinging to the dragon's neck. Suddenly the world seemed to whirl around the witch and her perspective changed, as did her orientation. She was still on two legs, but two very large, scaly legs. A lava man grabbed on to her foot, and she shook it off gingerly. She was a dragon. A blue dragon. Much smaller than Severus.

Next to her, Severus unfurled great white wings and flapped them experimentally.

"We can fly," he said leaping off the cliff and flapping upward strongly towards the opening in the volcano, Eli clinging to him in fright.

Hermione kicked off a few more lava men, throwing them into the lake of lava where they melted and disappeared into the raging magma. She spread her wings.

"But I don't know how to fly," she said, "I'm human."

But obviously the body of the dragon did know how to fly. It leapt off the edge of the cliff, Hermione mentally screaming as it flapped upward strongly, following Severus. After a moment or two the witch relaxed. She really could fly.

They emerged from the top of the volcano, flew a little distance, then landed on the beach near the shore. Some cannibals who had been tracking them, saw the dragons, screamed and ran back into the bush, thoroughly terrified. There were tales of dragons that went back generations, and it was said they had more of a taste for human flesh than the cannibals did. The natives were not going to wait around to find out.

Severus lowered his head and let Eli climb off him.

"The elixir worked," Severus said to Hermione who nodded, admiring his form. He made quite a handsome dragon. Severus eyed her as well, his dark eyes glinting. A waft of smoke blasted from his nostrils.

"You make quite a delectable little dragon," he purred at her. Then he looked at Eli. "Wait here, Eli. Hermione and I are going flying."

Severus launched himself into the air.

"Follow me, witch…if you dare," he thought at her, then began to fly straight upward.

Not about to be undone, Hermione flew after him, catching up quickly. She was smaller and faster. Presently, she passed him, craning her head down and blowing a taunting flame at him. She began to feel randy as Severus pursued her, and she flew higher and higher, the wizard soaring after her, his eyes smoldering

Presently they both burst through the clouds. The sun was bright and the air cold. They hovered there, looking at each other hungrily.

"I wonder how dragons mate?" Hermione said wistfully.

Severus blew a blast of fire just above her head.

"Like this, witch," he said, launching himself at her and wrapping his wings tightly around her body, his huge organ emerging and burying itself inside the witch smoothly. They inverted and plummeted toward the earth, their bodies locked together intimately, Hermione groaning mentally as the wizard began to move as they fell. He was just as good as a dragon as a wizard.

"I think dragon sex is very fast," the wizard panted, his eyes half-closed in pleasure as the wind whistled past them.

"Then we'd better hurry," Hermione purred back at him, entwining her neck around his and giving herself over to his passion.

It really was very fast, but very good, both dragons orgasming and breaking apart just in time, spreading their wings, landing awkwardly on the beach and stumbling forward, almost crushing the fleeing Eli. They sprawled and transformed back to their human forms, panting, lying on their backs in the sand.

Hermione lifted her head and looked over at Severus.

"That was fucking amazing," she said, smiling naughtily at the wizard, who raised his head and looked back at her.

"It seems our brief encounter with the dragon drink wasn't a total loss," he panted at her in response, falling back in the sand.

Eli looked from one to the other, his scaly hands on his hips.

"A fine time for in-outie," he thought, shaking his head.

As far as Severus and Hermione were concerned, any time was a good time for that.

They lay there in the sun, catching their breaths…Severus already thinking about their next adventure.

After all this heat, the Himalayas sounded nice. There was supposed to be a tribe of yetis there who had an elixir that could stop time.

Now, that sounded like a plan.

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A/N: And there we have it. An adventure from the travels of Severus and Hermione, ala Romancing the Stone. lol. A rather different little lemon…not explicit…but fun to write anyway. I hope you all enjoyed this story. Now, back to "Saving Miss Granger" Bye! Oh, and please leave a final review