Dusk and Her Embrace

All Characters are Trademark of JK Rowling, and I just play around with them.

Please R/R

Sorry it took me awhile... My mother\'s been very sick this week and was almost hospitalized so I\'ve had my hands full taking care of her... She\'s going to the doctor today so hopefully she\'ll get medicine and feel better soon... And I\'ll try to get a new Chapter up as soon as I can. Hope you all like this chapter, and thanks to everyone who left me reviews

Chapter Four: Beauty Slept In Sodom

The next morning Severus was awoken, not by the idle bickering of Potter and Weasley, but by Madame Pomfrey who was looking over her with her usual stern yet serene look upon her face. “ You’re being dismissed, Severus,” she informed him.
“ What?” he asked muddled by a mixture of shock, confusion, happiness, yet regret because if he left the hospital wing, he wouldn’t be near Hermione, and something about being this close to her was almost making him feel complete in way he could not yet fathom himself.
“ You’re well recovered from the attack, Severus, you can now go about your daily duties, and get back to teaching your classes.” He was tempted to say something, something about how the headmaster wanted him to stay near Hermione and try to talk her out of the bed of darkness she was being embraced in, but he resisted. He was afraid if he said anything, his true feeling would come out, and there was a huge fraternizing policy between student and professor that he would rather not dig himself deeper into…
“ I’m glad to hear that,” Severus forced himself to say. With a quick snap of his wand, he gathered all his belongings into a bag, and slowly stepped out of bed. He slowly walked towards the door of the hospital wing feeling like a person taking steps forward towards their deathbed. He took a last sullen look at Hermione’s body before leaving the room. “I’ll be back sometime, I promise,” he whispered.

His first class of the day was a double potions, his least favorite of all the classes he taught because it was a Slytherin and Gryffindor crossover, and that meant he had to deal with Potter, Weasley, and that hopeless case Neville Longbottom. Then on the other end he had to deal with the Draco Malfoy and his brainless cronies Crabbe, Goyle, and Malfoy’s girlfriend, Pansy Parkinson.
Severus pointed his wand towards the board and in the ingredients for a polyjuice potion appeared. “ Does anyone know what the polyjuice potion does?” he asked the class.
Instantly Malfoy’s hand shot up, Severus’s eyes widened, since when did Malfoy know anything? “ Yes Malfoy.”
“ I just want to welcome you back sir,” Malfoy said, though there was a rather insincere sneer in his voice which made Snape wonder if Malfoy’s father, Lucius, one of the dark lords most dedicated followers, had told his son anything about what happened.
“ Thank you Malfoy,” Snape hissed back. “ Now once more, do any of you know what a polyjuice potion does…” Weasley and Potter’s hands shot in the air, Snape purposely ignored them. “ Does anyone in this class ever open their textbook?” Snape hissed. “ I want 4 lengths on what a polyjuice potion does, due back next class.”
“ A polyjuice potion allows you to change into someone else,” Potter interrupted, “ All you need is a hair from another person and then the potion will turn you into that person for an hour.”
“ 10 pts from Gryffindor, Mr. Potter for speaking out of term.”
“ But Professor,” Weasley retorted.
“ Another ten pts from Gryffindor, for speaking out of term, Mr. Weasley, if you don’t want anymore points taken I would recommend keeping your mouth shut.”
“ Hermione saves you from being attacked and this is the thanks that we all get,” Weasley screamed.
“ That’s 50 pts from Gryffindor, Mr. Weasley, and detention.”
“ A mudblood saved you, sir?” Malfoy questioned although once more Severus could sense the insincerity in Malfoy’s voice.
“ Mr. Weasley does not know what he is talking about,” Severus remarked. Weasley made a motion like he was going to say something again, but Potter made motions to calm Mr. Weasley down. Weasley’s face was flushed with anger and hate.
“ Start your polyjuice potions now, the ingredients are in my cupboard,” he made a motion with his wand and his cupboard of ingredients opened. “ This potion will need to stew for a month, and in a month’s time we shall test everyone’s potions to see how they come out. Now begin.”

Severus looked over at the glass, Longbottom’s potion was has the consistency of sludge and was a sort of muddy green gray color, he sighed. He missed Hermione hissing instructions in Longbottom’s ear; he even missed her hand shooting up every five minutes to answer a question… Class seemed empty without her. Her not being in his potions class was never anything he ever would have thought he missed…. He had to go see her tonight…

It was midnight. Severus walked through the castle hallways shrouded in totally darkness; he didn’t want to risk using his wand for light for two reasons… One, he didn’t want to see anyone or anyone to see him and Two, because he didn’t want the portraits which lined the hallway to scream at him for interrupting their sleep… He arrived at the Hospital Wing door. “Alohomora” he said as he found the door locked which in a way made him feel better because it meant no one could get in the hospital wing without magic, so the chances of him finding Potter and Weasley there were quite slim. He walked over to Hermione’s bed.
“ Oh Hermione,” Severus whispered. Something came over him, he found himself wrapping his arms around her thin cold body and holding her in them… It took him a few seconds to realize that tears were trickling from his eyes, and the hot salty tears were dripping atop Hermione’s curly haired head…
“Mmmmmm…” he heard. Then he was sure he felt a brief movement in her body. He carefully placed her back down on the bed and pulled the covers around her.
“ Hermione?” he whispered. There was no response, yet Severus was sure that was her who had made the noise. “ Hermione, you’ve got to wake up…” He grabbed the girl’s ice-cold hand into his… “ Please come back to me… I… I miss you… I never thought that I’d ever actually say that about anyone, especially you, but I really do miss you. Today in class, it felt so weird without you there… I was just waiting for you to raise your hand to answer a question… We were doing polyjuice potions today, a lesson I’m sure you probably hate to have missed… But you’re bright, I’m sure you’ll have no problem catching up when you do wake up… Please wake up, Hermione… I even missed you whispering in Longbottom’s ear to help him set his potions right… I miss you so much…” He was crying harder now, his warm tears scalding her cold body.
He took her in his arms again; she was as limp as a rag doll. He held her close to him, and then he started kissing her cold stained with his tears face… He kissed her so hard… He longed for her, he wanted her so bad… Suddenly a voice boomed:
“WHAT DO YOU THINK YOU’RE DOING?”