Wandering

These are JK Rowlings charaters, not mine.


“Harry?”

The main sitting room had been repaired- the chairs righted, the vase restored, the fire crackled warmly in the hearth. Harry sat in a tall leather wingback, gazing into the dancing flames, absently running his still bloody fingers through wild hair. He did not stir when she called him.

“Remus is going to be okay Harry. I’ve just been in to see him.”

He drew a sharp breath and covered his eyes with shaking hands. She made no move towards him, opting instead to take up residence in the chair beside his. She was silent for a while, watching the hypnotic flames and loosing herself in thought.

“I have to go Harry.”

Finally he lowered his hands leaving trails of blood in their wake that gave him a slightly crazed appearance.

“Why? Where will you go Hermione? With him!” Harry was out of the chair in a flash. Before she registered his movements his hands were on her chair and his face leaned close to hers.

“Harry…your scaring me.” Hermione's voice came as a quiet whisper, every nerve in her body reeled against having him so near. She fought to push down her rising panic- if he would only back away she would relax.

His eyes flashed and his hands curled painfully around her shoulders. He shook her with every word.

“He is NOTHING HERMIONE! HE KILLED DUMBLEDORE! HE WILL KILL YOU! Or are you so low that you do not care anymore?”

Lights flashed in her vision before she felt the impact of his hand across her face. A tear fell from her eye and she made herself look at him. His hand returned to the air, his chest was heaving, his eyes were not right.

His fingers curled with rage and found their way into her again. Hermione’s panic grew to anger. Quickly she brought her feet up and kicked him away as hard as she could. Harry stumbled back towards the fire and she sprang to her feet, sprinting towards the hallway. Harry, having always been the faster, cut her passage off. She whirled around and lunged for the front door, whipping it open and dashing into the night.

Tears streaked her cheeks as she ran in the thick snow; Harry was almost upon her now. His hand met her back and she lost her balance, falling roughly to the ground. Harry fell with her, landing with his knees to either side of her small frame, and grabbed her shoulders. He rolled her over and pinned her to the frozen earth.

Panic, so fierce she had only known it once, flooded her as she struggled.

“PLEASE Harry….please stop.” Her words rolled into the night air in white puffs, her voice shaking with fear. He raised his hand again to strike her. He froze and his face contorted with pain, there was a terrible crack and he screamed and was suddenly pulled off her body.

Severus stood panting beside her, his black attire shielding him from easy view in the night. Harry lay curled in the snow a few feet from them, “I'm sorry Hermione…go with him.”

Severus took her hand and pulled her close, rage and the urge to protect boiling in his veins as he enfolded her in his arms. Ron ran outside in time to see them disappear.

Warmth flooded her body first, quickly followed by the sharp fragrance of sea air. Orange and pink shadowed the sky as the sun rose, the Professor’s robes whipped around her, cracking like a flag in the wind. He released her from his tight hold and quietly looked over the ocean.

Severus moved a few steps towards the lapping water before his legs failed and folded beneath him. Hermione tucked a few loose strands of hair behind her ears as she kneeled beside him. He remainedon his knees, his fingers sunk deep in the sand keeping him upright and his head bowed as he pulled in deep breaths.

“Miss Granger…I beg you’ll forgive my weakness…I should have stopped it sooner…all of it—” Hermione shook her head and hastily wiped a tear from her cheek.

“Let’s not speak on it. You saved me twice, that is all that matters.” She sighed, wrapping an arm around his shoulders to support his weight. “Is there a place we can rest?”

"Yes."

She helped him to his feet and he leaned against her shoulder as they traveled along the shore. She noticed he continued to move with a limp and wondered for a moment if it was perminant. Severus stopped and pushed himself away from her after a short distance.

She stood behind the Professor when he paused and raised his hand in front of him, seemingly trying to find a barrier. The area in front of him appeared quite unobstructed to her.

She heard a click and gasped as the sky seemed to part and reveal an entrance. Severus swept inside and Hermione followed, hearing the door close behind her. The room was small, the floors a polished wood that ran up the sides of the walls. The walls were covered in hunter green paint and there were only two small windows, on that faced the sea and one to face the woods.

A small bed lay tucked in the corner, plush with a quilt and many pillows, and a round table set under the window towards the sea. A few plush chairs were aranged around the hearth and a towering bookcase occupied the far opposite corner.

Professor Snape’s squared shoulders suddenly slumped forward and he caught his forehead in his hand, grabbing the back of the nearest chair to avoid sinking to the floor. Slowly he manuvered around to the chairs front and sank into its depths.

Hermione went to him and pulled an ottoman to his side. She sat down and carefully placed her hand on his arm. When he did not pull away, she gently slid her hand down to cover his. Suddenly he spoke,

“Miss Granger…I do not understand your concern for me…though I beg you understand mine for you.” His face was shielded by his hair and the hand that supported his forehead, he drew another breath and continued, “I am unaccustomed to aid, and further still, concern of any other. You know from your incessant correspondence with me that I am a dark man, there is no safety in my presence and I am sorry to say you shall find no joy in it either.”

Hermione took to tracing his long fingers with her own before addressing the taciturn again.

“Professor, I know who you are as well as you have let me. I know what you have sacrificed, as far as you have told me, and…I know…though I do not know why…that I can never be without…you.” Hermione’s voice quieted to a whisper and she drew her hand from his. She watched him as he contemplated her words and noticed his hands begin to tremble again. She plunged her hand into her robes and drew out the medicines for his fever.

“Please,” she whispered, rising to her feet. Carefully she moved his hand away from his face, pushing the medicine into his fingers instead. She brushed a lock of hair away from his brow and was surprised to see his eyes close at her soft touch. His forehead was burning and dark, ominous circles grew under his eyes. She wrapped her hand around his and helped him bring the potion to his lips. He did so without complaint and took a long pull of the medication. She took the vial and returned it to her robes.

For a time he was quiet and she sat at his side, languidly stroking his arm with the tips of her fingers, when suddenly he arched his back and twitched. A scream tore out of him and he violently pressed the heel of his palm into his chest. He convulsed again and his body fell from the chair and twisted cruelly on the floor. Hermione crouched beside him with her wand out, desperately trying to find the cause of his distress. She could find nothing, “Show me, I can’t find it, you have to show me!” She pleaded with him.

His hands were suddenly woven into the front of her robes as he pulled her close, her eyes met his and she fell in.

Darkness swirled around her, voices and clips of memories whipping by as though she were in the rabbit hole. He was trying to take her somewhere in his body, show her where the agony was, but he was panicking and quickly loosing his ability to guide her. She watched, as thought she was separated from the memory by water running down glass, as Harry sat on top of her, then Severus’s hands grab his wrist, she cringed at the sound of the crack.

That memory whirled away to show the snow covered ground in the night. Remus Lupin’s face appeared and the world spun, she could almost feel his cheek resting against Remus’s chest as the man ran, his loud breaths coming in panicked rasps. The memory swirled and froze in the cave. Hermione’s gut clenched and her heart raced as she watched her violent attack through Severus’s eyes, thankful at the end that he had seen no part of her that she wished he had not. If she were in her own body, tears would be flooding past her cheeks.

The memory reeled again and she found him in the hands of the Death Eaters. Ice seeped into her blood as she watched the panic form in his eyes; his body trying to clamor away as he was whipped mercilessly. When she was sure he could take no more, she almost breathed a sigh of relief as his body was lowered to the floor, until the hands grabbed him and slammed him on the stone slab. Her heart shattered at his unintelligible stammering to himself while Lucius tore his robes, her soul bled as she listened to him recite complicated preparations for potions while his body was split, his face ruthlessly scraping in rhythem to Lucius' thrusts.

Something violently pushed her from the memory, darkness swirled around her until she saw it, his heart, beating irregularly in his chest. Blood seeped from a tear in the outer pericardium.

As suddenly as she was pulled into him, she was pushed out, tears poured down her cheeks as she spoke the incantation over his heart, closing the hole as well as she could. She held her breath until his body stopped twisting and lay limply on the floor.

After what seemed an age, he lifted a shaking hand to her cheek, wiping away a falling tear, a spoke in a tortured whisper, “I am sorry Hermione…those memories were not meant for you.”

It was the end of her, she sobbed and collapsed to his chest, clutching his robes as though there was nothing else left on this earth. She pulled away when she felt his arms encircle her, her fear of being encompassed won over her desire for his affection. Carefully she pulled him up with her. “The floor is no place for you, come.”

She led him to bed where she hoped he would find rest. She was about to pull the bedclothes over him when he grabbed her wrist. “Lay with me.” Was all he said. Her heart swelled and she submitted to his request. She lay beside him for a time, warmth and comfort finally reaching her broken body. She spoke what her lips could no longer hold back, “I am sorry they broke you.”

His breath hitched, she felt his fingers lace with hers beneath the sheets and he simply replied, “I was already broken.”

A/N

Okay, so where did my reviewers go? Did I loose you? I was afraid the story was taking a boring turn. Let me know, It is my first Snape/Hermione fic after all.

Thanks to all my reviewers, your request for Lemons has not landed on deaf ears.