The Florence Nightingale Complex
The Florence Nightingale Complex
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Disclaimer:
I own…erm…nothing. Yeah I own nothing, stop rubbing it in already.
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Feedback:
Are you kidding me? GIMMIE, GIMMIE, GIMMIE.
want to drop me a line tell me how I’m doing. Hell
tell me how you’re doing I don’t care.
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AN: OK this
is my first Hermione/Snape fan fiction, I think I’ve read enough anouldould now
write for my favourite ship. After all its not what
your ship can do for you, its what you can do for your ship.
Summary:
alone in
there. NOT a character death.EN-GB\'>
style=\'mso-ansi-language:EN-GB\'>The
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style=\'mso-ansi-language:EN-GB\'>Chapter 1
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All for the
cause, she repeated to herself, all for the cause. This had been her mantra for
the past three hours and she was worried sick. Three hours ago the whole Order
of the
Dumbledore had sent them news of a plot Voldemort and
his Death Eaters had hatched to attack using Giants and Dementors.
She thanked the Godat iat it was the Christmas Holidays so no students were in
any danger. They were very fortunate to get the warning so early. Recently the
attacks had finished before they found out about them. This was because Snape
had been revealed to be a spy and had spent the rest of his time at the Order’s
headquarters creating the Potion in hiding under the protection of the Fidelius
with Dumbledore as the secret keeper. A fate brought about by
son.
This was
the reason Hermione had stayed behind at
as she had been helping Snape and he was needed at Hogwarts more than she was,
so she volunteered to stay. If they lost it now they would have lost weeks of
work. This meant Harry and Ron were on their own, they had the rest of the
Order with them, but that didn’t help to ease her worries, she belonged next to
Harry and Ron at what could be the last battle against Voldemort.
The Potion though would be as as important in the orchestration of the Dark
Lord’s demise. They were losing too many of the Order and the
cure the drinker of all wounds, including the effects of the Unforgivables,
except of the infamous Killing Curse. Making it highly
valuable and so highly secret. It was particularly volatile at the point
they were at when the call from Dumbledore came in,
they had just added the Bezoar, used for its curative properties against
poisons.
As she
stirred the grey goo, which was much easier on the eyes as it had been bright
orange before, she tried to hold back the tears. Ever since the Department of
Mysteries she found herself doing this more and more. With the Potion merrily
bubbling away, a complete contrast to her own mood, she found nothing to occupy
her mind. She desperately tried to stop her thoughts from straying to the
battle now raging at Hogwarts, to her friends who were putting their lives on
the line.
She set her
jaw clutching her wand and prepared to apparate to fight for her friends or die
trying.
Just before
she did however, she jumped from the *pop* and displacement for air as she felt
a draft against her skin. Someone had apparated into
compromised?
In front of
her was her Potions Master, mortally wounded and shaking with the aftermath of
the Cruciatus Curse.
“Professor
Snape!” she gasped as she watched him fall, rushing to his side, she quickly
assessed his condition with what she had learned from her voluntary work in the
Infirmary. Her diagnosis was not good, with his injuries he would surely die.
He could maybe hold on for an hour or two as she knew he was strong, but his
death was inevitable.
“Miss
Granger.” His voice, normally powerful, was cracked and weak from screaming.
“Give me the Potion.” He caught her eyes and held them; they were glazed over
with pain as they willed her to do what he asked. He knew his condition was bad
and exactly what he asked of her.
“But
Professor, it’s neither ready nor tested and it might not work. The toxic
properties haven’t been countered and…”
“You said
you couldn’t wait to test it, why pass up a perfect opportunity? Give me the
Potion, Hermione. I’m dead anyway.” He hissed and grabbed her shoulder
surprising her with his strength. She was still babbling about the Potion when
she met his eyes again. She saw the resolve and pain, her heart ached for him.
She nodded not trusting her voice and helped him onto the settee and lie back
placing a cushion under his head.
Looking at
him now she couldn’t believe this to be Professor Severus
Snape, Head of Slytherin House and Potions Master at
Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry, Ex Death Eater, and spy for and
member of the secret organisation the Order of the
that trust she saw in his eyes? Oh Merlin! She moved quickly away and hurried
to the Potion. Ladling the grey goo into a glass, she
smelt it and recoiled at the pungent odour of the pickled dragons
liver. Please, please let this work. Oh gods let this work.
Glancing
again into the cauldron she turned and walked unsteadily to the man on the
settee. Thankfully he hadn’t lost consciousness yet so she could administer the
Potion, but that was the only reason to be thankful. His face was a mess, blood
everywhere from his broken nose and his left eye was swollen shut, and this is
what she could see, she already knew about the broken ribs and the internal
bleeding, she just couldn’t imagine the pain his must be in. The Potion would
surely hurt his split lips.
Helping him
raise his head, she brought the glass to his mouth to drink. He gurgled in
protest as a red froth escaped at the corners of his mouth. Merlin! He had
bitten his tongue and was going to choke on the blood. Think Hermione, Think.
EN-GB\'>“Accio
the wastebasket in the corner, whimpering as it bent her little finger back
because it came too fast as she wasn’t concentrating. Transfiguring it was
another problem due to lack of focus and the wooden bucket she had planned on
ended up with a tail. Helping Snape up she watched him spit the blood into the
bucket.
“Ready,
sir?” asked Hermione, in what she hoped was a soothing voice and not the
panicked squeak which she suspected it was, wincing as he groaned while
settling his head back against the cushion.
Snape
nodded his head slightly with his eyes scrunched up and teeth clenched as
another spasm wracked his body. He was going to curse Lucius
Malfoy into oblivion even if it was the last thing he
ever did. Malfoy’s well aimed Crucio
had had him writhing on the floor of the Great Hall for the last ten minutes.
same hatred with which they were received.
upon the Granger girl as she stared at him. She had sorrow and pity in her
eyes. Hmph. Probably for herself
because she was on her own stuck with a dying overgrown, greasy bat. Funny,
during the years of serving the Dark Lord and Dumbledore, never had he imaging
his death to be like this. He had expected to die alone, not with a whimpering
Gryffindor know-it-all by his deathbed testing some bogus potion. Try as he
might though, he couldn’t help being grateful for her being with him, even when
she didn’t want to be.
Hermione
again helped Snape to raise his head to take the Potion. He grimaced at the
taste and the burning of his lips. In some sick twist of fate he was fortunate
enough to not be able to smell it as his nose was still blocked with blood from
the broken nose. He swallowed and gasped as it burnt all the way down the
oesophagus to his stomach.
Hermione
saw the reaction and felt her insides freeze. Oh Gods! I’ve killed him!
The Potion
had reached his intestines in record time and was now in his blood stream. He
was too drowsy to register the effects of the Potion, but he knew nausea well
enough. He saw through his fevered state, that she was still and he proceeded
to lean past her and vomit into the bucket, which according to his
hallucinogenic state had a tail. His emeses were black and dissolving the wood.
Hermione took a hysterical moment to wonder if everything about him was black.
There was
smoke coming out of his ears indicating the Pepper Up potion’s adverse effect;
they had used it as a base to add all the other Potions ingredients to. She
sensed him slipping into unconsciousness and panicked. No, he had to be awake
or risk brain damage, if the Potion was working that is.
EN-GB\'>“Professor.”EN-GB\'> Her squeaky voice called while shaking his shoulder; she cleared her
throat and tried again. “Professor!” she called loudly, but he wasn’t
responding. “SEVERUS, stay awake!” she sighed with relief when he lifted his
eyelids and scowled at her. To hell with the repercussions, she was trying to
save his life dammit.
Snape was
just about to fall into blissful unconsciousness when he heard her talking to
him. He frowned at her in confusion, was the Potion still causing hallucinations
or had she just called him what he thought he heard?
For the
next half hour she had him recite dozens of potions to keep him awake, though
she was anxious to ask him what had happened at the school. She needed to know
if Harry and Ron were OK. If they had won or lost, or if the worst had happened
and Snape was the only one left, and look what state he was in. Hermione was
worried if she mentioned it he would get wound up and do himself
harm. The fever was coning ing and if he was going to recover it had to be
broken.
Snape on
the other hand was gng vng very annoyed with himself. He was getting potions
wrong even first year Hufflepuffs and Neville
surprised to find she corrected him every damn time.
Hermione
grew more and more hopeful with every passing minute as his accuracy improved,
as did his condition. The swelling of his eye had reduced greatly and the
internal bleeding had stopped. As she cleaned the blood off and bathed his face
she tried more and more complex potions tactfully skipping the
in one of their brainstorming sessions, he was livid when he had realised she
had taken the ingredients that had gone missing during her second year and why.
Snape had taken three hours to calm down enough to talk her without going
completely off on a tangent about bloody Gryffindors
and how the rules didn’t matter to them. Hermione shuddered at the memory,
recalling the small education in just how expletive the magical world’s
language could get.
“
asked grinning when he stared at her calculatingly. “Fitting don’t you think
sir? The fever has broken and all your injuries are healed. It works! Thousands
will be saved because of it. Because of you.”
Snape
looked at her in surprise at the outburst. Not at the name, he was going to
call it something like that anyway, but that it had worked and that it had
worked without needing half of the ingredients they were going to use. Trust
Hermione Granger to be left with a potion he had spent years thinking about and
planning, and accomplish what he hadn’t in three bloody hours.
surmise his exact condition he noted the sheet covering…his naked body?!
Hermione
blushed when she was he had realised she had undressed him due to his fever.
She had to do it without magic as when she had charmed off his shoes, they had
gone flying out the window smashing the glass, which had turned into confetti
when she tried to repair it. Struggling with his heavy body all the blasted
buttons she had turned a bright red Ron would have been proud of. The Potion it
seemed had a rather unusual side effect that made
little Snape eager to come out and play. Taking another
hysterical moment to recall that the rumour about men with long fingers was
indeed true in Professor Snape’s case.
Said
Professor Snape was fuming at the intrusion into his privacy, when he also
noticed the unusual side effect when he saw the tent made in the sheet by
little Snape. For then Severus Snape did what he had
not done since he was a teenager…blushing and attempting to cover a raging hard
on.
AN: LMFAO!
Aww come on Sevvie let him play! I loved writing this
even if my muse said Professor Snape is glaring daggers at me. The angst was
too much for me at the beginning and now this is going to be a humorous as smut
filled as possible romp through JK’s marvellous world
of Harry Potter.
Peace out
~*