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CHAPTER 2

She spent several minutes at the small sink, trying to wash Snape's blood out of her hair and off her body. Her clothes were ruined, but a young woman, not much older than Hermione, brought in a pair of drawstring trousers and a large jumper for her. After she was somewhat presentable, Hermione pulled a chair up to Snape's bedside and washed his blood-streaked face with a flannel she had taken from the bathroom.

Within a few minutes, she heard a commotion in the hall. Kingsley came through the door, trailed by three other Aurors she did not know.

"Hermione," Kingsley said, relief written across his face. "How are you?"

"I'm fine. I need to talk to you about Professor Snape."

Kingsley's face hardened when he noticed Snape's still form on the bed behind Hermione.

"Don't," Hermione warned, holding her arms out to both sides to block the Aurors from him. "He's my informant, Kingsley. He's the one who has been passing information to the Order through me."

"Hermione, he's deceived you," Kingsley said, softly.

"No, he hasn't. He's been truthful all along. Please let me explain. You can give me Veritaserum or bring in a Legilimens if you want. Just, please, don't take him away or hurt him."

"All right. For now, we'll leave him here. I'd like to ask you some questions."

"I want to stay here with Professor Snape. Can I answer them here?"

Kingsley glanced at the two wizards and witch standing behind him. "I suppose."

"Can I tell you one more thing before you question me?"

He nodded. "Go ahead."

"Voldemort is going to attack Hogwarts tomorrow at nightfall. He's going to try to kill Harry," she said, wringing her hands in nervousness.

"Go," Kingsley said to one of the wizards behind him. The Auror hurried out the door, no doubt to inform everyone of the news.

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Hermione watched Kingsley and his three co-workers leave with Snape's wand. They said it was a precaution, though Hermione knew Snape made them nervous. They had questioned her with Veritaserum for well over an hour. Kingsley tried to be as kind as he could, but she knew he was under pressure from his superiors to ensure Snape was not a threat. She felt exhausted and weak by the end, and now she took a moment to pull a chair up and rest her head on the edge of Snape's bed.

"Are you hurt?"

Hermione's head shot up so she could see Snape. His voice was rough, but his eyes were open.

"No," she replied, nearly breaking into sobs of relief. "I-Lucius let us go. I think he may have killed the Death Eaters that were pursuing you."

"And how did you talk the Healers here into helping me?"

"I didn't. They helped out of duty, but they nearly tossed you out on your arse when they saw the Dark Mark," Hermione replied with a weary smile.

"How long have I been out?"

"About two hours. They were unsure about the venom. They thought it might have harmed your brain and nervous system. How do you feel?"

"I'll live."

Hermione smiled. "I'm glad."

"And Potter? Did you tell him about the attack?"

"I told Kingsley and the other Aurors when they questioned me, and I've sent a message to Harry that I need to speak with him. Apparently, Lucius has defected."

"Lucius?"

She nodded. "He contacted Auror Headquarters just before Kingsley left. He says he has information on Voldemort."

Snape gave a small nod of his head before closing his eyes for a moment. When he opened them again, she said, "I was worried about you; you really frightened me."

"Don't be silly, Miss Granger," he whispered, turning his head to look away from her.

"I'm not being silly. I care about you." Hermione paused before taking a deep breath and pushing on. "I care about you a great deal. You're a good man. I don't know what we would have done without you."

He shifted in bed and winced at the stab of pain from his neck. "Thank you," he mumbled, obviously uncomfortable with the conversation.

"I'm so happy you're alive. For a moment there, I thought I was going to lose you." Hermione whispered, leaning over him and pressing her lips to his forehead.

"Hermione..." He exhaled her name with a soft breath.

She pulled back just enough to meet his eyes. They were shining back at her, but he was as unreadable as ever. The memory of their previous meeting in which she healed him came back to her. They had been in a similar position, and she had wanted to kiss him so badly.

Without a word, she dipped her head and pressed her lips softly against his. He made a small noise deep in his throat before tilting his chin up to kiss her back.

"This is a bad idea," he whispered when she pulled away.

"No, it isn't," Hermione replied, kissing him again, this time tracing his lips with the tip of her tongue.

She smiled against his mouth when she felt one of his hands cradle the back of her head, pulling her closer to him.

"What's going on here?"

Hermione jerked back and glanced at the doorway. Ron was standing just inside the door, his jaw dangling. Harry was a step behind him with wide eyes.

"I can explain," she said, glancing from the boys to Snape, then back again. It was going to be a very long night.

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"I can't believe you didn't tell us, Hermione."

Hermione looked away from Ron's face to study the stone floor. "I told you I was sorry, Ron."

"We would have understood about Snape if you would have told us his side of the story," Harry replied.

"You hated him, Harry. You would have said I was mad and tried to keep me from meeting with him."

The three friends were quickly striding down one of the halls of Hogwarts. A subdued buzz of anxiety and anticipation had taken over the castle in the last few hours. Preparations were well underway for Voldemort's attack, though everyone was trying to be discreet about it to avoid any leaks that would cause the Death Eaters to pull back in favor of another time. Hermione had gotten a small amount of sleep after she left Snape at the hospital, but most of her morning and afternoon had been spent in nervous preparation for the battle.

"It was dangerous for you to do it alone," Harry said, touching Hermione's shoulder and stopping her.

"Harry, you know I had to do it. He was truthful with me, and he had important information that helped us." Hermione had turned to look at both boys.

"There is one thing you didn't explain," Ron said, scuffing his shoe against the floor.

Hermione closed her eyes and asked Merlin to open up the ground beneath her so she wouldn't have to tell her friends why, exactly, she had been kissing their former Potions professor when they had walked into his hospital room. Finally, she said, "I don't want to talk about that." She had told them the full story in front of Snape while they were all at the hospital, but she had conveniently left out her private conversation with him before the boys had arrived.

"I'd like to know why you were kissing Snape, too," Harry said.

She winced and turned to continue walking down the hall. "I think we should concentrate on Voldemort right now," she said over her shoulder.

Holding her breath, she waited for her friends to follow her. After a long moment of silence, they started jogging down the hall to catch up with her. Just as they turned the corner, making their way to the Great Hall, Hermione ran into a wall of black fabric.

"Where have you been?"

Hermione looked up with wide eyes to see Severus Snape in his customary teaching robes. Her palms were pressed against his firm chest to soften the collision. "Sir, what are you doing here? You're supposed to be at St. Mungo's."

"I will not sit idly by while this confrontation happens." He lowered his voice and leaned closer. "And I will not leave you alone during this time," he whispered, soft enough for Harry and Ron not to hear.

"I-I... They let you leave St. Mungo's? I thought there were three Aurors there to guard you."

"One Auror, and he wasn't very good at his job. They needed the others here at Hogwarts."

Hermione's eyes widened even more. "You didn't hurt him, did you? If you hurt him, then they'll think..."

Snape wrapped his fingers around her arms and slowly pulled her hands from his chest. "I did not hurt him. I made him believe I am still in the bed, though I suspect the staff have discovered I am missing by now."

"If you did anything illegal-"

"I didn't do anything illegal, Hermione."

"You're hurt; you shouldn't be here."

"Don't start with that," he replied, releasing her arms. "Has Lucius given them any useful information?"

Hermione swallowed the urge to kiss the man in front of her. Harry and Ron would restrain her, thinking she'd gone crazy, or they would faint and hit their heads on the stone floor. A lot of good an unconscious savior would do them. "He's at Auror Headquarters right now. Draco and Narcissa are with him, and they're all talking. I don't know how useful the information is, but they've called a meeting in the Great Hall to inform us of some details of Voldemort's planned attack. I can only assume they garnered some of that from the Malfoys."

"The students?"

"They've been evacuated. Some of the older students stayed to fight, but all of the younger ones have been sent to an Order safe house."

"Severus!" Everyone turned to see Minerva McGonagall walking up the hall behind them, her lips pressed tightly together.

"Minerva," Snape replied, nodding his head at her. "Must I explain my tale all over again, or have you heard it from Miss Granger?"

Instead of stopping a few feet from him, McGonagall swept him up in a brief embrace. "I knew you didn't betray us," she cried, pulling back and looking at his color. "I haven't heard from Miss Granger herself, but I've spoken to Kingsley. Severus, you look pale."

"I'm always pale, Minerva," he replied in a dry voice, looking bored with the conversation already.

"More so than normal. You should be at St. Mungo's recovering. What are you doing here?"

"I will not sit by and watch this happen. I want to fight."

"No," Hermione and McGonagall said in unison.

McGonagall gave her student a curious look before turning back to Snape. "You need rest, Severus. You'll be no help if you overexert yourself."

Hermione suppressed a smile when she saw Snape roll his eyes. "I'm not a child; I think I can handle myself," he replied.

Suddenly, a loud voice boomed through the castle, asking everyone to report to the Great Hall for further instructions.

McGonagall bit down on her reply to Snape's stubbornness. "Well then, I'll see all of you in the Great Hall." With that said, she turned and hurried down the corridor.

Harry and Ron, eager to hear the news from the Aurors, followed after, throwing Snape and Hermione a wary look.

"Come on, Hermione," Ron said as they passed by.

"I'll be there in just a minute," she replied.

Once her two friends had turned the corner, she looked up at Snape. "I'm happy you're doing well," she whispered shyly before dropping her gaze to the ground again.

"Why did you kiss me?"

Hermione jerked her head up at his abrupt question. "I... Well, I, I don't know. I wanted to, I suppose."

"And?"

She shrugged and worried her lower lip with her teeth. "I meant what I said. I care about you... a great deal. I wanted to kiss you, and you didn't seem averse to it."

"Are you saying you are... attracted to me?" His eyes were dark, unreadable pools of black.

Hermione wasn't sure what answer he wanted to hear. If she gave the wrong one, she ran the risk of him shutting her down, and that wasn't what she wanted. "I think it is safe to say that I feel close to you."

One of his elegant brows lifted slightly. "How close?"

"Close enough to kiss you, obviously."

He took a step closer to her, and Hermione found her back against the corridor wall. "And do you frequently kiss your friends?"

"No, I've never kissed Harry or Ron." She felt like her heart was beating in her throat.

"So, just me then?"

Hermione swallowed, her throat suddenly dry. "You and Victor Krum."

"The Bulgarian Quidditch player?" Snape seemed slightly amused.

Hermione nodded. "He, uh, he looks a bit like you, I suppose. So, maybe I am attracted..."

She trailed off as Snape leaned forward, letting his lips hover just a few inches from her own. "I don't know how I would have got through the last few months if it weren't for you, Hermione," he softly confessed.

"But I didn't do anything." Hermione could barely breathe. He was so close, his clean scent overpowering her, his energy making her body quiver.

"You were there, and you believed me. That meant more than you know." Snape paused for a moment, watching her. "You saved my life," he added in a whisper.

Hermione exhaled a trembling breath, unable to break eye contact with him. When she finally parted her lips to respond, he descended on her, pressing his lips tightly against hers.

Just as his tongue slid between her lips, the announcement to report to the Great Hall sounded again. They both pulled back from one another. Snape grabbed her hand. "Take care, Hermione. I will not see you die here tonight."

"The same to you, sir," she whispered, still in shock over the kiss.

"Severus," he replied. "I can count the number of women I've kissed on one hand, and they've all called me by my first name. I shouldn't think you would be any different, Hermione."

She nodded and repeated his given name just before he turned to continue down the hall toward the meeting. After composing herself, she hurried after him.

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Hermione pressed her back against the wall as another curse flew past, blasting the stone exterior of the castle and leaving a small crater. As much as she still didn't trust Lucius Malfoy, she wished they had allowed him to fight beside the Order and its supporters. They weren't quite outnumbered, but Voldemort's supporters were vicious, and any additional hands-or wands-would have been appreciated.

She knew it was a distraction, but she had managed to keep Severus in her line of sight during the hour they had been fighting with the Death Eaters. For a man who had been on his death bed only twenty-four hours earlier, he was causing untold devastation to his opponents.

Harry hit the Death Eater in front of her with Petrificus Totalus, and the black-robed figure hit the ground with a thump. She caught Snape looking at her for a brief moment during a lull in the fight. His hair was windswept, and his robes were torn in several places, but he looked glorious and very dangerous. She had a difficult time reconciling the man in front of her with the man who had kissed her in the hall only a few hours before. Since then, they hadn't had any time alone, but she was constantly aware of his eyes on her. Perhaps Lucius was right; perhaps Severus really did care for her.

"Trouble!" Ron called over his shoulder, pointing in front of them. Hermione strained to see through the low covering of fog that had rolled in shortly before the battle began. Just over the top of the sloping hill was a forbidding figure in dark robes. She could just make out the glint of red eyes before her stomach dropped to her feet. Voldemort, she thought with dread.

He was surrounded by three masked Death Eaters, all four of them killing anyone who crossed their path. Hermione looked over to Harry and saw an expression of grim determination on his face.

Snape stepped up beside Harry. "Don't let him intimidate you, Potter."

"Oh, I won't," Harry replied, his voice full of anger. Hermione hit a Death Eater sneaking up from the side with two jinxes, knocking the wizard to the ground. She used a Summoning Charm to retrieve his wand, then broke the thin stick of maple over her knee.

Hermione looked up to see Severus watching her again. His face was impassive, though she could see his anxiety in his eyes. "Be careful," she mouthed to him.

"His snake," Ron muttered, pointing in the grass several meters in front of Voldemort.

"It's a Horcrux," Harry reminded everyone, "and it needs to be destroyed." She knew he had been hard at work all year, trying to continue Dumbledore's work and find all the Horcruxes. The only remaining one had to be Nagini.

"I'll be more than happy to take care of that for you, Potter," Snape replied, barely contained rage in his voice.

Only a few short seconds later, Hermione found herself in the midst of streaks of shimmering energy as curses flew all around her. She could hear screams and see moving shapes, but the onslaught of spells from both sides was only intensifying the properties of the fog, making the battlefield look like it was covered with multi-colored smoke. She managed to knock two Death Eaters to the ground, breaking their wands once she had the wood in her hands.

Once she made her way forward, she found Nagini's body in the grass. It was covered in blood and in multiple pieces. Just ahead of her Ron was dodging curses from Bellatrix Lestrange. Her mask had fallen off, and her hair was whipping around as she threw another Cruciatus Curse at Ron. Hermione nearly stepped in to help Ron until she noticed Harry and Snape a few meters to the left.

Snape was dueling with two of the Death Eaters who had been protecting Voldemort, but he seemed to have things in hand. Harry, however, looked to be in danger. The bright blue stream of power from his wand was being intercepted by the angry red stream from Voldemort's. It was obvious that the evil wizard was overpowering her friend, and Hermione stepped into the fight without much of a conscious decision.

She leveled her wand at Voldemort and screamed, "Expelliarmus!"

The streams of energy locking Harry and Voldemort together exploded. Hermione felt a rush of power enter her body, and then found herself flying backward in the air. The last thing she remembered was hitting the ground and losing her breath.

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Her head was throbbing, and the bright light on the other side of her eyelids was not helping. Slowly, Hermione cracked her eyes open.

"She's awake!"

She closed her eyes and winced at the intensity of Harry's voice. This must be what a hangover feels like, Hermione thought as she threw an arm over her face.

With her arm to block the sun, she managed to open her eyes again. Harry and Ron were standing beside her bed with huge smiles on their worried faces. "Blimey, Hermione, you scared us," Ron said.

The sound of the curtains across the room being shut brought on blessed darkness. The dimly-lit room was much more tolerable. She smiled at her friends, and then turned her head to search the room. A shadowy figure was standing by the windows, and Hermione's heart leapt into her throat.

"Sev..." Her voice broke on his name.

He stepped forward and strode over to the other side of her bed. "You shouldn't speak," Severus said softly.

"Madam Pomfrey says you'll get your voice back soon," Ron assured her.

Harry nodded. "They had to call in two Healers from St. Mungo's to help you. We were afraid to move you off the field outside until they looked at you."

Hermione turned her head to look at Severus again.

"I asked for the Healer who cared for me while I was there-the one you spoke to about my prognosis," he explained

She gave him a weak smile.

"That was a very stupid thing to do," Severus added.

"Yeah," Harry and Ron agreed.

Hermione tried to open her mouth and defend herself, but all that came out was a croak.

"But you did save my life," Harry added with a grin. "So, thanks for that."

She wanted to laugh, but her head hurt too much to allow it.

After a long moment of silence, Harry and Ron excused themselves, promising to return with something to eat from the kitchens.

Severus pulled up a chair and sat down at her bedside. "I am sure you want to inundate me with a thousand questions about the battle. Potter, as I'm sure you can guess, was able to defeat the Dark Lord. You were knocked unconscious by the backlash of their spells when you broke the connection. It gave Potter the time he needed to strike. The Healers say you'll survive, though they were unsure when they first arrived."

He paused and looked away from her. After several seconds he continued in a rough voice. "Don't ever do that to me again, Hermione. I thought you were going to die."

Hermione reached out and grabbed his hand, bringing it to her lips.

"Silly girl," he whispered, leaning forward and brushing his mouth over her forehead. He pulled back, a small smile lifting the corners of his lips. "I do believe we were in this same position, only reversed, a week ago."

Hermione's eyes widened.

Severus chuckled. "Oh, yes, Hermione. You've been unconscious for almost seven days. Minerva, I believe, has a few choice words for you on your reckless behavior. I have no doubt she'll be along momentarily to regale you with them since you're still unable to speak."

With a trembling hand, Hermione grabbed a fistful of his black hair and pulled him closer. Her voice was barely a hoarse whisper, but she managed to say, "I'm happy you're okay," in his ear.

"And I, you, Hermione," he said before kissing her lips. Though she wasn't able to speak very well, she managed to moan her approval and deepen the kiss.

Severus shifted his weight from the chair to the bed, pulling her up into his arms.

"Well!" Minerva McGonagall said, her tone expressing exactly how scandalous she considered the picture she saw when she entered.

Severus reluctantly pulled away, and Hermione groaned in frustration. Once she was able to get out of the infirmary bed, she was going to lock herself in a room with Severus Snape and forbid anyone from entering for at least twenty-four hours.

"What is going on here?" Minerva asked.

Hermione smiled and looked up at Severus. She could barely speak, so the explanations were all up to him this time.    

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