Chapter Text
PROLOGUE
‘Breathe, damn you….breathe….’ Hermione swallowed thickly as she watched the stiff body of Severus Snape struggle to take a breath and she hoped it wouldn't be his last.
She regretted leaving with Harry and Ron after he’d given them his memories, for she could have been of more help than any efforts she put in now. A part of her was happy she’s done so though. She’d gotten to understand him better because she saw those memories, a different side to the usuallu acerbic man, the spy, the unapproachable professor.
The moment Voldemort announced the respite, she made sure Harry and Ron were safe and then ran like a woman possessed, hoping she was not too late. And she hadn't been. Snape was still breathing when she got to him. Barely, but still breathing. Even though he was paralized, she could see the terror in his half lidded tourmaline gaze.
Her jeans and threadbare shirt were soaked in his blood, but she didn’t care as long as she managed to save him. She wanted to see his scowl again. To hear him call her a 'know-it-all' again. Anything would be better than him being dead.
The moment they'd finished watching his memories and she and Harry had exited the Pensive, Hermione had wanted to do a jig and scream at the top of her lungs that she'd been right. That she'd said all along that Severus Snape was to be trusted. But seeing the sorrow and regret in Harry's eyes had been enough to halt her celebration.
Empty potions bottles clinked as they got knocked over in her rush to pour yet another Blood Replenisher down his damaged throat. She cursed herself yet again for leaving him when she did. She should have stayed, she should have immediately started to try and heal him. Maybe, if she had managed to get to him in time, he would have been with them out there, fighting the Death Eaters side by side with them....
The creak of the floorboards alerted her of someone’s presence behind her and Hermione spun around to see none other than Antonin Dolohov pointing his wand at her, an ugly crooked grin stretched on his thin lips.
“Well, well, well…what do we have here….” He chuckled. “If it isn't Undesirable number 2, Potter's little mudblood friend. I think the Dark Lord will be very pleased with us. Don't you agree, Fenrir?"
Hermione’s eyes widened as she watched the werewolf bow his head so he could enter the room, his wickedly sharp teeth showing through the feral grin he was sporting. He was more beast than man, torn trousers barely holdind on his massive frame as he gazed at her with his glowing golden eyes filled with hunger.Images of him licking his lips as he watched Bellatrix torture her invaded Hermioine's mind. The crazy witch had promised her to him after she was done, but he’d never gotten the chance to do anything. If he caught her now….Well, Hermione didn’t want to think what he would do to her.
“Turn around and leave, or I swear you will regret staying,“ Hermione said, emanating way more confidence than she was actually feeling.
Dolohov snorted in amusement as Fenrir growled, a scratchy chugging sound of both amusement and afront.
"What are you going to do, poppet?" Dolohov sneered. "There's no one to help you now, no Potter in sight, no Order to save you this time. And you know you're no match for us."
Figuring she didn’t have much to lose except for her life, which would be lost anyway if that snake got his hands on her, Hermione managed to cast a Protection Shield around herself just as a Stunner left Dolohov’s wand.
‘To hell with it,' her mind snarled and she grabbed hold of Snape’s fallen wand.
A fierce battle ensured, and though she was holding them both off well, Hermione could feel herself starting to slip fast. After months of not sleeping propperly, constant cold and eating barely anything, she was beyond exaustion and could feel her power and strength evade her.
A cutting hex touched her left shoulder, another her right thigh, and then a powerful Stupefy hit her shield and threw her against the wall beside Snape’s fallen form.
Hermione groaned as her body protested, and she realized there was a rib or two fractured, if not broken. All in all, this was it. This was how she was going to die. She dreaded the moment when Voldemort would lay eyes on her and Greyback sunk his claws and teeth into her body...
A melodious thrill filled the air and hope blossomed in her heart. Fawkes swooped into the Shrieking Shack, his long tail hitting Dolohov in the face before heading directly towards her, his wide wings hiding her from the Death Eaters’ view.
‘Grab him, and my tail witch!’
It shocked Hermione to hear the powerful voice in her head, but she didn't question it. Even though they hadn’t seen or heard from the Phoenix since Dumbledore’s death, she had no doubt the bird could take them to safety.
Not wasting a moment, she did exactly as told. One hand grabbed the fiery red feathers, and the other fastened in the lapels of Snape’s robe. Fawkes emitted one more sharp cry before flames engulfed them.
It felt like apparition and portkey and something else too, hurtling through time and space, weightless but dizzy and still conscious of her grip on both the man and the bird.
Hermione couldn’t quite describe how traveling with the phoenix felt, strange and good at the same time.
She wondered where exactly they were headed, because it took a long while before it all stopped and she felt her full weight again. Light and colors burst to life and twisted around them, shadows taking shape for a moment and dissipating the next, confusing her.
And just as she felt her fingers start to slip away from the robe she was holding onto they were deposited with an ‘oomph’ on a hard wooden floor, in a room somewhere that smelled of wet stone, dust and something foul.
Pain blossomed in her chest and she started breathing heavily. Her vision blurred and Hermione tried to keep a hold on consciousness and look around for the bird, but she couldn’t see it anywhere.
The last thing she was aware of was the face of a boy. Well, a young man, who strangely enough looked like Snape. But her professor was half dead, so that was impossible.
Right?