Disclaimer: never did and never will own it. J.K. Rowling does.
Spoilers: Goblet of Fire

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~ Saving Grace ~

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The infirmary was still. Everything seemed to be asleep except for the dark silhouette creeping silently to the only occupied bed. Severus Snape crouched by the bed and looked at the young woman lying in it, her eyes closed in her white face.

“Hermione…” he whispered softly, reaching for her hand. “I wish I could see your smile one last time… I can’t lose you, yet I fear I already have…”

He caressed her hand gently, almost hoping that she would awaken. He knew what she had suffered in the last battle, succumbing under Peter Pettigrew’s Cruciatus before Sirius Black got to him. It was the first time ever Severus had been grateful to Sirius.

“Oh Hermione!” he murmured brokenly. “I can’t let you go! I swore to myself that I would go out of your life as soon as I was sure that you were not mad from the curse, but this morning… this morning, you had your first coherent thought and the only word you uttered was my name! Not Potter’s, not Weasley’s, mine.”

He stopped a moment to brush her hair away from her brow, his fingers lingering.

“It means so much to me…”

He closed his eyes briefly.

“One more week,” he promised softly. “One more week to make sure you alright and then I will disappear. I don’t want to hold you to this almost promise you made to me… Goodbye for now, my Hermione.”

He slipped away from the room and did not notice when her eyes opened, staring blindly at the ceiling.


~*~


She was allowed to leave the infirmary two days later. Her steps were slow, the pain apparent though she tried to hide it. But she could hide nothing from the dark eyes following every move of hers. She smiled sometimes and he could see that her friends were attentive around her. When he heard her laugh, he knew it was time.

He had already written the letter, choosing carefully his words, though he knew she would read through them. He would never commit the mistake of underestimating her, not after the cunning Slytherin display she had shown him while they had been in his mind.

She wouldn’t receive the letter before the deed was done. It was better this way; if not, she would try to save him again. He had a small smile. She was a Gryffindor, after all. Even if it meant saving someone she disliked. But then, he remembered her words in the infirmary:

“Severus… If you want, at the end, I will be here.”

It hadn’t sounded as if she disliked him, but rather as if… she cared.

He shook his head, scowling at himself. He was being irrational. It was just a typical Gryffindor attitude, nothing less, nothing more. He closed his eyes, exhaling slowly. She was the only light in his darkness now. Voldemort was gone, defeated, and he had no purpose anymore. Just like that time when he had saved Harry. Or so he had thought. She had told him he was the thorn in their side, such a thorn that they had been forced to acknowledge his role in the war once it was over. He didn’t want to be a thorn in anybody’s side anymore; he had been that for too long already.

Before he could change his mind again, he stood up and went to the owlery. He wrapped the letter to Hermione around an owl’s leg and let it go before leaving himself for his last destination.


~*~


Hermione was in the library and she seethed with rage when she noticed she had forgotten her notebook in her room. It should have been in her bag, but Ron probably had needed it earlier and, as usual, he had forgotten to put back where it belonged. She left the library in a hurry, running to her room. The notebook was on the floor and she bent down to pick it up when a noise on the window startled her. She looked up to see one of the school owls.

“Hello, little one,” she murmured gently, opening the window. “Got something for me?”

She absently gave the owl a treat while grabbing the letter. She recognised the handwriting immediately. After all, she had seen it enough on her essays. Frowning in puzzlement, she quickly read the letter and didn’t even notice when her notebook fell from her fingers.

“Of all the stupid things to do!” she fumed.

She threw the letter on her bed and left her room, her notebook and her work in the library forgotten.

For once in her life, Hermione was sorry she wasn’t very good with a broom. She was running in the stairs, breathless, stumbling on the steps, but her determination kept her going on. She saw him just as she burst in and it was almost too late. He had already jumped.

She didn’t lose any time and, pulling her wand out of her sleeve, she yelled:

“Wingardium Leviosa!”

For a moment, she thought she had lost him. He was still falling. Then he stopped and she felt a sharp pull at her magic. He was much heavier than a feather. Gritting her teeth, she forced her wand up, up, till he floated back to the top of the tower. She was exhausted when she finally let him touch the ground, but she couldn’t let go now.

“What did you do?” he shouted at her.

She came stumbling to him and grabbed a fistful of his robes.

“Shut up,” she said clearly, though between clenched teeth. “How dare you yell at me after the fright you just gave me?”

“Miss Granger, I–”

He couldn’t add another word as she pulled him toward her and kissed him fiercely. He wondered for a brief moment if he was awake or not and decided that if he wasn’t, then he could at least enjoy the dream. Even if he was awake, thinking of it. He wrapped his arms around Hermione and dared to dream.


~*~


“Severus! What are you doing?”

Severus sighed. It was Dumbledore and, if one could trust the tone of his voice, he was angry.

“Until you came, I was having the time of my life,” replied Severus, regretfully stepping away from Hermione.

“Did you think about it?”

“Not at the moment, but many times before, yes.”

“Did you really need to involve Miss Granger?”

“It would have been difficult without involving her,” said Severus, grinning at Hermione who smiled shyly in return.

“You could have told me!”

“I didn’t really have the time.”

Dumbledore shook a parchment in the air.

“You had the time to write this letter to Miss Granger, but not the time to tell me?”

Severus blinked.

“Oh, that’s what you’re talking about.”

“What did you think I was talking about?”

“What I was doing with Miss Granger at the moment you interrupted.”

“Oh, well, I should praise her presence of mind to provide you with such a timely distraction.”

Hermione’s furious reaction surprised Severus.

“There is no timely distraction! Because you don’t care for him doesn’t mean I don’t either!”

She wrapped tightly her arms around Severus and rubbed her cheek against his chest. Could a dream get any better, wondered Severus, returning her embrace.

“Why do you think I’m here if I don’t care?”

“I don’t know,” she replied stubbornly. “Why weren’t you here when he was in a coma?”

To Severus’s surprise, Albus shifted uncomfortably. The Potions Master never thought he would have lived to see the day when Albus Dumbledore would be ill at ease in front of a student bold enough to accuse him. And not any student! Hermione Granger, who would never have broken any rule if she could have helped it – except if Potter and Weasley were around, naturally.

“Albus,” he said tiredly, “I’m sorry for worrying you. For all it’s worth, you can burn this letter. It doesn’t mean anything now,” he added, resting his cheek on Hermione’s head.

“She’s a student, Severus.”

“Yes, I know. Does it really matter?”

Deep lines of worry appeared on Albus’s forehead.

“Severus… I know I failed you at least once, probably more than that. I don’t want it to happen again. If you need Miss Granger and if she’s willing,” he added with his old twinkle back in his eyes, for he could see Hermione’s arms still wrapped around Severus, “then by all means, go ahead with my blessings.”

“Thank you, Albus. Now, if you don’t mind…”

He gave a pointed glance toward Hermione and Albus chuckled.

“I have a bonfire to do with this letter. Oh, and the stars are lovely tonight, if you look up instead of down.”


~*~


They listened in silence to his retreating steps.

“He’s right,” Severus said thoughtfully. “The stars are lovely tonight and where better to watch them than the Astronomy Tower?”

“As long as you don’t try to jump from it again,” replied Hermione, her voice muffled against his chest.

“I promise. Oh Gods, Hermione… I don’t know what I would do without you!”

She looked up at him and smiled wryly.

“Well, obviously, you wouldn’t last long.”

Then she punched him in the arm.

“What on earth were you thinking? If… if I hadn’t gone to my room earlier…”

She shuddered when thinking of what would have happened.

“I’m sorry,” he murmured. “I… I didn’t want to hold you to what you had said to me… I thought it was just pity, that you were trying to be nice to me…”

His voice trailed off.

“I wouldn’t have said it if I hadn’t meant every word of it!” she said indignantly. “When I saw you in your mind, so lonely and so resigned about it, it nearly broke my heart… I despised myself for not having seen it earlier, for letting you down despite everything you did for us.”

“What? Taking points off you and giving you detentions?” he said, cocking his eyebrow at her.

She laughed shakily.

“No. Protecting us, even at the risk of your own life. Teaching us so many things. I so much wanted you to be proud of me.”

“I am,” he assured her. “Hermione, look at the stars.”

She tipped her head back and he leaned toward her, murmuring against her lips:

“You are my saving grace.”