Hermione had died. She was sure of it. There was no other explanation for the heavenly sight before her. Rows and rows of books reaching to the sky stood before her. The length of room stretched nearly two Quidditch fields and was just, if not more so, as wide. The center aisle went about 30 yards before a staircase dropped down into darkness. The light from the high gothic windows un-reaching to the floor or possible floors below. It was like cityscape of tall shelves and winding paths. She was sure could spend the rest of her life there and possibly not see everything.

Large bridges connected the upper floors cutting through the light that poured in. When Hermione finally looked all the way up, she almost fell down in awe. From the floor on which they stood, the library continued upward another five levels, their bridges intersecting and connecting to various floors. She idly wondered if they moved like the staircases at Hogwarts as she noted that the railings that guarded the central aisle had spots where it was missing. Everything the light touched glowed ethereal, the white stone from which everything was supported shined so bright that it was almost emitting its own power. The light seemed to bounce everywhere except down into the opening in front of them.

"I'm never leaving," Hermione spoke with breathy awe, actually falling back a step to be caught in Severus' arms. She giggled softly turning her head up to look into his face. "This is heaven."

"We're leaving at sundown." He said his words kindly but firmly, a soft smile highlighting his own shining eyes. He gave her arms a small squeeze before shifting her back firmly onto her feet. He grabbed hold of her sleeve when she made to run off, sometimes being a legilimens had its benefits, and turned his free wrist to look at his watch, "Which is in about 4 hours."

"Wet blanket." Hermione giggled a little but heeded his silent warning. These weren't just books, these were magical books. Who knew what sort of spells or curses they held inside. When he released her sleeve with a firm look, she reigned back her excitement, just a little. "Where should we even start?"

"Anywhere we want, but we should stay close together. Something or someone has kept this place clean and its highly possible they won't take kindly to us messing up their centuries-long work." Severus turned his eyes up as though searching for the aforementioned house-keeper before turning his eyes down to the shadowed place just beyond the stairs, "And stay out of there." He pointed to the staircase, he could actually feel the darkness as if it had its own mind, as though it was a living breathing entity.

"I think I can manage to find something else to keep my interest." Hermione was already walking down the aisle to the right when she spoke, leaving Severus behind to catch up. Her senses weren't as in tuned as his but her intuition was picking up on something else and it was pulling her along with an unseen force.

Severus grunted and frowned deeply as she wandered off before he shook his head and just conceded to allowing himself to be astonished by what was before him. He kept his ears tuned to her footfalls taking a similar path as she. He swept his eyes up and down the tall rows, his hands itching to run his fingers over the meticulously upkept tomes.

It was with immense will-power that Hermione kept her hands to herself. The room smelled wonderful, familiar, yet new. It was odd to even think but it was like Severus' very essence was all around her. The light lavender and sandalwood mixed with the unique smell of books and the knowledge they held within. It was enough of a thought to make her blood run hot.

Hermione forced her focus to the brass plates on the end of each of the bookshelves that were placed in the center just at her eye level. At first, they looked similar to the dewy decimal system but when she went a little farther, she noted that the word 'Gregorian' was written over the numbers and her brain suddenly clicked.

"They're years..." Her whisper was more of an unrestrained outburst of her brain finally clicking than actually speaking to anyone.

"1300-1310...1311-1320..." Hermione continued to whisper the numbers aloud, her astonishment growing with each row she passed. Her step took a small jog but her eyes remained focused on the numbers, the deeper she went the higher the numbers grew.

By the time she'd gotten to the end wall, after nearly running smack into it, she'd only gotten to the 1500s. Deciding to figure out just what exactly the numbers were in reference to, she dipped into the last row running her eyes over the titles. Unfortunately for her, they were written in a language she didn't recognize. She did, however, note that the books were organized in Volumes of twelve and she could only assume that each volume was a month. What she couldn't figure out was why there so many books in each row, at least 200, though there were some spaces, they appeared be following something. Some sets would have only a date or year instead of a volume number and were substantially thinner than others.

Severus had only looked away from her for a moment before finding that she'd somehow vanished before his eyes. He thought about calling out but didn't want to admit to having actually lost sight of her. Instead, he took off up the stairs presuming that she had gone to one of the upper floors. He'd made it to the third floor before something moving just out of the corner of his eye caught his attention. Believing that Hermione had gone over to the other side of the central aisle; he moved across the bridge connecting the two halves.

He quickened his step but still didn't call out for fear that if he were actually right about a possible creature lurking in the hall, he might very well attract some very unwanted attention to himself. His ears strained to hear any footsteps beside his own but was unable to. When he rounded the far end of the shelves and found nothing, he pursed his lips tightly turning his eyes up towards the upper levels. Had she continued up? What was she looking for? He was just about to turn back when one of the placards gleaming in the light pulling his eyes away from the floors above. The lettering was old, but it's language was in Latin.

His eyes widened when he translated the word before looking down the row. He cast another small glance upward before coming closer to read one of the titles on the shelf. His eyes widened when he realized that the book he was looking at plus those that surrounded it were research texts. Books used by those honing their craft, or in some cases, expanding it. His heart thumped heavily at the possible knowledge hidden inside the rows and rows of books laid out before him. Possibly every answer to the universe, hidden inside their pages.

Hermione decided to leave the books she'd passed thus far alone as it wouldn't do her any good to open them if she couldn't read what was inside and instead had turned to the partially hidden spiral staircase that led to the upper floors. She moved to the first row of the fourth floor checking the date before moving on higher. She could no longer hear Severus behind her and by the time she'd huffed her way up to the fifth floor she had been shocked to find that most of the bookcases on that floor were empty. She moved to the closest shelf to find a blank silver placard before moving further down, back towards the front doors.

So focused on her task, she hadn't seen a pair of wide brown eyes watching her from inside a window seal as she passed. Her eyes bounced back and forth between the empty rows and the blank placards until she finally came across a row that held only a few books. She paused looking back at the placard which read, '2020'. She moved into the row finding exactly six books sitting neatly on the middle shelf, tucked into place against the end of the shelf closest to the central walkway. She let her fingers hover over the titles while she tilted her head to read them.

"Forsaken Son...Destiny's Daughter... Victory Reborn...Lionhearted Redeemer..." Hermione was just about to move to the next two titles when she felt the back of her hair slowly rising up. Her body froze, a cold fear locking her muscles in place. She managed to force her eyes to look up and to the side; though her brain couldn't possibly comprehend what she was seeing.

A creature, with two large golden brown eyes, stared at her curiously, hanging like a monkey from the top two shelves. Its body was stocky but its arms and legs were long and it had white, almost translucent hairs, hanging off its body. It brought her hair up under its flat ape-like nose, inhaling it softly before her startled cry. Her squeaked outburst caused its eyes to turn blue for a long second before it suddenly vanished from sight, releasing her hair.

Severus had made it as far as the third floor when he heard her cry out. It had echoed through the center aisle before reaching his ears. He'd thought he'd been following after her and had crossed over one of the bridges to get the other side when he hadn't seen her down the rows leading from the spiral stairs. He was still by the bridges leading up and down respectively. The book he'd had in hand was quickly and carelessly re-shelved before his feet took him in the most obvious path.

His rushed steps landed heavily on the bridge leading up to the fourth floor, though he was unaware of the dust falling off of the stone stairs, "Hermione?" was just about halfway up when a deep tremble beneath his feet turned his head down. He had just enough time to register his stomach rising up into his throat before his feet suddenly found no purchase.

Hermione spun on her heel to the sound of her name being called out, she could just barely catch sight of the nearly invisible creature moving towards the sound before she pushed off to follow it. Her brain was trying to cycle through every magical creature that Hagrid had ever taught her but found her of knowledge lacking.

"Severus there's someth-" Her words cut off when she heard his startled cry quickly growing farther away; the deep rumbling of stone crashing heavily came next, filling her ears. She'd just made it to the railing over the fifth-floor bridge when the second-floor bridge collapsed from a stone that had come loose from above. Her heart was in her throat stopping her breath from passing her open lips. When she spotted Severus' black-clothed form being swallowed up by the falling stone of the bridges above it.

"Severus!" Her voice went well above shrill, watching with unmasked horror when the first floor collapsed under the weight of the second, third and fourth-floor bridges crashing down onto it; dropping Severus and the stones into the dark abyss below. She'd pulled her wand to try and help him but couldn't see him clear enough through the debris to attempt to stop his fall.

Her heart raced, and her mind sparked with adrenaline. Without so much as a second thought, she pulled herself over the railing of the fifth floor bridge, using her wand to try and slow her fall. She'd made it to the second-level when a large chunk of stone from the broken connecting walkways above came crashing down into her shoulder disrupting her spell.

Her body started to free fall when she'd had just enough mind to cast out a rope. Her body jerked just below the first floor, ripping her shoulder out of socket before the pain of the motion forced her to release her spell and continue tumbling down into the darkness. The last thing her mind registered was total-body, mind-numbing pain.

oOo

Coldness was the first thing to register in Hermione's mind before the sound of slowly dripping water came next. She laid awkwardly on her side over something extremely hard and very sharp. Her mind was still playing catch up when she managed to open her eyes just enough to see the daylight above slowly waning. She wasn't sure how long she'd been out but the sun was much lower than she thought it should have been.

"Severus...?" Hermione lifted her good arm, with a small cough, bringing it to her head pushing her hair from her face. Her mind was slowly reminding her of what she'd seen just before her own fall. Hermione groaned heavily, rolling further onto her side to try and push herself up onto her knees to see through the thick darkness around her. Her head was beating like a bass drum and her stomach was rolled dangerously.

"Severus...? Love?" She had to find him. This was all her fault. She couldn't even bear to think about what might have very well happened. Why had she wondered off? Why had she done what he'd deliberately had asked her not to do? Why had she allowed herself to be lead so carelessly by her heart instead of her mind?

All these self-depreciating thoughts and more swam through her consciousness while she managed to pull herself up and over the small pile of stones that surrounded her. It was then she realized that they hadn't just fallen one story down, but four. The sky of above was still dangerously waning but the light just didn't reach down inside. It was like looking up through the bottom of a dark lake. The world around her was completely swallowed up, and the light that did manage to barely break past the surface just didn't reach far enough.

Hermione hissed when she tried to put weight on her right hand, her shoulder sparking dangerously as she collapsed back down onto her side over a large step. Her chest heaved from the air partially knocked out of her lungs and her arm that was trapped beneath her stomach pushed dangerously into her rib.

She had to find him, he couldn't be dead. She couldn't let him die, not after everything they'd been through. She'd seen it...she'd seen their children... Their...babies... Hermione closed her eyes tight when she pulled herself over and onto the flat cold tiled stone. She'd never seen Severus in the vision, but she couldn't have denied her son's face. Could she be pregnant already? It was possible they could have...forgotten one night...

No, she couldn't let herself to fall down into the same dark thoughts that often stole him away from her. She wouldn't allow her future to become this. She had to find him. She had to make sure he was alright. She could heal him...then herself. Him first...then her... It was so dark...

"Sev...Se..."

She managed to pull herself free of the last bit of debris before she came face to face with the creature that had startled her before. The creature let out a soft chittering noise before tilting its head as though it was just as curious about her as she was of it. It reached towards her slowly and Hermione could do nothing but watch its human-like finger touch her nose before pulling back its finger to look at the blood it had collected from the cut across the bridge. It was the last thing she saw before her head gave another slow pulse swallowing the world around her once again.

oOOo

"Et facta sunt in bibliothecam pulmentum. Si dominus huc, quod velis me quia occidit? Non ego auxiliatus sum tibi, non ea movere. No!"

The creature Hermione had seen chittered sadly turning it's golden eyes down, a soft whine left it's throat as it regarded the young house-elf carefully. Its eyes glowed blue as it projected its thoughts into the small creature.

Sunt ones. Praevidere est ut ones. Vos postulo ut adiuvarent eos.

"Non possunt ones. Non nota!"

The creature gave out a small growl before crawling over the debris where the girl laid collapsed on her side. It turned its head slowly back at the small house elf before taking hold of girl's wrist. It raised it as high as it could, partially lifting her lax body before pushing up her shirt to reveal the scar just between her ribs.

Quod signum est hic.

The house-elf narrowed its eyes before climbing over the debris to get a closer look. It conjured a ball of light to see what his companion could clearly see without the aid of light, "Hoc non potest esse: homo ex libris legitur. Scilicet haec femina."

The creature gingerly released its hold before climbing its way over to where the man had fallen over the casket of their late master. The both of them had fallen four stories down below the library's final floor. Though it had only been two deep; the mass of stone that had accompanied their fall had sent them even further, down into the catacombs. His body had been miraculously mostly spared, but his head was badly cut, the blood seeping down into the grey stone beneath him. He hadn't moved at all since he'd landed and the creature knew they were running out of time to help them both.

The house-elf huffed heavily before climbing after the creature, a sharp snap of his fingers ignited the torches around the room with an eerie blue flame and it's large tennis ball sized eyes adjusted to the new light. When he made out the form of a man laying over his master's final resting place, a spark of anger welled inside his chest for a small moment but the look from the creature he'd been caring for like a friend all these years had stopped him from lashing out. When he climbed up beside the tomb and turned his head down to look at the face of the man, there was no denying the blood that ran through his veins. He was Prince, there was no question.

The elf let out a huffed breath, looking back to where the girl had fallen. He knew this would come, he just hadn't thought it would have been today. Why were they here? After all this time? All this time, waiting and waiting for a master only for him to literally come crashing down on his former caretaker, defiling his final resting place. The Forsaken Son, had returned home.