"Professor? Professor!?"

Hermione could hardly breathe through the ash that coated her face and filled her lungs. Even though the air around them was clear, her chest still ached with the superheated air that had nearly taken her life in an instant. The portkey had landed her square overtop of the man who had grabbed her from behind to activate it. Sending them tumbling rather painfully into the solid oak coffee table that had subsequently collapsed under their combined weight.

Now, Hermione found herself sat over his hips with her hands cradling his head in her soot-covered palms. Tears had already begun to roll down her face as she desperately tried to think of anything to do in such a circumstance. The smell of fire was heavily accented with the blood that was starting to roll freely from the hand that had been burnt after her first attempt, the skin which she had so intricately memorized, sluffing off in heavy chunks.

"Professor please...answer me...?" Her hands gave his heavy head a small shake before she leaned down over his prone form and without a second thought, pressed her lips to his in a desperate attempt at CPR.

Severus choked on the air that filled his lungs, having merely lost consciousness when his head slammed hard into the wood that had collapsed beneath them. His hands rose to try and push her away while resisting the urge to shake the ever-loving life out of the witch over top of him. When he felt her body pull back to his weak and albeit somewhat clumsy attempt at regaining personal space, his eyes fluttered open going cross-eyed as he tried to bring the world above him into focus.

Hermione let out a heavy sob followed by a heavy cough that tasted like metal. Her head hanging heavily as she took hold of his wrists. Her body shook with relief when he mumbled something scathing about her bad breath but the fact that he was speaking to her at all was enough to make her already floating head even lighter.

A rather heavy and somewhat painful push removed the witch from over top of him and allowed him to take a deep breath of clean air. The soot from her lungs had filled his own and it was at that moment that he realized that she was in very possible danger of suffocation without her even realizing it. His hand which felt slippery but lacked any nerves to indicate pain came up to his face pushing his hair out of his way before he turned his dark eyes in the direction he had pushed her off.

"Cabinet...purple...potion...inhale it..." A deep series of coughs thumped his head back into the debris and he could feel the world spinning without him. The noise of her clumsy path to her feet made his skull threaten to crack but he pushed it aside for the more pressing matter that he could no longer feel his wand hand.

A heavy grunt pushed him up from the wood below and he brought his hand up to his chest cradling it carefully. He needed to act quickly if he had any hope of restoring it but his mind was too busy trying to piece together just what had happened.

Hermione's body was quickly losing the adrenaline that had flooded her system. Her vision that had been wide was quickly funneling down to a small tunnel making it extremely difficult to find the potion that she was supposed to be looking for. It was only then that she realized that breathing was becoming extremely difficult, that each breath was becoming shallower than the last. When her fingers, by some miracle, wrapped around the potion that she was sure he had sent her to retrieve.

Her fingers fumbled dumbly with the cork as her hand shook with weakness. Her world was starting to grow darker but she wouldn't allow herself to be felled so easily. She had been through much worse than this. When the cork finally popped free, a deep blue mist began to rise and she wasted no time in shoving the vial in front of her mouth to take as deep a breath as possible. A cold menthol like feeling filled her chest and though it hurt, it made breathing much, much easier.

Severus pushed on with the perseverance he was secretly known for, and while he did give her a calculating glance to ensure that she had done what she'd been told, his concern over his hand was starting to take precedence. He had prepared for this possibility. A deep groan of pain passed his lips as he pushed his hand into a jar of gel designed to grow back muscle and flesh before he found himself summoning a chair to sit in.

Hermione could feel her heart starting to slow and though her vision was fading in and out she managed to make her way over to where he'd sat. Potion vial still in hand she all but collapsed at his feet, resting her forehead against his knee before turning her eyes up towards his face.

"I...I killed him...?"

Severus' brow twitched, she looked so small, impossibly small. Her eyes still shined with unshed tears. He wondered if he should lie, set her free from her torment. She had killed, yes but it wasn't what she believed she had. No, it had been a boggart, a simple boggart wandering through the woods no doubt attracted by their impressive display of magic.

"My...wand...?" Hermione's head was cycling through about fifty different emotions. Most of which she couldn't even name. Her wont to care for her caretaker was the strongest of all but he had already seen to his injuries on his own. As always. So instead her mind was spinning out of control in about three different directions. She pressed her temple to his knee as a heavy cough shook her frame, a deep groatal sound rumbling up the back of her throat as the potion helped to expel the soot.

"It's gone." Severus took the out, he would tell the truth when it was time and right now it wasn't it. He could feel her mind cartwheeling and his own was too weak to formulate anything complex, "Your fire...destroyed it..."

Hermione could only nod, looking down at the sleeve of her jacket that had been burned away. An odd sort of burn pattern running up the exposed forearm. It hurt yes, but not enough for her to seek care. A shaking breath rattled her shoulders before a heavy hand came to the top of her head. A hand whose weight seemed to still all the disquiet that was rampaging inside her.

"Your arm?"

"It's okay..." Hermione opened and closed her hand slowly, biting back a small wince the action produced. The hand in her hair moved and she found her chin held tight in his long fingers.

"Don't lie to me." Severus' eyes were dark, looking straight past everything she had tried to put in his way.

Hermione's jaw opened and closed dumbly in his grasp before she closed her eyes, "It hurts..."

"Let me see." Severus released her jaw leaning back in the chair, his wounded hand remaining in the jar of gel as she raised her arm between his knees to rest his thighs, the back of her hand resting on his lower stomach. Severus' eyes narrowed as he looked at the unique pattern. Her coat had protected her from the first blast, but had most certainly failed when her wand had exploded.

"Take off your shirt."

"What...?"

"Take it off." Severus sat up just a bit straighter, his eyes running over her critically, "Now."

"Wh-"

"Now."

Hermione did her best not to be cowed by his tone; deep, commanding, without room for disobedience. With what little strength she had left, she raised her head from his knee pulling her arm back from between his legs. Her hands ran down the front of her jacket, hitting the trick button before she shouldered the heavy garment away.

With a glance through her long lashes, she brought her trembling fingers through the buttons over the red shirt. Just as quickly, and with a few more coughs, she managed to get the garment free of its catches and let it roll off her shoulders. When she managed to pull her arms through the long sleeves her eyes immediately turned towards her pulsing forearm.

Severus reached down as carefully as he could, bringing the damaged arm up closer for his inspection, "Turn around..." Keeping hold of her arm he gave her a small pull as she shuffled on her knees, his own making room for her to move between. Mindful of the joints in her arm he raised it up, his eyes tracing the path of a red almost scar-like mark that traveled up the back of her hand, around to her forearm before twisting back along the underside of her bicep.

"Ow..." Hermione hissed sharply when his hand brushed over the mark but didn't dare to pull away from him.

"Sorry..." Relaxing his hold somewhat, his fingers brushed through her hair that was covering her back, his eyes going wider as he traced the line down over her shoulder blade before he took hold of the rest of her hair moving it away to expose the rest of her back, "Impossible..."

"What...?" Hermione cradled her arm to her chest, not really trying to cover her nudity but rather trying to sooth the soft burn over her injury. She tilted her head so that her hair would fall out of the way before looking up at his face.

"The fire..." Severus couldn't resist running his fingertips over the raised skin, a beautifully designed scar by any standard, magical, powerful, "Went straight through you..."

Hermione let out another small cough though her face showed that she had no idea what he was talking about. A deep shiver shook her body when his fingers trailed down the dip of her spine, "That's...not possible...I mean...I'd be...dead right?"

Severus wasn't sure, he'd never seen anything like this before. Never read anything like it before. Yet there it was right before him. The burnt outline of a phoenix in flight all but engraved on her pale skin, "Does it hurt?" He pressed his fingertips gently along the red skin only to find it surprisingly cooler than the rest.

"No...just my arm..." Hermione turned her arm in her lap before looking up at his hand that was still set inside the jar, "Your hand?"

"It'll heal...I got to the potion in time..." Severus' tone was absent, his focus solely on the mark before him. What did it mean?

Hermione ran her good hand over her shoulder before using it to cover her chest, "I'm so sorry..."

Severus barely heard her over his own thoughts, leaving her apology hanging heavily in the air before he was able to comprehend it. When he did, his eyes narrowed coming away from the mark to look down at the woman between his knees. The look on his face showed his confusion, his confliction before his mouth began to open, "Whatever for?"

"Everything..." Heavy tears rolled down her cheeks before she brought her hand up to push them away.

The emotion that laid in her voice made his own heart grow heavy. It was as though she was apologizing for her very existence in the world. Something she had absolutely no control over. He watched, helplessly, as she curled in on herself, wrapping her good arm around her knees as she brought them under her chin. Where was the warrior who had conjured fire just moments ago? Where was the fight that had brought her this far? Where was the confidence that had fueled the fire that had nearly destroyed them both?

His jaw went tight as he summoned a shirt from his closet to cover her, his eyes more intense than anyone alive would have ever seen. Still mindful of his injured hand, he reached down taking her as gently as he could under her arm and gave her the smallest of pulls. When she slowly uncurled he continued to pull her forward until she was resting on her knees between his own.

Hermione's eyes fluttered when she felt the backs of his fingertips gently brushing along her cheek, the muscle twitching as she resisted the urge to press her lips into his palm. Soft words wafted over her ears and her body obeyed their gentle command without hesitation, even though her heart was torn to do so. As she came to her feet, her eyes opened and her heart thumped heavily in her chest.

"Never apologize for surviving." Severus curled his hand in hers, and he was sure he could feel her damaged soul reaching out towards his own. Desperately wishing that everything in the world would somehow be okay again. That this war, their turmoil would somehow find its end. That their pain wasn't something that they had to share alone but could be shared and overcome together.

Hermione's head lowered down as she closed the small distance between them, new tears washing away the darkness. The hand that had brought her to her feet wrapped around her back, tangling into her hair as she pressed her cheek so tightly against his. A deep sniffle filled the air between them as she wrapped him as close as she possibly could despite the pain.

Severus turned his eyes towards the heavens as the girl completely broke down inside his hold. Every tiny little stick that had been holding her up snapping all at once. His hand held her face tight to his collar and though the feel of her breath against him was uncomfortable he refused to let her go. As she shifted to come to sit in his lap and her chest pressed into his own, his hold only grew tighter. His own eyes closing as he simply allowed himself to fall into her emotional state. To release, all that he had been carrying for her thus far.

"I killed someone...how can...how can I ever...?"

"You killed a boggart...an evil creature...nothing more..." He pressed his lips against her temple, no longer willing to protect her from the truths this world provided, no matter how painful, "You faced your demon...head on...with such power...you should not be ashamed...you should be...proud..."

A wry painful chuckle passed her lips as she hid her face tighter into his neck, "I almost killed you...us..."

"But you didn't...you called the flame back inside you at the last possible moment..." It was the only explanation he could think of for having seen the markings that he'd seen. That even though her wand had shattered, she had forced the power of her magic inside her core.

"I...I don't know what I would have done...if I'd...killed you...I can't...I can't even..."

"Shh..." Severus pressed his lips to the corner of hers, silencing her near instantly, "I am here. We are alive...that is all you need to remember..."

oOo

Hermione's hands trembled nervously over the button of her slacks, her eyes wandering over the topless man standing just three feet in front of her. Their shared moment of humanity had given way to the very pressing need to clean themselves of the blood and ash that had coated the both of them.

While it wasn't her first bath in the front of the man who had now taken a solid place inside her heart, a place she never in her wildest fantasy's would have ever imagined him taking, it was certainly the first in which he had offered to join her. Despite the rising flush over her cheeks, she couldn't stop herself from taking in every line, every crisscrossing mark that lined the expanse of his pale flesh. She had felt them of course, but to see them so clearly, so close.

"Who...did this to you...?" Hermione knew of her own path to seek justice, her own need to find her peace in this world.

Severus wasn't entirely sure what had possessed him to lay down all of his barriers. To throw away everything he had so meticulously set in place between them. Perhaps it was the pain potion running through his system, perhaps it was a side-effect of the salve that now worked on healing his bandaged hand. He only knew that he didn't care to find the reason. His eyes turned down to her question, looking over the long-faded lines. Some of his youth, some of the more recent years.

"It no longer matters."

Her brow furrowed deeply before she rose slowly to her feet, her mouth opened and closed but she found no words that would express the emotion she felt in that moment. So instead, she did what she did best. She allowed her senses to take over, to allow her mind to simply turn off and rely on the more basic of functions to express what could not be spoken.

His skin jumped under her fingers, twitching as though in reflex to pain. His chest growing tight when her closed lashes brushed along a rather deep line over his heart, before her fingers joined in her reverence. When her lips pressed against the line a heat burst from inside his heart, filling his body with an emotion he hadn't felt in so long he was unable to understand its purpose.

Hermione breathed in slowly, though her nose was still stifled by their time on the mountain her heart thrummed with the memory of him, of his very essence, "Are you ashamed of them?"

"No...they make me who I am..." Speaking was becoming incredibly more difficult with the addition of her fingers searching along his waist.

"Who are you?" Her head rose then, her eyes searching his soul for the answer to her own desperation to figure out just where she even fit into this new world.

"I..." How could he possibly answer that question when he himself had never been able to answer it? The choice between truth and lies rose again and Severus found the choice between to be much easier than before, "I don't know..."

"I do..."

His brow rose to the confidence in her tone, his body growing tighter when her hand flattened over his heart, the rate of which it was beating surely easily felt by her soft fingers. When she didn't finish her sentence he tried to raise her chin so that he could seek his answer by other means but she merely closed her eyes and pressed her lips into his palm leaving him without the resolution that he had been searching for for years.

A soft smile pressed over the dip on his sternum before her hands began to travel lower, her small fingers taking the button of his slacks with an almost practiced ease. He watched as she released the garment to fall, though to his surprise she never opened her eyes. Instead, her fingers slipped from his waist to her own and repeated the process.

Hermione bit her lip as she resisted with every fiber of her being not to open her eyes, to take everything about the man before her into her memory. Though she desperately wanted to see all of him at that very moment, something inside her heart told her to be cautious. That this man, this brave, selfless man, had been hurt more deeply than she could understand. That his sufferings weren't solely at the hands of others but by his own as well.

That though she had suffered and overcome, her situation was so different from his own. That she did not yet have the capacity to understand his intricacies. That it was not yet time for her to allow herself to become aware of all he'd been through, that he was not ready to share with her. That while she had earned his respect she had yet to fully gain his trust.

Severus swallowed thickly as she stepped out of her last layer. His eyes never wandering beyond her face that almost looked serene in its sadness. As she slowly lowered down towards the water's edge he found himself following her example and stepped out of his boxers. While he was curious as to why she had yet to open her eyes, he found himself relieved by her choice to keep them shut. A thick swallow brought him into the colored waters, and he settled onto the bench.

Hermione let out the breath she'd been holding before cautiously opening her eyes just enough to make sure she didn't kill herself when she stepped into the water herself. She couldn't resist the small smile that ticked at the corner of her lips when she noticed just the smallest of tints over his pallor cheeks. The air felt heavy but not tense as the both of them took the moment to just realize what they'd done.