Hermione pressed her hand tight over her mouth. A sob catching painfully in her throat. Her body jerked with each strike the snake took. Three in total. Severus' head rolled slowly against the wall, his eyes searching through the darkness. He looked so fragile in that moment that she found herself lost in his searching gaze.

The heavy slamming of the door snapped her sharply out of the void she had lost herself in. Despite the danger, she hastily pushed herself from the floor. On her hands and knees, she crawled through the blood that had begun to pool around his slouched frame.

"Severus? Severus?" Hermione pressed herself close to his side, her hands coming up to the blood bubbling out from around his cut collar, "Don't you dare die on me. Not this way."

Hermione's voice caught in her throat as she turned her head down. Her wand pressing into the largest wound across his chest calling back the blood that was chilling her fingers. Tears spilled down her cheeks when the softest of noises raised her head back to his face.

"He-"

"No, Don't speak. Save your strength." Hermione swallowed down a painful sob as she turned her attention to his neck. The wound was not healing as it should have due to the large crack in her wand. A sharp noise to her right made her heart stop, her ears telling her that something or someone was coming.

Without thought, she wrapped her arms tightly around his head and pressed her wand into the broach dangling off of her lapel. The last thing she saw before they'd completely gone up in smoke, two frightened green eyes.

Harry stood there dumbfounded by all he had witnessed. Even in the darkness, he knew who had been just before him. A ghost, no longer. He staggered aside as Ron then Draco came out of the hole to stand beside him though he was unsure what they'd heard. His eyes turned down to the darkening pool of blood beginning to slip through the warped floorboards.

"We have to get back to the castle..."

oOo

"Misty!" Hermione's voice hurt her own ears as she laid Severus down on the floor. Unable to carry him beyond their portkeyed position. Her hand cupped his face as she summoned a pillow from the bed to rest his head on.

"Stay with me. Don't close your eyes." Her hands started pulling away the buttons on his coat, tearing away the fabric in haste.

Severus could feel his body growing heavier, colder. His vision swimming as he tried to force his tongue to move. To tell her what she needed to know. What he needed her to do.

"Herm-ione..." Blood gurgled in his throat.

"No... don't speak. Your throat it's..." She pushed her wand back against his throat or rather what was left of it, "Misty!"

A sharp pop echoed over the heavy breathing in the room. The small elf instantly ran forward pressing her hands over Hermione's own, "Misty is here. Misty help. Get headmaster's potions!"

Hermione released her hold but not without a shaking chest. A push off her legs brought her back to her feet with a dizzying spin. A deep cough dripped blood down her chin but the back of hand wiped it away.

"What potions, Misty? Which ones!?"

"The small brown box." Misty's voice portrayed an eerie level of calm, her large eyes searching over every injury while her small hands worked a magic all their own, "Was he bitten?"

"Yes, by the bastard's snake! Does he have an antivenom or-"

"Yes! Red bottle, back of the shelf beside the pain potions. Leftover from Weasely yes, left over."

Hermione pulled the aforementioned boxes to her chest, each pulse of her heart ticking away like a clock counting down. Her step faltered on her way back, sending her hard onto one knee. She had faced death before, survived it—caused it—but this... this was something else. This was saving a life.

"What do I do? What do I do?" She pushed the boxes closer, her eyes turning back to his face trying to catch his eye.

"Take them..." Severus' voice was barely that of a whisper. The words forced through a tightening throat. His eyes glistened with the memories of all he had done in his life. Every wrong, every right, that had led him there that night.

Hermione shook her head, not because she didn't want to but because she didn't want him to go. She didn't want him to leave her alone. Her hand shook when she leaned in closer, her fingers ghosting over his chin. A vial was placed into her fingers, from where she couldn't have cared but when she pressed the vial to his cheek his eyes opened to hers and in that moment she was sure she understood everything that he was, everything he had done.

"Look at me..." Hermione whispered, gently setting down the vial to take hold of his cheek. Her thumb ghosted over his lips when he made to speak but her gentle touch stayed his tongue, "I love you..."

Severus could feel his heart skipping to the sound of her voice. His vision dark and tilted. When her lips lightly pressed against his, the immense weight that his life had burdened him with seemed to dissolve into the ether. His lashes fluttered when she pulled back and in that moment he knew he couldn't leave her behind. Though as always, the decision was not his own.

Hermione sniffled softly when his eyes rolled back, his chest ticking as though he meant to speak but no sound managed to pass his crimson lips. Her bloody fingers closed his eyes completely before a deep breath filled her chest.

"I will return for him..." Hermione's voice was absolute, soft yet unyielding in her convictions.

"I will do all I can..." The small elf knew that nothing short of a miracle would save her master but she wouldn't stop trying.

"Thank you..." Hermione wiped the tears from her nose with the back of her hand before reaching for the vial. A small push forward brought her back to her feet and her mind began to turn.

oOo

"Ginny."

"Harry!" Ginny pushed herself up from her knees, her body still trembling. She pressed her face tight into his collar, "You're alright..."

Harry held her back tightly, his hand cradling the back of her head but his eyes were looking around it at the bodies lined up in the great hall. So many wounded, so many dead.

"Ginny... do you still have the map?"

"What...?" Ginny sniffled softly and released him slowly. She turned away slightly when Ron moved past towards their mother.

"The map. The Mauraders map. Do you have it?" Harry tried to keep his voice calm but inside everything he'd ever known was starting to turn on its end.

"Uh... yeah I think so..." Ginny sniffled and wiped at her nose before turning away. She patted down her pockets before pulling out the crumpled map. She handed it over with confusion lining her brow though her attention was now turning towards Draco who hadn't entered the hall but was very obviously looking for someone.

"What's going on...?"

"I don't know yet." Harry's voice was distant as he opened the map turning its flaps.

A deep cry of grief raised his head and his heart sank. Another stretcher was coming in, the body laid upon it broken and bloody, their head topped with red hair.

"Fred!"

Harry's heart sunk down the crack in Ginny's voice. His head felt light and his body swayed when she pushed away from him to go to her brother's side. His throat was tight as he forced himself to look down at the map, it was all his fault. All of this. He had to do something more, something to end all of this suffering.

"What're you thinking?" Draco's voice was flat, the dried ash in his throat making it deep and coarse. No one had paid him any attention, too many injured, dying or dead. He'd fought for the light, but his heart had never felt heavier. His mind turned to his parents, would he have to face them too?

"It was her."

"Her?"

Harry's rage spiked and he turned on his heel to face the blond, "How long have you known?"

Draco's brows furrowed and on instinct, he backed himself up.

"Hermione!" Harry's voice rose, catching a few attentions of those nearby, "She was dead, then she wasn't and you're acting like you've been part of this all along!"

"Woah, slow down okay?" Draco's eyes darted to the side taking notice of their small growing audience, "Not here alright?" Draco turned out of the doorway taking Harry by the shirt to drag him along. When they were a short distance away he released him and turned to face him before running his hands through his blood and debris mangled hair, "Look, I had my suspicions about...I don't know...a long time ago..."

"You better start talking," Harry's eyes narrowed his mind turning. He had thought himself crazy, holding on for hope.

Draco huffed out slowly," I thought I might have seen her when..." His eyes turned away trying to gain the courage to admit his crimes, "When my father took me with him to get Luna..."

Harry's eyes widened and his jaw tightened. It took everything inside him not to punch the blond square in the face. If it hadn't been for the fact that he'd saved Ginny's life from one of the attacking Death Eaters, he might have very well have.

"Look a lot of stuff happened that night...I...I got some hair and I did a thing and..." Draco bit his bottom lip and shook his head, "I...I wasn't sure she was alive anymore but...I knew who to ask..."

"Yeah? And who's that?" Harry could feel his mind turning, every time he'd seen something or someone out of the corner of his eye, every time he'd felt her right behind him only to have nothing but his shadow.

"Snape." Draco finally looked Harry in the eyes, given what they'd just witnessed it was impossible to believe that the man who held the answers was still around to give them. However, he suspected that Granger wouldn't have given up the fight. Not yet.

"Snape." Harry turned his head away this time, his eyes looking down at the map, "We need to find them..."

oOo

"You're a horrible person..." Hermione's tone rivaled that of the darkest nights, her seemingly relaxed posture in the head master's chair conflicting with the fire in her eyes.

"I did what needed to be done... for the greater good." Albus pursed his lips, his face showing every year that he had lived.

"Greater good?" Her lips twisted with disgust whole her fingers lightly ran down the softly glowing vile, "You still believe in any of that?" The tip of her new wand, a deep ebony that she'd taken from Severus'collection, tapped the knee of her crossed legs.

"It is all I've ever believed in." Albus knew that she was hurting, that her hurt was directly linked to him.

"Really?" Hermione turned her eyes up towards the man she had trusted for so long, "Then explain why you tortured that man!"

"We all have our burdens to bear—"

"Burdens? He's a human being! A good man! His mistakes were long paid for and still, you came to collect!" Hermione's anger pushed her to her feet, the wand turning towards the painting.

"He could've left at any time."

"Is that the lie that consoles you?" Hermione's chest heaved, her breathing shallow and tight.

"What would you have done?"

"Not this." She shook her head, "Not this..." She turned away running her hand through her mussed hair, "Do you even know how many lives you've ruined?"

"Do you know how many I've saved?" Albus kept his tone soft but his words weren't meant for praise or redemption.

"One life may tip the scale, but yours was not nearly heavy enough. There's something more... someone... whom you've protected... slated to die at the proper moment..." Tears welled in her eyes at where her train of thought took her and when nothing but silence replied she knew she was right.

"I love him..." She turned her back to the man on high and slipped the new wand into the catch in her sleeve, "I won't let you take him from me."

A sharp snap brought her jacket around her shoulders, cold with blood she could no longer feel. The scratching of a quill on parchment rumbled like an oncoming storm and her retreating steps as silent as a summer wind over grassy fields.

oOo

"Do you remember the password?"

"Of course." Draco huffed in time with Harry, their running steps nearly see the same pace. His skull pulsed behind his eyes but he knew time was of the essence, "We're almost there... is she still there?"

"Probably. If she left she'd have to come through here anyway." Harry could feel his heart all the way down to his feet. Her name had oddly faded in and out like she wasn't truly there but in his heart, he knew.

"Asphodel." Draco panted heavily with his hands on his knees while he waited for the gargoyle to move aside. Harry, however, only waited long enough for his body to fit through before he was up the stairs, "For Merlin's sake..."

"Hermione!?" Harry stumbled from the force he'd used to shoulder the door open. His eyes wide and searching, "Hermione...?"

Draco pursed his lips tightly at the broken ambivalence in Harry's voice. Coming around the frame he found, just as Harry had, the room to be empty.

"She was right here..." Anger and sorrow fought for control in the teen. Scrawling across his face with undefinable words, "She was..."

Draco's jaw twitched to apologize, to say something anything but years worth of desensitizing from his father's abuse kept his tongue silent. Instead, he slowly moved around Harry, closer to the desk. When he felt the shield roll down his back he couldn't help but turn his eyes towards the desk.

"Potter."

"What?" Harry weakly pushed himself off the couch he'd taken to leaning against to try and keep himself from doing something foolish.

"Come here." Draco stepped out partly from the shield just in time for Potter to give him his attention.

"Why? There's nothing here..." Despite his words, Harry dragged himself closer.

As soon as he was close enough to take hold of Draco pulled him through the veil and held him directly in front of the desk which held a vial, a note and a bloody handprint too small to have been remotely Snape's.

Harry felt the fire that had pushed him as far as then rekindle anew and he wasted no time in jerking his arm free of Draco's hold. His stomach turned to the iron smell mixed with smoke, his eyes tracing the smearing of blood all over the chair and edge of the desk. Was it hers? Was it Snape's?

"What do you think that is?" Draco had never been a fool, his art at reading people had kept him alive. He knew very well what had been set on the desk.

Harry glanced at the vial before absently shaking his head, his attention more in the folded parchment with his name written over the top, little red dots next to a very distinct 'y' that he'd never be able to forget. A trembling hand pulled the parchment up and a flick of his thumb opened it.

Dear Harry,

I am so dreadfully sorry I wasn't there for you when you needed me most. Even now, you cannot see me. There is still one more thing that I am to do. These memories are for you—if you find them in time. If not, I will do everything I can. Remember, just because you cannot see me, doesn't mean I cannot see you.

Love,

Hermione

"She's alive..." Harry couldn't help the small smile that ticked on his heartbroken face. When he looked up he found himself startled to be alone. Spinning on his heel yielded no clues but it did turn his attention upwards to a recently burned portrait frame, the embers still glowing.

oOo

Hermione wiped the tears from her eyes and pushed the mirror Snape had used to watch over her into her jacket pocket. It was impossible to understand just how much pain a heart could endure and still find the strength to beat. Could it ever be measured? Not with the scales of man.

A slow breath left her tight chest and she pushed herself along an outcropping on the outer wall. Her fear of heights had nothing on her fear of falling but her will to survive all of this kept her moving forward. As she couldn't risk moving inside the castle without being seen or attacked—from either side—she had taken to scaling the outer walls. She'd made it down from the tower with ease and had now begun to move along the roof towards the courtyard when she'd spotted a group of snatchers or death eaters still lingering about after the apparent retreat.

She had told herself to let them be, to keep moving towards her goal but when one of the voices rose high enough to be carried through the wind she'd felt her heart stop cold. It couldn't have been possible, it wasn't even probable. His voice. His voice.

A quick charm silenced her movements and another concealed her fully in the darkness. Her wand vibrated against her arm, begging her for action as she found herself creeping closer to the small group. A band of no more than four talking amongst themselves. Though her eyes only sought the owner of the voice. When she found him her heart thumped heavily. It wasn't who she had thought, but another. Another so deeply locked away that she'd almost forgotten his face.

The man who had killed her parents in cold blood, taken her away from her home and brought her into the world of depravity and torture. The man who had sold her into slavery. How could she have forgotten him? Though she had only seen him for a moment before his curse had blinded her, she was sure as the day was long that he was the man who had turned her world upside down. He was the one who had led the attack on her family. On her life.

He looked so much like the man whose life she had cut short. So much like him and yet—there was something else about him. Something almost...childlike, afraid even. His eyes were wide, his face dirty from battle. Could she have been wrong? No. His voice told her everything. He was the man who had tortured her for information. Tied her to her own desk chair. Blinded her, stripped her of all humanity.

The first spell took out two of the men, a quick and painful slicing hex that nearly tore them in two. The next, took out the other before she found herself on the defensive. With all the anger—the pain— that had built inside her, she knew that his fight was futile. That her will to live, to save the one she loved was no match for his nefarious ways.

Like a child picking the legs from a spider, her spells cut him down. Piece by piece, the blood soaking into the once hallowed grounds. Her final spell sent him hard into the earth, his cry of pain a soothing lullaby to her soul. She knew, somewhere inside herself that she shouldn't have enjoyed his pain but that part of her was no longer present. That part of her had been stolen in the brightest of days. Taken from her when she was supposed to have felt most safe. She wasn't sure if it would ever return but that—was a problem for another day.

"Do you remember me?" Hermione kept her wand trained at his gaping mouth as she came to stand over his chest. The light of warning at the tip of her wand giving her face a haunted red glow.

"N-no..."

"Well, I remember you." Her voice was a hushed whisper filled with darkness that made the man's eyes grow wide.

oOo

Draco lowered himself down to the side of the bed, his eyes lidded and sad. He'd left Potter alone, knowing that what he was meant to do was meant to do alone. He had taken a guess that Granger had brought his Godfather back to the headmaster's chambers, a logical assumption giving what they had found waiting for them. Still respectful of his Godfather's privacy he had made his movements stealthy.

"I'm so sorry..." Draco wasn't sure if he was speaking to the dead or living. The man laid out on the bed was so impossibly still he couldn't have been sure. The mess of wounds had all been wrapped, but it was purely the man's will on whether he wished to see another sunrise.