Of Flashbacks and Settling In
Hermione knew that she was dreaming - or rather - having a flashback dream. Though her body and her instincts don’t seem to care all that much. She can feel the adrenaline, the panic, fear, and worry as she watches herself and all of her friends run through the department of mysteries. Trying to get away from Death Eaters far older, who are far better fighters than a bunch of children are. Hermione had warned Harry, she had tried to stop him. Though, he wasn’t in the mood to listen and the last thing that she would do was abandon him in his time of need.
Her breath quickens in full out terror as she sees Antonin Dolohov, even though she knows that he is dead… has been dead for awhile. Some days the scar that Dolohov gave Hermione still aches, those are the days that she curls up on the couch in 12 Grimmauld Place with the fire raging, deep within the vast library as she presses a heat pack to the worst of the pain. Some days it's so bad that Sirius has to help her to the bathroom and those are the days he contacts Severus to help.
She watches as her younger self silences Dolohov and silently screams out at her to drop to the ground or run… to do anything to get away from the purple flame. Instead Hermione watches as her younger self gets hit by the curse and drops. Hermione watches as young Harry screams out for his injured friend. However, Hermione’s attention is quickly drawn to Sirius dueling his bat-shit crazy cousin. Causing her left arm to painfully throb, as all she can do is watch in horror for what she knows is coming next.
Right as Bellatrix throws the final curse, Hermione watches as a black shadowy stream flies from the opposing side to the Order of the Phoenix side. It clicks quite fast that it was one of the death eaters travelling. Out of the shadowy mass, steps Professor Snape; with ease he shields the spell and without even speaking the words - only using wand movements - casts Crucio.
Hermione watches in shock as the fighting seems to freeze, then hearing an angered howl coming from none other than Voldemort. The majority of the death eaters disappear, leaving behind certain ones to be recaptured. Hermione watches as people rush towards where Harry is cradling her young body as it is wracked with pain. She flicks her eyes to where Professor Snape and Sirius are standing staring at each other. Sirius seemingly finally able to find his voice after realizing that not only did Snape save his life while simultaneously blowing his cover, but he also now owes Snape a Life-Debt.
“Thank you Sni- Severus… We’ll be talking later.” Severus coolly studies him for a few moments, then flicks his eyes to look at where everyone is panicking around Hermione's young body. “I didn’t save you for you, Black. We do have much to talk about.” With that he swept away from Sirius and into the fray of panicked people.
“Enough, we need to get back to Hogwarts, where I will be able to treat her wounds.” Everyone immediately begins moving to get every single person - especially the young students - back to hogwarts. “Why are we listening to you? You’re a bloody Death Eater!” A low growl escapes Severus’s lips and he whips around and viciously grabs Harry’s arm.
“Mr. Potter, I have been keeping you and your friends alive since you walked into Hogwarts - as is my job as your teacher - . I just saved your God-fathers life. Look around you Potter, who here is fatally injured? Ms. Granger, your friend, who through your own hardheadedness and idiocy is injured. If she dies her death will be on you, since Ms. Granger is the only one out of you three that has brain cells. I’m going to assume that she warned you that this was a bad idea. She came with you anyway to try and make sure that the rest of you stayed safe and protected. I suggest, Mr. Potter, if you want your friend to survive, that you let me do my job as a potions master and a spell maker to save Ms. Granger’s life.”
Then with no hesitation at all, Severus throws Harry to Sirius. “Control your Godson
Black, or I will kill him myself to save us all from his self centered dunderhead tendencies.” With that he swirls around and apparates with a loud crack. Leaving Sirius standing holding onto Harry with Headmaster Dumbledore standing across from them.
Everything seems to swirl around as the scene changes to Hermione’s young body writhing in pain on the medical bed. A swirl of cloth tells Hermione that Severus has entered to help her, “Oh, Severus! Please tell me you know how to help the poor girl, nothing I’m doing is helping her!” Severus calmly looks at Madam Pomfrey and walks up to young Hermione’s bedside.
As he speaks he checks Hermione’s temperature and heartbeat, “Madame Pomfrey, there is nothing you can do. Other than making sure that I have space and time to care for Miss Granger. Any outside interference could risk killing her.” Madame Pomfrey quickly nods her head as she wrings her hands, then she turns around and leaves to take check and care for the other students that went to the Department of Mysteries. As she leaves, she closes the curtains surrounding Hermione’s bedside, leaving Severus to his own devices to save the girl's life.
-----
Much later....
Severus has finally gotten Ms. Granger stable, he knows that she will make it, but not without a lot of physical therapy and lots of potions. As he finally takes a moment to slump in a chair at her bedside to gain some of his energy back, Severus starts upon feeling a soft hesitant touch on his hand. His eyes follow the hand to Ms. Granger who is quietly staring at him, though he can see the extreme pain in her eyes. She stays incredibly silent, as Mrs. Weasley starts shrieking about her precious babies. Ms. Granger gives no reaction, she stays still (other than the tremors of pain that she cannot control) and silent. Not once does she move her eyes from Severus’s and for some reason he finds himself unable to look away. Though he has no inclination to try legilimency.
“What do you mean everything is under control and my children are fine? My babies are injured! Harry is clinging to Sirius Black in his illegal animagus form! Where is Hermione Granger? I’m sure that the little chit is perfectly fine, she should be here comforting my Ronald and Harry!” Severus’s eyes darken in fury and he slams his occlumency shields down to control himself.
“Hermione is being treated for a fatal injury right now because of my choices! Any injuries that all of us have is nothing compared to what she’s going through right now! This is all my fault, if I had just listened to Hermione then no one would have gotten hurt and Hermione wouldn’t be on death's door!” Harry’s defence of his friend causes Severus to raise his eyebrows in surprise. After the way he had witnessed Harry Potter and Ronald Weasley treating Hermione… let's just say it is shocking that Mr. Potter is even bothering to stand up for her.
“Oh, Harry, you're just in shock from what you witnessed. I’m sure that her wounds are no worse than my Ronalds and Ginny’s combined. That attention grabbing strumpet is just playing up her wounds!”
Right as Severus is about to head towards Molly in a wave of incandescent fury, he’s stopped by a smaller hand tightly gripping his own. When he looks back to young Hermione Granger, he takes notice that silent tears of both emotional and physical pain have slid down the sides of her face. He slowly allows himself to sit back down - even though he had not even realized that he had stood up in the first place - after he sits, he’s hit with a massive wave of exhaustion; magical and mental. His attention is once again grabbed when Hermione shifts her grip on his hand to move it so that his palm is facing up.
He locks eyes with her and the moment he does he hears her voice in his head, ‘I want to see it, please.’ it causes him to jolt. Then he hesitantly pulled up his sleeve for her to see that mark of his greatest mistake and shame. He watches as she reaches out and softly brushes against the death eater mark.
What happens next is something that he knows he will take to his grave because there would never be an explanation for what she does. He watches as young Hermione Granger's eyes glow golden, symbols dance upon her arms, and her hair takes on an ethereal quality. “Thank you for healing me Severus Snape. I shall return the favor by releasing you from all bonds, all chains, all anchors, and shackles that you… in your deepest heart of hearts no longer want.”
With that he feels powerful wild magick blast through the mark, shatter his unbreakable vows, and dive deep within his magical core. With the heat of a thousand sun it burns out the impurities, the shackles, and the ties that he took against his true will. The mark gets excavated from his skin, it goes up in a cloud of black smoke, then it seems as though balls of flames destroy it from the inside out. Leaving behind a very disgruntled looking curled up black iridescent fea dragon, in the middle of Severus Snape's lap.
His eyes flick back to Hermione in a state of complete shock, he finds that her eyes are back to their natural brown color and he watches as harsh unforgivable agony enters them. A whimper escapes her lips as tears flood her eyes and run down her face to drop into her hair. Severus immediately reaches out to dip a cloth in ice water and wring it out. He then presses it to her forehead as he softly shushes young Hermione. “Rest Ms. Granger, you have a long road to recovery, so you need to gather all the strength that you can. You have all the time in the world to worry about Molly Weasley later.”
A soft sigh of relief escapes Hermione's lips at the feel of the cold compress. Young Hermione allows her eyes to slowly close, as the small fae dragon carefully curls around her neck. Softly cooing at the top of her wound. With a deep breath, young Hermione allows herself to fall into a deep restful sleep.
----
Hermione jerks awake to hearing Teddy fussing through the baby monitor and allows herself a moment to gather herself. Then with a deep cleansing breath gets up and quietly makes her way to his room. When she gets there, Hermione sees that Teddy has pulled himself to a standing position and is staring at her with wide eyes as he lets out a soft, happy giggle. “What’s got you all fussy Mister Teddy? Were you just trying to get my attention mmmm? Or are you just ready to take the day by storm?”
All she gets in response is Teddy’s loud giggles and his eyes turning brown, as his hair turns to match her untamable hair. Hermione allows a genuine smile to come upon her face as she picks Teddy up and carries him out of his room on her hip. In the kitchen, she’s greeted by an incredibly sleepy Sirius Black who’s nursing a cup of coffee while sitting on one of the bar top chairs. While Severus is starting to make breakfast, Sirius upon seeing Hermione walk into the room with Teddy. Lights up and sets his mug on the counter, while silently making grabby hands towards Teddy.
A slight scoff escapes Hermione’s lips as she hands over Teddy, which quickly turns into a giggle upon hearing Teddy’s exclamation. “Paffoott!” Sirius lightly tosses Teddy into the air and carefully puts him on his lap, “Teddy we’ve been over this little buddy! It’s Padfoot, say it with me… P - a - d - f - o---”
“Paffffooot!” The groan of playful annoyance that escapes Sirius’s mouth causes peels of laughter to escape Teddy. “Why is it that he can actually say your nickname correctly, but butchers mine, Kitten?” Hermione smirks at Sirius, “Which one, Padfoot? He can say Mi easily because it’s only one syllable. I don’t know about the Kitten nickname or Minx? I still resent that bloody nickname for my animagus form!” Sirius just grins back at her completely unrepentant, causing her to roll her eyes.
“Oh, thanks Severus!” Hermione carefully takes the mug of coffee that Severus handed her, all she gains in response is a slight humming sound. He quickly returns back to cooking breakfast, but not before glancing at Sirius entertaining Teddy. Hermione covertly watches as a slight smile comes to his face, as Teddy lets out more joyful laughter. Then she watches in fascination as what she dubs Severus’s Slytherin mask slips back on. “I see that you still aren’t willing to grow up Padfoot.”
Which brings Sirius to flick his attention up to Severus and give a wry grin. “At least I still have a sense of humor, Brimstone.” Severus just sneers in Sirius’s direction in response, as Hermione watches in avid fascination. “I know I bloody told you I don’t like that alias you gave me Black.” All Sirius does is grin back at Severus, though Hermione can see a full blown fight about to start so she decides to step in.
“Severus, Sirius… I vividly remember us all agreeing not to have arguments in front of Teddy. Severus I know that you secretly like that alias, as you call it. Also… Sirius… what-- what are you doing? Are you seriously pouting because Teddy still is looking like my child? DON’T even make that overused joke! Severus, where is Rafiki? I haven’t seen him around here.”
Severus turns to look at Hermione and studies her for a few seconds, then vaguely waves his hand around to show that Rafiki is somewhere in the aether. He continues to study her, easily picking up on the haunted look in her dark mocha eyes. Sirius quietly watches as he continues to entertain Teddy; Severus, completely out of character, grabs Hermione’s coffee mug and carefully sets it on the counter. He quickly pulls her into his arms and wraps Hermione tightly in his embrace. A shuddering breath escapes Hermione’s lips as she allows the tears to come; clutching at Severus’s back to have some sort of grounding force as she lets go or tries to let go. Though when some things haunt you… especially a past like all three of them have, it is rare that you are ever truly free from it.
Later, when they are all hanging out in the living room, after finishing unpacking everything. Teddy has Rafiki in his lap as he plays with a mini faux potions set (courtesy of the Weasley twins). While Severus is reading through his potions notes, Sirius is looking at a motorcycle magazine, while Hermione is caring for an injured niffler named Sebastian.
Teddy pauses in playing and looks at Hermione (of which he still looks like her child), though she tries to hide it from Teddy. He’s very aware that there seems to be an invisible inexplicable weight on her shoulders. Of course, he’s too young to fully understand it, but he knows that he wants to help her. He just doesn’t have the means to help her, afterall he doesn’t even have the means to comfort himself.
So, to distract from the feeling of helplessness that distinctively makes Teddy want to cry. He turns his attention to the resting black iridescent dragon in his lap. “Rafi!” Which causes Severus to pause in his writing and glance down at Teddy, he closes his book and sets it aside. Motioning to Teddy to move over to him, Teddy does just that. Carrying a now very disgruntled looking and halfway dangling Rafiki with him. Severus’s lips twitch up in amusement upon seeing his familiar being carried like a stuffed animal.
“Mr. Lupin,” Teddy tilts his head, much like a puppy would, “how would you like to learn about the delicacy that is potion making?” all Severus gets in response is a wide teething grin as Teddy’s hair changes to match Severus’s hair. Severus can’t stop the shocked laugh that escapes him as Rafiki finally escapes Teddy’s grasp and zooms off to wrap himself around Hermione’s neck (safely hidden underneath her crazy mane of hair.
“I’ll take that as a yes.” In response, Teddy climbs himself up onto Severus’s lap and cuddles under his chin. Severus silently calls a beginning potions book to his hands and opens it. Sirius, taking notice of what is happening, silently, lightly hits Hermione’s arm and motions over in Severus’s direction. When Hermione sees the picture that they make, a genuine grin blossoms across her face, as her eyes lighten to a more hazel brown. Both Hermione and Sirius silently and covertly go back to their business. For the first time, two Gryffindor's are able to hide what they notice as seamlessly as a Slytherin. If only they could tell Severus, they knew that secretly he would be very proud.