Another World

By that evening, after a day of listening to intermittent demonic shrieking and trying to find a solution to their situation, Severus Snape was certain of two things: the books they had taken from the library were all but useless and Remus was beginning to seem too restless for comfort. It was not that he didn't trust Remus. On the contrary, he trusted the man just as much as he trusted anyone else, although that wasn't saying very much at all. It was the werewolf, the abominable monster in him, that Severus could not abide. Having come very nearly face to muzzle with the creature during his years as a student, he did not want a repeat performance of such a terrifying and ghastly experience, which he felt had very nearly cost him his life. He sneered as he closed the worthless tome in his lap and stood.

"Remus, are you ready to take your ... medication?" he inquired, struggling to be civil.

Ginny and Hermione glanced up from their books. Both had taken seats in front of the fire, almost at his feet, while Remus occupied the writing desk. They watched Remus carefully mark his place in his book and stand.

"I believe so," he said.

"I trust you want to change in private as well," said Severus.

"If you don't mind," sighed Remus with the barest hint of a growl.

"Come along then."

Hermione and Ginny waited until the pair had left the apartment, going to the potions' classroom to complete their business, before saying anything.

"Really! You'd think Professor Snape could be nicer to him than that, even if Remus does have lycanthropy."

"They go back a long way, Ginny. I don't think he means to sound so hurtful anymore. It just ... comes out that way. Practice, I suppose. Honestly, I think he is just as frightened as the rest of us," said Hermione.

"Frightened?"

"Don't tell me you're not!"

"Of course I am. I just thought ... I just thought I was the only one."

Hermione laughed quietly and said, "Not by a long shot."

Meanwhile in the classroom, Remus was sipping from a smoking goblet and trying not to make faces as the brewer of the potion was watching him. When he had finished the bitter draught, he placed the goblet on a nearby table and smiled.

"Thank you, Severus. I shudder to think what might have happened without the potion."

"As do I. I imagine that we would have had to lock you up somewhere," said Severus.

"And I was expecting a silver dagger!" laughed Professor Lupin.

"I never tried to murder you."

Growing suddenly more somber, Remus said, "I hope you understand that I didn't either."

"Still claiming that it was a foolish prank gone awry?"

"No, incredibly foolish and terribly awry. And the idea was Sirius's. Not mine. Not James's either."

"Would you tell, even now, if had been?"

"Yes."

"I will try to believe you."

"Are we any closer to getting those poor girls home?" asked Remus, lowering his voice slightly.

"I need more information on the original process of creating this world and sealing it away from our own, not to mention a half dozen other things."

"Ginny and Hermione are ..."

"Both doing their best. I know. But for once the fault doesn't lie with the students, but with the materials. They will ... we will never find the answers in those books. The answers simply aren't in them," said Severus impatiently.

Suddenly Lupin felt a slight tremor and a tingling in his limbs. He looked Severus in the eye and shook his head, indicating that he no longer had time to converse on the topic.

Severus stepped away in alarm as Remus began his transformation into a werewolf. It was a horrific thing to watch, and Severus had never witnessed the change before. Few people had done so even in the days of the Wolfsbane potion. Even as Remus assumed the form of a werewolf, the pain in his eyes remained all too human. Severus was startled to find that he could see something of his colleague in the monster.

Then another sensation struck him. There was a sudden pressure against the wards from all sides as though many ears were pressed against a door, listening and holding their breaths. The transformation had caught the attention of the demons. Severus could feel that attention, and it made him sick to the stomach and his skin crawl. Whether they had detected the presence of a Dark Creature or a subtle change in the wards Remus had placed himself, Severus could not tell, but something had made the demons aware of them again.

A soft whine from the floor caused Snape to return his attention to Remus, who was looking up at him rather expectantly. The werewolf looked rather pointedly toward the door to the classroom.

"You want to go back inside the apartment?" Severus questioned.

Remus made another whining sound and seemed to nod.

"Very well. Go on then," sighed Severus, opening the door for him.

Remus looked up at him doubtfully. Severus blinked and frowned for a moment before he realized what Remus was trying to say. Interpreting the facial expressions of a docile werewolf wasn't easy.

"I don't think you'll scare them at all. You look too ... depressing for that," Severus said, frowning even more as he tried to be reassuring.

Remus looked grateful as he trotted past the potions' master and back into the room where Ginny and Hermione had returned to reading. They had stolen the couch in Severus's absence.

Ginny grinned when she saw Remus, who looked more like a large and scruffy wolf-like dog than a dangerous creature of darkness, and tossed her book aside to kneel on the rug next to him. It was obvious to Hermione that Remus was trying to sneak back into the room and lie down quietly by the fire without making a fuss. With Ginny in the room that simply wasn't going to happen.

"Oh, there now! You don't look so bad," said Ginny, oblivious to the fact that she was almost talking baby-talk to her Defense Against the Dark Arts professor. She ruffled his ears affectionately, reminding Hermione of the first time she had met Snuffles, Harry's godfather in disguise. It was sweet really.

The werewolf on the other hand gave a whine of embarrassment and tried to cover his head with his formidable paws.

"You know, I would have had your arm off already if you did that to me," commented Snape.

"I dare say you would," she shot back defensively. Her eyes widened in horror as she realized what she had said and, more to the point, to whom.

"Ten points from ... Oh, forget about it," sighed Severus, rethinking his decision and retrieving his book from the couch. It was a moot point.

"I don't bite either. You can sit down," said Hermione.

"Very well," said Severus moodily, taking a heavy seat at the other end of the couch.

About half an hour later Remus had fallen into a deep sleep and Ginny had taken the hint that he was still a professor and not a stray, albeit overly large and wolfish, puppy dog, which meant that she had returned to the book she had been reading earlier on potions that could do very strange things. Severus closed his tome with a sigh and glanced at the door that led into the corridors of the school. The demons had been very quiet since Remus had fallen asleep.

"How far away are those books you dropped, Ginny?" asked Severus, making a face as he said her name.

"About halfway to the library," she answered.

"I want those books," sighed Snape.

"You can't be thinking of going out there," said Hermione reproachfully.

"Let me rephrase my statement: we need those books. We have exhausted our resources and must acquire new ones," said Severus.

"Fine. Then we can all go," said Hermione.

"Don't be ridiculous, Hermione. Why take the risk?"

"Safety in numbers," she countered.

"We can't take him," said Severus, nodding toward the sleeping werewolf. "They were showing far too much interest in him earlier, if you take my meaning."

"The wards?"

"You have the idea then."

"Then the three of us," said Hermione, adding, "if you're willing, Ginny."

"Of course," said the red-hared girl, her eyes widening.

"Gryffindor recklessness," snorted Snape.

"That's right," answered Hermione.



The trio all had their wands drawn as they stepped into the gloomy dungeon corridor with Severus in the lead. The professor paused and listened before nodding curtly and motioning for Ginny and Hermione to follow him. His steps were quick and quiet as he strode through the hall with his robes billowing almost soundlessly around as he moved. The two young women followed with hurried steps that were not nearly so graceful as they glanced behind them from time to time, fearful of pursuit and other lurking dangers. The distance had seemed shorter the previous night when they had been running for their lives in the opposite direction.

Hermione heaved a small sigh of relief when they came upon the pile of books in the middle of the corridor, undisturbed by the demons, who cared little for such things. Snape immediately gathered a pair of heavy tomes in his free arm. Ginny and Hermione followed suit, not daring to put their wands away. Danger felt close, very close. Severus paused for only a moment to examine the titles of the books, nodding with mild approval.

"Let's go," he said in a low growl, ushering the girls back down the passage.

As they turned to go, they heard a sound that made their blood run cold, the keening and penetrating cry of a demon near at hand. They needed no one to tell them to flee before the sound this time and broke into a run for their dungeon sanctuary. Severus could hear the sound of flapping wings bearing down upon them. He shoved Ginny and Hermione along as he glanced over his shoulder. That was his mistake.

Severus caught the toe of his shoe on the stone floor in his haste and toppled to the floor, losing his grip on the books, but thankfully not his wand. In an instant the creature was upon him and he found himself locked in a desperate struggle with the demon that had been chasing them. He cried out in agony as the beast tore at him, rending robe and flesh as it sought to cease the struggles of its prey.

The sound of his screams halted Ginny and Hermione in their tracks and turn to face the enemy that was savaging their professor and protector. Their hearts were both hammering as they began casting curses from their small arsenal of offensive spells.

"Conjunctivitis!"

"Incendio!"

"Furnunculus!"

"Impedimenta!"

While not particularly strong or illegal, the curses and spells caused the demon to claw at its own face, catch on fire, break out in boils, and slowly begin to crawl away from its victim. It was a moment before it managed to take to the air and fly clumsily back up the corridor.

Hermione watched in terror as the wand slipped from her professor's hand and he lay still upon the cold stone of the hallway. Blood. She could see the blood as she moved forward with leaden steps. Torn robes. Torn flesh. And blood that was running freely from a dozen gashes made by cruel claws, rending the flesh of its prey, its next meal. She was dizzy as she crashed to her knees next to him. All the color had gone out of his face. His eyes were closed.

"Hermione, is he? Is he dead?" asked Ginny Weasley with a quaver in her voice. She remained standing, clutching her wand in one hand and the books to her chest. She was very pale again and was trembling terribly.

"No, but this ... this is very bad," said Hermione.

"What are we going to do? More will be coming."

Hermione nodded that she understood that and rose to her feet.

"Mobilicorpus," she spoke.

Severus's body drifted into an upright position and floated slightly above the floor. Blood dripped from his wounds and splattered on the floor with a sickening sound.

"Forget the books, Ginny, and help me move him. We've got to be fast. I imagine that these creatures can smell blood," said Hermione.

"No, I can't leave them behind, not after he has gone through this to get them," said Ginny.

"Right. Watch our backs then," agreed Hermione, admiring the younger girl's sudden mettle.

They could hear far off cries as they moved the unconscious professor through the halls toward the safety of the dungeons, moving as quickly as possible. Ginny trailed with her wand clutched high in one hand, watching for any sign of pursuit, while Hermione expended all of her energy to hurry the floating professor along. They were leaving a trail of blood in their wake. And that wasn't the worst of it. Hermione could hear the sound of Snape's breathing becoming increasingly labored. She wasn't sure if they could save him, even if they managed to get him back to the rooms safely.

Hermione had taken some mediwitch classes. She had completed two of them before the first battle with Voldemort, qualifying her to assist in the hospital wing during the aftermath of that confrontation. And she had taken a third since then, but that hardly qualified her to deal with something so serious as this. She could mend bones and remove hexes with the best of them, but this was far more terrifying.

Ginny, she realized, looked almost as though she was going to faint every time she glanced at the wounds on their professor's exposed chest. She would be precious little help. Remus was going to a werewolf for many long hours. Hermione would not be able to depend on him either.

Hermione felt a tingle of relief as they entered the sanctuary of the wards again, but it was brief. Ginny dropped her books by the door and frantically began helping Hermione move Severus onto the bed in the other room. It was as good of a place as any to begin the task of trying to save Severus's life. Hermione released the spell. There was a soft thud as he settled onto the mattress.

Hermione sat down on the bed next to him and began murmuring quiet healing spells. She only knew mild spells designed to heal superficial injuries and ease pain. She peeled away the bloody and tattered robes, slipping them from his shoulders even as she continued to murmur the incantations. Another set of hands, Ginny's, began to help her, peeling the cloth away from the wounds. The girl knew many useful charms and a veritable arsenal of hexes, but she had never trained to be a mediwitch. She simply didn't have the stomach for it.

"Ginny, do you know what healing potions look like?" Hermione asked. Her forehead was covered with beaded perspiration. She couldn't manage much more of this. The strain was horrific.

"Yes," answered Ginny.

"Go and fetch some for me then, please," said Hermione, drying her face on her robes. Ginny nodded and raced from the room to obey.

The wounds, the deep gashes across his chest, were no longer bleeding freely, but bleeding they still were. Hermione touched his face. He was cold to the touch. And his breaths though less labored were still ragged. She gathered the torn robes in her shaking hands and tossed them aside, blood streaking her hands as she did so. She shivered. So much blood.

A soft canine whine at her elbow caused her to start. It was Remus, awakened by Ginny no doubt. She smiled at him, but tears filled her eyes. The werewolf placed his front paws on the bed and leaned toward Severus, nosing his ear gently and whining again. The potions' professor's head lolled to the side.

"He wanted the books we had left behind," said Hermione, taking a deep breath. "I didn't try hard enough to talk him out of it. I guess you can see what happened," She was trying desperately not to cry in front of Remus.

He placed a paw on her knee and gave her a very meaningful look that said in no uncertain terms, "You aren't responsible for this."

"I know," Hermione whispered, taking up her wand again and beginning the healing spells again with trembling hands.

Only a few minutes later she heard the sound of Ginny returning with the potions. The glass bottles clinked softly as she placed them upon the bed. Hermione ceased her efforts and picked up one of the glass containers.

"Very good, Ginny," she said softly, uncorking the bottle.

Remus moved away from the bed to let them work. Ginny had brought some clean cloths with the bottles of healing and wound cleaning solution. They applied the potions carefully, watching the wounds smoke and begin to close. Hermione sighed softly with relief as the bleeding finally stopped. Ginny on the other hand was sniffling quietly and trying very hard to hide the fact that she was crying.

"Is he going to be all right?" she asked in a trembling voice.

"I don't know," said Hermione honestly, feeling his skin again. The warmth had yet to return, but then he had lost so much blood.

"What will happen ... what if he dies here, Hermione? Will his soul be trapped in here with those things forever?" asked Ginny quietly.

Hermione looked at her with a stunned expression on her face. This was what Ginny was crying about? Not the copious amount of blood, not the terror of the experience, but rather something so simple and yet so complicated as their potions' professor's soul? For that Hermione had no answer.

Remus padded over to Ginny and nuzzled her hand.

"Why don't the two of you ... get some rest or something to eat?" suggested Hermione as Ginny wiped her eyes on the sleeve of her robes. "I can keep an eye on him," she added.

Ginny nodded mutely and followed Remus back to the parlor with one hand on the werewolf's back. Remus would be able to calm her down, Hermione told herself before turning her attention back to Severus.

"No, I'm certainly not going to let you die in here," she told him, pulling the covers up around him to keep the chill away. "Certainly not," said Hermione.



Ginny collapsed in front of the couch by the fire, making a hiccuping sound as she tried to stop crying. Remus sat down next to her and rested his head against her shoulder. It was unfortunate that werewolves could not cry, or this one might have wept with her. He whined softly and touched her hand with his paw.

Ginny was very fragile, he knew. Harry and Hermione had filled him in on the events of her first year. And she had been through a lot since then too. She had helped defend her classmates during the first battle with Voldemort. Ginny could be quite brave at times, but she was still only human.

"I'm sorry, Remus. I just ... I never saw anyone torn up like that. And ... and I don't want him to die," Ginny explained. "He may not be a very nice person, but he's one of ours."

The werewolf seemed to chuckle. Remus tried to give her a reassuring look, but that was no easy accomplishment for a werewolf. She sniffled a little less and put her arms around him.

"Thank you, Remus," she whispered.

He sighed as it became apparent that she wasn't going to let him go and prepared to spend the rest of the night like that as Ginny closed her eyes and snuggled closer to him.

Hermione was having trouble keeping her eyes open as she sat watching Severus. The healing spells had taken a lot out of her. She wasn't accustomed to the strain of using so much magic at once. Madam Pomfrey had years of advanced training and practice behind her. Hermione had precious little of either experience or advanced classes. As the sleepiness became unbearable and she rubbed her eyes to stay awake, Hermione considered taking more classes and volunteering in the hospital wing.

"Who knows, after all, how long the war might last and what I might be called upon to do," she thought, smoothing the covers absently and watching Severus breath in and out slowly.

The pallor had not left his skin nor had warmth returned to him. Hermione cautiously lifted his hand from time to time, felt his pulse, and gave his hand a gentle squeeze. She had forced herself to blink away tears more than once. She had glimpsed the Dark Mark on his forearm earlier and turned his left arm so that the ugly reminder of his past was no longer so visible. It had felt eerily hot beneath her fingertips as they had grazed it. But it had not frightened her. She had known for sometime that he bore the Mark, but this was the first time that she had seen it close up and it saddened her somehow.

"Because you are seeing more of a man in him now than a monster," her rather sleepy mind told her quite pointedly.

She blushed slightly as she released his hand. There were hidden depths within that thought that Hermione did not wish to consider. They were too embarrassing. If she had begun to develop feelings for Severus Snape, the greasy git that had made her friends miserable for just short of seven years ... Her stomach flip-flopped slightly.

"I'm tired. That's all. Maybe if I just close my eyes for a few minutes ..." she thought.

When Hermione opened her eyes again, something was tickling her arm ever-so-slightly. She had fallen asleep. Reprimanding herself for her inattentiveness, she turned her head to see what was touching her arm and suddenly found herself staring into coal black eyes. She inhaled sharply as she realized that she was lying next to Severus. She had managed to move closer to him in her sleep.

His fingertips barely touched her arm as he tried to get her attention. He could scarcely move because of the pain. He whimpered pathetically as she sat up and moved away. He continued to reach weakly toward her. His lips moved soundlessly. The pit of her stomach felt icy as she reached toward him and took his hand.

"Hurts," he finally managed.

"I know," she said, shushing him and squeezing his hand between both of her own before reaching for a light blue healing potion on the night stand. She had been afraid to give him anything orally the night before. She was afraid that he would have choked on it. "Here," she said, slipping a hand behind him to help him drink.

Severus drank the potion without complaint. His dark eyes, full of pain when he had first awakened her, seemed slowly to fill with calm. The pain had dulled and receded. Hermione replaced the stopper and returned the bottle to the night stand. She hushed him again as he struggled to speak.

"You shouldn't. You should just lie still," she cautioned him.

"What happened?" he asked, ignoring her advice.

"Do you remember the attack?"

"Yes, but how did I get back here ... alive?"

"Ginny and I managed it."

He was silent as his eyes drifted toward the blanket that covered him. He was too weak to cast it aside, but he had the fierce and burning desire to see what the creature had done to him. He had the feeling that he had not injured it at all in their struggle, but he could remember the sharp claws that rent his flesh to the bone.

"I want to see," he demanded.

"It doesn't look all that bad," said Hermione.

He looked at her quizzically and tried to ask a question, but couldn't. He wasn't sure what to say to her. She seemed rather pale and worn, not to mention worried.

She peeled the blanket back for him so that he could see the deep, jagged red lines, all that remained of the savage injuries that had been inflicted upon him hardly eight hours earlier. He marveled. Her level of skill was greater than he had thought.

"I imagine that Madam Pomfrey will be able to finish what Ginny and I started," said Hermione, replacing the covers.

"You did well, Hermione," said Severus, closing his eyes.

"Severus?" she questioned.

He opened his eyes again.

"The wards are weaker now. I believe that they will hold, but I will need to strengthen them ... when I can," he told her.

"Let me. I know I can figure out how and ..."

"No, Hermione, you have already done more than is good for you I think."

"I'll be all right."

"And so will I, thanks to you," he said.

"And Ginny. She managed to keep up with her books this time too. She wanted to make sure that ... that all this wasn't in vain," said Hermione.

"Good of her," commented Severus.

"Are you tired?"

"Very much so, but I don't want to close my eyes," he admitted hesitantly.

"Why?"

He was silent. Hermione could see some great debate going on in the very depths of his dark eyes. He was very private, very secretive, Hermione knew. He looked away from her with a soft, almost inaudible sigh.

"Because I am afraid," he said in a low voice.

"I will be here with you. You don't have to be afraid," she said.

Severus smiled softly at her and nodded, "I know, Hermione, but ..."

"None of that, Severus!" she admonished. "We can't go talking like that if we expect to get out of this mess."

"You really believe that we will?" he questioned, touching her hand.

Hermione suddenly seemed very grown-up for her years, wise and hopeful at the same time, and very much like stern and determined Minerva McGonagall. A smile played upon his lips for the second time.

"I have every confidence in our abilities," she said firmly, giving his hand a squeeze. "Now can you perhaps try to rest?" Hermione asked, feigning annoyance, though there was a spark of laughter in her eyes that very nearly concealed the worry and doubt that she felt. She knew as well as anyone that their chances were not exceedingly good.

"I can try."