Life on the edge

Chapter 5

The feeling of something ongoing from the earlier morning struck her once again. They reached the black lump together, and Hermione dropped herself to her knees to investigate it. Her foresight was proved right; in an instant she had recognised the black cloth as Snape's robes. Carefully she removed his cloak and found him lying lifelessly on his stomach, beneath him a puddle of blood.

"My gods..."

With Harry's help, she turned him over, and let out a gasp of horror: Snape's face bore, among an expression of horrible pain, uncounted deep cuts on cheeks, forehead and temples, also on his neck; regular ones, Hermione noted with disgust. They had been made systematically. A large slash crossed his right eye, and Hermione was sure that he had lost this one.

"Hermione, are you sure you don't have any talent as a seer? Just what we talked about yesterday..."

"Don't be stupid, help me to find a life-sign!" Hermione snapped back.

With trembling fingers she tried to feel Snape's pulse and made the next shocking discovery: As she removed the remains of the ripped blouse Snape was wearing and intended to take his wrist, she saw that his left arm - wasn't there. She felt Harry tense up next to her. At a closer look at the wound, she saw that the arm had been cut off right over the elbow; the reason of this mass of blood in the grass.

"Harry - your belt, quick!", she whispered.

White-faced Harry fumbled, then handed her his belt and sped off:

"Hold on, I'll get Poppy!"

As fast and as hard she could, Hermione bound the leather belt around Snape's arm and tried to stop the bleeding.

"Well, at least he still does bleed, perhaps he can be saved - he has to be saved! Please, Merlin and all gods that might be there, please save him!"

She didn't know why she was crying suddenly. The tears just dropped down on Snape's chest when she bent over him, trying to feel a pulse at his neck.

"Professor! Professor Snape! Can you hear me? Professor!"

She softly clapped his cheek, trying not to harm him additionally to the cuts on his face. But he didn't react at her calling, just laid there with closed eyes, ashen-faced and without any sign of life. By the time Harry was back with a very alert Poppy, she shoved Hermione away and conjured up a stretcher. Very carefully the nurse lifted Snape up and on the stretcher; Hermione noticed that his shoulder-length hair was burned up to his ear on the left side, revealing some more cuts and bruises on his neck. Swearing under her breath Poppy broke in a run again with the stretcher on her side.

"Severus! Severus, do you hear me? Severus, holy shit man, open your eyes!", she shouted at the unconscious man, but with no result. Hermione and Harry fell back, panting. They reached the hospital wing only a few seconds after Poppy, but she already had laid Snape down on a bed and had removed the rest of his clothes with her wand. Hermione saw that the cuts - deep ones, partly she could see the white bone at the bottom - covered Snape's hole body. Poppy whirled around to the both of them.

"Leave! That's nothing you should see! Go and get Dumbledore!"

Harry nodded and darted out of the door. Hermione swallowed and stepped closer.

"I want to help! What can I do?"

She refused the thought of leaving right now, it didn't seem to be right; the same feeling she had had when she had watched Snape collapse under the "Black Sleep". Still swearing Poppy hovered over Snape:

"Damn them! That's not supposed to be healed... If you don't leave, go bring the stifling-mull from over there, and the regrowing potion from my office. Hurry!"

Then she began a spell-casting on a large slash that nearly parted Snape's chest in two. Hermione stormed to the pointed storeboard and collected the needed items. Breathless she put them down at the bedside table, and risked a further look on Snape's body. Poppy had already healed the most dangerous wounds, but Hermione noticed that she still easily could need a third hand. She grabbed the roll with the magical mull and intended to wrap Snape's cut arm with it.

"Stop! First look if there are any bone splinters left. If so, drag them out of the wound." Hermione followed the instructions and removed some tiny bits of bone and two small earth crumbs.

"Ready."

"Wash it out with a lot destilled water."

Hermione found a bottle of it and a bowl to hold beneath it.

"Ok, now the desinfection. Be careful not to rip out the vene. Done? Alright, go and get some more regrowing potion, I'll wrap it."

When Hermione came back with another bottle in her hand, she saw that Poppy had healed most of the wounds in the area of a main artery. Now she lifted carefully the lid of Snape's right eye, swore once more and reached for a little piece of mull. Hermione watched as the nurse gently cleaned out the bloody mess that had remained of the eye, dripped a few drops of the regrowing potion in the socket and finally covered it with a bandage.

"Can... can I do something else?" asked Hermione quietly.

"Can you restore nerves and muscles?"

"No, only skin..."

"And blood?"

"No..."

"Then stay out of my way. Wait outside. No, wait; here, take that and find out if he has been poisoned. Use the apparature in the back."

Poppy gave her a blood-soaked piece of Snape's robe. While Hermione hurried to the small lab to analyse the blood, she heard the doors to the hospital wing being thrown open and hurried footsteps. She concentrated on her task and tried out all spells and potions that indicated a poison she knew; next door, she heard the headmaster's low and concerned voice and Poppy's angry one answering. She didn't understand what was said, and before she could listen more intensly, she got a reaction to one of her spells: The blood on the piece of cloth turned white. She stormed out to Poppy.

"It's wolfsbane, they poisoned him with wolfsbane. Six gramms, I think."

Dumbledore turned to her, fumbling a key from a huge keyring on his belt.

"This is the spare key to Severus' restricted stores, get the antidote."

Hermione grabbed the key and sprinted down to the dungeons. Harry joined her on her way, still looking as white as a wall.

"What's on? How's he?"

"Don't know. He's alive, and he's lost an eye. And he's been poisoned with wolfsbane."

They reached Snape's office, Hermione stormed in and fumbled with the key in front of the storage door. With her trembling hands she missed the keyhole and nearly dropped the key so that Harry took it out of her hands and unlocked the door for her. She frantically looked for the antidote, seconds stretching to unbearable mountains of wasted time, until she finally noticed the red bottle, neatly labelled and in its supposed place. She grabbed it and sped off, calling back to Harry over her shoulder: "Lock it and keep the key!"

Back in the hospital wing she handed the bottle to Poppy and stood now, trembling, next to the headmaster. He led her to a chair away from Snape's bed, and sat next to her.

"Hermione, listen. Have you seen any other person in the grounds? Or in the Forest? Did you hear anything before you found him?"

Hermione shook her head, supressing a sob. Now, as the status of alert faded, the shock filled in and brought her to tears again. Dumbledore patted her shoulder, searching in his robes for a handkerchief.

"Alright, I'll have to check that later. For now, Hermione, I want to thank you. You and Harry have saved Severus' life. It was very close, as far as Poppy could tell. I..."

He was interrupted by Poppy's loud swearing.

"...bloody hell! No Severus, fight it! Come on man! Shit! Firmatio!"

Hermione looked up; Snape had started to twitch and shiver like under an epileptic attack, and Poppy tried to steady him with her wand. Dumbledore rushed over to the bed and laid his hands on Snape's cheeks, muttering a strange sort of enchantment. After a few seconds the shivering faded; the headmaster hold on a bit longer, then gently stroked a stray of black hair out of Snape's sweat-covered face. Slowly, Hermione got up, noticing the sad look on the headmaster's face.

"What was that? What's up with him? Please..."

She heard her voice getting high pitched. Dumbledore turned to her, looking very old.

"He's not... he's... is he?" She was whimpering.

"No, he is not dead. I had to put him in a coma, otherwise he surely would have died. But I don't know when he will wake up again; that is, if he wakes up again. I can't control this coma. Now we can only hope that he'll recover."

Frightened Hermione looked over to Poppy; the nurse seemed shaken, too.

"He has the constitution of a horse, I think there is quite a chance that he'll come back.", she said numbly. Hermione nodded faintly, feeling numb. She cast a last glance at Snape's exhausted face, the expression of pain finally gone. Then she was led out by the headmaster. Outside the hospital wing, Harry was sill waiting for her with the small key in his hand. Dumbledore took the key back, then laid both hands on Hermione's shoulders, facing her once again.

"Please, Hermione, take a good long rest. Don't worry, we will see what the future holds. And Hermione... Don't tell anybody, that is something I have to do. And you too, Harry. Now, calm down. I'll see you at dinner, both of you."

With a small smile Dumbledore turned and went back, closing the doors firmly behind him. Hermione barely recognised Harry's arm around her shoulder, she just trailed next to him until they reached the portrait hole and climbed through. Luckily, most of the other students had already classes, so all they saw was a curios looking second-year, that didn't dare to ask something. Harry led Hermione to her room, making sure that she laid down. He almost was out of the door, when Hermione asked softly:

"What do you think happened?"

Harry hesitated; than he came back and sat next to her.

"I think he was discovered."

"Yes, me too. Did you notice that they... his arm... it was the left one."

"Hmm, with the Mark."

"Yes..."

They didn't say anything for a long time. Harry was sure that Hermione was asleep when she opened her eyes suddenly.

"But why?"

"Why?! What did you expect them doing, in the case they found out? Let him travel back in peace like..."

"No, I mean, why have they brought him back? And still alive, even if just at the edge?"

"Do you think they wanted him to be found?"

"Exactly. But why? Do they have a plan connected with it?"

"Don't know. Perhaps they just wanted us to watch him dying..."

"Hmm, maybe; Poppy had much difficulties with his injuries. And now he is in coma."

Suddenly she cried again, silently. Harry stroked her back, hoping that he would be able to calm her. It was strange, the whole past six years he would have been glad to get rid of Snape and his cruel, loathing attitude towards him; but now, the castle seemed empty, lost of Snape's present.

While he stroked Hermione's back, trying to calm her, Harry remembered the incidents from his first year till today and tried to imagine them without Snape. He heavily failed. It seemed as if Snape had been there all the time to watch and, if necessary, to interfer when he'd seen a danger coming across. Harry even didn't know by now how many times Snape had saved his life, during schooltime and in the holidays as well. No doubt that he had been on his guard for him, even if Harry didn't notice. And now Snape was the one in danger; and he, Harry, could do nothing! A burning rage spread through his body: If he just could face those torturers, and give them a good, damn old-fashioned beating! A stir from Hermione caught his attention. She sat up and rubbed her eyes.

"Damn, I forgot Ancient Runes! That's the first time I'll be late..."

Harry pushed her gently back to the bed.

"Are you mad? Just stay here, I think no one will flame you for that. Certainly Dumbledore has already excused us."

Hermione stared wearily on him. "You're right. I... I just want to do something."

"Me too. What do you think about breakfast?"

"Harry! How can you think about food right now?!"

"Well, I think we should eat something because it's half past ten already and we won't be of any use if we refuse to eat until Snape has recovered. Come, let's go downstairs. Oh, and we have to tell Ron! He'll be offended if he hears this story from Dumbledore first."

Hermione nodded finally and joined him on his way to the Great Hall.