There Must Be More

Chapter 4

"Where is he?" she cried as she shot up from her chair and started running towards the door.

"He didn't say --" was the cautious response, but Hermione was already sprinting down the stairs and out of earshot before he could finish the sentence. Due to her extensive knowledge of Hogwarts, A History, she knew that it was impossible to Apparate or even Portkey into Hogwarts without the Headmaster's authority. Thus, she ran for the main gates. He might be anywhere outside of them, but this didn't cause her any concern. In her heart, there was absolutely no doubt that she would find him wherever he might be.

Adrenaline rushed through her veins, giving her extra speed. As she approached the entrance, she shouted, "Alohomora!" while pointing her wand at the gates. They immediately swung open and allowed her to pass without slowing down. Next, she cast, "Lumos!" and started searching, her eyes wild with panic. There! She spotted his body lying near the edge of the Forbidden Forest. Keeping her wand out, she ran to him.

"Severus!" she shouted. "Severus, it's me!" What she saw as she approached him repulsed her. His shirt had been torn open and it looked like a metal version of the Death Mark had been cleaved to his chest. But perhaps even more frightening than that was the fact that he looked as if he had aged a decade since she had last seen him. Even as she looked at him, his skin was slackening, and his hair was growing longer and greyer. She knelt down to examine him better.

"Oh God, what did he do to you?" Upon closer inspection, she realized that the metal sigil was not so much bonded to his body but rather burned into his flesh. Already, angry red blisters were beginning to form around the edges. Choking back a sob, she reached to remove it, but he jerked from her touch.

"No!" he cried.

"Severus, I have to get it off of you!" She reached for it again, but he rolled away, gasping in pain.

"Please, I need to heal you." She touched his shoulder and tried to turn him back towards her.

"You -- can't touch it!" He had huddled himself into a fetal position to prevent her from having access to the piece of metal. She realized there was no arguing with him, not if she wanted to get help for him.

"Fine, but I need to get you back into the castle so Madam Pomfrey can take a look at it."

"No...time," he said. "Please, get Dumbledore." Hermione gathered her breath to argue, but the way he said his next words made her swallow her own. "Please...Hermione..." He had never pleaded with her before. And his voice, it was definitely getting weaker. This time, she could not hold back her sobbing.

"I'll be right back, Severus Snape. Don't you dare die on me now, do you hear?" She was off before he could reply. Fortunately, she did not have to run far as within a few steps she saw the Headmaster and Harry running out of the gates.

"Professor! Harry! Over here!" She shot a few red sparks off from her wand to signal her location and ran back to Severus. Kneeling back down by his side, she brushed the hair away from his face. She was positive now; he was aging before her very eyes. Hot tears splashed onto his face, but she couldn't help it.

"They're coming. You'll be all right." She didn't know whether she was saying that more for his benefit or her own.

"Hermione! What's happened?" It was Harry's voice. She turned around to address him.

"I don't know yet! I just found him here. There's this awful metal thing on his chest," she motioned towards it but was careful not to touch it, "and it looks like he's growing older as we speak. Professor, please. What does this mean?" she pleaded with the Headmaster. There was no twinkle in his eye now as he looked down over his spy.

"Albus..." came the raspy voice. "Get her...get them away." Dumbledore looked from him to her.

"No!" cried Hermione as Harry held her back. "No," she repeated. "I'm staying here. You can't make me leave," she said resolutely.

"Severus, the girl is right. I believe she has earned her place here tonight. As for Harry, I think it is time he knew what you have been facing these last several years." Harry's grip on Hermione slackened as she ceased to struggle, but he remained silent. "What happened tonight, Severus?"

"Can't you get that thing off him first? He needs medical attention!" interrupted a mortified Hermione. At Severus' barely imperceptible nod, the Headmaster gave a flick of his wand. The sigil tore off his chest with an indescribably grotesque sound which could be heard despite Severus' equally agonizing scream of pain. Nausea filled Hermione's gullet, and she buried her head in Harry's shoulder rather than continue looking at the bloody, blistered Death Mark-shaped wound left on his torso. With another wave of his wand, Dumbledore healed him as best he could. Thick, hard scar tissue now covered the area where the metal had burned him. As Dumbledore knelt down to cover his chest, Severus whispered something to him, but Hermione could not tell what he said.

After the Headmaster stood back up, she looked at Severus' face. The wrinkles around his eyes and mouth were deeper than before.

"What's happening to him?"

"Hermione, I think it is time we let Severus speak now." Hearing the slight censure in his voice, she wiped the tears from her cheeks and waited.

"I -- cough -- went to him. Don't know where. Cough. He -- cough -- knows about Draco and Narcissa. Wormtail, too." At this, his eyes finally met hers.

"What happened? Are they both dead?" She felt Harry's hands tighten on her upper arms again but ignored the pain. After coughing fit, Severus answered.

"Yes." While Harry hugged her from behind in relief, she stayed focused on Snape.

"Is that why he punished you? Did he find out what we did?" He suddenly averted his eyes from hers and looked back at Dumbledore. In that brief moment before he did, though, she could have sworn she saw a flash of fear in his eyes. "What happened? Why won't you tell me!" She wrenched herself free from Harry and fell on the ground beside Severus, clutching his arm.

"Miss Granger, please --"

"Can't you see, Professor? He's getting older by the second! If we don't do anything...."

"It was a new spell he devised." His voice was so weak now she could barely hear him. "Please, Hermione. I don't want you to see me like this." She knew what he meant, and she knew he did not say it out of vanity.

"No! You're not going to die! Headmaster, please!" she pleaded again. Now even Dumbledore averted his eyes from hers. "No! There must be something we can do!"

"No, Hermione. Even Albus cannot -- cough -- control time. I'm -- cough -- sorry, Hermione." She ignored his apology because her mind was already spinning in a different direction.

Apparently, Harry's was as well because they both said the same thing simultaneously: "Time!" She whipped around.

"Oh Harry, do you think...?" Hope filled her voice. His nod came slower.

"Yes, I think it's worth a try...."

"Of course it's worth it! But how will we get in? Severus can't be seen there! And we don't have the time to be messing with all those doors!" At this, Harry looked at the Headmaster.

"Sir?" Although neither of them had named their destination, he seemed to have caught on to their plan.

"Yes... Yes, I believe I can help you with that." He reached into a pocket and retrieved a lemon drop, which he tossed onto the ground. "Portus!" It glowed and shook for a few seconds before settling back down. "That should take you straight to the room you need, but remember, you must try to keep your spell casting to a minimum. Any magic performed may set off alarms."

"Yes, sir."

"Thank you, sir!" Severus, you're going to be fine." She looked down at him and stroked his arm, but he did not respond. His eyes had closed and the skin on his face was starting to sink. The brief flush of hope turned into panic, and she whirled into action. Grabbing his hand and Harry's, she jerked them both forward and touched the lemon drop with all four hands at once.

She barely felt the effects of the Portkey and had her wand out as soon as they landed. The room was just as she remembered it, except that the cabinet they had broken the last time they were in here had been fixed and was no longer caught in a time loop. Sparkling light from the large bell jar at the other end still danced throughout the room. As far as she could tell, there was no one else in there with them.

"Harry, you'll have to help me carry him." They both lifted him up, but he was much lighter than she would ever have expected him to be. She could no longer bear to look at him, as his head was starting to resemble a skull more and more. "Hurry!" They ran between the desks to the other end of the room with their strange burden. Upon reaching the desk on which the bell jar sat, she chanced a spell and levitated Severus' body so that it was floating in midair just outside the bell jar. She then repositioned him so that he was wrapped tightly into a ball, knowing that any part of him that did not enter the bell jar would remain unchanged. Satisfied with the results, she carefully levitated him into the boundaries of the bell jar, pushing the hummingbird out of the way.

Immediately, the effects of Voldemort's curse started to reverse itself. The flesh beneath his skin began to fill out and his wrinkles began to disappear. As he reached the age that he had been at the beginning of the day, Harry made as if to move him out, but Hermione stayed his hand.

"No, wait." He did as she asked. Severus continued to grow younger, past their own age, into a child, and finally into a baby, but still she did not move him. Just when it seemed as if he could not become any smaller or younger, time reversed itself in the bell jar, and he started aging again. Contrary to the time she had held out a second longer than necessary when Madam Pomfrey had been shrinking her teeth during the fourth year, she now floated Severus out of the bell jar a few moments before he would have returned to his true age.

The man that hovered before her could barely pass for a twenty-seven year old, much less his true age of thirty-seven. All wrinkles had been erased from his face. His skin, though still pale, had lost the sallowness it once carried. And his hair, it was no longer greasy but fell in a fine curtain down to his shoulders.

Undoubtedly Harry also noticed all this but did not mention it because at that moment they heard a noise coming from one of the offices.

"Come on, Hermione. We better get back." He tugged on her sleeve.

"Just one more moment," she said and went to retrieve something from one of the shelves. She slipped it into her pocket before he could see what it was. "All right. We can go now." She levitated Snape, who was still unconscious, with her back to the lemon drop. Grasping his hand in hers, she looked up at Harry and counted, "One, two, three --" They both reached for the piece of candy at the same time and Portkeyed back to where they came from.

Dumbledore was still waiting for them by the Forbidden Forest. Although his face showed a flicker of surprise when he saw Severus, he also did not say anything to Hermione and just gave her a penetrating glance. Not knowing how to else to respond, she nodded her head slowly before saying, "We should get him to a bed."

"Of course, Miss Granger." The Headmaster took over levitating Severus and together, the four of them entered the gates of Hogwarts. He led them through the front doors and down into the dungeons to Severus' private quarters. Before Hermione could worry about how to open the door, Dumbledore gave the password, "Open Sesame", and it swung open for them. She didn't know if that was Severus' personal password or the Headmaster's vocal skeleton key to the castle, but it surprised her either way. More fairy tales?

Dumbledore had Snape's floating body lead the way in and they followed, eventually coming to a door that Hermione had never noticed before. It led into his bedroom, which turned out to be much barer than the average students' dormitories. A small, made bed, a single wooden chair, and a mirrored wardrobe were all it contained.

"Hermione, if you would?" said Dumbledore, gesturing towards the sheets. She dutifully used her wand to lift the covers up and back so that he could deposit Severus underneath. Once he was settled, she waved them back so that they draped over him. Before anyone could stop her, she approached the bed and tucked in the sheets around him. She stayed there after her task was done, hovering over him in concern.

"He'll be fine, Miss Granger, trust me. He just needs to rest."

"Headmaster, if you don't mind. I'd like to stay with him." Harry cocked his head but kept his tongue. After what seemed a long moment, Dumbledore finally nodded.

"All right, Miss Granger. But you must promise me that you'll get some sleep yourself." She nodded in reply.

"I'll return to my room. I just...I need to..." She gestured helplessly at Severus, unable to articulate exactly what she wanted.

"I understand, Miss Granger. Come, Harry. Let's leave them be." He placed a hand on Harry's shoulder and the two of them started walking out. "Goodnight, Miss Granger."

"Goodnight, Headmaster. Goodnight, Harry."

"Goodnight, Hermione."

When she was finally alone in the room, she drew the chair over to the bedside and sat down. There was one thing she needed to do, something she had theorized might happen, but hadn't wanted to check in front of Dumbledore or Harry in case she was wrong. Carefully, she took his left hand and slowly undid the buttons at his wrists. When the last button fell free, she pushed the material up and bared his forearm. Joy filled her being as she realized she had been correct. The tattoo of the Dark Mark was gone.