But He Was Not There

But He was Not There
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A Hermione Granger and Severus Snape Fan fiction.
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The battle grew more intense everyday, and Hermione sat there, beside it, helping him fight all the way.
Madam Pomfrey had never questioned why she visited Severus Snape so often, often teary, often replacing the flowers when the first petal fell, and dusting the side cabinets, or brushing gathering dust from the few cards he had received.

It was her own fault that he lay there within a deep coma, his mind locked away from the outside world, sunken within a chamber where he could not think, speak, or make any movement other than his rising chest to show he was alive.

Four months previous, nearly three months into the school year, Severus had invited her on a date. A curiously wrong thing for a teacher and a student to do, but she nodded her head and said yes, happy that maybe, this date might suffice and take away the crush that so painfully ebbed at her body when she thought about him. His ex wife, whom he, in a lovingly kind but silly sort of way, had forgotten he was married to, turned up and ruined everything before they even got out the carriage. His ex pushed Hermione away, and then, proceeded to push Severus inside the carriage and work upon him.

Many tears had fallen that day, and then, when she heard he had fallen into a deep coma, even more fell.
Two days after that incident, she could bear the absence of Severus in Potions Classes no more and ran to the Hospital Wing one evening. It was then, and there, that she pledged to him, that whatever happened, however long it took, she would always remember how much she loved him.
It really became apparent, that day that her crush would not ebb away after one date. She had fallen in love with the man old enough to be her father.

One evening, Madam Pomfrey left her in charge of Severus for the evening, as she needed a night off. Hermione accepted it, and gladly snuggled next to Severus on the bed once Poppy Pomfrey was gone.
She lay a gentle head on his chest, and then raised herself up and gently kissed his lips, first softly and guiltily, then more sweetly, and longer and gentler than the first. And again, more hurriedly, making sweet love to the man who would never be hers.

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After seven months of watching Severus lie in a coma, Hermione was called out with the Order of the Phoenix. Voldemort was causing havoc, and was already eating through Ministry Workers.

Spells whistled about, until another golden ring formed about and between Harry's and Voldemort's wand. But this time, the gold flickered green and suddenly, so sharply, they fell.
Nobody noticed. They continued to fight, scrabbling and abandoning wands. Once all the bodies where strewn about, and the battle was over, and smoke rose from the burning bodies with an acidic smell, Hermione staggered about, calling out names.
She yelled out Harry's name, only to hear a cough. She ran towards it, continually shouting his name, and the coughing grew louder and into a rasping voice telling her he was there.
She knelt beside his bloodied and bruised body, and watched as his head lolled.
Se whispered softly into his ears, willing him not to die.
He whispered that she must let him go.
Hermione held him close and his eyes closed slowly, and gently, for one last time.

Hermione recalled the words of a prophecy made in her sixth year.
"He who would save the lives of thousands, our saviour, will be reduced a mere shell and the many he knew will die, all but one, all but one, the one who will breath him back to life, the one to rise him from a soft bed-grave, and deaths will be avenged, avenged upon the air, upon the souls of the dead. He who would save the lives of thousands will be naught... but a shell."
Our Saviour, she thought. Severus, a bed-grave he lies on... a Hospital Bed... she murmured the meanings of the prophecy under her breath, lay Harry's head down, and left.

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Hermione visited Severus everyday, persuading Poppy to take an hour or so off whilst she made love to Severus.
One afternoon, she bought the whole next day from Poppy.

Hermione moved over him, kissing him passionately, furiously, not noticing the eyes hers lay over snap open, and his strong hands twitch as he reacted to her touch. His arms went to her back, rubbing up and down her, as he reacted to Hermione by kissing her in return. Their love making became so much more in a matter of minutes, and when they lay together, settled, at peace, he looked down at her and was startled to see Hermione crying.
Hermione murmured to him the meaning of the Prophecy, and Severus sighed and put an arm around her.

---

The devastating affects of the Final Battle proved to be a lot to get over. Hermione did, eventually, marry Severus.
But the Prophecy forever ran in her head, and how Severus was the saviour, and how she had bought him from his bed-grave. The effects of the battle left hidden bruises on her body that years could not wear away.

She imagined what the battle would of been, had he been awake. She dreamt it every night, and the torture to awaken and find that instead of all her friends and husband happy and merry around her, there was only the dark emptiness stretching before her, and the only person who remained of her past life was her husband, her lover, and her best friend- the only man, or person, left. Severus Snape.

She wanted him to have been awake, and sometimes, in her waking hours, she can sleep and see it, the happiness of an evil-free home.
But he was not there, and that cannot be changed. It is too late to go back and undo the deaths of Ron, of Harry, Dumbledore, Minerva, and everyone else.

Because he was not there.