Adult-FanFiction.org : Harry Potter

All Breakages Must be Paid for	By : Lucreace Category: Harry Potter AU/AR > Het - Male/Female Views: 3384 -:- Recommendations : 0 -:- Currently Reading : 0
Disclaimer: I do not own Harry Potter, I make no money from these words

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He watched her thoughts play out over her face as they always had. Maybe she wasn’t as different as he thought. Sure, she was leaner and had a hard look in her eyes that had always been missing before but she still played her emotions and thoughts over her face like she had when she was an eleven year old girl eager to please at the front of his classroom. He passed a hand over his face and sighed. That was a lifetime ago and they both knew it. Patiently, he waited for her to gather her thoughts and begin telling the tale he was waiting to hear.
                When she opened her mouth, he listened carefully. “I remember how you were in those first days.” He frowned; this wasn’t what he was expecting to hear. “After we found out… everything… Harry, Ron and I came to visit you, especially after you slipped back into a place where we couldn’t find you. Minerva was busy setting about rebuilding the castle, along with the rest of the Order and we were ordered back to school to see out the rest of the year.
                “I remember the first time we found something wasn’t right. We were in charms; I think it was anyway, when this shambling man came staggering across the lawn. He was one of the Restless, although we didn’t know it at the time.” She paused and pushed her hair out of her face with a sigh, “It was awful. He bite and struck those around him and as you know, that passed on his sickness. Those who were bitten by him turned. It took less than twenty four hours for most of the school to succumb to it and just over seventy two for those who died to rise again.”
                When she paused, he shifted a little under the blanket, trying to get the warmth to penetrate down to his toes. “How did you get out?” He asked as he jammed his hands between his thighs.
                “I’ve asked myself that so many times since,” she muttered. It was a while before she spoke again but he let her have a moment to collect her thoughts. “Harry came and got me. I remember him babbling on about what was happening and how we had to leave. Ron was with him and he was beside himself, you remember how he gets under stress?” He nodded an affirmation. The ginger idiot turned into a blubbering wreck when under enough pressure. “I was in the library when they got me. Dragging me away from my books in such a hurry, I didn’t even have time to put them back.”
                He rolled his eyes at the sadness in her voice, “Why am I not surprised Miss Granger?”
                The look she gave him was scathing, “Are we still using formal terms? After everything that has happened?” He didn’t reply, he didn’t need to, the answer was obvious.
                “Anyway, the boys forced me to pack a few things and then we left. Everyone was panicking around us so we slipped away. We went to Hogsmeade and talked about what was going on. We decided that we’d best get away from Hogwarts as soon as we could.” Here she paused once more and he suspected that she’d left out a chunk of the story. He didn’t press her, she would tell him in time, or not. It wasn’t his place to force information from her anymore.
                “So you met with the other Order members shortly after and formed this… camp?” he asked after it became apparent she wouldn’t continue the story further.
                “It took a year to find them all and another year to find somewhere suitable. When that place was overrun, we moved on. We kept moving until we found the place we’re based in now. It took a year to find, six months to clear and another six to make sure it was completely safe. The last year we’ve spent trying to find out what has caused this problem.” Her explanation was adequate and she fell silent.
When he spoke again, he knew his voice was filled with a deep resignation, “What caused this? Why are the dead walking the earth?”
“That’s what I’ve asked every day since it started.” When she caught his eyes, the same resignation reflected back at him. When had her youthful jubilation been replaced by such complacent acceptance?
“Do you have ideas?”
“I’ve had plenty Severus,” his brow puckered a little when she used his given name but he was too company starved to say anything about it, “But there’s no way to check them. My wand was snapped by the teeth of a Restless about four years ago. We can’t apparate as it attracts them far quicker than any other magic and well, survival seems to have taken priority over my hare-brained ideas.” A sad sigh escaped her lips and he shook his head slowly. Silence descended between them again and he was once more caught up in his own thoughts. If they had no idea, maybe they were destined to never know what had caused this great fracture in the world.
“Tell me your thoughts.” He said when the silence became more than he could bear. Somehow, after the five years of near solitude, sitting in the same room as someone else in silence was detestable. Once he had longed for silence, now he wanted nothing more than to hear the voice of another friendly human being.
“I have several ideas. I thought it might be a type of viral infection at first, especially when the bites of the Restless caused the recent dead to change but I changed my mind when I realised that those who didn’t have fatal injuries seemed to recover just fine.”
“Go on.”
                “Ron took a wound from one of them a couple of years ago. It was bad and we all thought he was going to die. He made a full recovery however and that’s when I learned that it wasn’t a virus,” she explained. He nodded along with her.
                “I thought it could have been a pathogen changed by some Muggle experiment, I know they liked to do that sort of thing but there was no evidence of that,” he said. Her eyes widened as he spoke freely and he smiled inwardly. It didn’t show on his face, that he kept in its usual scowl but it was there none the less.
                “I thought that too but dismissed the idea when Ron was bitten.”
                “Could it be an airborne pathogen?”
                “It’s possible, but then again, how are we still alive if that’s the case?” Her brow furrowed as she considered it for a moment.
                “I have no idea,” he whispered. Slowly, he stretched out on the couch. Warmth had crept back into his bones and he was feeling distinctly more comfortable. He did keep his arms under the blanket however and he tucked the edges in. “I was bound for London to see if there was anything there that may give me an idea.”
                “There’s nothing there,” she said quietly. Her eyes found his and she shook her head slowly. “We tried to get to Diagon Alley a year or so ago. The whole city was overrun with Restless, we couldn’t get through.” Hermione said.
                “Do you know that the Alley is gone? Did you see it for yourself?”
                Slowly, she nodded. “Six months ago, Moody and Harry managed to get through. It was deserted, everything was destroyed.” Severus shut his eyes. He had hoped that the Alley had managed to survive this madness. It was a link to how the world should be. To find it had been destroyed was a terrible blow. He curled up once more and let out a deep sigh. “I’m sorry Severus.” Her voice cut through to him and he looked up into her chestnut eyes.
                “It’s not your fault,” he muttered. There was no point blaming her for the bad news yet he couldn’t stop the swell of resentment rise in him. Getting to the Alley had been his goal for as long as he could remember. To learn that it was gone was devastating, what was he supposed to do now? The thought was a dark one and he pushed it aside.
                “My hope of acquiring a new wand died that day…” Her words trailed off and silence descended once more. Somehow, he felt awkward. The heavy weight of no sound was oppressive yet he couldn’t think of a word to say to the woman lying opposite him on the sofa. What else could he ask without feeling an idiot? It wasn’t as though he could enquire about her career; that had all been put on hold the moment the world changed. Maybe this was a bad idea after all; he wasn’t fit for the company of other people. He’d barely been sociable before and after this time he found that he was severely out of practice.
                The matter was taken out of his hands when shuffling and moaning sounded from outside. He froze, his body going rigid, his hand curling to the knife that now rested on the floor in front of him. “Relax,” Hermione whispered, her voice was barely audible, “If we stay quiet, they’ll move on, there is no way they can know we’re here.”
                He nodded but remained tense, “It’s safe?” When she nodded back, he let out a sigh and tried to force his muscles to relax. “This is all new,” he muttered by way of explanation.
                “Even if they get in the house, they cannot get up here.” When he recalled the ladder she’d pulled up, he did relax, maybe it was safe after all.
                “I can’t remember what it’s like to sleep safely somewhere,” he replied pushing hair back from his face.
                “I remember what that’s like,” she whispered. He watched a look of sympathy cross her face and he shut his eyes, he didn’t want it. Life had been hard but he had survived which was more than most. “Get some sleep Severus; we’ve still a long way to go before we reach camp.” He nodded and kept his eyes closed. He may feel warm and less hungry than he had been but it took a long time for him to relax enough for sleep to claim him.
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All Breakages Must be Paid for