Saving your life

She stopped struggling when she heard his voice and turned her face to look at him, standing by the door, his expression as calm as ever and yet his wand pointing towards Malfoy’s back.

“Severus, how kind of you to join us. I must admit, however, that I wasn’t expecting you yet. You are a bit early.”

Suddenly she felt safe again; looking in his eyes, she knew he wouldn’t let him kill her. Her face must have betrayed some of her relief, because Malfoy, who hadn’t taken his eyes off her, laughed out loud

“Oh dear, how very lovely indeed! You think he’s come to your rescue, don’t you? Your knight in shining armour. You actually believe you have fooled him into caring for you!”

He finally took off his mask and turned around to face Snape, not loosening his grip on her.

“Well, Severus, you must be a really good actor! You certainly looked convincing enough right here just a few nights ago.”

“Let her go, Lucius, you know the Dark Lord’s orders on this matter.”

He stiffened for a second, but then turned back towards her and let her down just until her feet touched the ground, his wand always pointing at her. He took a step closer, his lips just inches from her ear as he whispered

“Let me tell you something, girl. He’s the one that’s fooled you, can’t you see? Why would any wizard, especially a Death Eater, ever care for a little mudblood like you?”

“Lucius,” Snape said warningly

“Don’t worry, Severus, it doesn’t matter anymore, she’s not going anywhere.”

“You do know what will happen if you kill her, don’t you? The Dark Lord ordered his followers to stay away from her, what do you think he’ll do if he finds you’ve disobeyed?”

The hand on her neck tightened, Lucius’ face contorted with rage as he turned around, looking at Snape once more

“You think I don’t know what you’re doing? Trying to get all the glory for yourself, just as you did when you killed Dumbledore, right? That should’ve been for my son, for my family. You won’t do it again.”

“So that’s what this is about then. Maybe you should discuss my involvement on that death with your lovely wife, I’m sure you will hear some interesting facts.”

“I don’t care what you have to say, I will make sure the Dark Lord sees you for what you really are. He calls you his most faithful Death Eater when all you do is play around pretending your work is important. You’re not better than I am!”

“If the Lord treats you the way he does is because you failed him, you failed to retrieve the prophecy, you got yourself landed on Azkaban and he had to send others to get you out. Your son failed to kill Dumbledore when he had the chance. If I hadn’t helped him escape, revealing my role as a spy because of it, he would be dead by now and you know it.”

They were almost yelling now, pointing each other with their wands, and she was terrified for herself and for some reason she was scared for Snape too. He was risking himself for helping her, no matter what Malfoy said.

He finally let go of her and she fell to the floor. She yelled as she felt the pain on her ribs. She looked back at the two men in front of her and noticed a worried look on Snape’s eyes as they met hers. Then he went back to facing Malfoy just as he lifted his wand and whispered a curse. Snape moved his wand and deflected it easily.

“Come on, Lucius, you can do better than that and we both know it. But perhaps you should reconsider your actions, your Master won’t be happy when he learns you tried to attack me.”

She gasped when a new flash of light erupted from his wand. This time the spell pushed Snape a few feet backwards before he finally stopped it; and now he shot back.

Her jaw dropped as she saw the two of them duelling. They were moving around the cabin, their wands a blur as sets of light crossed the room, spells and curses hitting the walls and occasionally one of them. She had never seen anything like it.

The minutes passed and she could see anger and exhaustion on both their faces; suddenly Malfoy’s sleeve cough fire, and the moment he turned his face and tried to extinguish it a purple light shot from Snape’s wand directly to him.

He had to jump to the side to avoid it, and the spell finally hit the wall behind him, mere inches from her head. She screamed in fear when part of the wall blew so close to her head and looked at Snape. Their eyes met for only a second, but it was enough for Malfoy, who aimed his wand once more at him and finally hit him.

She watched as he was thrown against a wall, his body hitting the surface and his wand flying from his hand. He was held there, arms and legs pinned to the wall, as Malfoy took a few steps closer, stopping when their bodies were almost touching.

“Well, it seems the little mudblood here helped me more than she would have wanted.”

“Stop this,” Snape whispered “or I’ll have to erase her memories after I’m done with you.”

She heard Malfoy give a hearty laugh as he said in a loud voice
“Done with me? Oh, please, look at you, you can’t even move, what do you think you can do to me?”

“Lucius, I’m warning you, even if I couldn’t do much, you’ll make the Lord angry, and in your position, we both know what will happen.”

She could tell Malfoy was hesitant, but still she wasn’t surprised when he yelled Crucio, and suddenly the whole place was filled with screams. She saw her former teacher, trapped against the wall, crying out in pain as the other man kept pointing him with his wand. She knew she had to do something, but what?

She looked around, remembering her wand was probably somewhere nearby, when she saw Snape’s, lying just a few feet away. She tried to get up, but her body ached too much, and so she crawled, hoping Malfoy wouldn’t see her, and trying not to whimper from the pain. She stretched her fingers and closed them around the wand, aiming at Malfoy and just as he started saying Avada… she yelled Expelliarmus.

He was thrown to the other side of the room, wandless, and she looked at Snape again and muttered a spell to release him from the wall. He fell to the floor, panting, but reached out with his arm and his wand flew from her grasp to his. Slowly he rose to his feet and walked to where Malfoy was lying. Apparently, he had hit his head while falling and was now unconscious. He looked at her and said –pretend to be unconscious too- before he pointed his wand at Malfoy and woke him up.

“That wasn’t a very good idea, Lucius; see what I had to do?” he asked, towering in front of the man and pointing at Hermione. “What if someone notices I’ve changed her memories? They could break the spell and see everything. She could help the Dark Lord finally kill Potter, and you almost ruined everything because of your ego.”

A few seconds passed and none of them said anything. Malfoy seemed to have calmed down, fear replacing his rage.

“And how do you know you can trust her? How do you now she’s not just trying to get information for her friends?” he finally said trying to sound calm but never taking his eyes off the wand pointing at him.

“That is none of your business, Lucius. I know the truth and so does the Dark Lord, and that’s enough. Now” he said taking yet another step closer to the man lying on the floor “what should I do with you?”

Malfoy crawled backwards until he hit the wall, but said nothing.

“I probably should just kill you, as you were going to do that to me; or perhaps I should let you live, and see what the Dark Lord does to you when he hears about this. What do you think, Lucius?”

“I… Severus, please, I wasn’t really going to kill you, I was just mad and wanted to scare you. Please.”

“So is that what you were doing then? And here I was, thinking you were about to do something as stupid killing your Lord’s most faithful servant.”

“Severus, please,” he pleaded again, his eyes switching constantly from the wand to the other man’s face

“You know what? I don’t think you’re even worth the trouble. Just get out of here, and stay away from me. I’m looking forward to seeing what our Master will do to you.”

He just stared at him in amazement for a few seconds, before vanishing with a loud POP.

Then Snape went back to where she was lying, getting on his knees and whispering softly.

“You can open your eyes now, he’s gone.” He reached his arms to help her up but stopped when she whimpered and pulled away.

“Can you walk?” He asked sounding concerned and she just shook her head no.

“We must leave this place, put your arms around my shoulders and hold on tight.”

She did was she was told and the next second they Apparated inside a dark room. He was standing and held her in his arms as he lit a few candles and walked down a hallway.

“We’re in my house,” he said “but we can’t stay here long, it could be dangerous for you. I just need some potions and we’ll leave.”

They entered what looked like a lab and he walked towards the wall on the back, were she saw what must have been hundreds of bottles full of different potions, placed neatly on the shelves. He looked around for a few seconds, still holding her in his arms, and then took a few and put them inside his pockets, before asking her to hold on tight and Apparating again.

This time she opened her eyes to what looked like a small apartment, and he turned the lights on and carried her inside the bedroom, laying her carefully on the bed and walking back out of the room without a word.

Just then all that had happened came back to her, as she realized just how close she had been to being murdered. She felt her body start to shudder and she couldn’t help it when she broke into sobs. She put her hands over her face and felt it swollen where Malfoy had hit her. Her whole body ached and she could almost swear he had broken her ribs when he had kicked her over and over again.

He must have heard her sobs, because he entered the room again, carrying towels and some of the potions he had retrieved from his place and looking worried. He sat next to her on the bed and carefully wiped her tears away, whispering that she should calm down, she was safe there, and it was all over. He tried to clean her face with the towel, but she was shaking badly and he was afraid he would hurt her.

He reached his hands under her back and helped her to a sitting position, before opening one of the bottles and asking her to drink the potion in it. She didn’t even hesitate and took it all in one gulp, instantly feeling her body and her mind calming down. When she stopped shaking, he gave her another potion, saying that one was for the pain, and she gladly took that one, too. Then he laid her head back on the pillow and took the towel once more, cleaning the dry blood off her face.

She couldn’t help being surprised at how tender he could be, someone who always seemed so mean and careless.

He took his wand and muttered a few spells, and she felt her face healing. She touched it and noticed it wasn’t swollen anymore. She felt the same with most of the bruises covering her body. He pulled her shirt up a little and took a long look at her ribcage before saying that would take a little longer healing.

She felt something cold on her skin and gasped, but he looked at her and told her not to worry. He put a towel on top of the potion on her ribs and muttered a few more words. Then he got up and told her she should get some sleep, they’d have to leave the place early in the morning. Her eyelids felt heavy and she sighed as she closed her eyes, feeling safe now he was with her.


She woke up when the sunlight reached her face, and she covered her eyes with her hand, trying to adjust to the light. She looked around and found him asleep, sitting on an armchair by the door.

She couldn’t stop the smile forming on her lips as she cleared her throat, waking him up. He seemed startled at first, as he looked around the room, but once he was sure everything was in order he got up and stood a few steps closer to the bed.

“How are you feeling?” He asked, and she couldn’t help feeling a little disappointed when she noticed the usual coldness back on his voice.

“Much better, thank you.”

“And your ribs?”

“Still hurt, but just a little. What is this place?” she asked, looking around.

“It’s a safe house; we’re still in London.”

She looked at him, wondering if he’d really been as nice as she remembered from the night before. It seemed impossible now. They stayed in silence for a few moments, before he said

“I can’t believe he fooled you into going to that cabin.” he sounded exasperated

“He sent a parchment just like the one you had given me before, he told me it was important, that we should meet there; I thought it was you,” she explained, looking down at her hands.

“Did you tell him anything important, about what I told you the other day?”

“Of course not!” she said

“Good. Get ready, we have to leave.”

“Where are we going?”

“I have to go see the Dark Lord, make sure Malfoy hasn’t convinced him you are a danger to him and should be killed.”

She looked up at him in shock.

“You will go back to your headquarters and tell everyone you will be leaving for a few days, I wouldn’t want them looking for you. Pack what you need and meet me by the Leaky Cauldron; I will be leaving the city for two or three days. It wouldn’t be safe for you to stay there while I’m gone, and you would endanger your friends. You’re coming with me.”