"Unanswered Prayers"

Fingers poked and prodded the wounds on his neck and chest.

“These aren’t healing as well as the others.”

“To be expected as they are the insertion points for the venom. They’re cursed.”

“I’ll speak with Madame Pomfrey… Maybe she has a reference I can use.”

“You do understand the word ‘cursed’, Ms. Granger?”

“Yes, and since you’ve forced me to call you ‘Severus’ for the past three weeks I am ‘Hermione’.”

“That would be inappropriate as I am considerably older than you.”

“Not in maturity. My mother used to say I was born an ‘old soul.”

“I will admit that your presence over the last three months has not caused the nausea that being held hostage by one of your peers would have provoked. I would probably have expired the first night.”

The joke made her laugh. To his surprise, he enjoyed her response.

“Can you look after yourself for a few hours?”

“No, as I have no experience with that.”

“Sarcasm will get you nowhere.”

“I am already living in ‘nowhere’.”

She shook with genuine laughter, completely missing his mystified look.

“I’m going to do some research at Hogwarts. Hopefully the Restricted section survived the war.”

“I’ll have dinner prepared for your return. Be here by 7 p.m. London time and be punctual.”

“Yes, sir!” she chuckled and apparated out.

The hours until her return dragged on. She missed the dinner deadline and irritated him.

“Hi! I’m sorry I’m late but the library is a mess and I had to chase Professor McGonagall around to get permission —” she called out as she re-entered the cottage.

He’d left the meal on the table with a warming spell. A clean gingham cloth covered the maple table as did the vase she often filled with flowers for his bedroom; he’d stuffed it with wildflowers. A note lay propped up on the vase.

Bouillabaisse does not age well so I suggest eating it immediately upon your return. I have eaten and should be asleep. I have cleared the bookcases in the upstairs bedroom as you have a propensity for acquiring texts. As punishment for your tardiness, you can cook breakfast.

Severus Snape

Hermione finished the soup — it was wonderful — and cleaned the kitchen thoroughly. Stacking the books on the table and chairs around her in the cheerful kitchen, she began her search for a treatment for cursed wounds.

Worried at her absence from the cot that still sat next to his bed, Severus rose and found her sound asleep, head down in one of the texts. Groaning with the effort after months of lassitude, he carried her into the bedroom they still shared. It never occurred to him to levitate her — a sure sign, to his own lack of reasoning, that he'd sustained an undiagnosed head injury. His back protested any bending movement toward the low-rise cot so he abandoned that goal, instead placing her in his own bed and taking the cot. Covering her, Severus lowered himself to the cot and finally settled into a deep sleep.

She was safe.