Poisoned Love: A Snanoine Romance

Chapter One

"Snape! Snape, pl-please wake up! Come on now!"

Someone was crying and he could feel himself being ever so slightly shaken. He could feel something warm dripping down his neck  causing him to shiver, his own skin freezing with cold.

What the hell is happening?

Gods his body ached, how was there this much noise in the afterlife?

Footsteps ran down the wooden platform, more voices joined the small feminine one that kept urging him to wake up.

"Where's Madam Pomfrey? Why the hell has no one got Madam Pomfrey?" Hermoine's voice sounded so shrill from panic Snape hadn't recognized it at first.

"She's trying to save a first year who got hit by one of the giants - Professor McGonnagal just said to do what you could to help him until she or Pomfrey can get here." Snape internally sneered at the sound of Neville's voice.

"Bloody hell Hermoine! The sods dead as much as I hate to say it. Why did you have us go in the first place? He's lost too much blood!" Ron audibly gulped staring at Snape's seemingly lifeless form on the floor.

The boat house creaked; Nagini had destroyed much of the building during her attack on Snape. Half the floor was already beginning to flood as the support posts underneath began to give way. It wouldn't be long before the whole building crashed into the lake, taking them with it if they didn't move quick.

Hermoine had run as fast as her legs would carry her after the Battle of Hogwarts was over, running back to where selfless love had saved her life and that of Ron's and Harry's only hours before. Snape had been covered in blood, cravat and cloak soaked through from the wounds in his neck and chest. Her first thought, a blood binding spell, was probably the only thing that had kept him alive this long.

"He's not dead - but he will be if we don't do something immediately." Hermoine's quiet even tone stewed with anger and fear, even Snape could feel it as her presence got even closer to him.

He felt her grab his hand in hers and her magic poured through him as she began casting nonverbal healing spells. Her concentration was immense to be performing the spells she was, and even in his soul numbing pain Snape had to admit to himself he was impressed.

A blood typing spell, why would she perform something so difficult as that?

"Ron! Neville! Do what you can to secure the building. It's going to take me a few minutes to do what needs to be done to ensure he will live long enough to get him to the hospital wing. NOW!"

Ron's feet were glued to the decking, willing himself still not to retch at the sight of his former teacher covered in so much blood. He hated the man, but the wounds he had suffered were extreme and he jumped to Hermoine's aid.  Neville was a delicate shade of green, but at the stubborn witch's beckoning he jumped in the shallows of the lake to secure what he could of the boathouses foundation without a second thought.

Hermoine kept at her work as the building continued to creak and groan around her. He had lost so much blood. The spells could not replenish the blood at the rate he needed it. Magic wasn't going to save him but Muggle medicine might.

"Boys, we are still sinking!?" She grimaced, frantically checking for a vein in Snape's arm as she tore the bottom of his cloak into strips.

"We're working on it but the foundations starting to give way!" Ron puffed, his wand furiously shooting ropes from the tip to try and hold together the old wooden boathouse.

"We've got to move him. He needs a blood transfusion and I can't do it here. Hagrid's cabin isn't far. Let's go!"

Snape listened intently, unable to move a muscle as Hermoine transfigured him a stretcher out of his shoe and gently floated him onto it. He could feel himself falling in and out of consciousness and thought maybe at last, he could sink into nothingness and sleep. Death would be a welcome friend, a friend he thought he would've met by now.

Ron had secured the roof just long enough for them to float Professor Snape out, before it all came crashing down in a heap. Their magic combined, Neville and Hermoine were able to traverse the rough and broken hillside with the stretcher hovering just above their heads. Large pieces of rubble and debris blocked their path, Ron obliterating each new obstruction with renewed vigor.

Fang bellowed from the doorway of Hagrid's hut, seemingly blown open by a curse from the Battle that had singed the door black with soot. Ron pulled Fang away, as Hermoine floated Snape to the floor and set to work. Hagrid had stores of iodine and other solutions for his managery of pets, and Neville quickly helped her clean Snape' blood encrusted arm at her instruction. She transfigured Fang's food dish into IV tubing, a needle at each end. Thank Merlin she was the same blood type as him.

Snape was fading fast, lost to the commotion of everything happening around him. Hermoine carefully examined his arm, her light caresses heaven in his last conscience moments. His vein was small, but there and she hit it the first try. Ron watched horrified from the doorway as she elevated her arm and stuck herself, a piece of Snape's cloak tied around her arm for pressure. Deep crimson flowed down the tubing into her former professor's bloody form, slowly replenishing some of what he had lost in the last hours. Hermoine knew this could probably kill her if she gave too much, but she had to try. Snape had saved all of them, she had to do everything she could to save him too.

"Neville, in a minute I may lose consciousness from loss of blood, if that happens make sure I stay higher up then Snape so the blood keeps going into him. Stay with me, your calmer and that's what I need at present. Ron, run to the hospital wing and get blood replenishing potions, as many as you can find. Quickly please, I have a feeling I myself will be sorely in need of them."

Only after a few moments she slumped over on the kitchen table where she sat, Neville berating Ron from the doorway to hurry as he  ran into the night.

Please let me know if you enjoyed Chapter One of Poisoned Love by giving it a heart or a comment. I am super excited about it as this is my first fanfic and will be publishing chapter 2 soon!

- ArasieBee

*photo from The Agitation of the Mind