enchantement - SOULBOUND I̲̅ || SS/HG ✔️

13. Husband

"I'm not sure I understand Miss Granger, who would be messing with your mind?" He asked, pulling the chair beside him to sit, facing his student.

Hermione sighed, she shouldn't say anything, she wasn't allowed, yet she needed as much help as she could get. "You asked me why my hand was quivering last time. It was because of a hex the death eater Dolohov sent my way in the Forest of Dean." She spoke with a clear tone, knowing all too well that there was no turning back. He needed to know, something far more threatening was going on. "In my time, the war had already happened, yet I was sent to this timeline before Voldemort's defeat and -"

"- You're telling me..." he trailed off standing up waving his wand, placing the strongest silencing charm he could. He locked the doors, and pulled the curtains down, leaving the room dark, the light bulb on the tip of his wand being the only source of light. "Miss Granger, are you telling me that you come from the future? How is that possible? I am aware of your meddling with time in third year, but you visually changed. You are in the same body of the Hermione Granger of this time, no one is in possession of such..."

He stiffened, his gaze lost somewhere in the room, his hand seizing his wand. "Explain to me how you came here, Ms Granger."

Unable to stop her hand from trembling, the panic she experienced too strong, Severus halted it with his own, massaging it tenderly. She took a deep breath in, the warm feeling in her body as the man she loved touched her lovingly, comforted her.

"During the war, I was in the hunt for Horcruxes with Harry and Ron. I was never alone, I had...someone who would help me. Unfortunately, the snatcher caught on to our locations and hunt us down. We were imprisoned in Malfoy Manor yet managed to escape. Once the war began, we needed to find a way to kill Nagini, one of his Horcruxes. We searched for you through the Marauders Map and...you were in the Shrieking Shack. Voldemort thought you were the master of the Elder Wand, so he ordered Nagini to kill you." She stopped, unconsciously releasing through her words the event of that tragic night. "That night," she thought, "I lost my soulmate."

Staying silent, realising how hard it must be for Hermione to recall the events that happened during the war, he watched her fascinated, looking at her under a different light. He had noticed her body shift, change, mature, yet though it simply had to do with feminine hormones - which he knew nothing about. However, now, he grasped that something far more complicated occurred. Severus couldn't help but notice the torment in her eyes when she spoke about him as if they were..."no Severus" he growled to himself, "don't be ridiculous!"

"Nagini killed you, her venom far more powerful than we had thought. You had taken an anti-venom, expecting something of such sort to happen. We tried to brew the best one yet, but the dragon blood was not strong enough." She went on, not realising her mistake. "I tried to help you, but it was too late. You gave me a time-turner, but one that would bring my soul to this body in your time. Everything happened so fast, I didn't have time to tell you..."

"To tell me what Ms Granger?" He realised that there was something far more important she wasn't telling him.

Her eyes focused on the desk, her hand starting to quiver once more. Severus caught it between his two firm hands, noticing the pain she was going through. "farewell" she whispered, even though she knew it was a lie.

Her voice was too blank, emotionless to convince her professor, yet Severus said nothing, waiting for her to get back to her senses. "If I understand correctly, I failed to brew and anti-venom and I sent you here, is that correct?"

Hermione nodded, "there is more. You told me you had a plan with Dumbledore, that I had to stop him from wearing Marvolo Gaunt's ring."

"I never had such plan with -"

"- I know, I talked with Dumbledore. The real reason why I wasn't with my friends at Hogsmeade was that I spend the day with the headmaster. We found two of the Horcruxes already. We have an idea on how to destroy the ring, for now, I haven't received any news from him."

"Miss Granger, I think we are missing the bigger picture here." He finally spoke, his baritone voice covering the quietness he had placed upon them while thinking. "Dumbledore and I had no plan! Nothing! If we did, it would have been already talked and settled on by now, with or without your involvement. Are you sure you saw me in the Shack?"

Baffled, Hermione jumped out of her chair, her hand covering her mouth, "of course! How could you ask me that!"

"Don't take me wrong but how can you be so sure?"

"You said things only you would know Severus Tobias Snape! No one would have had such power over you to have you under a bloody imperious or a Polyjuice potion! Nagini attacked you, I felt your body repeatedly being thrown against the wooden wall! The man I left at that time was my husband and there is no doubt about that so refrain of ever doubting my judgment!

Anger, fury, passion, love, all of these emotions have one thing in common, they consume you and numbs you from your conscience. It's like a drug or a strong aphrodisiac, it takes over you, controls you, turns you into a slave. But words come with emotions. However, one word can say more than a rain full of words. "Love is blind" Hermione heart Dumbledore's voice in her mind.

"Husband?" He asked, standing up from his chair, causing it to fall back onto the floor.