The Power of Pain

Chapter 6

Time seemed to slow down for Draco as he watched the strongest man he'd ever known fall to his knees in pain. He didn't know how to even react to the sight. Luckily for him, Severus knew exactly what he needed. He grabbed Draco by his shirt tail and pulled him closer.

"The Snake-stone." He growled, his eyes leaving Draco's own wide terrified blues just as Hermione's body started to shift, a black smoke was starting to grow around the wound on her chest. Severus kept tight to Draco as he watched it start to grow. His brain cycled quickly through all the useless information he had stored in his head before something finally clicked into place, "The orb." He said with urgency pushing Draco away from him. "The orb!" He pushed himself to his feet, feeling the magic flowing out of his finger tips. The pain in his chest throbbed loudly between his ears but he couldn't take the time to consider himself. He gritted his teeth as he placed his hand in the center of Hermione's chest, the smoke started to flow like a snake up his arm, slowly lighting all his nerves on fire.

Draco ran as fast as he dared, actually jumping down the entire second half of stairs, stumbling into the wall to catch himself from falling flat on his face. He turned quickly to the kitchen and threw open the box he had brought. He rifled quickly grabbing the orb and the snake-stone. Taking one in each hand, he leapt back up the stairs.

As soon as Draco broke through the threshold of Severus' room his heart jumped into his throat. The dark smoke had almost completely covered his Godfather's chest and was coiling downward slowly to his feet. He could see the immense amount of pain Severus was in just by seeing the red in his eyes, where the white should have been. The man's head snapped towards him and he extended his hand with a snap.

Draco darted forward just as the smoke landed to the floor. As soon as the orb was in his grasp, Severus groaned deeply. The air around him crackled with unbridled magic and Draco had to take a few steps back for fear of injury to his person. The air clicked with blue lightening as Severus struggled against the dark magic he'd released with his presence. Deep down he knew that it wasn't actually his soul that had triggered such a strong response, but the venom that still swirled inside him calling out to it's equally dark counter part. Though as the orb was safely in his fingers, he concentrated all his magic into pulling both energies into it's confines. Agonizingly slowly, the smoke pulled away from the floor twisting and winding down his outstretched arm and swirled trapped into the glass. Severus kept his hand on Hermione's chest as he pulled all the darkness of the curse from her body. It was painful, and slow but finally he managed the last bits before collapsing down to his, knees panting heavily.

Draco couldn't believe what he had witnessed; the fact that such dark magic had resided inside of someone for so long, or the fact that someone was so powerful to be able to bend it to their will. Regardless, when Snape's head rested against the mattress he took it as a sign to advance. The orb was still clutched into his hand, swirling around like a liquid searching for an escape. Severus was panting heavily the blood vessels in his eyes having burst from the sheer amount of stress on his body. Draco slowly knelt down in front of him bending, his head to look more closely.

"What. The. Hell. Was. That?!" He gasped finally breaking from his stupor. His eyes were wide with a mixture of awe and fear. Though they quickly turned to confusion as he watched the man before him break out into a full smile.

"That..." He said taking another slow breath and swallowing a bit of bile that had come to his mouth during his dance with darkness, "Was what the healers-were too afraid- to do." He said simply, setting the orb gently on the floor. He hadn't actually intended to use the orb in Hermione's care but after seeing the reaction to his own curse, how could he not? Why not rid both himself and her of the accursed darkness all in one go? He had such a goofy grin on his face as he caught his breath. His skin crawled with residual pain but it was fading fast. He took another look at Draco before turning his head to his bed. He could just barely see over the top and half expected the woman above to simply wake up and shout out some useless obscure fact about the orb. Though as moments passed Severus' smile quickly faded. Draco himself was just trying to process what he'd just witnessed and hadn't even began to understand the after effects of such magic.