The Power of Pain

Chapter 29

Severus closed his eyes trying to quiet his own furiously beating heart. Everything around him felt way too loud as he pressed closer trying to drown out everything else. He couldn't even understand what had gotten his heart beating so fervently.

He took a breath and counted silently in his mind, 1...2...3...4...5...6...7...There! His own heart thumped heavily with hers when he heard the faint flutter.

He clenched his jaw and counted again, 1...2...3...4...5...6...7...8...9...thump...

Severus frowned deeply, it was slowing down. He pulled back looking over her frame. He tested their normal connection and found it open but it worryingly quiet. He swallowed thickly, "She's alive...just barely..."

"Oh, Severus... I'm-"

"Sorry?" He hissed finishing her useless words for her, breaking from his reverie. He turned towards the teary eyed woman, his face holding no sympathy for her lament.

"Severus-"

"Don't." His tone was venomous, his posture ready to strike at the slightest provocation.

"I-"

"You never should have brought her here." His voice rose with the anger boiling to the surface inside him, "You Gryffindors and your senseless ideals! Always forever playing in the lives of others, never getting your hands dirty until it's time to shine like the hero they all worship you to be!" His control broke away filling the room with his caustic energy.

"Severus she would have died there!"

"And you call this living?!" He rounded on the lounge, thrusting out his hand open palmed in the direction of Hermione's prone form.

"Forever trapped in an endless sea of torment, never knowing from one moment to the next when your last breath will be taken from you?!" The passion in his words betrayed his own experiences on the matter as he stared down the tartan woman.

"You gave her a chance!" She pleaded, "You gave her hope!"

"Hope?" He barked with a bitter snort, "Do you know what the most torturous, infuriating, feeling in the world is?" He leaned down closer to her, his eyes sharp like steel his voice dropping dangerously low, "Do you know, the most painful word in all of the spoken language?"

Minerva took a shuddering breath against his wrath. She couldn't help but quiver like a young first year under his gaze, completely overwhelmed by his power. The deepness of his heartbreak showed so vibrantly in his dark eyes. She knew she was witnessing the breaking of the strongest man she had ever known and the fault landed squarely upon her shoulders.

"Almost." He leaned in close whispering it viciously between his snarled teeth. He said it with such force, the word itself washed over the elder witch and in that instant, she knew all his anguish, all his suffering, not just in that moment; but over the course of his entire life. She could feel it down in the very deepest part of her soul; it left her with a cold void inside her heart.

The room went still as his words swept through the elder witch. She lowered her eyes a small tear rolling down her aged face. She shook her head slightly but was unable to refute his statement.

Harry watched as the two fought against each other. Also, a bit cowed by his words. He now understood so much more than his heart could even possibly handle. He felt it rise in his throat before he turned his green eyes towards Snape. He had his hands clasped as if in prayer, desperation filled his voice thick with emotion.