The Power of Pain

Chapter 41

Hermione pulled back slowly, a knot forming in her stomach as she realized just exactly what she had done. She swallowed, licking her bottom lip before turning her eyes up into his. Her heart beat heavily in her ears as she looked into the face of someone she had never seen before.

His normally terse and focused brow was uneven with confusion and fear. Uncertainty lined his cheeks and his lips parted as if he were going to speak before slowly coming closed again. She allowed herself to come back down onto her heels though her eyes never left him; she bit her bottom lip nervously letting her hand slide down to his chest, slipping into his coat as if she was afraid he was going to turn and run.

What she never expected was his hands to come up and hold her in place by her waist. A smile ticked against the corner of her lips as she watched him desperately try to sort out all he was feeling. She never broke away, showing him all of her heart.

Let go...

Severus' ear twitched as he felt the brush of Lily's words against his very soul. He stared into the eyes of someone who had so bravely done something that no one ever had in his life. Something he had been desperately searching for since the moment he could walk. The feeling felt so strange settling into his heart wrapping around its cold exterior.

He struggled to give it a name. His lips parted once more before closing again. Acceptance. She had accepted him, all of him. His dark and his light, without a second thought. His head tilted as if he were to shake his head before coming to a stop.

How could this be? How could his life turn out like this? He was so undeserving of what she offered to him, but his heart desperately clung to it refusing to let it go. He swallowed down all the harsh words that his protective nature threatened to throw into her face.

His brow twitched. What could he possibly do now? What would possibly make sense? He felt his body moving of its own volition; his lips pressing gingerly into her forehead. He allowed his eyes to close; he could feel her thoughts, all of them, swirling around through his own. Everything he had seen in her face was genuine and it hurt. It ached so deeply, to realize that someone had really done what he thought could never possibly be done. Something he could never possibly make penance for. His eyes twitched as a solitary tear slipped free running down his cheek, he forced himself back into control.

Hermione just held him closer. Her own tears were still freely falling from her eyes and when she felt his lips against her forehead, she smiled sadly. She could feel his pain, his logic as he tried to rationalize something so foreign to him but more than that—she felt him see her, her true self, beyond all that had been taken from her. He could see her true nature.

Her hand tightened in his jacket to keep herself steady at the dizzying feeling of his thoughts swirling through her own. It was so intimate. So powerful. To feel exactly what someone else was feeling the moment they were feeling it. The way they felt about you. Her heart gave a rough shudder and she gasped. No. Not now.

The creature inside was waking and it was furious. She could feel the cracks in her soul creaking against their new found connection and the metal of the vault screamed loudly in her mind. She felt him pull back as her eyes started to roll back. She fought against the creature's overwhelming pull to drag her into unconsciousness.

"It's free..."

It was the last thing to pass her lips before she collapsed forward against him. Severus' eyes widened in shock as he caught her tightly, pressing her small frame against his own to keep her from crashing to the floor.