Senses

Chapter 15

Hermione turned her head slowly from the soft wet cloth that was massaging away the tears that just wouldn't stop. Silent now, they continued to run down her face as though they had been built up for years. Her body laid heavily in the supporting arm of the man whose lap she laid across. Too weak willed to give him any assistance in keeping her head above the water that now surrounded them.

"Do you hurt anywhere?" Severus waited with Saint-like patience for a response.

She hadn't shown any emotion since he'd taken her from the bed to his private bath. It had been a challenge with his damaged shoulder and his jaw pulsed from the force in which he'd ground his teeth to get her there. He needed his own potions, salves and care but he'd uncharacteristically set her needs above his own.

Her lack of reaction to his touch was more worrisome than her previous one. He did truly wonder just what was left of the infamous know-it-all. As his hand dipped back into the water to run the cloth over her bruised neck and bony shoulder he tried to remember what she had been like before. His mind tried to pick out anything in his memories of her that made her stand out.

Unfortunately, his mind was unhelpful. He'd so constantly grouped her with Potter that he couldn't think of her as an individual. She was just one of a set. Part of the 'Golden Trio'—true she was the brains but that was all he knew.

His head turned down as he tilted her head back. Her cheek cradled in his palm, he thumbed her cheek before releasing the cloth to gently open one of her eyes. Not too far, just enough to see what color the white was. Her brows furrowed just a little before she willingly opened her eyes further. The iris looked at some obscure place before twitching. He let out a slow breath before her eyes turned upward towards his own.

Defeat looked back at him. The small light that he had seen before had gone, leaving behind a stained red void. He pressed into her mind as gently as possible but found her mind quiet. No small light in the back flickering with hope. No memories whispering in the void.

His hand came down to her chest, resting over her heart. He searched and searched trying to find anything to bring her back to him. Just when he'd thought there was nothing left of her to save, his own voice came through the darkness. Like a gentle caress against weathered skin. She still trusted him, deep down inside her heart, hidden away in the unreachable part of her mind.

Severus blinked slowly, pulling out. His eyes ran down her small frame, his own mind turning with every choice he could possibly make. Her body was healing but it was her mind that worried him so. He couldn't even think of the proper course. Logic did not have a place inside her world. He needed something else, something more, to reach her.

"I am going to free you of the stone inside you today." Severus kept his words soft but there was a hidden tension.

Hermione merely closed her eyes, the tears that had been falling having come to a stop. She could only press her face closer to him, ready to take whatever he had to give, until her last breath.

Severus reclaimed the cloth, wiping away the last of her tears. He had no way to know if what he was doing was right. Only that something needed to be done. A slow breath left his nose as he ran the cloth lower, gently massaging her chest with the soap before going lower into the water. He kept his touch light as he ran it over her waist.

The bruise salve that had been administered had seemingly removed the pain but the large hand prints were still very much visible. It was still hard for him to fathom just how much damage could be done to one person in such a short amount of time but then again—it had taken him mere seconds to dispose of the snatchers who had aided in her capture.