Senses

Chapter 39

"Professor? Professor!?"

Hermione could hardly breathe through the ash that coated her face and filled her lungs. Even though the air around them was clear, her chest still ached with the superheated air that had nearly taken her life in an instant. The portkey had landed her square overtop of the man who had grabbed her from behind to activate it. Sending them tumbling rather painfully into the solid oak coffee table that had subsequently collapsed under their combined weight.

Now, Hermione found herself sat over his hips with her hands cradling his head in her soot-covered palms. Tears had already begun to roll down her face as she desperately tried to think of anything to do in such a circumstance. The smell of fire was heavily accented with the blood that was starting to roll freely from the hand that had been burnt after her first attempt, the skin which she had so intricately memorized, sluffing off in heavy chunks.

"Professor please...answer me...?" Her hands gave his heavy head a small shake before she leaned down over his prone form and without a second thought, pressed her lips to his in a desperate attempt at CPR.

Severus choked on the air that filled his lungs, having merely lost consciousness when his head slammed hard into the wood that had collapsed beneath them. His hands rose to try and push her away while resisting the urge to shake the ever-loving life out of the witch over top of him. When he felt her body pull back to his weak and albeit somewhat clumsy attempt at regaining personal space, his eyes fluttered open going cross-eyed as he tried to bring the world above him into focus.

Hermione let out a heavy sob followed by a heavy cough that tasted like metal. Her head hanging heavily as she took hold of his wrists. Her body shook with relief when he mumbled something scathing about her bad breath but the fact that he was speaking to her at all was enough to make her already floating head even lighter.

A rather heavy and somewhat painful push removed the witch from over top of him and allowed him to take a deep breath of clean air. The soot from her lungs had filled his own and it was at that moment that he realized that she was in very possible danger of suffocation without her even realizing it. His hand which felt slippery but lacked any nerves to indicate pain came up to his face pushing his hair out of his way before he turned his dark eyes in the direction he had pushed her off.

"Cabinet...purple...potion...inhale it..." A deep series of coughs thumped his head back into the debris and he could feel the world spinning without him. The noise of her clumsy path to her feet made his skull threaten to crack but he pushed it aside for the more pressing matter that he could no longer feel his wand hand.

A heavy grunt pushed him up from the wood below and he brought his hand up to his chest cradling it carefully. He needed to act quickly if he had any hope of restoring it but his mind was too busy trying to piece together just what had happened.

Hermione's body was quickly losing the adrenaline that had flooded her system. Her vision that had been wide was quickly funneling down to a small tunnel making it extremely difficult to find the potion that she was supposed to be looking for. It was only then that she realized that breathing was becoming extremely difficult, that each breath was becoming shallower than the last. When her fingers, by some miracle, wrapped around the potion that she was sure he had sent her to retrieve.

Her fingers fumbled dumbly with the cork as her hand shook with weakness. Her world was starting to grow darker but she wouldn't allow herself to be felled so easily. She had been through much worse than this. When the cork finally popped free, a deep blue mist began to rise and she wasted no time in shoving the vial in front of her mouth to take as deep a breath as possible. A cold menthol like feeling filled her chest and though it hurt, it made breathing much, much easier.