Against The Odds

The Battle at Hogwarts - Prologue

I do not own any of the Harry Potter characters. This is purely a work of fiction from my own mind.

Any characters I do come up with, are mine and I claim all rights to them.

This is a Severus and Hermione ship book, should you not like that pairing, please do not read further.

It is not Student teacher, it takes place after the battle at Hogwarts and will be a semi slow burn.

Thank you for reading and I hope you enjoy.

Being Headmaster was never what he wanted. He never wanted any of this! He certainly didn't want to murder his mentor and best friend and he Certainly didn't want to step into his place once he was gone. The dark Headmaster paced his office with fluid steps and billowing robes. Without a pause, he grabbed the glass of firewhiskey from his desk and drank it back quickly before throwing the glass into the fireplace with an angry rage.

"He's going to kill you, Severus," a familiar voice stated from a portrait above his desk.

Severus sneered as he whirled and glared at the man in the portrait. "As if I don't know that," he snarled bitterly in reply.

The man in the portrait was still as insufferable as he was in life. "You need to make it believable, Severus," the man said, making Severus' nostrils flare in anger.

"I'm pretty sure that Death itself is pretty believable," he snarled back at the man with narrowed eyes. Albus chuckled, making Severus even more angry. HE was getting laughed at! "What's so funny," he barked, angry that he wasn't part of the joke or in this case, he was the joke.

Albus coughed, as if he were ashamed of himself. "Severus, if I know the Dark Lord, I know that the method he will use to kill you will be his snake," he stated as if this was a natural conversation had by anyone. "He would never use a killing curse on his most trusted friend, even Tom Riddle had some morals."

Realization caught up with Severus quickly. "Yes. Yes," he murmured as he began pacing again. "I could make an antivenom and a salve," he stated as he quickly moved behind his desk and began scratching things down on some parchment.

After he got all of his thoughts down, he removed them and stored them in a jar for later use, but more importantly so The Dark Lord couldn't see what he was up to, it was easier to guard if it wasn't directly in his mind. Albus nodded in encouragement at his trusted friend. "And Severus, make sure Harry gets your memories, that is very important," he stated with his ever sparkling eyes.

Severus slammed his fist on the desk and spun to stare at the portrait once more. "Why? I can just tell the dunderhead that he has to die," he growled, not wanting the boy to see his most cherished and hated memories.

"You know why he has to see them, Severus," Albus stated back calmly.

After a few choice curse words, Severus nodded his head sharply and stormed from the office with his robes billowing behind him.

~~~~~~~

Severus had gotten the call to meet with the Dark Lord and he knew it was time. Without hesitation, he drank down the antivenom he had been working on for months and slipped the salve into his inner robe pocket. After one last longing look at his office and at Dumbledore, he took off towards the Shrieking Shack to meet with his fate.

The floorboards creaked in a very eerie fashion as the Whomping Willow moved to and fro above them. Severus tried to focus on what Voldemort was saying, but he was only half there in mind and even spirit. There was a good chance this plan would work, but there was also a good chance that Voldemort could use the Killing Curse on him too, so it had his mind jumbled with thoughts.

The only thought that was predominant in his mind was: Make it believable. That turned out not to be so hard as he was mauled by the giant snake before being left for dead. He was for once thankful that Potter and his insufferable friends were there to nose around, that gave him the chance to give Potter his memories and fake his death so they would leave and he could patch himself up.

Once Potter and his band of nitwits were gone, he hurried with shaky hands, to get the salve out and rub it on his throat. Lucky for him, he had brought some Dittany as well, for he was definitely going to need it.

Time had no merit for quite a while, but once he heard the fighting finally die, he crawled out of the shack and disapparated home to Spinner's End.

News had spread about The Golden Trio being the heroes of the war, with Potter, of course, taking center stage. However, other news had spread too. Thanks to Potter's big mouth, everyone had known what Severus had done to help save everyone and even he was marked a hero. Although at that point they all thought he was dead, so obviously it was a moot point, for now anyway.