To be together

Chapter 2

Thank you to @SeverusISKIA for my first follow ❤️

"She's been cursed as well."

{~}

"Can you reverse it Severus?" Minerva almost squeaked at the sight of Hermione's small body seizing up and shaking massively out of control. Her accent was slowly thickening with her increasing nerves as Severus dropped to his knees at the side of her bed in order to undo the buttons that resided down from the neckline of her night shirt, so that she wouldn't strangle herself.

"I... I... Poppy, do you have any anti-convulsion... anythings, in your stores?" he urged, once again recoiling slightly at the feel of her ice-like skin. Poppy spluttered in a mixture of despair and pain, her hands now the size of small side plates. "Poppy! Have you got anything that could help in any way possible?"

"No! I used the last of  my anti-convulsion potions on Laura Madley's series of fits five, six weeks ago." Severus merely growled in response. "I have been meaning to ask you to brew more since then!"

"But you didn't and now it may cost the life of the girl with the most brilliant brain to have passed through this school for years!" Severus snarled, his lip curling in disgust towards the matron. Albus and Minerva exchanged glances of sheer surprise at these words, clearly not pre-emanating Severus' sudden respect and affection towards the girl he had appeared to despise for the last five years. "Perhaps a pepper-up potion? Anything? Anything at all?" he continued. Poppy began sobbing into the sleeves of her dressing gown, and Minerva hurriedly wrapped an arm around her, close to tears herself.

A small whimper was emitted from the mouth of the petite witch between them.

Severus perked to the sound immediately as his years of espionage allowed him to do so, the others a little bit slow in picking up the quiet sound, that soon began to escalate and grow as Hermione's convulsions grew more and more fitful and frantic

All four of the adults were then stood up, fiddling with their fingers, doing anything to resist the powerful temptation to hold her down. They gazed intently at the girl before them, worry was etched into every line and crinkle on their faces.

"Severus, we must be able to do something!" Minerva yelled over the top of Hermione's now screams.

"There is nothing I can do without knowing the curse or having any anti-convulsants to hand." he whispered, barely audibly. "And you know you mustn't touch anyone who is having a fit, you could hurt her." At that, Hermione gave a shuddering sigh, eyes still closed, as she finally came to rest. Her limbs were no longer seized up and shaking violently, her face was no longer contorted in as much pain, her breath levelled out before slowing down drastically. With a confused face, Severus dropped once more to his knees by her side and grabbed her wrist, hissing at ice-like feeling. Noting this, Albus re-cast the heating charm, swiftly followed by Minerva. Severus pressed two fingers to her fore arm, his face scrunched in concentration, his pitch black eyes radiating worry.

"Severus?" Minerva whispered.

"I... I can't feel a pulse." he replied. His statement caused Poppy to sob hysterically.

"Are you... Are you sure, Severus?" Minerva whispered, even quieter than before, staring at the befuddled expression of her colleague with a confused face of her own, fighting to hold back the tears. However, the look of confusion on Severus' face was very suddenly replaced with a look of urgency and realisation, before bolting from the Hospital Wing, billowing cloak and all.

"Calm yourself Poppy." Albus spoke gently. "You can do nothing whatsoever for her whilst you are in this state." Poppy took deep breaths as she fumbled with her wand, wanting to produce a powerful current to restart her heart the way a defibrillator would.

With a flick of her wand Hermione jolted upon the bed before sinking back down. Poppy rechecked her pulse but found nothing. She cast the spell again, resulting in the violent twitch once again, but again finding no pulse. Poppy repeated the cycle, slowly losing hope as Albus and Minerva attempted intensifying the heating charms in the hope that it would kickstart Hermione's body.

This stopped only when the door flew open to reveal Severus Snape again, this time with a potion in hand.

"Poppy, lift her head up." He shortly expressed as he knelt down at Hermione's bedside, unstoppering the mystical, purple potion.

With hands shaking more than he would ever care to admit, he held her mouth open and let three drops of the concoction fall onto her tongue. He then, carelessly, put the rounded bottle on the bedside cabinet and extracted his wand from his robes to utter a complex incantation attached to intricate hand movements aimed at Hermione's body. As he finished he closed her mouth and removed her head from Poppy's hands as did so, to cradle her in the crook of his own elbow, stroking start hairs away from her face and behind her ears. "Come on Hermione." he muttered.

Albus, Minerva and Poppy looked on in apprehension and surprise at the potion masters sudden, affectionate actions, especially at the utterance of her given name, as opposed to her surname.

"When can we expect to see the effects, Severus?" Albus' quiet voice broke the shocked silence.

Severus didn't speak for several seconds as he stared at Hermione's pale but peaceful face. "It should have worked by now." His voice came out as a strangled whisper. From behind him he heard Poppy try and subdue a sob behind her hand whilst Minerva stumbled back to sit on a chair.

"I fear we may be too late." Albus sighed. "Come, Severus, Minerva, we must inform her parents and friends, and summon the auror office as foul play was clearly involved. Poppy, please clean her wounds and prepare her for her parents, and I assume, Misters Potter and Weasley, as well as Miss Weasley, to visit."

"Yes, Professor Dumbledore." Poppy whispered. Albus bowed his head for a second before turning slowly towards the door. Minerva stiffly pushed herself up from her chair to follow him. Severus had yet to move. "Go, Severus, you need to go. Her parents need informing." Poppy continued, causing Albus and Minerva to turn back to look at Miss Granger's bed.

"Severus." Albus called, trying to make out the emotions displayed on Severus' usually stoic face. Confusion was transparently fused into his eyes, but whether that was at the failure of his potion or at the sudden emotions and feelings he had pulled to the surface, Albus did not know.

"I don't want to leave her." Severus' strangled voice finally spoke out.

"I shall stay with her, Severus." Poppy responded. "And you can return once you have done what needs doing. But you need to go."

"Severus, come." Minerva called, more sternness instilled in her previously shaky voice.

"I will come back, Hermione." he whispered to her, stroking her honey coloured hair back once more. "Let's make this quick, headmaster." he spoke with more emotion than Albus had heard coming from him in a long time, before stalking down the room, cloak billowing behind him as per usual.

"We shall return Poppy, I shall have an elf send down some of Miss Granger's clothes for her visitors later." Albus said before following the potion master to the headteacher's office with Minerva.