Chapter Text
Unsure why, Hermione ran to the aspen tree that she and Severus were sure was the final resting place of Merlin. Stepping into the clearing, she felt a calm wash over her. The monsters were slowly closing in and she was still lashing out removing their heads, but part of her reached for the magic she felt. Voices called out to her, Blaise and Kevin. The two men appeared on the other side of the clearing away from the demons. Before she could answer them, her protective dome seemed to fail. Sensing this the monsters rushed forward, throwing themselves on her. As claws scraped over the back of her neck, Hermione thought of Severus and how she’d have liked to tell him that she’d planned on staying at the school, with him.
Blaise felt as though he’d been punched in the gut. Before he could reach Hermione, she disappeared from sight, buried under a pile of snarling, slashing creatures. The Unit had arrived, but they were fighting to keep the demons away from the school. Kevin squeezed his arm. Turning towards the man he loved, he nodded as he realized they had to continue the fight. Her death would not be in vain. Transfiguring his wands to iron swords, the way his best friend had done a hundred times before, he hacked and slashed his way through creature after creature, taking out his grief and anger at the loss of the woman he’d considered his sister.
He and Kevin made it back to the school and found the men managing to keep the hoards at bay for the time being. Professor Snape appeared suddenly next to them.
“Where is she?”
Blaise felt this throat constrict. He couldn’t say the words out loud. In his heart not saying them made Hermione’s loss not real.
Colonel Scott looked over at Severus and said, “She went down, in the forest. We couldn’t save her. I’m sorry. When this is over, we’ll find her. We never leave anyone behind.”
Pain sprung to life around his heart. Gone. His love was gone. She’d given her life to save the students and teachers at the school. And instead of telling her that he wanted her to stay, he’d spent the last days pushing her away. Rejecting her before she could tell him she was leaving the school and what they had.
They two men who’d been standing beside him moved towards the fighting. Severus decided he too would take down as many of the creatures as he could. Transfiguring his wands to swords, the way Hermione had taught him, he followed the others into battle.
The protective dome that had faltered for a moment seemed to pop back into place just as soon as the monsters piled on top of her. There was an intense stinging on the back of her neck, where one of the creatures had gotten her with his claws and she was sure he left shoulder was dislocated, not to mention she could feel bruises forming all over her body. The odd thing was, the dome that had formed, was not one she was casting.
Through the snarling, Hermione heard a calm, quiet, deep voice. “You have proven yourself worthy of my magic. Allow it to become yours.”
“How?” she asked the voice.
“Take my staff and do not fight as you feel my magic flow through you.”
Wondering how in the hell she was supposed to get from under the snarling, growling, evil mass of bodies on top of her, she again closed her eyes and felt her own magic course through her. Willing it to gather and strengthen, it began to feel like a ball of electricity in her chest. Without any more conscious thought, her magic lashed out and the creatures began scrambling away. The ones closest to her body rolled off her protective dome as though dead. Once she was free, Hermione jumped to her feet and stumbled the last few steps to the single aspen tree. She wrapped her good arm around it and allowed a subtle warmth to flow through her, though it felt slightly foreign.
She’d been watching the creatures, circling outside the perimeter of the aspens, so she was surprised when she turned back, and the tree was dying from the top of the branches and moving down the trunk.
“I’m killing you”, she said out loud.
The voice answered, “No, you are allowing me to finally rest. I have been trapped here for many, many long years, waiting for the guardian of Hogwarts. Go now and know that you have freed me.”
The aspen looked like ash, crumbling as she stepped away. Pulling out her vine wood wand, Hermione gave it a swish without thought and the monsters nearest her exploded into balls of pure, white light before disappearing altogether. With her newfound power, she began making her ways though the mass of creatures, destroying them a dozen at a time, fighting her way back to Hogwarts.
The fight seemed fruitless. No matter how many they killed, more seemed to take their place. At Colonel Street’s command, everyone who could fell back and gathered inside the protective dome. Severus had realized that he could apparate into and out of the golden half sphere. Standing near Blaise, he waited for the rest of the Unit. Suddenly all was quiet. The growling and snarling had stopped. They all turned to look out at the field. Walking through the creatures was a hooded figure. He stopped just before the golden dome.
The Percy who lowered his hood was not the arrogant, overachiever that had gone to school there. This Percy had a malevolent look on his face and his eyes glowed red. He smiled at them and Severus almost felt the need to take a step back. The evil radiating off him made Voldemort look like a slightly unsetting clown.
“Surrender now. I have no wish to harm the children of Hogwarts. Hermione Granger is dead, more of your soldiers are injured or dying. Do not force me to take your lives as well. There is no one stronger than me. I control the forces of raw, unadulterated magic. Choose to follow me and you will be rewarded.”
It was Severus who answered. “Mister Weasley, you are sadly under the delusion that you can win this. No one will follow a pathetic, mental megalomaniac. It’s already been done to death.”
The redheaded man snarled. “Professor Snape, you didn’t scare me then and you don’t scare me now. I think I’ll take pleasure in killing you myself.”
From behind the evil wizard a feminine voice said, “I don’t think so Percy. You might not be scared of Severus Snape, which is a big mistake, I assure you, but you should be terrified of me.”
Percy whipped around. Standing there, looking barely able to stay on her feet was Hermione.
At the sound of Hermione’s voice, Severus felt hope bloom within him. His witch, his life was still alive. The men around him struggled to get a glimpse of her, but with her short little frame, she was hidden by Percy. Until, of course, she strolled right past him and turned so that her back was to the dome. She looked injured, her left arm hanging at an odd angle and blood dripping down her back. Still, she was a fierce warrior and never had she looked more beautiful to Severus than right at that moment.
Hermione cast several defensive spells, including the unknown one she’d been using to destroy the creatures, but nothing touched Percy.
“You foolish bitch. There is no defeating me. No magic can hurt me.” The man laughed and wiggled a hand, which caused her to fly back against the protective dome. She noticed a ring on his right index finger which must have been the seal of Solomon. If she wanted to win, that was what she needed.
Sliding to her knees, then dropping her wand, she called out, “You’re right Percy. No magic can hurt you.”
Before he could react further, she’d pulled her gun from its holster and fired. Blood exploded from his left knee. He howled in pain, not realizing that the ring which had been on his hand was now flying through the air towards the witch. Hermione caught it and managed to slip it on her own finger where it resized itself to fit her.
“I promised you Percy that if you didn’t come and face me like a man, I would shoot you in the knee then send you to hell. I’ve done the first part, now I think it is past time for the second.”
Struggling to her feet, she made a fist and swept it in a long line towards the ground. A deep fissure opened up in the ground between her and the redhead.
“As your mistress, I command you, return to the earth and take him with you!”
She wasn’t sure if winning the ring away from Percy would work, but then the monsters started moving forward and jumping into the gorge. The two closest to Percy picked him up and holding them between them, jumped, his screams echoing up for a long time. When it appeared that all the creatures were gone, Hermione concentrated hard on pulling the two separated parts of earth back together and sealing them. Once it was done, she felt black beginning to overtake her. Falling forward, Hermione didn’t feel the arms that caught her.
“Severus, she’ll be fine. Go take care of yourself.” The voice of McGonagall seemed to push thought Hermione’s consciousness. She could still feel pain, but not as bad as it had been. Assuming she’d passed out, Hermione tried to force one eye to open, but it seemed to take a lot of her strength. Instead, she decided to lose herself in sleep once more. It sounded as if the man she loved was there watching over her. That was all that mattered.
Unsure how long she’d been out, when she opened her eyes, Hermione found it was dark. At the side of her bed, reading was Severus. When she adjusted herself slightly, he dropped the book and looked at her before moving over to sit on the side of the bed and pull her into his arms.
“I’ve missed you. I’m so sorry Hermione.”
Looking up into his face, she realized he had tears leaking from his eyes. Her mouth felt dry, making it possible only for her to croak out his name, followed by the word water.
He reached over to a bedside table and helped her take a few small sips. Once she felt like her mouth had been cleared of the sands of sleep, she asked, “How long?”
“A week. You fought hard and saved everyone. I- Blaise saw you fall to those creatures. We thought you were dead.”
Shaking her head, she grinned slightly. “Takes more than that to kill me.”
Reaching up, she ran her fingertips down his face. “Besides”, she continued, “I promised myself that if I lived, I’d never leave your side again.”
He looked at her questioningly. “Does that mean you plan to stay at Hogwarts?”
“Until you no longer want me”, she said.
The smile that broke out of his face was one Hermione had never seen before. “Then I’m afraid you’re stuck here forever.”
It took another three days for Madame Pomfrey to finally be convinced Hermione could leave the hospital wing. Severus came and helped her down to breakfast. As they entered the great hall, the students hopped to their feet and began cheering. She’d spoken to Minerva the day before about staying on permanently as the Defense Against the Dark Arts professor and had been given an unequivocal yes immediately.
Sitting down to eat, Hermione grinned as each of her colleagues in turn came over to express their happiness at seeing her up and about. She still wasn’t cleared for teaching, but the students had been learning at an advanced pace and were far ahead of where they needed to be at their respective years, so the time they would normally be in DADA was spent in study hall instead.
Late in the afternoon, Hermione was resting in her quarters, waiting for Severus to finish with classes for the day, when a knock from outside roused her from her nap. When she opened the door, it was to find Kevin and Blaise.
“Hey guy! Come in.” She stepped back and they followed her to the sitting room.
Once they were settled, they explained why they’d come. “As it turns out, the vampires had gathered together for protection against Percy. They’d heard what he’d done to the werewolves and after Voldemort, decided they wanted no part of it. Currently the hives are making their way back to their territories. Whatever doorway there was between the deep and here is permanently gone it appears, though why Merlin placed so near the school in the first place is still a mystery.”
Hermione said, “I think I know the answer to that. From the reading I’ve done, I suspect it was Vivian. She knew that she could open it anytime she wanted by spilling blood of the innocent, and where better to find such blood, than at a school full of them. However, she was murdered before she ever got the chance.”
Blaise looked at her sadly. “So, is it true? Are you leaving the Unit?”
Nodding, she explained, “It’s time. I’ve proven to myself everything I needed to. Now I want to try something else.”
“And spend your nights getting punished by the biggest…”, started Blaise, now grinning.
“Yes, that too. I’m happy.”
Both men stood then and hugged her one by one. Colonel Street said, “We’ll miss you. Remember you can come back anytime you want, even if it’s just to put the recruits through their paces.”
“Come on guys. I’m Blaise’s sister now. It’s not like I won’t see you.”
“That’s true. You always had my six and I love you for it”, said Blaise.
They left and Hermione decided to make her way up to her classroom. Sitting inside was a small blonde boy reading. He looked up when she entered.
“Hi, Professor Granger. I’m sorry, I probably wasn’t supposed to be in here, but I’ve missed our classes”, said Scorpius.
She smiled at him. “That is quite all right. Do you feel like dueling?”
The young man’s grin blossomed. He jumped up and pulled out his wand. She’d been worried about him after what had happened, but he seemed no worse for the wear after his experience. Scorpius had told Severus he’d been late leaving the library and when he’d passed by the entrance hall to head for the dungeon, Percy had told him to come outside so he could ask the boy some questions, before grabbing him and taking him to the temple.
They dueled for about an hour, then she sent him off to dinner. Making her own way to the great hall, she was pleased to see Severus. He stood and pulled out her chair, then took his own seat beside hers. Under the table he squeezed her hand. Her heart felt content.
School had been out for a few weeks and Severus had made sure that Hermione felt settled at what he called their home. She loved the peace and quiet of the area, often sitting outside in the sun to listen to the breeze or birds. It was afternoon in mid-July, and they’d been working in the garden. The potions area needed frequent weeding and they preferred to do it by hand. Neither had talked in a long while, enjoying the comfortable silence.
Severus stood and without a word walked into the house, returning a few minutes later with sandwiches and lemonade. Hermione joined him at the outdoor table and pulling off her gloves, reached for her drink.
“I’m glad you decided to stay with me”, Severus said.
She smiled at him. “I told you, I plan to be by your side as long as you’ll have me.”
With that he stood and dropped to one knee in front of her. “In that case, Hermione Jean Granger, I love you and never want to have you anywhere else but with me. Will you marry me and stay by my side forever?”
Tears welled up in her eyes. He’d reached into his pocket and pulled out a small box, which contained a thin platinum band with small diamonds encircling it. She lifted her hand, allowing him to slip the ring on, then she launched herself into his arms.
“Is that a yes?” he asked as she peppered kisses all over his face.
Laughing she said, “That’s a hell yes!”
For the rest of the afternoon, they showed each other through kisses and touches just what they meant when they said, “I love you.”