Borrowed Time
Title: Borrowed Time
Author: of-anoesis
Team Name: Death Eaters
Word Count: 6 x 100
Challenge: Sealed With a Kiss
Characters: Hermione/Severus
Rating: M
Summary: She threw a wish in the well, don't ask her she'll never tell…
Author’s Notes: Originally a gift for unalunadepapel for the 2013 sshg_newbies NewbieFest, this follows the original prompt 'Call Me Maybe' hence the slight smattering of lyrics. Major Character Death. Most definitely not a song!fic.
~ I threw a wish in the well, don't ask me, I'll never tell ~
There were places at Hogwarts one was meant to stay away from. Hermione had learned in her first year that this was because there were more than a few things at Hogwarts that could kill. Or worse.
This was part of the Forbidden Forest that even the centaurs shunned. It had taken her almost an hour to reach the dark, pulsing heart of the ancient forest, her journey through brambles and ivy made even slower by the constant drain on her already exhausted magic by levitating Professor Snape's mangled body behind her.
She wasn't ready to call it his corpse.
~ I'd trade my soul for a wish, pennies and dimes for a kiss ~
The trade was surprisingly simple. Scholars far more learned than she have speculated that intent is secondary compared to execution, but intent is everything. Hermione simply needed to whisper the darkest yearning of her heart into the night for her wish to be granted.
After that, it was simply a case of sealing the deal with a kiss.
It was if he were waking from a dream, his dark eyes growing brighter as he looked upon his saviour and felt her sacrifice crawl inside his chest.
Love blooms in the most unlikely of circumstances, Hermione tells herself . She smiles.
~ I beg, and borrow and steal, have foresight and it's real ~
The price doesn't have to be paid right away. It's what makes it so dangerously seductive.
In a way it helps. You see, Hermione knows that every moment is precious. It helps when her friends turn from her in angry confusion, helps make the decision to leave her parents in contented ignorance of her existence, rather than dooming them to love a daughter who soon must die.
It doesn't stop her fighting though. Without friends, without family, it's easier to focus her energies on eking out every last second of borrowed time. Makes it easier to pay in other ways.
~ I didn't know I would feel it, but it's in my way ~
Mortality sits heavy on her chest. Morality is a lesser thing, it's gossamer-fine threads all but gone. She's elbow deep in blood by the time the end comes. Severus - darling Severus - never sees the stains upon her skin. They're bound together, you see.
He's with her at the end, when all her tricks are exhausted and her time slowly trickles out. She's dodged Death for almost twenty years, tried to renege on the deal in a thousand different ways. At times she'd thought she'd succeeded.
When it comes, it's neither easy nor quick. The darkness exacts its toll quite thoroughly.
~ Your stare was holdin', Ripped jeans, skin was showin', Hot night, wind was blowin' ~
Severus has always been one to confuse obsession with love, but Hermione had taught him that love is obsession.
He's wrapped her carefully in her favourite cloak, unable to bear the sight of the rends in her clothing, or the mirroring rends in her flesh. He cannot bring himself to close her eyes though. Her blank stare is placid, as if she'd finally accepted their inevitable parting.
Severus cannot, will not accept it.
The hot wind gusts around them as he lays her on the forest floor, electric in the air. He has to shout to make his wish heard.
~ Before you came into my life I missed you so bad ~
He cannot offer himself in trade; he's already living on borrowed time. He's not come for that.
Severus has learnt many things in his lifetime, the first being that a man like him cannot expect a happy ever after, yet Hermione granted him twenty years of fierce, uncompromising devotion.
They hadn't even been friends before she traded her soul for his.
Perhaps his life can mean something without her, their unnatural bond now shattered; Severus finds he doesn't care.
Stretching out beside her, he raises his head to press one final kiss to her chilled lips.
The deal is struck.
Author: of-anoesis
Team Name: Death Eaters
Word Count: 6 x 100
Challenge: Sealed With a Kiss
Characters: Hermione/Severus
Rating: M
Summary: She threw a wish in the well, don't ask her she'll never tell…
Author’s Notes: Originally a gift for unalunadepapel for the 2013 sshg_newbies NewbieFest, this follows the original prompt 'Call Me Maybe' hence the slight smattering of lyrics. Major Character Death. Most definitely not a song!fic.
~ I threw a wish in the well, don't ask me, I'll never tell ~
There were places at Hogwarts one was meant to stay away from. Hermione had learned in her first year that this was because there were more than a few things at Hogwarts that could kill. Or worse.
This was part of the Forbidden Forest that even the centaurs shunned. It had taken her almost an hour to reach the dark, pulsing heart of the ancient forest, her journey through brambles and ivy made even slower by the constant drain on her already exhausted magic by levitating Professor Snape's mangled body behind her.
She wasn't ready to call it his corpse.
~ I'd trade my soul for a wish, pennies and dimes for a kiss ~
The trade was surprisingly simple. Scholars far more learned than she have speculated that intent is secondary compared to execution, but intent is everything. Hermione simply needed to whisper the darkest yearning of her heart into the night for her wish to be granted.
After that, it was simply a case of sealing the deal with a kiss.
It was if he were waking from a dream, his dark eyes growing brighter as he looked upon his saviour and felt her sacrifice crawl inside his chest.
Love blooms in the most unlikely of circumstances, Hermione tells herself . She smiles.
~ I beg, and borrow and steal, have foresight and it's real ~
The price doesn't have to be paid right away. It's what makes it so dangerously seductive.
In a way it helps. You see, Hermione knows that every moment is precious. It helps when her friends turn from her in angry confusion, helps make the decision to leave her parents in contented ignorance of her existence, rather than dooming them to love a daughter who soon must die.
It doesn't stop her fighting though. Without friends, without family, it's easier to focus her energies on eking out every last second of borrowed time. Makes it easier to pay in other ways.
~ I didn't know I would feel it, but it's in my way ~
Mortality sits heavy on her chest. Morality is a lesser thing, it's gossamer-fine threads all but gone. She's elbow deep in blood by the time the end comes. Severus - darling Severus - never sees the stains upon her skin. They're bound together, you see.
He's with her at the end, when all her tricks are exhausted and her time slowly trickles out. She's dodged Death for almost twenty years, tried to renege on the deal in a thousand different ways. At times she'd thought she'd succeeded.
When it comes, it's neither easy nor quick. The darkness exacts its toll quite thoroughly.
~ Your stare was holdin', Ripped jeans, skin was showin', Hot night, wind was blowin' ~
Severus has always been one to confuse obsession with love, but Hermione had taught him that love is obsession.
He's wrapped her carefully in her favourite cloak, unable to bear the sight of the rends in her clothing, or the mirroring rends in her flesh. He cannot bring himself to close her eyes though. Her blank stare is placid, as if she'd finally accepted their inevitable parting.
Severus cannot, will not accept it.
The hot wind gusts around them as he lays her on the forest floor, electric in the air. He has to shout to make his wish heard.
~ Before you came into my life I missed you so bad ~
He cannot offer himself in trade; he's already living on borrowed time. He's not come for that.
Severus has learnt many things in his lifetime, the first being that a man like him cannot expect a happy ever after, yet Hermione granted him twenty years of fierce, uncompromising devotion.
They hadn't even been friends before she traded her soul for his.
Perhaps his life can mean something without her, their unnatural bond now shattered; Severus finds he doesn't care.
Stretching out beside her, he raises his head to press one final kiss to her chilled lips.
The deal is struck.