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The Hand That Feeds You
A Crackfic! By Superdimples
“Who did this to you?” Severus said as he rubbed a gentle finger over the side of Hermione’s quickly darkening cheekbone.
“Minerva. Unfortunately she gets handsy when she hasn’t been fed.” Hermione supplied him with a small smile in spite of her aching face. “It’s getting harder and harder to get the supplies into Hogwarts that we need. More and more of our suppliers have unfortunately succumbed to the curse.” She followed with a grimace this time.
“Yes, well, we are already at capacity on the breeding we can do here. We’ll have to reach a new agreement with the Centaur if we want to expand into more of their land” Severus ran a dirty hand through his long hair before swiping it down his face.”Now, let us check on all of the enclosures for our friends and make sure everyone is accounted for and there aren’t any fights for resources occuring.”
They both rounded the side of the path closest to the Quidditch pitch, where it looked like there were 300 individual pens surrounded in steel, and massive locks keeping each one closed. Inside were groups of people, standing or shuffling listlessly inside the space. It hurt Hermione’s heart to see some of those she loved in such a state, but a hope for the cure, and limited resources kept her focused on the plan.
“Hey Gin. How are you today? I brought you a little treat!” Hermione’s voice took on the sweet sound a mother makes when talking to a toddler, as she held out a bloody mass before tossing it between the bars.
Ginny, once standing in the corner facing away from her, let out a feral growl and leapt upon the raw meat like a predator would its helpless prey. Seamus shuffled closer, and upon catching a whiff of the delectable scent, started pushing in on Ginny to get his own cut.
“Ah, ah, Seamus, we share here.” Hermione continued, throwing a separate piece of the oozing gore into the opposite side of the cage, effectively separating them for their meals.
As she continued throwing pieces of meat into each cage, Severus followed behind her, dispensing a newly improved version of the cure they hoped would cull this curse into all of the water tanks that fed into the cages.
After their task was done, they sat side by side in the stands, Hermione’s head resting on Severus’s shoulder as she breathed in a deep sigh. “Can you even remember what it was like before?” She asked him softly.
“Before. Before the war, before my parents’ death, before your torture at Bellatrix’s wand. All those befores seem small compared to this state of existence. It is only your steadfastness in finding a cure with me, and caring for our friends that keep me looking for that ‘before’ again.
“We’re so close, I know we are. We’ve already separated a decent amount of those who are responding to treatment. We just need the catalyst that will push us over the edge. I can feel it.’ She squeezed his arm for both his comfort and hers.
“I remember those first days,” he started “all of that fear and fighting. How were we to know that everyone we cherished would become this.” He gestured down at the enclosures, where she followed his hand to gaze into the lifeless eyes of her two best friends.
“Transmitted through a bite. It’s certainly not a curse I could have ever studied for. And you
know
how much I study” she laughed at her own past behavior. “What do you think was the purpose of this curse? It seems oddly specific: biting infects others, a taste for flesh and brains, unnatural strength, but absolutely nothing going on upstairs.” She gestured to her head.
“All I know is that we are racing the clock before this spills over into the muggle world. Thankfully Hogwarts has the space to accommodate our current needs, but I fear we are running out of time for both the safety of mankind as a whole, and for the statute of secrecy. It’s a small mercy that these lifeless things can’t use their wands.” He huffed out in annoyance at their predicament.
A loud sound came from nearby, causing them both to jump to attention. In the glowing dusk, it was hard for their eyes to follow the figure moving strangely through the stands towards them.
“Get behind me Hermione!” He urged under his breath.
“Like hell I will, we do this together. We have a system.” she retorted. “It’s moving faster than the others. Where did it come from? Hogsmeade?” Her voice had an edge now that it was snuffling nearer at an increasing pace.
As they slowly angled their bodies out into the main aisle, the creature took a sharp turn and ran at full speed into Hermione, knocking her to the ground as it fought with her in the darkening light. She pushed its head to the side as it thrashed with its teeth bared, continuing to try to bite down on any available flesh. She used her legs to try and leverage her weight towards its torso and wrench the creature’s body off of her, but it had her arm in a vice.
Severus wrapped his arms around its middle, pulling with all his might to give Hermione space from the beast, but it held fast. He finally ripped his longknife out of his calf holster and cut the hand off at the wrist. Gaining momentum from the act of freeing Hermione’s arm, he pulled the creature up and pushed it over the side of the stands, watching it fall and land with a sickening crunch on the ground below.
“Hermione! Are you okay? Talk to me!” He reached Hermione as she sat up gingerly, taking stock of her post-fight body. She started at her feet and legs, then carefully moved her eyes upward, a familiar process for encounters with these monsters.
“I’m fine, I’m fine, help me up.” Severus leaned down to clasp her arm in a fluid movement to help her stand but froze. A deep foreboding settled in his chest as he peered down at her left arm, the one she had been unable to free.
Severus ripped her sleeve up, roughly bringing her attention to the very clear bite mark that marred her pristine skin. “No….no no no NO! Hermione NO! This can’t happen, I can't lose you.” He fell to his knees wrapping his arms around her legs. Something in him broke, and all of the pain and anxiety of the last two years flowed from him in great gasping sobs as he clung to Hermione as if she was the last person on earth.To him, she was.
Hermione reached a hand down and gently put it atop his head, soothing him as a mother would her child. “We always knew this was a possibility. I should have listened to you when you told me to get behind you. I wasted valuable time asking stupid questions. You’re not to blame for this.” she soothed.
She pulled Severus to his feet and gave him a long hug. “You know what this means; I need to be contained like the rest of them. Your work on this cure is too valuable and too important for us to take any other course of action.” He kept shaking his head in the negative, as if doing it enough times would make the truth different.
She gently guided him down to the main field, where a row of empty cages sat, awaiting their next victims. As she stepped inside, he grabbed her face and kissed her as if it was the only sustenance he would ever need to feed on again. She returned his ardor with just as much strength, holding his face between her hands and grasping his narrow face one final time, before gently pushing him away and shutting herself in with a resounding clang of the metal lock.
They stood staring at one another for many long moments before Severus turned his back and swept away from the field and up to the castle, his long robes billowing behind him as an oncoming storm rolled over the grounds of Hogwarts.
One year later
“Severus? Could you help me decide between these two robes for the potions conference? I really like the deep burgundy, but given everything that’s happened maybe I should go with the sheer silver?”
Severus followed her voice into their chambers and gave her a meaningful look. “My dear, given that
your
blood-resistance to the curse was the missing piece of the cure, I feel confident you can wear whatever you damn well please— red, burgundy, or otherwise.” He smirked at her as he leaned against the wall to their bedroom.
It had nearly stopped his heart, truly, when the day after Hermione was bitten, she stood there waiting for him, as if her being inside was a minor inconvenience. She had shoved her arm through the bars and raised an eyebrow at him, imploring him to take a sample of her blood, cool as anything. At first, he thought she was perhaps having a delayed reaction to the curse, but day after day she remained unchanged. It was then that they had their first breakthrough.
Sixty days later, he was taking tea with Minerva again. Six months later, he and Hermione attended the wedding of Harry Potter and Ginevra Weasley. The Potions world was in an absolute uproar, whispers of an Order of Merlin first class being thrown around in those exclusive circles.
As Hermione put on her earrings and reached for her shawl off the coat hanger, Severus was struck with just how lucky he was. Without her, he would have succumbed to the early days of the curse, self inflicted or otherwise. As he guided her gently towards the floo, he leaned down and whispered in her ear, “You are my cure, Hermione. I will love you always.”