“Hermione.” Harry gave his girlfriend another shake. His package had arrived from the Smith and the sleeping potion she'd taken should have worn off enough for her to wake up. “Hermione, I've got something for you. And we need to get back to work on the cure.”

Hermione let her eyelids drift slowly open. She wasn't feeling as bad as she'd expected, the crash had obviously gone through the cycle while she'd been sleeping. And for once the stimulant had left her ravenous. “What it is Harry?” She asked, her voice horse and dry.

Harry handed Hermione a goblet full of fresh conjured water. “Have a drink Hermione. We should get to work on the next stage of the cure.”

Hermione nodded, sitting up on the camp bed she'd been sleeping on. The room was lit with torches and the cauldron containing the cure was sending out puffs of pink smoke on a regular basis. “Is the cure done yet?” She asked, hoping that it was. I really don't feel like standing over a hot cauldron and getting my hands burned from the metal ladle again.

“Not quite.” Harry took a small box from out of his sleeve and glanced down it for a moment before tucking it back into a pocket. This didn't feel like the right time for such an important and sentimental moment. He wasn't ready and there was work to be done.

Hermione stood up, groaning as she stretched and pulled on gloves and a face mask. The fumes from the cure potion could damage the eyes and she already had to wear glasses like her boyfriend. Hermione definitely did not want to loose her eyes. They were very important to her.

“Let's do this.” Hermione picked up the paper and stepped over to the cauldron. “Did you add the lavender yet?” There weren't many steps left, the potions was nearly finished.

Harry nodded. “I'm on the last step. Adding the precipitate from the other cauldrons. We have to cast a containment spell over it so I was waiting for you.”

Hermione took out her wand and pointed it at the cauldron, while with her left hand, she picked up the bottle and made sure that the mixture within it was still actively fighting and trying to gnaw through the glass. Dead it would be useless to them.

“Still good?” Harry asked. He was focused on the cauldron, his wand pointed straight and steady toward the potion that would soon cause a tremendous noise and reaction.

“Go!” Hermione yelled, letting the lid off the mixture jar with a flick of her wand and tossing the volatile substance into the opaque depths of the cure potion. The two substances began to mix together, sparks leapt out of the cauldron and clouds of smoke billowed out of the mass.

Harry waited for Hermione's lead and as soon as she began to move her wand, he followed suit and the two moved their wands in elaborate patterns while chanting the ancient spell that Severus had unearthed in his work to develop a cure.

And sure enough, once the chant was complete and the wands came to a still, a web blossomed out of them and slowly grew larger and larger until it enveloped the entire sputtering cauldron in a brilliant cage of light and sparking energy.

“Beautiful.” Hermione whispered, reaching out to touch it. The exhaustion, stimulant potion and headache all seemed to be adding up and making her brain not really connect with the rest of herself. It didn't occur to her that interfering with the cure was a very bad thing. Something that could hurt her and make the only chance they had to bring Severus back disappear.

Harry hit his girlfriend's hand away. “Hermione, have you taken leave of your senses? Don't touch the spell web!” He pocketed his wand and sunk onto one of the high lab stools, yawning as he did so.

Hermione rubbed her hair out of her face and stopped to massage her temples for a moment. “Tired.” She yawned, same as Harry had. “Night Harry.” Hermione climbed back onto the conjured camp bed and pulled the bedclothes around her, hoping to fall back into a healing sleep.

“Hermione.” Harry got off the stool and walked over to sit on the end of the camp bed. “Are you feeling all right?”

Hermione shook her head marginally. “'m tired and there's a headache too.” She said quietly, hoping that he'd leave her alone so that she could get some sleep.

Harry nodded and pulled his wand out to summon a few potion vials for Hermione's headache and exhaustion, from the sleeves in the room. “Come on Hermione, sit up. I've got you some potions.” Usually Hermione was the one feeding him potions, but Harry didn't mind helping out when it was needed. It wasn't as if Hermione were one of the students who complained and protested at having to take medication.

Hermione pulled herself up and leaned into her boyfriend's shoulder. She accepted the first potion and swallowed it quickly. Same for the second. But her Potion training was coming in handy, she could recognize the brews simply by taste and a bit of smell. The books all said that it would happen eventually.

Harry could feel his hands shaking with the anxiety and nervousness he was experiencing. “Hermione?” He asked, pulling the small box from his pocket.

“Ya?” Hermione looked at him with tired eyes. “What is it Harry?” She yawned and let his shoulder pillow her head. Harry could feel her breath against his neck. It was rather ticklish, but at the same time warm and comforting.

Harry opened the box and made sure that it was what he thought it was before handing it to his girlfriend. “Hermione, I want to marry you. Severus wants me t' to.”

That definitely stirred Hermione into wakefulness. Her eyes popped open and she looked down, startled, at the box in her hand. She opened it and looked at the ring inside, it sparkled and shone with the same look as the web that they'd cast over the cure cauldron. “Harry . . .” She turned to stare at her boyfriend with amazement written plainly across her face.

Oh no! Harry you screwed up! Why did you ever even ask her?!?! Harry was mortified with humiliation, he couldn't believe that he'd just come out of nowhere and asked Hermione to marry him. It was the worst proposal he could ever make.

“Harry, I . . .”

“No, it's okay. I get it.” Harry got off the camp bed. “Sorry I bothered. I should have known . . .” He turned to head off, to be anywhere but with Hermione.

Hermione grabbed Harry's arm. “Yes Harry.”

Harry turned back, his eyes growing as wide as dinner plates. “Really? You'll marry me?” When Hermione nodded her head, he leapt into the air in his excitement. “Yes!”

Hermione smiled and pulled Harry down next to her. She wrapped her arms around his neck and pulled his face to hers for a long kiss. The deepest, most personal that they'd ever shared. Hermione couldn't believe that it was actually happening. Ever since Ron had died she'd given up hope of ever marrying. Harry always seemed more of the boyfriend, not husband, type.

Harry returned the hug, letting Hermione's body heat warm him up. For him, the biggest problem with the dungeons was their year round icy temperatures. “Hermione. I want to wait to marry. For Severus, he asked me. Said he wants to be there.”

Hermione sometimes doubted the reliability of Harry's visions. For sometimes, she felt that they were just his own version of events, or the way his mind allowed him to reflect and grieve for important people and events. “Sure Harry. The cure should be ready soon. And then this whole business can be forgotten.”

“Look!” Harry pointed wildly, his arms waving about. “It's working! It's working!”

Hermione turned to see what the commotion was about, although she was nearly certain before turning around of what she would see. And sure enough, the beautiful containment web that had covered the potion and the area around it was fading, as if it were light in darkness and the entire web evaporated before their very eyes.

“Amazing.” Hermione found the energy, somewhere within herself, to get up and walk across the floor to peer into the cauldron. Everything was exactly as it was suppose to be in the notes that Harry had brought back from his vision. It matched Severus's instructions and those Hermione was willing to trust.

Harry nodded in agreement and set up the decanting equipment. True to the formula there was only one dose in the entire cauldron that had started out full. With careful spells and vials, he drew the potion up and into a glass vial that had been spelled unbreakable.

“The only thing left to do is administer it.” Hermione said, reading over the instruction paper. “It needs to be injected and ingested. We'll need muggle needles and such, I'll get that and meet you in the shrine in an hour.”

“I'll be there!” Harry felt as if he were floating on air. Everything seemed to be going his way now. Everything was working out and soon his father would be back and he'd be marrying his girlfriend! With Severus, the war might even start to look up again.

When Harry arrived at the shrine, Hermione was already there. Harry pulled the door closed behind him and looked hopefully at the apparatus that Hermione had set up and the notes that she was reading over. “Is he cured?”

Hermione jumped at the sudden noise and looked up from the instructions she was reading over. “Oh Harry. There you are.” She set the notes down and gave a set of vials yet another scrutinizing look. “I haven't started the cure yet. And according to the information you brought back it could take up to a week to take affect.”

Harry nodded. “You're certain that we've got everything? The diagnostic ring, nutrient potions, sleeping- “

“Yes Harry.” Hermione interrupted her fiancé. “I've got everything here. It will go as planned. Just sit down and be patient. I'm not ready yet.”

Harry was too nervous to sit down. Father, Severus. He's coming back! He paced up and down the room, looking over the things that had been left in there in memory of Severus. After all, this had been a memorial before the cure had been found.

Pictures of a figure towering over a cauldron, a Slytherin scarf and a photograph of Severus as a student were all mounted neatly on the wall. Harry knelt down and looked over the things that people had hung up. There was an old Potion Masters certification that had Severus's name as a reference and Harry managed to unearth one of Neville Longbottom's tests. He'd gotten an E on it. Probably the best mark that Neville ever managed to get in potions.

Harry agreed with Hermione's decision to not publicise the possible discovery of a cure. Severus had been doing duty as a martyr and he was doing a good job. They didn't want to interfere with anyone's peace of mind and reconciliation that had come from understanding Professor Snape or forgiving him for the way he'd behaved toward them.

“Harry? I'm ready to get started.” Hermione had her wand stuck behind her ear and stepped away from Severus's preserved and unaging body. “Let's get started.”

Harry was bursting with excitement. He couldn't believe that they'd finally reached the moment they'd been striving to get to for almost two years. “Want do I need to do?” He asked Hermione, she was in charge of this part of the process.

Hermione handed Harry two small vials filled with the cure potion. “Spell one of these into his stomach when I tell you to and the other one, he'll need to drink as soon as his throat and stomach have animate and living tissues again.”

Harry nodded and pointed his wand at the first vial. “Ready when you are.”

Taking a deep breath, Hermione waved her wand to let the IV begin to drip the cure potion into Severus's hand. She nodded to Harry and the two of them cast the contents of cure potion phials into Severus' stomach to start spreading out from there.

“This is going to work.” Hermione reminded Harry, walking to the other side of the room to pull him into a warm hug. “It may take a little while, but it's going to cure Severus and then he can go back to being to Potions professor and I can worry about something I like.”

That brought a timid smile to Harry's face as he returned Hermione's hug heartily. “Thanks Hermione. For everything.”

Hermione smiled and checked the readings that the diagnostic ring wrapped around Severus's thumb was taking. “Wow. It certainly is moving much more quickly than I expected. We're almost up to the next stage.” She pulled away from the hug. “I've got to check on the rest of the equipment.”

Harry moved close enough to the bed that he could reach out and grab his father's hands if he wanted to. For the next stage of the cure, Severus needed to drink the cure in and there breathe through a mask filled with the cure. His lungs needed to be brought back to life.

While Harry was watching he noticed colour beginning to return to his father's face and tiny spasms take place in his fingers. The first signs of life were starting to appear. “Hermione! It's starting!”

“I know. Come Harry. I'll lift, you pour.” Hermione arranged herself and lifted Severus up into a semi-sitting position. “Come on Harry. I can't hold this forever.”

Harry squeezed Severus's jaws apart and let the cure potion dribble into his mouth and down slowly into his stomach. He took the mask that Hermione had set out next to him and clamped it over his father's mouth and nose, watching as the mechanism started to send a fine mist into Severus's lungs.

“Good work Harry.” Hermione set the man back down and walked over to stand next to Harry. “We've got to wait now. But it should work quickly.”

Harry nodded and conjured a stool to sit on, making another for Hermione. “I plan on waiting right here.” I want to see my father first! It's been so long since I saw him in the flesh!

Slowly, as the day passed and the containers of cure potion grew closer and closer to being empty, Harry became more and more impatient. But he refused to leave the room and take a break. Hermione's pleas did nothing. Even her bribe of flying with him was ignored.

“Hermione!” Harry jumped excitedly off his stool. “Look!”

Hermione whipped her head around. “I told you it would work. Come on.” She moved closer to Severus and ran a diagnostic spell. It came back normal, perfectly normal. Hermione removed the mask over his face and took the IV from his hand.

“Harry? Miss Granger?” Severus's voice was dry and raspy from lack of water and disuse. “It really worked?”

Harry couldn't stop beaming. He got water and nutrient potions, anything Severus needed or wanted. He even submitted to another series of tests that Madame Pomfrey wanted to run because he'd escaped the Hospital wing so early and hadn't exactly taken care of himself after he'd left. That made her angrier than his early departure.

But the important thing was that the entire affair was over. His father was back and the wedding date was going to be set. For a moment, the world seemed separate from all his worries and problems. There was no Voldemort, no war. Just Severus and Hermione and Harry. All the world in a room.