Love Is The Darkest Art

Part 42: Kisses & A Curse

Scene 69 (continued):

"I had such a horrible dream," Draco confessed weakly, looking up into Hermione's teary eyes. "That there was a life without you and I ever loving one another."

"Never," she sobbed, overcome with emotion over Malfoy's return from the icy darkness. "You will never be without me. I have loved you from our first kiss."

"Would that be our first kiss in the library or last year at the Yule Ball?"

"Well, you didn't actually kiss me at the ball, now did you?"

"Yes I did," he protested, with a cold rasp in his throat. "You slapped me, remember?"

"That was hardly a kiss. And hardly a slap, as I recall."

"Then why don't you show me what a real kiss is?"

Hermione smirked, shaking her head. "Even at the point of dying, you are scheming and mischievous."

He laughed, though it almost hurt to do so. "Impending death makes one appreciate life's little moments."

Hermione raised an eyebrow. "Little? I'll show you little, you smug little Slytherin."

Then her lips were upon him. Full, passionate, unsated. He welcomed the kiss and parted his pale lips upon hers.

"No, no, and triple no," Ron muttered, flabbergasted at the scene before him. "This can't be right."

Harry, stood beside him, jaw slack and open. "Somebody wake me," he stated matter of factly.

Ron shook his head. "I can't believe this!" He looked at the odd couple, still in the throes of their delirious kiss. "You lied to us, Hermione! I suspected you had a secret...but this! You and Draco! All this time...."

The two lovers separated, but Hermione was still looking dreamily into Malfoy's silver grey eyes. "All this time," she whispered. Then it hit her. The realization of what had happened. In her joy of Draco being returned from the lake, they both had forgotten themselves. For them, all that existed was their ecstatic happiness of life returned. There had been no Harry. No Ron. Not even Snape. And yet there they were.

She turned her face to her friends. "I'm...I'm sorry...I didn't know how to tell you guys..."

Ron flushed angry, or perhaps it was just hurt. Often they can look the same. "How about, hey by the way, I've been sucking face with Draco Malfoy half the freakin' school year!"

Draco opened his mouth to come to Hermione's defense, but she put her finger upon his lips to shush him. Still, she heard him whisper and mutter under his breath. But when she looked at him to let him know she could handle this, she realized it wasn't him that was mumbling. It was Severus Snape.

He stood halfway between them all. Eyes closed, he was muttering under his breath in chant like tones. It stopped Hermione from addressing Ron's angry retort. For a moment she thought maybe Snape had been possessed somehow. Perhaps the dead spirits from the lake had found a way to claim a Slytherin after all.

Ron and Harry were also stunned to silence, both unsure what was happening to the Potions Master of Hogwarts. Only Draco suspected the truth. His teacher was modifying a curse.

Harry finally realized what was about to come, and raised his wand. Snape's eyes opened, dark and terrible. His wand was up a split second before Harry's. "Obliviate!" he snarled. The curse hit Harry full on and the boy collapsed on the ice before he could defend himself.

Ron gasped. "What?!" Holding his hands out in surrender, he pleaded "No, wait! Please! I don't want my memory erased! Hermione, please...tell him.. " He stopped. He knew Snape wouldn't listen. And in minutes, he himself wouldn't remember either. But maybe Hermione would. Ron looked at her with sad, lonely eyes. "I...Hermione...I've always lo...."

"Obliviate!" Snape's curse cut him off mid-sentence. The force of it drove him to the ice, where he lay unconscious, as the effect of the spell weaved its way through his mind like clouds chasing each other across a darkened sky.

Now there was no sound but wind in the trees and the slow exhalation of Hermione and Draco's breath. "What did you do?" Hermione asked incredulously. Suddenly brave, she glared at Prof. Snape. "You wiped their entire memory?"

"No," Snape answered. "Just the last hour of it."

"You modified the curse?" Draco asked, now sitting up on the ice. "Impressive."

"Of course, it was impressive."

"It was unnecessary," Hermione said sadly.

Snape looked at her. "It wouldn't have been necessary if certain parties had their priorities straight."

He took them both in with his cold, dark eyes. Draco noticed he hadn't yet put his wand away. But it was Hermione who put it all together. "You're going to wipe us all," she said.

There was a hard gleam in Snape's eyes. "I gave you so many chances. Overlooked so many things, and protected your secret, thinking it was but a candle flame soon to blow out in the beeeze. But no, you had to continue this forbidden course."

" Why is it so forbidden? Why can't we....?"

"Because," he snarled. "You both have a role to play in the coming war."

Draco struggled to his feet, clutching Hermione's arm to do so. "War?" he asked, a tremor in his voice.

"Yes, war. Do you think the arrival of Umbridge was just a chance thing? No, she and all her rules are the heralds of what is to come. She prepares the way for battle." Snape stared at Draco. "And you! You are supposed to be helping her."

"Me? What..."

"Don't play coy with me, Malfoy. You know what is expected of you..." He rolled up his sleeve to show the Death Eater mark. "...if you want this."

Hermione turned to her boyfriend, a look of surprise on her face. "Draco?" she asked, feeling slightly confused.

Draco couldn't look at her, but instead stared down Severus. "I don't care about that anymore," he said. "It's not important. Not like love. Nowhere near it, in fact. This is the only important thing to me." He reached out and took Hermione's hand.

She let him take it, despite her shock at realizing he'd wanted to be a death eater himself. Did he still feel that way? What had he been doing all this time? Acting in the interests of the enemy or truly baring his soul to her?

Snape looked at them both and shook his head. "Your loyalty to your dreams is useless. You are still children, even if you think you are grown up now. Your dreams don't belong to you. You are here to do as you are told by those more experienced than you."

Hermione couldn't be silent any longer. Gripping Draco's hand in hers, she squeezed it for courage. "And what experience do you possibly have, professor? What do you know about dreams, or of the heart, or even love?"

"I know plenty! Love is the most destructive thing in the universe. It changes you. It takes every bright spot that may have existed within you and turns it to darkness. You yourselves have said it. Love is the darkest art."

"But it's not meant to be," argued Hermione. "It's meant to save us, to make us better, to fulfill our lives."

For a moment, Snape faltered. He smiled sadly. "Silly girl. Love will take all those notions from you one day and you will see it for what it is."

"Then what is it, Professor? Tell us in all your good wisdom what love is."

Before Snape could reply, Draco provided the answer. "It's misery," he said.