The Placebo Effect

Every week she would show up and sit quietly with him, just reading a book or talking about her life. At first, she had felt incredibly stupid for doing so to a man who couldn't hear her, a man who wasn't even alert to his own existence, let alone his surroundings, but she pushed through and now it became second nature to her.

He looked so peaceful lying in that bed, he hadn't changed much in the year he had been there, his hair a little longer maybe and a small beard had started to grow which lessened the harsh lines in his face. She felt she owed this to him; for all that he had sacrificed. It had broken her heart when she knew he had no one and nothing, alone in the cold world that had fucked him over more than once.

The nurses had gotten to know her by name, but to them, she would always be the girl that came to visit the dour man with no friends. Most studied under his tutelage at Hogwarts, most scared of him, then and now still. But Hermione wasn't. She saw him for what he was and who he was.

She had taken to having conversations with him almost as if she had expected him to answer, but that was just silly. The venom from Nagini rendered him totally paralyzed and in a coma, needing machines and magic to do his breathing for him. The doctors had talked many a time about turning off the life support but she would never allow it, she had taken it upon herself to become his next of kin, she didn't care if she had to pay for his medical care herself.

They would often tell her he was a hopeless case, they would never find a cure for the venom, he would never wake up, and if he did he wouldn't be the same person, but she refused to believe them. In the cold, harsh world that he had been thrust in his entire life, he deserved a few years of kindness shown to him, even if it was from her, someone who he had loathed with every fiber of his being.

And yet, she still showed up, she still read to him and she still wanted him to wake up. Hermione Granger wasn't a person to easily give up on anyone or anything; her friends always told her she would take her last breath trying to save the world and make it a better place. She would just smile and say, "It is better to have tried to make a change, than side idly by and contribute nothing to society."

They didn't know she came here once a week though, no one did except the doctors and the nurses. She didn't want anyone to know, she liked to be left alone. She lived alone on a little cottage perched atop a large hill miles from anyone and this is exactly how she liked it. She didn't need to surround herself with people to feel complete, she was happy with her own company. She didn't want a relationship right now, as much as she loved Ron and Harry, she just wanted time to relax and find herself before she settled down.

And now, here she was again, another week, another visit. Soft pale flesh ghosted over his hand that rested peacefully on his stomach, she had found self gently touching his hand or pushing his hair behind his ear in an affectionate manner on almost every visit. She almost felt as if she knew him.

Her touch never ever garnered a reaction and she knew it probably never would, be she still liked to treat him as if he were a human being. His hand twitched beneath her own skin so feather-light she had thought she imagined it. She shook her head roughly dismissing the flinch beneath her warm hand as she began to read from the book she had brought along today.

A/N: I really, really hate plot bunnies! I have no many of them and then start a new story and then lose to mojo for others. I like the premise of this story honestly. It wont be a lovey romance story, well at least not for a while, if at all. Severus will have a lot of issues and flaws he needs to work on in this story before he will accept Hermione.

-Aliasmel11