当斯内普踏进医务室的飞路网时，几乎要被波比·庞弗雷脸上震惊的表情所逗笑——如果这表情不是针对他的话。事实上，困扰他的并不是震惊，而是背后潜在的怀疑，就好像他从来没到过医务室似的（虽然不是通常的绿色火焰）。怀抱着一个学生——丹尼斯·弗里维突然跳入他的心绪。
'Severus...is that – is that Hermione Granger?' she finally managed to stutter out.
"西弗勒斯……那是——那是赫敏·格兰杰吗？"她最终艰难地结结巴巴说出了口。
'I see your powers of observation are as astute as ever,' Snape replied sarcastically. 'And before you ask, no, I did not kidnap her.'
"你的观察力还是和从前一样敏锐，"斯内普挖苦道，"还有在你问之前，没有，我没有诱拐她。"
Poppy had the grace to flush, and smoothed the smock of her uniform nervously with the palms of her hands. 'What is she doing here?'
波比优雅地脸红了，紧张地用手掌摩擦着她的工作服。"她在这里干什么？"
Snape ignored her for a moment, gently placing Hermione on an empty bed before turning back to face the older woman. 'She's coming back to Hogwarts. Albus and your sister are just finalizing the details now.' His hand reached behind him of his own accord, touching Hermione's arm almost as if to reassure himself she was still there, 'She's trapped in her mind, Poppy.'
斯内普一时没有理会她，轻轻地把赫敏放在一张空床上，然后转身面对年长的妇人。"她回霍格沃兹了，阿不思和你妹妹刚刚敲定了细节。"他把手伸到身后，摸了摸赫敏的胳膊，好像在安慰自己——她还在那儿。"她受制于自己的心神，波比。"
The medi-witch started at this, stepping closer to the bed to look down at the overly-thin girl lying so silently on it. 'That's impossible. Albus tried...'
这个中世纪的女巫开始站得离床更近了一点，好低下头看着那个过瘦的女孩——她躺得多安静啊。"那不可能。阿不思尝试过了——"
'I know what Albus tried,' Snape interrupted. 'But she is there. I've spoken with her.'
"我当然知道阿不思尝试过，"斯内普打断了她，"但她就在这里，我已经和她交谈过了。"
'And she's been...aware...this entire time?' Poppy inquired shakily. 'What a nightmare.'
"那么她一直……都是……有意识的？"波比颤抖地问，"真是个噩梦。"
'Indeed,' the potions master turned his back on her to look at the girl, 'I need to go and arrange for a suite of rooms to be set up for her and your sister. Can you stay with her, Poppy, please? I don't want her to think she's been abandoned again.'
"的确如此，"魔药大师转过他的后背来对着她，好看着那个女孩。"我要去为她和你妹妹安排一套房间。你能陪着她吗，波比？拜托了。我不想让她觉得自己又被抛弃了。"
His voice was soft as he said this, a tone of remorse to it that Poppy had never heard before.
当他说这些的时候，他的声音变得很温和，

伴随着波比从未听过的一种悔恨的语调。
'Abandoned... again?'
"又一次……被抛弃?"
Snape crossed his arms, his posture straight and stuff under the white shirt he was wearing. 'She thought I had forgotten about her when I stopped visiting after the Creevey accident,' he replied, the gentle tones of before replaced with his normal coolness. His pale jaw clenched as if to elaborate on that fact, but the moment passed in silence, and he turned back to the medi-witch with a familiar glare. 'She can see you if you stay within her line of vision, and she can hear everything you say to her. If you need to leave before I get back, please let her know.'
斯内普交叉双臂，穿着白衬衫的体态笔直。"在我遭遇皮皮鬼事故，停止看望她以后，她以为我已经忘了她，"他答道，温和的语调取代了他平常的冷淡。他苍白的下巴紧绷着，仿佛正阐述这个事实。但那一刻已在沉默中过去，他转身对着庞弗雷夫人怒目而视，就像他平常那样。"她能看见你，如果你在她的视线范围之内，并且她能听到你对她说的一切。如果你需要在我回来之前离开，请让她知晓。"
'Of course, Severus,' Poppy stuttered, allowing a little of the surprise she felt to show on her face.
"当然，西弗勒斯，"波比结结巴巴地说，她的脸上露出了一点惊讶的表情。
Snape didn't smile at her, but he did nod his head in a far more courteous manner than Poppy had ever seen from him. 'Thank you.'
斯内普没有朝她微笑，但他确实比平常礼貌得多地点了点头——用波比从未在他身上见过的礼节。"谢谢。"
Turning once again to face the young woman on the bed, he leaned over until he was looking directly into her eyes and allowed himself to fall through into her mind.
再次转身面对床上年轻的女孩，他俯下身，直到他直视她的双眼，让自己沉浸于她的心神。
He found himself back in the potion's lab. Miraculously, the scenery was much changed from he last remembered seeing. All traces of dust and crumbling mortar were gone. The stone floor was clean, and tall windows with crimson curtains were thrown back to let in the generous sunlight. He noted the addition of the windows with a smirk and turned his attention to the woman hunched over a very familiar, large oak desk.
他发现自己回到了魔药实验室。奇迹般地，景象和他上次记忆中所看到的完全不一样。所有灰尘的踪迹和坍塌的房屋都不见了。石地板很干净，挂着深红色窗帘的高高的窗户大开着，好让充足的阳光洒遍。他假笑着，注意到了窗户的增多，之后便将他的注意力转向了那个女孩——她正弓腰伏在一张非常眼熟的大橡木桌上。

她几乎完美地复制了他办公室里的桌子，从铸造的细节到黯淡无光的抽屉把手。他感到自己立刻被感动了——她会选择在心里创造一些属于他的东西；同时也对她做这种事情的能力大吃一惊。她的羽毛笔在面前的一张羊皮纸上划过了最后一笔，然后将目光与他的视线相对。一个温暖的笑容出现在她的脸上，让他不由自主地吸了一口气。
'Hermione.'
"赫敏。"
'Yes, Severus?'
"是的，西弗勒斯？"
'I have to leave you here for a bit. I promise I'll be back.'
"这会儿我不得不将你留在这儿。我保证我会回来的。"
Hermione's smile widened at that, 'I have ears, you know. I heard what you said to Poppy.'
赫敏的笑容扩大了，"你知道的，我没聋。我听到了你对波比说的话。"
'Still, I didn't want to just leave you again without letting you know.' He stepped closer to her side to look down at the strewn arrangement of parchment. 'What are you doing?'
"尽管如此，我不想在你不知道的情况下再次离开你。"他站得离她更近了一点，俯视着散落满地的羊皮纸。"你在干什么？"
Hermione motioned him forward until he was bent over her shoulder, and showed him the page she had been writing on when he arrived, 'I thought I'd start making an account of everything I remember about the curse. I'd done it before, but... I can't find the scroll. I think I might have destroyed it when you said you weren't coming back.'
赫敏示意他向前走，直到他俯身靠在她的肩上，然后给他看在他到来时她一直在写的那一页。"我想我要把我记得的关于那个诅咒的一切记录下来。我曾经就完成过这个，但是……我找不到记录的纸卷了。我想我可能把它毁了——当你说你再也不回来的时候。"
Snape flinched, 'Hermione, I'm - '
斯内普退缩了，"赫敏，我——"
The young witch cut him off, 'You didn't know. How could you? The important thing is... you're here now.'
年轻的女巫打断了他，"你不知道。你怎么会知道？不过重要的是……你现在在这儿。"

西弗勒斯发现他不能对这作出回答。相反，他呼吸着她的体香，让这香气冲刷他的感官，饶有兴趣地注视着她微微向后仰，将她的脸抬起，朝向他的——在他迅速逃开之前。他能够感受到她的热度渗入他的身心，并且惊异这个女孩——这个女人——似乎陶醉于他的仪表与风度中。从未有人这样过。
'I'll be back soon,' he murmured, disengaging from her mind with regret. He hated leaving her.
"我很快回来，"他低声道，怀着懊悔的心情从她的心神中脱离。他讨厌离开她。
It was a simple matter to see to organizing the suite of rooms Albus had indicated could be used for Hermione and Nettie. He did nothing, really, other than relay the instructions to the house elves and supervise their normally efficient work as they bustled about making the rooms habitable. Hermione would only be two doors down from his own suite, which pleased Severus rather more than he thought it should.
安排一套房间，看着阿不思表明可让赫敏和内蒂居住——这是很简单的事。他没做什么，真的，除了给家养小精灵传递指令并监督它们保持正常高效的工作，来将他们的房间变得适居。赫敏将离他自己的套间仅仅两门之隔——西弗勒斯发现自己比应该的要高兴多了。
He still had a hard time believing Hermione was actually alive inside her mind. He had expected, when he had rushed to St. Mungo's in a panic, he would find nothing except her empty body. It had been a shock when he had actually found her.
他仍然很难相信赫敏还真实地活在她的心智中。不出意外的话，当他惊慌失措地冲进圣芒戈时，除了她的一具空壳外，什么也找不到。而他真找到她了——真是令人大吃一惊。
He could still remember the feel of her, collapsing in his arms and crying when he had found her amidst the destruction of her mind, sitting in a reasonable – if rotted – facsimile of his potions classroom.
他仍然记得她碰触他的感觉——当他找到她被包围在崩溃的心神中，在他的怀里崩溃大哭，坐在一个合理的——或是腐烂了的——复制的魔药教室。
He had never seen a more beautiful woman. The depth of feelings which had rushed to the fore in that encounter had taken him aback. He had known, of course, after much drunken rumination and many nights spent dreaming of her, that he had come to care for the girl. How it had happened, he could not explain – it was not as if he knew her, not really. She had always been just a student to him prior to the curse – a bushy-haired, know-it-all girl who irritated him with her persistence and insatiable curiosity and her unexplainable friendship with Weasley and the Boy-Who-Lived-to-Drive-Him-Insane.

这些都是他从未想过会成为他的生活的幻觉和想象。并且，长期以来，他甚至否认自己的愿望。
Seeing Hermione so close to death had finally forced him to admit that he did, indeed, love her. He had known at that precise moment that all his denials were for nothing; without her he could never be whole. She might have been hit by a curse meant for him, but his life – stretching empty and lonely without her in it – was a curse in and of itself. And even if it meant staying by her motionless side until the day he died, then so be it – they would be alone, together, for all eternity. A fitting fate for a man like him.
目睹赫敏离死亡的接近终于迫使他承认，他的确，真的，爱她。他已经清晰地知道在那个时刻，他所有的否认都是无用功；没有她,他永远不会变得完整。她可能已经被射向他的诅咒给击中了，但他的人生，没有了她，蜿蜒伸展得空虚而寂寞。而这寂寞本身就是一个诅咒。即使这意味着要一直陪伴在她一动不动的身体旁边直到死去，那就死吧——他们将在一起，孤独，而永恒。对像他这样的人来说，这是个合适的命运。
He remembered her voice after he found her, 'gods...I could feel your hand on my hair...', and the way his hands had gripped her shoulders, caressing the soft skin of her neck before traveling up to cup her face.
他记起了找到她后她的声音，“上帝……我可以感受到你的手触在我的发上……”还有他的手抓紧她肩的方式，爱抚她颈上的柔软皮肤，之后，一路游离，捧住她的脸。