Snape Redux

Snape Redux

By April Grey

Chapter 10 Nasty Bits


It all belongs to Rowlings, except what you don’t recognize.

Hermione found Professor McGonagall waiting for her at Grimmauld Place. She smiled but was worried about how late she already was for meeting with Harry and Ron to head out to Godric’s Hollow.

“Miss Granger,” said the Professor, before Hermione could even open her mouth. “I have had a disturbing owl.” The elder Witch glared at her.

Hermione was tempted to Apparate on the spot. Instead she braced herself.

“Yes, Professor?”

“Your parents have written me that you have run away from home.”

“Professor, you know that I am of age.”

“Nonetheless, it’s immature to have a lack of regard for parental feelings.”

Hermione felt her face go red. It was time to take off the kid gloves. “You know, Professor, there was a reason I left home. Did they tell you?”

Professor McGonagall sighed and a small frown appeared. She looked tired, very tired, “No, I don’t believe they did.”

“They have forbidden me to return to Hogwarts to complete my Witch’s training and they have forbidden me to have any contact with my friends. What would you do in my place?”

McGonagall’s face remained stern, but her eyes seemed a bit brighter, ”You are to write a note letting your parents know that you are well and that you still care about them. I shall deliver it in person.”

Hermione relaxed a bit. She suspected she had an ally in her housemistress and would give much to be a fly on her parents’ wall for that meeting.

A quill, inkbottle and parchment appeared on the hallway table. Hermione had just stepped forward to perform her daughterly duty when Harry and Ron Apparated in.

“Hermione, we’ve been waiting and--” Ron said before spotting Professor McGonagall, “Umm. Err.”

“Ah, Mr. Weasley. Mr. Potter.” She smiled and tilted her head, “And what is the hurry?”

Harry stepped forward and placed a large shopping bag marked “Scrivenshafts” on the table, “We’ve been assigned to copy out the wedding invites for the double wedding.” He shot a glance at Hermione.

“Oh, yes,” smiled Hermione, “Quite a few of them. If you wanted to wait, we could write yours out now, Professor, I mean Headmistress.”

McGonagall looked for a moment like she smelt something dicey, “I can wait for my owl, like anyone else thank you. On what day are they planning the happy event?”

“Midsummer’s Day!” said Ron.

“Why how will you ever be ready in time? That is in four days!”

“Well, we are a big family and when we all pitch in, we get things done.” Ron grinned. “Mum and Fleur’s Mum are doing the cooking, with Fleur and Gabrielle’ help. We are doing the invites. Remus, Tonks and Ginny are handling the rentals of tables, tents and chairs. George and Fred are doing the decorations, including the flowers—they get a discount being shop owners. It’s all set.”

McGonagall sniffed, “Sounds like a set up for disaster. With Fred and George we can only hope that the flowers do not squirt water or something worse. But Albus would have loved it.“ She brought out a large white handkerchief with black polka dots and took a moment to collect herself. “I suppose with the current climate young people are in a hurry.”

“Yes, indeed, Professor,” said Harry who looked rather impatient to get on with things himself.

“Here’s my letter, Professor.” Hermione magically blotted the ink with a sweep of her wand, “And thank you so much for delivering it to them. But you know, it’s not like they haven’t had daily reports from Mrs. Weasley—“

“Yes, well. It’s not quite the same thing.” McGonagall again looked at the three. “I hope that staying busy will keep you--out of trouble. Especially with all the work needed for this happy occasion.”

Harry nodded, “Oh, yes. As you can imagine we’ve got to get those invitations out immediately.”

“Yes. Well, I’ll let you get to it. Miss Granger, I expect you to write often to your parents, now that you are on your own. Or even better invest in one of those, those, well, they used to have a wire, but not anymore and you talk into them—“

“Telephone, Mobile?” said Harry helpfully.

McGonagall exhaled. “I think that’s it. Please stay in touch with them, Hermione. You’ve scared them half to death.”

“I’m sorry.”

“Good. See you at the wedding.” McGonagall Apparated.

“Whew,” said Harry, “I never thought we’d get rid of her.”

“Well,” said Ron. “Let’s head out.”

“Next stop Godric’s Hollow,” said Hermione, thinking how deeply Dumbledore’s loss had affected them all.


&&&

“Council Housing?” Harry looked up at the block of flats and the sign identifying them.

“A bit plain aren’t they, Mate?” said Ron with a sympathetic frown.

Hermione walked around the parking lot. “Well the shrubbery is nice. And those pinks they planted are quite cheerful.”

Ron and Hermione looked at each other. They were slowly forging a careful truce, an unspoken agreement that whatever might be going on between them they were there for Harry.

Harry looked like one of his bleak spells was coming on. “I didn’t know what I was expecting.” He sighed, “Remus told me the graveyard is down the road past the village green.”

Hermione put her hand on his shoulder. She felt his body shaking. “Ron?” Ron walked over and they joined in a group hug. Harry cried. Ron and Hermione held him tightly.

Suddenly Harry broke away, wiping his nose on his sleeve. “Council Housing? What did I think, that there would be a memorial plaque ‘Here’s where the Potter’s died’?”

“Remus told me at dinner one night that they sold anything that wasn’t destroyed so there’d be more in Gringotts for you,” said Hermione. “It was just luck that Dumbledore had saved the invisibility cloak for your use.”

Harry sniffed, “I dunno what I’m doing here. Let’s move.”

The air was hot and scented with wildflowers. There was the lazy drone of insects. Not a soul was in sight as they approached a small group of shops huddled around a town green.

“It’s so quiet here, everyone must be at work,” said Hermione, voice barely above a whisper. “Should we go into the grocery store for something cold to drink?”

“I don’t have Muggle money,” said Ron.

“My treat,” said Harry as they walked inside the shop.

They were looking at the assortment of refrigerated beverages when Hermione noticed that the shop was actually connected to the shop next door. Idly, she walked through to where used clothing and other second hand goods were on display.

Harry looked over at her and did a double take. “What’s that on the table?”

A grey haired shopkeeper, dressed in a pink print dress, came around the corner from her counter. “You interested in some of our church jumble sale?”

“That cup!” said Harry.

“Oh, tragic story behind that!” she said holding up the blackened and dented gold cup and a piece of either silver or pewter metal that was badly tarnished. “There was a cottage had a gas leak and blew up many years back. Took the sweetest young couple.” She paused and shook her head as if trying to remember something else, “Anyway, when they were clearing the rubble, this christening cup and infant’s rattle was found to have survived the explosion. Isn’t that remarkable? Who’d have imagined?”

Harry was looking more excited by the second, “How much do you want for them both?”

“Ooooh, well it is a lovely cup, though damaged. I’ll be sorry to part from it after all these years, but it’s for a good cause. Two pounds sixty pence that should cover it.”

Harry was breathing rapidly and seemed a bit lost.

“Here, I’ll pay for it.” Hermione handed over three pounds, “Please keep the change, I’m afraid my friend needs some fresh air.”

“Oooh, certainly, you take him to sit on the bench outside by the mill pond. I get spells too. Must be that scar on his forehead. Nasty accident he must have had to get that.”

Hermione wasn’t sure what was happening, but Harry was growing paler and the scar on his forehead brighter. She and Ron got him out onto the bench with Hermione holding the small plastic bag in which the old lady had placed the items after wrapping them in old copies of The Sun.

“Harry?”

“I want to go see their gravesite.” Harry was sweating. “Please, let’s do it now.”

“You don’t look too well. Maybe another time.” Ron caught Hermione’s eye and she nodded.

“Harry, you’re ill.”

“I got to go now,” unsteadily he got to his feet and started running away from them towards the other side of the village, heading to the small graveyard mostly hidden behind the church.

Hermione and Ron ran to catch up. They reached Harry just as he got to the gates of the graveyard.

Hermione was starting to feel a bit off as well. She followed Harry in and started looking around her for the Potter gravesite. Ron was right behind her.

“Harry this cup, is it—“ Hermione stopped when she saw Harry fall to his knees on a grave. She ran over to him and saw “Lily and James Potter” marked on the large headstone.

She kneeled next to him. There was something wrong. She felt it, something sucking the air from around her. She looked up at Ron and his eyes seemed glazed.

“Harry?” Hermione was fumbling, attempting to rip open the bag. It had to be the cup. How had they managed to trigger the curse on Helga Hufflepuff’s cup, if it was the cup? She was feeling weaker by the moment. She managed to free the cup from its wrapping and feebly tossed it away from them, just as she saw Harry keel over. Things were going foggy. Viktor’s ring! No. It was still in the pocket of her robes. And she was still dressed in her Muggle clothing from the morning. No.

‘Damn you Severus Snape, you should have taught me how to send a Patronus. Now we’ll all be--’

Ron was on the ground now, Hermione couldn’t see him, all was becoming dark, but she felt him collapsed over her legs. She was losing sensation in her toes and fingers.


“And damn you, Granger, what are you doing in my dream?” Snape, stuck like a Boggart in the closet, woke up. Hermione Granger, but how? Legilimency? Not possible, she wasn’t there in the room. But it hadn’t been a dream that she was dying.

Snape stood up in the cramped space and nearly fell as one of his legs collapsed, having fallen asleep.

“Where are you?” he said out loud to the empty Death Eater’s flat. He tried Legilimency to reach her, as he had been able to do once before when she was sleeping. There, unconscious, not asleep, but dying, probably of a curse. Where, he commanded to her mind, which was shutting down. An image of a grave with Lily and James Potter written on it came to him.

He’d been there several times that first year of Lily’s death. He knew the place, Godric’s Hollow. He Apparated to behind a shed and then ran to the gravesite.

The trio had gotten themselves into trouble again. Where was the Order, didn’t they know that the children needed to be babysat? There would be hell to pay if--

All three were blue lipped and pale. He saw the cursed cup. There was a dark blue mist, barely visible surrounding it. Once the curse was unleashed there was little he could do, unless…

He stood back and threw a Proteco in the form of a bubble around himself and the three. If Dumbledore had only had the time to do that when he’d come across the ring cursed by the Dark Lord, but they were made to go off easily in the presence of Wizards. Snape swept aside the idle thought.

He unleashed a blueish-white fireball from the end of his wand. It moved quickly onto the cup, which sat a few feet away from Hermione on the grass of the grave. In an instant the cup was melting and then incinerating, finally leaving a black scorch mark on the ground as the molten gold turned to ash. Harry and Ron both took shaky breaths. Hermione remained motionless.

With a careless wave of his wand, Snape released the protective bubble and put the boys into a bewitched sleep. He swept the girl up in his arms.

“Just the time when I need to stopper death and no potions available.” He loosened the top of her blouse and checked for a pulse. Nothing. He set her back on the ground, straightening her airway. Pinching her nose, he blew into her mouth. Hogwarts Professor for over 15 years and reduced to Muggle CPR. Unfortunately, when dealing with a curse sometimes the best way around it was Muggle methods because people creating curses don’t think in Muggle terms. And most Wizards knew nothing of CPR. He finished the chest compressions and breathed into her lungs again. She took a breath, surprising him and then she stopped again.

“Granger? Come on you stupid girl!” He mumbled an incantation, hoping to disperse the last of the dark magic that might have been affecting her. Two more puffs into her mouth, another series of chest compressions and he saw some color coming back to her lips. He pressed his fingers to her neck. Pulse was thready, but there. Question was, what to do with them now? It would serve them right if he contacted McGonagall, she’d give them a good what for. Who was in charge of them, anyway?

“Professor?” Hermione’s eyes had fluttered open.

“Well, hello idiot. What did you think you were doing? Don’t you know better than to head off with Potter? Why do I even bother asking?”

“Harry! Ron!” She scrambled to get up and everything spun. When she opened her eyes again she was in Snape’s arms.

“Don’t try that again!”

Hermione wasn’t sure but she thought she saw something like relief in his eyes. “I’m sorry.”

“Damn you.”

Hermione found herself being kissed full on the lips by her professor. When he pulled away, she stared at him, “Why you’d do that for?”

“Punishment. I couldn’t set you to scrubbing cauldrons, now could I? So I did the next best thing.”

“Are Harry and Ron?”

“Oh, do stop asking. Of course, they are fine. They would be. The only halfwit amongst the witless and you were the one to die!”

“You kissed me!”

“Stupid thing. You scared me, so I scared you back. And you invaded my dream. How—oh never mind.” He grimaced. “Tell me does Potter carry the locket on him? I don’t care to rescue you twice.”

“Yes, upper pocket of his shirt. I’d fetch it if you’d let me go.” Hermione was keenly aware that she was still in his arms.

“Accio locket!” said Snape and the locket snaked itself out of his pocket and slowly floated over. Snape caught it on his wand.

“Why did the cup’s curse go off and the locket didn’t?”

“Why? Why? Why? Granger do you ever stop? Now don’t try and get up again. Just lay still. Your heart wasn’t beating when I found you. You need to give it a chance to recover, or it could, you know.” He let her down on the ground slowly, like she was made of glass.

“I feel stupid like this.”

“Well, better off stupid than dead. Just stay there.”

He walked twenty feet away and constructed a complicated ward with the tip of his wand in the air. The image blazed for a second and then the smoke hovered, retaining the design. Hermione noted that the locket was on one side of the ward and Snape, her friends and she were on the other.

“If anything goes wrong, first use a Protego charm and then your Patronus. Throw yourself on Potter and Weasley and Apparate the three of you the hell out of here. Don’t worry about splinching, because whatever might be released will be much worse.”

Hermione noticed that Snape’s upper lip was covered with beads of moisture and his wand hand was shaking a bit. She wanted to help, but was afraid to interrupt the train of concentration which was keeping the ward in effect.

She had her wand to the ready. And as much as she wanted to get up, she forced herself to obey his command to lie still on the ground. The truth was her heart hurt, it was hammering away inside of her, but she didn’t know if was physical or emotional stress doing it to her.

Snape chanted an incantation under his breath, suddenly the locket swelled and changed shape forming a huge serpent. It lunged at Snape attempting to break through the protective barrier. Snape continued to chant soundlessly, his eyes riveted on the monster as leathery wings unfolded from it’s back and a second neck and head grew from its body. It was growing larger and stronger by the moment. A third neck sprouted along with a head and a cold chill ran down Hermione’s neck in spite of the heat of the day. She could sense Snape becoming tired. Still he continued chanting. Could she help? Any faltering in his concentration and the beast could break through his ward. There had to be a way for her to somehow support or sustain him.

Suddenly, as if there was a huge invisible blade flying through the air, one head of the creature was lopped off. Snape was visibly trembling and Hermione sobbed in frustration. She could think of nothing to do.

A second head fell victim to the invisible axe. Snape continued chanting but he fell to one knee. The smoke of the ward was thinning even as the last head of the monster was thrusting itself forward towards Snape. He continued the chant, now from both knees. Hermione shook her head, he wasn’t going to make it—it was going to reach him.

She silently summoned her Patronus and sent it to attack the creature just as Snape collapsed and the ward disappeared.

The giant silvery otter slid forward across the ground at lightening speed enveloping the monster in its sparkling mist. It’s sharp claws sliced along the serpent’s neck and down in spine, laying it entirely open. The monster shuddered and expired, slowly dissolving into the air around it.

Hermione ran to Snape. He was gasping for air. She tried to help him up and he collapsed right on top of her.

“I told you to—“

She leaned over and kissed him. To her shock he kissed her back, but still out of breath the kiss didn’t last long, “Why’d you do that for,” he huffed.

“For scaring me, I decided to scare you back.”

To her delight, he smiled. “And what is the world coming to Miss Granger?”

“To an end if we are kissing, no, not true. I just—“

“Let’s pretend that didn’t happen,” the smile faltered.

“Fine,” she blushed. “You started it.”

“And I’ll finish it.” The corner of his mouth twitched as whatever happy mood disappeared as quickly as it came. “What triggered the cup, Granger?”

She shook her head, “I don’t know.”

“You don’t deserve to pass your N.E.W.T. in Defense Against the Dark Arts if you can’t answer that one.” His eyes glittered with intensity.

Hermione felt a moment of panic. The old Snape was back, nasty as ever. She cleared her mind and thought, pushing down her emotions just as if he were going to do a psychic attack. She entered her mental DADA classroom. There was Snape in her memory, lecturing on curses. “I know, sir. Strong emotions. Harry’s excitement over finding the cup on top of his being distraught over seeing the place where his parents died awoke it and fed it. He triggered the curse, even though I was carrying the Horcrux and had the worst effects of it.”

Snape’s face was still. He stroked his bottom lip with his finger, “Well, you might get your N.E.W.T. after all.”

“How could I have disarmed it, sir?”

“You don’t have the skill. Most British Witches or Wizards don’t have the ability because they only studied Defense against the Dark Arts. Something like that, takes a certain darkness of the soul to combat.”

Hermione wanted to cry out. No. That’s not true, just British Ministry of Magic propaganda. Viktor knew the Dark Arts and though he was strong, his soul wasn’t dark. She forced her emotions down again. Just at that moment Snape’s face went pale and he made an involuntary move toward his left arm.

“Professor?”

“Time to go. Interesting, how you contacted me. I must have left a thread behind leading to an Achilles attic. You’ve been taking advantage of me, Granger. I must be slipping.”

“Severus?”

His face contorted in pain. “Have to obey the summons.” His hand finally slapped onto the left forearm. “I’m glad I kissed you. Goodbye.”

He Apparated.

Hermione sat back on her heels. Voldemort had summoned him!

“Hermione?” called Harry.

“What happened?” said Ron, sitting up and rubbing his neck.

Hermione wiped away a tear before joining her friends. She’d have to come up with a mighty good lie to cover for this one.


A/N: Council Housing is the name the British use for public housing or housing projects. They tend to be rather blandly designed, or at least they were 30 years ago when I lived in Scotland.

Please keep feeding the author: she’s hard at work and there may be some bonus chapters coming along!

Special Thanks to my reviewers: LittleBird , cjd, Joani, Lyndie578, slytherinheiress, Lee, firewall, Anon, and Ash