Mirror, Mirror

Mirror, Mirror

Chapter 16 – Que Sera, Sera


“Damn and Blast!”

Hermione heard him and came running over to do a quick healing spell on Snape’s cut. Over the past two days, she’d watched the former Potions Master rapidly become unhinged. The fact that he could accidentally cut himself while chopping a simple herb was further evidence that all was not well with the Wizard.

“Severus, you need to be more careful.” Hermione stopped herself. “I’m sorry, I can’t believe I said that to you of all people.”

Snape turned to her. “No, that clumsiness was inexcusable. I need to take a break.” He left the shed, now potions lab, and leaned against the side of the structure taking in deep breaths of the cold, morning air. He admitted to himself that with the full moon only a week away they had run out of time. They could only go so far with the potion in its current state and it was obvious that only months of trial and error or a miracle would save the werewolf’s life. Snape didn’t consider himself to be a man of conscience, but he was squeamish, though he’d never admit it to another living soul. If he could prevent a man’s death and did nothing, then it was the same as casting the killing curse on him.

Hermione came out and gently kissed his hand where the pink scar was the only trace to show where the knife had gone astray. Snape turned his face away. Their sexual connection upset him. He’d had his fair share of lovers, but had never been able to or even wanted to go on to something akin to aatioationship, until now. The Witch was growing on him like some sort of fungus. He just wanted to touch her and hold her in his arms all the time. It was an irritant, a nagging rash that he could not help but further inflame by rubbing. Turning back to her and taking her face in his hands, he deeply kissed her.

“We have to head over to see Harry this morning. Maybe getting away from the lab will help us,” said a blushing Hermione.

“Wonderful,” he said sarcastically, “I’m sure Potter will be quite the inspiration.”

Hermione shook her head and followed him into the cottage.

“I’ll just check in on Remus one last time before we leave.”

“Of course.” Snape was in a quandary regarding his feelings for her, his fear about not finding the cure in time, and his jealousy over the menagerie. Gods, but they did worship her, he thought. The love was so obvious in Lupin’s eyes that he practically drooled whenever he saw her. It sent cold shivers down Snape’s spine. And the house elf with the ever-changing hairstyles and outfits, Hermione was treating it like shs a s a dress up doll, and the elf loved it!

&&&

They arrived at the Ministry of Magic and were allowed upstairs with little fuss or delay.

“Good to see you,” said Harry, as he hugged Hermione. “Would you care for some tea?”

“Let’s get this over with, Potter, we are very busy,” said Snape, failing to keep the irritation from his voice.

“All right. As you know, you were taken prisoner just over three weeks ago and tortured by several Wizards. A Transconveyance Curse was performed and you switched places with Dr. Snape in the Silver Heather realm. Fortunately, Hermione was able to back up your story or you’d probably be in St. Mungo’s special ward right now playing cards with Gilderoy Lockhart.”

Snape suppressed a shiver.

“Subsequently,” Harry continued, “an owl was sent alerting us to your location. You were found in serious but not critical condition with obvious signs of torture, not fitting in with the sort of torture done by Death Eaters. We did find a Death Eater’s mask on the scene though.”

Harry sat down and began playing with a Muggle slinky toy. “We discovered that two Wizards had performed the torture under Imperio. The way we located them was ridiculously simply: they turned themselves in! Both had baeamseams and memories of the torture and being under the Imperio curse. And even though they had no connection to Death Eaters or each other, they both felt it was better to tell the Ministry what they suspected had happened.

“Do you have any idea of how unusual that is?” Harry riveted his eyes on Snape who merely shrugged his shoulders.

“No, but it does explain why Legilimency didn’t work on them. I desperately wanted them to stop, but could find nothing to help me in their minds. There was nothing to let me know what they wanted from me.”

Harry politely smiled and continued. “Then we found the wand. It was as if the person didn’t care, couldn’t be bothered to cover up the traces of the crime. In a nutshell, it seemed that the criminal wanted to be found.”

Hermione spoke up. “So there was a psychological need to be stopped. This whole thing was a cry for help?”

“Or, a need to flaunt his intelligence.” Harry continued to play with the child’s toy. “I believe our culprit was so certain that he could not be caught, that he truly had to brag about it.”

Snape was getting a feeling of verti The There was something missing, just beyond his fingertips.

“So we find the wand and it was recently sold to a Wizard by Ollivander. Of course, Ollivander keeps excellent records, in additional to his quite reliable memory. And the wand shows that an Imperio had been cast.

“We pick up our subject, who claims he doesn’t know you, and has no memory of ever buying an extra wand. We hand the wand to him and what do you know—“

“It explodes!” Snape said as he stood up and the room went black. Distantly, he heard Hermione say, “Oh Bloody Hell, he’s fainted again.”

“Does he do it often?” asked Harry from the darkness.

“It’s Post Traumatic Stress from the torture,” replied Hermione waving Wizarding Smelling Salts under his nose.

“Lord and Lady Snape are in grave danger!” said Snape coming out of it. “Hermione, we have to warn them.”

Hermione shook her head. “I know what you are saying, but we have no way of contacting them. And stop breathing so fast, you’re hyperventilating.”

“Are you telling me that our Wizard is from another realm?” asked Harry.

“Can we see him?” asked Snape knocking away Hermione’s hand holding saltsalts under his nose. “The man that you claim bought the wand.”

“Yes, we’ve been holding him. You know the new law, no transfers to Azkaban without due process.”

They walked down the hall to a room that seemed quite normal until you saw the glow of various wards lined up along the lintel.

Harry opened the door to reveal a thin, pale man with blond hair and grey eyes. “Hermione, Severus, allow me to introduce you to Titus Delaney.”

“You worked at the Transconveyance Dept. at the Ministry in the other realm.”

“Auror Potter, what is he talking about? I’ve never met this man in my life.” Titus was breathing heavily and perspiration beaded on his forehead. “I should never have left France—You are all insane.” He paced around his cell frantically.

“You are one of the Delaney Triplets,” Snape began to sway and Hermione thrust the salts bottle into his hand.

Titus stopped pacing, “Yes. Strange that you should remember that… My father and my two brothers died in a Death Eater raid when I was 8 years old.”

Quietly, as if in a trance, Snape turned from the man and stared at the floor. He swallowed and spoke barely above a whisper, “It was my first time out. Lucius went into the parent’s bedroom and cast the Killing Curse on the father. However, the mother suddenly leapt up out of bed, kicked him in the groin and ran past me into the children’s bedroom. She leapt upon the closest child’s bed and Apparated away with the boy.” Tears filled his eyes.

The man in the holding cell had been listening and screamed, “Did you kill my brothers?”

Snape slowly turned to the man and shook his head. “I owe your mother a huge debt. I started laughing hysterically that a tiny slip of a Witch took down big, bad Lucius Malfoy. As soon as he got up off the floor, he killed the remaining children, who thankfully never awoke. And then he cast Crucio on me. I wound up with several broken bones and pulled muscles because he had me under for so long.” Hermione, her eyes fillith ith pity, touched his arm.

“As a result oat fat failed mission, I was relegated to brewing potions for the Dark Lord. Many have died from the poisons I made, but I never had to witness their deaths. Furthermore, I was considered too unreliable to be taken on another raid.”

The man was staring daggers at the professo“My “My mother Apparated us directly to her cousin’s farmhouse outside Rouen. I was raised in France and attended Beauxbatons. I only returned to England last year when I was offered a job at the Ministry as a translator. Oh, that I had never come back to this accursed country.

“Do you have any idea how much suffering my wife and children have gone through with me locked up like this?”

“Potter, please release him.” Snape had gone quite pale. “He’s done nothing.”

“How can you be so sure?” asked Harry with no little suspicion.

“Well, use bloody Veritaserum on him then!” Snape’s voice took on a panic-stricken pitch. “Just get him out of here.”

“We already did,” said Harry in a low, quiet voice as he removed the wards. “You’re free to go, mate, but stay where we can locate you. There’s already been enough trouble.”

“’Vengeance is Mine, sayeth the Lord,’” spat out Titus, “I may be of a Wizarding family, but I am also a devout Catholic. I will not seek revenge. I am returning with my family to France immediately. You can find us there at our estate.” The man stalked out of the room.

The threesome returned to Harry’s office where Snape viciously kicked Harry’s desk.

“That is my desk you just marred, Snape,” said Harry carefully studying the Wizard. “If you’re going to have a temper tantrum, take it outside.”

“We have to go over and warn them,” Snape muttered.

“We can’t,” said Hermione. “We have no way.”

“Yes, we do. I was just hoping…”

“What!” she gasped.

“--Tha wou wouldn’t be necessary to go over there. I don’t want him to have my body again. I don’t want to see her or her brat. I wanted to finalize the cure on my own.” Snape reddened at his confession.

“You can go over? You’ve been able to find out the end of the cure all along?” Hermione’s voice became a bit shrill. She slapped him and would have kicked him as well but Potter dragged her away.

“What is this all about?” asked Harry holding on to the enraged Witch by the arms.

“The Cure. He was able to head back all along. You chose not to cure Remus so you could do what, you bastard?”

“So we could be the inventors and not just the distributors,” Snape admitted.

“Hermione?” Harry spun her around to face him. “Are you talking about something that could save Remus?”

“Yes.”

“And Snape has it?”

“Part of it,” Snape said smoothly.

“You are in so much trouble—“ Hermione grabbed Potter’s wand hand before he could hex Snape.

“We need him!”

Potter took a moment to breath and pulled himself together. “So how do you do it, Snape?”

“I supervised Lady Snape in making the six hour Transconveyance Potion. I also helped her memorize the incantations.” He was looking at Hermione with a silent plea for understanding.

“You could have gone over at any time. What were you planning if we couldn’t come up with it on our own? Would you have let Remus die? Yes, I can see it in your eyes. You would have. By all the Gods you petty, pathetic, little…” she pulled out of Potter’s arms and walkedy fry from Snape.

“No, Hermione. I would not have let him die. I would have taken the potion at night and, hopefully, my counterpart would have slept through the whole thing. I could have memorized the last part of the cure and returned, no one the wiser.”

“I hate you. You are so despicable.” She shook her head, still not looking at him.

“So, you need to make this potion?” said Harry, looking from the Wizard to the Witch. “How long will it take?”

“Less than an hour. I have all the ingredients in our lab.” He ran a trembling hand through his hair. “And I wrote out the incantation, one only has to substitute ‘Silver Heather’ for ‘Stone Lotus.’”

Hermione continued to refuse to look at Snape.

“Right, well let’s get on with it then,” said Harry, putting on his cloak.

“What?” asked Snape.

“Well, if your counterpart and his wife are ingernger, then I have to go over, not you. Don’t you see?” Harry said smugly. “You might already be held prisoner or worse. Remember what he did to you over here?”

Snape tried not to let the room spin.

“Oh damn, just breath in the stupid salts.” Hermione was clearly out of sorts. “If we didn’t need you to help poor Doctor Snape… I can’t believe I ever let you touch me.” She muttered.

“Right. Well, let’s get this over with,” said Harry with a grin, absolutely thrilled that Hermione finally saw Snape for the bastard that he really was.

&&&

“All set brother?” queried the Wizard in Blue.

“Quite, doing just fine on my end. Dress rehearsal was just smashing. I might take up directing amateur theatricals,” said the Wizard in Red. “Suzette, our ‘fluffer’ as they say in the biz, is preparing Jean-Paul as we speak.”

The Wizard in Blue whistled tunelessly until he heard his brother say, “Très bien, Suzette! Now, as soon as I cast Silencio, dear brother, you can cast Ennervate upon our audience.”

“Right you are!”

“We are ready!” announced the Wizard in Red.

“Ready here!”

“Silencio!”

“Ennervate!”

A/N: Big hugs to: Snapeaholic, Mother, LittleBird, Deb, Nocturnus, Kristique, Kristine and Katta.