Of Days and Ends

Chapter 17—New Era of Darkness



Snape prepped Hermione that evening for the way she needed to act for the Order of the Phoenix. Voldemort would be told that he was only able to kill her father, but that she escaped with her mother, so the Order needed a similar story reflected to them. Hermione’s day long absence would be explained by an excursion in which Hermione was stashing her mother in Australia to keep her safe and setting up a whole new life for her. More important than their airtight alibis was Hermione’s performance in showing exactly the kind of grief that Voldemort was expecting of her.



She decided to act beyond tears, so that she wouldn’t have to risk looking as though she were pushing out tiny droplets. She also had to act distant and uninterested in anything but increasing the protections around her mother. Also, she had to remain uninvolved in any expeditions with Harry and Ron.



Snape was also going to be leaving that evening to go to Spinner’s End and inform Voldemort that he couldn’t track Hermione or her mother, and Hermione begged him to be careful and let her come back in case she had to tend to him. He refused with a scowl and a biting remark that she was mollycoddling him as he moved his ring from his finger to the necklace.



She had ignored his growing discomfort and visited her parents in the courtyard of the vast estate to say goodbye. The couple encouraged Hermione to do what she thought was best, and assured her that they would try to consider it a vacation from the stresses of their everyday life.



Snape met her in the library when she was through, insisting on telling her to be careful with the Book of Days and Ends.



When she appeared in the floo of Grimmauld Place, Harry and Ron were sitting there, with expressions that looked terribly depressed. They didn’t even bother to face the floo as she entered, and she took that opportunity to get into character. She trembled convincingly and gruffly called to each of her best friends. “Harry! Ron!”



Both boys leapt up and looked as though they would tackle her with joy, but stopped short at the expression on her face. Oddly enough, she found it very easy to cry in front of them and collapsed on Harry’s shoulders. The commotion she caused as they led her to the couch and she knocked her leg on the coffee table, attracted more attention to come into the den. The entire Order was waiting for information about Hermione, and one by one offered their condolences. This gave Hermione a good opportunity to look over the entire assembly and decide who she most trusted and who was most likely to be the traitor.



Madam Pomfrey was quickly summoned and soon Hermione found herself being offered a dreamless sleep potion that she accepted and she felt grateful that she was lifted into a pair of sinewy arms as Harry carried her up the stairs.



The next day, all hell broke loose while Hermione was still sleeping. The Burrow had been attacked that morning by a crew led by Snape and though none had been killed, the damage was irreversible. They pulled it off with maximum psychological and property damage and Hermione suspected that it went perfectly to plan though the rest of the Order was thankful for their “victory”.



At 5 o’clock that morning, acting on information that the Burrow was virtually unprotected, Voldemort sent his five best Death Eaters to the Burrow in the early hours of the morning with a very difficult, though typical, spell. Snape struggled to think of some method of warning the sleeping Weasleys, but found himself too close to Bellatrix and Macnair to act.



Luckily for the whole family, only Charlie, Ginny, Mr. and Mrs. Weasley were staying at the Burrow that morning and Mrs. Weasley was a habitual early riser when she knew she was preparing an Order dinner for the night. She sat up, stretched, and turned, expecting to gaze out at a glowing countryside where the sun lay just behind the hill. Instead, an eerie green glow and ominous feeling overtook her and she jumped up quickly and ran to the window. Drawing breath to scream warning to her family, she turned away from the window and the flash of read hair from the bedroom window caught Bellatrix’s eye.



Without hesitation or thought Bellatrix raised her wand and uttered the spell they had been sent with and the magic keeping the master bedroom precariously bound to the rest of the house dissipated and sent the room tumbling towards the ground.



Snape whirled around to Bellatrix with anger while she cackled maniacally. In the rest of the house, the panicked scream of Ginny was the only sound as a short, bald Death Eater dismantled her bedroom and it tumbled to the ground. Snape watched as Macnair and the other Death Eater followed suit and two more wings of the house crashed on the centre section and demolished the den and kitchen. Snape raised his wand and scanned the rubble for life and found only one fading essence.



He felt a dread crawl through him, because Ginny was close to Hermione. He had failed to warn them, and now only one of the Weasleys were barely surviving. Steadying his heart rate and thinking quickly, Snape led the group to the tiny hand dangling limp and covered with blood under the rubble. Bellatrix raised her wand and Snape pushed her arm down. “She’s going to die before they get here.”



“Oh, I wasn’t going to kill her yet, Severus.”



That bitch is sick, Severus thought, though he said, “We don’t have the time to play. We need to find the other bodies before—” Several Order members suddenly appeared. Apparently, the Weasleys were able to raise the alarm at Headquarters. That was rather quick! He thought.



Snape scowled at McGonagall in her blue tartan nightgown, Kingsley in his night robe, Mr. and Mrs. Weasley, Tonks, Fred, and George. “Back to Headquarters.” He snapped at his comrades just loud enough for them to hear and disapparated away immediately.



Upon reaching Spinner’s End, he unbolted the gate and stepped onto the grounds, turning to hold the gate for the others and finding no one with him. His brow furrowed and he waited a few seconds before taking a deep breath and apparating just outside of the grounds of the Burrow. He surveyed the scene and felt his heart pound at the sight before him. Several more Order members had joined forces against the four Death Eaters, one of which was Hermione. Her hair was wild, so he knew that she had just woken up to help. Snape started to step forward when she noticed him and acted with such cunning speed that he had to dive out of the way of the spell she let loose. Her eyes flashed with excitement and she refocused her attack on Macnair.



Snape quickly joined the fray, blasting Tonks away from one Death Eater, wrapping his arms around the man’s shoulders, and disapparating with him to the gates of Spinner’s End. “WHY THE HELL DIDN’T YOU GET OUT WHEN I ORDERED?” Snape roared at him, and the man sniffed blood out of his nose and refused to answer, so Snape ordered, “GO NOWHERE!” and apparated back to the Burrow again.



When he returned, he was surprised to see half of the Order on the ground and Harry, Ron, and Hermione among the five left standing against Bellatrix, Macnair, the squat balding Death Eater, Narcissa, and Draco Malfoy. He furrowed his eyebrows. The Malfoys were not apart of his original team, but he didn’t have time to figure out where they’d come from. They were now evenly matched and Snape was ready to tip the balance.



He plunged into the fray which distracted Harry enough to cause him to divert a spell away from his current fight at Snape. In that second, the short, bald Death Eater stunned Harry. The boy’s body collapsed to the ground, and the Death Eater moved towards him, but in a flash, Madam Pomfrey apparated onto the Burrow’s garden, seized Harry and disapparated to safety with him. Taking a leaf from her book, Snape did the same thing to the small Death Eater.



“WHAT THE HELL IS GOING ON HERE?” He shouted at the two men.



“We were Ordrered to stay and fight with Bellatrix.”



“BY WHOM?” Snape pressed his hand into the Death Eater’s throat severely.



“I can’t breathe!”



“WHO TOLD YOU TO STAY?” He bore down on the man.



He gurgled, “Bellatrix.”



Snape furrowed his brows and threw the man away from him before apparating back into the fray.



When he got back, it was now down to McGonagall, Mr. Weasley, and Hermione against Bellatrix, Macnair, and Draco. Narcissa was nowhere in sight. Snape once again made a move to help Voldemort’s side by snatching Draco away to Spinner’s End. “Stay here.” He ordered with no doubt that he would listen.



Somehow, in the brief time he was gone from the Burrow, Bellatrix had managed to incapacitate Mr. Weasley and she levelled on Hermione as Macnair combated McGonagall. He knew what he had to do and strode forward to help his fellow Death Eaters. Suddenly, he found himself surrounded by four Order members, and knew it was time to leave. Before he could apparate, however, a large explosion and blindingly bright light attracted everyone’s attention.



Apparently, Hermione managed to expel another one of her experimental spells and Bellatrix and Macnair were both forced to stop fighting. It seemed that neither of them could see, but only Bellatrix knew to apparate away as quickly as possible. He tried to look back at the four Order members surrounding him and realized that even they had been affected by her spell, and he felt as though he was wearing horse blinders. The vision in his left eye was absolutely destroyed. Before anyone could refocus their attention on Snape, he too apparated to safety.



The first person he saw was Voldemort standing at the gates and looking at the sad arrangement of Death Eaters there. “Severus! Explain this!” The monster hissed.



Snape was distracted his partial vision loss, but turned to his master and answered as well as he could. “Your plan was enacted, my lord, but after I gave a direct order for us to return, Bellatrix made another order for the rest to stay.”



Voldemort rounded on Bellatrix and raised his wand to curse her when he noticed her wildly wide, searching eyes. “What’s wrong with her?”



“She was blinded in battle, My Lord.”



“What spell was used?”



“I am not sure, My Lord.”



“Who performed the spell?”



“The mudblood witch, master.”



Voldemort seethed and rounded again on Bellatrix with his wand raised to hex her, and hesitated. Every Death Eater present watched him with wonder. Seeming to remember that he was being watched, Voldemort cursed Bellatrix. Over her shrill screams, he shouted, “WHY DID YOU DISOBEY THE WIZARD I PUT OVER YOU?”



“I WANTED TO SURPRISE YOU, MY LORD!... My lord… My lord…” She writhed as the remnants of her pain faded. “My lord… My lord… My lord…” She muttered over and over in a soft, weeping voice.



Voldemort had returned his gaze to Snape and ignored Bellatrix as she crawled blindly in the direction of his voice. “How much of the mission was a success, Severus?”



“A complete success, master.”



“So then why—” He moved lightening fast and used his wand to dangle Snape in midair by his neck. “—are you ABUSING MY WITCHES AND WIZARDS?”



“I—master—w—we’ve—lost—some—lost some!” Snape managed to choke out. Voldemort narrowed his eyes and flicked his wand to release him and Snape fell to the ground.



“Who are we missing?” The dark wizard’s eyes scanned his surroundings. “Surely, none of the original team you were sent with.”



Snape picked himself up from the ground at his master’s feet and looked around at the fearful group around him. “Macnair, My Lord, and Narcissa.”



“Narcissa was not apart of the original team.”



“No, master, but she was there at one point.”



Voldemort whipped his wand around to beat Bellatrix again. Her piercing screams rendered everyone else to an eerie silence. When he finally relented, she curled into a bleeding ball and whimpered.



“Severus!” The evil man snapped, “You will care for her, and I will contact you to deliver a plan to get Macnair and Narcissa back.” Scowling, Snape lifted Bellatrix’s cringing form into his arms and carried her into his manor. At the door of the entrance, Voldemort turned back to Snape and Bellatrix. “You two had better resolve this issue before I see you again.”



“Yes, master.” They murmured in unison, as Snape adjusted her in his arms.







Back at the Burrow, the Order was in chaos. On one hand, they celebrated the capture of Macnair, but there was also a general anxiety for Ginny and a deep sorrow for the loss of the Weasleys’ most valuable possession. Ginny was clinging to life and though she wasn’t getting worse, she wasn’t getting better either. Her beautiful, long, red hair lay around her shoulders and her dark brown eyes remained closed in the bed next to Hermione’s. Harry was a fixture at her side and left her only to make sure Mrs. Weasley was eating despite the fact that he never did either.



Hermione spent the evening trying to manage a counter-spell to her blinding charm. There were four Order members ranging from partially to fully blind and the typical spells weren’t working. The opinions of Hermione’s choice to use that spell were just as widely ranged. Some, like Neville, thought it was brilliant, others thought it was stupid, and one of the newer Order members thought it was a direct attack by Hermione. Everyone was on edge, and the initiation of Lavender Brown was put on hold to deal with the enormity of the days events. Hermione spent the next three days in the library of Grimmauld Place. There, she pushed through the tiny library, and found herself becoming stir crazy with the desire to leave in search of a book to help her in her search. Eventually, she decided to go to her home on Kent and Elizabeth. Searching the house for McGonagall, she concisely told her that she planned on going to visit her mother and disapparated to the library of the mansion without waiting for a response.



Looking around, she was surprised to find her mother and father sitting together on the couch by the roaring fire with a book shared between them. Creeping up behind them, she read a short passage over their shoulders and raised an eyebrow. “Children’s stories?”



They both jumped and Hermione smiled down at them, “Oh hi, sweetie!” Her mother exclaimed, accepting the hug Hermione squeezed around her shoulders from above.



“You’ve been away so long!” Her father said with a small smile.



“Oh, I know. I’m sorry. There was an attack on the Burrow and they tightened security.”



“Oh, well I hope everyone is alright.” Her mother said with concern.



“Ginny isn’t doing so well,” Hermione sat on the floor in front of the couch and let her mother run her hands as far through her hair as the curls would allow, “She’s still unconscious.”



“Is the food Severus left for you good?”



“Um… well, actually, as far as that goes…” Her mother began



“Oh no…” Hermione interjected.



“… His meals stopped two days ago.”



Her father shrugged, “I think he only intended to be gone for one day.”



“You must be starving!”



“Nonsense! Your father was in the scouts, and I’ve had quite a lot of fun watching him in the fields trying to catch a rabbit.” Looking affectionate and teasingly at her husband she said, “The rabbits are currently twenty to zero against your father. Besides, that garden in the back is quite extensive. I’ve been able to make all kinds of salads and stews and treats!”



“She’s quite the genius in that garden, Hermione.” Her father complimented his spouse with an warm gaze focused on her.



“You’re so sweet.”



As her parents kissed, she stood and began to leave, calling over her shoulder, “Where’s Severus right now?”



“He hasn’t returned since you both left.”



Hermione worried about him. “I hope he’s alright.” Her mother turned to look at her and Hermione remembered that she needed her help with Lucius. “Mum, I need your help with something. Can you come with me?” Without hesitation, her mother rose, kissed her husband, and followed her daughter to the dungeons while Hermione explained. “This man we are about to see used to be Severus’ closest friend. Severus switched sides and played spy for the Order, but he remained a close follower of Voldemort’s. He even indoctrinated his entire family to the hatred of muggles and muggleborns. His son was Draco Malfoy, our enemy at school. Before the Order captured him a year and a half ago, he was Voldemort’s right hand man. Severus was his third below Bellatrix Lestrange. After Bellatrix’s escape, Mr. Malfoy’s capture, and Dumbledore’s murder, Severus was elevated to become Voldemort’s right hand man. The problem is that that is all I know about Severus, and I feel as though I’m playing with fire. I have to know more about him.”



“Uh-hmm... What do you need me for?” Her mother asked.



“Not much.” Hermione opened the door to the dungeons and took her mother’s hands, placing her wand into the woman’s palm. “You just have to hold that wand still.”



Mrs. Granger took the wand as though it might spontaneously catch fire, as her daughter moved ahead of her. “Wait! Wait! WAIT! Hermione!” She jogged to catch up and absentmindedly gesticulated with the wand. “What are you up to? I have to know before I hold a wand still for your use. Are we going to be in danger?”



“No, mum, not at all.” She lied. “I am going to create an unbreakable vow with Lucius in exchange for information about Severus and help with a charm I created that I can’t seem to reverse.”



“Unbreakable?” Hermione’s mother was not a stupid woman and she latched onto the key word easily. “What makes the oath unbreakable?”



Hermione glanced down the long row of cells and remained satisfied that he could not hear them from his distant cell if she kept her voice low. “Neither he nor I will be capable of breaking the oaths we make. This will protect him and me from double-crossing each other.”



Her mother’s eyes widened and she grabbed Hermione’s arm hard to stop her, “Why won’t you be capable? How will it prevent you from breaking the oath?”



Hermione looked into her mother’s eyes and then down at the hand on her arm. She couldn’t bring herself to say the words to scare her mother and she also couldn’t seem to lie to her either, so she looked back into her face and whispered, “I need you to do this for me.”



“No.” Her mother understood and stepped back.



“You have to!” She pleaded.



“No, Hermione! I don’t have to, and neither do you!”



Hermione yanked her arm free. “I am going to do this in one way or another. I have to have this information! I can’t do this through guesswork and those Order members need their sight back!” She hissed.



“Well, then you are going to have to use that other way, because frankly, I don’t see you risking your life for the same Order members that were willing to spare your life for some information as a fair sacrifice!”



“What about Severus? I have to know more information about him and Malfoy has it! I don’t know what to make of him! There are some things he’s hiding from me, and I am terrified to talk to him.”



Her mother threw up her hands in exasperation and began to storm out. Hermione jogged to catch up and placed a hand on her mother’s shoulder, effectively stopping her and making her whirl around to face her. “Trust your husband, Hermione! Just trust him!” Staring deep into each other’s eyes, Hermione realized that her mother was correct.



“I’m afraid of him sometimes.” She admitted softly.



Mrs. Granger took her daughter’s right hand into her left and led her down the stone hallway. “Does he hurt you, Hermione?”



“No.”



“Well, I must admit, it doesn’t seem to me that he ever will.” Hermione Granger inherited her uncanny knowledge of behaviour from her mother, and the woman revealed an observation. “He is gentle with you and attempts to hide the bite of his anger from you, despite the fact that he is irked by the many little immaturities you possess.” Hermione’s ego took a hit at that and she frowned as they reached the stairs. “You may be more mature than most people your age, but you are still so inexperienced. He tolerates your father and me in his home, because of you. He watches you when you aren’t looking. He doesn’t bother with gentle behaviour with us, but should you walk into the room, he can’t seem to be able to keep his hands off of you. And when he thinks no one is listening, he berates himself for acting ‘soft’ around you.” Hermione rolled her eyes and stepped through the door to the first floor and her mother followed, waiting for the door to close again before saying, “Haven’t you even suspected that he was falling in love with you?”



“Snape?” snorted Hermione, “Severus Snape... in love with me!” She laughed, “You don’t know him very well yet, but I can guarantee you that he is not even the slightest bit in love with me.”



Her mother shrugged and the women made it to the library just as a pop of apparation alerted them to Snape’s return. Hermione ran in, closely accompanied by her mother. Snape wasn’t facing them as they entered, but knew they were there and turned to face them. He didn’t look the slightest bit happy to see them and stalked past Hermione angrily. “Come with me!” He snapped.



Looking to her mother with surprise, she obediently changed direction and trailed him to their bedroom. “Severus, wha—”



“What the hell were you doing at the Burrow?”



“The Weasleys apparated to Headquarters and Madam Pomfrey, Harry, Ron, Tonks, and Lupin were the only ones there, so while the rest of the Order was being roused, we were the first line of defence. I had to go.”



“You did not, and now he’s going to suspect that killing your father was not enough to take you out.”



Hermione shrugged, “Tell him that anger is the second stage of grief and I was likely taking my anger out on the Death Eaters there.”



Snape calmed only slightly, “I’ll do that, but I would rather that you avoid being involved at all.”



Hermione was taken aback, “Why?”



“I don’t want you in that sort of danger, because if something were to happen to you, I wouldn’t be able to stand by and let it happen.”



“I see.” She said softly, reminded of her mother’s words.



He sighed heavily and pulled her into his arms, against his chest. “That was quite an intriguing spell you created. It took me until this morning to remove it.”



“You countered it?”



“Yes. You didn’t have a counter-spell planned?”



“No, I—”



“So those Order members are still blind?”



“Yes, but—”



“You should always have a counter spell in mind for the curse you use!”



“Well, I couldn’t actually test it, could I?” Snape sneered at her with disdain, and she wanted to push him away from her, but changed her mind in favour of enjoying the warmth of his embrace. “What took you so long?”



“I was given the task of caring for Bellatrix and trying to help her.” His bass tones rolled through her and she snuggled closer to him. “The Dark Lord is making plans to capture Macnair back from the Order when they pass him over to the Ministry of Magic, so we’re going to have to meet much more often to be sure that we are sharing the most recent information.”



Hermione nodded and blew some hair out of her face. Snape gently responded by pushing her riotous curls from her eyes and pressing a smooth kiss to her temple. Her left hand rested on his chest beside her head and he looked at the ring and the tug of emotion returned with such power that it seemed to hurt in his chest. Hermione felt warmth spread over her and smiled, “When do you have to go back?”



“He’ll be summoning me any second now.”



“Then lay down with me and we can go through the Book of Days and Ends.”



Snape nodded and they settled onto the bed. Hermione summoned the book from the Library and situated herself under Snape’s arm. Together, they opened the book for the first time, and read into the late hours of the night, not realizing they had fallen asleep until the rhythmic bumping sound from next door made Snape cast a silencing charm on the wall between the bedrooms. This time, Hermione didn’t react noticeably and Snape took pride in her as he fell back into a warm comfortable sleep.





Down in the dungeons, Lucius mulled over the information he had just overheard from the Granger women and began to engineer a way to use it to his benefit. If there was one mistake Snape made in keeping Lucius alive, it was in underestimating his potential to plan an escape regardless of the conditions. Now that Lucius had an idea, he was more dangerous than ever.



~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

A/N: I’ve always loved Lucius.



Okay, so I can’t find my frequent reviewers list, but I will update it next time. Sorry. The purpose of the list however is for me to say thank you soooooooooo much for your reviews catysmom, johanna3030, slytherin-princess, Juno Magic, sslover, meankitty69, and openthedoor. You guys are sooooooo encouraging!