A Delicate Obsession

Chapter 21 – Mrs. Yasmine Snape

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

“Miss Hermione Granger, now you mustn’t weep so.” Dobby was patting her back. “Look what Dobby brought you, sandwiches and pumpkin juice and some trifle. Miss Hermione Granger needs to keep up her strength!”

Hermione looked up into the pale eyes of the house elf. “You’re right. I know. I’ll pull myself together now.” She actually was quite hungry, having not eaten all day, and tucked right in.

Hermione leapt up when she heard people coming in. She ran from the lounge and saw Snape held in a Mobilicorpus spell. “We found him,” chirped Flitwick, “and it’s a good thing, too. The sun’s down and it’s been snowing.”

Snape’s body was brought in and Hermione asked, “Is he dead?”

And then Hermione’s nightmare began.

&&&

“Well, it’s not Crucio damage.” Pomfrey grimaced, “and we’ve ruled out every other possible hex or curse.”

Dumbledore sucked on a lemon drop. He looked at Pomfrey and then over to a red-eyed, still sniveling Hermione. “I rather believe the spell he is currently under may have to do with the reason he survived his injuries from his last meeting with the Dark Lord and his minions.”

Hermione looked up, surprised.

“We will have to wait until we can contact Yasmine Snape and get additional information. In the meantime, keep him comfortable and hope for the best.” Dumbledore walked out.

“That’s all?” Hermione asked.

“You can see that he is in no pain or discomfort.” Pomfrey shook her head. “Headmaster Dumbledore reached the same conclusion that I already had.” Pomfrey realized that that wasn’t enough for the distraught Hermione. “If you want, I’ll move your cot in next to his. You can keep a closer eye on him that way.”

Hermione gave the older witch a hug. “Thank you.”

“I guess I’m getting soft in my old age. You certainly do seem to have it bad for him. I had a crush on a teacher once.” Pomfrey’s eyes grew misty.

“What ever happened?”

Pomfrey gave Hermione a stern look. “Nothing, nothing ever happened.” She straightened herself up. “Now, I want you to get some rest, and I’ll wake you up for the midnight shift. I’ll sleep from midnight to five.”

Hermione reclined on the cot and watched Snape. He lay there, peaceful and serene, not a care or concern in the world. To put it simply, the lights were on but nobody was home. Eventually she closed her eyes and fell into a deep sleep, born of physical and emotional exhaustion.

Hermione had two memories that erased all others of the siege: the first was when Flitwick had brought in Snape, awake and yet totally unaware of anything going on around him. The second memory was of the day during the second week of the siege when a girl, not much older than Hermione, was brought in. She was in her first trimester of pregnancy and Pomfrey did her best, but the hex had affected her womb and she miscarried. Hermione ran away from the blood and the suffering and, threw herself across Snape’s bed. She cried her eyes out while Snape simply lay there unblinking and uncomprehending of his lover’s torment.

Every free moment, she spent with him. She read to him and took care of him. She did the feeding and clean up spells, just like she did with the other immobilized patients. The days drifted into weeks of endless care for Snape and for others who came in broken and stayed. There had been two shipments of patients to St. Mungos and still the Hospital Wing was filled to capacity.

Once the Death Eaters had run out of the few Muggle-borns left in Hogsmeade they had gone after the less than pure bloods. Eventually, even having pure blood was no guarantee of safety from torment. Of course, part of the purpose in this strategy was to taunt and attempt to get people to emerge from the safety of Hogwarts. The other part was to dishearten and dispirit those remaining in both Hogsmeade and Hogwarts. But eventually the wards fell and the Death Eaters, led by Voldemort, came rushing into the castle.

What they did not know was they were walking into a carefully laid trap. Although some major damage occurred to the castle at the end, Harry, with a lot of backup, defeated Voldemort, fulfilling the prophecy and ending the Dark Lord’s threat to the Wizarding World.

&&&

Hermione, to be honest, barely noticed the end of the siege. For one thing, there was no lessening of work. The war had resulted in St. Mungos being filled to capacity so the people at the hospital wing in Hogwarts remained. Also, the spring term had been cancelled and N.E.W.T.s postponed for six months.

Snape showed no improvement-- except that Hermione learned a charm similar to Imperio that allowed her to get him to sit up and do other simple things like walk or climb stairs.

She never felt so alone or miserable about her life.

The day after the siege ended, Hermione was taking a break and sitting by Snape’s bed when the Headmaster walked in accompanied by a rather interesting looking woman. She had a thick, glossy plait of black hair, which ran all the way down her back. Her eyes were also black and glittered with good-natured intelligence. Her skin was dark brown and she was of medium height. She dressed in a long embroidered tunic instead of witches’ robes. She smiled warmly upon seeing Snape and immediately bent down to stroke his hair and then kiss his forehead.

“Hermione, this is Mrs. Yasmine Snape. Yasmine, Hermione has been assisting Poppy here and has been keeping an eye out for Severus.”

The woman looked at Hermione with speculation and then sat down next to Snape. “Thank you, I appreciate what you are doing.” She took Severus’ hand and took his pulse. She then continued to do the same diagnostics that Pomfrey usually undertook.

“Well, if you don’t need me.” Dumbledore started to leave.

“Thank you again, Albus. I will be moving him tomorrow afternoon at the latest.” She nodded and started an incantation, which Hermione did not recognize.

“Um, Mrs. Snape, is there anything I can do to help?” Hermione couldn’t believe she’d be losing her Severus so soon.

She stopped the spell, and faced Hermione. “I would like a cup of tea, black, no sugar, thank you very much. I have been traveling all day and frankly, I’m a bit tired. I haven’t had to Apparate so often in a while.”

“Of course.” Hermione went to the lounge. When she came back, she found Mrs. Snape sitting down and holding her son’s hand again. There were tears in her eyes. She handed the tea to the older witch and started to leave. “Please don’t leave. I have a question that Albus said you might be able to answer. One of our house elves states that Severus had a lady friend with him the past few months at our cottage. I’d like to find her. Jinx is rather too nosy, thank the Gods, and overheard her name. It’s Laura. Do you know this person?”

Hermione had learnt her lesson. “That’s me. Wearing a glamour. Professor Snape didn’t know.” She blushed violently.

Yasmine stared and thenst ost out laughing. “Oh, that’s a jolly good one on him!” She put down her tea and picked up his hand, stroking it. “Severus, she played a joke on you!” She waited, hoping for some response. “I suppose you are fond of him? Miss Laura?” she said quietly.

“It’s Hermione and I love your son. I only wish I had told him the truth when I had a chance.”

Yasmine broke into more peals of laughter. “Oh, Severus, better and better. She thinks I’m your Mama. Now you should wake up and be very angry with us all. Severus?” She looked crestfallen and then turned to Hermione. “I’m his step-mama. I was married to his father for over twenty-five years. I wanted to be like his real mum, but he’d have nothing of me. Is there someplace where we can speak privately?” Hermione nodded and took Mrs. Snape to the lounge.

Yasmine found a large chair and motioned for Hermione to sit down as well. “Severus has few friends and sadly, some of them were no-good, like that Malfoy rubbish. If you wish to stay involved with Severus, and I’ll understand if you don’t, there is some information I could share with you about his situation.”

Hermione nodded again.

“It’s difficult for a second wife to say anything bad about the first. However, Severus’ mum was an evil bitch. Okay? I’ve said it out loud, now. I’ve been thinking it for a quarter century. She was part of the Order of the Hekate. I’m sure you don’t know about those things, since they don’t teach the Dark Arts at Hogwarts. But her group was much worse than You-Know-Who and those Death Eaters. It was a very old sect and they consorted with Black Angels, hmmm, here in Britain they are called Demons.

“My husband, Silanus, was a very gentle and kind man. He died last year and I can say in all our years of marriage, he never once raised his voice or his hand to me. Severus, from the time he was a baby, he’d been pale and weak. One day my husband discovered why his son was that way. The child’s own mother had been draining his blood and using it to make blood sacrifices to her pet demon. Silanus was not a violent man, but he lost control and beat her to within an inch of her life. He reted ted that he done it, as I said he was not a violent man, but moreover he had done the deed in front of his son. Severus hated his father from that day and was very protective of his mum. She never took his blood again, instead she used her own and wound up dying while Severus was away at his first year here in Hogwarts.” Yasmine shifted in her seat and her voice went low. “We know that Severus tried to keep up the old ways his mama taught him. When he was living at home, we discovered he’d write letters to her and then burn them, which is the way that the members of the Hekate communicate with their departed ones.

“Now you know most of the Snape family’s dirty linen. Here’s the last bit. Severus has been in this condition before. There was an accident and a young woman died where he was apprenticing. We lost him for five months. We believed it was some sort of protective curse cast by his mum on him. That time, we found someone who was able to get Severus out of wherever he is right now. When Albus told me what happened, I started to look for help, but the man who first recovered him is dead. I’ve had no luck, no luck at all, at finding any other experts on the subject of protectorate curses of the Hekate.

Yasmine sat back and massaged her brow. Hermione felt at a loss for words. She’d never heard of such a thing. A chill went down her spine. Poor Severus, to have such a family!

Hermione leaned forward and took Yasmine’s hand. “If there is anything I can do, please let me know.”

Yasmine smiled and squeezed Hermione’s hand. “I’m going to be spending all my time trying to find someone who knows enough about the Hekate to break the enchantment. What I’d like is if you were to come with us and help. Severus has never liked me and I just think maybe things might go better if there were someone that he cared about with him.”

Hermione’s brown eyes looked deep into Yasmine’s and she rapidly came to a decision. “I’ll do it. My replacement is expected here later today. I can leave Hogwarts with Severus tomorrow.”

A/N: My special thanks to my reviewers; Karena Elizabeth, MoD, Jen, Ghost Master, Lady Aidil, Katharina, Halo, TeaRose, Kiri, Otherside, Ezmerelda (welcome back!) and Luna (who’s right about Papagino, even though Queen of Night might be more appropriate in the light of the story--LOL). Two more chapters and you are all keeping me on course. I can’t believe I’ll be done this weekend. Sigh!

Also, special thanks to my DH. I have no clue about war or how sieges are run and his advice seemed quite good. However, if it all sucked, it’s my fault not his.