A Living Secret ~ COMPLETED

Chapter 32 ~ The Sorting Hat

Both Hermione and Harry scrunched their eyes closed, expecting to feel a tremendous wash of power after all that buildup…but they felt nothing as Matilda lowered her wand.

“All right, let’s go and stay close,” she said.

Neither Hermione nor Harry felt any magic at all. Severus and Matilda exited the bedroom, walked through the study and stopped at the sliding wall that led into his former office. Instead of Matilda just pulling the torch that opened the wall, she first touched the tip of her wand to the torch, then the wall…then she pulled the torch and the wall opened.

Hermione and Harry watched this odd extra step, wondering what the witch was doing. They then walked to the office door, and she also touched it with her wand before opening it. The group walked through into the corridor. Harry, the last one out, tried to close the door but found he couldn’t budge it. He strained at it as the others walked up the corridor. Suddenly they disappeared, but only for an instant. Next thing he knew they were back, Matilda touching him with the tip of her wand.

“You have to stay close, Mr. Potter or you will fall outside the influence of the spell,” Matilda said as Severus frowned at him for holding them up, “Leave the door open. It will be fine.”

”But won’t someone notice your office door open?” Harry said as he fell into step.

“No,” Matilda replied impatiently, “Come along, Mr. Potter.”

As they walked down the corridor, Hermione noticed something quite odd.

”There aren’t any noises,” Hermione said to Harry, “Not a single sound. There should be some noises. Our footsteps. The castle settling. Ghostly moans. There’s nothing, nothing at all.”

Now Harry noticed it too.

Matilda smiled.

“You have excellent powers of observation, Miss Granger,” she said as she walked briskly, headed for the Main Hall.

As they walked into the main area of the castle, both Harry’s and Hermione’s hearts leapt into their throats. There was Filch and Mrs. Norris and they all were in plain sight.

“Oh no!” Harry breathed, then he noticed Filch wasn’t moving, though he appeared to be in mid-hobble. Had Professor Hagg hexed him?

”Don’t worry about Filch. He doesn’t see us,” Matilda said, walking up into the squib and peering into his grizzled face and shaking her head, “What a looker.”

“Did you petrify him?” Hermione asked the witch.

“No. I haven’t hexed him at all,” Matilda said, heading for the main stairwell. Severus said nothing as he followed her.

“Why isn’t he moving?” Hermione asked the witch.

”See if you can figure it out, Miss Granger,” Matilda replied as they mounted the stairs.

Hm. No sound. Filch and Mrs. Norris frozen in space as if…

Hermione suddenly looked at the portraits. They weren’t moving either or reacting to them. Hogwarts' paintings were notoriously nosey.

They stopped on a landing. The shifting stairwell above them didn’t move. Normally it would slide toward them so they could continue ascending. Now she knew what was going on.

“You’ve stopped time!” Hermione exclaimed, impressed.

”Not exactly,” Matilda said, “but close. I’ve actually sped us up. We are moving through a single moment of time. Everything is as it should be. The sounds, Filch, the stairwells. But we are caught in a single millisecond. We are moving so fast, we aren’t perceived. If we want to interact with an object, I have to touch it with my wand to bring it into our sphere of timelessness. That’s why you couldn’t close the door, Mr. Potter.”

”What a marvelous spell,” Hermione breathed, “Do you teach it in the DADA?”

”Oh no. It is terribly illegal. You get in almost as much trouble using it as you do an Unforgivable. Fortunately, since it is timeless…it is impossible for the Ministry to track its use. Instead, they’ve removed it from public use. It is a banned spell. But…since I worked in the Ministry for years…I had access to all banned spells and…er…learned to use them,” she said, “Power has its privileges.”

Harry looked up at the shifting stairs.

”How are we going to get up to the proper floor?” he asked.

“All of you link arms,” the witch said, slipping her arm through Severus’ arm.

Hermione looped her arm through the Potions Master’s and he looked down at her a moment. She felt all squishy inside as she felt the warmth of his skin beneath the sleeve of his robes. Severus looked thoughtful for a second, then looked back up at the stairwells. He could feel the witch’s slight quiver as she came in contact with him. Hermione had the potential to be quite distracting if he didn’t keep his focus. He was more affected by the little witch than he let on.

Matilda raised her wand again, focused and suddenly Hermione clutched at the Potions Master as they all floated upward.

Harry just held on to Hermione tightly. Severus and Matilda simply rode it out, their faces impassive as they all approached the corridor Minerva’s office was on. They landed neatly on the landing.

“Come along,” Matilda said briskly, walking down the corridor toward the gargoyle.

Hermione noticed that the DADA teacher used all non-verbal spells, perhaps to keep them from hearing the invocations she used. It made sense. She couldn’t just share Dark Magic. But my, Professor Hagg was certainly powerful. She would have made a wonderful member of the Order.

They stopped in front of the gargoyle and Matilda made a face that didn’t help her looks a bit as she tapped the gargoyle with her wand and spat out the password.

“Cat Nappies,” she said distastefully. Minerva gave the most ridiculous passwords.

Harry and Hermione smirked at each other as the gargoyle leapt aside and they all ascended the stairs. Matilda touched the tip of her wand to the doors that opened on the office, then entered, followed by Severus, Hermione and Harry.

Hermione looked around. The glowing flames in the fireplace were frozen, as were the lowered torches. The portraits of previous headmasters and headmistresses were asleep and motionless as well.

Matilda walked around Minerva’s desk and touched the tip of her wand to the Sorting Hat, which immediately burst into loud song, making Hermione and Harry jump.

“Hush up!” Matilda hissed at it, “None of your bawdy songs tonight. This isn’t a Sorting.”

The hat fell silent and Matilda placed it on Minerva’s desk, then removed her own hat and placed it next to it.

”Mr. Potter, if you had destroyed the Sorting Hat, it would have been a great loss,” she said, focusing on it, “This hat was created by the magic of all four original founders of the school, each putting a bit of themselves into it. Not like a Horcrux…not their spirits…but the essence of their personalities. When placed on a new students head, the hat automatically identifies the potential of each individual and compares it to each of the founders. This is how it decides what house to place each student in. It could never be recreated. And so…”

Matilda spoke a long involved incantation, swirling her wand around the tip of the Sorting Hat. There was a feeling in the air like static electricity and a small, spinning cone of magic appeared, whirling in the same direction as the witch’s wand. Carefully, still chanting and whirling her wand, Matilda lifted the cone of magic off the Sorting Hat, then lowered it over her own hat. She began to whirl her wand the other way now, continuing to chant, the magic seeming to wind its way into the fabric of the tall, black hat until it disappeared. Matilda ended the spell.

“There now, the transference of the original spell is complete, sans soul fragment,” Matilda said with satisfaction.

A split appeared in the black hat, and the cone bent several ways as if studying itself.

“I’m beautiful again!” the new Sorting Hat exclaimed.

”Not for long,” Matilda said, transforming it into a double of the old hat.

”Damn it!” the hat hissed, falling silent.

Matilda placed the new Sorting Hat back on the shelf, then looked at Harry.

”You must take this with you, Mr. Potter. Releasing the Horcrux when we are in such close proximity could be fatal to us. You will have to destroy it in real time where others can give you room,” she said.

Harry picked up the hat.

”Thank you,” he said.

Matilda shrugged her shoulders.

“At least I’ve finally done something for the Greater Good. I avoided being involved for so long. Hopefully this makes up for it,” she replied, looking at her cousin.

”Thank you, Matilda,” Severus said.

“Thanks? From you? The world’s going to end. Now, let’s go,” the witch groused. It seems Professor Hagg wasn’t big on emotional moments.

This time she was careful to close the door.

They returned to the dungeon area much the same way they left it, passing the frozen Filch again. Harry was tempted to tie his shoelaces together so the squib would fall on his face, but said nothing. The opportunity passed as they returned to Matilda’s rooms.

“You two wait in the bedroom,” Severus said as Matilda brought them back to real time, “I need to speak to Matilda alone.”

Immediately the sounds of life returned, made more noticeable by their absence. Even the air seemed sweeter. Harry and Hermione walked into the bedroom, immediately falling into a hushed conversation about how cool Matilda was, and how Snape-like.

Severus looked at his cousin.

“Matilda, I need your assistance in another matter…one even more important to our success than this one. But I’m afraid it is a rather dark request, and I would understand if you didn’t want to be involved,” he began.

Matilda studied Severus. What a brave wizard he had turned out to be. Matilda had seen him on only several occasions when she was younger. His mother had been ostracized by the rest of the family for marrying a muggle, and Severus considered tainted as a half-blood. He wasn’t even treated like a member of the family when he came to visit. Matilda remembered their parents instructing them not to play with him or even talk to him because he was half muggle and beneath them.

But Matilda snuck off and played with him anyway. He was ugly like her, and she was ostracized in a different manner because of her looks. She didn’t think it was fair. Matilda was delighted to find the pale wizard was as sarcastic and snarky as she was and they exchanged insults for hours as they mixed fake potions and cast pretend spells. Then Severus went to Hogwarts and she moved to America with her mother after her father ran off with another witch. He didn’t divorce Matilda’s mum. Just left her. And she moved to America from shame. The cousins lost contact, though Matilda moved back to England on her own as soon as she graduated from the New Salem School of Witchcraft and Wizardry.

Since Matilda was so ugly, she excelled in grades having no boys or social life to distract her. She landed an entry level job at the Ministry in the Spells department and access to Dark Magic spells. She moved up in rank steadily. Matilda did all right for herself, having no qualms about using the magic she learned on others. If she had been at Hogwarts, she would have been a Slytherin all the way. Yet she did enjoy wearing the Slytherin colors from time to time.

“What do you need me to do, Severus?” she asked him.

Severus told her, her eyes widening in disbelief.

”You think this is the best way, Severus?” Matilda asked him, “Someone could be killed.”

”There are martyrs in every war, Matilda…young and old,” he replied, “I wouldn’t do it if I didn’t feel it was necessary. Voldemort must be stopped and we need the opportunity to do it. We will only have one chance. If we fail, then we all die…including Albus and my name will never be cleared.”

Matilda stared up at him. What he asked was terrible…but she could see the ingenuity in the plan.

“I have reservations, Severus…but I’ll do it. What night again?” she asked him.

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Severus, Hermione and Harry returned to the Hollow, the Sorting Hat tucked under Harry’s arm. They walked into the living room and Harry set the hat on the table. Both his and Hermione’s necklaces were glowing brightly. Hermione stood close to him, looking at the hat as if it were going to jump up and bite her.

“Are you going to destroy it now, Harry?” she asked him.

“Yes,” Harry said.

Suddenly Hermione’s arm was gripped by Severus.

”Come with me, Hermione,” the wizard ordered, leading her out of the living room and into the hallway. They could still see Harry looking down at the hat. Dobby peered around their legs.

“Whenever you’re ready, Mr. Potter. A simple Reducto spell should do it,” Severus called to him.

Harry nodded, glad the soul fragment didn’t give the hat any additional properties that would make it difficult to destroy.

Harry pulled out his wand, focusing on the hat.

“Reducto!” he cried, blasting the hat to bits. Again a great wind rose, the suction threatening to pull Hermione, Severus and Dobby into the room. The Potions Master wrapped his arms around the witch as Dobby clung to his legs.

Hermione watched as Harry was lifted by the wind and spun around the room as the soul fragment appeared as a writhing, bright light. Suddenly a tendril shot out and hit Harry in the chest, the wizard buckling. Then it was gone, the wind stopped and Harry dropped to the floor.

“What the hell was that?” Hermione cried, breaking away from Severus and running over to Harry. He was unconscious. She looked down and gasped.

“Voldemort’s stone! It’s glowing!” she cried as Severus strode over quickly.

“Remove his necklace, Hermione. We will tell him it was destroyed when he released the Horcrux,” the Potions Master said.

“But…but he’s giving off Voldemort’s signature, Professor…is he possessed?” she asked the wizard, her heart pumping.

“No, Miss Granger. It is his protection for when he faces Voldemort. He absorbs a bit of his soul fragment each time he releases one, because of the first transference of power from Voldemort when he was a child. He has always had a weak touch of the despot’s signature…imperceptible, yet it is recognized by the soul fragment and so it is drawn to him. He does not contain much, but enough to affect Voldemort in his presence,” Severus explained to her as Harry groaned, “The protection increases with the destruction of each Horcrux. But Albus advised not to tell him, Hermione. Like you, he might fear he is becoming possessed. Be sure to keep your necklace hidden when you are near him as well.”

Hermione quickly removed Harry’s necklace and placed in it her pocket. The young wizard’s eyes fluttered open.

“Is it destroyed?” he asked weakly, Hermione helping him to sit up.

Severus surveyed the tatters of the hat.

”Yes, quite destroyed,” the wizard purred. He started walking toward the front door.

“I must go. I will return this weekend to discuss our next mission, Mr. Potter. Have a clear head. Good-bye Miss Granger,” the Potions Master said, then exited.

Hermione helped Harry to his feet and over to the armchair. Dobby brought him a glass of water which Harry drank down thirstily. He brought his hand to his chest to feel his heart, then hesitated, looking down, then pulling his shirt away from his body and looking down the collar.

“My necklace is gone?” he said to Hermione.

”It was destroyed when you freed the Horcrux, Harry. Maybe it was too much power for the signature stone. Anyway, you don’t need it now. You know the final Horcrux is Nagina,” she said softly.

She hated to lie to him, and longed to tell him what was happening to him. But the Headmaster was right. Harry would worry that Voldemort’s spirit was possessing him…and a worried Harry was an unfocused Harry. He needed focus more than ever now. For the first time, Hermione understood the deceptions the Headmaster was guilty of. They were necessary.

Harry nodded, sighed and leaned back in the chair. His head hurt a little.

Hermione watched him anxiously as did Dobby.

Harry opened his eyes and saw Hermione’s worried expression.

“I’m fine, Hermione,” he said, “Just a little tired. It was exciting tonight, wasn’t it?”

”Oh yes, Harry,” Hermione agreed, thinking that his next mission out would be far more than exciting…

It would be deadly.

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A/N: Thanks for reading. ***