Mirror, Mirror

Mirror, Mirror

Chapter 4 – The Dept. of Transconveyance

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


“So are you married?” she asked, sipping her tea.

“No,” he replied. Snape looked around the terrace. Someone had taken a great deal of effort with it. The hedges were thick and well trimmed, providing total privacy from neighbors and the street. Yet there was a gap in the hedge, complete with a picket fence gate for people to enter from the street. The garden was planted with his favorite flowers: different varieties of jasmines, honeysuckles and scented geraniums. Though they were cloyingly sweet, he’d always loved their fragrances since boyhood.

First frost had obviously not set in yet, but having lived there for many a year, Snape knew the warm spell could end at a moments notice, complete with snow flurries by the end of the day.

Nanani’s food was quite good and Snape became aware that his appetite was far better than he had ever known it to be. He had also noted while getting dressed that morning that he was actually rather fleshy about the middle. Though still quite lean, his ribs were no longer in evidence. He had to be a good stone heavier than he’d ever been in his entire life. And yet, with it came a feeling of well being that was hard to resist.

He’d already planned his escape route and knew where he could hide safely until he could sort himself out. Pity that there were to be Aurors involved. Life here had some potential until the unpleasant decision on the girl’s part to hand him over.

“Are your ready, or did I come over too early?” Snape looked up in shock at the too-familiar voice. There at the picket fence stood Harry Potter, looking quite annoyingly chipper.

“How’s Lavender doing?” asked Hermione. Harry shrugged his shoulders and sighed in response to Hermione’s question.

Well, end of a dream, thought Snape. Aurors and Potter: it had to be a nightmare.

“Come sit down,” said Hermione nervously. “I have someone for you to meet.”

Harry walked over and took a seat and an oatcake, which he slathered with butter and lemon curd. “Right, who did you wish me to meet?” he said, happily munching away.

Snape tensed. He knew it was coming. Why should he have expected any loyalty from her?

“This man is an uninvited—“ before she could even finished the sentence, Harry had his wand at Snape’s throat.

“Did he—take advantage?” Hermione’s body was rigid, but she managed to gasp out a “No,” to Harry’s question.

Harry relaxed a bit but still had his wand pointed toward Snape, who deliberately continued with his breakfast in spite of the tremor in his hands.

“Tell me what happened,” demanded Harry. There was little of the pleasant young man who had just entered the terrace. Instead, he was the man who had destroyed Voldemort. Hermione watched the effect that Harry had had on Snape. It was so difficult… Even after all these years there was tension... especially right now. She stopped herself-- this wasn’t her Severus, she reminded herself. This man had taken away her husband. She shouldn’t be feeling protective of him.

Snape tried to regain control of his nerves. He wasn’t going to let Potter have the satisfaction of seeing him sweat. And yet the fear and the resentment that he had felt against Mad-eyed Moody, the same fear he had of all Aurors, was overwhelming when faced by Potter, his former student.

“I woke up this morning and he was here!” In reaction to the look on Harry’s face she included, “And he was a perfect gentleman.” Harry continued to stare at Snape.

“And what do you have to say for yourself, Severus? Was there a mistake with the Ministry? Did you wind up in the wrong realm by accident?”

“I’m dreaming.” He said quietly. “I simply haven’t woken up yet. Or perhaps I have been driven insane. Or maybe, I’m dead and this is my purgatory.” He sipped his tea. It was a lovely little teacup made of very fine, translucent porcelain with little roses on it. How my mother would have loved this, he thought. Yes, this must be a fantasy, but not wish fulfillment, something else.

“I see,” said Harry, raising his eyebrows and directing his look towards Hermione. “It’s completely unheard of though, that someone from an uncharted realm should just accidentally fall into ours. Hermione, is there any chance at all that Severus had planned to use the Department of Transconveyance to see someone, without telling you?”

“That wouldn’t make sense, would it? Why do it at night, and the Ministry wouldn’t allow someone to go to an uncharted realm?”

“But what if Severus was doing it privately. He’d have access to the copy in Hogwart’s Restricted Section, he could brew up the potion with his eyes closed I bet you, but if he got the incantation wrong, he could wind up anywhere and this poor man here without a clue.”

Snape continued to stay quiet. It seemed plausible. Potter seemed to have developed a brain in the past few years.

“But why would he do something like that without telling me?” Hermione looked stricken. “He wouldn’t. There’s nothing for it but to head to the Department and have them sort this mess out. Severus, we should leave right now before it gets too busy there. The lines grow quite long towards mid-morning.”

“Very well, Hermione, I just need to visit the facilities and I’ll be with you.” Snape got up and went inside the cottage.

Harry said, “excuse me for a moment,” and left through the gate. A few minutes there was a loud bang from behind the house. He returned with Snape bound by thin snake-like cords. “I didn’t really believe you were still thin enough to wiggle out the bathroom window,” smiled Harry. Snape scowled but head bowed, said nothing. He seemed quite defeated and resigned.

“Is he all right?” she asked Harry.

“Ask him. Why should he be trying to escape if he didn’t have something to hide?”

“Of course, guilty until proven otherwise. You’re just like all the other Aurors,” Snape murmured as if he was about to be struck for his insolence.

“You know, Severus, I just came over here to go shopping with Hermione. A lovely pleasant day out, buying something special for the little woman, and you have to go throw a wobbly.” He gave a half-smile. “You just are so predictable, even when it’s not you.

“So shall we be on our way?” Hermione’s anxiety was growing by the minute. “I’ll Apparate with Severus directly there.” She was still feeling protective of the man who looked like her husband.

“My security clearance is higher, and I’ll be able to cut through the red tape as well. After all, if this is a crime—“

“Harry Potter! I don’t want either Severus in trouble, you know me well enough to know that. What I want from you is to get my husband back.”

“Hermione!” complained Harry.

In an instant, Snape saw them again, not as they were now but as the two first year students he once had. Miss Granger, as ever, was the sensible one, keeping Potter in check, while Potter was still chaffing under her good advice. He sighed and rolled his eyes. The more things change…

&&&


The Ministry official, a fat, mustachioed wizard who looked like an amiable walrus in purple robes, gently, even tenderly touched Snape’s forehead with his wand. Sparks went out and danced a jig around Snape’s head before returning to the wand.

“So Jake, how does it look?” asked Harry with the casual confidence of a man in his own milieu.

“Hmmm. Well, I could use a second opinion and, speak of the devil, say Titus good timing. First day back from your vacation and we have a little mystery for you!”

Snape opened his eyes and saw that yet another Auror had joined them in the small, back office of the Ministry’s Dept. of Transconveyance.

“What have you got there?” asked Titus, a thin, pale man with sandy hair and pale grey eyes.

“Something I’ve never seen, and I thought I’d seen it all.” Jake placed the tip of wand into a square box and a pattern of what looked wav waves and blotches appeared suspended therein.

“Hmmm. Never seen it myself,” said Titus.

“Well, it looks like this man is the victim, as claimed. This was an enforced spell, he didn’t cast it-- it was cast on him. However the brain pattern… Looks like an immense amount of pain, like he was being…“

“Tortured?” said Harry throwing a sharp glance at Snape’s way. “Come clean, Severus. Tell us what was going on. Don’t want to have to use Veritaserum. I’m afraid I wouldn’t be able to return the favor you did me with Umbridge.”

Hermione put her hand over Snapes. “Please, trust us.” And Snape laughed. Several people in the room felt a chill go down their spine.

“Trust you? Why? You don’t want to help me. You just want your husband back. Well, I’m not going back. Yes, Potter. I had returned to the Order and there were still problems with Death Eaters. Just one or two here and there, but enough to keep things lively. I knew all the codes, the signals necessary to have a meeting. Slowly over the years, as new ones gained courage to try and get things going again, I’d be there every time to infiltrate and give information.”

“Gads, man. Don’t you ever give up?” asked Harry with some disgust. “Couldn’t you have settled down or gotten a hobby of some sort?”

“What happened, Severus?” Hermione’s voice was as soft as the cooing of a dove.

He looked at Hermione and spoke slowly, choosing his words with care. “I was investigating a rumor of a new group starting up. But something seemed off, from the very start. It was a trap. I was taken captive. However, even though they wore the robes and mask of Death Eaters, they didn’t seem to…”

“Um, do we have to listen to this, people?” said Titus. “I know I’m an Auror and all, but my stomach is rather weak and all this talk of Death Eaters and torture...”

“Sure Ti, we can jump over this, Severus. No need getting people upset. Right, Hermione?” Harry looked at his old school friend. She’d gone ashen and her hand was over her mouth. “Hermione?”

“Don’t you all understand? If he’s here, then my husband is… is…”

Hatooktook her in his arms as she began to fall apart. Snape, for a minute, was annoyed by them. She should be stronger; after all she married an ex-Death Eater. And then the thought clarified. The torture he’d gone through, that had also been wrong!

“Obviously, they had gotten hold of one of the old texts,” said Titus, thinking out loud and looking at Jake for agreement. “They probably thought it was a form of Dark Arts torture, but instead they defeated the purpose, sending their victim out of their reach while bringing in Dr. Snape to be harmed.”

“I agree,” nodded Jake. “So, I suppose I’ll just fill out the papers. Give it twenty-four hours to be on the safe side.”

“Sound’s good,” said Titus, “Well, I think I’ll take an early lunch, then. Fine job, all around.”

There was a silence in the room, broken only by the sound of Hermione weeping.

“Here you go, Mr. Snape. I’m afraid the titles are not transferable, however just sign here and here,” Snape, dumbfounded, read over the papers.

“Marriage annulled? Revocation of Parental Rights? Mediation for property settlement?” said Snape going through the papers. Hermione suddenly wailed.

“Oh, yes, a bit much to take in, isn’t it? Well, we will just back it up for you, Mr. Snape,” said Jake quite tidily. “Based on the verdict in Getburgson versus the Crown, all cases of permanent transconveyance with no hope of recovery are to be handled the same way. Marriages annulled, parental rights terminated and property, hopefully genially settled to mutual satisfaction, that’s usually the one that raises the devil.

“After all, you won’t be going back to your realm, and he will, of course, be having ownership of all your property there. So it’s only fair that you get a share of the jointly owned property here. Now if Lady Snape should find you to her liking, in that you are similar enough to the original Dr. Snape that she should want you, and you like her, then by all means get married again. But in the meantime, both parties must be allowed to get used to the new situation and to settle in to their new lives.

“Potter, do you have his wand?” Asked Jake, slightly out of breath after his long speech.

Harry reached into his robes and brought it out. “There you go, Severus. I’d get it checked out by Ollivander first before using it. They’ve been known to explode if the brain waves between different users are too diverse.”

“Excellent suggestion, Harry,” said Jake with a sniff. “Though I would have warned him myself, given half a chance.

“Well, that should be it. If I were you, Mr. Snape, I’d pack up his clothing as yours and find new lodgings for the evening. Even though things do go into effect tomorrow morning, it is an annulment which is based on there being a sexless marriage between you two.”

Snape looked up at Hermione at that pronouncement, but she seemed insensible. Harry continued to stroke her hair and give her small sips from a cup of tea kindly provided by Jake.

“I’m free to leave?” Snape said, still wondering if there had been some practical joke played on him by the Weasley Twins.

“Yes,” said Jake. “That is the finding of the Department. You are not liable and not to be held responsible. You are free to try and adjust to your new world as best you can.”

Snape walked out of the Ministry of Magic. He’d left Hermione behind, sobbing in the arms of Potter. He felt strange about it. He’d had sex with her only a few hours ago, which according to the law here… would mean he was married to her, since it had not been a sexless relationship. He felt a bit cheated by that… she’d kept saying to deny there had been any sex. Was it because she knew that an annulment would then be possible?

It was barely lunchtime and his world had totally spun itself round and upside down. He decided a trip to Diagon Alley would definitely be in order. He kept hearing in his mind the voices of Jake and Titus, explaining what had happened. Yet, he still couldn’t fathom it all. It felt unreal. Was he awake, yet? Or had his mind truly left him? And still, his intellect nagged him, something just wasn’t adding up.


A/N: A very special thanks to my reviewers: Little Bird, Jkrazed, Jen, Shiv, AnaNG, LaRoseNoire, NegativeNine (I’m truly touched that you remembered that I have celiac disease) and Genrou.