Unknown Halves

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Chapter Eight


Hermione came to consciousness slowly. The first thing that she saw was that she was no longer in the pub that she had gone to eat lunch. The next thing she saw was Severus Snape sitting across from her, his head leaned back against the wall with his eyes shut.


Sitting up, she looked around. The house they were in was dark. She couldn’t see very much at all. When she looked back over to Snape, his eyes were opened and staring right at her.


“Professor Snape,” she whispered, as she got up to her feet.


“Miss Granger…” But his eyes closed as he winced in pain.


Hermione moved in a flash. She went over to him and went about moving him over to the bed. Once that was done she looked around and quickly found her wand. She removed the bandages and cleaned the wound as quickly as possible. Next she looked around for the potions he was using. She was able to find it, but she needed to double check with Snape if this is what he needed. He was able to tell her briefly that it was a combination potion, but what it was a combination of he wasn’t able to say.


Soon he was relaxed as she took care of redressing the wound. Hermione stroked his hair out of his face, letting out a sigh as she pulled away from him. She wanted to speak to him, but the truth of the matter was that he was in no shape to speak to anyone, least of all her who would more than likely get his throat seizing again in a matter of seconds in his aggravation.


She went over to the post he had vacated and sat down with a book. Hermione lit her wand and quietly waited. It wasn’t as if they didn’t have the time.


Two hours later Severus Snape woke up to the smell of soup in the air that was so rich that it soon had the man salivating. He got up and walked over to the very small kitchen. She was sitting at a tiny table reading. She looked up to him and set the book aside. It was in silence that she served a bowl of soup for him, setting it down in front of the other seat.


“I had food delivered,” she told him. “I stocked your shelves. I made the soup. It’s a clear broth for the most part. It’s a Thai style vegetable soup to give you a change of pace.” She served some for herself. “I’m terribly sorry that I fainted. It’s been…” Hermione thought over everything. “It’s been a busy time.”


Severus nodded as he went about eating quietly. When he finished eating, he studied her.


“Why are you here?” he asked.


“I needed away so I could think,” she told him and then went on to tell him exactly what George had asked of her.


He snorted, but not well as he cringed at the feel of his neck spasming again. Hermione got up and went over to pick up a glass vial filled with a clear liquid. He looked at it and to her again.


“I double checked with what potions you are taking. This is a simple addition that will help prolong the effects of the muscle relaxant without making you lethargic or unable to speak.”


Trusting that she would know what she was about, he drank the potion and let out a relieved breath when his throat seemed to unknot itself.


“So what now, Miss Granger?” he asked her hoarsely.


“First, my name is Hermione.” She put the dishes into the sink and with a wave of her wand she cleaned, dried, and put them back to their proper location. “Second, I would like for us to be able to converse civilly if nothing else.”


His brow arched at her words, but he said nothing.


Studying him intently she asked, “So, Mr. Snape, having failed to put a stopper in death is there a way to bring back the dead with magic? And if so should I do it?”


***


Lucius Malfoy studied the young man in front of him with an undisguised look of distain. George Weasley had arrived the hour before and he said he wouldn’t leave until Lucius told him what he had said to Hermione.


“That little blood…” George’s eyes narrowed at this, making the rich wizard roll his eyes before he went on. “She hasn’t been here.”


“You expect me to believe anything you have to say?” George demanded.


“She hasn’t been here,” he repeated, this time sounding bored. But curiosity got the better of him and he asked, “Why do you think she would come to see me?”


“No reason.”


“Likely story, Mr. Weasley,” he said acidly. But then the wealthy wizard thought it over and it was with a look of abject horror that he asked, “She didn’t come here to court…”


“No!” he roared, leaving the visiting cell.


Lucius stood up and gave the visit very little thought other than he was grateful that the muggle born didn’t want to marry him. That would have been horrible, he thought as he was taken back to his own cell. He had just gotten rid of one shrew. The last thing he needed was another, this one being a mudblood of all things. It almost made him sick to think of it.


George charged over to the boat where Harry and Ron were both waiting for him. He got into the cabin and immediately dried off, clearly in a temper as he looked over to the two.


“She hasn’t been here! I thought that she would come straight over! I even thought perhaps she used polyjuice, but no!” He slammed himself down into the nearest seat. “What now?”


Harry and Ron looked to each other and back over to him. There was one place he didn’t know about. They had spoken about it and even debated telling him to go check Australia, but they couldn’t agree if it was the right thing to do. Ron was all for telling his brother, but Harry thought if Hermione was willing to see George, she would have written or flooed them.


It was when George saw them exchange a look that he stood up and pinned Ron with a forearm across his throat and anger blazing in his usually humor filled blue orbs that the two knew that the man meant business.


“Where is she?” he asked in a tight voice.


“We don’t know,” Harry said, trying to pull him off of his brother. “It’s just a theory! He can’t breathe!”


“Where?” he asked, pulling back from Ron who was gasping for air. But when Harry didn’t answer, he snapped, “Where is my witch!”


“Australia,” Harry and Ron said together. “She might be there.”


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