Written For:

Hogwarts School of Witchcraft & Wizardy:
Assignment #3: Divination: Necromancy

... ... ... ...

Disclaimer: I do not own the Harry Potter world, nor do I own any of it's characters. I make no money from this!

WARNING!

This story contains the subject of losing a child, and mentions stillbirth.

... ... ... ...

It had been days since returning home from Professor Dumbledore's funeral, and Hermione still couldn't sleep. Her parents were gone now, she had sent them to Australia without any memory of her; the house was eerily quiet around her, and every time she closed her eyes she could see Harry pacing around the courtyard, ranting to anyone and everyone how Snape was evil and had killed the headmaster as he was begging for his life.

She kept going over how Dumbledore had always said that he trusted Professor Snape, he had said at some point that he would trust Professor Snape with his life…

The longer she looked at the logic of it all – Dumbledore's hand that was blackened throughout the year, the continued and impassioned speeches about how everyone needed to trust Professor Snape, even though nobody seemed to take them seriously because he always had that twinkle in his eyes as he would make them.

What if Dumbledore had been telling the complete and total truth about Professor Snape's loyalties? What if he just wanted everyone to mistrust Professor Snape? Her father was obsessed with ancient wartime stories and oftentimes told her how some leaders would say one thing regarding a spy they had placed in the enemy's camp, but their actions would contradict their words - this would cause soldiers (and potential enemy spies) to mistrust the spy and solidify the spy's placement in the enemy camp. What if that was Dumbledore's plan the entire time?

So many what-if's…she got out of bed and sat heavily at her desk. She grabbed a piece of parchment out of the beaded bag she had just packed and began running some Arithmancy calculations.

She bought a small, tawny colored owl. It looked ordinary to her and could probably pass for any number of other people's owls. Her calculations had proven that she was probably right about her theory, well the chances she was correct were around 93% and that was good enough for her. The note she sent to Professor Snape was short: "I know the truth. Pick a place, I'll send a time". She hoped that he would understand.

He picked a muggle public library. She went there immediately and sent a note that he should meet her there in an hours' time. She quickly put up some muggle deterring charms around a table in the back, and then set up her calculations. If she was right, he would be able to help her figure out how to destroy the horcruxes; if she was wrong, well she wouldn't think about that – she HAD to be right.

The meeting was very short. He took in the calculations she presented, and then after securing an oath that she would not reveal either the calculations or what the two of them discussed, he admitted that she was correct. When she mentioned the word horcrux he pulled out a chair and motioned for her to sit, he then began to pace beside the table silently. After 10 minutes of watching his pacing, she told him there were likely seven horcruxes in total, with two of them destroyed; he stopped abruptly, and looked at her sharply. He then curtly told her he would be in touch, turned on his heel, and stormed out of the library.

Three days later he sent the name of a church, with the message "time?". That meeting lasted longer, he had brought some books that explained what a horcrux is and mostly vague references on how to make one. Though one book went into some pretty explicit detail on how to create a horcrux. They found no information on how to destroy one.

"We have another month to continue our research together, though you are probably going to be spending the bulk of that month with your two imbecile friends. I suggest we find an alternative means of communication" he told her when they finished reading the pertinent sections. He wanted to charm two boxes to act like connected vanishing cabinets; however Hermione shuddered in remembrance of the Death Eaters getting into the school via vanishing cabinet and the idea was promptly dropped. The protean charm she had used for the DA was a possibility, however that would limit the length of messages they could send.

"It's too bad we can't charm some journals to let us see each other's notes" he mused, grabbing one of the books he had brought with him and flipping pages quickly. As he did that, Hermione grabbed some paper and began running some more Arithmancy calculations. Was it possible to create journals like that? In the end she realized that it was, in fact, just a variation of the Protean charm that needed to be placed on the journals along with some standard privacy wards so that nobody but them could read what was written. She missed the small smile on his face as she worked out the variations needed, and then cast the spells on the two journals he just happened to have with him.

The ministry fell, and school started. Then they were on the run, camping in Arthur's old tent. They figured out the sword of Gryffindor could destroy the horcruxes, and when she wrote that in the journal his response was "hold the bag open next time you tell them where you moved them to. You're carrying a reluctant spy."

Ron started a terrible fight with Harry, and then he decided to leave them.

"Are you coming with me?" he asked her. When she shook her head slightly, he responded with "Figures, you choose him!" Then he stormed out of the tent into the pouring rain. She couldn't release her shield charm fast enough to catch him, and when she made it out of the tent he had already disapperated; he didn't understand that Harry was her brother in all but blood, she had promised to stay and help Harry, she couldn't just leave him alone. She was soaking wet and shivering when she re-entered the tent, Harry just picked up Ron's blankets and tossed them at her before heading to his bed.

She cried as she wrote to Severus about what had happened (he was now Severus to her as she was Hermione to him), about how things were going and how scared she was. They filled up almost a quarter of the journals that night talking about their lives, and toward the end of the night she was smiling and laughing softly to herself, it seemed to her that they were flirting with each other.

The next time she moved camp with Harry, she opened her bag as she told him where they were. The ball was in Severus' court now. Christmas came, and Harry convinced her to go to visit his parents' graves. Then the horror of the snake, and Harry's wand was broken. Still no Severus, though they continued to write with one-another in the book.

Then one-night Harry took over watch and Horcrux wearing from her early. "You look tired 'Mione" he said, placing his hand on her shoulder. "It's okay, I can take a longer horcrux holding shift this once." She nodded and smiled as she handed over her wand.

"Thank you, Harry" she said as she walked toward her cot.

She was just starting to drift off to sleep when the wards alerted her that Harry had left the perimeter. As she stood up to go check and see where he went, the wards alerted her that someone else had entered them. Harry had her wand, she started to panic and grabbed a frying pan to try and defend herself.

"Hermione!" she heard, it was Severus! She was so happy, she dropped the pan and ran toward where his voice came from. He wrapped his arms around her and kissed her for the first time. She took his hand and led him into the tent, and her bed.

Afterwards, it seemed awkward. "I'm sorry," he said, as he turned away from her to dress, "I told you that my heart was closed, and it still is. I should not have let things get this far."

She cried for a few minutes but understood – it's not like he hadn't told her that same thing many times before in the journals as they were flirting with each other. He pulled a small box from his robes and enlarged it. It was enough potions – healing, nutrition, dittany, even some pain potions and pepperup – to sustain them for a few months, if they were conservative with them.

"Thank you" she said, standing on tiptoes to kiss him lightly. He nodded his head and walked from the clearing. Moments after he left, Harry came back to camp soaking wet with Ron in tow. She was still very angry with Ron for leaving, but she smiled and nodded, and pretended nothing was wrong.

Harry broke the taboo, and they were surrounded. She quickly wrote what was happening in her journal. Then she stuffed it into her bag and tossed it up into the trees. Things moved so quickly after that – they were brought to Malfoy Manor, they met Bellatrix Lestrange and she tortured Hermione for what seemed like hours, then Dobby came and suddenly they were all in Shell cottage and Dobby was dead.

Hermione was laying on the bed, her body trembling as Fleur magically pulled the rest of the glass out of her skin from when the chandelier that had crashed down on her. Fleur looked at her sympathetically, humming a tune softly. As she ran several scans over Hermione, her wand stopped over her abdomen and she frowned and then ran them again. When she was sure of the results, she smiled brightly. "Oh 'ermione! Ze bebe is just fine! Healthy!" she patted her abdomen lightly, "we are due around ze zame time!"

It was a miracle that the torture didn't cause her to miscarry; the more she thought about the small life she carried, the more concerned she became. Without her journal she couldn't let Severus know he was going to be a father.

Gringotts, the dragon, then they were back in the school. She tried to get a message to Severus once they were there, but it was next to impossible.

Hermione stared down at his body after the life left his eyes, a quiet sob escaping her. He had passed Harry some memories through his tears, as the blood pumped from the puncture wounds in his neck and the last thing he wanted in the world was for Harry to look at him – all so he could see HER eyes as he died. He still loved Lily, after all this time – she had known this from the start, he had told her that he could never love anyone else, that his heart was closed. He had an affection for her though, and he cared about her wellbeing; that was enough, it had to be enough. Her hand went to her abdomen, gently rubbing the small life in her womb; trying to reassure herself and it that everything was all right, the world would continue even if it's father was gone.

She was practically numb in her grief – maybe if she had gotten word to him about the baby, he would have been more cautious? Could she have saved his life?

Then Ron kissed her in the Chamber of Secrets and she didn't have the emotional energy to push him away, or even return his kiss. He didn't seem to notice her discomfort, or he just didn't care.

Time passed, as it is wont to do. Funerals were attended, and the world moved on. Molly was the first to notice her pregnancy and decided that it had to be Ron's child.

They were all seated at the dinner table, food being passed around and small conversation being made. Things weren't the same as they had been before the war, but then who could expect them to be when there was so much death surrounding all of them. Molly smiled at Ron and then looked at her and asked "So when is the wedding going to be? You shouldn't wait too long, or you'll cause a scandal walking down the aisle while showing how far along you are." She turned to Ron again, a huge smile on her face "I understand with the war you didn't want to wait until your marriage night, things were so chaotic. But really, the two of you should marry and make my grandbaby legitimate!" The silence at the dinner table was intense, and Hermione swore she couldn't even hear sounds from outside anymore.

She stood and looked around the table, her eyes stopping on Ron. His face was getting redder by the second and he looked ready to explode. She turned to Molly again, "I don't see why I should marry Ron, he isn't the father of my baby." The table practically exploded with shouts.

She left the Burrow and moved into her parent's old house. There wasn't any electricity or running water, but a little bit of magic made it inhabitable for the time being while she thought about what she was going to do.

It didn't matter what anyone said, this was her baby and she loved it. She wouldn't marry someone she didn't trust to not leave her when things got a little rough; heck she didn't want to marry anyone at all just because she was pregnant, to be honest.

She missed Severus and the way he would talk to her; she could imagine writing all the events from dinner at the Burrow into her journal, and what he would say in response – he would no doubt give her some scathing comment about how you couldn't trust Molly Weasley to look out for anyone other than her sons and daughter, no matter how close you were to the family. She cried herself to sleep that night.

A few months later, Ron cornered her at the ministry library as she was studying for her NEWTs. "Mum is really sorry, 'Mione." He sounded annoyed and gave her a boyish grin and small eye roll that she had always fallen for at school. "Come to the Burrow for dinner, so she can apologize in person, yeah?" She was wondering why she had always just gone along with things in the past as she felt herself nodding her head in the affirmative. 'I guess old habits die hard' she thought, annoyed with herself.

It turned out to be a surprise baby shower, and boy was she surprised. Everyone who was there had disparaged her at one point for becoming an unwed mother. A voice in her head that sounded surprisingly like Severus pipped in 'it's the society for hypocritical ninnys.' She smothered a giggle at that thought and acted like she was oh so happy to be surprised; but Molly really did seem like she was sorry, and couldn't wait to meet the baby, so she accepted it as the way things were.

Molly even shared a special tonic that would help calm the nightly activity levels of the baby. "I remember how it was in those last few weeks" she shared in a whisper as she held a small tote bag packed with small bottles out for Hermione to take. "This tonic is the only reason I think I was able to get through the end of my pregnancy with the twins, they seemed to only be awake when I was trying to get some sleep!"

Severus was posthumously pardoned of all criminal charges and given an Order of Merlin, First Class for his bravery during the war. The prophet's headlines pronounced him the "Richest dead man of all time!" – apparently Dumbledore's will had had a magically hidden section, that became viewable after several conditions had been met – Severus' pardon being the last condition necessary. Too bad it came after his death. Severus' will would be read the next week.

Severus had left everything he had to her. Everything. She was shocked. She moved into his little house at Spinner's End that week; it was old and in a terrible neighborhood, but if she closed her eyes while sitting in his leather chair she could almost imagine that he was still there with her, so she loved it.

She didn't want to know the sex of the baby, so she decorated the nursery in yellows and greens; it was the smallest room upstairs, she found some of Wormtail's clothes in it, so she didn't feel bad gutting the room and remaking it into a nursery.

At 39 weeks of pregnancy, Hermione couldn't wait to give birth; the baby was very active all night long, and its favorite place to kick was her kidneys so she was up and, in the loo, at least a dozen times a night. She found herself drinking Molly's tonic every night, in hopes of getting at least a few hours' sleep at a time.

At 40 weeks Hermione began to have a lot of cramping, the books she read said these were Braxton-hicks contractions and perfectly normal. The tonic Molly had given her worked miracles though, as the baby seemed to settle down and move less, at least she could sleep when the cramping slowed down at night. At 41 weeks she started bleeding.

Her baby girl was stillborn on the night Hermione had started bleeding, she had the umbilical cord wrapped tightly around her neck; the doctors confirmed that she had died almost a week before the stillbirth, her heart had stopped and there was no way to revive her. Hermione was torn apart by her grief – the baby had stopped moving in the last week, but she hadn't thought anything of it because Molly had told her "the baby is getting ready to be born, so it will move less as it settles into position. Don't worry, it's perfectly normal, dear."

She went home and started looking through the books Severus had left to her. When the books that wouldn't be considered dark magic wouldn't even brooch the subject of reviving a dead baby, she turned to the books on dark magic. She understood that it was a slippery slope, but she had to have her baby back. There had to be a way to bring her baby back! Blood magic, soul magic…even the necromancy books were carefully combed through in search of a way to give her back her baby.

She brought back a rat after killing it with poison. Then she strangled another one and brought it back to life. Neither seemed as smart as they had been, but it was progress. A car hit a cat outside the house, she brought it inside and managed to bring it back to life, but it's wounds never healed, and it kept crying from the pain, so she had to kill it again.

Months passed, and Hermione could do nothing but continue searching. You could bring back loved ones partially, but they had to have been born before their death. There was nothing to help revive a baby that had died in the womb! When she exhausted the books in her library, she demanded that Harry let her read through the Black library – eventually she sought help from the Malfoys, but even their library couldn't tell her how to bring her baby back.

A year to the day after her daughter was stillborn, Harry visited her.

"I'm worried about you 'Mione." he said. "You never come to visit anymore, and this place has the feel of dark magic - it's heavier than when you first moved in even."

She looked at him, his face so earnest and hopeful. "You can't help me Harry, nobody can. My baby is gone, and there's nothing anyone can do to help me." She collapsed, crying.

Harry pulled a book from his sleeve. It was tiny - it could fit in the palm of her hand, and the pages were brittle and yellowed from age. "Maybe this can help you, I found it in a trunk in the back of my Gringotts Vault." He handed her the book and smiled before turning away and looking at all the books in the room. "You know, I didn't think I could ever accept that you knew Snape enough for him to leave you everything he owned, but now it kinda makes sense," he said as he walked out the door, softly closing the door behind himself.

The book detailed a ritual to summon an old God, so you could ask a favor of them. She debated using it, chances were that she had already delved too deep into dark magics for a God to even consider her worthy of a favor - but, there was also a chance she could get her baby back. She had all the supplies needed, she just needed to make space for the summoning circle...

Osiris' face loomed over her, swirling slightly in the smoke. "I cannot give back the child lost before it's birth," he said, sounding regretful. Hermione fell to her knees as hope drained from her face. "But," the God continued, "I can give you back the father, so other children may be created." Hermione stared up at him, hope starting to settle back in her heart.

"Yes, yes that I could accept wholehearted. Thank you!" She was crying, happy tears for the first time in years.

"There is a price, though," the God warned. "I want the soul of every being who planned or helped plot to take your child from you." His voice deepened as he spoke that sentence.

Hermione knew that while she hadn't planned or plotted for her unborn baby to die, it was her fault the baby was dead. The doctors had told her that something had happened in the week or so before the stillbirth to cause the baby's heart to stop. So, she had to have done something wrong. She nodded and said, "I agree to that." The God nodded his head and raised his smoky arms. As he clapped his hands, she stated: "From this moment on, my soul belongs to you Osiris." The God looked shocked at this, before the look in his eyes softened and he told her "That is not necessary" as he faded away.

There was a loud crash upstairs, causing Hermione to run and check what was going on. Severus was laying on the floor, very much alive and breathing and he had a bruise on his temple. The wounds he had received from Nagini were completely healed, with minimal scarring.

Severus took days to acclimate himself back into the world of the living. He spoke of dreams he had in the afterlife, of seeing Lily again and begging her for forgiveness; he told her how Lily had thanked him for watching over her son, but she couldn't forgive him because there was nothing to forgive. He recited the story she had told him, that looking back she realized how selfish she had been to not forgive him for a word that she knew in her heart he had never meant; how the only explanation she could give for her behavior was that she felt he was holding her back from the potential relationship she could have with James, how she had knew she could only have one of them in her life peacefully, so she had chosen James over him.

Then he told her of the baby that had found him, how it reminded him of her and how he wanted to care for it. He entrusted the baby to his mother when he realized that he was leaving that world; he thought he was being reincarnated.

As more time passed they grew closer. She told him of how she felt when he died, that if she had just had a chance to tell him about the baby, maybe he would have made different decisions and not died. Then she told him how she lost the baby, and the research she had done to try and bring the baby back. The experiments she had done with dark magic, bringing rats back to life and even a cat that died in front of the house. Then she explained the book Harry had given her, and the deal she had made with Osiris. Severus explained his worries over her usage of dark magic, and the wording of the deal she had made, but when nothing happened in the next months they both decided to get on with their lives.

They were married the next year, and she found herself pregnant again soon afterwards.

The week after they confirmed the pregnancy there seemed to be a lot of catastrophes in the Weasley family. Ron was killed during a routine raid of the Lestrange estate by a rogue death eater. Next, Ginny fell off her broom during quidditch practice. Finally, after Molly heard about Ginny's accident, her heart stopped and she dropped dead in her kitchen.

Hermione knew she had caused these deaths when she made her deal with Osiris; she knew that somehow, in some way Ron, Ginny, and Molly were the cause of her baby's death. She knew she should feel sorrow, or even regret… but all she felt was satisfaction. The God had given her vengeance, and she was happy to get on with her life.