A/N: Hello all! This story was originally written for the Winter 2014 round of the SSHG Promptfest on LJ. It is, therefore, complete, so I'll actually be prompt about posting! As usual, I own no part of the Harry Potter franchise and make no money with this posting. Enjoy!
"Really, Miss Granger, don't be ridiculous. It simply isn't safe to be at Hogwarts any longer." The iron-haired headmistress's brogue had grown thicker as she argued with the young woman standing stubbornly before her in the Entry Hall, but her words showed little effect despite the fact. Hermione Granger remained as steadfast in this moment as she had proven to be in weeks past, her gaze filled with a steely determination.
"I really must insist, Miss Granger – " the diminutive Charms Master cajoled in an effort to convince his favoured apprentice, only to be cut off by the very same person.
"Headmistress, Professor Flitwick, all due respect, I understand your concern, but I truly believe it's important that I stay here. There must be something that can be done!"
The scene unfolding just inside the heavy doors of Hogwarts was growing to be a familiar one, the stubborn gaze of the resident Charms apprentice meeting those pleading ones of her colleagues. This time though, there was no one left to witness the drama, the sea of concerned faces having dwindled down to only these two.
"Miss Granger, I certainly never would have expected this sort of irrational behaviour from you. Mr. Potter or Mr. Weasley almost certainly, but never you." Professor McGonagall's increasingly shrill observation was punctuated by a disapproving sniff, but was met only with a glare full of silent determination from her Gryffindor protégé.
After a moment of increasingly chilly silence, Flitwick threw up his arms in frustrated capitulation. "Very well," he muttered, obviously quite put out with his student. "Though I can't imagine what your parents would have to say about your preposterous obstinacy."
Hermione bristled visibly, her eyes flashing and her tone frosty as she replied, "I frankly don't see what the opinion of my parents has to do with this exact situation. Now, if you'll excuse me, I must get back to work. Have a pleasant journey, professors."
Before either of the elderly professors could get another word in, the young apprentice whirled on her heel, readjusting her heavy bag over her shoulder and setting off back in the direction she had originally intended.
Ordinarily, Hermione likely would have apologized; she genuinely did like her former professors, despite their tendency to behave as if she were still a wayward child. But quite frankly, she was tired of having to explain herself at length over and over again.
First, the Ministry official who had brought notice to Hogwarts, then Hagrid, and then and entire litany of other professors had tried to persuade her to leave the castle for the sake of her personal safety. They simply didn't understand the lengths she would go to protect the draughty old castle that was Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry.
When Harry's letter had arrived nearly six weeks earlier, the very same day the decision had been made to send the students home, Hermione hadn't wanted to believe the information it contained. But really, who better than the Deputy Head of the Department for Magical Law Enforcement to be aware of the inner machinations of the Ministry?
It had been right there in black and white, in Harry's abysmal handwriting, that the Ministry of Magic had no intention of restoring Hogwarts a second time. Harry claimed, and here his writing had wavered slightly, as if affected by emotion, that he had heard directly from the Minister himself that no one from the Ministry would be coming to the aid of Hogwarts this time, not again.
Hermione had nearly snorted aloud at that section of her friend's missive; she was personally hard pressed to recall any occasion previously that the Ministry had aided the school, certainly not enough to warrant such an emphatic again.
Ministry dramatics aside, the message of Harry's letter, and more recently the articles in the Daily Prophet, had been clear enough. The saving of an ancient school building was not on the official agenda, not when "another could just as easily be built". It had been the very end of Harry's letter, however, that had cemented Hermione's will to stay.
I really can't imagine never seeing Hogwarts again, Hermione, it had read. After so long, I can't believe everyone is just giving up. It's just hard to picture, you know? Anyways, stay safe. The professors should be hearing from Ministry officials soon. Oh, and Ginny sends her love. – Harry
There was the thing. She hadn't spent nearly three years helping to restore Hogwarts to its former glory only to give up just when it was finally finished. The eccentric, rambling old building had become more of a home to her in ten years than her lonely flat in London ever would be. And so, despite the insistence of those she regarded so highly as teachers and mentors, she had stayed, confident a solution would be found.
Well, honestly, confident she would find a solution, as she was very shortly to be the only person left in the castle to seek one. But that solution wasn't going to just appear from thin air, and so it was back to the library for Hermione Granger, so lost in thought that the conversation occurring behind her escaped her notice entirely.
"Really, Filius?" The headmistress scolded. "Her estranged parents? That was really the best defence you could manage?"
The man grimaced as he watched the girl leave. "I didn't see you providing a better solution, Minerva," he said, his brow twitching irritably. "I'm not sure why you thought she might listen this time. Potter was a terrible influence on that girl, you know."
Professor McGonagall could do nothing more than snort delicately at that particular observation; the man did after all have a point. The pair stood in silence for a moment, listening to the distinct clack of the former Gryffindor's shoes still echoing down the corridor.
"Well," McGonagall sighed as quiet finally fell in the Hall. "At least she won't be here entirely alone."
Flitwick's brow wrinkled as scepticism flitted across his expression. "I'm really not certain we can count that as a positive thing. She certainly won't."
"And undoubtedly neither will he," the headmistress replied smartly. "But if there were ever two people who were stubborn enough to salvage Hogwarts and survive this, it will be those two."
"If they don't manage to kill each other first," Flitwick muttered under his breath.
Professor McGonagall scowled and bent to pick up her large tartan valise. "Don't be ridiculous, Filius. If Severus and Hermione don't both come out of this alive and well, I'll eat the Sorting Hat."
With that, she swept through the doors of Hogwarts, leaving the chuckling Charms Master to follow behind her.
Hermione strode quickly down the corridor that would lead her back to the library, her mind whirling as her thoughts shifted from the departure of the last of the professors back to her research. She was rather quickly running out of books to search, the Hogwarts library, though she was loath to admit it, was woefully remiss when it came to providing information about Dark Magic. Not that she could blame Madam Pince; it wouldn't do at all for students to be–
Her thoughts were interrupted abruptly as she rounded a corner on the second floor and ran directly into a large, black pillar. "Professor Snape!" she exclaimed, her eyes going wide. The man remained silent, one dark brow rising into a familiar sneer as he stared pointedly down at her for a long moment.
Hermione gasped in awareness and stumbled backwards a few steps as she released the hold she had taken on the professor's robes in an effort not to fall. "I'm so sorry, professor, I didn't see you there." Her babbling apology slowed as full realization set in and concern filled her mind.
"What are you doing here?" she asked, fighting to keep the worry out of her voice, having learned long ago that that particular sentiment was not one Severus Snape appreciated from anyone. "You were supposed to have evacuated already."
"As were you, I'm sure, Miss Granger," he replied dryly. "But clearly I'm not to be so fortunate today."
Hermione bristled, drawing herself up to her full height, still almost a foot shorter than her opponent, and challenging, "Does the headmistress know you're still here? I can't imagine she would approve, the Ministry has said it isn't safe!"
The Potions Master's gaze darkened with displeasure, his voice an icy baritone as he hissed, "I can hardly imagine how that's any of your concern, despite your considerable need to know everything. As it is none of my concern whatsoever if Minerva has decided to harass me by allowing her precious Gryffindor Golden Girl to wander these halls. Now if you'll excuse me." The dark man swept past her and around the corner before Hermione could even begin to parry his verbal attack.
Her ire raised, her hand twitched near her wand, the momentary urge to send a hex after the man almost too strong to ignore. She hadn't believed it would ever be possible, but when the man had returned to Hogwarts after the war, he even more of a snarky bastard than he had before he almost died.
Hermione had made the mistake of assuming things would be better only once, at the second dinner of the term, when she had leaned across the table to inquire over his renewed health and had received nothing more than a positively nasty scowl in return.
Determined not to allow the man's atrocious attitude interrupt her current intentions, Hermione released her hold on her wand and set off again for her destination, more ready than ever to reach the quiet comfort of the library.
Nearly nine hours later, the lamps in the library having long been lit, Hermione could still be found in her typical pose at a table tucked in the corner near a window, piles of books and papers stacked to dangerous heights around her and her cat curled about her feet.
The room was eerily quiet, the silence broken only by the rustling of her papers and occasionally the distant grinding of a shifting staircase, but the young woman hard at work wasn't even aware of exactly how alone she was.
This had been the pattern for a number of weeks now, ever since Hagrid had burst into the headmistress's office gasping through panted breaths about a moving tree. Hermione would settle into the library at daybreak and she wouldn't leave until long after dark, lucky if she even remembered to leave for meals. And yet, she still had no answers for the threat that was menacing her school.
It had started slowly, along the very edges of the Forbidden Forest, just a few trees growing unusually rapidly. That had been noticed on a Tuesday. By the following Sunday, Hagrid's pumpkin patch was a mess of tree roots and shrivelled vines, and it had quickly become clear that something more was amiss in the woods.
Over the following weeks, the trees had crept closer and closer to the castle walls, though no one ever reported actually seeing them move. First, Hagrid was forced out of his cabin, and then the walls of Professor Sprout's greenhouses were smashed to bits by overgrown tree branches.
Oddly enough, the trees' advance seemed to have stopped there and they again looked to be nothing more than the Forbidden Forest that had always bordered the school, if not significantly closer and looming more dangerously. Normal at least, until insidious tendrils of rich green vines had started slinking from the dark border of the forest, creeping closer and closer to the castle walls.
It had been then, only three weeks from when Hagrid had noticed the first change in the trees, that the Ministry had ordered the school be closed and the students sent home. As terrible as it had been, Hermione couldn't help but be amused by the fact that trees could shut down Hogwarts when Voldemort could not. A smile curved her lips as the thought again crossed her mind.
All of a sudden, a loud growl echoed through the silent library, interrupting her thoughts and making Hermione jump, the witch blushing bright red at the awful noises her stomach was emitting though there was no one around to hear them.
"Nimbly!" She called out, remembering only when the familiar pop of house-elf apparition never came that the Ministry had sent even the house-elves away. She felt a moment's chagrin that she hadn't even bothered to find out where they were going, but in all reality it was likely they wouldn't have told her anyways. Despite the passing of several years she still didn't have the best of relationships with the elves of Hogwarts. Regardless, she was clearly going to have to fetch her own snack.
Carefully marking her place in her latest painfully useless book, How to Handle Hairy Herbology, and stuffing her quill haphazardly behind one ear, Hermione displaced Crookshanks, who wandered off with a disgruntled mrow, and set off for the kitchen, remembering only at the last minute to grab her bag and the half-empty tea cup still teetering atop a pile of books from the day before.
Pushing the library door open with one shoulder, she rolled her eyes at the ominous squeak of the hinges that Madam Pince had refused for years to fix. The sound followed her down the corridor as the door closed, echoing eerily off the cold stone walls. The witch walked a little faster as silence descended once again, the cosy warmth of the library quickly overcome by the distinct chill of the Scottish winter permeating the building.
Eager to reach the kitchen and the heat of a good cup of tea, Hermione quickly padded down the stairs, entirely unaware of the soft tread of dragon hide boots approaching behind her until a firm "Miss Granger," rang out, paired with a large hand grasping at her elbow.
Hermione shrieked and whirled, sending cold tea splashing down her robes and the porcelain cup smashing to the ground. Scolding herself inwardly for being such a ninny while simultaneously plucking at the soaked fabric of her robes, Hermione scowled up at Snape where he stood two steps above her.
"Can I help you, Professor Snape?" she asked frostily, her scowl deepening as she caught a flicker of a smirk crossing his expressionless face.
Instead of responding to her question however, he produced a large white handkerchief from one deep pocket and dangled it in front of her. It wasn't until she had snatched the cloth with very little grace and begun dabbing at the mess that he again spoke.
"Forgive me, Miss Granger," he drawled, and for a moment she could have almost sworn laughter tinged his tone. "I had no intention of…startling you. But if you continue to exercise your regrettably poor judgment and insist upon staying in the castle, then there is something outside it would be valuable for you to see."
Hermione's eyes widened, she was temporarily distracted from the damp cold against her skin by the prospect of new knowledge.
"What is it?" she asked eagerly, gaining a scornfully raised brow from the Potions Master.
"I believe I clarified it needs to be seen. If not for that, don't you think I would have described it to you already?"
Hermione's face reddened but quickly recovered, turning around to again start down the stairs, only to be stopped by Snape's intonation of, "Wrong way, Miss Granger." She turned with a raised brow, reminiscent of his own, and he continued.
"What I have to show you will be easiest seen from the Astronomy Tower, I believe. Unless, of course, you'd particularly care to be ambushed by plant life?"
Hermione's surprise was evident in her expression, her mind racing in an effort to determine what could have happened that was important enough to warrant a professor, one who she was fairly certain couldn't stand her, searching her out to show her.
Nevertheless, she was quick to follow the man when he set off towards the highest point in the school, earning a withering glare from him as she crunched over the remains of her teacup, which she quickly vanished with a flick of her wand.
Sprinting up the stairs to catch up to the retreating man, she called out, "Professor Snape?" He didn't acknowledge her or break his stride, but she got the impression he was listening. "
Surely nothing's happened to the castle? The forest is still hundreds of meters away. Why can't we survey from the courtyard like Professor McGonagall arranged?"
He cast a disdainful glance over his shoulder, but his answer didn't come until they were nearly halfway down the fifth-floor corridor. "The forest is changing again. It doesn't take your incredible genius," he sneered, "to determine that it might be safer at the moment to not be outdoors with the rabid botanicals."
Hermione's lips pressed into a grim line as the implications of the man's words sank in. If Severus Snape, the man who had fought and survived nearly every horror the wizarding world had to offer, thought something was dangerous, it was likely that any other person would define the object as alarmingly lethal.
The closer the pair got to the Astronomy Tower, the faster the professor's long strides became, until Hermione was practically running in order to keep up with him. She couldn't imagine it would go well for her if Snape caught her dawdling.
They burst onto the tower with a loud bang, Snape slamming the door open just as he had in his classroom for the six years she had been his student. She couldn't help but wonder if that was how he opened all doors, stifling a snicker at the thought of the dour Potions Master making such an entrance at the grocer's. She apparently didn't do a decent enough job at hiding her amusement however, judging by the harsh glare she received from the man.
Trying to pass her amusement off as shock at the sudden blast of cold air, she rubbed her arms and brushed past him to the edge of the tower. This time, Hermione's shock was real, her chocolate eyes blinking wide in disbelief.
The forest that had been hundreds of meters away from the castle gates only hours before now loomed close enough that if she were to drop something over the edge of the tower, it would likely land in the gnarled branches of one of the rowan trees pushing up against the castle walls.
Hermione whirled away from the sight, demanding, "What in Merlin's name happened?" of the man still standing in the centre of the tower, the bright light of the moon throwing his scowling features into sharp relief.
"The trees moved, Miss Granger, I would think that much would be obvious." Hermione opened her mouth to snap in reply to his snark, but he continued on without pause. "Frankly though, invading foliage should be the least of your worries at the moment."
Hermione's brow furrowed in confusion and Snape scoffed loudly, striding to where she stood and gesturing out at the surrounding forest.
"Do you really not notice anything at all unusual about our situation here, besides the ever so brilliant observation that the trees moved?"
He waited, but still Hermione had no answer. For all intents and purposes, this night was just like any other at Hogwarts, barring the issues with the trees.
"Listen, Miss Granger," the professor hissed, and it was then she realized.
"It's quiet," she remarked with surprise. "Really, truly quiet. Where is everything that should be living in the forest?"
"Exactly."
Hermione looked out over the forest, leaning over the parapet and looking down, down, down into the eerie stillness of the dark forest. "Even the birds are gone," she whispered quietly to herself.
"Yes, Miss Granger, the birds, and the squirrels, and the kneazles, and the centaurs. Everything alive is gone," the dark man hissed acerbically.
"Well that certainly doesn't bode well, does it?" Hermione murmured distractedly, her eyes scanning rapidly over the uncanny stillness of the forest. "But...it's not all quiet...there! Don't you hear something? It's faint, but–"
Her words faded as, even as they watched, the stillness of the forest was broken. Nearly invisible at the horizon, the towering trees whipped about as if blown by a harsh wind though there wasn't even a breeze stirring the cold night air. And as the pair watched, the rustling sound Hermione had detected grew louder and louder as, one by one, the trees of the Forbidden Forest stirred to life, the motion rushing towards the castle as if all at once the forest itself heaved a great sigh.
Then, almost as abruptly as it had begun, the rustling in the forest stilled, looking for all the world as if the disturbance had never occurred. Neither the Charms Apprentice nor the Potions Master spoke for a long moment, each staring out over the now-quiet woods in disbelief.
"What was that?" Hermione whispered finally. She turned to face the professor, expecting an answer to her question, only to be met by empty space where the man had stood only moments before.
"Professor Snape," she called as she whirled to see the man already nearly at the stairwell door.
The man stopped at her call and spun on his heel, stalking closer as he hissed an answer. "That was dark magic, you stupid girl. Don't you know it by now? Whatever that was, it most certainly does not bode well."
As he again turned to head towards the relative safety offered by the indoors, Hermione this time rapidly following after him, a loud crack rent the still night air, freezing them in their steps. Then another crack sounded, fracturing the echo of the first and chased by the clean sound of shattering glass ringing faintly up from the courtyards below.
"Miss Granger?"
"Professor Snape?"
"I suggest you run."
A/N: Let me know what you thought! Chapter 2 will be up next Friday!