I don't think that Hermione Granger would have ever settled for obscurity. This is her story.
I will be using a song as the basis for each chapter. The lyrics will appear at relevant parts, but I reserve the right to fiddle with the order of the verses.
Oh, if you do review, please give me suggestions for the title it's kind of crummy right now.
Disclaimer: Harry Potter and all related characters and settings belong to JK Rowling. Evita belongs to Andrew Lloyd Webber and associated people. I mean no offence to Eva Peron or anyone associated with her. I am using the musical as the basis for this chapter.
Prologue: Requiem
The headlines in bold across the front page of the Daily Prophet made him spit the strong black coffee all over the table. No longer feeling hungry or thirsty, he threw on his cloak and hurried upstairs. There was someone he needed to see. The paper lay strewn across the table, the print stark and blunt, mocking all that he was. CROWDS GATHER FOR 10 YEAR MEMORIAL.
Severus Snape stood staring at the face under the coffin of glass. People, tourists and mourners here to see her, jostled him from behind, but he felt apart. He alone had known her, he alone had known her for what she truly was.
Human.
He stared, unfocused. Pale skin was framed by long chocolate waves. The most beloved Minister for Magic the world had ever seen was gone. All that was left was this, the shell without life, preserved for all eternity in her memory.
He turned away, but as he did he could have sworn he heard a faint sigh on the wind.
Don't cry for me Argentina
For I am ordinary, unimportant
And undeserving of such attention
Unless we all are--I think we all are
He shook his head violently, and the sound was gone. As Snape stalked down the stairs to his dungeon, he remembered bitterly the life she had lived. "You let them down," he murmured. "You let us down... why did you die?"
You let down your people Evita
You were supposed to have been immortal
That's all they wanted
Not much to ask for
But in the end you could not deliver
He thought bitterly of all the people mourning the tenth Anniversary of the death of their heroine, the woman who had lead the country to power after the war with Voldemort. The fact that her death had plunged the country into economic decline slipped most people's minds, despite the fact it had been predicted for years.
She had her moments--she had some style
The best show in town was the crowd
Outside the Casa Rosada crying, "Eva Peron"
But that's all gone now
As soon as the smoke from the funeral clears
We're all going to see and how she did nothing for years!
Severus, back in his rooms, raised his glass of whiskey, and toasted the invisible presence that had haunted him for a decade.
Sing you fools! But you got it wrong
Enjoy your prayers because you haven't got long
Your queen is dead, your king is through
She's not coming back to you
And he couldn't help thinking back, to how this had all begun, to how Hermione Granger had gone from a buck toothed, bushy haired know-it-all to the most powerful (and, some said, the most beautiful) woman in the wizarding world...
