Love by the Law
A/N: Myrtle's last name is made up
"I know you can understand me," Severus snarled. Poppy had informed him that his wife had been brought to the infirmary, for some reason closely resembling a cat.
He watched Hermione, who was lying on one of the beds, stare right back at him with her cat eyes. "Tell me what happened," he demanded.
Poppy appeared next to him, shaking her head. "She won't be able to talk for some time."
"Meow," Hermione responded, as if saying "yes".
Severus, sitting next to the bed, tapped on his knee, impatiently. "Can I at least bring her to our quarters?"
Poppy frowned. "At any rate, don't feed her cat food."
He glared at her as he stood up and Hermione jumped off the bed and followed him to the fireplace. He moodily threw in floo powder and she leapt in with him.
Back in his quarters he settled on his sofa and Hermione jumped up, draping herself across his lap. Absentmindedly he started scratching her behind her ear. She stretched in comfort, purring loudly. He wondered if that turned her on in real life…
What the bloody hell did he think? She was thirteen, he more than twice her age. She was just married to him because of a half-witted law. She'd never want anything from him…
He noticed that Hermione had fallen asleep.
As the days passed, she slowly got her human characteristics back. Somehow Severus was happy, somehow Severus was annoyed.
Being quite lonely in the quarters all day she'd spent the evenings in the living room with him if he wasn't overseeing detention. She'd lie on the sofa next to him, he scratching behind her ear while reading a book. Once her claws disappeared completely Severus invited her to read any of the books on the bookshelf. She jumped at the idea, and spent her whole days reading until late at night when she'd fall asleep.
Sooner or later the effects of the polyjuice potion wore off completely. Then Severus stopped playing nice and confronted her.
"How did you get the polyjuice?" he asked her one night.
She winced, hiding behind a book about old runes. "When I went back to tell Harry that he's a parselmouth, all the Gryffindors were in the common room. One of the year seven girls had brewed the potion after they'd plotted the plan of infiltrating Slytherin that way. They talked me into accompanying Harry and Ron, but somehow I don't think that hair belonged to Millicent Bullstrode."
Severus sniffed. "She has numerous cats. Wouldn't wonder me if your dear friends picked up the wrong hair."
Hermione blushed deeply. "I'm sorry," she apologized. "I should have known better than to drink the potion. Sorry."
He sighed. Instead of answering to her apology he said, "I think you're well enough to return to your lessons tomorrow."
She nodded. "Thanks for letting me read the books."
He looked at her. "You are welcome to at any time, but rather not at night; you need your sleep."
Hermione was excited to get back to her lessons. It was already mid-April and teachers would soon start to prepare the students for the end of year tests, even if half a dozen of them lay in the infirmary.
All Gryffindors were glad to have her back on her feet, apologizing constantly about what happened and that she had to stay with Snape for such a long time. She just shrugged it off, though she knew that Severus would give the whole house detention, but evenly spaced apart for it not to be suspicious. After all, he had a reputation to uphold.
She knew Severus would tell her off because she didn't appear for lunch in the Great Hall, but she got a sandwich from the kitchen every day and then ate it on the way to the library. She knew there was something odd about Harry being a parselmouth and only now hearing the snake. Something was more than odd.
For weeks on end she researched possible answers during her lunch breaks, but each and everyone came to a dead end. Frustrated she spent her weekends glued to Severus's sofa hidden behind one of his books. It took him all he got to make her put them down to at least eat lunch let alone a snack for dinner. It was early June by the time she finally found something interesting in the library.
"Fuck," Hermione swore under her breath as her eyes scanned the page. She grew more and more worried. She had to warn someone. Instantaneously something else popped into her mind.
Not caring about what Ms. Pince would say, she ripped the page out of the book and scribbled on it, PENSIVE – BOOKSHOP LM + GW. She needed to re-watch that memory to conclude her theory.
She made her way out of the library and almost tore her school bag apart looking for something. Finally she triumphantly got out the hand mirror and made her way to the dungeons. Before turning a corner, however, she always first checked with the mirror. After all, she was muggle born.
Professor McGonnagal loomed over Harry and Ron eating lunch. "Mr. Potter, Mr. Weasley," she said. The boys, jumping at hearing her voice, turned to look at her.
"Professor," Ron muttered with a full mouth.
"What do you want?" Harry added, his brows burrowed. They hadn't done anything wrong, and if this was about the detention with Snape, well then she should talk with him, not them. They didn't even know why they had received it.
McGonnagal frowned. "Manners, Potter," she said. Then she gave them a sympathetic look. "Madam Pomfrey wants you in the infirmary."
"Whatever she wants from us," Ron said hastily, "she's not getting it. I'm not going there for an injection or medical check up or whatever."
McGonnagal burrowed her brows, asking herself what was wrong with Weasley. "It is no vaccination and no medical exam," she slowly said. "It's about Hermione Granger…"
Harry and Ron had jumped up and left her sight before she could say "Quidditch". She sighed. The Golden Trio really were good friends.
Ron stared at the frozen Hermione. Her eyes were wide open, and her mouth slightly open as if she had intended to scream. Her right arm was half raised, and her fingers in a position as if they'd held something. She lay on a bed next to a first year Gryffindor, Colin Creevey.
"Will she ever become life again?" he asked dumbfounded.
Pomfrey shot him a deathly look. "Professor Sprout says the mandrakes are almost ready, and Professor Snape is prepared to immediately brew the potion."
Harry nudged Ron. "Idiot," he hissed. Then his stare returned to his best friend lying frozen on the infirmary bed. "Oh Hermione," he whispered. "What have you gotten yourself into now?"
The infirmary wing door opened and in rushed Snape. Harry and Ron pulled a grimace, wondering why he even bothered to come, and got ready to leave.
"You stay put, Potter," Severus snarled.
Harry looked at him. "My relatives might treat me like a dog, but that doesn't mean I am one."
Snape blinked, irritated. "What...?"
The door fell shut and Ron had gone out. Madam Pomfrey went into her office thinking they want some private time.
Harry shrugged. "What do you want? You normally don't talk to me unless you're having a go at me or telling me what to do in my detention."
Snape shrugged too. "This isn't a normal situation, is it?"
"Guess not," the Boy-Who-Lived sighed. "So, what is so special that you are willing to hold a civilized conversation with me about it?"
"Hermione didn't speak to you about you hearing voices, did she?"
Harry looked at him. "You suggested to her I go see a shrink, huh?"
"Shrink?" Snape asked bewildered.
Harry waved his hand impatiently. "A muggle doctor who'll tell you whether or not you're crazy."
Snape nodded slowly. "No," he conjectured. "Quite the opposite actually." He quirked from the corner of his mouth. "Congratulations, Potter; you have found yourself another way to gain attention, though not necessarily good one."
This time Harry blinked in irritation. "Come again?"
Snape grew serious. "Hermione told me about your situation, and let me have a look at her memory." He didn't leave the boy time to ask how. "I came to the conclusion that there was a snake behind the wall, crawling through the water pipes most likely."
Harry was even more befuddled. "I… can hear snakes…?"
"And talk to them," Snape added. "You're a parselmouth, Potter."
Harry nodded as if understanding, but it puzzled him further instead. "Okay…"
Snape saw Harry didn't believe him. Sighing he pulled out his wand and conjured up a small yet dangerous looking snake. Harry stepped back in fright, but the snake slithered towards him. It started moving its mouth.
"Great danger awaitsss you," it hissed. "In the basssementsss of Hogwartsss!"
"What do you mean?" Harry replied.
The snake looked him in his eyes. "A girl… lying on the floor… with a sssnake waking above!" Seconds later it vanished into thin air.
"Wait!" Harry called out.
Snape raised his eyebrows. "What did it say?"
Harry looked at Snape with an expression of great bewilderment. "You… you didn't hear that?" he yelped.
"Not every walking person is a parselmouth," Snape snapped, having hoped he'd made it clear earlier.
"It… it said great danger awaits me," Harry recalled, ignoring his teacher's sarcastic comment. "Great danger awaits me in the basements of Hogwarts!"
"There is no actual basement," Snape reported. "Beneath the dungeons, there is nothing."
Harry ignored him. "There's a girl lying on the floor with a snake waking above… what could it mean?"
Snape sighed, looking at Hermione. "You tell me," he said softly. Harry knew that Snape was sure Hermione knew something helpful. Otherwise she'd never have risked walking around on her own like that.
Severus sat on his sofa, tapping his fingers impatiently on his leg. The basements of Hogwarts… what did that damn snake mean? Was there something dangerous in the dungeons? If yes, why didn't it say dungeons instead of basement? Oh, why did animals always have to talk in riddles? He got up. This got too much on his nerves. He went to the bookshelf. Somewhere he had Hogwarts: A History. If there was a basement no one knew, about then it must say something about that in there.
Suddenly he noticed Hermione's train of thought. Potter was a parselmouth, like Salazar Slytherin, one of the founders of Hogwarts. If there was a snake running through the water pipes, it must be Salazar's pet or something like that, and if it got somewhere into the waterpipes, it must get somewhere out. The question was, where?
He found the book and started looking through the index. Water pipes lead through the basement, so that stupid snake he'd conjured up had been right. Danger waits in the basement. However, there was no basement. On a second thought, if it was Slytherin's pet, then he must have build some place in the castle for it to stay. Maybe that was the basement…
He found Slytherin's page. He turned to it and, beneath the heading, it said: Also look: Slytherin (House), Slytherin (House Ghosts), Chamber of Secrets. Chamber of Secrets… Severus burrowed his eyes. Why did the name send a cold shiver down his back? Nothing in the last decade, since Voldemort's disappearance, had done that. He turned to the page titled CHAMBER OF SECRETS.
The Chamber of Secrets was allegedly created under the dungeons of Hogwarts castle during Medieval times by Salazar Slytherin, who disagreed with the other Hogwarts founders on the merits of blood purity. The Chamber of Secrets is home to an ancient Basilisk, which, according to legend, was intended to be used to purge the school of Muggle-born students.
Severus blinked numerous times. This whole lot of information stood in a book thousands of people have read and no one ever made a connection. One last question remained, though. How did the Basilisk get into the school from the pipes? Then his eyes fell on the Also Look suggestions: Deaths of Students was the second one. Interested where this would lead him he looked at Deaths of Students, right after Attacks on Students.
1943 – Myrtle O'Bonnely
Myrtle… Myrtle… Moaning Myrtle! Severus closed the book; he needed to talk with the ghost. Perhaps her death had something to do with all this. After all, it somehow seemed to be connected to the Chamber of Secrets.
"Oooh," Myrtle laughed happily as Severus entered the second floor lavatory. "So many people visiting me today!"
Severus frowned. "Who else visited you?"
She giggled joyfully. "You'd like to know, wouldn't you?" She flew upside down towards him, making numerous somersaults in the air. "Why would I tell you?" she asked. "You've never been interested in me."
He snarled, "Tell me who it was."
She sighed exaggeratedly. "Nooo!"
Severus, not in the mood for jokes, pulled his wand out. Before Myrtle could speak she was sucked into one of the toilets. There could really only be one person who could have done it: Potter.
Not wasting any time he turned on his heels and left for Dumbledore's office. Once there he found the Headmaster ready to go out somewhere.
"Where are you going?" he asked him.
Albus gave him a tired look. "I have been put on early holiday, Severus," he sighed. "After what happened this afternoon, the Ministry arrested Hagrid, suspecting he opened the chamber again, and then put me on early holiday after finding out that yet another student was attacked."
Severus was instantly alert. "Who?"
"Ginevra Shacklebolt disappeared," the headmaster sighed. He grabbed his wand and put it in his cloak pocket. Then he looked up. "It doesn't look good for Hogwarts, Severus. Our only hope is that the mandrakes will be enough to cure the students and that Mrs. Shacklebolt will mysteriously come back, preferably alive. But even then, Hogwarts might get shut down. After all, this is the second time this has happened, and who knows if there will be a third?"
The door opened again and Professor Sprout came in.
"The mandrakes are ready," she said.
Severus sighed. He didn't have time to find Potter and talk him out of going down to the chambers. He needed to brew a potion. If Potter should die, it wouldn't even matter. Hogwarts was to be shut down anyways and his relatives wouldn't even give a damn whether he returned home or not. Sometimes the world really was unfair.