Thank you to everyone for reviewing! I read each and every one. ^_^ The art (maps) that accompany this chapter are available on the LJ version of the story.
Chapter 7: The Sum of All Fears
In the days that followed, Hermione was blissfully silent on the subject of Albus and the reasons Severus had turned to him in the first place, much to Severus' relief. He had rather dreaded fending off inane questions at every turn whilst clutching at his temper.
But Granger did not ask, and he did not tell, and they passed several weeks in companionable, if sometimes a trifle combative, partnership.
Severus found that baiting Granger could be amusing upon occasion.
"Morning, Snape!"
"Morning, Severus!"
"Severus, good morning!"
He strode down the hall of the Ministry's atrium, making his way to the lift that would take him to Level Nine, and the Department of Mysteries. The cheery morning greetings grated on his nerves, and so he ignored them. He did not recognize half of the speakers, at any rate.
When the lift stopped and announced his floor, he got off, ducked a few fluttering memos, and made his way to the lab he and Granger shared just off the Time Room. Normally (or so he had gathered) their work tables were covered in potions equipment, rune stones, references, and sensitive magical arrays designed for specific (and mysterious) purposes. But currently there were files, stacks of parchment, and moving crime scene photos everywhere – aids in their search for Jack the Ripper. Hermione was ensconced in the center of the mess, several boxes of parchment stacked around her.
"What are those?" Severus asked as he hung his cloak on a peg and moved to his customary stool across the table from Granger.
She looked up. "Our requisition to the archives and request to the Muggle police just went through. We have every official piece of paper that has anything to do with Jack the Ripper in these boxes. I'm cataloging and cross referencing now."
Severus nodded and returned to his own work – attempting to identify the dark spells that had been used on the victims – and himself. He had yet to find an exact match for any of the damage inflicted. He would locate a reference to a likely spell, only to find that the one used was actually a shade darker, a perverted permutation. Severus was beginning to think Jack the Ripper was quite mad, in every sense of the word – even in his spellcasting.
"The Muggles think his victims were prostitutes, you know," Hermione said conversationally. "I always did as well. It wasn't until we got this case that I learned they were witches. The Ministry told the Muggles to say prostitute to explain why the bodies were in clothing considered odd by Muggle standards." Her lip curled.
"I recognize that look, Granger. Has something ignited the eternal fire of righteous indignation that ever burns in your breast?" Severus raised a brow, telling himself firmly that he would not glance at Hermione's breasts simply because he had said the word.
At that point, he really just should have counted backwards from ten.
They were very nice breasts. What he could see of them, at any rate.
"It just strikes me as in poor taste. It implies that witches dress like prostitutes, and adds insult on top of all the injury these women suffered."
Severus pulled his gaze back to the parchment in front of him. "Men are pigs," he agreed dryly.
Hermione snorted. "Present company excepted, of course… Most of the time."
Severus tried not to look shifty. Fortunately, he had a lifetime of practice.
At that moment, a silvery white hare bounded through the door, stopping to hover and twitch between Hermione and Severus.
"New body found in Whitechapel," the Patronus said in Luna's voice, sounding unconcerned. "Another witch. Apparate as soon as you can. A Muggle found the body. Bring Obliviators."
-l-
Severus and Hermione arrived on the scene in a crack of Apparition. Luna was already there, a gaggle of Aurors and Obliviators swarming around her as she gave them directions in her quiet, gentle way. The sound of Luna's voice was punctuated by the screams of a hysterical woman in Muggle dress, who was shouting that they were all demons and that she was going to call the Met.
"No, don't Obliviate her yet!" Hermione ordered, hastening over to the woman's side, wand raised. "We need to question her first, in case she saw anything."
Severus followed at a more sedate pace, watching as Hermione first tried reasoning with the Muggle, then casting Cheering Charms to no avail. Finally, he placed a long fingered hand on Hermione's shoulder, gently moving her from his path. Taking the Muggle woman's face into both his hands, he leaned in to stare into her eyes with his own unfathomable ones, so close it seemed they would kiss. She quieted under his touch, though whether it was the Cheering Charms having a delayed effect or a byproduct of the Legilimency Severus was employing, he couldn't say.
"She saw nothing but the body," he said as he stepped back, directing the woman into the waiting arms of the Obliviators. When he turned to look at Hermione, her arms were crossed and there were two spots of color high on her cheeks. "I will examine the corpse," he continued, not willing to scrutinize why she was angry.
Moving briskly to the center of the crime scene where photographs were being taken, objects examined, and diagnostic spells cast, Severus got his first firsthand look at Ripper's handiwork.
What was left of the woman's face was frozen in an expression of anguish. Blood formed a pool around her mutilated form. There were curse wounds slashing their way down her face, her neck, her breasts – below that she was only so many scraps of meat. Raising his wand, Severus closed his eyes and silently began casting spell after spell, gathering information.
She had not been dead long. Ten hours at most. Her heart was gone, as was her uterus – torn from her.
Ripped.
The organs had been removed before she died.
She felt them being taken.
But why the heart? Why the uterus? Why witches? Why this witch?
They would never catch Ripper if they couldn't answer those questions.
"Severus," Hermione's excited voice broke his concentration.
Opening his eyes, he looked at her, brow raised.
"Where are we?" she demanded, a gleam in her eye that made Severus' blood quicken. "What street?"
"Osborn Street," he answered, a certain excitement going through him. He recognized the look on Hermione's face. It was a look that said she was about to do something absolutely brilliant.
Not that he would ever let her know he thought so.
"We have to go back to the lab," she bossed. Turning on her heel, she Disapparated without waiting for him to reply.
It occurred to Severus that he was continually forced to toddle after Granger like a schoolboy.
Resolving that this would be the last time (though he had sworn that the last last time), he turned smartly on his heel and vanished with a crack.
-l-
He appeared in the atrium of the Ministry, proceeding quickly to the lab he shared with Hermione. She was already there, rifling through parchment with an intense look upon her face that set things below Severus' belt to twitching. It was in moments like these - when Hermione's face lit with the glow of her brilliance before she announced a great discovery or sudden leap in logic - that she was the most beautiful to Severus. In those moments, when she smiled at him as if she was about to hand him the world, he thought he almost loved her.
He wasn't sure where that thought had come from. Perhaps it was a memory, bubbling to the surface. He frowned to himself, thinking of the jeweler's box in his sock drawer. But then he had no more time for introspection – Hermione was mumbling to herself as she used her wand to send various pieces of parchment hovering around them.
"This is a survey map of the Whitechapel District of London, drawn in 1894," she said, moving the map to float before them with a point of her wand. Another swish, and five dots appeared on the map, glowing red. "These mark the location of what is known as "The Canonical Five" – the murders that everyone agrees were done by Jack the Ripper. I should have noticed before," Hermione mumbled under her breath. "I can't believe I didn't notice before."
Severus moved closer, studying the street names of the marked locations. His eyes widened.
"He's doing it again. Just like he did back then," Hermione declared, noticing that Severus had seen the pattern for himself. "Hanbury Street, Buck's Row, Berner Street, Mitre Square, and Dorset Street – we found Mary Pims' body in her flat, which was on a little road just off Dorset Street. We found all of the other victims on the same streets as they were found in 1888. But," she continued, her voice almost seductive with the weight of the revelation, "there is no Osborn Street among the accepted five murders."
Severus felt his lips twitch. "But there were two other Whitchapel murders that could have been attributed to Ripper." He stepped closer to Hermione to better see the map.
She turned to look up at him, "And one of them was on Osborn Street." With another twist of her wand, two more red dots appeared on the map.
"And that means," Severus began, looking at the location of the last dot.
"We know where he's going next," Hermione finished breathlessly. "We can set a trap."
"George Yard," Severus said, wetting his lips with a corner of his tongue. He was struck with a strong urge to kiss her. She was so close, her face turned up so invitingly.
He frowned, and took a step away from her, studying the map very closely. Something about the placement of the murders bothered him.
He thought perhaps Granger looked a trifle disappointed, but was certain it was nothing more than the foolish yearnings of a man too long without female company.
"What is it, Severus?" she asked after he had spent several long minutes in silent study of the map.
"There is something about the placement of the bodies, something…" he mused. Then he jabbed at the map with his wand, eyebrows knitted. Black lines blurred into life, connecting the sites of murder to form a symbol.
"Infinity," Hermione gasped, all the blood draining from her face.
"Immortality," Severus sneered. "That is what he is after. He is mad, but not merely a madman. It is a dark ritual he seeks to complete. The hearts, the organs –"
"Horcruxes."
"Perhaps. Or something darker still."
"He doesn't have to torture them. And they needn't be young witches." Hermione stared dully at the map. "That part he does because he likes it. Because it excites him."
"Yes," Severus agreed, his eyes dark as pitch.
He watched Granger study the map, suddenly realizing the sum of all his fears.