Chapter 10: A Hand in the Darkness
Disclaimer: I do not own Harry Potter. I could only dream of it but even that would be unthinkable since I adore JK Rowling so much.
Hermione was just finishing the last report for the day. It was 2:35 when she looked at her watch. She smiled at herself knowing that she accomplished what she goaled to finish and she wouldn't be late for her visit in Hogwarts. She told the Headmistress that she will be at her office at exactly three in the afternoon. She hated being late, especially if she was the one who set the time of meeting. For her, being prompt was important. It showed how disciplined a person was, of how they value the time and efforts of others and of how professional their outlooks were.
She smoothed the folders housing the reports. Now, all she needed to do was to clean up the clatter on her table. She arranged the other documents methodically, storing them on the drawer of her desk and then proceeded to put other parchments on her bag. While doing this, Hermione's mind went back to the sudden visit, or more of intrusion, of Draco Malfoy.
The brunette didn't know what to think of it. He was the same git that she knew. He teased her. His smirk was always present. His attitude was still haughty. He was him but he was different at the same time. She understood the likelihood that Malfoy wanted to rub on her face the fact that he was funding her project. It was understandable and somewhat expected given their mutual annoyance for each other. But, as her mind shouted, he did not. He commented that her office was plain but it couldn't be counted as an insult. Even her assistant expressed the same thought and that's why there's always a new set of flowers for her everyday to liven the place up. He didn't even mention anything about him being her sponsor. He only told her the time and place for their first meeting. It seemed that he simply liked teasing her and surprisingly, not in an insulting or degrading way. It was rude of him to just barge-in in her office but he had done worse things than that. It unnerved Hermione to no end because she had no idea what he was up to.
As she had contemplated before, it was impossible that he was funding her project out of the goodness of his heart. Maybe he was using her name to boost his reputation. Their partnership will surely attract the attention of the media. Yes, that could be it.
As of now, the whole project was not yet official. Both parties needed to talk over the actions that they will execute. Aside from that, Hermione was also thinking of finding additional sponsors. She sighed. She couldn't understand his actions and it seemed that his presence disconcerted her. She felt this unexplainable nervousness whenever he's around. It wasn't like that when they were students.
Maybe it's because I hadn't seen him for years? I just need to get used to him once again, I think. Oh, this won't be like a walk in the park.
She walked to the window to gaze at the purple tulips resting at the ledge. The bulbs were half-open. She picked one and smelt it. The scent was faint but it was pleasant, fresh. She gathered a few stems to bring home.
Hermione arrived on time at the office of Headmistress McGonagall. She arrived through the floo network. Her old mentor was seated at her table and rushed to welcome her.
"Hermione, dear, how are you?" The Headmistress hugged her tightly when she reached her previous student.
Professor McGonagall looked the same except for her hair. It was now a shade of black and grey that enhanced her features. She still looked strict and stern. Her pointy hat, as observed by the brunette, was resting at the table of the Headmistress.
Hermione returned the embrace. "I'm fine, Professor. A bit engrossed in work, but I'm enjoying it and I'm learning so much from everything that entailed being the head of our branch." She replied with a smile. She missed her previous mentor and her school. Now that she's back, she will make sure to at least know the latest news regarding the school and, if possible, go for a walk around the familiar corridors and classrooms. She will also visit Hagrid once she finished her research. Oh, how she missed the grounds, the lake even the Forbidden Forest.
"You're as hardworking as I remember you are. And your efforts are paying off. I heard that you're already making a name at your department." The Headmistress whisked her to the seat in front of her table.
"I'm afraid not. I still have a lot to learn and to experience before I can say such a thing."
"Oh, I don't believe you, Hermione. I know the Ministry well. Clearly, they're not seeing the things that you've accomplished so far, or they see it but they don't give you enough merit. Well, so much for this kind of talk. Care for some tea before you go to the library?"
"That would be lovely, Professor. I'm a bit hungry myself."
After spending half an hour at the Headmistress' office Hermione was finally at Hogwarts library. In front of her were tomes of books regarding the Dark Arts. Students were not allowed at the Restricted Section so she had the entire place all to herself. She was ecstatic to know that tons of new books were added to the already great collection.
She felt guilty for lying at Professor McGonagall. She told the older witch that she was currently researching for another way to use Demiguise pelts since the Department currently cared for two.
But I mean no harm in lying. Besides it did cross my mind to find other ways to make use of the hairs of the Demiguise. Aside from weaving it into Invisibility Cloaks, some people had claimed that they can be used as concealing ointments. So, technically, lying is not the word for what I'm doing it's just, just additional research. I'll look for something, anything about Trevisa's book and after that, I will take time to search about Demiguises. I'm not doing anything wrong. Right? Right.
Hermione wasn't used to lying, especially to someone as dear to her as Professor McGonagall who had been her mentor for years, so what she had done weighed heavily on her mind. It maybe a simple thing to others but she held to her principles although this time her needs preceded her values.
She flipped the pages of the book she's holding. It was almost two hours since she started scouring the shelves of the library but she's getting nowhere. Madam Pince had offered help and Hermione would've accepted it if only she wasn't in the situation she's currently in, so she declined the offered assistance politely.
Hermione walked to the other side of the Restricted Section, the newly built one. Some of the old books were there but the majority was composed of the donated or the newly acquired ones. She walked at the aisle formed by the tall bookshelves and a sign at the far end of the hall caught her eyes. It read The Potions Master Section. Hermione walked towards it, curiosity piqued, a feeling at her chest told her that she will find something there.
Her footsteps echoed throughout the small room, her heart, for some unexplainable reason, was thumping loudly against her chest. She reached the shelf and read the green glass with white engravings placed on the wall directly beside the shelf. It read:
A memorial to the Potions Master, Severus Snape, for his contribution in nurturing the minds of Hogwarts students.
Hermione didn't know about this memorial to her previous professor. A tribute commemorating the people who had fallen in the War was already erected at the grounds of the school. This must be an additional homage for all the things that he had done and sacrificed all those years.
She smiled sadly at the thought of Snape. Although the late professor gave her a hard time when she was still under his tutelage, she had learned so many things from him. Her interest in the field of potions was a direct influence of him to her. He transformed the chemistry of potion making into an art. Harry told her of Snape's part in the war and it broke her heart to know that someone could give so much but get so little in the end.
Hermione reached into the lone shelf dedicated to the professor. It wasn't particularly large like most of the shelves in the library. It was composed of three levels only, and apparently, these were some of the books that Snape once owned. Most of it was concerned on potions but a few books were about the Dark Arts.
These are all great books but I'm afraid none of it is connected with what I'm looking for, she mused while skimming the titles.
She was about to move to the other shelf when a book caught her eyes. It wasn't the book itself but the color of it. It was the color of the tulips in her office, deep purple. She reached for it. It was a bit battered-looking but was intact. There were no labels or title on the cover and it's not that thick compared to most of the volumes in the section. She opened it, half-expecting that it would be like some of the books where a face would appear and would scream at you. But no, it was ordinary.
She flipped the page and finally saw the title. A Memoir. It was owned by a Wilhelmus Polkinghorn. She flipped three pages and saw the text, an elegant script handwritten in the unlined pages of the book.
It was maybe the handwriting that compelled her to read it, maybe it was the fact that it was once a book of one of the greatest Potions Master in Hogwarts or maybe it's because of the color of the cover which reminded her of the tulips in her bag, but whatever the reason was, Hermione asked the permission of Madam Pince to copy the whole book. The librarian first checked it for any hidden spells and found that there was a spell that retained the quality of the book. No wonder it's still in a good condition even after centuries of use. As for how it came to Snape's collection of books, no one can answer to that except maybe the late professor himself.
She resumed her seat and began reading the copied version of the memoir. She knew that she might be wasting her time in reading it but her instincts told her that it's alright to take a chance. If it didn't lead her to anything helpful, she could view reading it as a break from her two hour unfruitful, as of the moment, search.
The first page was dated July 15, 1503 where the writer talked about a case on vanishing people at a few provinces in the country. Apparently, the owner was once a head of the Division for the Appropriate Manipulation of Magic which was the Department of Magical Law Enforcement at the present. Hermione knew this because before entering the Ministry, she made sure that she's read the "Ministry of Magic: The Beginning and the Future" by Thomson Flockton.
It wasn't a memoir or an autobiography per se. It's more of a journal where the content was mainly detailed notes about the owner's penchant for reading unsolved cases in the British wizarding community. Being the head of the department, he had access to the division that stored the records of the cases that the Ministry had handled.
The first few entries were really trivial sort of cases, nothing bizarre. She noticed that Polkinghorn was very keen on details. He described the cases as if he was also investigating it, giving his opinions, insights and even theories. When she started reading the seventh entry, Hermione knew that this book was going to be of help to her. Her eyes read the elegant script in record speed while her heart thumped loudly at her chest.
The said entry started with the description of a story that circulated around the area of Devonshire and Somersetshire around 1199. What interested the owner of the memoir to focus on the said records was the unusual behavior of the involved parties. It was said that some influential people in the two counties went mad and then died for reasons that were both mysterious and inexplicable. At first, the wizarding authorities who investigated the matter couldn't think of any possible cause for these events. They sought the help of experts on potions and charms to know the truth behind the sudden madness but their efforts were fruitless. The authorities even thought that it was an epidemic but further investigation only met a dead-end.
The only lead the investigators had was the wealth of the afflicted wizards and witches. All were or had connections with merchants and traders. Others were landowners, owning even the people that reside in their properties. The Ministry authorities at that time couldn't think of a place to start their inquest. They could only talk to the families and friends of the people involved, gather evidences and from there form speculations that would lead them to the culprit or culprits behind the deaths.
Hermione retrieved the parchment she'd copied from her previous research in Manchester. Her mind told her of a possible connection between this case and Trevisa. She remembered that the timeline of the case was consistent with the year when Trevisa fled the country for France. She read the short passage and her hunch increased. It was possible that the case she was currently reading was the one being referred to in the book at Chetham's Library.
She resumed reading the entry of Polkinghorn. The entry lost its clinical tone and abruptly held a darker vein. The families of the deceased wizards and witches had the same story to tell the Ministry officials. The madness started with simple nightmares, dreams that they deemed as nothing to worry about. Then after a few weeks, those who experienced the dreams started to act strange. All went into some sort of depressed state, then reverted back to their usual self, then acted happy and ecstatic all of a sudden.
At first, only a lone wizard started to show this kind of behavior. His name wasn't stated in the entry but he was described as a rich merchant from the Orient who settled in the country. The officials found the journal of the wizard, one of the most important evidence that was found. In there, they read a detailed account of what went in his head when the madness was just starting to creep in his mind. The wizard often wrote about a shadow that haunted his sleep, whispering things to him, taunting him. It came to a point that he even went to great lengths to stop himself from sleeping. His journal recounted the ways in which he tried to use spells and potions to stop the dreams but all came to naught.
The last sane entry of the wizard told of how it seemed to him that the shadow was implanting destructive thoughts in his head, sometimes of murdering his own family but more often of ways he could kill himself. After two weeks, the wizard met his end when he fell from the highest tower of his home.
The death of this wizard was seen by the authorities who made the initial investigations as a confined incident. His journal at this time was not yet known to the authorities since all supposed that it was suicide.
It was a month after his death that similar things happened to other wizards and then eventually to some witches. It baffled the authorities and then they started to panic because all of the people afflicted with this abrupt madness slowly killed themselves, and not just a simple tumble off of a tower like the first victim. Whatever entity that haunted their dreams and even waking hours became more creative in his infiltration of the subconscious mind of the unfortunate wizards and witches.
When the Ministry officials asked the friends and acquaintances of the deceased people, they found out that all of them had some form of argument or misunderstanding with a wizard known as Bartholomew Trevisa. Apparently, he and the dead wizards and witches moved in the same social circle. Trevisa was known as a peculiar personality in the group, a very talented and accomplished gentleman but with an air of darkness coupled with a mercurial temper. It was known to his circle that he had a history of violence and aggressiveness.
It wasn't stated as to what the dispute was all about but it centered on Trevisa as someone losing his mind because of his account that he dreamed of Morpheus himself. The people didn't believe him and made him a laughingstock whenever they gather. Trevisa didn't take it lightly and in the end he stopped attending the gatherings and meetings.
When the Ministry officials looked into the personal belongings of the deceased people, they found something that led them to increase their suspicion that Trevisa was behind the madness and the deaths. All of the victims received a package from him, a small bottle of perfume. Some were half-empty while some were still full. The authorities examined the perfume and found that it was a potion. Its origin and function was never known. When they went to Trevisa's castle in Dorset, they found that he already fled the country.
Hermione stopped reading the journal when she came to this part. She was feeling faint and drained all of a sudden. Her head was throbbing in rhythm with the fast and loud thumping of her heart. The chair she was sitting on supported her form but it seemed that it wasn't enough. The need to lie down, to close her eyes and just drift off to sleep was a very welcoming thought to her. Beads of cold sweat formed on her forehead and her breathing was shallow. She thought that it could be heard across the room. Even the soft lights of the library made her head ache. She welcomed the darkness brought by closing her eyes but she regretted it instantly. The moment she sealed her eyelids shut she saw something amidst the darkness of her closed eyes, a hand reaching out to her.
A/N: Up there is crappy writing at its finest. If you're interested on how to be an expert in it, you can leave a review or you can just PM me and I will give you a rundown of what to do to be called the crappiest writer ever.
On a serious note, I will say that I'm not happy with this chapter. I've struggled with it. It took me days just to think of how I will end it and as usual my mind didn't follow my original plan. It veered into another direction and now I'm thinking of how I will adjust the whole story to this development. Are you confused with it? Do you have any questions? Review or PM me. I will answer them gladly.
I would like to express my gratitude to all of those who reviewed and who shared their thoughts regarding the last chapter. I will make sure to use some of the prompts and ideas in the following chappies.
I hope you guys won't desert me for this badly done part of the story. I will wait for your reactions and feedbacks. Thank you for reading!
P.S. I now have a tumblr account! You can check it out using my username here. Thanks!
And just wondering, how did you come across this story? That's it for now.