Chapter 12

She arrived in his chambers just after midnight, a small knowing smile on her face. "Oh, Severus," she gushed, which instantly put Snape on high alert. The Hermione he knew wasn't the gushing type. "I have the most wonderful news."

"You shouldn't be here," he said, keeping his voice as calm as he could. She hadn't warned him that she was coming. He hadn't taken any precautions. On top of that, she had come directly to his sleeping quarters and not their usual meeting room, catching him off guard. He did not like to be caught off guard.

"I know," she said, "but I wouldn't have come if it wasn't important."

He raised his eyebrows. "Important enough to jeopardise everything we've worked for with your carelessness?" He could feel his stomach clench. It wasn't like her. Not at all.

She rolled her eyes at him. "Severus, I'm not sure if I've ever mentioned it, but you do tend toward the melodramatic."

He opened his mouth to respond, but words failed him. He certainly didn't like it when words failed him. Aside from his wand (and cunning intellect, of course) words happened to be his greatest weapon. It irritated Snape to no end that this woman could leave him speechless. It was one of the many reasons he thought that he could love her, if he were the type of individual to let himself fall in love. Again.

And yet, he found it difficult to explain his relationship with Hermione to himself. He admired her kindness and her ferociousness, but he didn't think he could endure her emerging "For the Greater Good" mentality. It was a side of her that he didn't like to see and yet, he knew he was being hypocritical given his own less than lustrous ethics. It was frustrating because she was supposed to be better than he was. In the entire time he had known her she had been so infuriatingly upright and virtuous that he had hated her on principle alone. Now, however, she was so stuck on fixing the tragedies of the past that she was willing to do anything and harm anyone in order to accomplish her goals.

"And what is it that you've come all this way to tell me?" he asked. Snape had a general idea, but he needed to hear it from Hermione's own mouth. He had been hoping against hope that Hermione would not actually go ahead with her plan to use Ms. Granger as bait. However, he knew that was unlikely given that the Order had revoked her wand.

The grin that Hermione gave him portended nothing good. "Halloween," she said as she leaned up to kiss him,"we take back the Ministry."

"Does he have to be here?"

Draco raised his eyebrows. "He insisted."

"He doesn't like to be talked about as if he isn't here," said Harry, not even bothering to look up from his Quidditch magazine.

"Yes," agreed Draco, "he really doesn't like that."

Snape snorted. And while a normal person would have probably been offended, Harry knew well enough by now that that was just Snape's version of laughter. It was odd, Harry reflected, having that sort of camaraderie with Snape, but that's exactly what had developed over the last seven years. It's the sort of thing that one would expect after helping save a person's life. Even Snape's (excepting that one time with Sirius, but Harry could understand why that never exactly blossomed into friendship).

"And this was everything?" Snape asked, referring to the piles upon piles of parchment on his desk.

"Yes, that was everything that Ron and I could find of Hermione's work. I know that you haven't had much time, but can you make any sense of it?"

"Since Ms. Granger was as meticulous as ever in preparing her notes I can tell you with great certainty that she managed to bugger it up completely. Though that seems to be a pattern of hers."

Harry opened his mouth to refute this, but before he had a chance Snape said, "Do you remember the Polyjuice Potion?"

Harry snapped his mouth shut and nodded. "Well, Potter, she managed to correctly brew a very complex potion. And yet, overlooked something very small but very important and is now facing the consequences of that decision."

"I see," said Harry.

"What about Polyjuice Potion?" asked Draco. Harry and Snape both remained silent on the issue. "Fine, don't tell me. I don't want to know."

The magazine was now crushed in Harry's hands. "Can you help her?"

"It will be very dangerous. Time is not something that should be meddled with easily. And Potter," said Snape, fixing Harry with that dark gaze of his, "there is no guarantee that Ms. Granger is even alive."

"I know that," said Harry. And he did, but he refused to think that was the case. Hermione was a survivor and wherever or whenever she had ended up, he had no doubt that she could make it though and return home.

"We will have to do it soon though."

"How soon?" asked Harry.

"Halloween," said Snape, "the day has certain magical properties that we can take advantage of. The barrier between life and death and time becomes blurrier and easier to navigate. We increase our chance of success if we do it then."

"That gives us a day and a half," said Draco.

Snape nodded. "We need to start making our preparations now. Potter we'll need access to Hogwarts, can you arrange that? And you mentioned that she left behind her wand? Get that too."

"I can manage that."

"Draco, we'll also need some rare potions ingredients. I've most of them, but there's several you'll have to find."

"No problem. Is there anything else that I can do?"

"Yes," said Snape, "you can both get the hell out of my house and let me get to work."

Hermione was certain that she was going to die. This was because Granger had told her straight out that her death was all part of the plan.

"Now, Hermione," Granger had said after placing her in a full-body bind. "I don't want you to think of this as a punishment. You haven't done anything wrong."

Well good, Hermione replied sarcastically. In her head, of course, because her jaw was frozen shut. She could make noises with her throat, but it was a sharp keening sound that made her feel pathetic. And she really didn't any help in that department. So it was sarcastic comments in her head or nothing.

"Are you sure about this?" asked George. "You have her wand, she's helpless."

"Yeah," agreed Neville, "I don't think keeping her bound like this is necessary."

"And I say it is." Granger turned to face them. "I know her mind better than anyone. She is dangerous. Halloween is tomorrow. It could very well be our last chance to set things right. I'm not going to risk all that for the comfort of a girl who is day away from death."

"I think you're making the right call Granger."

Thanks, Ginny. I love you too, Hermione thought as Granger levitated her to the bed. This was a slight improvement in the same way that nine bee stings are better than ten.

"We can't spare the manpower to guard her. Each of you has your role to play and it is critical that our plan succeed." Granger turned to leave the room. Ginny and Ron followed without comment, but George and Neville hesitated. "We all agreed to this plan," said Granger stopping in her tracks, "it is not a nice plan, but it is a necessary one. We're all risking our lives for the greater good. If there was any other path to peace we would take it, but there isn't. Unless you fellows have come up with something?"

Both George and Neville stayed silent. Hermione knew that silence could be ominous, but she didn't realize just how much. She could feel her heart beating erratically in her chest as she waited for one of them to say something. Anything.

"What about the original plan?" asked George finally. "She doesn't have to die."

"You know why the plan has changed. There can be no peace while the leader of the resistance is still alive. Hermione Granger has to die," said Granger calmly. "It is either me or her. If you feel so strongly about it, let me know and I'll take her place."

The silence returned more pressing than ever. "That's what I thought," said Granger.

They left after that. Hermione didn't know whether to laugh or cry (though in reality she couldn't do either even if she wanted.) She thought back to when they had taken her wand and she knew that bad things were going to happen. But there is very little a person can do to prepare being trapped and eventually killed.

Hermione thought of Snape and his response to her warning. Don't resist. Have plan. Trust me. Could she trust him? She really didn't have a choice, and yet she found that she wasn't as upset by the turn of events as she could have been. That's not to say that she wasn't furious, but something deep inside her was calm. Hermione Granger had no intention of dying. She had Snape to help her. Even better, they had left her with one of her strongest weapons. Her mind.

She would survive this. She would return home and see Ron and Harry again. She would return to her life and leave this world behind. And somewhere along the way she would manage to set everything right.