A.N. Hello folks! it's been a crazy week, and I didn't get much writing done on Sunday due to Easter, but here we are! So many of you were able to correctly guess who our mystery visitor was and I'm so excited for you all to properly meet him! As always much love goes out to rotehexe for all she does.
As always, a special thanks to WMD92, xXMizz Alec VolturiXx, Aztrel, KrankyKittie, Sincere J. Moon, Faeriie, and 5 guests for reviewing chapter 25.
"So you've heard it then." Hermione began, keeping her wand raised but moving slowly into the room. She flipped the switch on the wall and illuminated him more fully. Outside the light of the window, it was easy to see his features.
Black eyes that seemed to be well-hidden behind a stony mask of contempt stared at her intently as she moved. His greasy hair was not quite as long as it had been when last she'd seen him, and the wrinkles were missing from his face. But then they were likely caused by the stress of spending 18 years living a double life.
It was strange, seeing the mixture of distress and desperation flicker behind the cold exterior of his face. "How?" That was all he said, the timbre of his voice steady as he faced her. She'd never seen the memories, the ones he had given Harry as he had died, but she knew that he'd done it all for her. It hadn't been something she'd understood, but now she was living her life for Harry's sake and she knew…knew better than anyone else in the world what Severus Snape was about to do.
"When I approached you all those months ago, I told you there was a time coming when you'd have to make a choice. What have you chosen?" Hermione slowly lowered her hand, not stupid enough to sheath her wand but knowing that the first step to any alliance was a sense of trust, however shallow. He stiffened slightly before moving towards her. His body was stiff and there was a light sheen of sweat on her face.
"Her. I will always choose her." Severus was serious, grave even as he spoke. He loved Lily, or thought he did at the very least. It was amazing what people would do for the ones they love.
"Even if it means betraying your precious Dark Lord? Does he know you're here?" Hermione's eyes flicked unconsciously over to his left arm, hanging down by his side. Even in the pale light emitted by the dying sconce on the wall, he noticed her gaze.
"No. You know things…knew things about me, about my past. Its why I let you live that day and now I…" He stopped for a moment where he took in a deep breath, smoothing back his hair with his hand. "He thinks its about her. Her child."
Hermione knew this; she'd spent years listening to Harry pick apart the prophecy. Born as the seventh month dies. It was well known in the Pureblood gossip circles by now that Lily and James Potter were expecting a child (mostly because of prejudiced old cows like Walburga Black who bemoaned the ruin of a Pureblood line with a half-blooded child).
"So what? You don't trust Voldemort to protect a muggleborn witch?" He flinched when she said his name…they always did. But she refused to fear him, refused to bow down to the very name of a man she'd watched crumple and die. That was all he was, a man.
Snape sneered at her with disapproval in the way that he always had at school when she'd been too quick with an answer or overly eager in her brewing. One look from him like that would've turned her into a shrinking violet years ago, but he couldn't take house points from her now. This was her game of chess, and all he was was a pawn. It was time to figure out who's pawn he would be.
"He won't protect her. All he cares about is himself. This whole war, what does it do but stroke the fragile ego of a malevolent orphan who has it in his mind that he is the greatest wizard in the world." Hermione caught her rant before she continued, worried that too much vitriol might turn Snape away. But she had the trump card, she had the future.
"What do you want from me?" Snape's voice was low, not nearly as languid and parsed as she was used to. If she hadn't spent years observing the man, she might never have noticed the change in his posture, the way his hands moved nervously…the pitch of his voice.
"I want your help. If you help me to take down Voldemort, I can promise you that Lily will survive. If you take a vow, I can tell you everything." She made sure not to mention James, or Harry, out of fear that he'd be reminded of his petty school grievances and leave with more knowledge than she could allow to fall into Voldemort's hands.
It was a risky venture, to even have gotten this far without demanding a vow from the man. She hadn't mentioned the future, or her true origins, but there was far less that could put her life in immediate danger. Snape seemed to be warring within himself for what to do. He'd never liked Hermione, even when she had begun to listen in on order meetings her fifth and sixth year.
"Look if you think that he'll save her, that he'll spare her life in the moment where his choice is his life or hers, then go ahead. Leave. Go back to the man who marked and marred you for empty promises of a grander life." Hermione turned her back on him, knowing that this was a gamble. She knew that Voldemort had tried to spare Lily, had asked her to step aside, but there was one certainty she had in her life and it was that Lily Potter would never allow someone to lay a hand on her child.
"Wait. I'll do it." Snape's hand caught on her shoulder, and she allowed herself a brief smile of victory before turning and very sternly facing the man. Tilting her head towards the kitchen, she sat in the same wobbly wooden chair that she had when Dumbledore had arrived all those months ago.
"This is a vow of my own design. You won't die if you break it, but your magic will be severely weakened for the rest of your life. Are you sure that you want to do this Severus?" It felt wrong, bitter as his name left her lips. She wondered if there would be a day when they would no longer be allies but rather friends. Maybe if she removed the decades of bitterness that he had lived on, he would be a good friend to her.
"I will do anything for her." Snape's voice was crisp, his intonation forward and his enunciation clear. His black eyes resembled a starless night, and Hermione was certain that he was committed to his love for Lily if nothing else.
"Repeat after me." The vow this time took on a silvery sheen, which she found infinitely fascinating and made a note to study further when the war was done and Harry was safe. Luckily, she had already explained the story of her past to enough people that she gave Snape the spark notes version. Skipping some important details (as she didn't trust him with the horcrux information quite yet), Snape sat with a slight frown as he listened to her story.
"2004. I suppose in this reality you came from I'm no longer alive." Hermione had purposely left out everyone's end to their story. Regulus had been the only person she'd told about his eventual death. Snape had died for his dual loyalties, and even as much as she disliked the man, she was infinitely grateful to all the small ways he helped them during those last months of the war.
Her silence told more than any words could have as she opened and shut her mouth, hoping that eventually the right words would come out. There was no more complex story than Severus Snape's.
"Well then, I suppose there is nothing to lose." He stood abruptly, pulling at the collar of his high-necked dark grey robes. "How will I contact you?" This interaction grew more and more stunted and stiff as they looked at each other, and Hermione knew that this would not be an easy process. Shuffling back to her room, that she made a silent note to thoroughly wash so the violating feeling of someone being in there without her consent was gone, she grabbed one of the protean coins she had sitting in her night table. Activating it with a flick of her wand, she returned to the kitchen.
"This coin will burn when I have a message for you. Its tied to mine as well as a few others. If you should ever need me, it works similarly for you." Hermione sent an example message to him, focusing intently on her test.
"Lazarus?" Snape mocked as the text came through on his coin. Hello Lazarus.
"Do you not know the story? I assumed because your father was a muggle…" In an instant, Snape's entire body changed, as he became guarded and moved his right foot forward, a stance she'd seen him use many times during Duelling Club. "I'm sorry. I didn't intend to upset you."
Her information and research on Snape had seemed to begin and end with his childhood friendship with Lily. Hermione hadn't been able to find any record of what Snape's home life had been like and she certainly wasn't about to ask Lily to divulge her ex-best friend's darkest secrets. Based on his reaction alone though, all was not well in the Snape household growing up.
"That's the funny thing about intention, it rarely matters." He looked for a moment like he might storm out, swish his long flowing cloak behind him and vanish into the growing night as he likely would've done when she'd known him. However he just took a very heavy, annoyed breath and sighed before absently stirring the small remains of the tea he'd brewed hours before.
"Assume I am very unfamiliar with muggle stories." There was a bitterness in his voice that Hermione felt it unnecessary to acknowledge. At this point she was pushing her luck with getting his help, and she needed his help.
"Lazarus was a man who, according to Christian beliefs, was brought back from the dead and given a second chance at life. You may not trust me, and I certainly don't trust you but we have one very important thing in common, we both love Lily. I need you just as much as you need me and if we don't work together there's a very high possibility that we all die, you, me, Lily…everyone." Hermione took a calming breath, forcing her hands to stop trembling. As her fingernails dug into her palms she continued. "The others have nicknames as well, that way we can't be given away if someone is discovered."
"The others?" His voice tilted slightly and Hermione blushed slightly at the dark way he was looking at her. Severus Snape did not play well with 'others'.
"Oh urm…yeah. I suppose I'll introduce you to them at the next…well I hate to call them meetings because that makes it seem more like a club than a coalition of people devoted to killing Voldemort." Rambling was one of her more obvious nervous traits, but she was cut off by a sharp laugh from her old professor…well now young professor. Merlin this time thing was hard to wrap one's mind around.
"Can I be assured that any and all association with you and your…club will be confidential. I have already risked my life even coming here." Severus stood, clearly displaying that he was ready to leave and Hermione followed him about, placing their tea cups in the sink and moving into the entrance hall.
"Yes. Everyone has taken a vow. I must warn you though, you may not…approve of all the members I have recruited for this mission and some, well some may just blatantly shock you." She tried to imagine who Snape would have the funniest reaction to, and her mind was tied between one of the most notoriously pureblooded death eaters, a man who if supposedly dead, and one of his nemeses from Hogwarts. Hermione bit her lip, fighting against the laugh that was bubbling in her throat. She was mostly able to contain it, but that didn't stop Snape from raising an eyebrow.
He was quiet as he opened the door, pulling the hood of his travelling cloak up around his face. The night had grown dark while they were talking, and even though there were streetlamps, his face was still obscured by the blanket of cloudy blackness that covered the sky.
Hermione closed the door behind him, carefully reactivating her wards. Had Snape been a less skilled wizard, she might've felt the need to triple her defenses, but instead she settled for a blood ward. It wasn't quite light magic, but it would keep her safe. Voldemort knew the prophecy which meant that Lily and James were officially in danger.
For the first time since she'd gotten back from the cave, Hermione drew open her beaded bag and pulled out the small locket inside. The outside was a delicate gold, engraved with her initials and some runes for protection and love. She'd always felt mystified by the overwhelming magic of runic protection and had cried when Harry had presented it to her the Christmas after she'd completed her eighth year.
It had been too risky to wear it in the past, but it would've broken her heart to leave it behind. When she pressed the clasp on the side of the locket, it popped open, revealing a picture of Harry, Ron, and Hermione at her graduation. Her long black robes billowed around her as her two best friends smiled at the camera. There was a gentle breeze blowing from behind them and Ron was holding onto her hat to keep it from blowing away. Everyone was smiling, and it made her heart hurt.
Ron would be born in only four days, even when Harry and Ron were born, even when they grew up and went to Hogwarts, nothing would ever be the same.
Hermione knew from the moment that Severus Snape arrived at her home on the dreary looking Saturday in late February that this meeting was going to be very stressful. Once he and Lucius were done accusing each other of being a spy for the Dark Lord (which resulted in drawn wands…twice), Hermione had set out some tea for the lot of them and waited on Remus and Regulus.
It had become a tradition since Sirius learned about her mission that Remus, Regulus, and Sirius would all come together. Somehow the meager spread of cheese and crackers made it seem more like a sad party no one had showed up for rather than a strategic planning session to destroy the greatest threat to the wizarding world that existed currently.
She'd closed off her floo so they'd have to ask permission to be let in, a tactic she'd used in order to allow her to intercept the brothers and Remus before they walked into a room exclusively occupied by their former enemies and current (albeit so they could spy for her) death eaters.
"You have to promise not to be cross and to give me your wands." Hermione insisted, crossing her arms as she always did when she meant business. Regulus had agreed immediately, which she'd expected. Remus followed suit a moment later with only a curious lift of his eyebrow as if he was telling her that he didn't like it but he trusted her. Sirius, naturally, was being a prick.
"I'm not giving you my wand if that platinum headed git has his. Malfoy is a right bastard and I know you say we can trust him but I don't trust him so far as I could throw him…" His tantrum ran on for about a minute longer before Hermione finally went in the other room. It was at this point that Hermione had discovered Lucius and Severus on the brink of duelling.
Pinching the bridge of her nose, she took a deep breath and reminded herself that one day when Harry was safe and happy, it would be worth all the trouble it took to get there. Pulling out her own wand from the hidden pocket sewn into the sleeve of her long, fuzzy striped jumper, she disarmed both the men while they were distracted with their own egos. Wands in hand, she returned to the floo and Sirius finally agreed to hand over his as well. Still grumbling, of course, because he is a big baby man child when he doesn't get his way.
Hermione opened the floo and watched nervously as the men arrived through the fireplace. Regulus came through first, his black, curly hair covered in a light powder from the ash. Remus was next, who simply shook out his hair and ran his fingers through his mustache to make himself presentable again. Lastly, arrived Sirius Black, wearing a long-sleeved t-shirt of some band she'd never heard of and his signature leather jacket.
It took approximately four seconds for Sirius and Remus to see Severus, and an additional two seconds before any of the men interacted. Seeing each other int his context seemed to have reset their brains and they were in the process of booting back up.
"What the bloody fuck is he doing here?" Sirius broke the silence first, turning with an angry sneer at Hermione.
"I told you all we had a new ally…" She began, cut off nearly immediately by Remus's voice.
"You told us there was someone but you didn't say it was him." Remus was less angry with Hermione than he was distressed. She knew that he always blamed himself for what had happened at Hogwarts; how Sirius had almost killed Snape and James had only just managed to stop him.
"I assure you Black, had I known you were involved I would have saved myself the annoyance. But what sort of operation are you running here? You have a werewolf…" Hermione couldn't help but see realization and fear take over Lucius' face as he took a step away from Remus. "A man whose funeral I attended several weeks ago, one of the Dark Lord's most ardent supporters and…well I suppose Black is the class pet?" Sirius snapped forward, looking as if he might punch Severus. Luckily Remus managed to grab the back of Sirius's shirt and keep him from doing any harm.
"Every person here has a unique set of skills and circumstances that will help us defeat Voldemort." Hermione, holding up each of their wands in turn, tucked them all dramatically in her pocket, showing for emphasis the fact that they were all unarmed. "Now if you all are done being children and allowing petty grievances to interfere with our work, its time to discuss today's topic."
"And what, pray tell, is that Granger?" Lucius asked, having already seated himself in her arm chair like he was some grand king.
"Why how to kill Lord Voldemort of course." There was a sickly-sweet smile on her face that slowly cracked and slipped until eventually she was nothing but a searing ball of rage. Learning to harness that energy had gotten her through many a plotting session at the Department of Mysteries.
"Oh so something simple then." Regulus joked, leaning against the doorframe between the kitchen and the sitting room. He had a cheese block and a cracker in his hand, and he smiled at Hermione as he popped the piece in his mouth.
Looking around at her merry band of misfits, Hermione felt more certain than ever that she could do this…that they could do this.