She had to focus on the numbers below, but her mind would cloud and furl. Sending a quick note to Draco, she curls back under the blankets for anouther hour, vowing she would work diligently from home. However no matter which columns she combines, there was no evidence the galleons were being taken from the Zabini charity account to fund an alternative operation. Snape had been wrong, and that alone spread a smile on her face as she nuzzled into the cotton.
But the following day when she was to rub Snape's nose in the dirt, he had not come to work. But that following day, a new development appeared.
"Look here, two blows in the head- front and back. Vincent Crabbe only fell forward, so the back blow was delivered before." Harry says.
"Assulted and then tossed into the Portkey to frame it as a murder? I'd have to double check the symbols from the Hemogauge analysis again and maybe forensics could help match it with a weapon."
"He owns the marina," Snape interrupts
"You think we will find the weapon in the marina?" Hermione asks.
"I imagine Zabooni is not so imaginative and I'm sure he visits the place often judging by the amount of gear in his rooms."
She mentioned the marina in her notes the night at the Club with Pansy. The fact he had read them, despite his constant critiques of her having her nose in the paper was quite sweet.
"I enjoy reading for…leisure."
Sombre waves slushed at the wooden blocks beneath the docks. If there was a benefit to working with Snape, it was his consistent desire to plow through without politesse or question. They found themselves at the edge of finding a new clue.
"You weren't at work yesterday?" she asks, breaking the silence.
"I had a commitment." He caught up his pace with her. "It's in line with-. The reason I was sent back here."
"Devil's Business?"
He agreed.
"If you're still considering the theory of the roses being from myself, then I'm sorry to disappoint you. I'm not a romantic."
Hermione plowed the gravel with her toes as the keeper approached them with a wave. "You took a while to tell me the truth for someone with a clean conscience."
"I was curious to see how events would plie out. On a more serious note, you were framed," he quickly added, sensing her disappointment.
"A ridiculous theory. Who would want to frame me?"
The keeper of the marina approached and the checkers on his shirt dried like flags after a summer rainfall.
"Top of the morning to ya. What boat can I fetch a lovely yun couple?"
Perhaps it was too bright today for the flash of her badge, which normally set her intentions clear, but the man was all to eager to ignore it in hopes of suggesting a boat for them.
"We have a warrant to examine your storage."
"My storage? I keep my bases clean and kept ma'am, but yeh can definitely take a look.'"
Ginny would have enjoyed the place. Harry rolled his eyes as she suggested going for an underwater sightseeing tour in Bermuda with complete seriousness. The entire storage was exactly as the Autralian suggested: clean and kept. The snorklers in a labeled box. Some light from the shed blocks seeping through the window. Hermione spelled a light: Snape and his new mate keeping conversation behind her. He was sucking on the Marmite lolly. She had scolded him – what if it had been poisoned, but Snape assured her that wouldn't kill him if it tried to.
"Can't see past my nose," Snape says as he lifted some container with his toe.
The Australian flicked his fingers and the bulbs suspended on tethering ropes plieed along the racks with scuba gear. A coldness struck Hermione's ankle as she punctured down.
"Fillobies- nasty little grub. Been keepin' em out with some pickled ArrowRoot, but they keep comin' in with the waters, ya know?" He zapped whatever had been clinging in the darkness.
"Anything large enough in here to blast a wizard's head in two?" Snape asked.
"Mate, the whole place could be used that way in the 'rong hands. Look 'ere at these tanks. These babies could knock yeh out cold if yeh got a pinch on some 'n."
'What if that pinch was Gonzole. Any sight of him or Zabooni in the past two weeks?" Hermione approach them. "Anything that they borrowed?"
The Australian cleared his throat. "Zabooni? Gonzole? I 'ave too many visiters comin' to keep track of 'em all-"
"-try to."
The Australian twisted and twisted like the ropes in the back. He mentioned there had been a breech in the security wards the day before the murder of Curt Gonzole. A group of rickity youths, doing some Hooch by the whites. One of the Luminators had gone missed that night, probably because of some nasty little joke they were plieing on him for not letting him rent out the boats for a stag party. They had not been found since and neither had the device. He then had a hearty laugh with Snape and offered him some more Marmites for the journey back.
"I want a coke," Hermione fumbled with the jacket, now sweating profusely and charmed it to fit in her pocket. "Can we walk to the gas station down the road? I thinks he mentioned one in the area."
"Haven't had the Muggle drink since the 70's. They still put them in those glass bottles?"
"Cans." Gods, she kept forgetting how old he was. And at the same time, Snape had not aged a day past thirty-something. His own overcoat tucked over his shoulder. She charmed it to the size of a galleon and he snapped it into his blue collared shirt.
"What about the Devil's business?"
The twisted asphalt winded upwards through the grassy English meadows. Small pickets with metal lined the dangerous curve towards the water and the Marina below. Two silver cars zipped past them as they climbed.
"Had I understood it myself, I would have told you. But Satan is not very clear in his intentions."
Neither was Snape. Just a week before, they had been on good terms and now the curved explainations and unspeaksn secrets set them back. Perhaps Snape had been right in keeping his distance. He was not her friend and will not become him. He likely found her annoying to a fault and was helping her until she could hand over the memories. But he had been a great help and Hermione would miss his very useful advice when Draco was back.
The gas station had not changed much from her youth. The red and white canopy and little gas plugs smelled like petrol and the cool fridges stocked with colored bottles- a driver's oasis on a summer's day. She reached to pay for two, but took it back and counted out the galleons for her own bottle of dark fuzzing sweetness.
No leads at all today. She had stayed up planning all the possible weapons that could have been used by Blake and their own indication of a crime was some smokers in the back of the marina. The keeper could have been to lie, for all she knew the youths could have been Blake and his men. On the way out, she eyed a packet of chocolatines. Her fingers curled the tips of the little bag. One couldn't hurt, after all, no one cared about her. She and that pack of chocolate- no one would notice if they were gone. But she would know that she'd done something extraordinarily powerful.
The shop keeper stuck his nose into a Sudoku. She reached her fingers down the foil and brought it to the back pocket. That rush of adrenaline filling her veins. Wonderful. The only success she would ever feel in her life. Years of training and studying leading to some flimsy job as a cataloguer when she could have been out there solving real crimes like Harry . Only she wasn't Harry . She was the mudblood, stealing from some gas station in the middle of nowhere. She wouldn't do it- she wouldn't succumb. She had to take back her own power over her life.
She surged as Snape's hands grasped her and the decision was made. The packet fell to the floor and he with it. The glass windows shattered one by one. She cast a shield to block the shards.
"Let's go!"
Hermione had to see who was attacking them. Her cover in place, she crept away from Snape and leans again the rack. Wand at the ready and her every breath giving her away. Then the sharp pain of glass stinging every part of her body as she fires back into the air. She made her way to the door, but the figure had disappeared. She stands for anouther moment before apparating back to the base. It took her moments to realize that the demon had not come with. Had he been caught. She flashed back to the red and saw him stumbling out of the building.