"Headmaster."
One word. It wasn't a question. It wasn't a statement. It wasn't even a plea.
It was an accusation.
All eyes turned to gaze at the potion master, who appeared to have regained his equilibrium and was quickly becoming furious. White-knuckled furious. Harry didn't know what was happening between the Headmaster and Snape, but the electricity crackling between the two of them on the Head Table's platform was nearly visible.
"Severus," the older wizard calmly replied.
"You knew."
Harry and Ron exchanged confused glances. Dumbledore opened his mouth to explain, but was cut off by the potions master.
"No, Albus. No excuses or sugary stories today. You knew she was coming back to Hogwarts," snapped Snape. "And you didn't tell any of us. We've been frantic for years - months. Mr. Potter. Mr. Weasley. Minerva. Me."
"I hoped she would return to our time, yes. And the silence was necessary, as I was not entirely convinced of the certainty Hermione would ever return. But, I did have an inkling that she would return to us sometime this year, Severus," admitted Dumbledore, softly and with a hint of sadness. "Severus. The ethics of time tr-"
Snape had spent the last few moments stalking to Dumbledore's position at the front of the platform. He moved within inches of his prey's face and spat:
"Ethics? Ethics! How can you -"
"Severus, please." Dumbledore placed a comforting hand on the fuming man's shoulder, only to have it swatted away with enough force to nearly cause the old wizard to stumble.
"Bastard."
Snape didn't hear the collective gasp from those who remained in the Hall. He turned and stormed from the room, pausing only to nod briefly at Harry and Ron. He passed through the Hall's double doors and with a flourish of his wand, slammed them.
And in the silence that followed, all eyes turned to Dumbledore.
***
WHAM!
The door to the Headmaster's office slammed shut, causing Fawkes to startle and take flight and several flasks of odd and old potions to crash from the shelves to the floor. The potions hissed softly - the only sound in the room besides a man's heavy breathing.
"Ah, Severus, I wondered when you would visit me this evening," said Dumbledore with a soft smile. "I had guessed that tonight's Sorting would be a difficult one for you. I would offer you a lemon drop, but I believe you may need something stronger. Brandy? Whiskey?"
"No."
The two men stared at each other in silence. Dumbledore settled himself comfortably behind his desk and waited for Snape to speak.
"Severus?"
"You. Knew."
Dumbledore looked over the rim of his glasses at the man in front of him: a man with a violent past who was obviously trying very hard to keep his temper in check.
"Yes, Severus. I knew. I, after all, sent her the Hogwarts letter. I knew she would be starting school here this fall," Dumbledore said, his admission earning him a glare. "I am sorry, Severus. There are certain ethics and questions involved with the manipulation of time. She and I studied her mysterious travels at length and could never quite fathom how she was sent back in time. Nor do I know where she went when she disappeared again so many years ago. Someday, perhaps Hermione herself will be able to answer that question."
Dumbledore sighed, conjured a glass of whiskey and pressed it into Snape's hand. Snape tossed it back and handed the Headmaster the glass without a word - and fighting the desire to hex the old wizard into a different time or dimension.
"You are supposed to meet her again, Severus. You are supposed to teach her and her friends. Hermione will be here for the next few years. In her seventh year, she will disappear. And you will carry on as if you know nothing. If you don't, who knows what that could do to the time line," said Dumbledore. "So you see, my boy, I could not tell you and risk you leaving Hogwarts this year. Again, for that, I am sorry."
Snape suddenly appeared unable to maintain his anger and slumped into one of the chairs before the fireplace. He turned his head away from the Headmaster's gaze and stared into the flames.
"She's eleven-years-old, Albus," he bitterly choked out.
"Yes."
"And I am supposed to teach her."
"Yes."
"Teach my - wife."
"Yes."
"For the next six years. Just waiting for the other shoe to drop. For her to vanish. For this whole crazy circle to somehow complete itself."
"Yes."
"And I'm supposed to act as if nothing is amiss."
"Yes."
Silence ruled the room as Snape's lingering anger and resentment turned to frustration and then to hopelessness.
"How, Albus?" he whispered. "How can I do this?"
The old wizard pulled a photo of a smiling Hermione and Severus sitting on the steps of Hogwarts from his desk and handed it to the younger man. Snape took the photo with shaking hands.
"Because you love her, Severus," replied Dumbledore. "You can do it because you love her."
Minutes passed as Snape and Dumbledore looked silently at the photo. Standing, Snape straightened his robes.
"I need to get back to the dungeons. Excuse me, Headmaster."
With a soft snap, the door to the Headmaster's office closed, leaving a very worried wizard standing quietly, contemplating and sucking on a lemon drop.
***
Dumbledore walked softly across the platform and to the chair Snape had overturned, setting it to rights. He sighed and gazed over his glasses at the stunned group of people alternately staring at him and at the doors through which the potions master had stormed.
"When Hermione vanished three months ago, many of us on staff knew what happened to her, however, we were unable to share the information with you," began Dumbledore, ignoring the sounds of protest coming from Harry and Ron. "Hermione was transported somehow - we do not yet know how - into the past. More precisely, Hogwarts of 1979. And yes, before you ask, she did know many of your parents and I'm sure she will love to share stories with you once she recovers and has time to adjust."
"Hermione spent nearly three years with us in the past," Dumbledore continued. "She completed her seventh year with spectacular NEWTS. She fell in love with one of her classmates and married him the fall after they left school."
A murmur rose through the ranks as they began to assimilate the information that Hermione was not only back, but she was suddenly an adult and married. Harry blinked; trying to comprehend what was three months to them was really nearly three years to Hermione. It didn't register. He vaguely wondered if it ever would.
"Hermione is married?" Ron asked, a blank look on his face. "She married one of her classmates? Um, Professor -- She's not one of our long-lost moms or anything, is she?"
Dumbledore smiled. Then he twinkled. Then he gave in and laughed.
"No, Mr. Weasley, you can rest easily knowing you did not spend part of your sixth year kissing your long-lost mother in the common room," he said. "It truly should be their story to tell, however, to keep the rumor mill from completely going into overdrive, I will tell you one of Hermione's secrets from the past. The other, I'm afraid, is hers alone to tell."
"Hermione is married to Professor Snape."
With that declaration, a thud echoed through the Great Hall as Ronald Weasley passed out and crashed to the floor.
***
Click.
The door to the infirmary closed rather louder than Snape had planned. He had spent the past twenty minutes pacing the corridors of Hogwarts and had somehow found himself outside the Hospital Wing. This is crazy, he chided himself. The woman I've missed for seventeen years is in there and I'm standing out here like a prat. He went inside and looked around cautiously.
"Who is there?" called Madam Pomfrey. "Headmaster?"
"No, Poppy. It's me," said Snape. "May I please see her?"
Pomfrey didn't answer and simply held out her hand to the distraught professor. He took it and she led him to the last row of metal beds. Hermione. She was pale and asleep. He looked questioningly at her.
"Is she all right, Poppy?" he said, softly so as to not wake his slumbering wife.
"She'll be fine, Severus," she said. "The trip back was a bit difficult. I told her years ago not to risk any traveling with a time turner, but she apparently wouldn't listen."
"What? A time turner? Poppy, what are you talking about? She had a time turner?"
"She had charmed a time turner so that she could briefly visit the future - now - and check on you, Severus. She planned to slip in, and slip back out unnoticed. Apparently, she wasn't meant to return to the past as she has been discovered. And I can't risk sending her back. I do, however, believe she meant to return home that night, Severus. I'm sorry I could not tell you before. We couldn't risk you attempting to - well, it was just too risky."
Snape nodded and looked at Hermione for several minutes. Then he took her hand.
"Poppy, if we send her back to the moment she left -" he began hopefully.
"We can't do that and you know it. Besides altering the time line, there's her health to consider. Gods, Severus, I don't know what is the right thing to do. There's a reason I don't use a time turner regularly." The mediwitch smiled grimly. "But we cannot send her back. There's a valid reason for that, but that is Hermione's story to tell you."
"She wanted to check on my future self? Why would she have to?" he said, a bit bitterly. "She knew how the future would turn out. Even though she neglected to fill me in on that bit of information."
Hermione shifted in her sleep. Pomfrey ran her wand briskly over Hermione and nodded in satisfaction. She smiled at Snape and handed him a vial of potion.
"Drink it, it will help you relax. Hermione had hoped that her trip to the past had changed your future. That she would find you all happy and a family and you wouldn't have become -" Pomfrey stopped, not sure how to best word the offensive phrase.
"She hoped that I hadn't become a Death Eater," Snape said bluntly, sitting down the empty potions vial.
"Yes."
"I see," said Snape. "Well, then she will be disappointed."
tbc
One word. It wasn't a question. It wasn't a statement. It wasn't even a plea.
It was an accusation.
All eyes turned to gaze at the potion master, who appeared to have regained his equilibrium and was quickly becoming furious. White-knuckled furious. Harry didn't know what was happening between the Headmaster and Snape, but the electricity crackling between the two of them on the Head Table's platform was nearly visible.
"Severus," the older wizard calmly replied.
"You knew."
Harry and Ron exchanged confused glances. Dumbledore opened his mouth to explain, but was cut off by the potions master.
"No, Albus. No excuses or sugary stories today. You knew she was coming back to Hogwarts," snapped Snape. "And you didn't tell any of us. We've been frantic for years - months. Mr. Potter. Mr. Weasley. Minerva. Me."
"I hoped she would return to our time, yes. And the silence was necessary, as I was not entirely convinced of the certainty Hermione would ever return. But, I did have an inkling that she would return to us sometime this year, Severus," admitted Dumbledore, softly and with a hint of sadness. "Severus. The ethics of time tr-"
Snape had spent the last few moments stalking to Dumbledore's position at the front of the platform. He moved within inches of his prey's face and spat:
"Ethics? Ethics! How can you -"
"Severus, please." Dumbledore placed a comforting hand on the fuming man's shoulder, only to have it swatted away with enough force to nearly cause the old wizard to stumble.
"Bastard."
Snape didn't hear the collective gasp from those who remained in the Hall. He turned and stormed from the room, pausing only to nod briefly at Harry and Ron. He passed through the Hall's double doors and with a flourish of his wand, slammed them.
And in the silence that followed, all eyes turned to Dumbledore.
***
WHAM!
The door to the Headmaster's office slammed shut, causing Fawkes to startle and take flight and several flasks of odd and old potions to crash from the shelves to the floor. The potions hissed softly - the only sound in the room besides a man's heavy breathing.
"Ah, Severus, I wondered when you would visit me this evening," said Dumbledore with a soft smile. "I had guessed that tonight's Sorting would be a difficult one for you. I would offer you a lemon drop, but I believe you may need something stronger. Brandy? Whiskey?"
"No."
The two men stared at each other in silence. Dumbledore settled himself comfortably behind his desk and waited for Snape to speak.
"Severus?"
"You. Knew."
Dumbledore looked over the rim of his glasses at the man in front of him: a man with a violent past who was obviously trying very hard to keep his temper in check.
"Yes, Severus. I knew. I, after all, sent her the Hogwarts letter. I knew she would be starting school here this fall," Dumbledore said, his admission earning him a glare. "I am sorry, Severus. There are certain ethics and questions involved with the manipulation of time. She and I studied her mysterious travels at length and could never quite fathom how she was sent back in time. Nor do I know where she went when she disappeared again so many years ago. Someday, perhaps Hermione herself will be able to answer that question."
Dumbledore sighed, conjured a glass of whiskey and pressed it into Snape's hand. Snape tossed it back and handed the Headmaster the glass without a word - and fighting the desire to hex the old wizard into a different time or dimension.
"You are supposed to meet her again, Severus. You are supposed to teach her and her friends. Hermione will be here for the next few years. In her seventh year, she will disappear. And you will carry on as if you know nothing. If you don't, who knows what that could do to the time line," said Dumbledore. "So you see, my boy, I could not tell you and risk you leaving Hogwarts this year. Again, for that, I am sorry."
Snape suddenly appeared unable to maintain his anger and slumped into one of the chairs before the fireplace. He turned his head away from the Headmaster's gaze and stared into the flames.
"She's eleven-years-old, Albus," he bitterly choked out.
"Yes."
"And I am supposed to teach her."
"Yes."
"Teach my - wife."
"Yes."
"For the next six years. Just waiting for the other shoe to drop. For her to vanish. For this whole crazy circle to somehow complete itself."
"Yes."
"And I'm supposed to act as if nothing is amiss."
"Yes."
Silence ruled the room as Snape's lingering anger and resentment turned to frustration and then to hopelessness.
"How, Albus?" he whispered. "How can I do this?"
The old wizard pulled a photo of a smiling Hermione and Severus sitting on the steps of Hogwarts from his desk and handed it to the younger man. Snape took the photo with shaking hands.
"Because you love her, Severus," replied Dumbledore. "You can do it because you love her."
Minutes passed as Snape and Dumbledore looked silently at the photo. Standing, Snape straightened his robes.
"I need to get back to the dungeons. Excuse me, Headmaster."
With a soft snap, the door to the Headmaster's office closed, leaving a very worried wizard standing quietly, contemplating and sucking on a lemon drop.
***
Dumbledore walked softly across the platform and to the chair Snape had overturned, setting it to rights. He sighed and gazed over his glasses at the stunned group of people alternately staring at him and at the doors through which the potions master had stormed.
"When Hermione vanished three months ago, many of us on staff knew what happened to her, however, we were unable to share the information with you," began Dumbledore, ignoring the sounds of protest coming from Harry and Ron. "Hermione was transported somehow - we do not yet know how - into the past. More precisely, Hogwarts of 1979. And yes, before you ask, she did know many of your parents and I'm sure she will love to share stories with you once she recovers and has time to adjust."
"Hermione spent nearly three years with us in the past," Dumbledore continued. "She completed her seventh year with spectacular NEWTS. She fell in love with one of her classmates and married him the fall after they left school."
A murmur rose through the ranks as they began to assimilate the information that Hermione was not only back, but she was suddenly an adult and married. Harry blinked; trying to comprehend what was three months to them was really nearly three years to Hermione. It didn't register. He vaguely wondered if it ever would.
"Hermione is married?" Ron asked, a blank look on his face. "She married one of her classmates? Um, Professor -- She's not one of our long-lost moms or anything, is she?"
Dumbledore smiled. Then he twinkled. Then he gave in and laughed.
"No, Mr. Weasley, you can rest easily knowing you did not spend part of your sixth year kissing your long-lost mother in the common room," he said. "It truly should be their story to tell, however, to keep the rumor mill from completely going into overdrive, I will tell you one of Hermione's secrets from the past. The other, I'm afraid, is hers alone to tell."
"Hermione is married to Professor Snape."
With that declaration, a thud echoed through the Great Hall as Ronald Weasley passed out and crashed to the floor.
***
Click.
The door to the infirmary closed rather louder than Snape had planned. He had spent the past twenty minutes pacing the corridors of Hogwarts and had somehow found himself outside the Hospital Wing. This is crazy, he chided himself. The woman I've missed for seventeen years is in there and I'm standing out here like a prat. He went inside and looked around cautiously.
"Who is there?" called Madam Pomfrey. "Headmaster?"
"No, Poppy. It's me," said Snape. "May I please see her?"
Pomfrey didn't answer and simply held out her hand to the distraught professor. He took it and she led him to the last row of metal beds. Hermione. She was pale and asleep. He looked questioningly at her.
"Is she all right, Poppy?" he said, softly so as to not wake his slumbering wife.
"She'll be fine, Severus," she said. "The trip back was a bit difficult. I told her years ago not to risk any traveling with a time turner, but she apparently wouldn't listen."
"What? A time turner? Poppy, what are you talking about? She had a time turner?"
"She had charmed a time turner so that she could briefly visit the future - now - and check on you, Severus. She planned to slip in, and slip back out unnoticed. Apparently, she wasn't meant to return to the past as she has been discovered. And I can't risk sending her back. I do, however, believe she meant to return home that night, Severus. I'm sorry I could not tell you before. We couldn't risk you attempting to - well, it was just too risky."
Snape nodded and looked at Hermione for several minutes. Then he took her hand.
"Poppy, if we send her back to the moment she left -" he began hopefully.
"We can't do that and you know it. Besides altering the time line, there's her health to consider. Gods, Severus, I don't know what is the right thing to do. There's a reason I don't use a time turner regularly." The mediwitch smiled grimly. "But we cannot send her back. There's a valid reason for that, but that is Hermione's story to tell you."
"She wanted to check on my future self? Why would she have to?" he said, a bit bitterly. "She knew how the future would turn out. Even though she neglected to fill me in on that bit of information."
Hermione shifted in her sleep. Pomfrey ran her wand briskly over Hermione and nodded in satisfaction. She smiled at Snape and handed him a vial of potion.
"Drink it, it will help you relax. Hermione had hoped that her trip to the past had changed your future. That she would find you all happy and a family and you wouldn't have become -" Pomfrey stopped, not sure how to best word the offensive phrase.
"She hoped that I hadn't become a Death Eater," Snape said bluntly, sitting down the empty potions vial.
"Yes."
"I see," said Snape. "Well, then she will be disappointed."
tbc