I learned how to juggle!
Hey everyone! I'm back from camping. I really had a wonderful time! Rock climbing, canoeing, and hiking really does wonders for the spirit. I also saw Signs. I was a great movie on every level. Highly recommended. I also recommend xXx with Vin Diesel, because a major bridge in my town, Auburn CA, is in the opening sequence. It's called the Foresthill Bridge. Vin jumps off it with his car, which he later parachutes out of. YAY! Fun stuff. I really hope you all haven't given up on the story (I was only gone for a week!) and I hope this chapter is greatly esteemed (a la` Sense and Sensibility) I also encourage you all to pray if you haven't lately. (Your) God is reaching out to you.
As Hermione took Snape's hand her heart was racing to a staccato beat. She didn't know how he would react, but when he held her hand back, and he didn't pull away she knew that nothing had changed.
"Hello Professor Snape."
Snape's face curled into a grimace as he answered.
"Maybe you could warn me next time you are to come Miss Granger. Of course, just because you didn't say anything, didn't mean I wasn't aware you were there."
In his head Snape continued the finished sentence, "I just didn't believe it."
Hearing Hermione chuckle, Snape knew she didn't take his face seriously. No surprise. Just because he looked angry didn't mean he sounded it. His mood was positively ecstatic at her visit, and it could be heard in his speech. He could almost imagine the smile on her sixteen year-old face.
"But she isn't sixteen anymore." Snape thought to himself in amazement. "She probably looks totally different." He couldn't believe that he didn't know what she looked like. Being blind still surprised him sometimes.
Hermione spoke again.
"Maybe we should go to lunch. I am a bit hungry, if you don't mind."
At the thought of sandwiches Snape wrinkled his nose, but obligingly released Hermione's hand and replaced it with his cane. Heading down the drafty passages towards the Great Hall he was once again consumed by his thoughts. He wondered why she had come. He couldn't convince himself it was only to see him. She must have some sort of business with McGonagall or Dumbledore. He wondered what it was.
"When did you arrive Miss Granger?"
Hermione relaxed at finally hearing his voice again. She knew that Snape probably found the silence companionable, but it was beginning to make her uncomfortable. Funny, she thought she should probably be used to silence by now. Nobody had really had a conversation with her in many weeks. Still, maybe it was the environment. No one was ever quiet in Hogwarts, as was evidenced by the students swarming around them all in loud conversations. A few looked up as Snape and Hermione passed. Some nudged and whispered, others who were older, recognized Hermione and waved hello.
"Just about a half hour ago."
As she said this they entered the Great Hall and walked towards the staff table. Nervously Hermione eyed the occupied seats. She wasn't quite comfortable sitting at the Head Table, and she fought the urge to sit down in a vacant seat near some Gryffindor first years. As they approached the table, Professor Flitwick spotted them and happily gasped, obviously at a loss for words. McGonagall, noticing Flitwick, looked around for the source of his excitement, with a slightly perturbed look on her face. At spotting Hermione standing next to Snape she unwillingly mimicked Flitwick, clapping her hands in surprise and bustled over to them with motherly abandon. Reaching Hermione, she pulled her into an unabashed hug talking a bit too loudly in a delighted tone.
"Hermione! Why haven't you written me to tell me you were to come? Oh of course you've been busy my girl, Transfiguration is very difficult and requires dedication. I always knew…"
As McGonagall rambled along this slightly smug thread, Hermione glanced over her shoulder to a grinning Dumbledore, and returned his smile shyly. However long she'd known the man, she was still humbled (though not uncomfortable) in his presence. Turning back to McGonagall Hermione cleared her throat slightly. Stopping mid sentence, McGonagall looked around, and noticing the sniggering student faces around her quickly straightened her robes, returning to her strict and unruffled self almost instantly.
"Excuse me Miss Bean, but what are you looking at. Get back to your lunch. You too Miss Tonelli." She turned to Hermione and took her arm, continuing stuffily. "Honestly these children, losing all respect these days."
Walking alongside McGonagall, Hermione looked around for Snape and saw him already taking his seat. Nodding a curt hello at Dumbledore while muttering words Hermione could not hear, he bent his head over his plate so that his hair fell over his face. Hermione continued to watch him as she sat beside him, his nose wrinkling once again. As she had gotten closer, she could hear Dumbledore's reply to what Snape had said.
"…house elves. They have been given the opportunity to rest for a few weeks. I asked them to make uncomplicated meals all day, but all I could argue to was lunch. They seemed quiet adamant to do their best at all times, so they've decided that sandwiches for lunch is rest enough for them. Though…" Dumbledore lifted a dainty sandwich close to his eyes and studied it over his bifocals, "I daresay that by the looks of these sandwiches, they took all day to prepare. Do you agree Miss Granger?"
Blushing, Hermione smiled a full-mouthed smile, quickly swallowed and responded that she agreed.
Snape sniffed.
"To me, looks are nothing. No matter how complicated, they are still sandwiches nonetheless. Accio grapes."
From one of the nearby fruit bowls a bunch of grapes zoomed into Snape's open hand. Snape sat back in his chair and indignantly popped one into his mouth, settling the rest of the bunch down onto his plate.
Giving Snape a quick squeeze on the shoulder, Dumbledore's attention turned back to Hermione.
"So Miss Granger, I expected no less of you then to arrive as soon as you could. I'm also not surprised that you went to Professor Snape first. Severus, what do you think about…"
Hurriedly Hermione shook her head to signal that she hadn't yet told Snape the news and Dumbledore switched threads immediately.
" Miss Granger coming to visit."
"I am pleasantly surprised. It is unfortunate that I will be seeing so little of her. No doubt that she will be throwing herself into whatever task you or McGonagall has assigned her." He said this sarcastically and no one around him missed the "sentimental" innuendo that he used.
Dumbledore's eyes twinkled.
"What makes you believe that she has come here for any reason other than to visit you?"
Of course Dumbledore knew that Snape didn't esteem himself highly enough to believe that anyone would want to visit him. I made him happy to see Snape so uncomfortable at this. He was fighting with his own emotions.
Snape's mind was racing. He couldn't believe what Dumbledore had said. He knew though that it must be true, because if it wasn't McGonagall would have probably been bragging long before Hermione had arrived. He tried to ignore the feelings tugging at his heart.
She came to see him.
Luckily Dumbledore didn't expect an answer, and he continued. "Would you care to accompany Miss Granger to her quarters, and help her with any unpacking she may need to do?"
"If need be."
Hermione was grateful to Dumbledore for giving her this chance to talk to Snape alone. She could never tell him the news at the staff table in front of all of the other teachers, who were now all asking Hermione about her University experiences. She hastily informed a smirking Professor Sprout that the University Herbology professor didn't hold a candle to her knowledge of Plurssing Plant pruning, and told Professor Sinistra of the new stars recently added to the Astronomical Database of Heavenly Bodies with Magical Properties. Quickly lunch was over, and after thanking Dumbledore for taking over his classes, Snape led Hermione out of the Great Hall and towards her quarters, which were near to Snape's own.
"Not very many rooms are available at the moment with the exception of student dorms and 'dungeon suites'. Here we are.'"
Snape muttered a password, "aquacia colora", and a heavy stone door swung in to reveal a room that made Hermione catch her breath. The stone floor ended at the hallway and in the room, turned into plush black-navy carpet. The room just inside seemed to be a sitting room. Overstuffed, silvery-white chairs, framed by mahogany lion's feet arm rests and legs stood around a bare coffee table, close to an unlit fireplace. On the stone walls were bookcases devoid of books and pictures that moved as much as any others in the castle. Most showed shadowy forest landscapes, but one showed a lonely looking witch sitting in a field of blue flowers at night, who immediately sprang to life and followed Hermione into the next room, waving wildly, from frame to frame.
The next room was a bedroom with the same thick carpet, and same mahogany furniture, including dressers, a desk, and a chest at the foot of the bed. Hermione gasped when she saw the bed. It was huge! The high mattress surrounded by a mahogany bed frame a heavy canopy, magically printed with the likeness of a forest at night. The trees stood before a background of twinkling stars and moonlight filtered through gaps in their branches onto the leaf-littered forest floor. Hermione gasped once again as a deer silently bounded between the trees, near the base of the canopy, stirring a white owl from it's hiding place. As Hermione watched, the owl preened its feathers and once again disappeared into the dense thicket. Leaving the bedroom, she glanced into the room she hadn't yet seen and it was a bathroom as elegantly furnished as either of the other rooms, complete with towels, and a very large bath.
She reentered the sitting room to find Snape standing just inside the doorway with an uncomfortable look on his face.
"Come inside Professor. You can't expect to help me unpack from there."
With obvious reluctance Snape walked into the room and stood, waiting for instruction.
"Oh relax Professor. You came to help me unpack. It isn't as if you are intruding into my personal rooms."
"Like you did to my own?" Snape asked with biting sarcasm. Hermione ignored him and continued.
"These rooms are beautiful by the way. Have they always been like this?"
"Since I have worked here Miss Granger, and probably long before." He moved to a nearby chair and sat down, his arms crossed. "Many of these rooms are furnished with objects from the time of the founders. I believe the name for these rooms is the Night Quarters."
"Which is fitting in my opinion." Hermione said with a sigh, and sat in the chair next to Snape.
They sat in silence for a few moments until Hermione spoke up again.
"What have you been doing since we talked last Professor?"
Snape adjusted in the chair and rested his chin on his hand. He had obviously calmed a bit, since his words were spoken evenly and thoughtfully.
"As is usual, I have been teaching. Thankfully, Runes is interesting enough, though every day I spend with these incompetent dunderheads is wearing me thinner."
"As is usual."
"I can't argue. I have been doing more reading. Mostly checking books out of the library and using Braille. I went through most of the books in my personal collection quickly, and most more than once. History of magic, magical lore, astronomy, almost any subject available."
Hermione knew without asking what the almost referred to. Potions depressed him, and Arithmacy scared him. It was hard to imagine Snape being afraid of anything, he had never really been afraid of even Voldemort, just despised him. But Hermione surmised that maybe instead of fear, Snape felt hate. He couldn't hate Arithmacy, because it had done him so much good, but he feared it because he couldn't control it. Hermione could relate.
"And the garden?" Hermione inquired.
"Winter is almost here. I've already cut back the old growth. There is nothing left to do with it. I miss working in it sometimes."
"Can we go see it?" Hermione's eagerness was betrayed by her voice. She couldn't wait to see the garden again. It held so many good memories, and so many emotions were attached to it. She wanted to tell Snape her news there. It just seemed to fit.
"If you want to. I warn you though that it isn't in its most beautiful of states."
Hermione smiled a knowing smile. Snape was defensive of his garden, and she knew it would annoy him to no end if she thought he had let it fall into disrepair again. "It wasn't when I first saw it either, but I still went back to it and I still want to see it now. Should we go then?"
When they stepped out into the crisp September air, into the garden, Hermione's nerves were instantly calmed. As she had walked there with Snape her happiness at telling Snape of the cure was replaced by a tenseness in her shoulders and an unfounded feeling of worry. But as she walked towards their usual bench led by Snape and his cane, her worries melted away and as she sat into the bench that seemed to mold to her back perfectly, her shoulders released. Snape continued to walk past the bench and towards the only non-brown plant in the garden, which was actually flowering. With grace, he used his hand to feel for an opened blossom, and then plucked it carefully from it's stem. He walked back to Hermione and handed the flower to her.
"It's a Glacia I obtained from Professor Sprout. They are very difficult to care for and they flourish in the cold. It is the only plant here that does so. I planted the bulb this summer. Feel the flower."
Hermione gently stroked the clear-white petal with her finger and pulled it back with surprise. The blossom was ice cold.
"It's beautiful."
Snape smirked with obvious pride.
"That isn't all." Reaching towards Hermione, he took the flower again and walked to a different part of the garden. Bending down, he felt for a trough and dug a hole, with difficulty, in a patch of frozen, bare earth. He placed the flower carefully in the hole, which he then recovered.
"What do you see?"
Hermione looked at the patch of freshly dug earth, which was already frosting over in the September cold.
"I don't see anything"
Snape sighed loudly.
"Well come here and look closer then!"
Hurrying over to stand next to Snape Hermione crouched down to look closer, brushing her unruly hair out of her eyes.
In an instant she saw a small seedling pop out of the earth.
"It regenerated."
"Yes it did. It is very easy to procure a regeneration of a Glacia. In fact many wizards prefer them. They grow extremely quickly and become tougher by regeneration. They also lose their magical properties unfortunately, but of course grow no less beautiful. What makes a true, original Glacia so rare is the fact that Glacia bulbs can only be procured from an original Glacia, and there are probably less than twelve of those in existence today."
Hermione stood in awe as the little Glacia seedling sprouted two more leaves before her eyes.
"It will probably be mature within two hours. Would you like to watch?"
"Yes!" Hermione responded eagerly. "Of course!"
So they sat for two hours. They talked of the magical properties of an original Glacia and discussed other plants new to the garden, as Hermione watched in amazement as the plant grew in fast forward. By the time the plant had reached maturity the sun was beginning to set and Hermione knew it was time to tell Snape.
This was the best day Snape could remember ever having. The surprise of her arriving would have been enough, but the fact that she had come to see him, that she had sat with him in the garden, and that they had talked for hours was like a cake on top of the icing. He couldn't imagine anything more. He sat in contented silence as he felt the warmth of the sun leaving his face, as the sun set. It grew colder, but neither Snape, nor Hermione noticed.
"Snape, you know I've been working this year at the University."
"How couldn't I? Minerva has been gloating all year that you have you own office there for your work with Transfiguration."
"She didn't tell you what I was doing in the office."
"No she didn't."
"Because I didn't tell her."
Snape snorted. "Intelligent decision."
"I've been working with Transfiguration of course… and also with potions."
Snape frowned at this and shifted his seat.
"I have been looking for ways to use them in correlation with each other. I created many new tranfigurative formulas, and innumerable potions. I was looking for a certain match, I needed to create a certain magical bond."
"Extremely ambitious of you, not to mention very difficult. What was all of it for?"
Hermione paused here. It was at this moment, that time stopped. At this moment, that her breathing ceased, as did her heartbeat.
"I was…"
Snape sat in silence expectantly, yet unexpecting.
"I was trying to find a cure" She swallowed, "for your blindness."
"But you didn't succeed." Snape said, still not turning in Hermione's direction.
"I did."
Snape's entire body suddenly became aware of how cold it was outside, and he clenched his fingers. "It is pretty cold out here." he thought to himself. "We should probably be going inside soon."
"I was trying to find a cure for your blindness."
The hairs on the nape of Snape's neck stood up, and he knew it wasn't from the cold.
"But you didn't succeed."
"She couldn't have." He thought to himself, shaking his head slightly.
"I did."
Snape turned to face Hermione and was silent for but a moment before getting jarringly to his feet.
"I can't believe you."
Grabbing his cane he made his way towards the doorway into the castle, and to the stairway. He couldn't block out the pleading voice of Hermione behind him.
"Severus!"
He shook away the pain at hearing her call his name.
"I won't believe you!"
Hermione stood and ran after Snape, who was now also running, regardless of his cane. He was heading for Dumbledore's office.
When he skidded in front of the place he knew Dumbledore's office to be, he said the password, and was rewarded by the sound of the stone gargoyle scraping over the stone, revealing the passageway behind. Almost tripping down the steps he finally reached Dumbledore's office door, which he barged through without knocking and locked magically behind him. He heard steps coming down the stairs.
"Severus, what are you doing here?" Dumbledore rose with a worried look on his face, from his chair at his desk.
Snape stood before the desk and gripped the edge of it as he leaned over. He spoke between deep gasps, trying to catch his breath.
"Miss Granger… Hermione… says… she has found… a cure for me. It can't… be true."
Hurrying around the desk Dumbledore forced Snape into a chair and conjured him a glass of water, which Snape pushed away.
"Did she tell you this?" He asked angrily. "Did she?"
"Yes she did Severus, and I have no reason not to believe her."
At this point in time, the office door slammed open after a cry of "alohomora" and Hermione stood in the doorway, breathing sharply, and staring with a look of anger at Snape.
"How dare you?" she yelled, her face turning red, "I tell you I've found a cure and you…"
"Ah Hermione, how glad I am that you've joined us. Please, please take a seat."
He said this with a smile and a steely glint in his eye that made Hermione shut her mouth automatically and take a seat next to Snape. She grabbed the glass of water that Snape had pushed away and drained it in about three gulps. Dumbledore conjured her another, which she pushed away. She was starting to feel quite sick.
"As I was saying Severus, yes, Hermione believes she has found a cure. She told me about it just a few days ago, but asked me not to speak with you about it. She wanted to tell you herself. Do you not trust her word?"
"I do." Snape said, "But it just can't be true." He spoke these words with a pleading expression.
"It is." Hermione whispered, taking Snape's hand in her own.
"It is," continued Dumbledore sternly, but with a small smile. "So the question whether or not you choose a cure."
Snape listened with ears that couldn't hear, and spoke his next word with a mouth that couldn't speak. All he knew was the hand on his own, firm and warm, gripping tightly, like a bond from darkness to light.
"Yes."
With this he released Hermione's hand and left Dumbledore's office, closing the door behind him.
Hermione just looked at Dumbledore, her mouth slightly open, until she heard a triumphant yell from the top of the stairwell.
At this she dissolved into happy tears and Dumbledore patted her hand.
Author's Note: I just wanted to say that Snape's outburst was derived from canon. His emotions right then are the exact opposite (yet strikingly similar) to those at the end of POA. Instead of immense disappointment, he is feeling extreme triumph. Situation different, reaction similar. I like to think Snape responds similarly to all severe emotional ups and downs. He goes nuts. Maybe since he usually suffers downs he doesn't know any other way to respond.