Disclaimers: Refer to Chapter One
When Living is No Longer Enough…
Chapter Eleven
Dinner the previous night had been strained. Hermione, for her part, sat at the table casting hell-hath-no-fury-like-a-woman-threatened glances in Snape's direction while Severus spent the better part of the meal keeping his gaze on his plate for fear he would see those glances and burst into laughter. An action, he decided, that would only serve to further fuel the young witch's anger. Of course he never had any intention of casting the Imperius but the opportunity to tease her was really just too good to pass up. It also served the additional purposes of temporarily taking her mind off of the student's deaths as well as forcing her to eat and look after her health. Something she had been known to dismiss on more than one occasion in the past.
Now, however, the potions master sat in his quarters waiting for her to arrive so they could begin researching their ideas in earnest. Absently swirling the last of the amber colored liquid in the clear glass he held in his hand, he stared into the flames flickering in the fireplace and thought back on the events of the past twenty-four hours. Being head of Slytherin, it fell to him to inform the members of his house about the deaths of the Head Boy and Head Girl as well as the deaths of the family members of the other Hogwarts students. There had been several questions and a lot of whispering amongst some of the Slytherins while a few of the seventh years didn't seem surprised or disturbed by the news at all. Those were the students he suspected of having either already taken the dark mark or being very close to doing so in the near future. 'Foolish children' he muttered to himself in disgust. Oddly enough, it wasn't these students that worried him most. It was Miss Saunton's reaction to the news that had set his internal alarms off and made him more convinced than ever that she would have to be closely watched. He would have been more at ease had the girl broken down and cried or shouted in anger or something that would have released the emotions she was obviously holding back at the news of Tara's death. Instead, she surreptitiously moved to the back of the group and remained silent while her complexion turned to that of paste and her eyes took on one of the most haunted and fearful looks Snape had ever seen. He knew that look and it scared him to see it on the face of someone so young. It was the look of a person who has lost all hope and knows the end is near. It was the look of futility and despair and in Severus' experience; such looks were usually followed by drastic actions.
The sound of knocking brought the Slytherin out of his musings. Setting the glass on a nearby table he released the wards and opened the door to see Hermione standing in front of him with an expression that was something between anger and wariness. Taking her cloak he stepped aside to allow her entrance into his quarters and motioned for her to have a seat. "Prompt as always, Professor," he said breaking the silence that had fallen over the room.
"I figured that promptness would be the most prudent course of action lest you actually decide to hex me after all," she replied tartly. Placing a small pile of books on the coffee table, she sat down on the sofa directly in front of the fire and stared expectantly at him.
"Hex you?" he inquired with a look on his face that would suggest he might actually be considering the idea. "No, a hex for minor tardiness would be inappropriate. I would be more inclined to simply deduct house points provided of course that it was a first offence."
The young woman merely gave a small snort by way of reply and waited for him to be seated.
"I've brought some materials which I thought might prove useful," she told him pointing to the pile of books. "I thought we might begin by trying to target one or two main traits that run throughout the reptilian genome rather than attempt to target individual systems."
"I had reached the same conclusion myself," Snape replied looking over a piece of parchment she had just handed to him. "Some of these ideas are quite interesting but I'm not quite certain that I follow this one," he said pointing to something written at the bottom of the page.
Moving to the end of the couch nearest the potions master, she looked at the item in question. "Oh that," she said with a nod of her head as if she had been expecting some confusion. "I thought that it might be beneficial if we could try to place a tracking charm within the potion itself so that once the potion has been delivered, we can better plan our final strike against Voldemort."
Placing the parchment on the table, Severus sat back and thought about her suggestion. He had to applaud her audacity if nothing else. It wasn't enough that they were going to try to bring down the Dark Lord by using a potion to turn his own body against him, now she wanted to use that same potion to turn over his whereabouts as well.
Hermione, for her part, was becoming increasingly nervous by the moment. As her former teacher sat there silently looking over her ideas for their project she couldn't help but feel as if she had been transported back to her school days. She could remember having the very same feelings of uncertainty when he would look over her shoulder in class to oversee her progress on a potion. 'Get a grip,' she mentally chastised herself. 'You are no longer a student and it isn't as if he can give you detention or drop you a letter grade if your ideas aren't precisely accurate. But then again, he has been quiet for an awfully long time…'
Whether the professor noticed his companion's discomfort due to the way she was staring at the parchment and biting her lower lip or by the way she was nervously wringing her hands, he decided to try and ease the tension. "It's not a bad idea," he began cautiously, "but the probability of Voldemort detecting a tracking spell is actually quite high."
"I figured as much," she answered glad to finally have a topic to focus her attentions on. "I thought that we might try to infuse the charm in several various parts at the subatomic level during specific points in the potion-making process. There are several forms of ancient magic that might work but we would need to experiment with them before we can make any definite determinations."
"Let me make certain that I understand you correctly. You want to place a tracking spell on Voldemort so that we might ascertain his location at any given time after the potion has been introduced to his system. However, since the probability of him detecting such a spell is quite high, you are proposing to break one spell into several smaller spells that individually accomplish nothing but would work together to accomplish the same task?" he asked looking in astonishment at the woman sitting beside him. "Then, rather than placing the individual charms on the finished product, you propose that we infuse them into the potion during it's creation. In doing so, Voldemort wouldn't be able to detect the spell because it would be, in essence, several smaller parts of one large spell and therefore undetectable."
"Well, basically yes" the charms professor answered trying to gauge Snape's reaction to such a concept. "I thought that this type of an approach might have the greatest success rate since Voldemort would probably be on his guard for just one spell. I don't think he would imagine that anyone would break a spell into several different components and still have it accomplish the same task in the end. Besides, infusing it into the potion would only further mask the charms themselves."
'The woman really is brilliant,' he thought to himself in amazement. The use of a tracking charm in conjunction with the potion would certainly help their cause by reducing the guesswork of where Voldemort might choose to hide once the effects of the potion began to make their presence known. Looking up from his musings, he realized that the young witch had become very still and was nervously watching him as he mulled over her proposal.
"It just might work" he acknowledged and was amused to see Hermione breathe what looked to be a sigh of relief. "However, I do have a question in regards to this tracking charm."
"Yes?" she questioned nervously.
"I am assuming that you will tie the charm into a predetermined map that will detail Voldemort's location. Would this be correct?" he asked.
"Yes" she answered unsurprised that he had grasped her intentions so quickly. "The process would be very similar to the creation of the Marauder's Map that we used during our school days except that, rather than giving us the location of everyone within a certain geographical range, we would charm it to list Voldemort's location only."
"The Marauder's Map?" he asked raising one eyebrow in both question and curiosity.
Giving him a sheepish grin she looked up apologetically and replied, "You would probably know it as a blank piece of parchment you retrieved from Harry during our fourth year. It's a map you see, of Hogwarts, and it details all passageways and persons within the castle. It's quite useful in finding the location of a person at any given time provided that they're located within the castle itself."
"And quite useful in avoiding teachers when one is wandering the halls after curfew I would imagine," he observed sardonically.
"Well, I guess it could be used for that also," she agreed looking every bit like a small child who had just been caught with her hand in the cookie jar.
'One Potter mystery down and Merlin knows how many more to discover,' he thought to himself in amusement. The idea of a map that could track a person's whereabouts wasn't a new idea by any means although he had not realized that the parchment, which he still possessed, was keyed specifically to Hogwarts. 'But what if we could take this all just one step further?' he wondered.
"Hermione?" he questioned, looking back to the young woman who was shifting a bit guiltily in her seat after the revelation of the Marauder's Map, "do you think it may be possible to adjust the tracking charm so that it would not only show us Voldemort's location but also his physical condition as well?"
"What?" she asked in surprise. "I'm not sure I understand what you mean Severus?"
"I was thinking that if we charmed Voldemort's location to appear on the map in a specific way then perhaps we could also charm it to tell us of his general physical condition. That way we would not only know where to attack but when he is at his weakest as well" Snape concluded.
'The man is brilliant,' Hermione thought to herself, unconsciously mirroring the potions master's earlier thoughts in relation to herself. "There might be," she conceded. "When we were using the Marauder's Map, each person was identified by a colored dot with their name written next to it. Maybe there is a way we could charm the map to utilize the same dot to show us Voldemort's state of health. For example, his location on the map may show as a bright red marker just after we introduce the potion but perhaps the marker could be charmed to fade as his health deteriorates."
"Excellent," Severus agreed and noticed the small yawn that escaped the Gryffindor's petite mouth. Surprised by the amount of time that had passed he stood up and held out his hand. "It is getting quite late and you will need your rest for what lies before you tomorrow."
"You're referring to Ginny's funeral," Hermione said softly.
"Yes, do you have any more of the Dreamless Sleep potion I gave you this past weekend?" he questioned.
"No, I used the last of it last night," she answered clearing away their notes and books and placing them on the desk in the far corner of the room.
"Wait here," he told her leaving the room only to return a moment later with another vial of Dreamless Sleep potion which he quietly handed her. "You may need it."
"Thank you Severus," she said softly giving him a small smile. "What would I do without you?" she teased lightly.
"Lie awake all night staring restlessly at the ceiling no doubt," he jested as he lead her out the door and turned back momentarily to re-instate the wards. "Let's get you back to your rooms."
"You don't have to escort me back to my quarters. I'll be fine really," she told the man standing beside her.
"Do you object to my escorting you Hermione?" he asked frowning slightly.
"No!" she answered emphatically. Blushing slightly at her reaction and stammered, "It's just, I mean… Well, I don't want to put you to any unnecessary trouble on my behalf is all."
"If I felt you are 'any trouble' as you so eloquently put it then I wouldn't bother now would I?" Snape asked, his voice full of derision as they began walking through the quiet hallways of Hogwarts.
"No I guess not," she replied and was startled by giggling from a darkened corner.
Stopping suddenly, the potions master turned and walked toward the direction of the sound. "Ten points from both Hufflepuff and Ravenclaw for being caught out after curfew," he said menacingly to two frightened looking sixth year students. "And if you aren't back in your respective dormitories within the next two minutes it will be an additional ten points each."
Hermione was barely able to contain her laughter as the two students took off running at break-neck speed towards their dorms before the potion's master could make good on his threat of deducting additional house points.
"Do you find something amusing Professor Granger?" he asked and she could see the amusement hidden in the depths of his obsidian eyes.
"Why, not at all Professor Snape," she replied playfully. "I'm just happy they weren't Gryffindor's."
"You should be," he answered, "for if they had been, I would have deducted twenty points each."
"You would have too," she muttered as they completed their journey to her quarters.
Upon arriving, Hermione muttered the incantations that would remove the wards and opened her door. "Thank you, for walking back with me," she told the potion's master shyly.
Acknowledging her words with a small nod he briefly brushed long elegant fingers against her cheek. "We can continue our research tomorrow evening after the staff meeting providing you feel up to it."
"I'd like that. I feel like we have far too much to do in far too little time," she said as she reached out with her own hand to mirror his gesture.
"That, my dear lady, is because we do" he replied lightly and lowered his hand. "I will see you tomorrow. Goodnight Hermione."
"Goodnight Severus," she replied softly and stepped into her rooms as he turned and walked away.
Snape found himself walking back to his quarters in a good mood. A fact that the fourth year Gryffindor he came across should be exceedingly thankful for. The professor was in such a good mood in fact that he settled for giving the errant student a menacing scowl and a muttered "back to your dorms unless you want detention with Filch" rather than deducting the usual house points he would ordinarily delight in. However, under no circumstances, would he admit to himself that his regard for the Hogwarts charms professor had anything to do with his decision in NOT deducting points from Gryffindor.
Mentally reviewing the incredibly long list of items that needed to be researched he removed the wards and entered his quarters, automatically replacing the wards once he was inside. He was so engrossed in his thoughts that he nearly missed the small 'pop' that emanated from the fireplace. Looking into the green flames he expected to see the face of Albus Dumbledore looking back at him and was shocked completely out of his reverie when he found himself staring into the face of none other than Lucius Malfoy.
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TBC
Author's Note: And the plot thickens… Okay, two chapters to ring in the New Year. Not too shabby, was it? Please don't forget to leave a few crumbs under the REVIEW button. Feeding the author is always appreciated. VBG