Understanding

Disclaimer – See chapter 2.

Chapter 3 – Discoveries

I finally managed to stop my hysterical laughter after a while, but I was left with a pain in my side, to add to the aching elbow from the floo accident. Snape, Severus, overgrown bat or whatever I should call him, had been sitting in an armchair opposite me looking amused for the duration of my laughing fit.

'Sorry,' I started, 'I got a bit carried away for a moment there.'

'What, with the shouting, or the laughing?' He said, one eyebrow arched upwards.

'Both. I think today has been a little too much.' I sat back and closed my eyes. 'And it's still only 4pm.'

'Mmm.' He replied, obviously settling down in his chair also. We remained in a comfortable silence for a few minutes, before I decided to make an attempt at conversation.

'So, Severus,' I said his name softly, wondering what reaction it would get. He opened one eye, like the dragon earlier. 'How come you're so different out of school? I kind of expected evil, point-deducting Professor Snape.' His one open eye seemed to narrow, if that's possible. He sighed heavily.

'There are things that you don't know. This is going to be hard to believe, but the 'Professor' Snape that you see in lessons isn't really me.' I must have looked quite confused, because he continued 'I don't mean that's not me, I mean that, fundamentally, it's all an act.'

I smiled. 'What do you mean, fundamentally?'

'Well, the incompetence of certain students is slightly too much to handle sometimes.' He gave me a slight smile. 'It's a difficult situation at Hogwarts. Many of the Slytherin students would report back to their parents if I seemed out of place in any way. I'm only employed at the school for protection, as back up for Albus. If Hogwarts fell to Voldemort, he couldn't be stopped. That's what he wants, control of the school. There's more than just education there. Much more.' His face was much more grim now, his mouth set in a line.

'What about you being a Death Eater, what's that all about?' I asked, cautiously.

'Well, that's one of the more unsavoury 'perks' of being an Unspeakable.' His face spilt into a sly grin, but his eyes were cold. 'I despise doing it, but I'm the Ministry's main source of intelligence, so I'll continue, either till I'm discovered, or until the War is over.' He shrugged his shoulders.

'That's dreadful.' I said, genuinely astonished at the revelation. 'I hope to god they never ask me to do such a thing. I'm not sure if I could.'

'If you were asked to, then you would. That's just how it is. Anyway, you won't have to. Voldemort only recruits members of Slytherin house now, after the disaster that was Peter Pettigrew.' I chuckled in response. 'Anyway, that brings us to what we're doing here. We're stationed near the Riddle House on the hill over there to provide intelligence on comings and goings. In the mean time, we're to try and find out how to bring about Voldemort's downfall, if that's even possible.'

'Really? Why us?' I was shocked to hear that we were to have such an important role in the War.

'Well, the two of us didn't get the highest N.E.W.T.S. results Hogwarts has seen in a century for nothing, you know.'

'I suppose. So, how have you managed to keep Voldemort from discovering the true nature of your support  for so long then?'

'Are you familiar with the Fidelius Charm?' He asked.

'Secret keeping? Of course.' I replied, eager to know more.

'The 'experience' in the dark room at the DoM. That was a variation of the Fidelius Charm, generated specifically for Unspeakables. No intelligence is stored in print, its all locked away inside every Unspeakable, so Voldemort can never know who is working for the DoM. He can only suspect when people appear disloyal. Fortunately, I'm a good actor.'

'Well that's certainly true. You had me fooled, anyway.'

'I live so far beneath the skin of 'Professor' Snape, it's no longer difficult. It's actually more difficult to dredge up the real me, I've been locked away for so long.'

'You seem to be doing okay just now.' I smiled at him. 'Anyhow, shouldn't the Fidelius Charm be a bit risky in a situation like this. I mean, if Voldemort got hold of the wrong person…'

'That's the brilliance of it.' He interrupted. 'Unspeakables are headhunted from birth. Haven't you ever thought why that was the case? Do we keep our silence because we are Unspeakables, or are we Unspeakables because we keep our silence?'

We were silent then for a few minutes, while I thought about this. It made sense. I knew that the fidelius charm could only be broken by choice, not by the strongest truth potion or any kind of torture. The workings of magic astounded me at times, the enormity of all its workings in the past, present and future. It seemed mind-boggling on occasion. As I was lost in my thoughts, two large plates appeared on the table between us, loaded with roast chicken with all the trimmings. I looked up, taken aback by the sudden appearance, also realising that I was actually quite hungry after such a long day. Severus, as I supposed I was now supposed to call him, did not appear surprised.

'The Hogwarts house elves will be taking care of us, I believe.' He told me, before tucking in to his plateful. I briefly remembered my stint as a house elf rights campaigner during fourth year, before I put it to the back of my mind and started on my meal.

'So when do we get started?' I asked brightly, having finished my chicken and started sipping on a cup of tea.

'Tomorrow, I think. There are still some basics that need to be covered.' He gathered the two plates and sent them back to Hogwarts.

'Like what?'

'We need to protect this place. And I need to show you how to use your handbook.' He stood up and stretched.

'Aren't we protected by the Fidelius Charm? And I only know basic protection charms.'

'It's just a precaution. You'll need to perform the same charms over any place you're based in. Come on.' I stood up and followed him into what I presumed was the exact centre of the room. He sat down on the floor and I sat opposite him. 'Right, we place our wand tips together.' He placed his in mid air and I took out my wand and pressed it to his. 'Close your eyes, but keep the building in your mind. Concentrate on the room, and on closing every gap in the window frames, every key hole. Now, we separate our wands. Very slowly, now.' I edged my wand back a couple of millimetres. A strong wind rushed from the gap, shooting to every corner of the room, and of the whole building. 'Keep concentrating. One, two, three…Okay, remove your wand, keep your eyes closed for a moment. Right, it's done.' I opened my eyes, not seeing anything different, but somehow knowing we were just that bit safer.

'No one should be able to get in now, apart from us.' He said, standing up. I yawned widely, and dragged myself up. It wasn't yet seven, but it had been a long day.

'What do I do with this handbook then, only I really want to go to sleep.'

'Take it off the chain, and I'll tell you.' I undid the chain and took off the golden book, holding it in my hand. 'Think of any subject. Say, levitating charms. Now press your wand tip to the gem on the spine.' I did as he said, thinking about levitating charms. The tiny book began to transform into a larger, black hard back book. When it stopped changing, I opened it up, seeing a title page labelled 'Levitating Charms', and hundreds of pages of all the information I could ever want on levitating charms. I looked up into Severus's glittering eyes. Of all the discoveries of today, this is definitely the best.

'Do you mean that this book will give me all the information, on any subject I need? This is brilliant!' I grinned widely. If only I'd had one of these before!

'Yes. We could hardly be expected to disappear of to the library every time we needed to know something could we? These books can display anything currently available at the British National Magical and Muggle Library, including newspapers, and the very latest from the DoM.'

'Brilliant! That's about twenty times the books available at Hogwarts Library!' I said excitedly. I couldn't wait to get started now that I had access to almost any book ever printed in the entire magical and muggle worlds.

'Yes, I am aware of that.' He said in a manner more like that used in his Potions lessons, although he was still smiling. 'We'll start early tomorrow, so get some sleep. Our living quarters are upstairs. Pick whichever room you want. I've got things to do.'

'Okay, goodnight then.'

'Goodnight, Hermione.' I was slightly shocked by his use of my first name. I smiled briefly and made my way up the stairs, dragging my feather light trunk behind me.

There were five doors off the landing upstairs. I decided that this pub must be something of an inn, since the rooms were labelled with brass numberplates. I opened the door nearest to me, and walked in. The house elves must have prepared the place for our arrival, as this room had clearly been dusted and polished recently, whereas the main room downstairs had been dusty and dirty. This room was simply furnished, with a large bed in the centre of the room, two high backed chairs around a small wooden table next to the window and a wardrobe and dressing table against one wall. A door to the left led into a cosy bathroom. I propped my trunk open, grabbed my things and quickly got ready for bed. Minutes later I climbed into the bed, snuggling down even though it was one of the hottest days of the summer so far. I went over the day in my mind, thinking that this wasn't going to be as bad as I had anticipated as I lay in bed this morning, and when I had found out that I was going to be with Professor Snape. This morning, he probably would have been the very last person I'd have chosen to spend my time with. But now, I wasn't so sure. It was definitely confusing to think that all of my experiences with him in the last seven years had centred around him taking points from me and looking at me as if I was a bit a dirt on his shoe, only for all that to change in just one day. Just as I was falling asleep I thought I heard a window creaking open downstairs. However, I put it down to my imagination, and nodded off.

A/N

Sorry, nothing much happened during this chapter, but I had to explain some things before I could get on with the story.

Thank you to Rosmerta, claribel and sevesmione for reviewing!

Rosmerta – I hope this chapter answers your question.

If anyone is not clear on the whole Fidelius Charm thingy do not hesitate to ask.

Remember to review!!!!!!!!!!

Thank you for reading.