Chapter Seventeen

"They shall also gird themselves with sackcloth, and horror shall cover them; and shame shall be upon all faces" Ezekial 7:18

She turned around quickly in her chair to see the back of the huge illusion hound that guarded the entry. She glanced in horror at Severus-the-first and Hermatica but then realized that it was Severus himself standing in front of the dog with his wand raised.

"It's an illusion, Severus. Just take a step forward!" Hermione called.

A second later, a pale Severus walked across the threshold and scowled darkly at her. "What is this place?" he hissed, sweeping over to where she sat.

She looked at him wretchedly, not wanting to tell him but he would find out soon enough. She didn't answer, just let him stalk around the room examining the place the way she had herself on the first visit. His breath hissed between his teeth when he came to the torture instruments and his face was flooded with horror. He opened his lips to speak but no sound came out.

He looked at her sharply from underneath his heavy, dark brows. "What have you already found out?" he demanded.

She pointed to the wall where she had done the blood test. "The blood stain there is only 30 years old," she said almost apologetically. To her amazement, Severus suddenly staggered as though his legs couldn't hold him. Hermione was up in a flash and put her arm around him. She led him quickly back to one of the seats, remembering her own reaction was similar.

She had never seen Severus show weakness like that. Not even once in all the years she had known him since she was eleven years old and had started at Hogwarts. "I didn't want to tell you," she said with a sigh. "I knew it would hurt you." She looked at his downbent head and shaking hands miserably.

"My parents were murderers. I should have known," he said in a voice so low that it was almost a whisper, covering his face with both hands. He suddenly glanced up at Hermatica and Severus-the-first. "Why didn't you tell me?" he demanded through clenched teeth.

"Because we knew you would take it onto yourself. You were always a sensitive boy," Hermatica said kindly but without apology.

"The blood tells," he said bitterly to no-one in particular. "I was no better. Why am I so shocked?"

"You didn't murder innocent people," Hermione said compassionately, sitting down opposite him.

"I may as well have done. Spying on them for Voldemort was their death sentence. It would have been kinder to have killed them myself," he said viciously.

"You didn't know what happened to them after you passed on the information until the day you left the Death Eaters and turned yourself in," Hermione reminded him.

"That's being pedantic, Hermione. I knew Voldemort was most likely harming them, I just believed that if I didn't know the details then I wasn't guilty. But I was," he said with self-loathing, shaking his dark head.

Hermione didn't know what to say to comfort him. She knew there were mitigating factors that explained to a certain extent his time with the Death Eaters. They may not have cancelled out his guilt but went a long way to illuminating his actions.

His beautiful hands were limp in his lap and Hermione felt despondent. "I shouldn't pass it on," he said, agony threaded through his words. Hermione frowned at him, not understanding. She looked at him questioningly. "I shouldn't pass on this tainted, evil blood," he muttered.

"First of all, you were not like your parents. You didn't even know about this place. They knew better than to introduce you to all this just as Draco's parents knew better than to tell him the full truth about the Death Eaters as well," Hermione said, once again reflecting how very similar in situation and temprement that Severus and Draco were in a lot of ways. "If you escaped being like your parents then there is no reason to believe that your child will turn out to be a murderer like his grandparents."

"Not just the grandparents, Hermione. It's all the way back to his brother," Severus said, pointing to Severus-the-first whose murdering brother he was descended from.

"There have been generation upon generation of normal, peaceful witches and wizards in this family," Severus-the-first said stiffly. "It is only every now and then that we encounter bad witches and wizards like your parents."

"Exactly!" Hermione said pointedly. "So, it's your choice Severus. We can have children and do our best to bring them up with the right values or you can just give up in despair."

He looked at her steadily from his black eyes. It was always hard to read the expression in them but they were compelling now. She met his gaze unflinchingly with a level, steely grey one. "Do you think we can do it?" he asked eventually, very seriously.

"You're asking a Gryffindor. Of course I do!" Hermione replied, not breaking his gaze but then smiling warmly. Severus felt the warmth of that smile spread throughout his body like a healing balm. He began to believe it too just a little, little bit.

"What were you reading?" he asked, looking over at the heavy tome she had open and glancing with repressed anger at the Dark Arts library.

"Family and Death Eater history," she said bluntly.

"Well, I guarantee that was pleasant reading," he said sarcastically, his mouth thinning in distaste.

"Some interesting information on Voldemort," she said getting up to bring the book round to where he was sitting and pointing out the passages she'd read earlier.

Severus' face twisted with revulsion as he read it. "More bad blood," he spat.

"It's interesting that the rest of the descendents of Vlad obviously lead peaceful lives. There is only one Voldemort, thank goodness," Hermione observed before Severus got carried away with the notion of poisoned bloodlines again.

"I'd bet a great number of them were Death Eaters," Severus said with abhorrence.

"We don't know that for sure. There were a great many Death Eaters not related to each other at all. Look at the Snapes and Malfoys, there is no connection there," Hermione said contemplatively.

"No, totally different ancestors in fact," Severus conceded remembering that Draco's ancestors were fae and his own were from magical beings from Arabia and the Russian Steppes.

"Are you going to dismantle this place?" Hermione asked quietly.

"Yes but properly. I'll speak to Padma and Dumbledore about the best way to go about it," he said, running one hand through his longish, ebony hair. "We may as well gather as much information as we can from this place the same as we did when its equivalent at the Malfoy estate was dismantled 10 years ago. I should have guessed there was a room like this like the one under the Malfoy Manor. I wonder how many other Death Eater homes have one," Severus said, his pale lips twisted.

"It's probably only the large homes like this one," Hermione said. "How did you find me today?" Hermione asked. "Location spell?"

"Yes," Severus said shortly. "I was worried when I couldn't find you anywhere in the Manor and there was no note. I don't like it when you disappear. I'm always afraid that you might transform and get into serious trouble."

Hermione sighed. "I know, I'm sorry. I actually didn't realize I had been gone for a long time. This book is very useful and I got rather absorbed in it. I think Dumbledore would like to keep that one for reference," she said, indicating the tome that Severus currently had in his hands. "How did you get the password?" she asked curiously.

"Good knowledge of the magical side of the family history. It was certain that my excessively proud parents would have chosen something to do with our magical heritage," he shrugged and stood up. "I've had enough of this place for one day. Let's go and tell Dumbledore what we've found," he said, putting the tome back on the lab bench.

Hermione nodded gratefully and picking up the frame with Hermatica and Severus-the-first in it, she followed Severus out.

They went directly to Dumbledore's office from a fireplace in the decrepit West Wing. As always, he was pleased to see them and ordered hot chocolate for them both. Severus couldn't stomach his after his recent discovery and sat slumped apathetically in one of Dumbledore's armchairs.

Hermione glanced at Severus' closed face and began to tell the story herself. "We found a Dark Arts room under the Snape Manor. Or rather, I found it and then Severus found me," she said, staring into the cocoa.

Dumbledore nodded. "I was sure there was one in the Manor somewhere," he said calmly without surprise.

Hermione went on to tell Dumbledore about the Darke Creatures book and the information it contained, and outlined the connection between the Snape and Riddle ancestors. "Destined to be enemies after all, eh Severus?" Dumbledore said in amusement.

Severus merely shrugged sullenly but refused to say anything. He was ashamed of what would come to light about his family when the room was dismantled but he knew it had to be done. He didn't have to like having so much about himself exposed, however.

They discussed the dismantling of the room but there was no hurry about it. With few or no Death Eaters still active in England and Severus inhabiting the Manor, there was little chance that anyone would try and break into it and use the ghastly things therein.

Once the unpleasant part of the discussion was over, Dumbledore tried to lighten the mood. "I've been spending a lot of time with that remarkable child Lily," he said conversationally.

"Do you know why she's so advanced so young?" Hermione asked with genuine curiousity.

"I have my suspicions," Dumbledore said stirring his second cup of hot chocolate thoughtfully. "It's a combination of factors, I believe. First of all she's Harry's child and Harry, as we all know is a remarkable wizard."

Severus snorted at that pronouncement but didn't say anything. Dumbledore glanced at him with amusement.

"Secondly, she's the grand-daughter of a witch and wizard that Voldemort murdered - Lily and James, Harry's own parents. Lastly, her mother Ginny is from a very old and magically powerful wizarding family," he continued. "That is a dominant combination of genetics and circumstances surrounding her."

Severus snorted a second time at the mention of the Weasleys.

"I suspect that she may be particularly dangerous to Voldemort," Dumbledore speculated almost to himself.

"Why?" Severus suddenly said, his interest being caught.

"For the same reasons - she's the descendent of two people he murdered. There is powerful magic in that alone. Also, she's the child of a wizard who had defeated him on many occasions. There is something in Harry's powers that Voldemort has found impossible to overcome and Harry would have passed that onto her," the old wizard said.

Severus' eyes narrowed as he absorbed what Dumbledore said. "She could be a very dangerous little witch indeed," he murmured.

* Sourced from http://www.ucs.mun.ca/~emiller/VladT.htm ** Sourced from http://www.eskimo.com/~mwirkk/castle/vlad/vladhist.html (Above are sources on Vlad Tepes for previous chapter)