Chapter Twenty
"But the eyes of the wicked shall fail, and they shall not escape, and their hope shall be as the giving up of the ghost." Job 11:20
"Azkaban!" Hermione almost yelled, pacing in Dumbledore's office later that day. "Are you all mad? Why wasn't he given a Dementor's Kiss immediately?" she fumed.
"Voldemort has so little human soul left that the Dementor's Kiss would have little effect," Dumbledore explained gravely.
"He'll escape from there, for sure! If Sirius managed it, then Voldemort will find a way out too," Hermione ranted, barely pausing for breath. She collapsed into a chair. "It's not safe! It's not enough. He has to be destroyed!" she said, her voice finally coming down a few decibels.
The others in the room looked at her rather shell-shocked. Few of them had seen her in such a temper. Severus didn't bat an eyelid as he was quite used to it. "Our problem is that we don't know how to destroy him," Dumbledore said calmly. "There is so little left of the human and wizard in him that's its difficult to say what would finish him off," he explained.
"What about the wand?" Severus asked, his deep voice cutting across the silence.
"Yeah, the ebony wand that Lily had," Harry said, his green eyes narrowing in concentration. "Where did she get it, by the way?"
"It's our wand," Severus said quickly. "It has a core of black unicorn hair."
Harry and Ron looked at Hermione with wide eyes. "That's a powerful wand," Ron said with awe.
"Yes and I dare say it will end up being Lily's wand one day," Hermione said seriously, looking at the little girl who was happily playing with Fawkes on the rug in front of the fire.
"Pitty birdie!" she cooed, patting the phoenix's crest. To everyone's amazement, Fawkes was quite happy for her to do so. That kind of treatment was usually below a phoenix's dignity.
Luna's eyes were fixed on the little flame-haired girl with the shadow of anxiety still haunting them. Draco was holding her hand tightly as they stood closely together off to one side of the gathering. For the first time, Hermione saw how deep the bond between the two of them was. They were both usually such cool creatures when with others that it surprised her to see them sticking so close to each other.
"You'll be interested to know Hermione, that Voldemort was planning to begin his experiments on Muggle-borns again once the black unicorn and Lily were out of the way," Dumbledore said mildly.
"Bad man!" Lily interjected furiously, still patting Fawkes.
"Yes my dear, he was a very bad man indeed," Dumbledore said soothingly.
"How do you know this?" Severus asked frowning from his seat near the fire.
"The reports we found with the dead Aurors' bodies. It was very careless of Voldemort to leave the corpses lying around like that without even checking them for damning evidence of his own activities and it shows his typical arrogance. From what the Aurors were able to observe using telescopic spells during the few days they had before Voldemort caught them, they were able to record something of Voldemort's future plans," Dumbledore explained seriously, his blue eyes peering around at the group over his half moon spectacles.
"Which were?" Ron asked earnestly, leaning forward on his chair and his bright hair glinting in the candle and firelight.
"The same old story - to eradicate Muggle-borns from the wizarding community using propoganda to recruit new Death Eaters and then rather crude genocide to get rid of the Muggle-borns themselves," Dumbledore said, sounding almost resigned.
"What was the evidence the Aurors had gathered?" Padma asked from her seat next to Ron.
"He already had the man-sized steel cages in the ice cave which we all saw. He was transporting them in during the few days the Aurors were able to observe him. That was a dead give-away for a start. They were also able to see some of the titles of the books in his Dark Arts library. Titles like, "Muggle-born Wizard's Inferiority - the Evidence", and "Weaknesses of the Muggle-borns" as well as copies of what looked like his own thesis based on the experiments he'd run during the Gillamoor days and earlier, when James and Lily were still alive and Severus defected," Dumbledore said gravely. "It also looked like there were several dozen volumes of scientific notes that related to his earlier experiments."
"I thought they were all destroyed over ten years ago," Ginny frowned. "All his old notes and revolting theses."
"The ones we could find were but it was always going to be likely that Voldemort had hidden copies in other secret locations," Dumbledore said. "The owls that are coming from the Aurors still at the North Pole now are confirming the reports we have seen from the deceased Aurors," he added.
"He won't give up. He'll never give up until he's destroyed," Hermione muttered, shaking her head.
"I fear you are right, Hermione," Dumbledore said gently.
"Did the dead Aurors have any information on Voldemort's plans to attack the black unicorn and Lily?" Severus asked, his deep-set eyes narrowed.
"No. They were only able to observe from a distance. Voldemort's cave was very well protected with powerful charms and they couldn't get close enough to see much more than what was going in and out of the place, and what he had in his front room," Dumbledore said mildly.
"Why didn't they owl us the information earlier?" Severus asked with evident frustration.
"I think they were waiting to gather more evidence before calling in the Ministry's charm breakers to get onto the premises," Dumbledore mused, his fingertips pressed together.
"Then they were too late and we got no information at all," Severus retorted with pursed lips.
"Yes," was all Dumbledore said, a note of sadness in his usually cheerful voice.
"So there is nothing more we can do about Voldemort?" Hermione said impatiently.
"Not for the time being," Dumbledore said. "But that doesn't mean we won't be working on it. There must be a way to hold him indefinitely or disable his magical ability permanently."
* * *
A few days later, Padma and her team moved into the Snape Manor to begin dismantling the Dark Arts room. Padma was very impressed by the guarding charms along the way to the entrance. "The ones in the Malfoy Manor were far more crude, if just as effective," she commented as they made their way there for the first time.
"Lucius was a rather crude man," Severus sneered.
Hermatica and Severus-the-first had watched the team set off with pleased and excited expressions. "Finally!" Severus-the-first had said, taking Hermatica's hand. "I believe there is great hope now, my dear," he said, his dark eyes glowing.
Hermatica nodded. "He didn't turn out so bad after all, did he?" Hermatica said, having always had a soft spot for the current heir as he was so such like her own Severus.
"It was that young Hermione that turned it around," Severus-the-first said emphatically.
"Yes, perhaps but I think he always had it in him," Hermatica said staunchly.
* * *
Severus suffered a great deal during the dismantling of the Dark Arts room. First of all, because he had to face the harsh realities of what his own parents had been responsible for and none of it was pleasant. As a result, he had been forced to confront a lot of his own demons about his past. In some ways, it set him free and made him realize that not being loved by such evil people was no poor reflection on himself. Secondly, it meant his parents actions were now a matter of public record which Severus found humiliating to say the least. He knew it would take a long time to live down his parent's legacy, if it were even possible at all and his family's recent history would be a blot on the Snape name forever. Lastly, all his friends and colleagues would know the truth too and feel pity for him. Severus was not a person to take kindly to pity, regardless of the compassion that inspired it. Severus did not like feeling exposed, he preferred being secretive. In destroying the Dark Arts room, he was unable to keep the secrets he most wanted hidden.
Hermione was rather fascinated by how Padma worked and spent a lot of time watching the process. The first things to go were the torture instruments. Using a rather complicated spell, Padma could tell who had died from the various instruments. As the list of names grew, Severus grew quieter and paler and thinner and more withdrawn. Hermione remembered how Draco had deferred his first Hogsbridge semester while the Malfoy Dark Arts room was dismantled. She now understood why, watching Severus go through it himself.
Dumbledore himself sorted through the Dark Arts library, almost sounding pleased as he came across certain books. "Good reference books but not for general consumption," he said as he saw Hermione watching him curiously. Every now and then when he saw a certain title, a fleeting and unusual expression of anger would cross his face and the book would be reduced to cinders very quickly. Generally though, he hummed like a big, overgrown bumblebee as he sorted through them.
The laboratory was the most difficult as many dangerous substances were still in the many glass beakers and pipettes and test tubes. Much of the equipment also had charms operating on them which had been placed there decades ago before Severus' parents had been dispatched by Aurors. A special team of alchemists were brought in to assist Padma. Some of them got quite excited over the sophistication of the experiments being attempted. "Severus had to get his brains from somewhere," Hermione commented to Padma as the alchemists exclaimed over the new discoveries his parents had been working on.
* * *
The whole process put the Manor under a dark cloud for a long time. Severus still drove Hermione crazy making sure she wasn't over-exerting herself as the baby grew and making her drink disgusting potions to build up her strength. By the time she was 6 months pregnant, she refused point blank to buy any more baby things as the nursery rooms were already overflowing with clothes, toys and equipment.
Hermione started getting bossy about Severus eating properly and getting out into the sunshine. He had taken to skipping meals and holing himself up in his study as the unpleasant revelations from the Dark Arts room flowed thick and fast, day after day. She eventually told him quite bluntly that if he got all boney and pale again, he could just go and sleep in someone else's bed as she had no intention of sleeping with something that looked like a vampire. This was completely untrue and an exaggeration but it worked beautifully and Severus began eating grudgingly again which in itself improved his moods.
* * *
Soon after Padma had begun her work at Snape Manor, everyone was invited to Malfoy Manor for Draco and Luna's engagement party. Luna was sporting a very large, square-cut aquamarine surrounded with diamonds. The ring was so icey and pale that it reminded Hermione of Draco himself. It looked like Luna was wearing something of his essence on her finger. "Luna chose it," Draco said. "It's a family heirloom but I had it reset and added the diamonds," he explained.
"It's stunning," Hermione said sincerely, secretly thinking she preferred the warmth and fire of her garnet and gold ring. "So you two finally decided to give it a go," she added with a grin.
"You can talk," Draco drawled. "Besides, as you know I asked her ages ago so don't blame me."
"Oh well, in the end he couldn't get rid of me so I decided we'd better make it official and be respectable," Luna said with an answering grin at Hermione. They both giggled. Severus and Draco wore identical expressions of resignation.
"I wish we could get in touch with the fae below the North Pole," Luna mused as she and Hermione strolled around out in the sunshine of the grounds.
"I'm not sure how you'd find them again. Apparating doesn't work unless you have a crystal," Hermione commented. Luna reached into her pocket and pulled out a pale green crystal to show Hermione. "How did you get that?" she asked, wide eyed.
"Stole it," Luna said with a sly smile, putting it back in her pocket. "I don't know whether or not Draco wants to see them again so I haven't told him I've got it. If he ever brings the subject up again, I'll give it to him. They're his family really, not mine."
Hermione was impressed. It was not something she would do but it didn't surprise her that Luna would have secretly taken a crystal. There was a reason why Draco and Luna were so suited, she thought with amusement. They both had very few scruples at times.
"But the eyes of the wicked shall fail, and they shall not escape, and their hope shall be as the giving up of the ghost." Job 11:20
"Azkaban!" Hermione almost yelled, pacing in Dumbledore's office later that day. "Are you all mad? Why wasn't he given a Dementor's Kiss immediately?" she fumed.
"Voldemort has so little human soul left that the Dementor's Kiss would have little effect," Dumbledore explained gravely.
"He'll escape from there, for sure! If Sirius managed it, then Voldemort will find a way out too," Hermione ranted, barely pausing for breath. She collapsed into a chair. "It's not safe! It's not enough. He has to be destroyed!" she said, her voice finally coming down a few decibels.
The others in the room looked at her rather shell-shocked. Few of them had seen her in such a temper. Severus didn't bat an eyelid as he was quite used to it. "Our problem is that we don't know how to destroy him," Dumbledore said calmly. "There is so little left of the human and wizard in him that's its difficult to say what would finish him off," he explained.
"What about the wand?" Severus asked, his deep voice cutting across the silence.
"Yeah, the ebony wand that Lily had," Harry said, his green eyes narrowing in concentration. "Where did she get it, by the way?"
"It's our wand," Severus said quickly. "It has a core of black unicorn hair."
Harry and Ron looked at Hermione with wide eyes. "That's a powerful wand," Ron said with awe.
"Yes and I dare say it will end up being Lily's wand one day," Hermione said seriously, looking at the little girl who was happily playing with Fawkes on the rug in front of the fire.
"Pitty birdie!" she cooed, patting the phoenix's crest. To everyone's amazement, Fawkes was quite happy for her to do so. That kind of treatment was usually below a phoenix's dignity.
Luna's eyes were fixed on the little flame-haired girl with the shadow of anxiety still haunting them. Draco was holding her hand tightly as they stood closely together off to one side of the gathering. For the first time, Hermione saw how deep the bond between the two of them was. They were both usually such cool creatures when with others that it surprised her to see them sticking so close to each other.
"You'll be interested to know Hermione, that Voldemort was planning to begin his experiments on Muggle-borns again once the black unicorn and Lily were out of the way," Dumbledore said mildly.
"Bad man!" Lily interjected furiously, still patting Fawkes.
"Yes my dear, he was a very bad man indeed," Dumbledore said soothingly.
"How do you know this?" Severus asked frowning from his seat near the fire.
"The reports we found with the dead Aurors' bodies. It was very careless of Voldemort to leave the corpses lying around like that without even checking them for damning evidence of his own activities and it shows his typical arrogance. From what the Aurors were able to observe using telescopic spells during the few days they had before Voldemort caught them, they were able to record something of Voldemort's future plans," Dumbledore explained seriously, his blue eyes peering around at the group over his half moon spectacles.
"Which were?" Ron asked earnestly, leaning forward on his chair and his bright hair glinting in the candle and firelight.
"The same old story - to eradicate Muggle-borns from the wizarding community using propoganda to recruit new Death Eaters and then rather crude genocide to get rid of the Muggle-borns themselves," Dumbledore said, sounding almost resigned.
"What was the evidence the Aurors had gathered?" Padma asked from her seat next to Ron.
"He already had the man-sized steel cages in the ice cave which we all saw. He was transporting them in during the few days the Aurors were able to observe him. That was a dead give-away for a start. They were also able to see some of the titles of the books in his Dark Arts library. Titles like, "Muggle-born Wizard's Inferiority - the Evidence", and "Weaknesses of the Muggle-borns" as well as copies of what looked like his own thesis based on the experiments he'd run during the Gillamoor days and earlier, when James and Lily were still alive and Severus defected," Dumbledore said gravely. "It also looked like there were several dozen volumes of scientific notes that related to his earlier experiments."
"I thought they were all destroyed over ten years ago," Ginny frowned. "All his old notes and revolting theses."
"The ones we could find were but it was always going to be likely that Voldemort had hidden copies in other secret locations," Dumbledore said. "The owls that are coming from the Aurors still at the North Pole now are confirming the reports we have seen from the deceased Aurors," he added.
"He won't give up. He'll never give up until he's destroyed," Hermione muttered, shaking her head.
"I fear you are right, Hermione," Dumbledore said gently.
"Did the dead Aurors have any information on Voldemort's plans to attack the black unicorn and Lily?" Severus asked, his deep-set eyes narrowed.
"No. They were only able to observe from a distance. Voldemort's cave was very well protected with powerful charms and they couldn't get close enough to see much more than what was going in and out of the place, and what he had in his front room," Dumbledore said mildly.
"Why didn't they owl us the information earlier?" Severus asked with evident frustration.
"I think they were waiting to gather more evidence before calling in the Ministry's charm breakers to get onto the premises," Dumbledore mused, his fingertips pressed together.
"Then they were too late and we got no information at all," Severus retorted with pursed lips.
"Yes," was all Dumbledore said, a note of sadness in his usually cheerful voice.
"So there is nothing more we can do about Voldemort?" Hermione said impatiently.
"Not for the time being," Dumbledore said. "But that doesn't mean we won't be working on it. There must be a way to hold him indefinitely or disable his magical ability permanently."
* * *
A few days later, Padma and her team moved into the Snape Manor to begin dismantling the Dark Arts room. Padma was very impressed by the guarding charms along the way to the entrance. "The ones in the Malfoy Manor were far more crude, if just as effective," she commented as they made their way there for the first time.
"Lucius was a rather crude man," Severus sneered.
Hermatica and Severus-the-first had watched the team set off with pleased and excited expressions. "Finally!" Severus-the-first had said, taking Hermatica's hand. "I believe there is great hope now, my dear," he said, his dark eyes glowing.
Hermatica nodded. "He didn't turn out so bad after all, did he?" Hermatica said, having always had a soft spot for the current heir as he was so such like her own Severus.
"It was that young Hermione that turned it around," Severus-the-first said emphatically.
"Yes, perhaps but I think he always had it in him," Hermatica said staunchly.
* * *
Severus suffered a great deal during the dismantling of the Dark Arts room. First of all, because he had to face the harsh realities of what his own parents had been responsible for and none of it was pleasant. As a result, he had been forced to confront a lot of his own demons about his past. In some ways, it set him free and made him realize that not being loved by such evil people was no poor reflection on himself. Secondly, it meant his parents actions were now a matter of public record which Severus found humiliating to say the least. He knew it would take a long time to live down his parent's legacy, if it were even possible at all and his family's recent history would be a blot on the Snape name forever. Lastly, all his friends and colleagues would know the truth too and feel pity for him. Severus was not a person to take kindly to pity, regardless of the compassion that inspired it. Severus did not like feeling exposed, he preferred being secretive. In destroying the Dark Arts room, he was unable to keep the secrets he most wanted hidden.
Hermione was rather fascinated by how Padma worked and spent a lot of time watching the process. The first things to go were the torture instruments. Using a rather complicated spell, Padma could tell who had died from the various instruments. As the list of names grew, Severus grew quieter and paler and thinner and more withdrawn. Hermione remembered how Draco had deferred his first Hogsbridge semester while the Malfoy Dark Arts room was dismantled. She now understood why, watching Severus go through it himself.
Dumbledore himself sorted through the Dark Arts library, almost sounding pleased as he came across certain books. "Good reference books but not for general consumption," he said as he saw Hermione watching him curiously. Every now and then when he saw a certain title, a fleeting and unusual expression of anger would cross his face and the book would be reduced to cinders very quickly. Generally though, he hummed like a big, overgrown bumblebee as he sorted through them.
The laboratory was the most difficult as many dangerous substances were still in the many glass beakers and pipettes and test tubes. Much of the equipment also had charms operating on them which had been placed there decades ago before Severus' parents had been dispatched by Aurors. A special team of alchemists were brought in to assist Padma. Some of them got quite excited over the sophistication of the experiments being attempted. "Severus had to get his brains from somewhere," Hermione commented to Padma as the alchemists exclaimed over the new discoveries his parents had been working on.
* * *
The whole process put the Manor under a dark cloud for a long time. Severus still drove Hermione crazy making sure she wasn't over-exerting herself as the baby grew and making her drink disgusting potions to build up her strength. By the time she was 6 months pregnant, she refused point blank to buy any more baby things as the nursery rooms were already overflowing with clothes, toys and equipment.
Hermione started getting bossy about Severus eating properly and getting out into the sunshine. He had taken to skipping meals and holing himself up in his study as the unpleasant revelations from the Dark Arts room flowed thick and fast, day after day. She eventually told him quite bluntly that if he got all boney and pale again, he could just go and sleep in someone else's bed as she had no intention of sleeping with something that looked like a vampire. This was completely untrue and an exaggeration but it worked beautifully and Severus began eating grudgingly again which in itself improved his moods.
* * *
Soon after Padma had begun her work at Snape Manor, everyone was invited to Malfoy Manor for Draco and Luna's engagement party. Luna was sporting a very large, square-cut aquamarine surrounded with diamonds. The ring was so icey and pale that it reminded Hermione of Draco himself. It looked like Luna was wearing something of his essence on her finger. "Luna chose it," Draco said. "It's a family heirloom but I had it reset and added the diamonds," he explained.
"It's stunning," Hermione said sincerely, secretly thinking she preferred the warmth and fire of her garnet and gold ring. "So you two finally decided to give it a go," she added with a grin.
"You can talk," Draco drawled. "Besides, as you know I asked her ages ago so don't blame me."
"Oh well, in the end he couldn't get rid of me so I decided we'd better make it official and be respectable," Luna said with an answering grin at Hermione. They both giggled. Severus and Draco wore identical expressions of resignation.
"I wish we could get in touch with the fae below the North Pole," Luna mused as she and Hermione strolled around out in the sunshine of the grounds.
"I'm not sure how you'd find them again. Apparating doesn't work unless you have a crystal," Hermione commented. Luna reached into her pocket and pulled out a pale green crystal to show Hermione. "How did you get that?" she asked, wide eyed.
"Stole it," Luna said with a sly smile, putting it back in her pocket. "I don't know whether or not Draco wants to see them again so I haven't told him I've got it. If he ever brings the subject up again, I'll give it to him. They're his family really, not mine."
Hermione was impressed. It was not something she would do but it didn't surprise her that Luna would have secretly taken a crystal. There was a reason why Draco and Luna were so suited, she thought with amusement. They both had very few scruples at times.
