Chapter Nineteen
"How art thou fallen from heaven, O Lucifer, son of the morning! how art thou cut down to the ground, which didst weaken the nations!"
Isaiah 14:12
And he said unto them, I beheld Satan as lightning fall from heaven. Luke 10:18 "Did I fear a great multitude, or did the contempt of families terrify me, that I kept silence, and went not out of the door?" Job 31:34
Nothing became clearer over the next week to Snape except that this strange period in his life was drawing to a close. Hermione was busy with plans for her 18th birthday party with all her friends and with her study. He felt odd most of the time. As though time was passing with the surrealistic slowness that seemed to precede momentous events.
Hermione was busy but she felt strangely still as well, as though waiting for something but she hardly knew what. It was a though there was a still pool of expectancy within her untouched by the rush of her days. She had conveniently pretended to forget her provocative behaviour towards Snape when she had been tipsy. After all, boys pulled that stunt all the time so why shouldn't she? She hadn't spent much time with Snape over the past week anyway. Most of her day was spent on campus and her evenings in her study or with friends. She couldn't escape this strange feeling of 'waiting' though.
What she was waiting for came for her two mornings before her birthday. As she was about to floo her way to Hogsbridge campus, she noticed a dark shape flit past the window heading downwards. She recognised Snape's black owl immediately and she also knew what it meant.
She bit her lip as she thought. There was no way Snape would be so careless as to leave the parchment lying around for her to find this time. She pondered for a while and then remembered Harry's Marauder's Map. If a map like that existed of Hogwarts, there must be some kind of spell connected to it that she could put on almost any map to locate people within a grid. Without hesitation she got up, took a pinch of floo and said, "Hogsbridge library."
It didn't take Hermione long to find what she was looking for. Then again, it rarely did. If the information was there to be found, Hermione was sure to find it very quickly. After all, she was experienced at finding her way around a library!
Carefully she enchanted a quill to copy out the information she needed while she hunted out some maps of Britain, especially the greater London area. Finally, loaded down with information she went home to begin the spell.
By lunchtime, she had enchanted a small map of Northern Britain and carefully looked it over. It was covered with tiny dots, some of which were moving slowly over it. When she looked closely, she could see the individuals clearly. It had worked! Now all she had to do was enchant all the other maps of the different parts of Britain and then keep an eye on Snape for the rest of the day.
Snape didn't go far from the house that day. He'd been in a funny mood over breakfast, she'd noticed; even more uncommunicative than usual. He wasn't in the garden much either, just brief periods while drinking a cup of coffee or watering a rose bush. When evening fell, they had dinner together but once more Snape was abnormally silent; even for him. Hermione guessed he was not looking forward to the Death Eaters meeting later that night. After all, unless he was able to please Voldemort again, chances are he would be tortured once more. The thought made her deeply angry and so she was quiet as well.
Much later that night, Hermione heard Snape moving around downstairs and figured his arm would be burning right about now. She pulled out the maps that she had enchanted earlier and muttered a charm over the dot that represented Snape to make him stand out on the maps. Naturally, at that time the maps showed that he was still in the house with her.
But not for long. It took her a couple of minutes to relocate his dot on a detailed map of the Northern Districts. They were obviously meeting somewhere in the North York Moors. Ironically enough, they were meeting just outside a place called Ravenscar near the coast.
Quickly Hermione looked up her directory of English wizarding towns in her Altas of the Wizarding World. Sure enough, there was a small wizarding town near Ravenscar called Raven's Hollow. She checked her map of the floo network and there was a small pub called The Tipsy Toad in Raven's Hollow on the network. Grabbing Harry's invisibility cloak, she made her way to the fireplace and wished she were old enough to get her apparating license.
She arrived via floo in the cloak. She didn't want to be seen as she didn't know Raven's Hollow and whether or not it was a Death Eater's hang out. Most of the Death Eaters didn't know who she was or that she was Snape's ward but it was better to be safe than sorry. Silently she slipped out of the fireplace and out through the door, following a couple of suspicious looking characters.
Ravenscar was just North East of Raven's Hollow, less than a half hour walk but it was over rough ground so it took her longer to get there. She followed the roads that branched off the A171-Whitby to Scarborough. Ravenscar really was tiny, Hermione mused. It had one main road and two smaller streets that crossed the main road both ways. It was right on the coast on the North Sea and a fierce and cold wind blew in from the Arctic. Hermione was grateful for her cloak.
As she suspected, the meeting was slightly outside the small town and away from the trivial number of locals slightly further North and closer to the coast. She muttered a small location charm and got a reading of a large gathering of wizards in order to pinpoint them.
She could hear Voldemort speaking as she silently approached.
*"It is a hard, tough task which demands the commitment of the whole person without regard to any difficulties that may arise. You will be given details by in due time. Those taking part will be informed at the appropriate time. You have to maintain the strictest silence about this order, even amongst yourselves. The Muggle-borns are the eternal enemies of the purebloods and must be exterminated. All Muggle-borns we can reach now, during this time, are to be exterminated without exception. If we do not succeed in destroying the biological basis of the Muggle-born wizard, some day they will annihilate the purebloods and our great magical strength.
** "The Muggle-born is the ferment of the decomposition of people. This means that it is in the nature of the Muggle-born to contaminate and weaken because he lacks altogether any idea of working for the common good. He possesses certain characteristics given to him by nature and he never can rid himself of those characteristics. The Muggle-born is harmful to us.
*** "I believe, my friends, that you know me well enough to realize that I am not a bloodthirsty wizard nor a wizard who takes pleasure or finds sport in the harsher things he must do. On the other hand, I have strong nerves and a great sense of duty - if I do say so myself - and when I recognize the necessity to do something, I will do it unflinchingly. As to the Muggle- born women and children, I did not believe I had a right to let these children grow up to become avengers who would kill our fathers and grandchildren. That, I thought, would be cowardly. Thus the problem was solved without half-measures. At this time -- it is one of those things peculiar to this campaign - we are taking as many male Muggle-borns from England to our camps to build underground laboratories, and will later take yet more. Not one of them will ever come within the field of vision of the pureblood people. I am convinced that things would look bleak for the purebloods if we had not resolved the Muggle-born problem there, if, for example, the camps North of Gillamoor or the other West of Callington were still in existence." As Hermione approached, her ears pricked up to hear that Voldemort was holding prisoners in new underground camps. So they are not dead yet, Hermione thought anxiously. There is still time to save them.
Hermione had badly miscalculated. She made her way over the final rise to get to the gathering in a large hollow but found out the hard way that this meeting had been protected by charms unlike the last one. As she looked down over the hollow lit eerily with dim green lights, she found herself flanked by two very large Death Eaters.
"You can take off that invisibility cloak. We know you're there," one of them said in a low voice. Hermione's knees turned to water. Sprung, she thought.
****"Fear came upon me, and trembling, which made all my bones to shake."
She refused to take off her cloak and the hood was pulled roughly back off her hair. They didn't recognise her.
"Who are you?" The first man asked, his deep voice muffled by the mask. She didn't bother replying. "Oh, a stubborn one. Well, you won't be stubborn for long once you've met Voldemort." She still said nothing, clenching her jaw to stop her teeth chattering. She looked out over the assembly below her in the hollow. It held roughly the same number as the meeting at Snape's family mansion. Voldemort was still talking and no-one in the assembly had noticed her yet.
"What were you doing here anyway - a young girl like you?" The second man asked suspiciously, in a less deep voice and with a distinct London accent.
She didn't even look at him. By now, both men had taken each of her arms. They were obviously waiting until Voldemort finished speaking to hand her over. Of course, she couldn't tell which of the Death Eaters below was Snape. She was glad he didn't know yet that she was here but he'd know soon enough.
**** "Therefore snares are round about thee, and sudden fear troubleth thee."
She was having problems breathing normally as her fear deepened. At best, she would be taken to one of these underground camps and tortured with their 'experiments' for a very long time. At worst, she would be killed instantly. She felt icy cold and as though she was floating outside her own body. The scene before her looked surrealistic and suddenly seemed to make no sense to her. She swayed on her feet. Time slowed down strangely.
"Hey, stay upright," the first man said distantly, tugging on her arm.
Voldemort's voice stopped for a few moments. "Bring the girl," he said suddenly into the silence. Harry's cloak slipped the rest of the way off as the two thugs led her to Voldemort. He was even uglier than she remembered.
Voldemort examined her closely. "You look familiar," he hissed. Hermione stayed silent.
****"Fear took hold upon [me] there, and pain, as of a woman in travail"
"I know you! You're a close friend of Potter," he said slowly, his red eyes boring into her.
Hermione suddenly started out of the morass of fear she had been sinking into. She could feel something familiar yet foreign taking hold. Her breathing quickened as a restlessness rose within her, as relentless as the tide and fierce as a storm.
Snape's nails were digging into his palms until they drew blood. He was too terrified of what Voldemort was going to do to her to even feel angry with her for disobeying him, right then. He couldn't say a word or do anything sudden or unconsidered - it could guarantee rather than prevent her death if it was the wrong thing. Desperately he tried to think of a plan but his mind was numb with horror and fear.
"Snape," Voldemort hissed. Snape's stomach turned to ice. Did he know? Snape wondered. "Didn't you teach this girl at that infernal Hogwarts for seven years and haven't you been appointed as her guardian by that fool Dumbledore?"
Snape came forward, automatically pulling off his mask and hoping his face didn't betray him. He knelt briefly to Voldemort then turned and pretended to examine Hermione. His face was carefully neutral and impassive as he did so. I can't lie about it, he thought anxiously. Voldemort was not stupid. "Yes, my Lord. This is Hermione, my ward and Potter's friend." He said coldly.
Voldemort hissed through his teeth. "Stupid girl! Did you think you could carry information on the Death Eaters back to Potter? Even if you had succeeded, what would he have done with it? All he's good at is saving his own skin," Voldemort sneered.
Hermione glanced up at Voldemort and looked him dead in the eye, all her loathing and hatred for everything he stood for suddenly written clear upon her face. "I suppose you would see it that way, considering every time the two of you meet you come off the worse of the confrontation," Hermione sneered. "I wonder what your precious Death Eaters make of that little fact."
Voldemort's eyes glowed fiercely down at her in rage. "How dare you! You're nothing but a filthy mudblood! I know your background. You don't even deserve to be part of the wizarding community," he spat at her.
"That's your opinion," Hermione said smartly. If he was going to kill her, at least she was going to have her say first. "You're nothing but a pathetic has-been that was defeated by a baby!"
Snape listened to her in despair. She would not be allowed to live after those insults. He desperately tried to think of a way of turning the situation around.
Voldemort was apoplectic. "You filthy mudblood whore! You won't live to see the sun! I'm sorry Snape but I'm going to have to deprive you of your little ward," he raged like a beast. Voldemort raised his wand, a vicious look on his face.
Then he slowly lowered it again.
Because the girl was transforming.
Into a black unicorn.
Voldemort turned a sickly yellow grey as the magnificent beast reared before him, its ebony hooves flashing in the eerie green light. Before Voldemort could raise his wand again, the unicorn wheeled around, came down on all fours and turned one molten eye on him. The wizard froze. The two stared at each other. The beast focused on its prey, its powerful magic keeping him easily within its control.
Once again, Snape felt as though time had slowed down to a mere trickle. Feeling as though he was moving underwater, he took his wand out of his robes. He saw the unicorn lower its horn, its eye still fixed on its quarry. The creature charged, as graceful and liquid as moonlight on flowing water. It was hypnotic.
Suddenly the world snapped back into focus for Snape. He raised his wand and yelled, "Avada Kedevra". A ray of evil green light shot from his wand and made its way unerringly towards Voldemort. The split second the power left his wand, Snape knew the spell could not kill something no longer truly human. That was not his aim however. All he wanted was to stop the unicorn's horn connecting with flesh.
Just as the unicorn was a stride away from Voldemort, his disappeared into a black vapour and his clothes collapsed in a heap on the grass.
The unicorn charged into thin air.
(* Based on a speech by Himmler to Hoess in June 1941.) (** Based on a speech given by Hitler on 12 April 1922 in Munich.) (*** Based on a speech given by Himmler on 24 May 1945.) (****Job 4:14 & Job 22:10 & Psalm 48:6 )
"How art thou fallen from heaven, O Lucifer, son of the morning! how art thou cut down to the ground, which didst weaken the nations!"
Isaiah 14:12
And he said unto them, I beheld Satan as lightning fall from heaven. Luke 10:18 "Did I fear a great multitude, or did the contempt of families terrify me, that I kept silence, and went not out of the door?" Job 31:34
Nothing became clearer over the next week to Snape except that this strange period in his life was drawing to a close. Hermione was busy with plans for her 18th birthday party with all her friends and with her study. He felt odd most of the time. As though time was passing with the surrealistic slowness that seemed to precede momentous events.
Hermione was busy but she felt strangely still as well, as though waiting for something but she hardly knew what. It was a though there was a still pool of expectancy within her untouched by the rush of her days. She had conveniently pretended to forget her provocative behaviour towards Snape when she had been tipsy. After all, boys pulled that stunt all the time so why shouldn't she? She hadn't spent much time with Snape over the past week anyway. Most of her day was spent on campus and her evenings in her study or with friends. She couldn't escape this strange feeling of 'waiting' though.
What she was waiting for came for her two mornings before her birthday. As she was about to floo her way to Hogsbridge campus, she noticed a dark shape flit past the window heading downwards. She recognised Snape's black owl immediately and she also knew what it meant.
She bit her lip as she thought. There was no way Snape would be so careless as to leave the parchment lying around for her to find this time. She pondered for a while and then remembered Harry's Marauder's Map. If a map like that existed of Hogwarts, there must be some kind of spell connected to it that she could put on almost any map to locate people within a grid. Without hesitation she got up, took a pinch of floo and said, "Hogsbridge library."
It didn't take Hermione long to find what she was looking for. Then again, it rarely did. If the information was there to be found, Hermione was sure to find it very quickly. After all, she was experienced at finding her way around a library!
Carefully she enchanted a quill to copy out the information she needed while she hunted out some maps of Britain, especially the greater London area. Finally, loaded down with information she went home to begin the spell.
By lunchtime, she had enchanted a small map of Northern Britain and carefully looked it over. It was covered with tiny dots, some of which were moving slowly over it. When she looked closely, she could see the individuals clearly. It had worked! Now all she had to do was enchant all the other maps of the different parts of Britain and then keep an eye on Snape for the rest of the day.
Snape didn't go far from the house that day. He'd been in a funny mood over breakfast, she'd noticed; even more uncommunicative than usual. He wasn't in the garden much either, just brief periods while drinking a cup of coffee or watering a rose bush. When evening fell, they had dinner together but once more Snape was abnormally silent; even for him. Hermione guessed he was not looking forward to the Death Eaters meeting later that night. After all, unless he was able to please Voldemort again, chances are he would be tortured once more. The thought made her deeply angry and so she was quiet as well.
Much later that night, Hermione heard Snape moving around downstairs and figured his arm would be burning right about now. She pulled out the maps that she had enchanted earlier and muttered a charm over the dot that represented Snape to make him stand out on the maps. Naturally, at that time the maps showed that he was still in the house with her.
But not for long. It took her a couple of minutes to relocate his dot on a detailed map of the Northern Districts. They were obviously meeting somewhere in the North York Moors. Ironically enough, they were meeting just outside a place called Ravenscar near the coast.
Quickly Hermione looked up her directory of English wizarding towns in her Altas of the Wizarding World. Sure enough, there was a small wizarding town near Ravenscar called Raven's Hollow. She checked her map of the floo network and there was a small pub called The Tipsy Toad in Raven's Hollow on the network. Grabbing Harry's invisibility cloak, she made her way to the fireplace and wished she were old enough to get her apparating license.
She arrived via floo in the cloak. She didn't want to be seen as she didn't know Raven's Hollow and whether or not it was a Death Eater's hang out. Most of the Death Eaters didn't know who she was or that she was Snape's ward but it was better to be safe than sorry. Silently she slipped out of the fireplace and out through the door, following a couple of suspicious looking characters.
Ravenscar was just North East of Raven's Hollow, less than a half hour walk but it was over rough ground so it took her longer to get there. She followed the roads that branched off the A171-Whitby to Scarborough. Ravenscar really was tiny, Hermione mused. It had one main road and two smaller streets that crossed the main road both ways. It was right on the coast on the North Sea and a fierce and cold wind blew in from the Arctic. Hermione was grateful for her cloak.
As she suspected, the meeting was slightly outside the small town and away from the trivial number of locals slightly further North and closer to the coast. She muttered a small location charm and got a reading of a large gathering of wizards in order to pinpoint them.
She could hear Voldemort speaking as she silently approached.
*"It is a hard, tough task which demands the commitment of the whole person without regard to any difficulties that may arise. You will be given details by in due time. Those taking part will be informed at the appropriate time. You have to maintain the strictest silence about this order, even amongst yourselves. The Muggle-borns are the eternal enemies of the purebloods and must be exterminated. All Muggle-borns we can reach now, during this time, are to be exterminated without exception. If we do not succeed in destroying the biological basis of the Muggle-born wizard, some day they will annihilate the purebloods and our great magical strength.
** "The Muggle-born is the ferment of the decomposition of people. This means that it is in the nature of the Muggle-born to contaminate and weaken because he lacks altogether any idea of working for the common good. He possesses certain characteristics given to him by nature and he never can rid himself of those characteristics. The Muggle-born is harmful to us.
*** "I believe, my friends, that you know me well enough to realize that I am not a bloodthirsty wizard nor a wizard who takes pleasure or finds sport in the harsher things he must do. On the other hand, I have strong nerves and a great sense of duty - if I do say so myself - and when I recognize the necessity to do something, I will do it unflinchingly. As to the Muggle- born women and children, I did not believe I had a right to let these children grow up to become avengers who would kill our fathers and grandchildren. That, I thought, would be cowardly. Thus the problem was solved without half-measures. At this time -- it is one of those things peculiar to this campaign - we are taking as many male Muggle-borns from England to our camps to build underground laboratories, and will later take yet more. Not one of them will ever come within the field of vision of the pureblood people. I am convinced that things would look bleak for the purebloods if we had not resolved the Muggle-born problem there, if, for example, the camps North of Gillamoor or the other West of Callington were still in existence." As Hermione approached, her ears pricked up to hear that Voldemort was holding prisoners in new underground camps. So they are not dead yet, Hermione thought anxiously. There is still time to save them.
Hermione had badly miscalculated. She made her way over the final rise to get to the gathering in a large hollow but found out the hard way that this meeting had been protected by charms unlike the last one. As she looked down over the hollow lit eerily with dim green lights, she found herself flanked by two very large Death Eaters.
"You can take off that invisibility cloak. We know you're there," one of them said in a low voice. Hermione's knees turned to water. Sprung, she thought.
****"Fear came upon me, and trembling, which made all my bones to shake."
She refused to take off her cloak and the hood was pulled roughly back off her hair. They didn't recognise her.
"Who are you?" The first man asked, his deep voice muffled by the mask. She didn't bother replying. "Oh, a stubborn one. Well, you won't be stubborn for long once you've met Voldemort." She still said nothing, clenching her jaw to stop her teeth chattering. She looked out over the assembly below her in the hollow. It held roughly the same number as the meeting at Snape's family mansion. Voldemort was still talking and no-one in the assembly had noticed her yet.
"What were you doing here anyway - a young girl like you?" The second man asked suspiciously, in a less deep voice and with a distinct London accent.
She didn't even look at him. By now, both men had taken each of her arms. They were obviously waiting until Voldemort finished speaking to hand her over. Of course, she couldn't tell which of the Death Eaters below was Snape. She was glad he didn't know yet that she was here but he'd know soon enough.
**** "Therefore snares are round about thee, and sudden fear troubleth thee."
She was having problems breathing normally as her fear deepened. At best, she would be taken to one of these underground camps and tortured with their 'experiments' for a very long time. At worst, she would be killed instantly. She felt icy cold and as though she was floating outside her own body. The scene before her looked surrealistic and suddenly seemed to make no sense to her. She swayed on her feet. Time slowed down strangely.
"Hey, stay upright," the first man said distantly, tugging on her arm.
Voldemort's voice stopped for a few moments. "Bring the girl," he said suddenly into the silence. Harry's cloak slipped the rest of the way off as the two thugs led her to Voldemort. He was even uglier than she remembered.
Voldemort examined her closely. "You look familiar," he hissed. Hermione stayed silent.
****"Fear took hold upon [me] there, and pain, as of a woman in travail"
"I know you! You're a close friend of Potter," he said slowly, his red eyes boring into her.
Hermione suddenly started out of the morass of fear she had been sinking into. She could feel something familiar yet foreign taking hold. Her breathing quickened as a restlessness rose within her, as relentless as the tide and fierce as a storm.
Snape's nails were digging into his palms until they drew blood. He was too terrified of what Voldemort was going to do to her to even feel angry with her for disobeying him, right then. He couldn't say a word or do anything sudden or unconsidered - it could guarantee rather than prevent her death if it was the wrong thing. Desperately he tried to think of a plan but his mind was numb with horror and fear.
"Snape," Voldemort hissed. Snape's stomach turned to ice. Did he know? Snape wondered. "Didn't you teach this girl at that infernal Hogwarts for seven years and haven't you been appointed as her guardian by that fool Dumbledore?"
Snape came forward, automatically pulling off his mask and hoping his face didn't betray him. He knelt briefly to Voldemort then turned and pretended to examine Hermione. His face was carefully neutral and impassive as he did so. I can't lie about it, he thought anxiously. Voldemort was not stupid. "Yes, my Lord. This is Hermione, my ward and Potter's friend." He said coldly.
Voldemort hissed through his teeth. "Stupid girl! Did you think you could carry information on the Death Eaters back to Potter? Even if you had succeeded, what would he have done with it? All he's good at is saving his own skin," Voldemort sneered.
Hermione glanced up at Voldemort and looked him dead in the eye, all her loathing and hatred for everything he stood for suddenly written clear upon her face. "I suppose you would see it that way, considering every time the two of you meet you come off the worse of the confrontation," Hermione sneered. "I wonder what your precious Death Eaters make of that little fact."
Voldemort's eyes glowed fiercely down at her in rage. "How dare you! You're nothing but a filthy mudblood! I know your background. You don't even deserve to be part of the wizarding community," he spat at her.
"That's your opinion," Hermione said smartly. If he was going to kill her, at least she was going to have her say first. "You're nothing but a pathetic has-been that was defeated by a baby!"
Snape listened to her in despair. She would not be allowed to live after those insults. He desperately tried to think of a way of turning the situation around.
Voldemort was apoplectic. "You filthy mudblood whore! You won't live to see the sun! I'm sorry Snape but I'm going to have to deprive you of your little ward," he raged like a beast. Voldemort raised his wand, a vicious look on his face.
Then he slowly lowered it again.
Because the girl was transforming.
Into a black unicorn.
Voldemort turned a sickly yellow grey as the magnificent beast reared before him, its ebony hooves flashing in the eerie green light. Before Voldemort could raise his wand again, the unicorn wheeled around, came down on all fours and turned one molten eye on him. The wizard froze. The two stared at each other. The beast focused on its prey, its powerful magic keeping him easily within its control.
Once again, Snape felt as though time had slowed down to a mere trickle. Feeling as though he was moving underwater, he took his wand out of his robes. He saw the unicorn lower its horn, its eye still fixed on its quarry. The creature charged, as graceful and liquid as moonlight on flowing water. It was hypnotic.
Suddenly the world snapped back into focus for Snape. He raised his wand and yelled, "Avada Kedevra". A ray of evil green light shot from his wand and made its way unerringly towards Voldemort. The split second the power left his wand, Snape knew the spell could not kill something no longer truly human. That was not his aim however. All he wanted was to stop the unicorn's horn connecting with flesh.
Just as the unicorn was a stride away from Voldemort, his disappeared into a black vapour and his clothes collapsed in a heap on the grass.
The unicorn charged into thin air.
(* Based on a speech by Himmler to Hoess in June 1941.) (** Based on a speech given by Hitler on 12 April 1922 in Munich.) (*** Based on a speech given by Himmler on 24 May 1945.) (****Job 4:14 & Job 22:10 & Psalm 48:6 )
