Title: Follow Her Nightmare
Notes: See Epilogue
Chapter Three – When You're Falling Can No Longer Survive
"Avadra Kad . . ."
Hermione's eyes flew open and she stared at the green light coming from the wand in front of her. Time seemed to slow as the green light flickered and burned again, brighter and stronger than ever.
"No." Severus' voice sliced through the alley, echoing off the brick wall. The Englishman was pulled away from Hermione, thrown backwards into the opposite wall. The foreigner lunged toward her, but a hex shot out, catching him in the chest and forcing him to the ground. As suddenly as it had descended, the fog lifted and Hermione scrambled to pull her wand from her robes.
"Are you alright?" Severus was across the alley, putting the Englishman (a Slytherin, if Hermione recalled correctly, from the year below her) in a body bind.
"Just bruised," she ran a hand down her side, her fingers dwelling over a cut in her side, "and bleeding."
Severus shook the Englishman back into consciousness and propped him up against the wall. "Roderick Gottileb," he said, "looks like Dumbledore owes me a Galleon after all. I knew you wouldn't be able to resist the dark side."
"Professor Snape." Gottileb spat at Severus, "the double crosser. Good to see you're still cavorting around saving Mudbloods."
"Shut up." Severus took a tiny phial of potion from his robes and brandished it in front of Gottileb. "You'll talk when I want you to talk."
Gottileb laughed. "You're going to drug me with some truth potion to get the information you want. Bloody typical. I always thought you were sneaky like that."
Severus wrapped a hand around Gottileb's neck and leant in close. "Well I could always just choke you until you give me the information I need. But I've never really been fond of brutal violence. I prefer the more . . . subtle approach." A taunting note entered his voice. "I've developed a potion, Roderick, which won't just get you to tell me the truth, but will also eat at your insides until you die a horrible and painful death." The hand around Gottileb's neck tightened. "I will learn the truth. Which method I choose to employ depends entirely on you and how quickly you want to tell me about your master."
"How do you know I have a master?" Gottileb's voice was tighter than before and Hermione noticed a flash of panic crossing his face. "How do you know I'm not the master myself? How do you know I'm not working on my own?"
Severus laughed. "You've never been intelligent enough to work on your own," he taunted. "You've always been a follower."
Gottileb glanced at the tiny phial Severus was still holding. "I never saw the guy's face. We were in Knockturn Alley, you know, and it was dark and he was wearing some kind of mask. He said that he'd give me a thousand galleons if I could manage to kill the Mudblood. He offered Porchenski, over there," he nodded at the unmoving figure down the alley, "the same deal."
Severus shook him, slamming his head into the wall. Hermione winced, but was unable to turn her head away. "What else did he say?" Severus demanded.
"He kept talking about Harry Potter. He was babbling, you know. Something about sons and house elves and Azkaban. I don't think he was all there in the head, if you know what I mean."
Severus nodded slowly. "Fine. Now drink this." He held the phial out.
Gottileb shook his head, his eyes wide with panic and fear. "You said you wouldn't. I told you the truth, you know. I don't know anything else than that, I promise. Please, Professor Snape."
Severus ignored his whimpering, holding Gottileb's head back and forcing his mouth open. "Pour the potion in," he ordered Hermione, pushing his knee into the man.
"But, didn't you say. . ? You know I can't do that Severus."
"Do it Professor Granger! Now!"
She hobbled across the alley and took the phial from between his fingers, uncapped it and poured the contents into Gottileb's mouth. He stopped struggling quickly and Severus allowed him to slump over the the ground, unconscious.
"It's a sleeping potion," he explained, his voice tight and angry. "Someone will find him later."
"Oh," she replied She realised that the whole encounter had left her shaking and a quick inspection of her side revealed that she was still bleeding. "I need to get something on this cut, Severus," she said, hoping to move away from the subject of the potion and the overwhelming fear that had swept over her.
He left Gottileb and came to her side. His fingers were quick to find her wound and he used light from his wand to examine it. "It's quite bad. Do you want to go to St. Mungos?"
She shook her head. "It's nothing," she said. "I've got everything I need to deal with it back at home." At least the second part was true.
He held an arm out for her to lean on and began to walk her towards her flat. It wasn't until they'd taken a few steps that she realised he was also walking with difficulty. "You're hurt!" she exclaimed, looking back at the bodies in the alley way. "When did that . . ."
"Lupin and I were attacked while talking over a quiet beer," he explained. "We weren't ready for it and my reactions weren't as quick as I would have liked." He frowned. "I thought that someone might have been making good on those death threats. That's why I came out looking for you."
"So how much danger are we in right now?" Hermione looked over her shoulder. "Do you think we need to abandon the investigation?"
"I think we'll be safe for a while." Severus grimaced. He stopped at the edge of the path and waited for a car to pass before steering her across the road. "I've killed five of the assassins sent out today and rendered another two scared and unconscious. I think that whoever is in charge will be more cautious before sending people out to kill me. You might want to polish up your old defense skills though."
She nodded. "So who do you think is in charge of it all, then?"
He glanced around. "Wait until we get inside. Then I'll tell you what I think I know."
Hermione's flat seemed more artificial and overly bright than usual. She allowed Severus to examine the cut on her side, ("it's not as deep as it could be") before he covered it with a thin bandage. She drank half a cup of healing potion without protest, although she detested the way it made her feel sleepy and stupid when she wanted all her wits about her.
"His master?" she asked. "Who do you think is in charge of all this? Who wants me dead?"
"Lucius Malfoy." Severus sat down on the overstuffed armchair that had been Harry's favourite and rubbed his eyes. "I knew that his various visits to Azkaban had driven him quite mad, but I think we've all underestimated the extent of his madness."
"So what does it mean?" Hermione stood up, moving slowly towards the small bookcase that sat in the corner of her sitting room. She pulled out a heavy book and stood up again. "Does that mean Lucius Malfoy killed Harry? Have we solved our big mystery?"
"Not necessarily." Severus stood and limped towards the study. Hermione followed close behind him, the book still resting in her hands.
"What do you mean?"
"Everything we know is either gossip or rumours." He sat down at her desk and pulled the mysterious parchment he'd been trying to solve the night before towards him. "What have you got there?" he asked, pointing at her book.
"It's a book on Ibronite. I just remembered it before. I think I picked it up in the back of a second hand bookstore somewhere."
He nodded. "Hopefully it will help me put the last piece of the parchment together. Once we have that we might know more."
"How can you just dismiss Lucius Malfoy like that?" Hermione demanded. "Didn't you just tell me that he was mad?"
"He's mad enough to want to kill you and me. It doesn't mean that he's mad enough to kill Harry Potter."
"Ron isn't a gossip. He was sure Malfoy was involved in it all somewhere."
Severus glared at her. "How many times did Weasley accuse me of wanting to hurt Potter when the three of you were students? Anyway, I can't see Malfoy or any of his flunkies killing Potter and not making a fuss about it. They would want everyone to know exactly what they did. They would want the magical population to fear them."
She hugged to book to her chest. "What are you trying to say?"
"I think the death of Harry Potter was suspicious. But the only people we know who were actually there was Potter and Weasley. Weasley's been cleared of all charges, so I think we would be remiss if we didn't turn some of our suspicions towards Potter."
"What?"
Severus shrugged. "Maybe the raid wasn't as simple or innocent as we'd like to believe."
Hermione slammed the book down on the desk and resisted the temptation to pick it up again and throw it at him. "Harry was a good guy, remember!"
"Are you sure?" Severus closed his eyes. "You had little contact with him in the last years of his life. You have no idea of what he might have been involved in."
"He defeated Voldemort! How can you just dismiss something like that?"
"He had more power than a young wizard knows how to handle, Hermione. He'd used it in foolish and ambiguous ways before. How are we to know he didn't move over to a side a little less savoury than our own?"
"I was his friend."
"Yes, I know." He stared at some point over her shoulder. "How could I forget that?"
"What on earth are you trying to say to me now?" Hermione pushed her chair away from the desk.
"It's not important."
"When are you going to stop hiding things from me, Severus?" She jumped to her feet and winced. The healing potion must have been weaker than usual because it was doing nothing to help her pain. "You're always keeping secrets, always hiding parts of yourself. When are you going to tell me something true?"
"When did we begin having a relationship where we didn't have secrets?" Severus also stood, resting his weight over on his stronger leg. "Most of the time you can't even admit we're having a relationship, but you still want to know all my secrets. What are you doing with me, Hermione?"
She crossed her arms. "I'm not sure anymore."
He sneered. "It's an easy question, Professor Granger. I just want to know if you're sleeping with me because no one else will, or because the sex is good?"
"How dare you!" Hermione clutched her robes tightly, preventing herself from reaching out and slapping him. "How dare you . . . how dare you reduce my emotions and feelings to dust like that."
"What am I supposed to think, Hermione? Tell me." He sighed and sank back into his chair. "You're so wrapped up in your own past that I don't know what to think. I never know . . . when we sleep together, I never know if you're having sex with me, or the ghost of Ron Weasley or Harry Potter. You're so wrapped up in your past that you can't see the bigger picture."
"I'm beginning to see the bigger picture now," Hermione said, her voice dripping with ice. "I'm seeing a greasy-haired git who always hated Harry, who would do anything to tag him as the bad guy because Harry's father was mean to you once." She shook her head, "I don't know what I was thinking when I slept with you. Maybe I was insane."
"Must be in the water at Hogwarts, then."
"I'm going to bed." Hermione felt the tears rising in her eyes and just wanted to get away from him. "We'll get this ridiculous investigation out of the way and just forget that any of this ever happened."
"Fine."
She stumbled out the the room, trying to ignore the pain that was steadily consuming her body. When she reached her bedroom she slammed the bedroom door behind her, and slid to the comfort of the floor, unable to keep the tears from falling.
Notes:
Roderick Gottileb: don't know where I got that name
Chapter Three – When You're Falling Can No Longer Survive
"Avadra Kad . . ."
Hermione's eyes flew open and she stared at the green light coming from the wand in front of her. Time seemed to slow as the green light flickered and burned again, brighter and stronger than ever.
"No." Severus' voice sliced through the alley, echoing off the brick wall. The Englishman was pulled away from Hermione, thrown backwards into the opposite wall. The foreigner lunged toward her, but a hex shot out, catching him in the chest and forcing him to the ground. As suddenly as it had descended, the fog lifted and Hermione scrambled to pull her wand from her robes.
"Are you alright?" Severus was across the alley, putting the Englishman (a Slytherin, if Hermione recalled correctly, from the year below her) in a body bind.
"Just bruised," she ran a hand down her side, her fingers dwelling over a cut in her side, "and bleeding."
Severus shook the Englishman back into consciousness and propped him up against the wall. "Roderick Gottileb," he said, "looks like Dumbledore owes me a Galleon after all. I knew you wouldn't be able to resist the dark side."
"Professor Snape." Gottileb spat at Severus, "the double crosser. Good to see you're still cavorting around saving Mudbloods."
"Shut up." Severus took a tiny phial of potion from his robes and brandished it in front of Gottileb. "You'll talk when I want you to talk."
Gottileb laughed. "You're going to drug me with some truth potion to get the information you want. Bloody typical. I always thought you were sneaky like that."
Severus wrapped a hand around Gottileb's neck and leant in close. "Well I could always just choke you until you give me the information I need. But I've never really been fond of brutal violence. I prefer the more . . . subtle approach." A taunting note entered his voice. "I've developed a potion, Roderick, which won't just get you to tell me the truth, but will also eat at your insides until you die a horrible and painful death." The hand around Gottileb's neck tightened. "I will learn the truth. Which method I choose to employ depends entirely on you and how quickly you want to tell me about your master."
"How do you know I have a master?" Gottileb's voice was tighter than before and Hermione noticed a flash of panic crossing his face. "How do you know I'm not the master myself? How do you know I'm not working on my own?"
Severus laughed. "You've never been intelligent enough to work on your own," he taunted. "You've always been a follower."
Gottileb glanced at the tiny phial Severus was still holding. "I never saw the guy's face. We were in Knockturn Alley, you know, and it was dark and he was wearing some kind of mask. He said that he'd give me a thousand galleons if I could manage to kill the Mudblood. He offered Porchenski, over there," he nodded at the unmoving figure down the alley, "the same deal."
Severus shook him, slamming his head into the wall. Hermione winced, but was unable to turn her head away. "What else did he say?" Severus demanded.
"He kept talking about Harry Potter. He was babbling, you know. Something about sons and house elves and Azkaban. I don't think he was all there in the head, if you know what I mean."
Severus nodded slowly. "Fine. Now drink this." He held the phial out.
Gottileb shook his head, his eyes wide with panic and fear. "You said you wouldn't. I told you the truth, you know. I don't know anything else than that, I promise. Please, Professor Snape."
Severus ignored his whimpering, holding Gottileb's head back and forcing his mouth open. "Pour the potion in," he ordered Hermione, pushing his knee into the man.
"But, didn't you say. . ? You know I can't do that Severus."
"Do it Professor Granger! Now!"
She hobbled across the alley and took the phial from between his fingers, uncapped it and poured the contents into Gottileb's mouth. He stopped struggling quickly and Severus allowed him to slump over the the ground, unconscious.
"It's a sleeping potion," he explained, his voice tight and angry. "Someone will find him later."
"Oh," she replied She realised that the whole encounter had left her shaking and a quick inspection of her side revealed that she was still bleeding. "I need to get something on this cut, Severus," she said, hoping to move away from the subject of the potion and the overwhelming fear that had swept over her.
He left Gottileb and came to her side. His fingers were quick to find her wound and he used light from his wand to examine it. "It's quite bad. Do you want to go to St. Mungos?"
She shook her head. "It's nothing," she said. "I've got everything I need to deal with it back at home." At least the second part was true.
He held an arm out for her to lean on and began to walk her towards her flat. It wasn't until they'd taken a few steps that she realised he was also walking with difficulty. "You're hurt!" she exclaimed, looking back at the bodies in the alley way. "When did that . . ."
"Lupin and I were attacked while talking over a quiet beer," he explained. "We weren't ready for it and my reactions weren't as quick as I would have liked." He frowned. "I thought that someone might have been making good on those death threats. That's why I came out looking for you."
"So how much danger are we in right now?" Hermione looked over her shoulder. "Do you think we need to abandon the investigation?"
"I think we'll be safe for a while." Severus grimaced. He stopped at the edge of the path and waited for a car to pass before steering her across the road. "I've killed five of the assassins sent out today and rendered another two scared and unconscious. I think that whoever is in charge will be more cautious before sending people out to kill me. You might want to polish up your old defense skills though."
She nodded. "So who do you think is in charge of it all, then?"
He glanced around. "Wait until we get inside. Then I'll tell you what I think I know."
Hermione's flat seemed more artificial and overly bright than usual. She allowed Severus to examine the cut on her side, ("it's not as deep as it could be") before he covered it with a thin bandage. She drank half a cup of healing potion without protest, although she detested the way it made her feel sleepy and stupid when she wanted all her wits about her.
"His master?" she asked. "Who do you think is in charge of all this? Who wants me dead?"
"Lucius Malfoy." Severus sat down on the overstuffed armchair that had been Harry's favourite and rubbed his eyes. "I knew that his various visits to Azkaban had driven him quite mad, but I think we've all underestimated the extent of his madness."
"So what does it mean?" Hermione stood up, moving slowly towards the small bookcase that sat in the corner of her sitting room. She pulled out a heavy book and stood up again. "Does that mean Lucius Malfoy killed Harry? Have we solved our big mystery?"
"Not necessarily." Severus stood and limped towards the study. Hermione followed close behind him, the book still resting in her hands.
"What do you mean?"
"Everything we know is either gossip or rumours." He sat down at her desk and pulled the mysterious parchment he'd been trying to solve the night before towards him. "What have you got there?" he asked, pointing at her book.
"It's a book on Ibronite. I just remembered it before. I think I picked it up in the back of a second hand bookstore somewhere."
He nodded. "Hopefully it will help me put the last piece of the parchment together. Once we have that we might know more."
"How can you just dismiss Lucius Malfoy like that?" Hermione demanded. "Didn't you just tell me that he was mad?"
"He's mad enough to want to kill you and me. It doesn't mean that he's mad enough to kill Harry Potter."
"Ron isn't a gossip. He was sure Malfoy was involved in it all somewhere."
Severus glared at her. "How many times did Weasley accuse me of wanting to hurt Potter when the three of you were students? Anyway, I can't see Malfoy or any of his flunkies killing Potter and not making a fuss about it. They would want everyone to know exactly what they did. They would want the magical population to fear them."
She hugged to book to her chest. "What are you trying to say?"
"I think the death of Harry Potter was suspicious. But the only people we know who were actually there was Potter and Weasley. Weasley's been cleared of all charges, so I think we would be remiss if we didn't turn some of our suspicions towards Potter."
"What?"
Severus shrugged. "Maybe the raid wasn't as simple or innocent as we'd like to believe."
Hermione slammed the book down on the desk and resisted the temptation to pick it up again and throw it at him. "Harry was a good guy, remember!"
"Are you sure?" Severus closed his eyes. "You had little contact with him in the last years of his life. You have no idea of what he might have been involved in."
"He defeated Voldemort! How can you just dismiss something like that?"
"He had more power than a young wizard knows how to handle, Hermione. He'd used it in foolish and ambiguous ways before. How are we to know he didn't move over to a side a little less savoury than our own?"
"I was his friend."
"Yes, I know." He stared at some point over her shoulder. "How could I forget that?"
"What on earth are you trying to say to me now?" Hermione pushed her chair away from the desk.
"It's not important."
"When are you going to stop hiding things from me, Severus?" She jumped to her feet and winced. The healing potion must have been weaker than usual because it was doing nothing to help her pain. "You're always keeping secrets, always hiding parts of yourself. When are you going to tell me something true?"
"When did we begin having a relationship where we didn't have secrets?" Severus also stood, resting his weight over on his stronger leg. "Most of the time you can't even admit we're having a relationship, but you still want to know all my secrets. What are you doing with me, Hermione?"
She crossed her arms. "I'm not sure anymore."
He sneered. "It's an easy question, Professor Granger. I just want to know if you're sleeping with me because no one else will, or because the sex is good?"
"How dare you!" Hermione clutched her robes tightly, preventing herself from reaching out and slapping him. "How dare you . . . how dare you reduce my emotions and feelings to dust like that."
"What am I supposed to think, Hermione? Tell me." He sighed and sank back into his chair. "You're so wrapped up in your own past that I don't know what to think. I never know . . . when we sleep together, I never know if you're having sex with me, or the ghost of Ron Weasley or Harry Potter. You're so wrapped up in your past that you can't see the bigger picture."
"I'm beginning to see the bigger picture now," Hermione said, her voice dripping with ice. "I'm seeing a greasy-haired git who always hated Harry, who would do anything to tag him as the bad guy because Harry's father was mean to you once." She shook her head, "I don't know what I was thinking when I slept with you. Maybe I was insane."
"Must be in the water at Hogwarts, then."
"I'm going to bed." Hermione felt the tears rising in her eyes and just wanted to get away from him. "We'll get this ridiculous investigation out of the way and just forget that any of this ever happened."
"Fine."
She stumbled out the the room, trying to ignore the pain that was steadily consuming her body. When she reached her bedroom she slammed the bedroom door behind her, and slid to the comfort of the floor, unable to keep the tears from falling.
Notes:
Roderick Gottileb: don't know where I got that name