Chapter 6
Albus appeared on the rivers edge with a soft crack. The morning was young, the early sun had yet to shed its blanket of fog and he squinted slightly to make out the figure waiting for him on the bank. "Alastor," he greeted shortly, inclining his head at the Auror.
"Albus," The man focused his non-magical eye on Dumbledore's face while his magical eye remained focused on something behind him.
"What have you found? Dumbledore moved forward until he was shoulder to shoulder with Moody, peering out onto the waterway.
"We're not sure yet, but it's nothing you'll like." Alistair turned and tread carefully down the steep rim of the river. "Over here."
~
"Can you hand me Oren's A Perlustration of Time?" Hermione set the book she had just finished on the table to her left. Since Dr. Holman's visit Hermione had been moved into a suit of her own suite of rooms adjoining to Severus'. Currently she was curled up in one of the two plush armchairs that had been placed on either side of her fireplace.
Severus, seated in the chair across from her, rose immediately to fetch the desired book from the nearby bookshelf. Professor Flitwick had been busy in the last few days charming the ancient texts into Braille for Hermione's constant studying.
Hermione had been sticking closely to her promise to Severus, but despite taking the promised rests, she managed to read between two and four books a day, which kept the charms professor busy trying to keep up to her speed. The voracious thirst for knowledge that she had had as a girl had returned with a noticeable increase after Dr. Holman's last visit, if she were going to live as a blind woman she would have to occupy her mind some way or another or she would go mad.
Severus watched over her working habits with a sharp eye, ready to swoop in and tranquilize her if it was necessary to make her sleep well, but so far she had left him little cause for this worry except past precedent. The work she was doing intrigued the academic in him despite the protector aspect of his personality's loathing of the work.
Hermione spent her days doing research for the other professors. In-depth research in various fields that the over worked school teachers had always wanted to do, but would never have time for.
Professor Flitwick had spent a day teaching her how to summon books for herself when she was alone and a spell that would write down whatever she said a loud. The summoning charm had caused them both a few problems because, of course, Hermione couldn't see the objects that hurtled towards her, so the Charms professor had modified the spell so that she summoned them into a pile a few feet from her chair and then she could rise and pick them up. He also taught her the charm he had used to alter regular books to Braille.
Severus pressed the requested book into her hands, "Whose work are you doing today?" he asked, decidedly curious as to which one of his colleagues was interested in the passage of time and time travel.
"Professor Trelawney," Hermione replied with a smirk, "believe it or not it seems our Divination Professor has an extremely ready mind and a deeply hidden thirst for knowledge." Severus snorted and Hermione gave him conspiratory grin, "Of course the skeptics among us may be comforted by the fact that none of the research topics are of vital importance to any matter beyond the sphere she has shut herself in." She passed him the book she had just finished, Rosetta Finn's Accurate Predictions.
Severus smirked at the cover, a picture of a bat-like woman strangely reminiscent of the current Hogwarts Divinations professor. The subtitle read 'the easy route to accuracy revealed!' He snorted again. Only Hermione would agree to do research for that old fraud.
A tapping at the window caught their attention. Severus rose to let the tawny owl, who was hovering impatiently outside, in to deliver its message. The scroll was sealed tightly with the Hogwarts crest and a quickly scrawled note that said simply, 'Severus'. He moved to the chair where he had been sitting and unfurled the parchment.
Severus, There is no easy way to say what it is I need to tell you, so I'll jump right to the point. Harry's body was discovered on the banks of the Thames this morning. His death seems to be the painful result of vengeful Death Eaters...
--- earlier that day---
... He has the dark mark carved into his chest and it's obvious that he had been tortured for quite some time. I shall leave it to your discretion to inform Miss Granger, though I advise doing it sooner than later.
Albus Dumbledore
Albus rolled up the parchment with a sad sigh. He was still at the crime site. His first thought after he and Moody had tracked the blood at the river's edge to the place where Harry lay was that Hermione must be informed of her friend's fate before she heard it in children's gossip or read it in the Profit.
"Albus," Moody stood a few feet in front of him, temporarily blocking the body from view. "You need to see this."
It was sickening, Dumbledore decided as he stood, that the world immediately dehumanized their dead. An injured or missing person was still a person, but the moment their pulse was seen to stop they become a nameless thing, a body. Standing beside the Auror he looked down at Harry's body with tears in his usually cheerful blue eyes. Maybe, he conceded, it was more out of self preservation than savage disregard that they unnamed the dead. It was easier to simply look at the scarred boy who used to be a rambunctious student with a life stretched out ahead of him as a casualty of war than as what he was in life and what he might have been. "What is it?" He asked in a tired voice.
"This isn't Harry."
---
Severus looked once again at the letter in his shaking hand. This was the first time he had been truly glad that Hermione had been robbed of her sight. As long as he stayed silent and went about his work she wouldn't have to know. And if she didn't know, then he wouldn't have to deal with the painful news. He rolled the parchment back up and set it on the table beside him; he would burn it later so she wouldn't be able to read it for herself.
"Bad news?" Hermione had yet to open her book and was staring in his general direction, a look of concern on her delicate features.
Severus took a deep, shaky breath and walked over to stand before her.
"What is it?" Hermione could sense the tension in his silence. "What's wrong?"
"It's Harry," Severus said, having never been any good at breaking such news gently.
"What's wrong with him? Where is he?"
"I'm so sorry, Harry's gone."
"Missing?"
"No Hermione. They found his body in the Thames this morning."
"No," Hermione's face crumpled. "You're lying to me! Harry's fine! He survived Voldemort; he was finally free to live his own life. You're wrong. You have to be wrong."
Severus moved to her side and wrapped his arms awkwardly around her shivering body. "I wish it weren't true, you have no idea how much. "He stroked her back in slow comforting circles; she clung to him, staining the front of his robes with her tears.
"That's why he never came isn't it?" She asked her voice scratchy. "I knew," she sniffed loudly, "I knew there had to be something wrong, but a part of me was hurt because he didn't make any effort. I guess I was being selfish, I should have known he wouldn't do that."
"Oh, Hermione," Severus pulled her as tightly as he could against himself, his heart breaking for the defeated acceptance he heard in her voice. "I never even thought..."
"How long have you known?" Hermione asked accusingly. In one swift move she pushed away from him and turned to walk away. Unfortunately in her distressed state she hadn't taken proper note of where in the room she was. Her head collided with the edge of a cabinet and she slumped to the ground, unconscious.
--- "This isn't Harry." Albus heard the words but they took several minutes to fully register. "Wait..." his mind grappled for an explanation, "then whose is it?"
Alastor frowned deeply. "I don't know," he grumbled kneeling in the mud next to the body, "but it's a message."
Albus felt like he was in some sort of dream, "what do you mean message?"
"They've got Harry," Alastor said in a conspiratory tone. "This one's been transfigured somehow into Harry."
"How can you be sure it's not him?"
Alastor looked at Albus as if he thought the old man had finally lost his remaining marbles. "Take a look at his scar."
"I-" Albus knelt next to the Auror and looked closer at the lighting bolt on the boy's forehead, "It's facing the wrong direction," he said in wonderment.
"So obviously not pollyjuice," Alastor looked pleased as he stood, dusting the heavy mud from his pants. "Poly juice copies everything, even hairstyle, so it would certainly have picked up on Harry's curse scar. Transfiguration is trickier; it's pretty simple to miss something like the direction of a scar."
Albus simply stared. He would never have placed Alastor Moody as an expert in Transfiguration; he was too jumpy to maintain the necessary focus. "Is there a way to transfigure the body back?"
"Yes," Alastor said slowly, fingering his wand. "But I'd prefer to wait until my Camera man arrives, won't do to lose any evidence."
"In that case," Albus settled on the river bank, "Would you care for a cup of tea?" In the excitement of discovering that Harry may still live he completely forgot about the hasty owl he had sent to Hogwarts to tell Severus of the latest development. He and the aging Auror settled on a patch of un-muddied grass and enjoyed a small picnic.
"Auror Moody?" the timid voice cut their breakfast feast short, the camera man had arrived.
"Ah good!" Alastor rose as quickly and a man missing a leg can and shook hands with the short mousy-haired girl. "Albus I'd like to introduce you to Matilda Myrtle, our crime scene photographer." He leaned closer to Albus and whispered, "Apparently all Muggle police have crime scene photographers and the Muggle-born Aurors insisted."
Albus chuckled and followed Moody and Myrtle to the river bed where they took two whole rolls of film, photographing the site from every conceivable angle twice.
When Matilda was finished she went to pack up her camera. "All done here then, it was nice to meet you Albus."
"Just a moment lass," Alastor put a hand on her arm, "we're not quite through yet." He raised his wand and pointed it at the corpse. "Conversio Cursum Veritas."
A jet of silver light shot from his wand and enveloped the body. For a few moments the trio was forced to look away from the brilliant light. When they could once again look at the body the shock of what they saw took away their ability to speak.
_____________________________________________________________________ A/N: Ok... I don't know why I keep killing Harry in everything I write, or at least pretending to, but I'd better stop or none of you will be the least bit surprised, although I make no promises. This is a fic about life, and life, unfortunately includes death. Speaking of death... will Hermione survive the fall?
Next chapter is the last. And because I've been dragging this fic out since august.... *cackles maniacally* you shouldn't be surprised to hear that it will take a miracle for me to get it out before May. I'm in grade 12 and this is my prom month so... I'll be insanely busy for the next few weeks, which means no time to write. :P To ease the wait you can expect a cookie to go up on my LJ sometime next week.
Huge thanks to those who reviewed last chapter!
Aegina – I honestly hadn't considered a sequel to this one. Although originally it was supposed to be longer (until I got lazy and cut it off).
On-A-Rainy-Day – Thank you so much for your reviews. I hope this chapter doesn't disappoint.
Cianna Greenwood – Thanks so much for your review. I'm glad you liked the plot, the idea of Hermione being blind isn't exactly original, I think I was inspired by another story, unfortunately I can't remember its name, but I did try and do my own take on the basic idea.
kitkat87 - thanks for your review. I will try and post the last chapter by mid-May, but life will only get busier form me from now until July so I can't make any promises. I hope you liked this chapter.
Claire Rickman – Thanks so much for your review! It's not strange liking seeing Snape cry, at least IU don't think so, I mean I thoroughly enjoyed making him show that side.
Melwasul – Thanks! I hope this chapter lived up to your expectations.
Tracy3 – Thanks for reviewing.
Dav – thanks you so much for your review. I'm glad you liked it.
Albus appeared on the rivers edge with a soft crack. The morning was young, the early sun had yet to shed its blanket of fog and he squinted slightly to make out the figure waiting for him on the bank. "Alastor," he greeted shortly, inclining his head at the Auror.
"Albus," The man focused his non-magical eye on Dumbledore's face while his magical eye remained focused on something behind him.
"What have you found? Dumbledore moved forward until he was shoulder to shoulder with Moody, peering out onto the waterway.
"We're not sure yet, but it's nothing you'll like." Alistair turned and tread carefully down the steep rim of the river. "Over here."
~
"Can you hand me Oren's A Perlustration of Time?" Hermione set the book she had just finished on the table to her left. Since Dr. Holman's visit Hermione had been moved into a suit of her own suite of rooms adjoining to Severus'. Currently she was curled up in one of the two plush armchairs that had been placed on either side of her fireplace.
Severus, seated in the chair across from her, rose immediately to fetch the desired book from the nearby bookshelf. Professor Flitwick had been busy in the last few days charming the ancient texts into Braille for Hermione's constant studying.
Hermione had been sticking closely to her promise to Severus, but despite taking the promised rests, she managed to read between two and four books a day, which kept the charms professor busy trying to keep up to her speed. The voracious thirst for knowledge that she had had as a girl had returned with a noticeable increase after Dr. Holman's last visit, if she were going to live as a blind woman she would have to occupy her mind some way or another or she would go mad.
Severus watched over her working habits with a sharp eye, ready to swoop in and tranquilize her if it was necessary to make her sleep well, but so far she had left him little cause for this worry except past precedent. The work she was doing intrigued the academic in him despite the protector aspect of his personality's loathing of the work.
Hermione spent her days doing research for the other professors. In-depth research in various fields that the over worked school teachers had always wanted to do, but would never have time for.
Professor Flitwick had spent a day teaching her how to summon books for herself when she was alone and a spell that would write down whatever she said a loud. The summoning charm had caused them both a few problems because, of course, Hermione couldn't see the objects that hurtled towards her, so the Charms professor had modified the spell so that she summoned them into a pile a few feet from her chair and then she could rise and pick them up. He also taught her the charm he had used to alter regular books to Braille.
Severus pressed the requested book into her hands, "Whose work are you doing today?" he asked, decidedly curious as to which one of his colleagues was interested in the passage of time and time travel.
"Professor Trelawney," Hermione replied with a smirk, "believe it or not it seems our Divination Professor has an extremely ready mind and a deeply hidden thirst for knowledge." Severus snorted and Hermione gave him conspiratory grin, "Of course the skeptics among us may be comforted by the fact that none of the research topics are of vital importance to any matter beyond the sphere she has shut herself in." She passed him the book she had just finished, Rosetta Finn's Accurate Predictions.
Severus smirked at the cover, a picture of a bat-like woman strangely reminiscent of the current Hogwarts Divinations professor. The subtitle read 'the easy route to accuracy revealed!' He snorted again. Only Hermione would agree to do research for that old fraud.
A tapping at the window caught their attention. Severus rose to let the tawny owl, who was hovering impatiently outside, in to deliver its message. The scroll was sealed tightly with the Hogwarts crest and a quickly scrawled note that said simply, 'Severus'. He moved to the chair where he had been sitting and unfurled the parchment.
Severus, There is no easy way to say what it is I need to tell you, so I'll jump right to the point. Harry's body was discovered on the banks of the Thames this morning. His death seems to be the painful result of vengeful Death Eaters...
--- earlier that day---
... He has the dark mark carved into his chest and it's obvious that he had been tortured for quite some time. I shall leave it to your discretion to inform Miss Granger, though I advise doing it sooner than later.
Albus Dumbledore
Albus rolled up the parchment with a sad sigh. He was still at the crime site. His first thought after he and Moody had tracked the blood at the river's edge to the place where Harry lay was that Hermione must be informed of her friend's fate before she heard it in children's gossip or read it in the Profit.
"Albus," Moody stood a few feet in front of him, temporarily blocking the body from view. "You need to see this."
It was sickening, Dumbledore decided as he stood, that the world immediately dehumanized their dead. An injured or missing person was still a person, but the moment their pulse was seen to stop they become a nameless thing, a body. Standing beside the Auror he looked down at Harry's body with tears in his usually cheerful blue eyes. Maybe, he conceded, it was more out of self preservation than savage disregard that they unnamed the dead. It was easier to simply look at the scarred boy who used to be a rambunctious student with a life stretched out ahead of him as a casualty of war than as what he was in life and what he might have been. "What is it?" He asked in a tired voice.
"This isn't Harry."
---
Severus looked once again at the letter in his shaking hand. This was the first time he had been truly glad that Hermione had been robbed of her sight. As long as he stayed silent and went about his work she wouldn't have to know. And if she didn't know, then he wouldn't have to deal with the painful news. He rolled the parchment back up and set it on the table beside him; he would burn it later so she wouldn't be able to read it for herself.
"Bad news?" Hermione had yet to open her book and was staring in his general direction, a look of concern on her delicate features.
Severus took a deep, shaky breath and walked over to stand before her.
"What is it?" Hermione could sense the tension in his silence. "What's wrong?"
"It's Harry," Severus said, having never been any good at breaking such news gently.
"What's wrong with him? Where is he?"
"I'm so sorry, Harry's gone."
"Missing?"
"No Hermione. They found his body in the Thames this morning."
"No," Hermione's face crumpled. "You're lying to me! Harry's fine! He survived Voldemort; he was finally free to live his own life. You're wrong. You have to be wrong."
Severus moved to her side and wrapped his arms awkwardly around her shivering body. "I wish it weren't true, you have no idea how much. "He stroked her back in slow comforting circles; she clung to him, staining the front of his robes with her tears.
"That's why he never came isn't it?" She asked her voice scratchy. "I knew," she sniffed loudly, "I knew there had to be something wrong, but a part of me was hurt because he didn't make any effort. I guess I was being selfish, I should have known he wouldn't do that."
"Oh, Hermione," Severus pulled her as tightly as he could against himself, his heart breaking for the defeated acceptance he heard in her voice. "I never even thought..."
"How long have you known?" Hermione asked accusingly. In one swift move she pushed away from him and turned to walk away. Unfortunately in her distressed state she hadn't taken proper note of where in the room she was. Her head collided with the edge of a cabinet and she slumped to the ground, unconscious.
--- "This isn't Harry." Albus heard the words but they took several minutes to fully register. "Wait..." his mind grappled for an explanation, "then whose is it?"
Alastor frowned deeply. "I don't know," he grumbled kneeling in the mud next to the body, "but it's a message."
Albus felt like he was in some sort of dream, "what do you mean message?"
"They've got Harry," Alastor said in a conspiratory tone. "This one's been transfigured somehow into Harry."
"How can you be sure it's not him?"
Alastor looked at Albus as if he thought the old man had finally lost his remaining marbles. "Take a look at his scar."
"I-" Albus knelt next to the Auror and looked closer at the lighting bolt on the boy's forehead, "It's facing the wrong direction," he said in wonderment.
"So obviously not pollyjuice," Alastor looked pleased as he stood, dusting the heavy mud from his pants. "Poly juice copies everything, even hairstyle, so it would certainly have picked up on Harry's curse scar. Transfiguration is trickier; it's pretty simple to miss something like the direction of a scar."
Albus simply stared. He would never have placed Alastor Moody as an expert in Transfiguration; he was too jumpy to maintain the necessary focus. "Is there a way to transfigure the body back?"
"Yes," Alastor said slowly, fingering his wand. "But I'd prefer to wait until my Camera man arrives, won't do to lose any evidence."
"In that case," Albus settled on the river bank, "Would you care for a cup of tea?" In the excitement of discovering that Harry may still live he completely forgot about the hasty owl he had sent to Hogwarts to tell Severus of the latest development. He and the aging Auror settled on a patch of un-muddied grass and enjoyed a small picnic.
"Auror Moody?" the timid voice cut their breakfast feast short, the camera man had arrived.
"Ah good!" Alastor rose as quickly and a man missing a leg can and shook hands with the short mousy-haired girl. "Albus I'd like to introduce you to Matilda Myrtle, our crime scene photographer." He leaned closer to Albus and whispered, "Apparently all Muggle police have crime scene photographers and the Muggle-born Aurors insisted."
Albus chuckled and followed Moody and Myrtle to the river bed where they took two whole rolls of film, photographing the site from every conceivable angle twice.
When Matilda was finished she went to pack up her camera. "All done here then, it was nice to meet you Albus."
"Just a moment lass," Alastor put a hand on her arm, "we're not quite through yet." He raised his wand and pointed it at the corpse. "Conversio Cursum Veritas."
A jet of silver light shot from his wand and enveloped the body. For a few moments the trio was forced to look away from the brilliant light. When they could once again look at the body the shock of what they saw took away their ability to speak.
_____________________________________________________________________ A/N: Ok... I don't know why I keep killing Harry in everything I write, or at least pretending to, but I'd better stop or none of you will be the least bit surprised, although I make no promises. This is a fic about life, and life, unfortunately includes death. Speaking of death... will Hermione survive the fall?
Next chapter is the last. And because I've been dragging this fic out since august.... *cackles maniacally* you shouldn't be surprised to hear that it will take a miracle for me to get it out before May. I'm in grade 12 and this is my prom month so... I'll be insanely busy for the next few weeks, which means no time to write. :P To ease the wait you can expect a cookie to go up on my LJ sometime next week.
Huge thanks to those who reviewed last chapter!
Aegina – I honestly hadn't considered a sequel to this one. Although originally it was supposed to be longer (until I got lazy and cut it off).
On-A-Rainy-Day – Thank you so much for your reviews. I hope this chapter doesn't disappoint.
Cianna Greenwood – Thanks so much for your review. I'm glad you liked the plot, the idea of Hermione being blind isn't exactly original, I think I was inspired by another story, unfortunately I can't remember its name, but I did try and do my own take on the basic idea.
kitkat87 - thanks for your review. I will try and post the last chapter by mid-May, but life will only get busier form me from now until July so I can't make any promises. I hope you liked this chapter.
Claire Rickman – Thanks so much for your review! It's not strange liking seeing Snape cry, at least IU don't think so, I mean I thoroughly enjoyed making him show that side.
Melwasul – Thanks! I hope this chapter lived up to your expectations.
Tracy3 – Thanks for reviewing.
Dav – thanks you so much for your review. I'm glad you liked it.