SEQ CHAPTER \h \r 1Title: An Inevitable Fate
Chapter Twenty Nine: Fire
Author: KissThis
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Rating: Hope's smuttiness is borderline R
Pairing:
Setting: 6th year in Hogwarts.
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Disclaimer: I don't own nuthin' 'cept my fabulous gulfwind!
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A/N: Sorry it's another rather short chapter, but I've been super busy with soccer. I have a 3 hour bus ride up to Davenport on Saturday so I'll have time to write another chapter, if I don't have one out before then. Much love to all you who are sticking with my freakishly growing story.
"Professor!"
Snape paused. Scowling, he looked over his shoulder down the empty hallway.
"PROFESSOR!"
Harry Potter skidded around the corner. He hadn't changed since that morning and the metallic tang of blood assailed Snape's senses. He flung his cape to the side as he turned to face the Gryffindor, his lip curling with disdain.
"Silence, Potter. Some of our students are actually here to learn. Ten points from—"
"Hermione, Professor!" He gasped. His was out of breath from scouring the entire castle. "She sent me to find you."
Snape sneered. "Has your patient bored of your attentions already?"
Anger sparked in Harry's eyes. His fists clenched. Snape's cold obsidian eyes drifted over Harry with indifference, and when they found nothing to impress them he turned away and resumed his swift course down the hallway.
"She needs your help!" Snape stopped. Harry waited anxiously, but the potion's master made no sign of moving.
Damn that girl! He scowled down at the weathered stones beneath his feet, half-expecting them to shy away like everyone else. But they stayed where they were, as stones are apt to do, acknowledging their simple job: allowing people to walk upon them without complaint. Curse that insufferable prefect. Why does she insist on dragging me into the world?
The passing bell rang and echoed loudly throughout the deserted hallway. Doors were flung open and the annoyingly boisterous chatter of the student populace filled the empty space.
"Let's finish this in my office." He growled and pushed his way through the throng of students swarming around them.
"Page sixty-two?" Severus shook his head. His long fingers drummed the wooden top of his desk. "That means nothing to me."
"It has to!" Harry insisted. Snape scowled at the boy's insolence. "Professor, Hermione wouldn't have said it if it didn't have meaning."
"And what sort of significance do you believe Miss Granger's words have?"
"It's a page in a book?"
Snape's lips twisted into a smirk that mocked Harry's words even as he said them. He leaned back in his chair and gave Harry a contemptuous look. "How very astute of you." The falsely impressed words made the Gryffindor cringe.
"Now, seeing as how you are much more learned than I – could you direct me towards which book Miss Granger was making reference to?" He swiveled slightly to the side and gestured towards the wall behind him.
The entire space was filled from wall-to-wall with bookcases that scraped the very ceiling of the room. Books lined each shelf; some old decaying tombs, others looking as if they were fresh off the printing press. But even the methodical, and most likely alphabetical, way they were stacked could not stave the overflow of books that the packed bookcases could not accommodate. They were stacked in man-high piles beside the desk and placed sideways with their spines facing out above the line of books standing on the shelves.
Harry's hope dwindled.
"And who's to say it's one of my books, or even one on potions for that matter. That leaves the entire library to search through as well."
"She's in trouble, Professor." Harry's voice was solemn. Snape closed his eyes and massaged his temple.
"What exactly did she say," Snape prompted.
Harry's brow furrowed slightly and Snape could see him replaying the conversation in his mind. After a moment he answered. "'Find Severus. Page 62.'"
Snape's hand dropped. His eyes flickered open and fixed hard on Harry's face. "Severus? She said 'Severus'? Are you sure?"
Harry nodded his head. "Positive, Professor." He watched as the potion's master got up from his seat and moved to scan the rows of books. "I thought it a bit odd, sir." He added, warily.
Snape frowned and glanced over his shoulder at the boy, "And rightly so. Not exactly fitting the student-teacher mold, does it?"
Harry remained silent.
"After I was discovered, Miss Granger insisted on calling me by my first name, but I refused to allow it." He moved onto the next bookcase. "Didn't you ever wonder where all your house points went?"
Harry was shocked. "That was Hermione?"
"Yes – the model student consistently disobeying her superior. She was quite annoying." His fingers trailed across the spines of the books acting as a guide for his eyes which strained to read the fading print.
"But...you don't feel that way now...do you, Professor? You and Hermione—"
Snape cleared his throat. "Miss Granger and I have a complicated relationship. We'll leave it at that. I've found the book."
"WHAT?! But how? You said yourself it was an impossible task; that page 62 meant nothing to you."
Snape had reseated himself at his desk and was paying no mind to the baffled student pacing the floor in front of him. His mind was on the ancient tomb laying open on the tabletop.
"It doesn't; not personally at least. It is just a page number." With great care he lifted the weathered pages – so old you could nearly see through them. Harry stopped his ranting long enough to look at the book Snape claimed as "the one". It was musty and stank of decay. It was written in a language he couldn't recognize nor decipher.
"It's primeval Latin. You can't read it because it transcends even the ancient Latin you're familiar with." Snape answered for him gruffly.
As Snape gingerly turned the next page, the image inked onto the papyrus caught his eye. He may not have been able to read some prehistoric language, but the pictures were clear enough.
"Changing the magic," he whispered.
Snape turned the page, "Quite. You didn't think we came up with that on our own, did you?"
Harry drew his own conclusions. "This is the book you've been using to train Hermione."
"Your brain actually seems to be working for once, Potter." Snape's retort was scathing – reminiscent of Harry's first years at Hogwarts. "You are correct. It was the only time I allowed her to call me by that name."
Snape looked up from the papers he'd been grading as the Dueling Room door opened with a resonant click. Hermione gave him a cheery smile and a wave as she closed the door behind her. She ran a hand through her messy ponytail.
"Hello, Severus!"
Snape scowled and with a wave of his wand the stack of papers disappeared with a crack. "Miss Granger – let's not begin this childish game again. Five points from Gryffindor." He stood up and his chair disappeared as well.
Hermione frowned slightly as the precious house points were taken, but looked no less discouraged. "It's Hermione." She insisted. Snape stared blankly back.
Her frown immediately lifted itself and she beamed at the glowering potion's master. "And how many more times before you give me another detention?"
"Three," He recited sharply.
Hermione laughed, hearing the emptiness behind the dark threat. She unzipped her pink sweatshirt and placed it, neatly folded, beside the door.
"Don't sound so excited, Miss Granger, or it will be twice as long."
"Hermione." She said sweetly.
He glared at her impudence, "Stop that."
She met his acidic tone with a wide smile, her cheeks dimpling, carrying on the conversation. "After I had so much fun in detention the last time?"
He arched an eyebrow. "You polished my entire storeroom by hand."
She waggled a finger at him, taking it all in stride. "It builds character!"
Snape groaned in disgust. His wand appeared from within his sleeve and he summoned a heavy tome from the shelves in his office. "Show me what you've practiced since our last meeting."
Hermione rolled her eyes, "Aw, don't be like that, Severus—"
"Five points from Gryffindor." He interjected fluidly. "Two times left. I suggest you find your way back to proper decorum, Miss Granger."
"Hermione!"
Her fists were on her hips as she blew wisps of hair from her eyes, but Snape met her annoyed glare with cold impassiveness. She was wearing navy cloth shorts and a white t-shirt that read: "Joe's Burger Shack". "The elemental magic?"
"Neither of us are getting anywhere. These games are rather tedious." She pointed out.
Snape looked down his crooked nose at the prefect and scowled. "And you're a rather impertinent young woman, Miss Granger." He replied.
"Hermione." She quipped.
"Enough!"
"Severus!" She growled.
"FIVE POINTS FROM GRYFFINDOR!" She shouted even as Snape snarled the same words. "Yes! I know."
She threw her hands up in the air and walked across the room muttering about 'impossible professors'. She stopped and looked up at the candle-lit ceiling. She ran a hand through her hair and Snape could see her lips moving slightly as she counted to ten to calm herself.
"One more." He called over to her.
Her teeth clenched and she closed her eyes, fighting back the urge to shout something that would probably get her expelled. After a moment, she opened them again and began her count once more from one. When she turned around to face him, her amber eyes were crinkled in amusement and a wide smile revealed bright white teeth. She bounced back over to where he was waiting with a bewildered look on his face, her hands clasped behind her back.
"Elemental magic?"
His expressionless mask slid back into place and he nodded curtly. "We'll start with Fire seeing as how it gave you the most trouble last time."
She grimaced and he knew she was replaying the memory of seared clothes and scorched hair. Then a determined look settled over her features and she nodded confidently, "Right!"
She flashed him a thumbs up, but he merely moved the book to the crook of his arm and took several steps back to give her room to perform the summoning.
She lifted her right hand in front of her and began the focusing exercises Snape had taught her. She breathed slowly in and out. Snape waited, rather patiently in his case, but when a certain object didn't appear he became annoyed.
"Don't tell me you forgot your wand—"
"Zzvvbbt!" She shushed him in a high-pitched and anxious string of gibberish. Her eyes flashed in annoyance at the interruption before they turned back to her outstretched hand. Snape scowled.
"Wha—"
Hermione's fingers snapped together and sparks showered down onto the floor. Instantly, a finger-nail sized flame appeared above her thumb, flickering innocently along with the candles lining the walls.
"I give you FIRE!" Hermione laughter trilled across the stone room.
Snape was dumbfounded. How had she performed wandless magic?
She lifted her left hand and covered the tiny flame with it, drawing it into her fist as if the certainty of becoming burned meant nothing to her. With a smirk she held her fists outwards towards Snape; palms up. Slowly she uncoiled the fingers of her left. A small wisp of smoke spiraled upward to the ceiling and disappeared. Her grin widened as she opened her right. The brightly burning flame danced lively across her open palm.
As he watched her effortlessly manipulate the fire within her hands, his mind was racing through his memories trying to recall everything he could about the lost gift of wandless magic.
In the last five centuries, only two wizards had been able to accomplish the astounding feet. Both were now, regrettably, dead. But they had both devoted their entire lives to studying the theories, applications, and techniques of wandless magic and here Hermione was, barely eighteen and wielding the skill as if it were second nature.
He watched her flatten and shrink the flame, rolling it over her knuckles like a coin. She flipped it up into the air and caught it in a long gust of air. Buoyed on her blowing breath it grew larger as the air fueled it until it was roughly the size of a cantaloupe. She closed one eye and her pink tongue slid out of the corner of her mouth in concentration. She dragged her thumb across each side of the floating fireball dragging out tendrils of flame. Turning it slightly she pulled a dozen thread-like strands of fire from the back and pinched the front upwards a bit.
She beamed at her work and held it up so that Snape could see it, "Ta da!"
A fiery phoenix, created of the same flames that gave it its name, was perched upon her hand.
"How is this possible?" He breathed, staring at a wonder few would ever see. "Miss Granger?"
"Hermione, Severus"
He blinked sharply, bringing himself out of an odd trance. He sneered at Hermione half-heartedly. "That's detention." He looked back at the phoenix, his black eyes transfixed on the glowing creation as Hermione lifted her hand and the elemental bird took flight. "And 50 points to Gryffindor..."
Hermione smiled serenely and watched her Professor follow the path of the bird she'd created with calculating eyes. She knew his mind was working at 110% to solve the theories her showing had produced. Her smile widened. He'd figure it out.
"Dumbledore will be notified of this immediately. You are free for the rest of the session, Hermione." He told her, finally tearing his attentions from the phoenix. Hermione's eyes danced with amusement as she pressed her fingers to her lips and whistled shrilly. The firebird gave a resounding screech that echoed across the stones and collapsed in on itself in a flurry of smoking flames. The tiny flame Hermione had initially started with disappeared with a sharp crackle.
Snape was already moving towards the door. His volumous black robes billowed around him, making Hermione look unconsciously down at her own Muggle attire. They did make a ridiculous pair. She scooped up her sweatshirt and ran to catch up to him. He looked down at her in surprise – as if he hadn't expected her to come with him. She blew the bangs from her eyes and gave him a toothy grin, "What am I cleaning this time, Severus?"
"Wait, Professor, that's it! That's the page!"
Snape scowled. Allowing himself to reminisce was not something he took pleasure in. Past was past, and all that awaited him through memories was a painful reminder of what he could not change.
"What does it say?" Harry was anxiously peering over the potion master's shoulder. Snape glanced down and quickly scanned the designated page. Oh, God! The breath in his lungs froze and his mind flickered wildly out of control for a fraction of a second as the shock rolled over him. His face remained as impassive as ever; however, he could not keep the foreboding from his voice.
" 'The Cleansing Fire'." He recited from the top of the page.
"What does that mean?" Harry pressed. He'd immediately detected the change in the older man.
"Hermione plans...to purge Hope from her body."