A/N, I apologize on taking so long to type this up, and post it, but real life kinda got in the way-namely by beta being stranded without power until this afternoon. Thankfully, her house wasn't damaged by Ivan...Anyway, I'm going to just say that I don't own Snape or Hermione, and Sabriel is the bastard child of a character from another series and an OC that I have-although I do suggest you read the book of the same name, by Garth Nix, this isn't a crossover.
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Hermione granger woke up to the sound of loud purring in her ear. Smiling, she absently scratched the large orange bandy-legged tabby that had taken up residence next to her on the bed behind its ears. She sat up and stretched, looking at the clock on the small night table. It was just after eight, a fine time as any to get up on a lazy Sunday morning. She was normally up at the crack of dawn, but weekends gave her the luxury of sleeping in. She crossed the private room she got with being head girl and opened her dresser, yanking on a pair of jeans and a jumper.
Her typical morning ritual was rudely interrupted a few minutes later by a loud rap on her door. She opened it, fully expecting to see Harry or Ron standing there, ready to drag her down to breakfast, but instead was faced by a woman she had never seen before. "Hermione Granger?" The woman questioned, and Hermione nodded. "My name is Sabriel, Dumbledore told me that you'd be here." She said, looking around the room, as Hermione stepped back to let her in. "Glad to see it hasn't changed much." Hermione looked at her oddly after that comment.
"You were a head girl?" She inquired.
"Long long ago, yes. But the room's still the same, only thing that's change are the colors. Then again, I doubt green and silver do much for Gryffindors. I honestly want to kill Godric sometimes for the garish colors that he picked for his house. At least our house has colors that compliment each other." The woman gave a faint smile that softened her harsh looks slightly.
She looked vaguely familiar to Hermione. The woman had long, somewhat lank black hair, streaked with silver, that reached the small of her back, and was held back by a loose hairclip at the nape of her neck. The small smile that had played across her thin lips a minute ago had faded quickly, and the stern look that she wore made her seem all the more familiar to Hermione. Sabriel looked down at Hermione from the top of her large, slightly hooked nose and spoke. "You wouldn't happen to have any tea, would you? I got here a few hours ago, and still am not fully awake."
"It's no problem at all." She said, and called for Dobby.
"The house elves here do make the most fabulous earl grey." Hermione nodded her agreement, and a minute later, Dobby appeared, two cups of tea on a tray in front of him.
"Mistress Sabriel, Master Dumbledore is wanting you to visit your brother. He says you can talks some sense into Professor Snape ma'am" Hermione felt her eyebrows raise at Dobby's comment.
"Say, Dobby, aren't you a Malfoy elf? I remember you being there the last time I stopped by to visit Narcissa."
"Not anymore Miss. The great Harry Potter freed me. I nows work for Dumbledore. And-" Dobby paused and dropped his voice to a low whisper, "I nows get paid, and has vacations miss." Sabriel laughed outright, a harsh sounding, barking laugh.
"Sick days and pay for the elves? What's gotten into the old coot now?" Sabriel said as Dobby disappeared.
"I suggested it." Hermione said quietly, before changing the subject. "Are you related to Professor Snape?" She questioned.
"Yes, unfortunately. I happen to be his sister." Her lips quirked upwards again, this time into a smirk that didn't quite reach her eyes, and lasted for all of a few seconds. "But he is not the reason for my visit, even if Dumbledore wants me to find out where the hell he went wrong for the umpteenth time. You, however, are the reason for my visit, or rather something that lurks in your powers." Sabriel's voice had dropped a bit and now sounded rather grave.
"And what is it that lurks in my powers?" She questioned, ever curious to know what drew Snape's sister of all people to visit her in Hogwarts early on a Sunday morning.
"Graduation is close, is it not?" Sabriel questioned, seemingly out of the blue.
"Three weeks." Hermione stated. She wanted to know desperately what this woman was doing here, what Sabriel knew about her that she didn't know about her self. She had no sooner opened her mouth to edge the conversation back on topic when Sabriel spoke again.
"Miss Granger, there lurks in you a raw power, one that very few possess. Tell me, where you present when Sirius Black died?"
"Yes, well, I was there, but I had been knocked out."
"Oh, that complicates things a bit." The elder woman said, taking a sip of her tea as she fought to come up with another way to explain things.
"What do you mean, what does this have to do with Sirius?"
"Did you feel him die?"
"What do you mean?" Hermione questioned. She was beginning to feel as if she was being led in circles, and she didn't like that feeling at all.
"Did you feel him die?" The old woman asked again. "Did you feel as if a bit of you disappeared?"
"It's just grief." She countered.
"Were you close to Black?"
"Not as much as Harry and Ron were, but-"
"Were you not the one who never quite trusted him?" Sabriel interrupted.
"I was being cautious."
"Yes, but you were never exceptionally close to the man, were you? You shouldn't have felt that much grief for him. You shouldn't have felt as if part of you were missing." Hermione was somewhat shocked, Sabriel had captured the feeling that she had very well.
"What was it then, if not grief?"
"The first sign of a latent power. You, Miss Granger are a necromancer."
"A what?"
"Break it down into Latin. Necro-death, Mancer-"
"I understand what it means, but I thought they were the stuff of twisted fairy tales."
"No, Miss Granger, they are real. And you happen to be one of the ones who can pass through the veil and come out alive."
"Beyond the what?"
"Veil. And I was told you're one of Hogwart's greatest minds. Tell me, did Potter tell you how Black died?"
"He was hit by a stunning spell from Bellatrix Lestrange, and fell through something," Hermione thought for a moment. "A portal, with a tattered veil over it."
"Very good. That door in the department of mysteries is the only permanent gateway into Death. And you have the power to walk through that door and come back fully alive, with not a scratch on you."
"I can go into death?" She was rather stunned by what the woman had to say.
"Yes, and you bring quite a bit of stuff back, people even." Hermione had the bad feeling that she was being baited, but she didn't care.
"I could bring Sirius back?"
"Not quite, there are limits, but in essence, yes, you could. It takes a fair bit of training, and I did not come to teach you everything in one morning. I'm merely here to inform you of your powers, the teaching comes later."
"When?" She asked ever eager.
"After you graduate. I will be teaching you the ways of the necromancer, I will meet you here the Saturday after graduation, you have one week to visit your family, your friends, whatever you want to do, and then you will be under my tutelage."
"What if I don't want this?"
"Then it would do you well to remember a quote that a wise man once told me, it's more of a question than a quote, but it serves it's purpose. Tell me, Miss Granger, does the walker chose the path, or the path the walker?" With that, Sabriel removed a book from her cloak, unshrinking it as she moved, and tossed it onto the seat next to Hermione. "Here, I expect you to have read this thoroughly by the time I meet you here. You'll catch the Hogwarts Express that Saturday morning, it'll leave at eight AM sharp, so don't be late. I'll see you in a month, now I believe I have been ordered to talk to my brother. Goodbye Miss Granger." With that, Sabriel swept out of the room, her robes billowing behind her in very much the same way her brother's did, leaving Hermione to stare at the door, meditating on what had just happened.
