Chapter 7

Luckily Hermione found the nurse in her office close to the bedrooms. As fast as she managed she reported everything what had happened, and returned with Poppy to Snape's room.

"Please contact Dumbledore through the fireplace in my office, he have to know about this."

Hermione did as she was told, and a few moments later the headmaster arrived at the hospital wing. Concerned but with a soothing smile he went towards her for an interrogation. When Hermione came to the part with the unknown language, Dumbledore cut in.

"Hermione, can you try and repeat some of the words? This is very important as you certainly know."

Hermione concentrated hard, tried to summon the hoarsely sound and the unfamiliar melody of what Snape had said.

"It was like... 'sounytee... han kerra valta...; he said some more, but I can't remember. Oh, and he said 'Harry'."

The headmaster repeated the words quietly to himself.

"Hmm, it seems that my Finnish hasn't improved over the years; I'll have to check the words in a dictionary."

He noticed the confused look on Hermione's face, and chuckled softly.

"Yes, I'll better explain. Let's take a seat. Right - Professor Snape grew up bilingual, his father was from Britain, his mother from Finnland. He lived with her in Finnland till his sixth birthday, near to the city Tampere in the south-west of Finnland. Naturally he spoke more Finnish that time, for he saw his English speaking father only on weekends because of his position in the Ministry of Magic in Britain. It seems now that Professor Snape goes back to his primary language in this state of consciousness. But this short awakening and the fact that he was still able to speak makes me hope the best possible."

Hermione was silent for a while and tried to sort out her thoughts about this new pieces of information.

"Is that the reason of his research in language potions?"

The headmaster nodded. "He loves the Finnish language more than English, but it is very hard to learn and requires a lot of training. He once said that an adult who learns Finnish as a foreign language needs at least five years to just learn all aspects of the grammar, and additional five to seven years to speak it in a way that daily life and conversation requires. I tried to learn it myself for several years, but as I told you, I have become a little rusty."

"So Professor Snape tries to create a potion that makes it possible to understand him when he is speaking his favourite language?"

"That is not his main attempt. The goal is a potion which enables the user to, well, feel the right grammar and the structure of foreign languages as every speaker does it automatically with his mother tongue. That would be a great help in learning foreign languages. In fact, with such a potion the user would be able to learn any language in the same way as his mother tongue, just by listening, repeating and - feeling his way into the language."

"I understand. I think it would be useful right now, perhaps we would know then what he was talking about..."

Dumbledore clapped himself playfully on the forehead. "Good that you remember me! I have to check those words you heard. Please return to your common room now, it is already very late."

Hermione got up and shot a last glance across the room to the Potions Professor. Madame Pomfrey hadn't found another sign of consciousness and was checking him over at the moment. Out of the corner of her eyes she noticed that the headmaster was watching her with an odd, penetrating look she actually could feel resting on her face. With an irritated smile towards Dumbledore she went out of the hospital wing and nearly jumped when she saw Ron sitting just outside the doors. She actually had forgotten that he was waiting for her!

"So, how is he now?" he asked and followed her back to Gryffindor Tower.

"Let's get back first, Harry will want to know that, too. But I can tell you, I really have some sort of news!"

It was late in the evening when Hermione and the boys finished their discussions about the latest events. Ron did his best to inform his friends about everything he knew himself:

"It's not much I know though, the Snape family isn't too keen on getting into focus of attention. The family is as old as we Weasleys and the Malfoys, and also pureblood. The difference is that their roots are somewhere in Arabia, not Britain."

"And how does Snape's Finnish mother fits in there?", Harry asked.

Ron wrinkled his nose. "Dad told me once a bit about it; Snape's father, Lord Snape, was the minister for international affairs at the Ministry of Magic. I think that was the way how he met Snape's mother in Finland. Her name was Sinikka Lahtinen and she..."

Hermione gasped: "Sinikka Lahtinen is Snape's mother?!"

Harry looked from one to the other, perplexed. "Don't tell me you know her, Hermione..."

"Of course not, she died more than thirty years ago. But if you read anything about spell-research, you'll come across that name constantly. She was famous for her researches on the field of spells that used the power of elements. I think she was a specialist for ice-spells. All element-bound spells are highly advanced, they are taught only at special training centres in Scandinavia."

Ron nodded and continued:

"As you said, she died thirty ore even more years ago. There are rumours that she was killed because she refused to alter her spells to ones which could be used as a tool for mass extermination, or as "first strike weapons" in a war. The old Lord Snape somehow broke because of her death, and was one of the first to join the Death Eaters. Well, that's all what Dad told me about Snape. I think Professor Snape is the only one left of the family, his father must have died... oh, perhaps about twenty years ago."

They sat silently for a few moments. Hermione could tell from the expressions on Harry's face that he pondered about how old Snape had been when his parents died, considering the fact that he was the same age as Harry's parents had been. Not more than five years old, perhaps six? And ten or so years later he had lost his father. Hermione could nearly feel how uncomfortable familiar that sounded to Harry.

Suddenly she couldn't stand it anymore. Restless she got to her feet, pulling Harry with her.

"Hey! What are you doing?!"

"I want to borrow your cloak again. Come, upstairs!"

She dragged him to the boy's dormitory. Grumbling Harry went inside and returned short after with his Invisibility Cloak.

"And what are you going to do with it? The staff has searched the grounds already, you won't find anything more."

"I don't want to go to the grounds; I go into the hospital wing. Perhaps Snape'll say something more if..." Hermione stopped. "If I touch him again.", she had intended to say. But somehow she had the impression it would have sounded awkward to Harry.

"... if he senses someone around him."

Questioning glance from Harry.

"Well, if you think so... Good luck."

A few minutes later Hermione was on her way to the infirmary. With her knowledge about the many secret passages, she was able to go down without meeting anyone. She stopped in front of the large doors of the hospital wing, unsure if they possibly were guarded. She tried her standard 'Alohomora', but this time it failed her. Well, at least she hadn't triggered any repulsing or guardian charms... Some minutes and a couple of different spells later, the doors creaked open a tiny bit. Hermione wept sweat off her forehead, and after a few seconds of listening she was sure to be undetected. Silently she stepped inside. The stars and the moonlight shone through the large windows in the main bedroom and covered everything with a silvery gleaming. Hermione tiptoed to the door to Snape's room, listening carefully before she opened the door and stepped in.

This room was completely dark, the heavy curtains shielded it against the bright moon outside. Hermione's eyes needed a few moments to adjust themselves to the darkness; during that time Snape's light and regular breathing was all she recognised. Slowly she could make out the outlines of the furniture in the small room, and after that the lines of Snape's body under the white hospital-blankets as well. Suppressing any sound and sudden movement Hermione stepped closer. Really, he just looked asleep; the exhausted and pained expression was gone, instead he seemed relaxed and surprisingly young. The deep lines on his forehead and around his eyes were softened, and in the nearly absence of light the many little stress-lines were barely visible. She suppressed a shudder when her eyes fell on the remainigs of his left arm; it seemed that Madame Pomfrey had treated him with an advanced Skele-Grow potion, for the bandages already formed the outline of an underarm. The missing part would regrow in layers, bones first, then senews, nervs, muscles and so on. But of course the procedure would take at least a month. Hermione began to stroke his cheek again, slowly and carefully. To her disappointment Snape didn't show any sign of noticing her, not even when she sat down on the bed next to him. His breath still came regularly, and slowly, very slowly, Hermione became hypnotised while she kept stroking his face. Her eyelids dropped some minutes later; for a short time she struggled against her need of sleep, but in the end she bend forwards and leaned her head against Snape's shoulder. A comforting warmth and soft blankets greeted her. With the smell of clean, fresh sheets and warm, earthy patchouly in her nose, Hermione snuggled closer to his neck and drifted into sleep.

"MISS GRANGER! Is there any possible explanation for your presence in this room, or with this patient?!"

Hermione jumped at the yell, awakening with a start and a quick grasp at Harry's cloak. The filigrane fabric dangled somewhere on her hips, it had slipped down during the night. Cursing the cloak and herself mentally, Hermione struggled the now useless thing off her legs, slided off the bed and turned to face the fuming nurse sheepishly.

"Um... Actually... no. There is no reason. I just... had the feeling that I should be here."

Poppy looked torn between fury and mildness. Hermione shrunk again under her stare and felt spreading numbness in her back. It hadn't been very comfortable to sleep on the edge of the bed, in a half sitting position, and now her back cried for relaxation. Before she could say anything else, Poppy inhaled sharply and rushed past her to the bed. Hermione turned and watched the nurse buzzing about Snape's unconscious form, eyeing suspiciously a kind of glass-table which Hermione now noticed floating at the other side of Snape's bed. It presented some data, curves and coloured stripes which seemed to give information about Snape's status of health. After a while, Poppy turned back to Hermione and gave her an inquisitive look.

"What exactly have you done while you were here?"

Hermione gaped at her.

"N.. Nothing! I just sat down and looked at him, and later I fell asleep."

Somehow she had the feeling that telling the nurse she had touched Snape wouldn't count to her advantage.

Madame Pomfrey was about to retort something when the doors to the hospital wing opened and Albus Dumbledore arrived.

Draco made sure that nobody could observe him by chanting some complex spells about his bedroom. Every time he did so he was surprised that this spells didn't trigger some sort of alarm, for they were vicious kinds of dark magic and surely not covered by the curriculum. When he had finished, he slumped in a black velveteen armchair and drew a piece of parchment out of his pocket. His own family seal combined with a black serpent wound around it made him shiver with excitement, and was the main reason of all the safety measures. Carefully he broke the seal and with increasing curiosity he unfolded the letter.

"My son,

your recent news have arrived at the right time. Although the traitor is still alive, as you told me, our Lord has decided to leave him be at the moment, for He has more important aims to reach now. Nevertheless, you are commanded to further observations of his state. Should he awake again, your activity is required immediately. In this purpose, you are free to chose the adequate means.

One more thing: The werewolf has escaped his guards the last night, using his brutal forces, and our Lord wants you to report immediately if he shows up in your school, as this is the most likely place where he will heading for.

You see, we all are pleased with your work; keep it that way!

Your father Lucius Malfoy"

Draco exhaled deeply, a smug and satisfied smile playing around his lips. He hid the letter carefully in his magical sealed trunk, then returned to his armchair. He took some time in mentally picturing various ways of getting rid off the traitor - his former Potions Master. He liked to think of him in this way already, stressing the former... Draco had never ever thought that, of all persons, Severus Snape had been the one who had hindered and sabotaged so many of the Dark Lord's actions. Snape had in fact been one of the Quadrigium, the leading instance beyond the Death Eaters organisation - together with Draco's father, Zabini and MacMillan. Snape had been Draco's idol when he was a child; well, in a way he had been during school time, too, but with the years Draco had seen how his teacher had to play his role as "harmless, yet sharp-tongued Ex-Death Eater" way too long to have a decent basis to identify himself with the dark and powerful older man. Even if Snape had ever been more interested in and, in a way, caring about him than his own father, his (necessary) masquerade in school had created a distance between them. But nevertheless, Draco had been shocked when his father told him that they finally had eliminated the loophole, and who it had been. In a way, he had lost the ground under his feet, feeling as if the last comforting resort in his life were drowned in cold. Well, in a way it had been so. But of course Draco had not shown that to his father, every emotion towards a traitor was c lose to suicide. When he was alone in his rooms, however, the sadness had come with might. He wasn't able to imagine that he wouldn't see Snape again, that there would be a different Potions Master soon teaching at Hogwarts. After a while, the sadness had faded and was replaced with burning rage and hatred. But Draco had no idea, who it was his rage was aiming at: Snape (for betraying him during all those years), his father (who had of course taken the execution in his own hands), Dumbledore (for turning "his" Snape against the Dark Lord), himself (for betraying his feelings for the fatherlike man in front of his own father), or, at last, at the Dark Lord himself for causing so much pain even under his followers. In the end, Draco had built up a wall of hatred and aggression around him that even surprised his own Slytherin classmates. And now, just yesterday, the Headmaster had told them all that Snape was still alive... Barely, that for sure, but nevertheless alive. Draco's stomach had gone stone hard when he heard the news the other day, and almost immediately he had seen his chance for revenge. He yet had to figure out how he would like to proceed from now. Of course he had to wait until Snape gained consciousness again, otherwise it wouldn't be a revenge, but mercy. According to the headmaster, this could take some time. Time that he had to wave a perfect plan...

Lämpö...(warmth)...niin pehmeää... (so soft)...tuoksu... (the scent)...äänit... (voices)...en ymmärrä... (I don't understand)...

Darkness, in various shadows, was swirling around him ... as well as the words, whispering to him, mingling - the first clear and familiar, the others barely audible, floating under the surface of the first, drifting into oblivion ... pictures coming into focus and fading again ... some flashes ... some of them red, some ice-blue ...pain, bone-splitting pain ... a cold voice ... wet earth under his fingers, under his cheek ... dark red clouds blurring his visions ... then again, darkness...

Hermione listened to the murmured discussion between Headmaster and Madame Pomfrey, uneasy about the result. Of course, she had disobeyed the nurse with coming back to the infirmary at night, but she didn't do anything to harm Snape - at least she hoped she hadn't, regarding Poppy's expression when she read those charts about Snape's condition. She started when she heard steps behind her, and turned around quickly. Professor Dumbledore stood behind her, the usual twinkle back in his eyes, and he addressed her.

"Miss Granger, I'm honoured to tell you that you are an official part of therapy now. As Poppy told me, Professor Snape's brain activity has increased with remarkable speed; she believes that regular contact, as you created it, may help him to find his way back into our world. So, if you agree, you are allowed to come here every day for at least four hours to try and contact him. You are also allowed to use your Time Turner to have enough time for homework and your duties as Head Girl, as well as for sleep and free time."

Dumbledore said the latter with even more twinkles in his eyes. Hermione had blushed with excitement; so she could actually DO something!