Ghost—Chapter 7
Hermione had woken up very early on Monday morning, and after realizing there was no way that she could get back to sleep she got out of bed and headed to her sitting room.
When she got there, she was surprised to see Snape hovering over her notes, reading over the ones that were exposed to his gaze. Hermione cringed at the sight of her open diary and the copy of Darkest of the Dark Arts, which was also open. Snape looked up, an expression of half-curiosity, half-surprise adorning his ghostly face.
"Care to explain this, Miss Granger?" he asked, arching an eyebrow. Hermione strode over to the table and snapped the open books shut.
"There's nothing to explain, Severus," Hermione replied, tidying up the table and banishing her notes to her study. "What I don't get is why you're looking through my things. I don't appreciate my privacy being invaded, especially by someone who despised me during school and ridiculed my work no matter how hard I tried."
"I never despised you, Hermione," Snape said. "It was your moronic friends that got my goat. Why you chose to spend every waking moment with them is beyond me." Hermione smiled slightly. "It was quite the contrary, actually. I thought you were a brilliant student...though you were a bit of an annoying know-it-all. I 'ridiculed' your work because I wanted you to strive for the best, to be the best, to not settle for mediocrity like your friends did, and wanted you to do as well."
"So...how much of my diary did you read?" asked Hermione, becoming nervous.
"Only the one from the beginning of your seventh year," replied Snape with a smirk. "Really, Hermione, you should look into hiding your things instead of leaving them out for the world to see them."
"I wouldn't have to hide them if I didn't share a room with a nosy ghost," Hermione retorted as she retreated to her room to get changed. A few minutes later, she came out of the room in her teaching robes, pulling her hair back into a bun.
"You should still tidy up after yourself, Hermione...how do you expect to explain the Dark Arts books you've been reading as of late?" Snape smirked as Hermione's eyes widened. She turned to face the ghost, her face almost as pale as his.
"How did you find out about that?" she asked softly.
"I saw the book on your table," Snape replied. "And Dumbledore told me. Again, you should really look into tidying up after yourself."
"It's just a bit of light reading," Hermione said quickly. "You know me...always in the search of more knowledge and all that."
"You're a horrid liar, you know that?" inquired Snape arching an eyebrow. "Of course, you Gryffindors were never really good at concealing the truth. As I remember, you couldn't lie your way out of a paper bag."
Hermione rolled her eyes as she began collecting her teaching materials. After she was certain she had everything she needed, she got ready to leave. Before she left for the Great Hall, she turned back to Snape.
"Look, Severus, I don't have time to discuss this at the moment," she said with a tired sigh. "Can we talk about it later?"
"Of course, Hermione," replied Snape with a small nod. Without another word, Hermione left the room and headed up to the Great Hall for breakfast.
When she got there, it was still relatively early so there weren't a lot of people eating breakfast. Hermione slid into the empty seat next to Dumbledore, who offered her a slight smile as he poured her a glass of orange juice.
"Good morning, my dear," he said. "How are you this fine Monday morning?"
"Mondays aren't exactly my favorite day of the week," Hermione replied simply as she placed some pieces of toast onto her plate. "Combined with the fact that I caught Severus going through my things earlier, I hope you understand why I'm not exactly a right little ray of sunshine this morning."
"Understandable," Dumbledore replied. "What did he find, if I may ask?"
"Oh the usual, class notes, Potions text, the novel I was reading," Hermione ticked off, "my diary and one of the books you caught me reading yesterday."
"Oh dear," said Dumbledore, sounding worried. "How did he react?"
"Well, he didn't fly off the handle or ask too many questions," Hermione replied. "Though we are going to have a discussion about this later, so I have a feeling that any questions he has will be brought up then."
"Well, I wish you the best of luck, my dear," said Dumbledore. "I hope you'll excuse me, but I have a meeting promptly at nine, and I hope to be in my office before my guest."
"Not a problem, Albus," Hermione replied. Dumbledore got up from his spot. "Oh, and Albus?"
"Yes, Hermione?"
"Thanks."
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That evening, Hermione was curled up in her chair in her sitting room, a cup of tea in her hand and her somewhat questionable reading material spread out on the table. A moment later, Severus floated through the wall. He moved towards the table and began reading the book titles.
"Dark Arts, Hermione?" he asked quirking an eyebrow. "I never thought this would be your fare."
"That's what Albus told me," Hermione muttered, sipping her tea.
"May I ask why you are reading books of this nature?" Snape asked.
"You may," Hermione replied.
"Fine then," Snape said, beginning to get exasperated. "Why are you reading books of this nature?"
"I would have thought it was obvious," Hermione replied. "A cunning Slytherin such as you should figure it out in no time."
"You want to bring someone back to life using necromancy," Snape said. It was a statement, not a question. "Who and why?"
"Well, the who should be pretty obvious," Hermione replied. When Snape didn't say anything, Hermione rolled her eyes. "It's you, silly. As for the 'why', that's a little more complicated."
"Care to venture a few reasons?" Snape asked.
"Well, at first it was a purely scholastic venture, just to see if there were methods to do it," began Hermione, chewing her bottom lip.
"Indeed," said Snape. "Continue."
"But I knew that there was a deeper reasoning than that," Hermione continued. "I missed the acerbic comments directed at myself and my friends, and the intelligent yet introverted, bitter and private man. Basically, I missed you."
"I still don't see what this has to do with bringing my soul back to my body," Snape said. "After all I'm still here, plain as day."
"But you're not here, here," Hermione explained. "You're just a pale shadow of your living self. You're...different somehow. I can't really explain it, actually. It's like you've loosened up and you're less...you. It's kind of scary, really."
"That still doesn't explain why you want to bring me back to life," Snape remarked. "Either you be more decisive, or we have nothing else to talk about. It's your choice."
"Oh alright, fine," said Hermione with a sigh. "Excuse me for a moment while I go and get something." Hermione left the room for a moment. Snape took this as an opportunity to survey the cover blurbs on the books. On Necromancy and You, underneath the title was: Have you lost a friend? A lover? A dear family member? Were they taken before their time? Bringing them beck is easy, if you know how...
Snape didn't have a chance to read the other covers because at that moment Hermione returned carrying a large stone basin containing what seemed to be moving gossamer threads. A Penseive.
"What did you bring that out for?" Snape asked, pointing to the Penseive, Hermione didn't answer immediately; she seemed to be going through her memories, trying to find the right one.
"No, not that one...that's not it, either...dear Lord, I can't let him see that one!" he heard her mutter under her breath. It was a few minutes before she came back to planet Earth. "Severus, come here for a minute."
Snape floated over to Hermione and ended up hovering mere inches from her. She shivered, but she didn't move away as she prodded her Penseive with her wand.
"I want you to watch this," she said as the scene began to unfold. Snape gazed into the basin, mesmerized by what was being shown.
The Hogwarts Quidditch pitch was crowded with people. By that time, the masks had been thrown away, and some were out-and-out brawling. Bodies of the dead an injured were littered all over the grass. Explosions could be heard and felt everywhere and the sounds of screams were common.
Severus Snape was in the middle of the fray, his loyalties clearly stated. One by one, Death Eater after Death Eater, they fell at his wand. All that talk of 'foolish wand-waving' had been forgotten, and he cursed with the best of them. Then, through the smoke came the unforgettable cry of 'Avada Kedavra', uttered by none other than Bellatrix Lestrange. A cry of 'watch out, Severus!' was uttered, but it was too late. The curse hit the Potions Master, killing him instantly.
Snape thought that that was it, and that Hermione would stop the viewing there. However, there was no such luck, and Snape couldn't help but be captivated by what happened next.
Over the sounds of the battle came a great war-cry. Through the smoke, Hermione came charging at the lone female Death Eater. Before Bellatrix knew what had hit her, Hermione had tackled her to the ground, knocking her wand from her hand.
Hermione wad frantically punching Bellatrix's face, trying to inflict as much damage as possible. All the while, tears were streaming down her face as she screamed obscenities at the Death Eater now pinned beneath her.
"You bitch!" she screamed as she landed a rather nasty punch to Bellatrix's nose, feeling it break under her fist. "You fucking ruined everything! I hate you! I loved him and I never got the chance to tell him!"
Hermione stopped her physical assault and pulled out her wand, pointing it at Bellatrix's throat.
"Do you have any last words?" Hermione asked maliciously. Bellatrix just let out a crazed giggle.
"You'll be with your dear Sev soon, you filthy little mudblood," she spat. Hermione couldn't take looking at the triumphant smirk plastered all over the bloody and broken face. Steeling her resolve, Hermione uttered the two words that would end her life for good. The smirk never changed as the life faded from her cold, black eyes that were just like her soul.
The scene faded, and Snape was shocked. Hermione had avenged him? He never thought that anyone would stand up for him, let alone the fearless, yet sometimes foolhardy and pigheaded woman now seated next to him.
"Harry dealt the very last curse only a few minutes later," Hermione said softly, sniffling slightly as she dried her tears. "All the Death Eaters died, what with the connection between them and Him with the Dark Mark."
"I..." started Snape, not really knowing what to say. "I don't know what to say."
"You don't have to say anything," Hermione said simply as she prodded the Penseive with her wand again, sorting through her memories.
"Well, I now know why you have a Penseive," Snape said. "One would go crazy without one, with what you've seen."
"Thanks...I think," Hermione said. "Now do you see why I would like to bring you back?"
"Yes, in a way," Snape replied. "But there's one thing I don't get...when did you realize your feelings for me?"
"What do you mean?" Hermione asked, puzzled.
"When you were fighting Bellatrix, you said that you loved me and that she ruined everything by killing me because you never got a chance to tell me," Snape replied.
"I said that?" Hermione asked, trying to sound nonchalant. However, the pink tinge on her cheeks betrayed her. "Hmmm, well, I'm really tired, so if you'll excuse me I'll be off to bed. I'll see you tomorrow, Severus!"
With that, Hermione made her way to her room, leaving a slightly befuddled Snape in her wake.
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Well, here's chapter 7. I really hope you all enjoyed it, and I trust you'll leave me some honest feedback.
I have a small request of all of you. I was wondering if you all could go and check out my fics Death Eater's Child and The Squib in the Attic. They don't have a lot of reviews, and I was wondering if they are worth continuing. If you could do that, I would be extremely grateful.
Hugs and kisses,
angelus cado