IT's a two for one special! Prologue AND first chapter! Feel free to hit the review button!

Aimes


Severus Snape reclined and let his mind shift gears. The necklace Granger had been wearing was the one, he was fairly sure of it. When he'd caught her hands he'd gotten a good look at the pendant and it was unmistakable. He thought back to the incident a few months ago: he'd been wandering the streets of London in the dead of night as he was wont to do over winter break, and he'd heard it. The most beautiful music he'd ever imagined. It seemed to pierce into him and fill him with peace. Sharp and sweet and perfect.

He'd pulled his coat tighter round himself and followed the sound. He tracked it to a small apartment tucked away on a side street. Blending with the shadows, he approached the window lit by candlelight.

A beautiful woman with blond hair and green eyes dominated the instrument, manipulating it to her will. The harp bowed beneath her touch and she played with precision and confidence. The piece was finished within moments and she picked up a wrinkled photo. Even from where he stood, Snape could see it was a platinum pendant of a woman kneeling and playing an ancient harp. His eyes narrowed for a moment as he spied a similar pendant on the blond girl. Hers was gold, but the detailing was the same: delicate and exact. The girl replaced the photo and stood, stretching. Enchanting, Snape realized, was the only way to describe her. Her bearing was aristocratic and graceful and her expression was sweet and kind. He felt an unfamiliar tug in his stomach. The girl picked up a cat and began dancing around the room.

"Soon I'll have it, Ravel! I can feel it! This time, I'll be selected to receive it." She laughed and blew out the candles next to the music stand. "Goodnight, Ravel. Soon we'll be home again."

She disappeared into another room. Snape remained, thoughtful and curious. After awhile he too disappeared. He returned to the large penthouse apartment he kept in central London and for the first time in years, slept the whole night through. One loose end found.

Now he was back at Hogwarts and back to his insomnia. His brow furrowed as he thought about the woman. He'd never seen her again, though he thought about her on occasion. Well, more than on occasion. He thought about her at least once a day, and though he'd searched for her since, she was nowhere to be found. But now, he realized, he might have a link. The pendant had held significance for the woman and he sensed it held significance for Granger as well. Questioning the girl might lead him back to the woman who haunted him, but she'd wonder why he was asking questions. For the first time, he actively evaluated his opinion of Hermione Granger.

She was smart enough, no doubt. Naturally intelligent as well as obsessively hardworking. She'd matured in recent years into a vivacious young woman who was well-liked and highly respected. She was one of the few people he could tolerate and he actually preferred working with her over nearly anyone else. When they'd worked together for several projects during the war, she had treated him with a quiet respect that he had found himself willingly returning. When he got angry and his tongue grew acid, she matched him insult for insult without losing even a particle of the respect she held for him, and when he pulled himself under control, she responded in kind, never mentioning his ill temper. Overall, he had to admit he rather liked her if forced to give an opinion.

He was not, however, at all inclined to involve her in his personal life. Or demons. Snape sighed as the last students of his next class trickled in, and switched back into teaching mode.


An Hour Later:

"Sir?"

"Yes, Mr. Creevey?" Snape sighed. The Creevey brothers annoyed the hell out of him in general. There was simply no reason to be that bloody cheery all the damned time. And the sight of that damned camera was enough to push a man over the edge.

"Headmaster Dumbledore asked me to give this to you, sir," the boy replied, handing him a folded piece of paper. Snape waved him back to his seat as he opened the letter. He scanned it quickly and raised an eyebrow.

"Class is cancelled. Go back to your common rooms," he ordered. The students scrambled to obey, whispering excitedly. Snape ignored them as he swept out. He strode quickly through the halls toward the headmaster's office, barely noticing the sea of students that parted before him. His eyes narrowed as he struggled to remember Dumbledore's new password.

"Bloody hell, that man's obsession with confections will be the death of me," he mumbled irritably.

"Chocolate toffee," a voice said behind him. He turned halfway to see Hermione Granger stopped in the hallway, glancing down at a notebook as she spoke. She looked up and shrugged, a slight smile on her face. "I can never remember either. Good day, Professor." Her eyes flickered momentarily to the stairway beginning to rise behind him and she smiled again as she proceeded on her way. Frowning, Snape stepped onto the stairway without further ado, not wanting to walk up any of the stairs.

"Hello Severus. Tea?" Dumbledore offered.

"No, thank you Albus. You summoned me?"

"Yes, my boy. As you know, some of the surviving Death Eaters remain active. I have recently learned that Regina de la Gris has resurfaced. You told me that she had disappeared after Voldemort sent her to find the Cord of Dreams and she never returned."

"I've heard," Snape replied mildly. "My sources indicate she may have found something, though no one really knows what it is."

He pulled out the last picture of Regina de la Gris, a strikingly beautiful blonde with deep green eyes and a sweet expression that hid a sour and acidic centre.

"I saw her in London a few months ago and began making inquiries. I must say, I'd rather hoped she was dead." He flinched slightly, remembering the details of her background. "Sorry."

"It's quite alright," Dumbledore said seriously. "During the first war, Regina committed some of the worst atrocities I've seen before or since. When she was not present for the majority of the second…we all drew conclusions. They were obviously incorrect."

"Well when Voldemort's lover isn't around for his final attempt at resurrection and domination one tends to assume it's because she's dead," Snape replied sardonically.

"Yes," Dumbledore said heavily. "Regina was my greatest disappointment. Still is, I suppose," Dumbledore sighed.

"She's your daughter, Albus, but she made choices. We all did. Some of them were brilliant and others were colossally idiotic. Take it from someone who made some of the stupidest decisions in the wizarding world. Regina chose to be who she is and she had that right." He smiled wryly. "No one said that she had to fight on the side of light just because she is your daughter."

"Yes, but it weighs rather heavily when your only child ends up being a monster."

"We are all your children, Albus," Severus noted as he rose to leave. "She just happens to share your genes."

He left to let the old man ponder silently on that thought as he began to plan his course of action.


Several Hours Later:

The halls of the school were silent and she drifted through them like a wraith till she found what she was seeking. The door was incongruous in the cluttered baroque hallway, and she focused for a moment before turning the handle and stepping inside. Her distraction made her slightly careless, and she failed to check that she was alone before entering, never noticing the dark form leaning against a wall in the shadows several feet away. He did not follow her in immediately but listened carefully for several moments, brow furrowed, before nodding to himself and proceeding on his way.

Within the room, Hermione stretched for a few moments before sitting at the harp and running through scales with lightning speed. After that informal warm up, she paused, centered herself and began again, hands moving delicately. Sheet music appeared before her and she began reading the notes and flowing with them, allowing her fingers to dance on the strings with delight or weigh heavy with gloom.

The music carried her and she ignored the ache of her bruised fingers and tired shoulder. The heavy instrument rested against her and she played on.

Minutes passed, then hours, and finally she ceased to play.

Clapping came from a corner of the room. Hermione nearly fell over, startled and shot to a standing position. She turned to see Severus Snape watching her from a corner. He tossed her a bottle silently and she caught it with ease.

"It will stop your fingers from bruising further."

She made no move to open the bottle but raised an eyebrow.

He shrugged and turned toward the door.

"How did you get in here?"

"I opened the door. You were too involved to notice my entrance."

"Why were you watching me?" she asked curiously.

"Because I could."

She nodded once in response and uncorked the bottle, massaging it into her fingers with a sigh of relief.

"You should get more sleep. Your late nights are starting to show." He approached her and she saw his eyes were fixed on her necklace. When he was close enough, he reached out to gently pull the gold chain out from where she had tucked it inside her sweater. Snape examined the pendant and his eyes narrowed slightly as he read the inscription.

"Within the music lies the sanctuary of the soul," Hermione said aloud. He looked at her, fixing her with his dark eyes. "The greatest music teacher I ever had told me that, once. It stuck with me."

Snape let the chain fall and left without further comment. Hermione furrowed her brow. An odd exchange, no doubt. She glanced at a mirror and saw her sunken eyes and dull skin. The late nights really were getting to her, she realized—her knuckles were bruised from martial arts practice sessions on a suspended bag, and her fingers and shoulders ached from playing, but she needed to calm herself and keep her sanity as she awaited the final report of the judges.

The decision would come within the week.