Spoilers: Order of the Phoenix
Thank you to my beta, Nakhash Mekashefah!
At Hogwarts, things were not going so well. Somehow, the news of Severus's death had spread and, no matter how hard Ron and Harry were working to hide the fact, Hermione's disappearance was bound to cause surprise. The students at Hogwarts could hardly avoid telling their parents that there was no Potions teacher ever since Voldemort's death, even though few of them formulated it that way. Indeed, nobody made the connection between the death of the Dark Lord and the disappearance of the young Muggle-born witch; and those who thought about it judged that the idea, by itself, was ludicrous.
Despite Poppy's refusal – but in some ways, to her relief – Hermione's body had been moved to the quarters she had occupied previously, so that no student would mistakenly see her in the Hospital Wing. Poppy had argued that it was her duty to keep watch over her, in case she awoke or anything happened, but on the other hand, the usually even-tempered matron was getting depressed at seeing Hermione motionless, despite her best efforts. Albus, knowing fully that Hermione hadn't done things by halves and wouldn't move until Severus's return – and maybe not even then – decreed that she had to be moved for the sake of protecting Severus's life.
But it was not enough to stop the suspicions. There had been no mention of Hermione in the casualties of the fight against the Death Eaters, no mention of her death, nothing. Even the Death Eaters themselves all denied having something to do with her. She had just disappeared, like maybe hundreds of others everyday; but she wasn't one amongst the multitudes, she was one of Harry Potter's friends and yet, strangely, Harry himself didn't seem overly worried about her disappearance. He had to know where she was and there were some who had decided that it might well have a link with Severus Snape's death, since her working relationship with him was well known.
That was Percy Weasley's thought and, still furious about the offhanded manner in which his younger – and incapable – brother had stolen his destined position, he had decided to find Hermione, guessing there was a secret behind all this and probably not an innocent one. A scandal was all he needed to destroy the career of the young Minister for Magic. Ron, now used to keeping an eye on his adversaries, didn't take long to understand what his brother had in mind, and knew it was time to respect the promise he had made to Hermione, the one of protecting Severus no matter what.
Minerva was working in her office when a sudden blaze in her fireplace made her jump on her feet, her wand at the ready. She relaxed upon seeing whose head had appeared in the fire.
"Professor McGonagall," said Ron urgently, "I have only a very short time. Percy is coming to Hogwarts hoping to find Hermione and he intends to question you all. Are you sure she cannot be found?"
"Mr Weasley, you know as well as I do that Severus is a very secret man and that his quarters are difficult to find for anyone who doesn't know where to look. Hermione's quarters have the same particularity and, furthermore, Albus added on to them the same spell as the one on the Philosopher's Stone."
She fell silent a moment, listening attentively, and added, "I must go. It seems your brother has already arrived and is provoking quite a commotion."
Ron nodded and his head disappeared from the flames. Minerva sighed, put on her sternest face, and left for the Great Hall.
Percy was there, his voice enhanced with a Sonorus charm so as to be heard by the entire castle, calling all the students to him. Peeves was floating above, mimicking him, but with sentences a lot less solemn than those used by the young wizard, and some students were hard put not to laugh aloud.
"Mr Weasley, may I know the reason for this mayhem?" inquired Minerva, looking at him from above her glasses as if he was nothing more than an unruly first year.
"I'm here on a mission for the Ministry, Professor McGonagall," he said pompously.
Minerva only raised a quizzical eyebrow, fully knowing he was lying but unable to say so without betraying Ron.
"Really?" she replied noncommittally. "May I see your order then?"
"I am an official of the Ministry, right-hand man of the Minister–" he protested.
"You were right-hand man of the Minister, Mr Weasley, and considering Cornelius Fudge's relations, I would avoid claiming it aloud if I were you. As for you being an official, I do not know what position is yours in the new Ministry. So I ask again: where is your order?"
"Do you doubt my word, Professor?"
"I do, Mr Weasley," she said placidly. "You are here, looking self-righteous, but you have yet denied my just demand. In the absence of Dumbledore – which I'm sure you know about – I am responsible for these children, and that you took the initiative of gathering them without even consulting me doesn't tell of pure intentions toward them. You may or may not be an official of the current Ministry, but even officials are human and may fail, lie or deceive. So, show me this order or leave this place and don't come back without either an order or a person well-established in the Ministry."
Percy, pale with rage, couldn't do anything but leave. Minerva sighed, knowing he wouldn't forgive her this humiliation in front of the whole school, especially as Peeves had followed him to the gates, shrieking gleefully, "And don't come back!"
The respite was only temporary. Even if Percy dared ask Ron about an order, the young Minister had no reason to refuse him, unless he wanted to arouse his suspicions. She had no doubt he would be back, with all the official documents she might think of asking. But still, it gave some more time to Severus for, like Ron, Albus, and several others, she hadn't even thought of Severus leaving Hermione in her current state.
Percy's visit was the subject of all conversations for the day – even the paintings and ghosts were talking about it and remembering when he was himself a student at Hogwarts – and bets were on for the day he would return. But, among the carefree chatter and the mocking comments, some students were worried. Lawrence Higgs, leader of the Slytherin group, was frowning heavily. He had won his place after a hard-fought struggle, for even though he was known as Terence Higgs's brother, a cousin of his, to discredit him, had made public the fact that, contrary to the official version, Terence's mother hadn't died in childbirth, but rather one month before Lawrence's birth. Thus Lawrence was an illegitimate child and several students in Slytherin resented him for that – especially since the cousin had hinted that Lawrence's mother's blood wasn't, perhaps, as pure as might be desirable for a Slytherin.
"It's a bad omen for Snape," he said pensively.
"How so? Snape's dead," replied another Slytherin, Eric Rackharrow.
"Granger. She disappeared at the same time as You-Know-Who. I bet Weasley is trying to link the two facts: Snape's death and Granger's disappearance."
"There were at least two months in-between!"
"I know. Yet I have the feeling there's something weird about this story. Neither Potter nor Weasley seem that worried about their best friend, as if they know something nobody else knows. And Mr Pompous would be intent in discrediting his brother. On the other hand, you remember Granger's loyalty to Snape. They had that row about the use of advanced Dark Arts mixed with Potions that everyone heard in the castle, and the following day, she assigned four detentions with Filch to Gryffindors for bad-mouthing him! It seems quite strange to me that she didn't do anything, if only to avenge him."
"She was among those attacking You-Know-Who the final day," volunteered the only Ravenclaw of the group, a girl whose father belonged to the current Ministry.
"But she never approached him, if we are to believe Creevey's article. Only Potter came near; the others dealt with the Death Eaters. I can't remember a thing about her in his report, by the way," Lawrence added, frowning.
"Because there was none," said a new voice.
Lawrence turned around to face the newcomer, a slim girl with huge blue eyes.
"Hello, Isadora," he said neutrally.
"Hello, Lawrence."
Isadora Nott, like her brother Theodore Nott under Draco Malfoy's leadership, didn't belong to any faction. She was solitary and liked it that way. Contrary to other people, Lawrence had never insisted on including her, only maintaining an open invitation to join his group. She respected him for that and she treated him as the person he was and not as 'the illegitimate and maybe half-blood son of the Higgs family'.
She was a student who nobody knew how to take because of her ambiguous position: her father was a notorious Death Eater – and she had never tried to hide the fact – and her brother was the youngest wizard in the Wizengamot, a zealous accusatory of the Death Eaters. Isadora liked to call her family situation 'a reversed Crouch syndrome', even though very few people understood what she meant. It seemed there were very few things that escaped her notice and she was privy to many secrets thanks to both her father and brother. Isadora was well known to be as silent as a tomb when needed; she often thought that words were overrated anyway.
"You know something we don't?" asked Lawrence casually.
She shrugged.
"She had a Time Turner. Her tiredness at the end was not natural."
Lawrence nodded slowly. He knew he could trust Isadora to notice such a thing and interpret it properly, though the habits of her brother probably helped her there, since Theodore was renowned for heavy use of a Time Turner.
"It changes quite a few things," he said thoughtfully.
"Indeed. Snape is officially dead, yet at his trial, Malfoy said something strange about him: that we would never know if Snape did what he did for the good cause or for the Knights of Walpurgis. So, it seems that Snape did something we don't know about, since he was killed by You-Know-Who – if we are to believe the official version."
"But it couldn't be in relation with Granger! Even a poison wouldn't wait two months to take effect!" said Eric.
"A poison, no. But instructions of coming back in time, two months before, would be enough. She would trust him."
"And then?"
"Then she never came back from the past. And trust Weasley to deduce from that something on the line of Snape offering her to You-Know-Who to save his own hide, or whatever."
"But that wouldn't do anything for the 'good cause'!"
"True. But first of all, I'm pretty sure only a few people remember what Malfoy said and, on the other hand, the current Minister defended Snape while apparently not caring for Granger. If Fudge's lap-dog pushes them in the 'right' direction, how many people will think there was a coalition between Snape and Weasley to make Granger disappear; maybe because she was going to pass information to You-Know-Who?"
Lawrence frowned, chewing his lower lip.
"It seems very complicated. I'm getting confused."
Isadora had a secret smile and Lawrence was sure she had done it on purpose. She had offered a few ideas and mixed them together into a very weird result. But if she could, so could Percy Weasley, and he would write a very dry report about it. Lawrence didn't know the link between Severus and Hermione, but deep inside, he knew it was the direction Percy would look into. And if there was something Lawrence wanted to defend, it was Severus's memory. Perhaps he had been the most hated teacher – except Dolores Umbridge, but Lawrence hadn't known her – but the Slytherins were proud of their hero and his integrity. He hadn't been a Death Eater – except maybe for a short time – had spied on them, had protected Potter and countless others. He was the light of redemption for the Slytherins; he was the proof not all of them were destined to become Death Eaters, that 'Slytherin' wasn't a synonym for 'follower of Voldemort'. In those times when the Slytherins were trying to restore their image, they wouldn't easily renounce their hero.
"We can't let him down," he said finally and was happy to see Isadora nod imperceptibly. "We will have to silence the other students if needed and lie to Weasley, but until we know more, Granger left of her own accord."
In front of him, Isadora smiled slowly and it suddenly came to him that Percy had no chance against her.
Percy came back one week later, with a self-important smile. Once again, Minerva had been alerted by Ron and was able to wait for him at the gates. He handed her his order, signed and stamped by the Ministry. Minerva looked at them closely, hiding a smile when she noticed that none of the signatures belonged to people faithful to the new Ministry.
"Go ahead," she said calmly.
Percy nodded curtly and left.
He hadn't reached the Great Hall before a tight group of Slytherins came toward him. He was immediately on his guard when he noticed from the positions of the boys that they were in fact hiding someone in the middle of the group.
"Show yourself!" he ordered, his fingers curled around his wand.
They hesitated, and slowly the first row slid to the sides, revealing a slim girl with her head bent down. Percy stepped forward and she looked up. He was immediately caught in the gaze of huge innocent blue eyes looking at him. Isadora's lips held a shy smile and Lawrence had to hide his smirk. It was already obvious that Percy was fully under her charm. At that very moment, Percy decided it was totally useless to gather all the children. Asking the Slytherins should be more than enough. Dolores Umbridge had trusted them during her year at Hogwarts and had gathered valuable information very quickly. Nobody was better than a Slytherin to know more than they should know, except maybe curfew breakers like Harry, Ron and Hermione.
"Tell me, young lady, would you know where I could found Miss Granger?" he asked, with a smile he figured was attractive.
Isadora opened her huge eyes even wider.
"But, sir, she left the very day You-Know-Who was defeated!"
"She left for the fight and never came back?"
"Oh no, sir, she came back and left afterwards."
"Was she worried, sad, anything?"
Isadora frowned, as if trying to remember.
"She looked like someone who had just completed a task and could now concentrate on something more important. Like someone who hadn't anything left to do here. Which was true, wasn't it? She was here only to help Professor Snape, for what I understood."
"But she left you without a Potions teacher."
Isadora seemed pensive.
"True, but I don't think that's what she wanted to be. She preferred research. Maybe that's what she did. Maybe she buried herself in a lab."
Percy thanked her and left straight to Minerva's office, intent on asking her for the whole list of Hermione's contacts and friends. He would see them each after the other; but then, Isadora's last remark had hit: it would perfectly be like Hermione to forget time, friends, and reality in research.
"Children, Professor McGonagall thanks you for your acting skills," said Nearly-Headless Nick, appearing behind the group of Slytherins after Percy's departure.
"Thank you, Sir Nicholas," said Lawrence, seeing that Isadora wasn't going to say a word.
"And she said to give fifty points to Slytherin thanks to Miss Nott," added the ghost, before leaving them.
"That's funny, he didn't ask any questions about Snape's death," remarked Lawrence.
"We only have the word of Death Eaters that Snape is dead," replied Isadora with a distant voice.
"And?"
She turned toward him with a luminous smile.
"Death Eaters are notorious liars."
And Percy, being the right-hand man of Cornelius Fudge, would have known that fact. Which put the whole situation under a new light. Lawrence shivered at the implications.
"We will protect him of false rumours," said Isadora quietly, looking at him intently.
"So he's alive?"
"Most probably, or Weasley would not be here inquiring after Granger."
"Why so?"
"Because, if Snape were dead, Granger would still be here scowling, instead of him; she knew his dedication and she would never have failed him that way. She would have taken up his job… unless she had something else more important to do. And Weasley may be an idiot but he knows that. Snape has to be alive."