Blowers Daughter
Chapter 9
"And so it is
Just like you said it would be
Life goes easy on me
Most of the time
And so it is
The shorter story
No love, no glory
No hero in her sky"
- Damien Rice "The Blowers Daughter"
"What happened to her?" Madam Pomfrey demanded of the two boys who were physically supporting a wailing Hermione
"It was Snape" Harry snarled bitterly at the Matron "He raped her"
The older witch stared at the seething boys –no men, with shock and surprise. She ran a hand through her slightly dishevelled hair and immediately pulled Hermione into a motherly embrace. The girl collapsed wearily into her arms and sobbed softly on her shoulder.
"Severus?" she directed her question at a strangely quiet Ron "He sexually abused a student?"
"Well he verbally abuses us enough" Harry growled, his green eyes burning with anger "I wouldn't put it past him to do something like this"
Ron hadn't taken his eyes off Hermione since they arrived at the Infirmary. His hands were shaking in fury and his face was set resolutely. Ron took a step toward Hermione and put his hand gently on her back.
Hermione spun around from Madam Pomfrey's embrace, her cheeks wet with tears. Ron gave her a twisted smile that looked like a grimace.
"I'm going to kill him, Hermione" he murmured to himself more than the witch "I'm going to rip him apart with my bare hands. He will not get away with what he has done to you."
Hermione gave her friend a weak smile and he strode from the Infirmary, determined to kill Professor Severus Snape.
When Ron departed, Madam Pomfrey quickly informed Professor Dumbledore of the events of this evening. Dumbledore arrived mere seconds later and walked to the bed Hermione and Harry were currently sitting on.
Dumbledore gave Hermione a searching look; his normally twinkling eyes were blank. Harry stood and glared at the old man.
"Why was this monster allowed around children?" Dumbledore flinched at the anger in Harry's voice "You knew what he was, you knew what he had done and you still let him stay at Hogwarts. For all your wisdom, Sir, you really are the most ignorant wizard I have ever met"
"Harry Potter!" Pomfrey exclaimed, her tray of various jars clunking nosily "That was really uncalled for!"
"It's fine, Poppy" The wizened man gestured wearily at the nurse. He turned his gaze back to Harry "Mr Potter, do continue"
"He raped her, Professor" The anger had left his voice and had been replaced with a bitter tone "Look at her, she can barely control her shaking and tears. You have deceived us, Professor, we knew what he was and we didn't do anything because you said that he had learnt from his mistakes. Does a man who has learnt from his past do this to anyone?"
Harry put a protective arm around Hermione and stared deep into Dumbledore's eyes.
"Well Professor?" He asked of the older wizard "Do you have anything to say?"
"Harry, there is nothing I can say to make this right" Dumbledore turned his gaze to Hermione "I am sorry that this has happened to you. No woman should have to go through this. You have my genuine sympathy. I will speak with Severus to determine the course of action we will take"
"No-one blames you, Hermione" Dumbledore held her gaze steadily. She stared innocently at the Headmaster "We will need to hear Severus' testimony before anything can happen"
Ron's eyes were focused on the classroom they had just rescued Hermione from little thirty minutes before. He didn't know how he was going to extract Hermione's justice from Snape but he wasn't one for not trying.
The hurt and the fear in Hermione's eyes was the main driving factor for his desire to avenge her wrongs. It seemed un-natural, he had thought at the time, for Hermione to look so weak and dead. The usual spark of intelligence had gone.
What he didn't understand was Harry's reaction to the news. Harry seemed so angry yet did not follow him to the dungeons to defend Hermione. The possibility of Harry having some doubt of Hermione's story did cross his mind but he dismissed it as soon as it had entered.
The door of the classroom was wide open; Ron scanned the ground for the unconscious Snape.
"Where did he go?" Ron was immediately on guard with the knowledge that the sleeping beast was no longer asleep. Drawing his wand, Ron put his back to the wall and walked into the classroom.
The dark room was eerily quiet and displayed the mocking normality of a classroom. Hermione's potion had boiled over in its cauldron creating a thick red smoke that gave off the faint aroma of jasmine. Ron pulled the sleeve of his robe over his nose and mouth to stop himself from breathing in the pungent gas.
Coughing, he cast a quick bubblehead charm and relaxed marginally. The classroom was a mess, he thought grimly, Snape could have been hiding under any one of the overturned tables waiting to pounce on his next unfortunate victim.
"Snape" he yelled to the room "Where are you? I know you're in here!"
Although he could now breathe fresh air, the thick smoke restricted his visibility immensely. Ron pointed his wand at the merrily bubbling cauldron and cast a quick scourgify to remove the potion and sent a quick jet of water to put out the flames. Having rid the room of the source of the smoke, he cast another charm to remove the smoke from the room.
With a flair for magic Ron had never thought himself capable of, he began to upturn the tables and chairs he couldn't remember seeing being on the ground when they had rescued Hermione.
When he walked to where Hermione had been working he found something strange. Her quill and parchment had been scattered messily around the table and on the floor.
Clutching a quill and a piece of parchment was the immobile body of Professor Severus Snape.
Madam Pomfrey had bustled Harry and Dumbledore out from the Infirmary and drew the turquoise curtains around Hermione's bed. She gave the girl a sympathetic look and ordered her to drink a vial of Dreamless sleep potion. Hermione gave her a weak smile and drank the potion.
Feeling the alien force control her body relax into the rhythm of sleep, Hermione began to fight the chains of her mind.
"That is a very naughty thing to do, Miss Granger" an amused drawl from over her shoulder. Hermione tutted tartly and dismissed the voice she had grown to loathe more than humanely possible.
"I thought it was Dreamless Sleep potion, Riddle" she snapped, her eyes darting throughout her prison "Shouldn't you be away somewhere taking over the world and plotting to kill Harry… again?"
"You do wound me with your words, Hermione" he said mockingly "I do hope you're not getting bored lounging around here all day"
"I can more wounding, Riddle" she hissed "Let me out"
"Or you'll do what?" his eyes were glittering with malice "Insult me a little more? Call me "the-man-who-let-the-boy-who-lived-live"? Draw a hideous scar on my forehead? Mimic everything I say in a sing-song voice? What can you do Hermione? You are trapped in your own mind, you pathetic little girl, you are under my control"
"You are under my control!" she mimicked in a high-pitched voice. She began walking like a zombie and wiggling her fingers threateningly at the scowling man. She narrowed her eyes and sneered "You can trap me in here for eternity but you will never control me"
She took a defiant step toward him "You can't even touch me" she sneered disgustedly at him and thrust her hand through his ethereal body.
"You aren't even real"
"In a castle a few hundred miles away, sits the man who controls me. If you were to try and put your hand through his body he would rip your fingernails from your fingers, nail by nail." Tom paused, his eyes were burning with passion "When you pricked your finger on the transfigured rose you shared your blood with him, and me. Sitting on his throne, he controls you by your own ignorance. I am Lord Voldemort, never forget that"
"I am Hermione Granger" her voice mocking "Never forget that"
"How long until you forget that?" he smiled coldly "They're coming soon to take the boy. I have just programmed your mind with the plans to get Potter and the ironic thing is that you can actually do nothing to help" He smiled to himself and brought his gaze to somewhere past Hermione "They're going to bring Hogwarts to the ground and from the rubble, like a phoenix, the new order shall rise to power. There will be a place for you in the future, Hermione, together we walk to victory."
The ferocity and power radiating from the man caused Hermione to gulp involuntarily.
"Get some rest, Hermione" his smile not changing the passion of his eyes "It will be a very busy day tomorrow"
"MADAM POMFREY! PROFESSOR DUMBLEDORE!" Ron roared from the corridor breathlessly "IT'S SNAPE! SNAPE IS DEAD! HE'S DEAD!"
"WEASLEY!" Professor McGonagall shouted outraged from an adjoining corridor "What on earth are you talking about!"
Ron sped up quickly to the witch "Professor! He's dead! Snape's dead! I was just down in the potions classroom and he's lying there dead!" he exclaimed hysterically. Ron's legs finally gave and he collapsed into a pile, pulling McGonagall down with him.
"I wanted to kill him for what he done to Hermione" he babbled in hysterics "He was dead, Professor! I didn't kill him! He is dead! He is dead! Snape is dead!"
McGonagall's face had turned ashen and her eyes bugged out slightly. She pulled Ron to his feet with great strength and walked to the infirmary in silence.
"Poppy!" she shouted, pushing the door open with her free hand. "Get Albus!"
"I am here" Dumbledore and Harry stood together. Madam Pomfrey rushed from the ward and gave a gasp of horror. "What has happened?"
"Weasley was at the dungeons and is saying that Snape is dead!" She gratefully gave Ron to Harry "Albus come quickly!"
"Give him a Calming Concoction" Dumbledore gestured to Ron "Stay here and look after the children, Poppy; I'll take care of Severus"
Dumbledore and McGonagall sped quickly down the corridor and Pomfrey quickly called the other teachers with the emergency network, Harry heard her bark orders for the houses to be locked down.
Ron was levitated to a free bed and given a vial of purple potion. He gratefully drunk the potion and his hands stopped shaking.
Harry lifted the piece of parchment Ron was clutching and set it on the table beside his bed.
"Harry give that to Dumbledore!" Ron exclaimed "Its Snape's! I found it beside him but it's written in a strange language."
Harry glanced down at the parchment and agreed that it was a strange language.
DUMBLEDORE-
ZCHGCEWC
TBCHTSB
KQYPSXQBG
EHCVS
EQBBL
- SS
Obviously it was a code written by Dumbledore and Snape to stop their messages being read. Harry squinted at the message and gave up. He took the parchment to Hermione's chamber and poked his head through the curtains.
"She's still sleeping" he whispered to Ron once he had returned "I was going to see if she could translate this for us"
"Take it to Dumbledore" Ron answered sagely "The Dumbledore bit is the only thing I understand"
"Suppose" Harry shoved the parchment into his pocket "I'll be back in a minute, Ron"
"Hurry up" Ron looked toward the curtained area of Hermione "Something strange is going on"
Harry nodded and sped from the infirmary.
A/N: Finally finished all exams and I've rid myself of the flu so I'm back to finishing off these stories. I have written chapter 10 but I don't like the way it's turned out so I'm going to work on fixing that today. Chapter 9 was meant to be a little filler chapter but I really needed to tie-up some ends so it became much longer. This story should be finished completely by Sunday night or Monday evening at the latest. Just chapter 10 and the epilogue to sort out and then I'll do the rest of WDMC:) Thanks for reading this and if you have any comments I will be thrilled to hear them!