Chapter 19: The memory of Snape

Hermione stared to Snape in the front of the class, her potion was on a low fire and as she stirred it she thought about getting in his head. Ron was right next to her and his potion had a bright green colour. She wanted to whisper something to him, yet she didn't dare. Harry was on her other side, his potion was coming along well. Better than she expected of him. Snape's eyes were fixated on a potions book. Hermione slowly moved another ingredient to her cauldron. She moved her hand over it and returned her attention to her new found powers. How would she do it? She turned around as got angry at herself.
'Hermione, why can't you seem to do what your mother does?' She got even more angry, why couldn't she do a simple thing.
"Hermione, relax." Ron said. "Think of Snape as a book, there are a couple chapters that are on the restricted section, they're harder to get too. Just want them…"

Slowly Hermione turned off the flame to her Bunsen burner, she moved the potions off it and waited for comment. Snape was deadly silent as he walked towards her. His lips were pushed together and there couldn't be any emotion on his face. She stared at her potion, it was completely perfect, she knew it. Snape hanged over it and gave her a soft nod.
Hermione thought about what Ron said, she imagined herself seeing Snape as a book. And when she thought of that, she found herself in a library. All of the books were titled 'Severus Snape'. It were memory books she assumed. It was old and dusty, like no one had ever been there, even Snape. She had never thought of someone's head like this, but this is what it looked to her. She stepped on, noticing a locked door. The door had an ancient lock. She moved towards it.
"Alohomora." She pulled the door, yet nothing happened. She stood up, heading to the other side of the room. There had to be some kind of key. The only person that ever been here, was her mother. Her mother had locked away these memories. She walked towards the desk and checked the drawers. The key was stuffed between the pages of pictures. A picture of Snape in his Hogwarts days, Hermione never thought of him as her age. He was a different looking young man, he wasn't ugly, she would never call him ugly. He looked like a boy that was bullied by someone else. The person that did that was James Potter she learned by another picture.
She walked to the other side of the room and opened the door. When she opened it up, there was a wind coming from them and all kinds of books appeared. Some books were replaced. The real life of Severus Snape had just returned. She had restored what her mother had destroyed. And before she knew wit, she was looking to Severus Snape once again. His eyes were closed.
"Hermione, outstanding potion." He said noticing something had changed in his mind. Hermione had never gotten such a great comment on one of her potions. "Weasley that doesn't look like the potions. Try again…"
"And Potter, Weasley and Granger…" He paused. "Stay after class…"
Draco Malfoy had a thin smile on his face, thinking they needed to stay because they did something wrong. Hermione knew better. She was sure that this time they didn't do anything wrong. Not this time anyway, he had to know she was his daughter. It took a short time for the class to be ended. That's when Snape stepped in front of them. He stared at Hermione, there was a strange emotion in his face, almost sadness.

"So…" He paused. "She was here and said something. "There are over 40 prophecies about you. Your mother is worried about you. And I don't even know who your father is…"
"You are…" Ron said moving his hands in front of his mouth. He had said something. Ron took a step back, he must have known. How could Snape not know. "I mean you were together, right?"
"There were fears…" He stared at Hermione. "I should have known you were my daughter."
"So how do we get her out here?" She stared to Snape. "I mean you have to be able to get her out here, it worked the previous time."
"I don't know how I did it…" Snape paused as he stared at her. "I know you want to know her and knowing Leyla she'd be pretty close. I miss her too."
"Were things that bad?" Harry asked. "With you and Leyla…"
"We were together when she was pregnant." Snape replied. "I knew it was my child, that's why I should have been sure that Hermione was mine. Yet before she gave birth, Voldemort found out about the baby and was convinced it was his. That's why I doubted, maybe Voldemort did something to Leyla that she never told me about. I thought maybe you were his."
"I could be Voldemort's offspring…"
"If Leyla said you were my daughter." Snape smiled. "You must be."
"Hermione, I really did love your mother." He turned to her. "You're not born from hate, if things weren't the way they were, you would be with us and we would be together. I don't understand why she doesn't come to me, she prefers to suffer in silence. I think you could inherit that from her."
"my mother is also alive." Harry said. "We both got presents for Christmas from our mothers."
"Leyla told me about the faith of your mother, Harry." Harry was surprised that he hadn't called him Potter, it was the very first time that Snape called him Harry. Snape's eyes were still concentrated on Hermione's.
"So…" She paused. "Do we need to make a plan to draw mom out?"
"Leyla would know if she was being asked to come out." Snape stood up. "And we're not going to do anything dangerous, Leyla would be out in no time, but we can't bring you in any danger. As your father I can't allow that. Hermione…."
"I want to meet mom." She stared at him. "I really want to meet her."
"So we need to make a plan." He stepped behind his desk, took his pen and a piece of paper. He wrote down a message, a bit later he stared at the owl by the window, it flew towards him and grabbed the paper in both of his paws. The animal flew away. "We'll see if he can find her."
Hermione stared to the window as the animal flew from the dungeons, finding her mother. She thought about the woman that she called mother and knew she wanted to know the whole history. She wanted to know when her parents fell in love and how long they were together, what she wanted more badly was her parents to be together again. She wanted to see her parents happy. Snape stared at her.
"I don't want to promise you, she'll be here. I can't promise you that." He reacted. "She is terrified to disappoint you. I'm regretting my behaviour towards you, Hermione. If I knew you were my daughter, I would have recognized your talent earlier. The same goes for you, Harry. My behaviour towards all three of you was wrong."
"That's behind all of us now." Harry replied. "All that matters is that we find Hermione's mom."

"Well, she'll have to be careful with Umbridge around. I don't think Umbridge will let her pass." Ron replied. "Do you think that owl will even find her?"
"I don't know mister Weasley." Snape stared up from the desk and searched it. He pulled a parchment from it and wrote something down on it. "It's enchanted, we used to communicate like this earlier. She hasn't answered in years, I hope she does now."

Slowly Hermione sat down, almost like she wanted to wait for a response. She stood up again and stared at the parchment. She was so close to Snape, never in a million years had she thought Snape would be her father, yet now she found that she wanted to have a bound with him. She wanted to do something together, yet she imagined that would be rather difficult. She thought about what they would do together. Maybe they could go to Hogsmead together.
"I…" Harry paused. "Aren't there faster ways to draw her out?"
"dangerous ways, perhaps." Snape reacted. "Unless…"

Snape stood up and walked towards the middle of the class room, moving his hands through the empty class room, almost like he was looking for an invisible person. He moved a bit farther, moving his arms faster and faster.
"Leyviena are you here?" He turned around to the kids, telling them to duck. "Leyviena, come out. I'm all alone. I need to speak to you."
"Does that actually work?" Hermione whispered
"Not now." He turned around. "I guess she has seen you. Previous time it worked."