Chapter Twenty-Two The Truth
Snape stood with Hermione at the gate to the cemetery and they listened to the dark.
After a few minutes Snape moved forward and Hermione followed. It was deep into the night and the crickets were singing, a night owl hooted and many nocturnal animals were afoot. They insects kept up their chorus even as the two passed along the lane to the mausoleum.
Hermione had some idea of what they would find when they approached the white marble. Snape was still weak from the ravages of the scarlet trumpet, but still on his feet and moving very stealthily. She didn't speak to him or ask questions until he had opened the door and bent his head and stepped in.
He lit his wand so there was a weak light shining on the surfaces of the stone crypts. He stood before the one with Harry's mother's name on it and touched it lightly with his fingers and then turned to her. His face was a ruin but she did not turn away out of fear or disgust. He studied her and then reached for the small vase sitting on a shelf.
"He transfigured it into the vase," Snape said quietly. "He didn't think I saw him do it but I did."
She looked at the vase and nodded. Everything she needed was now at her side in a satchel similar to Harry's. She began to set items on the stone bench.
"How did you know the remedy for the scarlet trumpet?" Snape asked watching her as she worked.
"You set the essay for us on werewolves," she said without looking up. "You were trying to give Remus' identity away so he would be sacked and forced to leave Hogwarts." She looked up and stared back at him steadily. "I'm not sure what is between you. I think I can guess." Her eyes drifted to the crypt just behind him and to his right . It was Lily Potter's. He moved slightly to block her view and stood hands folded before him in half shadow.
"I wrote about how to identify a werewolf, how one becomes a werewolf, how to kill a werewolf. If you had read my essay then you would have known what I knew," she said without accusation in her voice. "I know how you feel about me, Professor. It has been obvious from the first day I was in your class." She turned and picked up her wand.
"You think I have no magical abilities, that I get by on what I learn in books. There are a lot of people like you. People who think you have to be born a wizard or witch; that it is in the blood. That's why they look down on muggle-born. But if you ask me, I think that is what has gotten the wizarding world into trouble. It didn't take much for Voldemort to take over. All he had to do was promise to 'cleanse' the world of our dirty blood." She sniffed and readied her wand. "I guess we'll find out won't we, Professor? If I do this wrong and have no natural ability and I am not a witch, then I will die. Pretty horribly I would imagine. Anyway..." she stopped performing the small tasks and looked up at him. "I know what has to be done tonight and who has to do it."
He pulled out a disfigured hand from his robe and started forward.
She glared at him. "You will help me complete this task whether you find me repulsive or not." She smiled and shook her head. "It has to be a woman who does it don't you know. We are the only ones that can create life and give birth to it. The soul of new life will take root in me and only in me, Professor. Isn't that right?"
"Miss Granger," Snape's low growling voice was muted slightly by the stone walls and yet it was very clear. "If you do this you cannot have children of your own. You will bear a child that is the Horcrux and it will have to be destroyed. Would you do this, sacrifice yourself in this way?"
"For my friend I would sacrifice my life, Professor," she said.
"Why do you call me that?" he asked in a hoarse whisper.
She looked at his shadow in the dark. "Professor? Why do I call you Professor?" she asked rhetorically. "I don't think you have stopped being my teacher. And though you are a difficult person and you have been cruel to me, I still owe you my respect for what you have taught me and... for what you will have to do tonight." She gulped and trembled slightly in the coolness of the tomb.
"I hardly think that I deserve such respect," he murmured and there was confusion in his voice.
"Scrimgeour said it in front of all of us; he will exonerate you. There is nothing that will stop you from returning to Hogwarts...unless it cannot be... well if there is a school to return to that is." She busied herself with the objects she was laying out on the bench.
"With this face?" he said.
She stopped and looked at him once again. "It doesn't necessarily reflect what is on the inside and that is what counts."
There was a faint laugh of derision. "Perhaps you give me credit where none has been earned."
"I fully expect to take your advanced potion's class in the Fall, Professor. I think I can show you I am not a 'know-it-all' but an enthusiastic learner," she growled at him and then stopped and looked down. "I think a heart beats inside of you. I think there have been few that have ever seen it, except... perhaps...her." She looked at the wall and then down at the bench avoiding a discussion of what was to come next. "Do you think he has a chance? Harry. Do you think he can succeed?"
Snape was very still and there was a long silence.
"If he can shake the grip of fear and proceed with a courageous heart..." He stepped forward into the light of a single candle she was lighting. "After this, there will be one Horcrux left and that, presumably, is in the snake. The Dark Lord will be a very strong opponent. Potter must be...has to be ready to kill him. He cannot hesitate. He must strike with resolve." They stood looking at each other and Snape looked at the ingredients for the incantation. "You would do this for him? Because you love him?"
"Because he is my friend and he would do it for me," she replied, and then said softly, "like she did for you...for all of us." She nodded at the stone behind him. "No one knows the truth do they? Just you." She didn't wait for the response, it was in his eyes. "I'll probably die doing this, but I would not choose another way. It requires a sacrifice; a pure soul in exchange for an evil one. That's why Malfoy died horribly, I'm sure and Dumbledore almost died."She raised her wand. "There are ways to redeem yourself, Professor and this is one of them. You will do this for me and for her son." Without waiting for a response she spoke the first words of the incantation; "We are daughter's of Eve and son's of Adam..."
"Stop! Stop," Snape said and pushed her wand hand down with his own injured one.
She looked up at him with her liquid brown eyes and nodded. "It might make a world of difference if you told the truth to at least one person. It might make it easier for me."
Snape stared down at her and then turned to the stone wall of names. "She was captured and I went to her. He wanted to make a Horcrux and he was going to use her to do it. I was appalled by what he was planning to do. Everything that I read indicated it could not be placed inside another living being. She didn't know that she was pregnant and when the incantation was performed...well, he didn't know his soul would not live in her but in one of the children she carried. " Snape raised the one uninjured eyebrow and stared at the bench where all of the objects were laid out. "I was there when it happened. Slughorn performed the spell. There was nothing I could do to help her."
Hermione stared at him both in horror and in fascination.
"She gave birth to the Horcrux... in the seventh month of her pregnancy. The Horcrux was destroyed when the premature child died. The other child was born two months later. Having had such a twin in the womb gave her son unknown powers and when Voldemort tried to kill him... well, it was apparent the boy could not be destroyed."
Hermione sat down, suddenly weak with the new knowledge. There had been twins! Lily Potter carried twins and one had been turned into a Horcrux!
Hermione was shaking her head suddenly. "No, no, that's not the whole truth! You're still not telling all of it!" She leapt to her feet, suddenly angry. "There was no way for you to tell the difference! Lily Potter would have given birth to twins. You would not have known which one carried the Horcrux. You've been watching him, believing the living human child died and what was left behind was the Horcrux! You were prepared to kill him."
Snape looked at her. "Yes, I have watched him since birth. He clearly has magical powers, I was sure he would. I was not sure what...or who he was. Dumbledore believed he was safe." Snape stared out the door into the summer night. "He said the boy could show love and that was proof enough." Snape remained silent and then a slight breeze guttered the candle and blew it out. They were in total darkness.
"He is not the Horcrux then is he?" Hermione asked. " If we destroy the vase, the snake is the last Horcrux."
Snape ignored her question. "The prophecy said two important things. 'Neither can live while the other survives' and...'the dark lord will mark him as his equal'. I did not know the whole of it until recently. One of the children died in the process of birth and one survived. The Dark Lord attempted to kill the living child and he was marked with a scar. I believe Voldemort saw his equal... he would know it as his own."
"But you think it means he's the Horcrux!" Hermione gasped. "How will we know?"
Snape turned to her, his darkened shadow the only thing visible. "A wizard's true abilities are not revealed until they undergo the coming-of-age ceremony. I performed that duty and now he is a full-fledged wizard. I can only say I believe he is human," he said the word carefully. "I know nothing else.
She stared at him and then at the vase sitting on the shelf and said, "If this is a viable Horcrux then it needs to be destroyed? Harry will die if I don't do it. Voldemort will be too strong."
"There must be a seed in which to plant this Horcrux and you expect me to be the one to plant it, to impregnate you," Snape murmured. "You expect me to do this and then transfer the Horcrux into it. This is how you will sacrifice yourself, and how you want me to help you. However, even if I had such skills I would not use them and could not use them in such a way. There would be no time. It was just a million-in-one chance that Lily was pregnant when Voldemort tried to make her into a Horcrux. It cannot be repeated again. And I would not try."
Hermione thought about it and then said, "We can't do anything about the snake, Professor, that is out of our control, but we can do something about this vase." She turned to him and pulled her robe off and dropped it on the bench. " In a way, both of you sacrificed a great deal and no one will ever know about it. We have to give Harry a chance."
"I have come to destroy the Horcrux," he answered.
"And die in your attempt," she said. "There must be another way."
"What does it matter?" Snape said in the dark. "I should have died a long time ago. Using dark magic is the only way and it often makes things worse Miss Granger."
Hermione stared at the vase.
"I will not transfer the Horcrux into you...if that is what you expect," Snape sighed deeply. "I have made many mistakes in my life but I will not make that one."
"So you intend to transfer it into yourself...and you brought me along to...to do what?" she asked.
He did not answer and she dropped to the stone seat before the wall of names. "To kill you?" she asked.
He nodded.
"I won't do it," she said matter-of-factly. "I WON"T do it!"
Snape said tiredly, leaning against the wall.. "I don't know how to end this...this nightmare of my life"
Minutes went by and it felt like hours. Hermione knew they were at a stalemate and there would be no argument. She thought about his last words. And it suddenly dawned on her. Voldemort was repeating his mistakes and would continue to repeat them.
Hermione reached for her wand and said, "I know how to end this."
"What are you going to do?" he asked, reaching for her arm. He was too late.