Chapter 34: In Which We Discuss Why Wandless Magic

Wednesday hadn't worked. Thursday hadn't worked. Late on Tuesday Snape had had an Eureka! moment with his time delay potion formula, and spent the next thirty hours in his lab, working like a fiend. He exited long enough to send Hermione a note to explain what was going on and eat before he collapsed from low blood sugar. Early Thursday morning he crashed on the camp bed he kept in his lab, slept like a rock for eight hours, woke up, scarfed down some food, and went back at it for another fifteen hours. By early Friday he had developed a working prototype for a time delay potion. All it needed now was testing. Lots and lots of testing. All he needed was sleep, lots and lots of sleep. The last thing he did before heading to his bed was to write Hermione, to see if she wanted to see him that night.

They met at her house, and had a very low key dinner, along with discussion about how he had been walking in Hogsmeade when it occurred to him that an obscure African plant, used mainly to thicken an American stew might just do the trick. The next part of the challenge was trying to find okra pods in England. He had been lucky, founding a restaurant that was willing to sell him a pound of them, and from there his research was off.

"All that's left now is the testing phase, but that's not my job. My job was to fix their formula and give them something to test." He was lounging on her couch, facing her, looking deliciously knackered. She placed his feet in her lap and began to rub them firmly. "That feels so good."

"After three days on your feet, I'd think so. What happens next?"

"I bottle it up, send it and my notes off, and deposit the cheque. Then, I look through my list of possible projects, see which one looks best, see if the company still needs my help, and if so begin negotiations. Also, I'll have the time to play with some of my own research. But most of all, I will have the time to go to America and meet your cadre of wandless witches."

"Wonderful. They'll be thrilled. Willow is looking forward to meeting all of you."

"All of us?"

"Amber, Dean, Rose, and Rose's young man, Benjamin, are all moving to Cleveland to start up a Wanded Magic Academy to go along with the Watcher's Council. Officially, we're helping them get settled, and I'm spending some time with Willow working on higher level wandless magic. Unofficially, this is a bit of holiday."

"I didn't know we were heading an expedition."

"Does it make you change your mind?"

He thought about it. "Will we be spending much time with them?"

"No, it's not like we're muggles, flying over on a plane, stuck in the air for twelve hours. The girls at The Council will make them feel at home. I doubt we'll see them for more than an hour or two after we get there."

"I can live with that."

He moaned softly as she pressed her knuckles deeply into the arch of his left foot. He lay with his eyes closed, enjoying her hands on his feet for a few moments. She was sure he was drifting off to sleep when he finally asked, "Why wandless magic?"

"It's a long story."

"I'm not going anywhere."

She sighed deeply. He told you about Lily. You can tell him about Ron. It might even help. "What did you know about how Ron died?"

The image of Bellatrix, bloody and cackling, jumped into his head. He had been there, talking with Voldemort when she apparated into the room to let them know that the Weasley boy had been killed and the mudblood tortured. Voldemort had been pleased, which made Bellatrix even less pleasant to be around than usual. He decided Hermione didn't need to know about that. "I knew it happened. Bellatrix bragged about it to several of the others. She and I avoided each other whenever possible. I assumed he died hard when I heard she was the one who killed him, but beyond that…"

"Beyond that…" She didn't want to keep talking. She wanted to run away and hide from the memories. But hiding didn't make anything easier. And he had told her about his first love. She owed him the same honesty. "It was March 1997. We had just learned about the Taboo, but Harry slipped and said Voldemort. He was able to get under his cloak in time. Fred and George were off with Lee Jordan that night broadcasting an episode of Potter Watch. Ginny didn't join us until after Ron had died." Her eyes had a faraway look, focused somewhere beyond him.

"We were taken to Malfoy Manor and given to Bellatrix.

"I guess she decided to do a Longbottom Redux. She wasn't even asking questions; she just went straight for the pain.

"I got to go first. She broke every bone in my right foot, and most of the ones in my left before I passed out. She had Ron in a full Body-Bind, eyes opened, and forced him to watch." She kept her voice flat, as if maintaining her calm could keep the pain of remembering that night away.

"When I woke up she started on him. He decided that the longer he could entertain her, the longer she would play with him, the less pain I would have to face. So he yelled, cursed her, did all he could to keep her interested. A few times it looked like he was on the verge of passing out, but he would wrench his eyes open, and say something to her, and she'd go at him again.

"I don't know how long it lasted, but he got to the point where he couldn't speak anymore. She had broken several of his teeth, and his lips and tongue were bleeding. I was praying that this time he was out. That he'd just lie there, and let her have a go at me. He very slowly lifted his hand, and raised his two fingers.

"Something happened to her. She shrieked and tossed her wand aside, and grabbed a knife. She cut off each of his fingers, and his toes, and had cut through his belt, when Fred and George bust into the room. She looked up, saw them, and apparated out of there before either of them could get a spell off.

"He turned his head to look at me, smiled, and died. George got me. Fred got Ron. We left the house, set fire to it, and apparated back to Bill's house. Harry was already there; he had searched the Malfoy townhouse, and was getting ready to join us when the twins walked in, each one carrying a body. Fleur fixed me up, while the boys cleaned up Ron. We didn't want to take him home to Molly the way he was." The memory of Molly's face, the joy at seeing her children, home for the first time in months, and the horror as she noticed one of them was missing, broke Hermione. She began to shake with her tears. Snape wrapped his arms around her. She snuffled against him for a moment. When she went on her voice was rough, yet determined.

"If I could have gotten my wand, or disarmed her, or apparated us, or let Harry, Fred, or George know where we were… But my wand was across the room, and I couldn't get it to come to me. I couldn't do this." Her wand, which had been sitting on the dining table zoomed to her and stopped inches from her face. She grabbed it. "I will never be without my magic again." She sent her wand back to its place on the table.

He pulled her closer, and rested his chin on the top of her head while she snuggled into him. For a long time they just held each other. She listened to his heartbeat and thought about how much she had missed this closeness, how long it had been since comfort came with a warm embrace and a beating heart.

When she continued, the tears were gone from her voice. "After the war, the idea of wandless magic came to me. It took a year to find the Watcher's Council, and I spent another year with them. Willow was an amazing help. She's been there, too. Her mate had been killed a year before Ron, so she understood where I was and why I was there. By the time I left her, I had a handle on the basics and had begun to find my way out of deep mourning."

He stroked her hair and placed a kiss on her forehead. For a few more minutes, he held her quietly. Then she said to him, "Thank you."

His eyebrows drew together. "For what?"

"For not saying anything. For not telling me it wasn't my fault, or that there was nothing I could have done, or some other trite thing I already know, but can't always convince myself is true."

He kissed her forehead. "It never helps. Hell, Dumbledore told me that Lily created the Prophecy, waited a year, no babies who fit the description were born, so she and Alice Longbottom decided to bait the trap themselves, and it still didn't help. I was still the one who gave him the Prophecy.

"We live in our own little worlds, the centre of our own universes, so of course on some level we are responsible for all that happens within our sight. I think Muggles must have an easier time dealing with this because the idea of 'you can't' is so much more real to them. When you see something you really can't change, you realize there must be more than just you. But how often do we run into something we really can't change?" He shook his head, blinked, and spoke again."I must be tired; I'm usually not this philosophical."

"Well, my tired man, how about we get you to bed?"

She stood and offered him her hand. He took it but looked doubtful, "I don't think I'm up for anything other than sleep."

"Neither am I, but a warm body to share my bed with would be lovely."

They walked up to her room, settled down into a comfortable cuddle, and said goodbye to the waking world.