5. Revelation
"I hate this." Derwint said to Collins as they stood outside of Hermione's room.
"I don't like it either, but they have to know."
Derwint took a deep breath. She visibly calmed herself, and then opened the door. Hermione was sitting on the edge of the bed. She had been weeping, but had managed to put on what Derwint considered 'a brave face.' Severus was standing next to her, an arm around his wife. His face might have been carved from stone, there was no motion, no emotion. His eyes were wild though, and Derwint had the feeling that anything might push him into a rage.
"The first thing I want you to know is this, there is nothing that either of you could have done to prevent this. Hermione, look at me dear…" Hermione stopped looking at Collins, whom she had never met before, and focused on Derwint, "This was not your fault. You did nothing wrong. You and your baby are the victim of a terrible curse. It's called Dagmar's Desolation, and I've brought Healer Collins in to tell you more about it."
"Hello, I'm Albert Collins." He offered his hand and both shook it. "I'm the Head of the Department of Curse Damage, and I specialize in rare curses. I can try to be gentle about telling you this, but I don't think it would help. Dagmar's Desolation is a very rare curse. It's been cast nine times in the last eight hundred years. It's exceptionally dark magic designed to produce maximum pain for the target. In the past it's been cast by a jilted lover on the night of the victim's wedding. The spell kills the victim's children at different points of development. Each time allowing the child to grow a bit older, and the parents to become a bit more secure in the idea that this time the child will make it, before killing again." Both Hermione and Severus had blank looks on their faces. As if the information had not yet sunk in.
Collins took a deep breath, "There is no known cure. The recommended treatment is sterilization."
"NO!" Hermione almost screamed it. Her voice was the wounded howl of a feral animal. "NO! We will fix this!" Each of her words were enunciated with a frantic determination. Severus said nothing, but he caressed the back of his wife's hand and looked just as determined as she did.
"I thought you might feel that way, dear. I've put together everything we know about the spell, and everything that's been attempted to cure it in the past." Derwint handed a folder to Hermione who began to read it before she even had a full hold on it.
"You're free to go home when you want to. I've already filed a report with Magical Law Enforcement. They tell me that sometime this afternoon they'll have someone at your home to talk to you and look for any dark objects," Collins said.
"As long as you don't get pregnant you'll suffer no further ill effects from the spell." Derwint hoped that sounded like good news, but Snape's stoic look, and Hermione's frantic reading, didn't indicate either of them took any comfort at those words.
"One thing I can tell you that may be of comfort is this: they've captured everyone who's ever cast this spell. It's rare and difficult magic which makes it easier to find who did it."
Finally Snape spoke, "Whoever cast this better hope the Aurors find him." Collins was certain Snape didn't actually say "Because I'll make the Dementor's Kiss look like an embrace from mum…" but he also knew that just because Snape didn't say it didn't mean that Snape didn't think it. Severus was thinking that, and many other things along those lines, very loudly.
Hermione looked up. "We can leave?"
"If you'd like," Derwint said.
"Anything else I need to do?" Her eyes were bright and Derwint sincerely hoped Hermione wouldn't work herself into madness looking for a cure.
Derwint shook her head, "No. You'll continue to bleed for the next week or so, but assuming everything goes the way it has in the past, you'll have no complications. Get some rest, go slow if you get dizzy, and don't get pregnant. If you think it will help you could go back to work on Monday."
When the dizziness from the Floo stopped Hermione noticed that all of the baby things were gone from the living room. She gently touched the spot on the coffee table where she had left her books.
"You cleaned up?" Severus wasn't sure if she was happy he had done so.
"Arthur thought it would be a good idea."
"Is everything gone?" Hermione asked looking around the room.
"Not gone, just in a box, in the…in the nursery."
"What happened to the wall?" She sounded only mildly interested in the gaping fist sized hole in the wall.
"I hit it."
Hermione turned to him with real concern in her eyes, "You what?"
"I was so angry last night I punched a hole in the wall." As he said that he quickly cast a spell to repair the wall.
"Oh, Severus." She pulled him close to her and began to weep softly. He stood there stroking her hair, feeling for the most part relieved that she was there in his arms and whole. And, although he felt a bit guilty about it, he was relieved she wasn't so far gone that she didn't care about him anymore.
He nuzzled her ear and whispered, "I love you. I loved our baby. And we are going to find the evil bastard who did this, and we are going to make him pay. Then we'll have another baby, and one after that, and as many as you want, and we will be happy. He wanted pain for us, so we'll rub our joy in his face for the rest of his life."
Hermione looked up at him and kissed him. And for several moments they just held each other, drawing strength and comfort from each other's touch.
Two hours later a voice came through the Floo. "Hello, Mr and Mrs Snape, I'm Auror John Davis. May I come in?"
"Yes. Please come through. Would you like some tea?" Hermione offered. She didn't feel as calm as she looked. Part of the time she wanted to start screaming and hexing anyone or thing that got too close. Part of the time she wanted to curl up in a ball and sleep for the next month. But right now she wanted to learn as much as possible about what had happened to them. The sooner the bastard could be found, the sooner they could fix this, and the sooner she could get back to her life.
"I see you've been reading." Mr Davis pointed to the pile of scattered papers on the coffee table.
"Yes," Severus answered. The information had been depressingly complete. Off the top of his head he couldn't think of anything to kill the curse that hadn't been tried before.
"I'm only a few hours ahead of you on this. Unfortunately the last time this spell was cast was in 1953, and all of the Aurors who worked on it are now dead. I have their notes, but it wasn't terribly helpful. Apparently Cornelius Burke was a vengeful nutter who died in Azkaban back in '87. He was easy to find, once Amelia Cranbeck was diagnosed they went looking for a jilted lover, found him, and he confessed within minutes.
"So, I guess the first question is," Davis said as he sipped his tea, "do either of you have a jilted lover?"
Snape almost laughed. Davis appeared to be very earnest, and all of nineteen years old. He was too young to really know much about the two people sitting in front of him. Hermione must have been a professor Hogwarts while he was there, but judging from the lack of horror at Snape, he must have started school after Severus' term as Headmaster.
"I do not believe we have any jilted lovers," Snape said archly.
"Are you sure? Someone who might be playing cool while harboring a deep hate?"
Hermione sighed. "My first love is dead. I married the second. I've two others I've dated. One is outside the magical community and we are still friends. The other is Viktor Krum. I very much doubt he's been harboring a deep hate for me the last twelve years."
"Still, we'll look into him." Davis set a Quick Quotes Quill to work, and it scribbled Victor's name. "What about you Mr Snape? Is there anyone who might have taken your marriage badly?"
"There are many people who may want to harm me or Hermione, but for different reasons. If you are looking for ex-girlfriends, there are none capable of this."
"How would you know?"
"They're all Muggles for starters. Secondly, before Hermione I didn't usually go out with my real face, and never with my real name. And thirdly I don't think any of them were under the impression we were doing anything beyond a casual night out."
"Could you give me their names anyway? I'd like to check every possibility."
"Actually, no I cannot give you their names. Telling you to look for a red headed woman named Sarah who used to go dancing at Falstaf's back in the late eighties isn't likely to produce anything of any use for you. How about we focus on people who may actually want to harm us, instead of looking for women who couldn't identify me, couldn't cast a spell, and probably don't remember I exist in the first place?"
"Well, who do you think would want to hurt you? I mean, besides every living Death Eater. We got the list you made last night."
"Everyone who had a grudge against me, and had the kind of spell power necessary to do this is on the list."
"May I see it?" Hermione asked. Davis handed over a long piece of parchment. "I may have a few that Severus didn't put on there."
While Hermione skimmed the paper John asked Severus, "How about people you don't think have the spell power?"
"You'll be searching for the next twenty years. You'd have to look into everyone who ever attended Hogwarts between 1981 and 1998."
Hermione grabbed her quill and added two names to the end of the list. She then handed it back to John.
"Rita Skeeter and Dolores Umbridge… Why them?"
Hermione looked uncomfortable. "Does it matter? They both have reason to hate me, and both have above average magical skills."
"Do you have any students who might want to harm you?"
"I don't think so."
"Anyone who was very unhappy with a grade? Wasn't able to go on with the line of study they planned because of you?"
"Mr Davis, I teach Arithmancy. You know that. You know that there is no further course of study that actually requires it. It's an elective. If you fail my class you may have problems getting enough NEWTS to go onto what you want next, but nothing is barred specifically for failing that class."
"In that case let me get down to the second part of this. I have a rather sensitive Dark Detector here. I'd like to scan the house, and see if we can find the object used with the curse. Seven out of the eight cases before yours were broken cups, and all were located under the hearth, so this should be a very quick scan."
And, just like in the previous cases the Dark Detector lit up as soon as it was passed over the hearth. A few wand swishes and a broken cup was sitting on a tray in front of Mr Davis.
"So, does this look familiar to you?" And the correct answer was yes, and no. It was just a plain coffee cup. A small, white mug, that just about everyone has at least one of sitting in the back of the cupboard. Severus and Hermione both shook their heads. Anyone, anywhere could have had that cup.
"Well, I'll get it back to our seers. Maybe one of them can get a glimpse of whomever cast this spell on you. If you have any questions, or think of anything, let me know. Here's my card." And with that Mr Davis left their home, taking his notes and the cup with him.