Chapter 9 - Neville Longbottom
The next morning Hermione awoke to the smell of cinnamon. She sat up, rubbing her eyes, and opened them to find a still-steaming cup of tea and a piece of parchment. She sipped the tea carefully. Mmmmm. Earl Grey, how did he know her favorite? She grabbed the note from her bedside table and smiled:
Yesterday gave me some excellent ideas. Come down when you're ready. We have work to do. –Severus
Hermione smiled as she went to brush her teeth. Yesterday had given her the best feeling she had had since long before the war began. She couldn't isolate whether it was the looks on the Weasley family's faces as they saw Fred alive and well, the knowledge that she had helped one of the lives she had mourned losing, or the look of happiness she had seen on Severus' face after they returned home. Severus…
Her thoughts drifted to the last conversation they had had the night before. We were connected…I simply have yet to figure out what that means. Did she know what that means? Absentmindedly running a brush over her mass of curls, she desperately tried to deny what she hoped it would mean. He'll never think of you that way. But maybe he could? He had said that in saving Harry he had paid his debt to Lily, and Harry had said he noticed something different about him. Snap out of it, Granger. She finished getting dressed in a hurry and rushed downstairs to hear what ideas yesterday had provoked.
Ten minutes later, Hermione and Severus were seated on the couch, already waist deep in a heated conversation about their next mission. "I would love to, believe me, but it isn't safe to go that far back. You know that, Professor" Hermione taunted him with his old moniker.
"I did not just learn about time travel, Miss Granger," he stressed her formal name in retaliation. "However, I have been through all of my memories and this is the only thing. The only idea that…" he paused, dropping his playful bravado and suddenly softening. "This is the only solution that makes enough of a difference. He spent seven years terrified of me and I let him. I had to. The last year…it was even worse for him than it was for Ginny. I've been through the facts backwards and forwards, and this is the only thing that works." He finished as though it was a personal admission, not a rational statement. His sudden vulnerability stopped the argument he could already see building in her eyes in it's tracks. She exhaled, staring straight ahead for a moment. When her eyes met his it was with thoughtful support.
"Then how do we do it?" she asked with a conciliatory smile.
By early afternoon, the remnants of the delivery muggle pizza they had ordered so as not to have to stop working to cook had been shoved to the side to make room for more books. Hermione began, "If we start with the spell to summon a lost witch…" without missing a beat Severus picked up where she left off "…and compliment it with the strongest incantation we can find for memory loss…" Hermione took back over "…then we still have to account for the initial curse, which brings us back to square one." She finished with a sigh of defeat.
Severus ran his fingers through his hair as he thought, Hermione leafing rapidly through a dust-covered tome in her lap. "Let's take this one step at a time. We can undo the memory loss, since the physical damage has long since healed we only have to do preventative spells to cure any lingering symptoms of the initial torture, and we have figured out how to bring back their identities, but none of it will work without removing the initial curse," Severus summarized.
"Isn't that impossible to do since the witch who created the curse is dead?" Hermione asked. "Yes," Severus sighed in frustration, "without a sample of the magic that created the curse it is impossible for me to brew an antidote." Hermione froze. "What is it?" Severus asked.
"Could we get a sample of the magic from another curse cast by the same witch?" she asked, eyes staring straight ahead.
"Yes, but it can't come from the same curse we're trying to cure. It has to be a separate sample, and it's not like we have access to…" Hermione cut him off. "Yes, we do," she said quietly.
"What?" he asked, searching her face for answers. Still staring straight ahead, Hermione slowly rolled up the sleeve of her jumper. Severus' eyes dropped to her forearm and his eyes widened with horror.
"What did she do to you?" he asked earnestly, still staring at the word carved into her arm. Without moving her fixed stare, she began to reassure him that she was fine, when his voice, suddenly urgent interrupted her platitudes.
"Hermione!" His silky voice was forceful and loud enough to jerk her eyes to meet his. He had said her name as if getting her attention in order to say something very important, yet no words came. He simply stared into her eyes. He had long since made peace with the fact that his body, like his soul, were covered in scars. He accepted them as part of the dark past he had so long embraced and for which he was now trying so hard to atone. He had befriended his scars, but seeing her perfect flesh marred with the ugliness of that word was more than he could take. Unable to move, his dark eyes flashed with the volumes of unstated emotion at the contamination if this perfect woman with this darkest magic.
Upon hearing him say her name like that, Hermione's eyes jerked up involuntarily to meet his. Seeing the comfort, compassion, worry, and over all sadness in his eyes, her eyes filled with the tears she had been holding back since that day on the cold floor of Malfoy Manor. "Will it work?" she choked out with her last breath before tears came.
Seeing her perfect face distorted by tears, Severus could take it no longer. He reached out and, before she knew what was happening, had pulled her tight to his chest. Her first thought was of how strong he was. He didn't look so through his teaching robes, yet his chest was hard with muscles. She curled her face into his shoulder and sobbed quietly into his comforting smell of sage and sandalwood. He held her tightly, burying his nose in her lavender scented hair as he whispered comfort. After a few minutes she collected herself, yet stayed curled into his chest.
"I'm sorry," he said into the top of her head, smoothing her hair with his hand. "She's dead now," Hermione replied matter-of-factly. "Do you think it will work?" She pulled away far enough to see Severus' face, yet not far enough to pull out of his embrace. His breath hitched for a small second, neither used to nor prepared for being face to face at this proximity. He stared into her eyes contemplating the ramifications of letting go and pulling her lips to his, as he so desperately wanted to do.
"Yes, I believe it will," he replied, pulling his arms back and standing up so rapidly he did not exhibit his usual amount of grace. "Allow me a few minutes to conjure the basic equipment necessary for me to brew the potion, and I will extract a sample from you. It shouldn't hurt in the slightest, but we will have to reopen a portion of the scar." He was back to business in a way that made Hermione's heart sink. Did I just imagine that? She had found it harder and harder over the last few days to avoid imagining what a kiss between her and Severus would feel like. She had thought it was simply in her head, nothing more than a passing fantasy. I swear he was going to kiss me. She shook her head to clear her thoughts and began collecting the other spells they would need for this plan to work.
"I'll have to wear glamours so they don't recognize me. You haven't met, so you are fine going as your lovely self," Severus was back to the almost playful demeanor he seemed to have developed since their project began, "but they only ever knew me as a death eater. I don't imagine they would enjoy coming to and having me be the first thing they see."
Hermione had practiced her end of the spells enough to know them forwards and backwards; Severus had the anticurse potions stored safely in his pocket. They didn't need the cloak or the time turner for this one, but before they prepared to apparate out, Hermione brought out her wand and waved it over both of them. Both of their clothing transfigured into the outfits warn by magical nurses.
"Just in case anyone should walk in while we're attempting to pour potions down their throats," she explained. "You wear it well," he murmered, with a hint of something on his voice. After the incident before, Hermione was not inclined to read anything into it, so she quickly thanked him and moved to grab his arm for a side along apparation.
A few seconds later Hermione and a Severus heavily disguised by glamours were striding down the hallway of St. Mungo's long term care ward. Hermione recognized the room from her fifth year when they had run into Neville on their way to visit Mr. Weasley. Hermione went straight to the door and strode through it, yet Severus froze on the threshold at the sight of Frank and Alice Longbottom sitting in chairs staring at the blank wall. Hermione gestured for him to come in, but he remained frozen at the threshold. She quietly took his hand and led him into the room. He remained as far from the eerily still couple as he could, but allowed the door to shut behind him.
Hermione began chanting the spell to call a lost witch and, as the air around the Longbottoms began to glow with a subtle gold light, she heard Severus' voice behind her feebly beginning the memory retrieval spell. When they had finished their spells, he handed her one of the two vials and they each helped pour it down the throat of one of their temporary patients. After they had successfully ingested every last drop, Hermione recast her spell while Severus continued his memory charm. The golden aura began to grow thicker and thicker until all the sudden, with a loud clap, it disappeared into the bodies of the couple before them.
Both Longbottoms fell to the floor, completely unconscious. Then as, they both started to stir, Hermione rushed over to Mrs. Longbottom to help. He began to cough, but she grabbed Hermione's arm and, for the first time in 17 years, opened her eyes with complete understanding of her surroundings.
"Where's Neville?" her words brought a smile to Hermione's face. Hermione glanced back at Severus with a grin and noticed that he was wearing an expression of shock. She turned back to Mrs. Longbottom, "I'm a friend of Neville's. You're safe here. You're in a hospital. Let me summon your nurses to come in and explain everything." The frightened woman's face relaxed a bit and, as she heard Hermione mention Neville's name, she reached out to squeeze her husband's hand. "Thank you both," she said, looking from Hermione to Severus.
"No, thank you," Severus said softly from his corner. Just then, Hermione and Severus heard a conversation float down the hall between an elderly woman's voice and a very familiar male voice.
"Back to visit them again, dearie? Bless your heart."
"What can I say, they're my parents. I like seeing them even if they can't really see me."
Hermione nodded towards the door and the two slipped out just as Neville rounded the corner and entered the room. After she heard Neville's startled gasp, Hermione couldn't help but peek into the small window on the door to see Neville, now kneeling on the ground hugging both of his parents at once. She turned back to Severus, who had removed his glamours but was still quite stiff, and saw him watching as the family, reunited at last, continued their long embrace.
She pulled herself to his arm in their usual formation for apparition, but when he did not immediately disapparate she looked up to his still frozen face. She reached up and gently brushed his hair out of his eyes. This seemed to break his trance, as he looked down at her, he face was still completely expressionless. As he looked down at the worried face of the witch on his arm, his face slowly spread into the first real, full-fledged smile she had ever seen grace his stark features. This smile was contagious. She grinned back and after a few seconds they disapparated, still locked in each other's gazes, smiling like neither of them had in quite a long time. As they disapparated, neither of them noticed the formerly-round face peeking out at them from the window on the door of the Longbottom's hospital room.