The black orb hung before them. "Is there any way we can follow this?" Hermione asked Snape. "No, the spell I know only shows where dark magic left traces, not where the caster has moved to," he replied, looking annoyed at her question. He still thinks I am useless. Hermione took off her backpack, opened it, and under his curious gaze stuck in her entire arm up to her shoulder. "Come on," she murmured, rummaging around until she found the copy of Necromancy she had…borrowed. " Lumos," she said, and with the wandlight she looked up the section in which the author had attempted to track a dark wizard using only the dark magic residue.
On the fourth day of my pursuit, the spell ' vita nocte' revealed a trace of dark magic. But I was unable to follow this magical residue further as I had no spell to lock on and track the individual magical 'fingerprint' of the necromancer. I therefore had to rely on tracks, of which there were very little. Once I get home I will further investigate a spell of this nature. Perhaps I can start with secutus sum, to follow, or something of that sort. All spells are rooted in the language used to cast them.
Hermione grimaced. She wished the author, William of Castleby, a famous hunter of dark wizards in the 16th century, would have lived long enough to investigate this second spell. As it was, he died on his last hunt, and when they recovered his body they found his journal, which became a valuable source for hunters of dark magic. "Ms. Granger, we do not have all day in which you can read through several of your fiction novels," Snape growled, clearly impatient to be on the way to Chesterfield. His arms were crossed, and he appeared tense and wound. Hermione moved her gaze to the horizon – the sun was rising in a brilliant orange glow, dispelling the dismal mood that hung over the park.
She ignored his comment about her reading habits. Like he had any idea about the kind of books she read. Of course, he didn't know this was a copy of Necromancy, on of the most illegal books for a student of Hogwarts to have. To fool the gaze of curious onlookers Hermione had magically removed the old, cracked cover and replaced it with the cover from one of the breathy romance novels Lavender had gifted her with. The cover showed a large, overly muscular man, holding a dramatically fainting woman in his arms. Shit. Not good for his opinion of my intellect. Even worse, the title, written in large flamboyant gold lettering read: Giving in to Desire. Hermione cleared her throat, realizing he was staring at her, one eyebrow raised. If she didn't know better she would assume he was amused at her choice of literature. Severus Snape is never amused, she thought darkly.
To distract him from her obvious embarrassment, she asked, " Sir, do you know the latin word for eternal darkness? I think if we make the right spell we will be able to follow this trail." She expected him to laugh and tell her she was a 'dunderhead with a lack of intellect' but instead he looked thoughtful, the first emotion she had seen on his usually stoic face. "Noctem aeternem," he answered at last. She began to pace as thoughts flooded her brain. "But we can't use that in the spell. If I combine 'follow' with 'eternal darkness' the dark magic will end up inside of us, because essentially I will be commanding the wand to take me into eternal darkness. I need something more specific." She stopped. Turned. Dover for her backpack again, this time sticking her entire head and right arm, including the shoulder, into the small black backpack. Snape heard her rummaging around and muttering to herself, and it sounded like she was in some kind of storage hall, the way it clanked and echoed. She emerged with a fat tome, which she settled onto the ground with a bang. A 16th century original latin dictionary? Snape found himself staring and at the same time being impressed by her resourcefulness, something that, as a rule, did not happen. Usually he found of student of her age lacking every sort of creativity and intelligence. I didn't know she could cast an undetectable extension charm…..that's NEWT graduate level and she is a 6th year. Hermione found she was having trouble concentrating under his fierce gaze. "Lets eat some breakfast, sir," she suggested, and her stomach rumbled to back up her words. "Lets go into town then." he said calmly. Hermione replaced the books into the backpack, and they set out to the east.
Chesterfield was a town with a population of about 70, 000, with a university and several churches. It was still very early, so not too many people were about. They settled into a muggle breakfast diner and, after confirming they had enough muggle money between them, they ordered what they wanted from a tired looking waitress. She was surprised at his taking his coffee with sugar and milk. She had half expected plain black coffee. Black seemed to be a thing with him at any rate. "So what do you propose we do next then, Ms. Granger, " he asked her, leaning back with his eyebrows raised. You have a chance to impress me, peasant. Hermione smiled to herself at this thought. She began to explain her the idea that had taken root when she read that passage in Necromancy.
An hour and two plates of scrambled egg and sausages later, Hermione and Severus had formed a plan. As she had explained her theory, Severus had found that he had developed a grudging respect of her intellect. He felt slightly bad about calling her a know it all in his classes – she had developed a new spell that would save them weeks of searching. He winced when he realized he had called her that just a few hours ago. He recalled the way her large brown eyes had widened in hurt for just a few second before she had shaken it off. Wait, what? Since when do I catalogue my students eye colour…. Severus Snape felt an odd feeling growing inside him. He decided he needed a task; this was obviously just his lack of sleep influencing him. He waved the waitress over, paid, and then growled " Let's get back to work Ms. Granger." She wondered at his sudden shift in mood as he had seemed quite impressed with her ideas, but accepted it. A few minutes later they were heading back towards where they had found the dark magic to put their plan into motion.