IMPORTANT AUTHOR'S NOTE - PLEASE READ THIS: A reader brought it to my attention that my timelines got thrown off. It was a long time in between writing the first few chapters of this story and resuming the new writing. As a result, I confess I rather lost track of my own storyverse's timeline. That's embarrassing and sloppy, and I do apologize.
In any case, it's not Christmas. It's January (the meeting at Shell Cottage took place on New Year's Eve). Which means… Severus' birthday. We may even be a few days off on that, but I'm just going to kind of recalibrate the timeline and settle on that. The previous chapter has been adjusted to reflect this timeline at the very end. If it helps you to just re-read the last few paragraphs of the previous chapter, I advise doing that.
I will have to go back and adjust Chapter 6. Again, I apologize and I appreciate your patience in dealing with my slop. Thanks to muriel1978 for pointing out my error.
I hope you enjoy this chapter. Onward!
"Well?" Severus said to the portrait of Phineas Nigellus. He realized quickly that he'd been too sharp when the old painting snipped back,
"Good morning to you, as well, Headmaster." The portrait narrowed its eyes and spoke to Severus as though he were a petulant student, and Severus quickly thought that some habits never died in old teachers. Even the dead teachers.
"I apologize, sir," Severus said deferentially. "I am eager to hear of any news you might have regarding the diadem."
Phineas Nigellus sniffed lightly. "Yes," he said, and beside Severus, Hermione shifted anxiously on her feet. Phineas Nigellus continued, "Amrose Swott spoke with the Grey Lady yesterday. I am sorry to report that Helena Ravenclaw's ghost apparently became quite upset upon being asked about her mother's diadem."
Severus frowned and glanced down to Hermione. She sighed and appeared not to show any emotion, though Severus could only imagine that her head was screaming at the thought of missing out on information.
"So she said nothing useful?" Hermione pressed, chewing on her fingernail and twirling her wand anxiously. Phineas Nigellus shook his head.
"All she would tell the ghost of Amrose Swott was this… she told Swott, 'That silly boy asked the same thing of me, and when I told him where it was, he put it in that room and hid it away. I won't speak of it.' That's precisely what she said. Headmaster Swott's ghost approached her once more, and he was then confronted by the Bloody Baron, who came to the emotional defense of his ancient love. Things got a bit testy between the three, and the Fat Friar had to step in and mediate, and…"
The portrait of Phineas Nigellus shrugged, but Severus ignored the way the portrait trailed off and turned his attention to the painted globe at his side. Instead, Severus looked at Hermione's excited face and knew exactly what she was thinking.
The diadem was there, at Hogwarts. 'When I told him where it was, he put it in that room and hid it away.' Perhaps Phineas Nigellus hadn't understood how significant or helpful those words from Helena Ravenclaw had been, but both Hermione and Severus understood. Severus swallowed heavily as Hermione nodded once at him. He turned to the portrait of Phineas Nigellus Black and cleared his throat. The old headmaster turned away from the painted globe, his finger lingering on South America, and he raised his grey eyebrows expectantly.
"Is there any way at all you can get word to Luna Lovegood? That Ravenclaw student you said was defending Hermione and myself and being punished by the Carrows for doing so?" Severus asked seriously. Phineas Nigellus looked concerned, but he sat up straighter in his painted chair and said,
"I can certainly try. Phyllida Spore has a portrait not only in the Headmaster's Office, but also in Ravenclaw Tower. I will gladly speak with her and see if she can contact the Lovegood girl. Any deed I can accomplish for the rightful headmaster of Hogwarts is certainly worth trying."
"It's rather a long message," Hermione said cautiously. "Have you got a paper and quill in your portrait?" She appeared to glance about the painting, at all the magnifying glasses and scales and globes that Phineas Nigellus had about the painted library around him. The old wizard glanced about and snatched at a painted bit of parchment and an old quill. He dipped the painted quill into some painted ink, and it occurred to Severus just how strange Magical portraits were - even to a wizard like himself.
"Go ahead," Phineas Nigellus said dutifully. Severus cleared his throat and spoke slowly as the old portrait took notes.
"Please have Headmistress Spore give the following message to Luna Lovegood in Ravenclaw Tower. The message must be conveyed exactly this way, or confusion will result," he said. "In the room where the D.A. held its meetings, there is an object of the utmost importance hidden. It is a diadem - a tiara which bears the markings of Rowena Ravenclaw. There is a silver eagle and a large blue gemstone. The precise location of the diadem in the R. of R. is not known. When you've found it, hide it carefully and notify Phyllida Spore."
Phineas Nigellus nodded vigorously as he wrote, his quill flying as he scribbled. His grey eyebrows crumpled over his painted forehead as he seemed to process what it was that Severus had asked of him. When he set down his quill, the painted version of the man who had once been headmaster said,
"May I ask why it is that you have need of Rowena Ravenclaw's diadem?"
"You may not," Severus clipped. Then, seeing the profound annoyance in Phineas Nigellus' face, he softened his tone a bit as he said, "Now, if you will take that message at once back to the Headmaster's Office and convey it precisely to Phyllida Spore… and have her send Luna Lovegood -"
"To the room where the D.A. held its meetings. Yes. I can see." The portrait of Phineas Nigellus nodded as he glanced down at his parchment. Then he rose from his chair and bowed a bit as he said tightly to Hermione, "Madam."
"We shall return for an update in twenty-four hours," Severus said in a strict tone, and Phineas Nigellus nodded dismissively as he stalked right out of his frame.
Hermione and Severus stood in silence for a long while until at last Severus said firmly, "That is that, I'm afraid. There is nothing else that can be done just now. We have a supply of groceries in your Expanded bag, and we shall simply have to hunker down here until we receive word from Phineas Nigellus that Miss Lovegood has managed to obtain the diadem. It is far too dangerous to leave this place until we have reason to believe we can go and fetch the diadem directly from Tomes and Scrolls."
"At which point we will destroy it," Hermione nodded, and Severus watched her lips go pale. "And then we will move on to the snake. Nagini. And on to… to Harry. And finally to him. Isn't that how it's going to go now?"
She turned her face to look at him, her skin milky and tired-looking in the grey light coming through the window. Severus nodded once and said, "Yes. That's how it's going to go. I hope so, anyway."
Hermione sighed and bowed her head. She pulled something from the pocket of her denims and held it out as she sniffed and mumbled, "Happy birthday, Severus."
She pressed a long, hard object into Severus' palm and started to move past him, but he touched her elbow to make her stop. At first, he was confused when he stared at the little thing she'd given to him, for it was only a toothbrush. It was a wooden-handled one, with perfectly ordinary-looking white bristles. Severus was not certain whether she'd been joking in giving it to him. It was his birthday, of course, but they were not exactly in a position to celebrate properly, nor had he ever desired to do so with his birth date. So he was not sure whether to thank her. He narrowed his eyes and nodded at her instead, and Hermione shifted where she stood. She shrugged and said,
"I made it myself. It's enchanted so that it will begin automatically brushing your teeth when the bristles touch your mouth - rather like a Muggle electric brush. Toothpaste will come through the bristles on its own, and the bristles are self-regenerating, so the brush will last indefinitely. It may seem a silly gift, but… erm… well, my parents were -"
"Dentists." Severus nodded firmly and touched his lips to Hermione's forehead. He would have kissed her lips, but suddenly it occurred to him that he had need of her toothbrush. He chuckled and insisted, "It is not at all silly. And, if I'm honest, it's a rather ingenious series of spells you've enlisted to make this thing."
He held it up and studied it for a moment, and then he heard Hermione say, "Right. Well, there's cake downstairs waiting, so…"
"Cake?" Severus quirked a disbelieving eyebrow up at her and felt his cheeks color. He shook his head and sighed. "I do not wish for any sentimental birthday celebrations, Hermione."
"I know," she shrugged, but just the same she turned to go from the room and make her way down the stairs. As she went, she called out, "Come and have some cake, will you? Who knows how many birthdays any of us have left, after all?"
"Did you really need to put the number on it?" Severus scowled at the admittedly well-decorated white cake on the long kitchen table, feeling compelled to wipe the frosting 3 and the 8 off of it. He looked up to Hermione, who giggled and shrugged.
"Did I get it wrong?" she asked playfully. "Are you not thirty-eight today?"
"I am," Severus snarled, giving her a sour look. "I needed no reminders."
"Hardly ancient," Hermione said lightly. She moved over to a little drawer in the kitchen and pulled out a few little wax candles. They weren't specifically birthday candles, and as she jabbed them into her cake, the whole thing looked rather haphazard. Severus tried not to smirk at the thought of it all - himself and Hermione standing alone in the kitchen at Grimmauld Place, pantomiming a birthday party.
"Incendio," Hermione muttered, flicking her wand toward the candles. Little flames appeared upon them. Severus narrowed his eyes at her to warn her not to do what she was thinking of doing. But her sly grin widened, and she took Severus' hands in hers. Then in a gentle voice, she began to sing, "Happy birthday to you. Happy birthday to you."
She paused to lean up and plant a soft kiss on his lips, and Severus felt his foul mood start to dissolve a bit. She pulled away and smiled, pushing his hair from his eyes as she continued in little more than a whisper,
"Happy birthday, dear Severus. Happy birthday to you."
He leaned to kiss her again, seeing nothing but love in her warm brown eyes. She tasted sweeter than any cake ever could, he thought. As Severus snaked his arms around Hermione, he seriously considered pushing her down onto the table and doing indecent things to her. But then she pulled her mouth from his and murmured,
"There's wax dripping on your cake. Make a wish."
Severus huffed and turned to his cake. He stared for a moment at the candles and tried to quickly think of a birthday wish. He pinched his lips tightly as he remembered the way Septima Vector had come storming into his office, insisting that his and Hermione's lives had become so entangled that they could not survive without one another. The Magnum Verbum Honoris meant that their paths were sewn tightly together, and according to Septima Vector, no path went terribly far for them.
Severus gulped heavily. He had never taken the idea of a birthday wish seriously at all. But it was with utmost seriousness that he shut his eyes now and thought, I wish for a long, long life for Hermione Granger.
Then he opened his eyes and puffed out a breath toward the candles, extinguishing them. Hermione clapped and bounced on her toes beside him, and then she was using her wand to slice and serve up the cake she'd made.
"Where did you learn such skill with baking charms?" Severus demanded, cocking an eyebrow at Hermione across the worn wooden table. He shoveled another bite of cake into his mouth and savored it.
"Molly Weasley," Hermione laughed quietly, and Severus gave her a nod.
"Ah," he said. "Yes. I might have known."
Their peace was interrupted by a loud CRACK-CRACK! Severus flew to his feet, grabbing his wand from the table and jabbing it out into the air before him. Hermione did the same, lunging into a defensive position as they quickly realized what had happened.
"Grimmauld Place," Ginny Weasley breathed, looking to Harry Potter as he tucked Severus' iron pendant back into his shirt.
"Harry! Ginny! What's happened?" Hermione cried, lowering her wand and flying into the arms of her friends on instinct. Severus wanted to pull her away off of them, to demand a good explanation from the interlopers, but he stood back and observed silently instead.
"Snatchers. Or, it might have been, if we hadn't fled in time. Harry broke the taboo on his name," Ginny Weasley scowled, crossing her arms over her chest. Harry Potter threw his arms up in exasperation and cried,
"I told you, Ginny, it was an accident! I -"
"Did it not occur to you, Mister Potter, that by bringing yourselves here after activating the taboo, you might just be inviting Snatchers straight to Grimmauld Place?" Severus could not control the angry tremble in his voice as he loomed over the group before him. He felt very much like their old teacher now, even as Harry Potter glared up at him.
"We waited until the Snatchers showed up, Professor Snape," Ginny Weasley said carefully. "It actually did occur to us that we needed to wait the Snatchers to find us before leaving, so that they couldn't follow. So Harry had the Oraverit in his hand, and the very second that the Snatchers arrived, we Disapparated. We were trying to take precautions, sir. Even if Harry was careless in the first place."
She glared at her boyfriend again, tightening her arms around her own body. Severus knew that Ginny Weasley was probably just as tired of running and hiding as he and Hermione were. Ginny and Harry Potter were probably on one another's last nerve at this point. Severus raised his eyebrows and looked to the birthday cake on the table with a bored expression.
"Are either of you hungry?" he sighed.
"Feels a bit different now, doesn't it?" Hermione sighed as she turned over her shoulder. She climbed the last few stairs from the second floor up to the third and paused on the landing. Harry nodded as he followed her and looked around, and Ginny agreed,
"It isn't quite the same without Remus' worried muttering, or Dumbledore popping in unexpectedly."
"Or Ron talking my ear off about the Chudley Cannons until three in the morning," Harry joked softly, leaning back on the wall. Hermione fought back a thick lump in her throat as she added,
"Or Fred and George testing their inventions, and the sound of Mrs. Weasley's angry shrieks as she scolded them."
"Fred and George - come down here at once!" Harry, Ginny, and Hermione all imitated Molly Weasley with uncanny accuracy, and the girls dissolved into giggles at the memory.
Ginny shook her head through her tears. "Then Mum's screaming would set off the portrait of Walburga Black, the same way that Tonks stumbling over the troll-leg would do -"
"And Sirius would yell at Mrs. Black to shut up. It never worked." Harry nodded. Suddenly his smile disappeared, and Hermione's did, too. Ginny swiped a stray tear from her eye and laced her fingers through Harry's as she said admitted,
"I'm glad, in a way, that Harry broke the taboo. It is good, probably, that the four of us can reconvene. Even for a brief time."
Hermione nodded solemnly. She moved across the landing and opened an enormous wardrobe, in which a great many spare linens were stored. She and Ginny pulled out some blankets and pillowcases, which they proceeded to wash with spells to get rid of the musty smell.
The trio spent the next ten minutes Scouring a big, lonely bedroom on the third floor until the walls gleamed and the old wooden bed was rid of dust. As Hermione helped Ginny make the bed and Harry lit a fire, Ginny said carefully,
"I'm sorry we intruded on Professor Snape's birthday."
"Please, Ginny." Hermione shook her head and frowned. "Don't call him that anymore. None of us are at school."
Ginny scoffed and gave a little snort as she fluffed a pillow. "Am I meant to call him 'Severus'? He was our teacher - and, you must admit, a rather frightening one. I'm sorry, but for the time being, he's going to be 'Professor Snape' to me."
Hermione pinched her lips tightly and shrugged. "In any case, there was entirely too much cake for just him and me, and I was glad someone else came to help us eat it."
"It was very good cake," Harry reassured her from the fireplace. He leaned on the mantle and pulled his glasses off, rubbing at his green eyes as though he were very tired indeed. Hermione thought Harry looked older now than he'd ever looked before, and she knew that Harry was missing Ron badly.
"Thanks, Harry," she murmured. She and Ginny finished making the bed, and Hermione pulled herself up, stretching her back as she said, "If the two of you need food, there are tins of beans and soup in the cupboards downstairs. Nothing delicious, but it can all be Transfigured. Gamp's Laws and all that. Ginny, I know your mum taught you cooking spells well enough."
"You learned from her better than I did," Ginny moaned quietly. She shook her head. "I managed to turn perfectly edible carrots into muddy dog food one time."
Hermione tried not to gag at the thought of that, instead laughing a bit and shaking her head. "Right, well… there's beans and soup in the kitchen," she said. She started to leave the room and said, "In the morning, we'll check back in with Phineas Nigellus about the situation at Hogwarts."
"I've no doubt that Luna will come through on this," Harry said firmly, and Hermione turned around to nod at him. Harry continued, "You were always right about her, Hermione. She's an odd duck, but… she's on our side."
Hermione took a deep breath. "As this all goes on, I think it becomes very clear who's really on what side, doesn't it, Harry?"
Ginny shifted uncomfortably beside the bed, but Harry kept his eyes locked on Hermione's and nodded. Finally, he lowered his gaze and said quietly,
"I'll never get along with Severus Snape," he admitted, "and I'll never, ever understand why it is you think he's husband material. But if that greasy old git makes you happy, 'Mione… and if he's working so hard to destroy the horcruxes… then there's not very much I can say out loud against him."
Hermione felt a little flutter of relief then. She wished very much indeed that Ron was there with them, though of course Ron would be even less likely than Harry to ever come around to accepting Severus. Hermione felt her eyes burn a bit, and she decided it was past time to go to bed.
"Goodnight, Harry. Ginny." She shut the door softly behind her as she left the room and made her way back down to the second floor, where she knew Severus was getting himself ready for sleep.
She had spent the day reminiscing with Harry and Ginny about Grimmauld Place. They'd filled in blanks about what had happened over the last week or so, with Harry and Ginny admitting that they'd felt helpless in their lack of connection to other Magical allies. Severus and Hermione had shared as much about the quest to destroy the diadem as they could.
Hermione knew that Harry and Ginny showing up would have ruined the birthdays of a great many people simply through the force of intrusion. She knew that Severus didn't care much about birthdays. She also knew that he was probably less-than-enthused about the way Hermione had spent the day whispering and giggling with her old friends. So as she crept quietly into their bedroom, she said in the most seductive voice she could muster,
"The children are all tucked away for the night, my love."
Severus peered around the wing of the chair before the fireplace and smirked at her. He had on the black dressing-gown Hermione had stuffed into her bag before they'd first fled Hogwarts, and he drummed his fingers on the chair.
"Someday - a great many years from now - you will put a small child to bed and come to our room and make love to me. And we shall be interrupted by the child screaming for its mother," Severus said. Hermione giggled as she moved to stand before him.
"Is that so?" she asked. She cocked her head at him and felt suddenly more emotional than she'd intended on feeling. A great many years from now, he'd said. A small child, he'd said. But those were all ludicrous dreams just now, Hermione knew as she glanced around their hiding place. She was abruptly grateful for the long-lasting and powerful contraceptive potion he'd given her. A child would be a beautiful thing someday. But Severus had been right to protect her. Their life now was no life for an infant.
"You will be a very caring mother someday," Severus assured her, as though he could sense the melancholy rolling off her. Hermione realized he probably could, owing to their intense connection of Magnum Verbum Honoris. She threaded her fingers through his and squeezed as she attempted a little smile. Severus let out a little laugh from the back of his throat and said, "There is no need to lie and tell me I would be a good father."
Hermione smiled crookedly. "You will be the sort of father who does not tolerate nonsense," she said, staring at their linked fingers. "You will be the sort of father from whom children go scurrying in terror when they've done something wrong, and the sort of father to whom they go running when they need help. You do not love easily, Severus. But when you do love, you love deeply. I think you'll be a very good father. Someday."
She brought his knuckles to her lips and kissed them, and Severus curled up half his mouth as he pronounced in a low clip, "As for the so-called 'children' upstairs… let us just hope there is no telltale creaking through the ceiling tonight. I've had more than my fair exposure to Potter's sex life already."
Hermione snorted and moved to sit on Severus' lap. She put a thigh on either side of his, her denims rubbing his legs as she slid onto the chair with him. She pushed her chest against Severus' and touched her lips to his as she said playfully,
"Do you remember what I gave you for your birthday last year?"
"Yes." Severus' long fingers slid beneath the waistband of Hermione's trousers and his breath quivered slightly. Hermione felt a thrum of want pulse between the two of them as each remembered his thirty-seventh birthday. She could recall being in the Defense Against the Dark Arts classroom with him, pushing his fingers beneath her school skirt and grinding on his lap until he finished in his trousers. She had called him 'Severus' for the first time that night, and it had set him into a frenzy.
Now Severus was growing hard beneath her again, and as Hermione pushed her hips down onto his, she whispered onto his mouth,
"Happy birthday, Severus."
"Evanesco."
Hermione gasped in horror as her trusty old denims were Vanished straight into nonbeing. Severus ignored her indignant protests and Vanished her knickers, her sweatshirt, and her bra, and soon Hermione was naked atop him.
"I have hardly any clothes with me, you know!" she cried angrily, suddenly not caring if Harry and Ginny could hear her from upstairs. But Severus clamped his hands onto her waist and rolled her hips onto his erection and smirked.
"That's a lie. You've got four pairs of trousers, two skirts, three blouses, four tank tops, a few jumpers and sweatshirts, and plenty of knickers in that Expanded bag of yours. You won't miss those clothes."
"I will!" Hermione huffed, pushing her fists against Severus' chest. That only managed to make his dressing-gown fall off a bit, and she fought to ignore the waves of desire pulsing through her body. She growled with anger and stammered, "I d-don't have… you shouldn't have…"
"Fine. I apologize. I will buy you new clothes at the soonest opportunity. Those were worn out, anyway." Severus moved his mouth to Hermione's neck, and suddenly the sensation of pleasant warmth started to overtake her rage. But she still managed to protest,
"Worn-out clothes are the most… the most comfortable sort."
"Stop complaining and be glad that I've made you naked," Severus said against her skin in a pompous whisper. His hand cupped her breast and squeezed gently, his thumb flicking back and forth over her nipple. Hermione tried to stay quiet, but found herself utterly unable when Severus latched his mouth onto her breast. His mouth suckled and kissed her, nicking little bites and then soothing with long drags of his tongue. Hermione moaned aloud and buried her fingers in Severus' hair.
He used his other hand to push the small of her back down and forward, and Hermione felt her nub grinding against Severus' rigid hardness in his underwear. She gasped and nearly shouted his name when he reached between them and began to touch her there as she moved. It felt too good, as though he were goading her closer to the precipice on purpose.
Hermione felt a bit frustrated by the teasing, and she reached her own hand to Severus' hip. She summoned all her magic to her throat and whipped it up into a tight ball, and then she thought, 'Evanesco!'
Severus' boxer-briefs Vanished, and he grunted against Hermione's collarbone when he realized it. But she mumbled, "Fair is fair."
Severus snarled and wrenched his erection from between them, and Hermione wriggled until she felt him against her entrance. She slid down onto him and they moved together for a long while. The feel of him inside of her only intensified the vibrating energy of their bond, and she could not quiet her voice. After a while, she became utterly unaware of how she was breathlessly calling for him, even though he was just inches away from her. She held fast to him and kissed him and said his name like a prayer, over and over. She keened out helplessly when the friction became too much and her pleasure exploded. Her ears were hot, her skin was buzzing. Her fingers tightened on his scalp in tandem with her womanhood around his shaft. Not long after she felt his hands wrench her waist hard against him, felt the warm pulse of his seed inside of her. She heard his low grunts of relief at her ear and felt him soothe her neck with kisses. And then he mumbled,
"I am very certain that Potter heard you. That was not exactly subtle, Madam Granger."
Hermione felt embarrassment tingling through her veins as she climbed off of Severus. She was sore from being crammed into the chair with him, and she scowled as she realized her clothes were gone. She huffed as she cast a quick tergeo upon them both and rifled about in her bag for pyjamas.
"We need to discuss the Elder Wand."
Hermione turned around to see that Severus was cinching closed the belt of his dressing-gown as he rose from his chair before the fireplace. She nodded and waited for him to explain more of what he meant.
"If we are correct in thinking that Draco Malfoy still masters the wand, then I think the best thing to happen is for Potter himself to come with us when we go to Hogsmeade."
"You mean… if Luna is able to get the diadem to Tomes and Scrolls, and you and I go there to get it? Have Harry come with us and… what, somehow sneak him into the castle and have him 'defeat' Draco? In a duel? Then what? That sounds extremely dangerous."
"Let us be frank, Hermione," Severus sighed. "If Potter is killed confronting Draco Malfoy, what would happen?"
Hermione felt her heart sink, and she suddenly felt disgusted. But she forced herself to say, "The horcrux within him would be destroyed, probably."
"Right." Severus nodded. "In a best-case scenario, Potter gets 'ownership' of the Elder Wand from Draco Malfoy, and we steal it from Dumbledore's tomb."
"Well, this all sounds like quite a fun trip," Hermione scowled. She crossed her arms and stared out the bedroom window into the dark alleyway below. She knew Severus was right, of course. If they were going to bother sneaking to Hogsmeade to fetch and destroy the diadem, they needed to try to obtain the Elder Wand, too. Even if they weren't able to unite the Deathly Hallows, it was critical to keep the Elder Wand away from Voldemort.
So it was going to be necessary for Luna Lovegood to go into the Room of Requirement and get the diadem, and for her to take it to Othello Copperfield disguised in wrapping of some kind. And then Severus and Hermione would need to destroy the diadem, and be one step closer in chipping away at Voldemort's armor of immortality. Harry would need to Disarm Draco Malfoy somehow by sneaking into Hogwarts - a terrifying concept - in order to become the master of the Elder Wand. If he died in the process… well, that would be one more horcrux down.
That thought made Hermione want to vomit, and her breath shook as she glared out the window.
"We will discuss this with Potter in the morning," Severus said tightly. He did not joke with her anymore about how Harry and Ginny had probably heard her moaning. He stepped up behind her and put her hands upon her shoulders, and his voice was like honey to her as he said, "Come to bed. You are never good at knowing when you need to rest. But… Hermione, you need to rest."
It was still dark when Hermione pulled herself from the bed. Severus rolled over and made a gruff little sound, but he didn't wake. Hermione was careful to be quiet as she pulled on her fluffy scarlet robe and her worn old slippers. The door creaked a bit as she left the bedroom, but Severus just sniffed from the bed, and Hermione shut the door behind her.
"Lumos," she whispered, pattering down the stairs from the second floor by the eerie white light of her wand. She passed the first floor landing and kept going, landing with a cat-like spring on the carpet in the foyer on the ground level. Hermione was careful to stay quiet as she moved through the corridor, wary of setting off Mrs. Black's portrait or of knocking anything over. She paused outside the kitchen door when she realized there was a dim light around the doorway, and she hesitated at the sound of someone moving inside.
Nox, Hermione thought, and her wand went dark. She held it out, ready to strike in case whomever was in the kitchen was a dangerous intruder. She crept toward the kitchen door and carefully pushed it open, jabbing her wand about until it pointed toward the source of the noise.
"Harry," Hermione breathed with a measure of relief, lowering her wand as she stepped into the kitchen. Harry was sitting at the kitchen table, his head leaning heavily in his hands as a chipped mug steamed before him. He raised his emerald eyes to Hermione when she came in, and he mumbled,
"Hullo."
She realized at once that he was drunk, and she worriedly pulled herself into the bench opposite him at the table. She picked up his steaming mug and sniffed it, noticing a whiff of brandy among the aroma of lemon and honey.
"It's a hot toddy," Harry sniffed, pulling the mug back toward himself across the table. Hermione scowled and demanded quietly,
"It's five o'clock in the morning, Harry. Why are you sitting alone in the kitchen drunk?"
Harry raised the mug of warm brandy to his lips, but Hermione pulled it quickly away from him and Vanished it with her wand. Harry frowned deeply at the space where the drink had been, but then he licked his lips and pushed his glasses up the bridge of his nose.
"For the past few months, I've been able to pretend Ron isn't dead," Harry confessed. "Sometimes I convince myself that he's off on some other mission, you know? Still fighting, like the rest of us. Sometimes I think… maybe he just got lost that day at the Ministry, and he'll show up. Other times I think he's still at Malfoy Manor, and we're going to go rescue him. But I never really took the time to consider just how very, very gone Ron Weasley is, Hermione."
She was silent at that, though her breath shook in her nostrils as she thought about it. Ron had always been a silly boy. His head had always been filled with bludgers and fizzing whizbees. But he had also been very brave, and fiercely loyal. Hermione had more good memories with Ron and Harry than she had with anyone else in her life. Perhaps Severus had spent a good year with her, she thought, but she'd had six years with Harry and Ron before Severus had been a blip on her radar.
And Harry was right; Ron was gone. They would never see the way his face lit up with a crooked, toothy grin again. They would never hear him blather on about Quidditch again. They would never get to go on any more adventures together.
"Everything's different now, Harry," Hermione whispered. "We're meant to be at school. Dumbledore should be the Headmaster, and we should be seventh-year students at Hogwarts, shouldn't we? You, and me, and… and Ron."
She met Harry's eyes and stared at them for a long moment, seeing the young boy she'd met on the Hogwarts Express in them. She saw the boy who had gone down to the Chamber of Secrets, the boy who had competed in the Triwizard Tournament, the boy who had taught the entire D.A. how to form a corporeal Patronus. She saw their whole friendship in his green eyes.
Then she saw a violent flash of crimson in his eyes. It was so brief, so wild, that Hermione at first thought she'd imagined it. But she gasped at the sight, and Harry simultaneously clapped his hand to the lightning scar at his forehead and winced in pain. He wrenched his eyes shut and leaned down onto the wooden table. Hermione watched in horror, realizing at once that Voldemort had somehow 'come through' the disturbing connection he had with Harry.
Harry panted quietly and sat back up, and his eyes were green once more. His voice shook as he nodded at Hermione and said,
"I'll have to die, won't I?"
"I sincerely hope not, Harry," Hermione said honestly. She rose from the bench at the table, pulling her scarlet robe more tightly about herself. She moved about the kitchen fluidly, pulling ingredients from the cupboards and Transfiguring them as necessary as she prepared a batter for savory scones.
"Severus wants to discuss all of that with you this morning," she said as she flicked her wand at a bowl full of dry ingredients. The flour, sugar, salt, baking powder, and herbs whisked themselves together as Harry watched in amazement. Hermione turned to face him as the eggs began cracking themselves into the bowl. "It's all extremely complicated, and I fear that if I half-explain it now, it will only serve as an injustice. You'd do well to sober up a bit before he has that sort of conversation with you, though…"
She sighed and wished she had a vial of Severus' Nec Mora Arida potion for Harry. Instead, she was going to feed him scones, hoping that the food might speed up his absorption of the brandy he'd drunk. She added the cream to the batter and finished mixing it, and then she dropped it onto a baking sheet in little globules and cast a Baking Charm upon the sheet.
"That will take about five minutes," she mused, remembering the way that scones had taken a half hour to finish in her mother's Muggle oven. While the baking commenced, Hermione turned back to Harry and watched him drag his fingers through his messy black hair.
"You know, 'Mione, you could have been a bit quieter last night," Harry finally said, glaring up to Hermione. She felt her cheeks go hot, and she cleared her throat gently as she looked at the baking scones.
"I'm sorry," she muttered. She flicked non-existent lint from her robe and sniffed, "You know, it was a bit traumatizing for me to see you actually fucking Ginny Weasley."
Harry snorted from the table, and when Hermione looked at him again, they both dissolved into quiet giggles. Hermione walked over to the table and sat down again as Harry gave her a tormented look.
"Really, though," he drawled, "Snape? Of all people, 'Mione, why -"
"I can't properly explain it to you, Harry, because I readily do not expect you to be in love with Severus Snape." Hermione sighed as she glanced down to the ring on her finger. "He and I have quite a bit in common when it comes to intellectual interests. We share an easy rapport when we aren't trying to insult one another, as it turns out. And his hair isn't greasy. It's soft."
"Yeah, well… sounded like you were probably holding his hair awfully tight last night." Harry grimaced and looked a bit queasy, and Hermione laughed again.
"Are you in love with Ginny?" she asked seriously then, and Harry just shrugged.
"Why?"
"Because she's very much in love with you," Hermione told him, and Harry nodded.
"Yes. I love her," he said firmly. Hermione smiled gently.
"Good. Ron would have punched you for doing to his sister what I saw you doing. But you know what, Harry? If he'd stayed alive, some day he would have been the best man at a wedding between you and Ginny. You know that?"
"Yeah." Harry nodded once. "I know that. Smells like your scones are finished."
The conversation with Potter and Ginny Weasley about the Elder Wand went better than Severus had been expecting. It seemed as though Harry Potter was somewhat resigned to his fate as a sacrificial lamb. Survival would be a bonus to the boy; death was the default outcome. It was better, Severus thought, that Harry Potter approached all of this madness with that degree of realism. He probably was going to die, so it was very helpful that the boy was prepared.
It was decided that Ginny Weasley and Hermione would stay at Grimmauld Place during the covert mission to Hogsmeade. If Luna Lovegood managed to get the diadem to Tomes and Scrolls, it would be Severus who would need to rendezvous with Othello Copperfield, and having two people there would only complicate the levels of disguise and deception needed.
They would go on a planned Hogsmeade weekend, when it was likely that Draco Malfoy would be in the village. Harry Potter would use his father's Invisibility Cloak and ambush Draco Malfoy, Disarming him. Then Severus and Potter would meet at the school's front gates and make their way to Dumbledore's tomb, where they would retrieve the Elder Wand. They would then use the Oraverit to return to Grimmauld Place - Hermione and Ginny would have the other piece.
Once back at Grimmauld Place, Hermione would help destroy the diadem the way she'd done with the other horcruxes. Potter would test the Elder Wand's limits to see if he were its true master, and they would begin formulating plans to kill Nagini the snake.
All of this was the master plan, of course. It was all very dependent on each subsequent step going smoothly. It did not help, therefore, when the portrait of Phineas Nigellus clipped sharply,
"I have been informed by Phyllida Spore that Luna Lovegood is unavailable to assist you at the present time."
"Unavailable!" Harry Potter blurted from behind Severus. He whirled about and glared at the boy, and he watched Hermione and Ginny both squeeze Potter's elbows to shut him up. Severus turned back around to the portrait.
"Has something happened to Miss Lovegood?" he asked smoothly, and Phineas Nigellus said in an angry voice,
"It's the damned imposter, the one who goes about calling herself 'Headmistress.' Amycus Carrow. She has placed Luna Lovegood in 'solitary education' in the Dungeon Pit. Rumor has it that the poor girl has been there for over a week now, and that she is being subjected to all manner of terrors. It seems her father wrote a rather unseemly article suggesting that your disappearance was malevolent, Headmaster, and that he incriminated a great many volatile Death Eaters."
Severus felt his heart pounding as he realized just how grave matters had become at Hogwarts. Behind him, Ginny Weasley gasped quietly, and Hermione murmured,
"Severus, we have to go at once and -"
"Please tell Phyllida Spore that we appreciate her attempt to assist us," Severus nodded once to Phineas Nigellus. "There is nothing else that we need just now. Good day, Headmaster."
Severus turned and strode quickly from the bedroom, the three Gryffindors following him like anxious puppies. Severus bounded quickly down the stairs and did not stop moving until he was in the parlor. Then he paced anxiously and glared at the huddle of his former students. He looked at Hermione for a long moment and said,
"You and Miss Weasley will need to come, obviously."
"Yes," she nodded, her lips white.
"Potter… you will still attempt to intercept and Disarm Draco Malfoy."
"Use the Marauder's Map to find him, Harry," Hermione said, and Severus frowned as she and Harry seemed to both light up a bit at the mention of the item. He continued to Potter,
"You will then proceed to Dumbledore's tomb and take the Elder Wand."
Harry Potter nodded, and Severus' mind whirled as he turned to Ginny Weasley.
"Miss Weasley… you will proceed to the Room of Requirement and search for the diadem. When you have it, make your way back out to the front gates of the school, past the anti-Apparition Charms. You'll have the wyvern dagger, and you will destroy the diadem. Then you will Disapparate to Grimmauld Place; we can't take any chances of the horcrux disappearing, so you'll need to destroy it just outside the grounds of Hogwarts."
"I understand, Professor," Ginny Weasley nodded crisply. Severus turned to Hermione and felt his chest clutch as he tried to find the words to speak to her.
"You and I will go down to the Dungeon Pit and free Miss Lovegood," he told her, "and bring her back here. We will all need to practice Disillusionment Charms for the next few hours, of course, and… Hermione, there are a few enchantments in the castle that I'll make you aware of for our particular purposes."
Hermione nodded, her brown eyes glistening with tears as she asked, "When? When are we going?"
"Miss Lovegood is being held prisoner, it would seem, even as we speak," Severus noted. He glanced to the grandfather clock in the corridor and said, "It's eight-thirty. We can spend the next four hours preparing, I think, and then we need to go."
"Right," Hermione said stoutly. "Shall we begin with Disillusionment, then?"
Crack.
Crack - Crack - Crack!
Hermione landed hard upon the ground, feeling cold mud under her knees. Severus' hand pulled gently at her elbow, and she rose to see Ginny and Harry helping one another up. She stared up at the looming figure of Hogwarts Castle. Many times now, she realized, she'd left this place for what had seemed like the last time. Somehow, fate had continued to bring her back here, though recently it had been only under the most inauspicious circumstances.
They were well outside the anti-Apparition wards, nestled at the edge of the Forbidden Forest. Hermione brushed a few twigs and leaves from the front of her woolen coat, listening as Harry asked Severus,
"You're quite certain we'll be able to just… walk in? I'm 'Undesirable Number One.' You two aren't much better. You think they won't have cast warning charms?"
"A Caterwauling Charm is certainly a real possibility," Severus nodded, "but is easily undone once we approach the perimeter. I am the legitimate headmaster of Hogwarts; the castle won't even let Amycus Carrow into the office. Yes, Potter, I think Hogwarts will let us inside."
Harry shrugged and turned to Hermione. "Be safe in there," he told her in a firm voice, and Hermione felt her eyes well. She remembered all the misadventures she'd had with Harry, with Ron, and she just shut her eyes and nodded.
"Remember, Potter," Severus said sharply, "Stay silent and hidden when you ambush Draco Malfoy. And do not Disarm him without a very clear escape route from wherever you are. Try to get him alone. Use a nonverbal spell. All that must happen is for you to 'conquer' him with magic. But do try not to get yourself killed or captured, will you?"
"Rather glad, if I'm honest, that you devoted so much attention to nonverbal duelling in our sixth year, Professor," Harry admitted to Severus. He frowned and looked to Hermione, jabbing his finger toward her. "She was always much better at it than Ron or me, of course, but… I think I'll be fine."
"You'll do well, Harry," Hermione reassured him.
Harry pulled out his Marauder's Map and unfolded it. Hermione had explained the map in full to Severus, who had long harbored suspicions about the thing, but had never fully understood it. There had been a time in their third year, Hermione knew, when this map had rather embarrassed Severus during a late-night interception of a misbehaving Harry. Hermione suspected that Harry's father and the other Marauders had actually gone so far as to charm the map to directly insult Severus, their arch-nemesis. Now Severus scowled as he watched Harry point his wand at the parchment and murmur,
"I solemnly swear that I am up to no good."
Ink began leaking up through the very pores of the parchment, spreading about in flourishes and whorls as words and footprints and diagrams appeared. Harry and Ginny stared at the map for a while, and then finally Ginny pointed to a spot and whispered,
"There he is. Draco's in the Transfiguration Corridor… now he's gone into the classroom. He's got lessons, no doubt. It's the middle of the afternoon."
"Well, I'll just have to wait for him to leave lessons and go back down to Slytherin Dungeon, I suppose," Harry shrugged. "I don't know what the seventh-year Slytherin lesson schedule looks like, though, so -"
"He will be finished with Transfiguration at one-thirty, after which time the seventh-year Slytherins traditionally eat a late lunch. Then, so long as Quidditch hasn't been cancelled, he'll be making his way out to the pitch. Seeing as it's a Tuesday, and the team practices at three o'clock on Tuesdays," Severus said in a bored voice. Hermione tried not to quirk up half her mouth. He was the headmaster of the school. Of course he'd know the lessons schedules.
Harry looked mildly embarrassed, but nodded. He started to point his wand at the map again, but then Severus demanded sharply,
"Aren't you going to ensure that Miss Lovegood's location is accurate? She was reported as being in the Dungeon Pit. Would it be too much to ask of you, Potter, to use that damnable scrap of paper to check?"
Harry's mouth fell open, and he and Ginny stared in a bit of shock at Severus for a moment. But then Harry nodded quickly and began scanning the map with his eyes. It seemed to be taking a long while, and he started muttering that he couldn't find Luna on the map, so Severus snatched the map from Harry's hands and said,
"Let me see. Seven years at school and you can't even read a map of the place."
Hermione cringed when Severus took the Marauders' Map. She was fully prepared for ugly words about his hair or his nose to appear on the parchment. The last thing they needed just then was for Severus to remember how much he despised James Potter. Harry and Severus were unlikely allies, to be certain, but it was a partnership born of necessity. Hermione shut her eyes tightly, waiting for the fallout from Severus' rage. But then she heard him say in a surprisingly quiet tone,
"Here. Just here." Hermione watched as Severus pointed to a barely-moving icon in the Dungeons. In a tiny chamber adjacent to the Dungeon Pit, there appeared the name Luna Lovegood. Hermione could see on the map that she was being held just down the corridor from Severus' old office - from the rooms where she had lived with Severus. She felt queasy and dizzy, and she whispered,
"We need to go inside now."
Harry took the map back and muttered, "Mischief managed," tucking it away in the pocket of his robes as a solemn weight came over the group.
"Are there any further questions?" Severus asked, sounding very much like their teacher again. Hermione shook her head no, and Severus nodded crisply.
She watched as Harry and Ginny disappeared, blending seamlessly into the background as they Disillusioned themselves. Hermione followed suit, and Severus was the last to vanish. They trudged up toward the school gates, knocking blindly into one another from time to time. At one point, Hermione heard Severus' voice from beside her mumble,
"Clangor Revelio… Finite Incantatem…"
They passed so smoothly up the gravel path and into the entrance courtyard that Hermione knew Severus must have disabled any wards. Her heart thudded so insistently against her chest that she thought it would beat its way straight out onto the ground, and she struggled to breathe evenly.
"Miss Weasley - off you go to the Room of Requirement. Go around the east side of the castle and enter over there, then climb the back stairway that ascends all the way to the seventh floor."
"Right." Ginny's voice was stern with resolution, and Hermione could sense a wave of bravery coming from Ginny's shimmering, hidden silhouette. Somehow, it seemed, Ginny and Harry found one another despite their concealment, for Ginny's voice was barely audible as mumbled, "I'll see you soon, Harry."
Ginny's trotting footsteps left a procession of divots in the gravel as she made her way around the east side of the castle. Hermione clutched her wand more tightly, hoping with all her might that Ginny would find Rowena Ravenclaw's diadem in the Room of Requirement. She pressed onward with Severus and Harry, the three of them creeping into the cloisters and sneaking quietly alongside the exterior walls until they came to a wooden door covered in leafless vines.
"Diminuendo," Hermione whispered, pointing her wand at the vine-covered door. The brambles crumbled and sputtered as they shrank backward into themselves. Soon enough, the old wooden door was bared, and Hermione mumbled, "Alohomora."
There was no response at all to that, and a derisive little snort came from beside Hermione as Severus said, "The exterior doors of this castle are locked with stronger spells than that, my dear."
Hermione felt her cheeks go hot, for Severus was making her feel foolish in front of Harry. But then she remembered just how often Severus had made both her and Harry feel foolish in front of each other, and she huffed quietly. She realized that Severus was giving her a moment to think of the right spell to unlock the door - only a moment, she knew, for they were not exactly here on holiday.
"Avaamaanoven," she said, flicking her wand in a triangular motion and uttering the ancient spell. It was one meant for stone doors and boulders blocking passageways. It did nothing at all. Hermione pursed her lips and said quickly, "Bagilu. Agorydrws. Agh… I don't know, Severus… Reserare Viam!"
There was a click then as the old wrought iron lock on the door gave way. It actually dissolved into thin air, and the aged door swung open quickly as though it weighed nothing at all. Hermione stared at the open doorway for a brief second, and then she heard Harry exclaim gently,
"Finally! I mean… er, good work, 'Mione."
Hermione scowled, hearing Severus chuckle beside her. She followed the men's footsteps into the castle and knew they were outside the West Wing. Her eyes took a moment to adjust from the bright sunlight to the dim, flickering light of the sconces on the walls. Once she did, Hermione recognized the interior of a winding old staircase. It was the same one, she knew, that she'd walked down with Severus long ago, the night of Slughorn's Christmas party. Hermione had been drunk and had stumbled into Severus' back as they descended this staircase, and he'd told her to remove her shoes. Hermione smirked at the memory of that. Then she heard Severus mumble,
"Hermione, we're going downstairs. Potter…?"
"Right. Malfoy. Then the Elder Wand. I'm off. Good luck to you both."
His footsteps scratched and pattered until they disappeared, and Hermione swallowed heavily as Severus prompted her,
"Down this way now."
It felt odd to be back in the castle. The last time Hermione had been inside Hogwarts, she'd had to flee with Severus at the drop of a hat. And for weeks before that, she'd been tormented by the new, dour air that hung about the place. But she'd also fallen in love with Severus here. She'd married him here. This was their home, perhaps more than any other place on Earth could ever hope to be. Hermione's eyes seared with unshed tears as she silently descended the stone stairs. At last she paused where she stood and whispered,
"Severus?" His footsteps quieted, and Hermione squinted to see the faint glimmer of his transparent silhouette as he paused on a stair. Hermione gripped her wand tightly in her hand, unsure of what to expect when she and Severus got downstairs. Rather impulsively, she begged him, "Kiss me once before we go down, will you?"
She saw nothing. Heard nothing. But then there was the warm, heady smell of him, and the feel of him pushing her very gently against the wall. Then his lips were pressing onto hers, and she could taste the comforting flavor of him in her mouth. She sighed and felt him flatten his body against hers for a brief moment, and then he pulled away.
"Let's go," Hermione whispered breathlessly, and down they went.
Severus had seen on Potter's map where exactly Luna Lovegood was being held. If the so-called Marauders - most of whom were now dead - had left themselves any halfway decent legacy, it might have been that map, he thought. Even though the thing had been cursed to mock him if he tried to use it. Severus could just see James Potter and Sirius Black, flush with satisfaction after crafting such a complicated piece of magical hardware.
"Right. It works beautifully," James Potter had probably said, "but we must be certain that Snivelling Severus can never use it. It's advanced and functional, but we hate him… so we have to take extra, deliberate steps to ensure he can't use it."
The conversation might have gone ever-so-slightly differently, but not much. In any case, the blasted map had proven itself to be useful today. Harry Potter would be much more confident in cornering Draco Malfoy, since he was able to track the boy on the parchment. And Severus had been able to see that Luna Lovegood was in Dungeon Seventeen, an old and tiny disused classroom.
Now as he led Hermione down a dark, winding corridor in the dungeons, he held his wand out and was fully prepared for trouble. If the Carrows had gone through the hassle of trapping Luna Lovegood down here, they would have likely put up defenses to keep her stowed away. Of course, if something had come popping out of the darkness, Hermione and Severus wouldn't have known. It wasn't as though they could walk about with illuminated wands just now.
Finally they came into the more open space of the Dungeon Pit, and Severus dashed across the sprawling floor. He could hear the distant echoes of people talking and laughing, and he knew it was because they were down a corridor from the Potions classroom.
"Severus!" Hermione hissed suddenly from behind him, once they'd entered another narrow corridor. He whirled around, wishing he could see her as she moaned quietly. "Severus…"
Something was wrong. Severus looked about anxiously and saw that no one was within sight. He flicked his wand at Hermione and released her Disillusionment Charm, and then he felt his mouth fall open in horror. In the dim light of the wall sconces, Severus could see that Hermione had crumpled to the ground, her wand still resolutely clutched in her hand. All along her cheeks, down her neck and across the backs of her hands, Severus could see spreading black lines.
He recognized the curse as one he'd first seen just over a year ago. It had been a sick creation of Bellatrix Lestrange's, one she'd been too happy to show off at a Death Eater meeting. Sanguis Denigrare - a blood-blackening curse. It would only work on Muggle-borns, Severus knew, and he realized that there must have been barriers set up throughout the castle to activate the curse on students who had fabricated bloodlines.
Hermione writhed a bit where she crouched, clutching at her face with one hand as she stifled a whimper. Severus gulped and pointed his wand at her, saying firmly,
"Finite incantatem."
At once, it seemed, the terrible black threads along her skin vanished. But it took a moment longer for Hermione to stop shaking and crying, and at last she was able to stand with help from Severus. She leaned on his chest for a split second, and he thought he would have to support her. But then she growled firmly,
"We need to get Luna out of here. And we need to destroy him. We need to destroy all of this madness."
She pulled away from Severus and steeled herself visibly before swirling her wand about herself again. As she disappeared into her disguise, Severus asked gently,
"Are you quite all right to continue?"
"We haven't got time to discuss it now, Severus. Take me to Luna."
Severus felt a quiver of love for her at that. He also felt her anxiety, her fear and her pain rippling through their deep bond. He knew that Hermione was only feigning being all right. He knew that the Sanguis Denigrare curse had caused her physical pain, and that she was deeply stressed. But she was pretending to be fine, because they needed to fetch Luna. Severus put his lips into a straight line as he continued down the dim corridor, determined to emulate Hermione's will.
Finally they neared the doorway outside Dungeon Seventeen. Severus stopped dead in his tracks when he noticed there were two fifth-year Slytherins outside the doorway. They were both Prefects. One was Quilp Selwyn, an old-money boy who had spent the last several years cozying up to Draco Malfoy and his thugs. The other 'guard' was Uriah Bulstrode, the younger brother of Millicent. He was just as stocky and dim-witted as his older sister.
Quilp and Uriah seemed to be discussing the recent victory of the Caerphilly Catapults over the Appleby Arrows. As Severus and Hermione stepped silently closer, the two boys continued chatting, paying no heed to the intruders.
"Apparently their Chasers have gotten really good this year; I dunno. I heard someone say that their shots-on-goal was higher than anyone else in the league, but that could just mean they've faced shit Keepers, you know?" Uriah Bulstrode shrugged his heavy shoulders, and Quilp Selwyn replied in a smooth murmur,
"Likely a shots-on-goal statistic indicates poor Keeping rather than good offense. But if the Arrows have a higher-than-average percentage of their shots on goal resulting in points… well, that, again, might mean poor Keeping. But it could also mean good skill in aim, evasive skills, and the like."
Uriah Bulstrode nodded but narrowed his eyes. Clearly the boy was too thick to really understand a damned thing about Quidditch, even when it was explained properly. Severus rolled his eyes and pointed his wand squarely at Uriah Bulstrode, then at Quilp Selwyn.
Confundo. Confundo. He entranced them, one at a time, and watched their eyes glaze over a bit as their conversation quickly shifted. Instead of discussing Quidditch, they were suddenly talking about how they both wanted to go sit quietly in the Slytherin Dungeon and revise for an upcoming exam. Severus watched them go, knowing they'd forgotten all about guarding Dungeon Seventeen. Then he heard Hermione beside him trying a few spells on the door, until at last it unlocked and she whispered,
"Wands ready?"
Dungeon Seventeen was a long, narrow chamber with stone walls and a stone floor. The ceiling was a series of old gothic arches connected by little domed ceilings. Once, long ago, this space had been a classroom used to teach xylomancy, a type of divination that relied upon twigs. But the discipline had fallen out of favor, and even after moving the class to the North Tower, demand had dried up. Ever since, Dungeon Seventeen had sat vacant and waiting.
Now, as Severus moved into the dungeon with Hermione, he became acutely aware of its abandoned state. The dank smell of old moisture hung heavily in the chilled air, and it was black as pitch inside. For a brief moment, Severus thought Potter's old map had to have been wrong. Luna Lovegood couldn't be in here. But then he heard Hermione frantically say,
"Lumos!"
And there the girl was, lying still and quiet upon the ground. Severus' heart sank as he wondered whether Luna was dead. He still could not see Hermione, even in the ghostly light of her wand, but he watched Luna's body shake violently, and he knew Hermione was trying to rouse the girl.
"Luna!" Hermione said in a firm clip, "It's Hermione Granger. Please wake up, Luna… She's breathing, Severus, but… oh, I'm… I feel…"
Severus knew what she meant. He had a very sudden and profound urge to simply sit down, and so he did. He sat down right upon the stone floor of the room, even knowing that they were all in grave danger. Some distant corner of his mind screamed at him that they were under a curse, that he wasn't meant to sit down and be lazy just now. But the very tired part of Severus' mind blotted out the yelling bit, and he mumbled in a sleepy tone,
"Perhaps we ought to rest for a moment."
He heard Hermione yawn, and then she protested quietly, "No… Severus, we have to get Luna out… out of…"
Severus felt his eyelids close, and with no further pretense, he was asleep. His mind was gone from him, utterly lost to the quiet darkness that surrounded him. He had a pleasant little dream about Yorkshire pudding, and then he was being shaken rudely as a voice hissed from above him,
"Get up, Professor Snape! Now!"
Severus cracked his eyes, fully prepared to scold the rude voice above him. But then he saw the bespectacled face of Harry Potter looming above him, drenched in white light. On one side of Harry was the gaunt and sunken face of Luna Lovegood. On the other side was Hermione, looking alert and concerned.
"Severus, wake up," Hermione said, and Severus wrenched himself off the ground as though it were on fire. He looked about, trying to recalibrate where he was and what had happened. Hermione handed him his wand, which he'd apparently dropped, and Harry Potter said,
"Thank goodness I checked the map one more time before Disapparating. It had been over two hours since I'd seen you two last, and all three of your names were still in this room. I figured something terrible had happened, and I'm not afraid to die in any of this. So I admit I came barging down. You left the door wide open, and the force of the hex hit me halfway down the corridor."
"Hex." Severus nodded and felt sick as he realized what had happened. "A Piger Hex. Designed to incapacitate intruders and prisoners alike with a nearly-instant and overwhelming desire to sleep."
"Right. Well, I lifted the spell from ten meters away, and by the time I came in here, Hermione and Luna were already waking up. You, though, Professor…"
"It doesn't matter now," Hermione said, pinching her lips tightly. Severus felt a strange quiver of embarrassed confusion. What exactly had happened before he'd awoken? But Hermione was right, of course; there was no time to worry on it now. Severus turned his attention to Luna Lovegood, whose eyes were significantly less cheerful than usual. Her pale skin looked downright sickly in the light of Potter's wand, and her ice-blonde hair fell about her face in mangled, dirty clumps. Luna coursed a sleeve over her eye and sighed as she said in a weary tone,
"Glad to see you're awake now, Professor. But if you don't mind, I should like to leave this room and go… well, just about anywhere else, really."
"Luna, you should walk with me under my Invisibility Cloak," Harry Potter was saying, and Hermione was binding herself into thin air again with a Disillusionment Charm. Severus would have made some meek effort to scold Harry Potter for taking such charge of the situation, but he couldn't. For one thing, his head was still vibrating with after-effects of the Piger Hex. And for another thing, the boy was seemingly in full control of himself and the chaos about them. So Severus just Disillusioned himself and led the group from Dungeon Seventeen, hissing over his shoulder at them to stay silent as they made their way out of the corridor.
The Dungeon Pit and the final corridor presented no resistance to their passing. But as they climbed the winding stone staircase, Severus felt a strange weight in his legs that he wasn't able to shake. Why, exactly, had the Piger Hex affected him so much more viscerally than it had done to the others?
About halfway up the stairs, Severus answered his own question by remembering a passage from a book called Perchance to Dream: Spells and Potions of Somnolence. In the book, it had been explained that most sleep-related potions' and spells' effects were dose-related, and that this obviously meant safety concerns with dosing. But there had been something else in the book, too.
The Piger Hex is frequently employed by Dark witches and wizards who seek to use sleep as a method of control. The Hex may be used as a defense system to protect a valuable item, or it may be used to trap criminals in the location of their crime. The effects of the Piger Hex vary greatly depending upon the subject's age, with the most notable variable being how easy it is to lift the spell. In an infant, the Hex does not have any effect whatsoever. But with each passing year, the Piger Hex feels heavier and is harder to lift from victims.
So Severus had been so quickly incapacitated, and apparently difficult to wake, because he was old. It was as simple as that. But as Severus pulled his sore muscles up the winding stone stairs, he knew they had no time now to think about such matters.
Somehow, they flung themselves out of the little wooden door near the cloisters. They dashed across the gravel of the Entrance Courtyard and down the winding pathway toward the Forbidden Forest. Severus' lungs burned as he ran, surrounded only by the thudding sound of the others' footsteps. At last they reached the edge of the forest and delved into the darkness. Severus watched Harry Potter appear in the middle of the air as he whipped the Invisibility Cloak from himself and Luna Lovegood. Severus and Hermione released their own Disillusionment Charms.
"Have you go the Elder Wand?" Severus asked brusquely, and Potter pulled something from the inside pocket of his robe. It was the long, knobby wand Severus had always seen Dumbledore use. For decades, Severus had assumed it was the wand Dumbledore had received as a child. But, apparently, this wand was much more than that.
"I am its master now," Potter nodded, tucking the wand away. "I can feel it when I hold it. I managed to Disarm Malfoy out by the Quidditch Pitch. I Disarmed him, and then I instantly Confounded him into simply picking up his wand and proceeding onward."
"Hmm. Well. That all sounds… that sounds as though it went precisely according to plan," Severus nodded. Potter frowned at Severus as if to make a point, and he said,
"I saw Ginny's name disappear from the map. She's already Disapparated, hopefully back to Grimmauld Place. Hopefully she has the diadem."
Severus just nodded again and turned to Luna Lovegood. Out here in the twilight, Luna's face looked drawn and tired, but she quirked up a miserable little smile when Severus turned to stare at her.
"Thank you all so much for coming to rescue me. Although, I must say, it sounds as though you had an awful lot of other things to do while you were here. I very much look forward to hearing all about those other things… somewhere far away. I find I don't especially want to be here anymore, if it's quite all right."
"Luna, do you feel well enough to Disapparate?" Hermione asked cautiously. It was a fair question, Severus thought. Disapparating under duress could lead to Splinching, and that was scarcely a concern they needed to bear just now. Luna tipped her head to the side and said,
"I'm far more confident in your Apparition abilities than my own, Hermione," she admitted. "I've only just started my training this past autumn, and I wouldn't be eligible for my exam until February. Although, I can't see as how the Carrows would have let me take any such exam. They weren't even letting me take school exams." She sighed lightly, her pale eyes glistening a bit as she took Hermione's arm and laced it with her own. "I'll be just fine doing Side-Along Apparition with you, Madam Granger."
Severus felt his chest tighten with unexpected emotion at that, at hearing Luna call Hermione "Madam Granger." It was at once a married title and Hermione's own name. Luna Lovegood, more so than just about anyone else, would intuitively know what title made Hermione comfortable. Indeed, Hermione quirked up a small smile and patted Luna's elbow. She turned to Harry Potter and said,
"Let's go find out about Ginny, then, shall we?" When Potter nodded, Hermione turned to Severus and smiled.
"See?" she teased. "This wasn't so bad, after all. Grimmauld Place. I'll see you there."
Severus gave her a solemn nod, and he stepped backward a bit to make space for her. She tightened her grip on Luna Lovegood's arm, and the blonde girl squeezed her eyes shut in preparation. Hermione whirled hard to her right where she stood, and then the two girls vanished in a swirling blur of color.
Severus was left standing alone with Harry Potter, and he decided to take full advantage of the fact that no one could hear what he was about to say. He stared directly at a tree trunk ahead of him, pretending to study its bark. Then he said in a tight murmur,
"Potter, I confess I have spent the last seven years treating you as a troublesome miniature of your father. In my life, you see, James Potter was anything but a friend, and so to directly encounter his progeny was not something I eagerly anticipated. But you ought to know that, today most especially, I see far more of your mother Lily in you than your father."
Severus turned to Harry Potter, who was giving Severus a conflicted look. Severus bowed his face and said in a conciliatory tone,
"Oh, yes. James Potter will always be an untouchable saint to you, because you never really knew him. And it is very, very easy to venerate those whose lives never sting us directly. I won't combat you on the virtues, or lack thereof, of your paternal side, Potter. But what I will tell you is that you had a mother who was brave, and kind, and intelligent. And, today most especially, I saw quite a bit of her in you. That's all I mean to say about it, and we shan't speak of it again. Go ahead, now. Go on to Grimmauld Place."
Harry Potter stared at Severus in shocked silence for so long that Severus huffed out an impatient sigh and prepared to scold him again. But then Potter gulped and nodded, and he pulled the iron pendant out from under his shirt collar. Severus knew that Hermione had the pocket-watch with her, hopefully in the safety of 12 Grimmauld Place. He watched Harry Potter squeeze the iron pendant in his hand, and then the boy said,
"Right. See you there, Professor. Oraverit!"
With a quiet crack and a blip of darkness, Harry Potter disappeared from the edge of the forest, and Severus stood alone for three deep breaths. Then he shut his eyes and thought of the house on Grimmauld Place, and he whirled hard to his right.