Requiem for the Living

By Jinxd n Cursed

Disclaimer: This is a work of fanfiction. I merely play in the world of J.K. Rowling; she still owns the characters.

Requiem aeternam dona eis, Domine,
et lux perpetua luceat eis.
Te decet hymnus, Deus, in Sion,
et tibi reddetur votum in Jerusalem.
Exaudi orationem meam,
ad te omnis care veniet.
Requiem aeternam dona eis, Domine,
et lux perpetua luceat eis.

Chapter Two

Hermione Weasley had always had a helping people complex. She had long expected to find herself making a career of helping the less fortunate and representing the marginalized populations of Britain. If she were a muggle, she suspected she would've have become a legal aid lawyer or, perhaps, a doctor in some third world country. Well, the latter wasn't that far off, as it was. She had surprised herself and chosen to go into healing after witnessing the atrocities of the war. Most specifically, she was a research and development Healer.

In the end, Madam Pomfrey had talked her into it after watching her in action. In the aftermath of the Battle of Hogwarts, she had thrown herself into helping the injured at Hogwarts. St Mungos had been simply overrun and was unable to take any patient that didn't require critical, specialized care. Hermione had tended to gaping wounds, broken bones, minor curses, and probably worst of all, a few werewolf bites. Fenrir Greyback had not gone down without a fight, to say the least. Treating the wounds and counseling the victims-one of whom was a mere fourth year who had snuck back onto the ground to assist in the battle-whilst dealing with her own grief at the loss of so many people had been only one of her hardest tasks, however. No, the worst task had come two days after the battle when wounds were bandaged and bones healed: locating the missing.

Poor souls other than herself had tended to the dead on the field of battle, bathed the corpses, and returned them to the families. Unfortunately, though, there were approximately ten people still missing after three days of searching. Hermione had found the body of Lavender Brown in a fifth floor corridor. An unconscious, barely breathing Parvati Patel was behind her. It had taken Hermione four tries to be able to summon her Patronus to let the Order and Madam Pomfrey know that she needed them and the animal that burst forth had not been her otter any longer. Instead, an owl had flown through the halls of Hogwarts to seek out her friends.

Hermione had busied herself casting various diagnostic charms over her still breathing classmate. The first had shown that Parvati had decent blood pressure, but a low heart rate and low oxygen saturation. The second revealed inflammation in her brain and spinal cord as well as a broken skull. The last showed a huge depletion in her magical energy. Her body had preserved itself using its stores of magic while Parvati had been left to die for three days beside her best friend's body. Hermione was completely helpless in dealing with injuries like that; all she could do was sit by her classmate's side and will her to keep breathing until help arrived.

She was completely exhausted by the end of the fifteen minutes it took them to locate her but when Madam Pomfrey hd run the same diagnostic charms she had, Parvati's heart rate and oxygen levels had improved. More surprising, though, was that Parvati's magical stores had been partially replenished. It was a mystery Hermione wouldn't solve until the second year of her apprenticeship at St. Mungo's.

Parvati was quickly stabilized and taken to the hospital wing by Madam Pomfrey. Members of the Order along with a Ministry official tended to Lavender. Ignored by both Madam Pomfrey and the group tending to Lavender, Hermione's eyes had turned back to the list of the missing. There were five Death Eaters on the list that they suspected had escaped. There were two more Order members that witnesses suggested had fallen into the lake. The Merpeople were searching for them. Her eyes went to the last name on the list: Severus Snape.

Harry had already gone to the Shrieking Shack after the completion of the battle to retrieve to body of his once-hated professor, and Professors McGonagall and Flitwick had gone with him. Rumors of Snape's true loyalty had already circulated among the legions although the official story had not yet been released. To hear them say it, the Shrieking Shack looked like a massacre had occurred there with the amount of blood on the walls, but the body of Professor Snape was no where to be found. They suspected that Death Eaters fleeing had taken the corpse with the intention to desecrate the body of the biggest traitor to their cause.

Hermione had gone to the Shrieking Shack that afternoon to see for herself. She had followed the tunnel under the the Whomping Willow into the dilapidated building. The walls in the room where Snape had met Voldemort were indeed spattered in blood. The snake had been truly vicious in its attack. What Harry and the professors had not noted to her, however, was the clear drag marks in the dried pool of blood on the floor, nor had they noticed the small bits of black fabric snagged in the splintered wood. Hermione followed the pattern of the drag marks down the stairway. At the base of the stairs, she saw the shattered remains of a potion vial. Carefully picking up a large shard that still had a few drops of potion clinging to it, she sniffed carefully and then dropped the piece of crystal in shock, slicing her palm in the process. The few drops of liquid smelled very distinctively of blood replenishing potion and antivenin. The potion was relatively fresh so it could not have been just an old broken bottle that had been lying on the floor since Remus' rampages in werewolf form. No, if Hermione's suspicions were correct, whoever had removed the Potions Master from the Shrieking Shack had not removed a dead body but rather a living hero.

Hermione had considered sharing her musings with the rest of the order but had squelched the idea before she even got up from the dusty floor. If she were him, even though he had been proven a hero in the end, she would want to go far, far away and disappear. He had certainly never wanted accolades for his work as a spy and she doubted he wanted them now. She doubted he wanted anyone to know he was alive at all. She had looked at the evidence around her. Surely if she, an untrained school girl, could pick up on the clues, Magical Law Enforcement would as well. She found herself suddenly fiercely protective of her former professor's life and future, whatever it would be. And so, she resolved that no one else, not even Harry would know of her discovery.

She had taken one last look around the dusty house and bid it good riddance. She aimed her wand at the torn draperies in the parlor and they instantly caught fire. Next was the railing on the staircase and the casing around the door to the sitting room. She opened up the front door and walked out, shooting one last jet of flame at the front porch which caught fire with shocking speed. After she had made it through the rusted iron gate and onto the street, she turned and looked at the old house that was quickly becoming a blazing inferno.

"Good luck to you, Severus Snape, wherever you are," she had whispered to the flames.

Unfortunately, almost ten years later, Hermione regretted her decision to let him escape into anonymity. Her current research required a stronger understanding of Potions than she possessed and no true Potion's Master could be lured away from their cauldron long enough to give her the time of day for a consultation, war hero status or not. Hermione blew out a frustrated sigh and began scratching out a missive to the next brewer on the list of St. Mungo's independent contractors begging for assistance. Only time would tell if one would come forth or her most ambitious project would be her greatest failure.

Though her career had barely started, she already had one major accomplishment behind her. Her first project had been working with a team of three others to create a cure for Spattergroit. Up until that point, the only option was to let the disease run its course and hope for the best. She (a healer), Jane Grove (a Potion's mistress), and Terry Boot (an Arithmancy Master) had been an excellent team in trying to solve the problem. It had taken a lot of trial and error in formulating the potion and a number of animal and human trials, but in the end, they did it. The once hugely debilitating disease that required months laid up in bed, most of it unable to talk, now lasted less than a week.

They had all agreed on their next project and Hermione wrote the proposal, asking for a Dark Arts expert to be added to the team. It had taken her entire maternity leave for them to get approval but it had happened, and Hestia Jones was put on the payroll. It was a great team and they had made a plan for their task and were ready to get started.

And then Jane's boyfriend proposed. This probably wouldn't have been a big deal for the team if Jane were British, but unfortunately both she and her fiancé were American. So with a certain amount of disappointment, Jane bid farewell to the team.

And with Jane's departure, Hermione bid farewell to her hopes.

Author's Notes: Thank you for reading. Be kind and review as it is the only type of compensation fanfiction authors receive for their work.

Posting this update a day early this week. Expect updates every Sunday.

Update 8/3/15 for minor grammar fixes