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 Three

Severus Snape was woken by the first light of dawn creeping in through his bedroom window. While most would complain about the early wake up calls or else cover the window with heavy drapes, he didn't mind being woken by the sunlight. He had slept easier in the last nine years than he had in the first thirty-five years of his existence. His joints snapped and crackled as he stretched before rising from the narrow bed. With a flick of his wand, the bed was made up, the blue and red patchwork quilt lying smoothly and the pillows freshly plumped.

On an early spring day like this, there was enough light from the windows that he did not need to light any of the candles in the wall sconces or the iron ring chandelier in the kitchen. He waved his wand at the huge iron stove and watched as the wood in the grate roared into flame. He put the bottomless kettle on to boil, followed by a well seasoned cast iron skillet. Despite living in Wales for the last ten year years, he had not embraced the traditional Welsh breakfast of laver bread and cockles. Seafood turned his stomach that early in the morning. Instead, he prepared a fry-up and a strong cup of tea with milk and sugar. His former students likely assumed that he preferred to drink the blood of infants but instead, he chose tea and apple juice.

He sat at the worn wooden table with his breakfast and opened up the Daily Prophet. Though the quality of material was often questionable at best, he thought it best to keep himself apprised of the goings on in Wizarding Britain. The front page had an article about Shacklebolt's prison reform efforts in Azkaban. Apparently, he was requesting funds to renovate parts of the prison to offer more humane conditions for prisoners. Though the dementors had fled after the fall of the Dark Lord, the damp, dreary prison was still hardly a walk in the park. Severus thought it was rather convenient that they thought about renovating the prison only after the last follower of Voldemort was gone.

Severus flipped the page and almost choked on his tea. There was a large picture of Hermione Granger virtually ignoring the camera to alternately stir a bubbling cauldron and read from a huge stack of books. Above the picture was a headline "Portraits of Heroes: Reflections on the Tenth Anniversary of the Demise of You-Know-Who by Those Most Involved." It was apparently written by Justin Finch-Fletchley, a former Hufflepuff whose essay writing skills had been lackluster at best as a student. He could only hope that his writing was better suited to being a journalist.

Few people in Wizarding Britain will have forgotten the events of May 2nd, 1998 in which the Dark Lord was defeated at the Battle of Hogwarts. Though we celebrate that great victory, we much not forget the many who lost their lives that day. In honor of tenth anniversary of the Battle of Hogwarts, the Daily Prophet will offer a series of interviews from those who were present at Hogwarts that day. Our first interview is with Hermione Weasley- widow to the late Ronald Weasley.

Severus had remembered that Weasley had died a few years prior but he didn't realize that Granger had been dumb enough to marry him. He wondered briefly if any ginger-haired perpetual hand-raisers had been produced from the union but put it out of his mind to read the article.

JF-F: Thank you for agreeing to meet with me, Hermione. I know you are a busy woman.
HW: It's no problem Justin.
JF-F: A mere two months from now, we will celebrate the tenth anniversary of You-Know-Who's demise. How are you feeling about the upcoming anniversary?
HW: Well, my feelings are somewhat mixed, I suppose. I am happy that we are able to celebrate that Voldemort—don't flinch like that, Justin, for Merlin's sake, he's been gone almost ten years!—that Voldemort was defeated, but unfortunately that wasn't the end of the war. As you know, it took more than five years to round up the last of the Death Eaters. My husband lost his life from a slow-acting curse Mulciber hit him with more than five years after the war was supposedly over. Yes, I celebrate the death of Voldemort but I also mourn for those who are not here to celebrate with us.
JF-F: A fair point you make. How would you say the Wizarding World has changed since Voldemort's death?
HW: Well for one thing you and I were able to return to Hogwarts for our NEWTs, weren't we?
JF-F: [laughing] Well I suppose you're correct about that. Tell me, just how many NEWTs did you achieve?
HW: I achieved nine NEWTs though admittedly I did not complete the Defense Against the Dark Arts test. I was awarding an outstanding grade for my contributions to the war efforts.
JF-F: Be honest: Were any of your NEWT marks less than an 'O'?
HW: Er... well... No. I received all Outstanding marks.
JF-F: As all of us who knew you in school would have expected. You probably could have pulled out an 'Exceeds Expectations' in fifth year. Now, your exceptional NEWT scores resulted in your acceptance to the prestigious Magical Studies program at Oxford and then an apprenticeship at St. Mungo's. Can you tell us about your post Hogwarts education?
HW: Well, I decided to pursue healing after the Battle of Hogwarts so I chose to concentrate my University studies in Potions, Charms, and Curse Removal. I was able to begin my apprenticeship at St. Mungo's in my third year of University and thus was able to finish my four year University degree and three year apprenticeship in a total of five years.
JF-F: That is quite amazing. And in the midst of that, you got married to Ronald Weasley who joined Harry Potter in Auror training, hoping to round up the last of He-Who-Must-Not-Be-Named's followers. Did Ron support your decision to pursue research in healing?
HW: He did whole-heartedly. I only wish my research had been able to save him. The curse Mulciber hit him with slowly turned his lungs to stone. He held on for more than two years but we were never able to find a cure. My deepest regret is that he never met our son Hugo and that Rose was so young that she will likely not remember him. He was a wonderful man and so happy to be a father.
JF-F: I am so sorry about your loss, Hermione. It's hard to believe it has been a year since his passing. How are you managing?
HW: Well, it's difficult but we're managing. Molly watches the kids during the day so that I can work. She enjoys caring for them but I miss them desperately during the day. My career is unfortunately demanding of my time but I know that what I do is important so I will continue to work on it.
JF-F: No one would argue your work isn't important, Hermione. You developed a cure for Spattergroit, a disease which has claimed many lives through the years.
HW: I cannot take all the credit. There was a whole team of us working on it. In fact, it started as our third year apprenticeship project. It's a shame that Jane Grove chose to return to America after the trials were complete; we are now lacking a Potions Master.
JF-F: I'm sure one will jump to join your research team. Now, I have heard that you have begun yours most ambitious project to date: a cure for lycanthropy.
HW: Well, ultimately that is our goal. Our first goal, however, is to simplify and shorten the brewing process for the Wolfsbane Potion. Few if any werewolves have the ability to brew it for themselves and because they find it difficult to obtain work, few can afford the ingredients, much less a brew from a master. As a result, the responsible people lock themselves up for three nights a month, lest they kill their family and friends, simply because they can't afford the potion.
JF-F: I do understand that you provide the potion free of charge to any Hogwarts student, correct?
HW: Yes, we do. We don't want any child missing out on the chance to be educated at Hogwarts because of circumstances beyond their control.
JF-F: You seem to care about this very much.
HW: I do. I see society's discrimination against werewolves to be abominable.
JF-F: What would you say is the biggest problem that Wizarding Society is facing today?
HW: Only one? Heh, well, I suppose that would be society's inability to embrace change.
JF-F: Erm, could you explain that one for me?
HW: I certainly won't deny that magic is a wonderful thing that makes life so much easier. However, Wizarding Britain has barely moved past the Dark Ages in many respects. We dress in robes—which I love, by the way—but many wizards don't even understand how muggles dress at all. At the world cup in 1994, I saw men walking around in lady's house dresses with combat boots.

Do you remember when I pulled out a spiral notebook the first day of History of Magic our first year? You would have thought it was some kind of science experiment. Oh! And when I first used a ball point pen, Ron asked me what kind of bird that came from and what spell I had used to make it refill the ink automatically.
JF-F: Erm, well...
HW: Don't get me started on electricity! While I don't fancy bearing the expense of an electric bill, I dearly miss my clothes washing machine and dryer. Oh! And the dishwasher.The lack of acceptance of any muggle technology is only scratching the surface, of course. How many times have you been looked down upon for being muggle born? For not knowing some archaic wizarding custom that is so ancient it belongs in mythology?
JF-F: You have a good point, Hermione. Muggles like yours and my parents do have certain technological advances that would make the lives of wizards easier. Hopefully muggleborns like us will be able to educate society as a whole.
HW: I certainly hope so.
JF-F: I thank you for your time in giving this interview. Good luck with your research!
HW: And good luck to you in the rest of your interviews.

Severus considered the contents of the article, attempting to process all of the facts. So Hermion Granger—no, Weasley—was a widow at twenty-eight with two young children, one of who had never know his father. As much as Severus begrudged his own upbringing, he had to acknowledge that Ronald Weasley would have been a superior father to his own. It was a shame that those two children would grow up without him.

He had expected Hermione Granger to have some sort of illustrious career, though he hadn't imagined healing and he certainly hadn't imagined any type of work that involved advanced medical potions research. The cure for Spattergroit was ground-breaking, of course. He considered her current project of modifying the Wolfsbane and laughed to himself. It was likely a fool's errand she attempted. The potion was complicated for a reason and required expensive, rare ingredients to achieve the desired outcome. Why, the fluxweed alone... had the same effect as the more accessible and widely available Rhodiola Rosea. Potentially, anyway. That would also have the potential to replace the more volatile St. Jon's Wort that required precise stirring patterns and a long brewing time to become stable. Maybe his former student had a point...

Severus Snape left the paper and his dirty breakfast dishes at the table, rushing off to gather his notebook to begin calculations on whether Rhodiola Rosea was a potential substitute in the Wolfsbane. He was so preoccupied, he failed to noticed a large barn owl waiting in the tree outside his kitchen window.

Author's Notes:

Some back story in this chapter. Look for more of it in the coming chapters. I have ten years to account for. I will admit that the potion ingredients/processes are completely made up. Some ingredients are legitimate herbal supplements, some are taken from canon, some come from the Bestiary, and some are just made up out of nothing.

Thank you to all of you who have faved/followed/reviewed this story. As I said in the last chapter, reviews are the only payment I receive for my work. I do try to respond to reviews but you must be signed in for me to do so.

I am seeking a beta reader for this story as grammar and spelling are not my biggest strengths as a writer. I've currently written up to chapter ten with no end in sight. If anyone is interested in taking on such a task, please contact me via review or PM.

Updated 8/4/15 for minor grammar and spelling fixes