Prologue
Of Angels and Souls
Petunia Dursley stared at the two children finally asleep in the crib. Little Harry had been crying all day and Petunia was angry, so angry that she had a hard time holding the child while trying to soothe him.
She was angry at the man who had dumped a baby on her doorstep in the middle of the night, with only a letter as explanation. The letter hadn't even included the place where her sister would be buried. And the child had been injured, still bleeding. She had stared at the blood for a long time not knowing what to do, she could not really bring him to the doctor, nothing natural could create an injury like that. When she had finally whipped the blood from his forehead she had felt a chill run through her. Definitely nothing natural.
But more than anything she was angry at her sister. She was angry that Lily hadn't come to their parent's funeral and that Petunia had been left all alone and devastated to settle all of their affairs.
She was angry that Lily said she couldn't visit when Dudley was born. And more than anything , she was angry that Lily had died.
As she held Harry most of the day trying to calm him down, she became angrier and angrier.
She suddenly left the bedroom, stopping herself from slamming the door so as to not wake the children. Lily was out of her life forever, she would never come back. Petunia stormed down the stairs and stopped in front of the cupboard underneath. She opened the door and stared at the boxes hidden inside. Boxes she had taken from her parents' house, and held on to until Lily could finally come for a visit. Those would have to go. She grabbed the first box and exited the house, throwing the box in the rubbish bin that was already down the entryway. The neighbour's car parked in the neighbour's entryway and Petunia straightened her spine and her nose in the air as the woman exited her car.
Petunia Dursley would not be intimidated, the neighbour might be successful and have a nanny but Petunia was the wife of a successful business man and she loved taking care of her child... children, she reminded herself, there were two to care for now. At the thought, she felt the same chill of anger run through her, and she shut the front door harder than she normally would in front of the neighbours.
JG-JG-JG
Jean Granger unlocked the door and pushed it open with her shoulder, because the box in her arms was starting to be heavy. She looked down, the box was full of books and she couldn't believe the neighbours would throw away perfectly good books, or any books for that matter. The house was silent, Hermione was probably already asleep. She looked around and noticed that the house was not as clean as could be expected. She had explained clearly to the new nanny how she expected the cleaning to be done to be up to her standards. She would have to talk to her husband about replacing her. It really was hard to find hard working people nowadays.
She looked at the books in the box and curiously went through them. She quickly became disgusted with what she found. All the books were complete nonsense and she felt personally insulted that someone took the time to write that nonsense in a book. She wrote a note to ask the nanny to put them in the attic. She just couldn't bring herself to throw away any books. She went upstairs, passed her daughter's room without checking on her and entered her own room, waiting for her husband to come home.
HG-HG-HG
Four years old Hermione Granger was very curious and quite stubborn. The result was that Hermione became obsessed with things and wouldn't let them go until all of her questions were answered. At the beginning, Hermione had been quite obsessed with school, but now she thought it was quite boring and way too easy and her parents were talking about making her skip another grade, or get a private tutor.
Her new obsession was her neighbours, the Dursley. From the window of her room she could see everything going on in their garden and she thought something strange was happening on the other side of the fence. She just wasn't sure she understood what it was exactly. She just knew that the strange thing had to do with Harry Potter. She had never spoken to Harry Potter before, but she knew his name because her nanny told her he was an orphan and therefore they should pray for him.
But more than the mystery of the Dursley and Harry Potter the orphan, Hermione was fascinated by a tall man in black who appeared twice a month in front of the neighbour's house and stayed a few minutes to move a stick in the air. Since she spent most of her time at a tiny desk in her room, in front of her window, she saw him clearly and she observed him carefully. She had first noticed him five months ago and she had been keeping tally since then… and she had multiple questions.
It wasn't until she had been to her nanny's grandmother's funeral that she had started getting answers about the man in black that nobody else seems to see. At the funeral, the priest spent a lot of time talking about guardian angels and Hermione thought the man looked very much like a guardian angel should, especially after looking at old paintings of angels in books at the library with her nanny. The man was pale like the angel in the paintings and he even wore an angel dress. The only thing missing was the wings, but Hermione could see the air shimmer around him and thought that maybe that was hiding the wings.
When she had asked her parents about guardian angels, her parents had gotten very mad, wanting to know where she had learned about such nonsense. The result had been that nanny Maria had to go and she was now with nanny Abigail. The new nanny was not very attentive which is why the next time Hermione saw the angel , she slipped out of the house and decided to approach him. After all, she had questions.
She approached slowly, hiding behind cars and vegetation. She went farther down the street to cross before coming back slowly. She observed him, he was wearing an angel dress, black, he was very pale and his hair was very long and black. Closer, he looked even stranger. The air around him really seemed to shimmer and Hermione decided he really was from Heaven. He raised the stick he held in his hand and started moving it, Hermione felt a frisson move through her.
Incapable of waiting for her answers any longer she called to him from a few feets away.
" Are you a guardian angel?"
He stopped moving, but when he didn't answer, Hermione closed the distance between them and called out to him again.
" Hello? Angel?"
His head turned toward her and Hermione was fascinated by his black eyes. She stayed stunned for a moment, but after that her curiosity took over again so she repeated authoritatively:
" Are you a guardian angel?"
He sneered at her. She wasn't discouraged.
" Are you my guardian angel?"
He turned back toward the house.
" No, I don't see why I would need a guardian angel."
She was silent a moment, thinking with the brain that allowed her to be in first grade even if she was only four.
" Are you Harry Potter's guardian angel?"
The angel barely gave her a glance, continuing to move the stick in the air.
" I mean, it would make sense, something weird is going on with the Dursley and Maria told me that Harry Potter was an orphan. So he would need a guardian angel or a fairy godmother like Cinderella!"
The angel put the stick in his sleeve.
" But you look like an angel."
The angel turned toward her again, scowling fiercely.
" You can see me."
He said in a low voice. Hermione beamed at him, excited to receive an answer.
" Yes! I see you every month from my window!" She gestured toward her house.
" You're a witch." He said gravelly.
Hermione's eyes opened wide, then she started thinking about the weird thing that happened around her.
" That makes a lot of sense." She said, " Can I be a guardian angel too?" She asked happily.
" No." He answered brutally and disappeared in a clap.
Hermione stood there a moment. She had new questions and things to think about. She was a witch apparently but she wanted to be a guardian angel.
HG-HG-HG
For the next month, Hermione tried to observe the weird things that happened around her and try to understand them without much success. She noticed that when she felt angry, she felt the same frisson pass through her than when the angel moved his stick.
She continued to do abnormally well in school despite being nearly two years younger than everyone and she was teased relentlessly for it. Everyone in school seems to know she was a genius and to think that made her perfect for ridicule. She had no friends at school and had no time to make some outside of it because she had tutoring after class.
It was on one of the occasions where she was supposed to be studying for her after class lessons at her desk that she spotted, again, the lone, small and dishevelled figure of Harry Potter in the neighbours garden. There, she made the decision to become friends with Harry Potter. He was the perfect friend, since he was just next door and she could see him all the time.
All she needed was a plan. It took her a week to find a screwdriver in the house and unscrew part of the last two planks of the fence between their garden and the neighbour's. The next time she saw Harry Potter at the back of his garden, she escaped her house and hidden from view behind a rose bush she pushed one of the plank to the side and whispered:
" Harry Potter?"
She whispered many times before she saw a small boy with crooked glasses stared back at her with wide eyes.
Hermione smiled at him, widely, very proud of her plan.
" Harry Potter," she told him bossily. " I'm Hermione Granger and you are going to be my best friend."
It seems that all that was needed for this to become true was that very imperative declaration because the two children became determined to be friends.
They had to hide it because Harry's aunt didn't want him to play with anyone and Hermione's parents didn't want her to play at anything, not when there were far more important things to do for her future.
But since they were never around much and nanny Abigail was still as distracted as ever they managed to see each other very often.
The next month when she spotted the angel, she ran down the stairs, having learned that nanny Abigail didn't really care what she did.
"Angel!" She called, happily running across the street, still taking care to look on both sides before crossing. She stopped running next to him.
She smiled at him.
"You're back!... Hello!"
He huffed and raised his stick again.
" Why do you always move a stick around?"
He ignored her. Not discouraged, Hermione turned around and took a stick from the neighbour's garden behind them. She placed herself next to the angel and, straightening her back, she tried to copy his motion with her own stick the best she could.
They stayed silent a few minutes, until a group of second graders she recognised from school turned in the street. When they recognised her from their side of the street, on exclaimed:
" Hey! It's Barmy Hermy!"
The older kids proceeded to yell insults at her from the other side of the street. They all knew her from school where the teachers and her parents always made a big deal of her being better than everybody else. The other kids didn't like that very much and since they couldn't pronounce her name properly, she was Barmy Hermy to them.
Hermione clenched her teeth and tried her best to ignore them. She raised her chin and concentrated on the angel's movement. The other children had just turned the corner of the street and disappeared when the angel put his stick down.
He turned toward her. She was incapable of holding his gaze and she looked down, ashamed.
" Sometimes, I wish I was invisible, like you."
She whispered, then, incapable of holding her tears in any longer, she ran to her house.
She never heard him whisper.
" Sometimes, I wish I was invisible too."
And disappear.
HG-HG-HG
For the next four months, Hermione continued her secret friendship with Harry and her secret meetings with the angel. When September came and Harry started Reception, she helped him learn to write his letters and read, when it became clear that nobody else was helping him at home.
The more she understood about Harry's life, the more she became worried about him. She understood why he needed a guardian angel and became more determined to become one.
She knew the angel's stick movements by heart, now.
One other time, the same group passed down the street while they were on their angel mission and Hermione, not wanting a repeat of the last time, had tried to hide behind the angel. She then discovered that hiding behind invisible things actually made you invisible too, which she found fascinating. At the beginning she wasn't sure it had worked, but then she felt a cool sensation envelop her and the boys passed without seeing her.
HG-HG-HG
"Angel!"
She yelled across the street, incapable of containing herself. She ran toward her angel, the precious paper in her hand flapping in the wind. When she arrived, she seized his arm, a little surprise that he felt so real. He stiffened and shook her off.
" I have a plan!"
She shook her paper under his chin. She had worked very hard on those and she was extremely proud. She had talked to Harry, well, interrogated him really and she had come up with the perfect plan which she had carefully written on pieces of paper. She had even switched colour for every point and she had asked Harry to illustrate those points.
" This is a plan to make Harry's life better."
She gave him the first page where she had written in dark blue the word "bedroom" in her best handwriting, still slightly wobbly. Under, in a lighter shade of blue she had written "cupboard under the stairs" , " too small" and " full of spiders".
Harry had made a drawing of a door under the stairs and a spider.
" Harry did the drawings. He lives in a cupboard under the stairs and it has a lot of spiders and it is very small and his cousin has two bedrooms."
She told the angel expectantly. When he didn't answer, she frowned at him and put the second paper in his hands.
" Food, Harry isn't given enough food. He doesn't even get food every day, even if the rest of the family does."
The angel humphed.
She gave him the last paper.
" He would like to have a toy. He doesn't have any, but he thinks that his cousin would take it if he did."
When she finished she smiled at him triumphantly, very proud of her plan. The angel stayed silent for a long moment and Hermione felt disappointed even though she was used to him not talking much or at all.
" No."
Hermione felt deflated.
" But, that's what he needs most, you're his guardian angel, you're supposed to help him."
He turned toward her looking angry.
" I cannot intervene directly. I can do nothing."
Hermione stared at him with wide eyes. She wasn't sure she wanted to be a guardian angel anymore, if they couldn't really do anything.
Hermione stayed silent, thinking. But she wasn't a guardian angel, was she? She could do something.
" I can do something!" She exclaimed heartily. " I could give him food everyday through the fence. I'm sure I could take some from my house without anyone noticing. But I can't give him a bedroom or a toy." She finished sadly.
" You can't give him one of your own toys."
Hermione looked down feeling ashamed.
" I only have one toy, Mr Rabbit and I don't think I could give him away."
She closed her arms around her chest imagining closing them around the plush toy, her first friend. Sometimes she was scared that her parents would take it away from her because she was too old for it, so she hid it under the mattress to make sure it didn't disappear while she was at school.
" Only one?" Asked the angel, visibly surprised.
" Mother and father say I have better things to do than to play with toys. I'm going to be a doctor." She told him what her parents said that explained all the rules and tutoring and grade skipping and no playing.
He turned toward her drawings and disappeared.
The next month, after the ritualistic moving of the stick, he put two small animated figurines in Hermione's hand. A small red snake that slid around and another small animal she didn't recognised.
" Harry is going to love them, his favourite animal is the snake," The angel raised an eyebrow at that. " What's the other animal?"
" It's an otter, and it's yours."
HG-HG-HG
Two years went by.
Hermione and Harry remained the best of secret friends. Though she never told him about his guardian angel. She kept on feeding him through the fence and her parents, the rare time they were there, didn't notice anything. School was difficult for both of them, Hermione because she was stuck with kids so much older than her that still didn't do as good as she in academics and Harry because his cousin was on a mission to make sure that everyone hated him. The both of them took to carrying around their little figurines to take comfort from when they weren't around each other. They had quickly discovered that the figurines seemed to be invisible to anyone but them.
Hermione had taken the habit of placing the figurine next to her in her tutoring sessions, a reminder of calm when she became too scared and anxious to give the wrong answer. Unfortunately, one day, her Latin tutor, the scariest one she had, had violently slammed a wooden ruler on the desk next to her when she got the wrong answer and it hit the figurine that exploded in tiny pieces.
Hermione had burst into tears and ended up punished by a week in her room directly after school for interrupting her lesson because she couldn't explain why she was crying. A few days after her punishment ended she was still inconsolable when the angel appeared on the other side of the street.
She brought him the pieces of her otter that she had painstakingly collected and she promptly burst into tears again. She was beside herself with happiness when he pointed his stick at the pieces and said " Reparo" and all the pieces put themselves back together to make her otter whole again. When he then told her that he had made it unbreakable as well, she had thrown herself at him and hugged him fiercely.
Every month she saw her angel across the street and she went to him. She told him everything from the things she just learned to the mean things other people had told her. He listened silently, rarely answering at all but he still left her feeling like she had been heard and understood in a way that didn't happen with anybody else. Her meetings with the angel were as precious to her as her friendship with Harry.
Which is why she was so upset when she came back from school one day. She was scared and confused. That day, in class, they had received the visit of police officers for a conference and they had told them some horrible stories. For the first time she saw things in a way she hadn't considered before and she was scared. She sat thinking at her desk, trying to consider what she knew.
She was still thinking when she went to eat, and when she snuck a plate to Harry through the fence. And she was still thinking when she saw the dark figure appear across the looked on for a moment, then she made a decision.
She closed her eyes and she concentrated a moment before opening them again and looking down at her hand who was now alight with blue flames.
She had been practicing for a situation just like this. She looked out the window a moment before taking a fortifying breath. She would get to the bottom of this.
She approached more carefully than before and stopped farther away than usual. She observed him a moment. She knew he was halfway through the stick movement. She also knew that he knew that she was there. She felt the cold sensation that meant she was now invisible wash over her. A frisson ran through her and she waited until he was on his last stick movement before asking.
"Are you a pervert?"
He put his stick in his sleeve and turned toward her slowly, his face as impassive as ever and Hermione was again struck by the idea that he wasn't completely from this world, an angel. He raised an eyebrow.
Her heart raced and she repeated her question, flustered at his expression that seemed to say " really that is the only thing you thought of beside guardian angel".
" Are you a pervert? Are you here to hurt Harry or me?"
He didn't answer, but Hermione wasn't surprised, because he rarely answered.
" Because if you are, I'm not going to let you hurt anyone."
Then, concentrating like she had been practicing, she lit her hand on fire and looked at him defiantly, trying to look intimidating.
She heard him exclaim under his breath something that sounded like " Definitely a dunderheaded Gryffindor." Before he said louder.
" I thought I was a guardian angel"
Hermione was confused because a large part of her thought that her angel still looked like an angel that had never hurt her before, but the things she had learned about that afternoon had scared her.
" There were police officers at the school and they said that we should not talk to strangers on the street. That they are dangerous, they do… they…"
She couldn't finish her sentences, not sure she could put in words all the horrible things that she had heard. She looked at the angel in distress. He sighted and turned completely toward her.
" They are right, you should not talk to strangers. They are mean, scary and dangerous."
" But you're not mean, scary or dangerous."
SS - SS
Severus Snape stared at the six years old child in front of him and wondered how he ended up discussing his status as a mean, scary and dangerous person, when everyone could tell that was exactly what he was. He wasn't entirely sure but he hadn't been able to completely ignore the child since she had decided that he was an angel. The girl was very clearly a witch, he looked quite admiringly at the flames around her hand, which showcased an extremely high level of control for her age. But he still didn't understand how she was able to see through his disillusionment charm.
She should not have been able to do that. And he should not be talking to a six years old on the street, making her believe that strangers were somehow safe to converse with. What if she tried to befriend a dangerous person next time, well his brain backtracked, a person that meant her harm, he corrected himself.
" Yes I am. I am mean, scary and dangerous. And if you were as intelligent as you seem to believe you are, you would stay far away from me and other strangers in the future."
He was about to disappear when a small hand closed around his wrist. Immediately, he felt warmth slowly enveloped him. His breath caught. He felt a mixture of dread and hope so strong that his heart, while becoming heavy, started beating quickly.
" Don't go, don't be mad. I'm sorry. I know you're not a p.. pervert. I was just scared, the things they told us, it was horrible…"
She was so distressed that she didn't seem to notice anything amiss. He briefly wondered who thought it was a good idea to tell scary, horrible things to small children. Then again, he knew that children needed to understand that the world wasn't a safe and happy place. Moreover, he knew that Hermione was abnormally smart and a few grades ahead of people her age, so maybe the things said had been appropriate for the other children of the class.
A part of him couldn't regret that she wouldn't approach strange men anymore, thinking they were angels.
She was still babbling anxiously. Discreetly, he turned the left hand she was still holding, not daring to hope, and his breath caught, when he saw two identical marks on the inside of their wrist.
Soulmates, they were soulmates.
That was impossible. It couldn't be. Even if it was true, he should not be receiving a soulmark. The other mark that adorned the inside of his left arm, was supposed to have prevented any soulmark from appearing. That was one of the consequences of accepting the Dark Mark, even existing soulmate marks disappeared to allow the dark mark to take root. He did not let himself think on that very long, because the second revelation that came with this mark was just as surreal. Somehow the universe, Magic itself, believed that no other person in the world would be better suited to him than this child. He could not contemplate that notion very long either. Immediately, all the horrible things that would happen to six years old muggleborn, Hermione Granger, if anyone ever learned that she was his soulmate, came to him.
No one could find out. Not even her. She could not see the mark. There were very few things that could hide a soul mark and the only one that came to his mind was a dark curse the Death Eaters used to hide their dark mark.
He loathed using such dark magic on a child, but he couldn't think of a longer lasting solution. Her parents would be alarmed if they found the mark on her, soulmates were a strictly Wizarding concept.
Seeing that the girl was now slowing down and losing some steam in her babbling, he had to act quickly.
Thankful that he could do the curse wandlesly and nonverbally, he sent it along her arm and watched her mark disappear.
The girl shivered, probably feeling the dark magic wash over her and cutting her off from a part of her soul. She stopped talking.
He took her hand in his.
" I am not angry," he explained, trying to be gentle. " I just have to go and I won't be coming back."
The girl looked at him with a stricken expression, eyes filling with tears.
" You mean, I won't see you anymore?"
" No, not for a very long time."
He couldn't afford for anyone to see them together, or for her to talk to anyone from the magical world about his visit. Also, a large part of him thought that watching his soulmate grow up was probably not the best way to start a relationship later. Although he already knew he would have to do that while she was at Hogwarts, he thought he should allow her to grow up without him in the meantime.
Of course, she didn't know all of that and she looked very, very upset.
" But, you're my friend."
" Yes, I am, and we will see each other again."
She started crying.
" When I die."
"No," he exclaimed fiercely," When you are eleven, we will see each other again. Do you understand?"
She stayed quiet for a moment, big tearful eyes fixed on his face.
" Yes, I understand."
" Good," he said briskly. " Be a good girl and do not talk to strangers anymore. Do you promise?"
" Yes, I promise and I'll keep on being a good Guardian Angel to Harry."
He couldn't bring himself to answer that so he only inclined his head, looked at her one last time and disappeared.
From then on, he raised the protective wards around number 4 Privet Drive, hidden from view of the small bedroom window on the side of number 6. He enlarged his protection to encompass number 2 and 6, so the new protection on Hermione's home would not be too easy to spot if a wizard passed by. Sometime, he would spot the small girl standing in front of number 4, moving a stick in the air with precise movement that would put grown wizards to shame and he marveled again that somehow, in the future, this innocent child would be someone that would be his equal. In his mind, he was already making plans for when the Boy-Who-Lived and his soulmate would make their way to Hogwart.
HG-HG-HG
Hermione kept on working hard at school and continued to take care of Harry. Through the years, she often looked through her window, hoping to see her angel again, but he never appeared. So, she grew up and she never forgot his promise to see her again when she would be eleven.
At 7 years old, Hermione discovered that Harry was also a witch. They would play at magic together.
At 8 years old, she discovered bruises on his shoulder and Harry refused to tell her where they came from. She told her parents and they went to confront the Dursley. They came back a few moments later and seem to have forgotten all about it. They punished Hermione for wasting too much of her time playing with her friend.
At 9 years old, she started secondary school and discovered that it was worse than primary school.
At 10, Harry came to her with a broken wrist. She called the police. A car passed in the street, but never stopped at his house. Furious, desperate and not knowing what else to do, Hermione ended up taking her stick, pointing it at Harry's wrist and proclaiming: " Reparo!". She was surprised and happy that his wrist mended like it had never been broken at all.
At 11, Hermione looked through her window everyday, hoping that, like he had promised, she would see her angel again. Two months before her twelfth birthday, she was starting to get discouraged, when something weird happened. Harry Potter started getting letters…