Chapter 3

A/N: Refer to Author's Notes in Chapter 1

Method in Madness

Chapter 3

From the bottles of magical restorative potions on the nightstand beside his hospital bed, Severus gathered that it was Wednesday morning. He had spent the night sorting out his priorities and decided that he had to return to his office to work on his manuscript of Practical Alchemical Solutions. Knowing full well that he still possessed his faculties and motor functions in his spiritual form, he decided he would endeavour to finish his manuscript in case Hermione failed in her attempts to revive his body. Perhaps there was truth to Nietzsche after all, he thought as he drifted down the dungeons into his private chambers. A powerful wizard like Nietzsche rightly pointed out that what didn’t kill one made one stronger. He was in a right mood to finish his manuscript and leave where the know-it-all would find it. He would instruct her to publish it when she failed to reconcile his spirit to his body. Satisfied with his musings, Severus settled into his battered armchair and looked around his chambers. He frowned – evidently; the house-elves had managed to get into his rooms. His papers were neatly arranged on the old desk. His shelves were arranged categorically and his thick grey carpets were clean. Turning his attention from his four-poster bed and its black satin hangings to his desk, he noticed that his books there, were as he had left them and his quills were mended. This was not the work of house-elves. He floated further down to his office which adjoined his private stores and heard the miscreant in his office.

Miss Granger, the culprit, dressed in black, looking younger than her twenty years had a chopstick holding the chignon at the nape of her neck and pronounced her scrawling “plausible, entirely plausible”. Severus winced at the thought that he had been patronised by a girl who presumed to know his habits and to get through his wards to his office and chambers. Casting his eyes around the office, he saw a cauldron locked in a stasis charm. Curious, he floated next to it and saw a silvery layer in mid-bubble. The worktable was scattered with ingredients arranged according to their magical properties; the desk next to it was neatly stacked with notes; notes no doubted written in her tight cursive hand. Then, the scratching of her quill caught his attention. He moved next to her, grateful that she was unaware of his presence and peered over her shoulder. He was stunned to come face to face with a section of his manuscript. Miss Granger had been studying his draft chapter on his hypothetical speculations on the treatment of improperly cast Unforgivables. His ire rose when he noticed that she dared to refer to his notes. How dare she look through them when they were incomplete and imperfect! How dare she consult it without his permission! Restraining himself from his desire to snatch his precious manuscript from her left hand, he glanced towards her scribblings. She had been making arithmancy calculations on his hypothetical potions. There was also a list on her right where she crossed off all the failed results of her failed experiments. Severus drew closer to Hermione to see what she had just written and inhaled the scent of white nettle from her hair. He groaned at the memory it evoked, of the days she had spent talking to him at the hospital wing. He had finally associated the scent with the person. He was glad his olfactory functions were normal and with a little sigh, he made the hairs at the back of her neck stand. As she gingerly rubbed her neck, he saw that she had written, “Hellebore root could be used to purge the body of the negative ions in a potion countering secondary exposure to Avarda Kedavra. Calculations prove that it would be advisable to use it in tandem with dragon’s bile. Have to find binding agent to render dragon’s blood less volatile. S. hinted in notes to chapter 5 it could potentially relieve muscular spasms of a cruciatus. Try at medium heat and 57 counter clockwise revolutions before adding binding agent.”

Severus was impressed that the none too subtle Gryffindor had figured out the cryptic teaching behind his working notes. He noticed with a sneer that she had forgotten two important elements in her calculations. She had neglected to catch the scrawl he added on rowan bark and an incantation. “I might as well help myself and be done with her,” he mused as he firmly gripped her hand as she was about to put down the quill and guided her into writing, “Remember to use the right incantation and...” Before he could continue, she gasped and he released his grip. Severus immediately recognised his error – he had guided her into writing in his hand. Although her face registered shock, he was impressed that she behaved in a coolly rational manner. She neither panicked nor shrieked like a conventional woman. Severus was proud to see that Miss Granger had a formidable will to accompany her mind. “Very well,” he thought, as he saw her briefly calculate the possibility of a being existing outside a human body. Vector had taught her well, just as he had.

He smirked when she sighed at her calculations and uttered, “What am I to do? I’m going mad! Professor Snape, how can help you if I’m like this?”

Putting aside her quill and tracing Severus’s spidery handwriting, she felt emboldened enough to venture a weak croak, “Professor, are you here?” Her words resounded in the apparently empty room. “Professor Snape, Severus, tell me not that I’m too late! Are you still alive? Give a sign! Are you on the middle plane between life and death? If you are, don’t leave me. I don’t want to lose you like I’ve lost Harry and Ron. Give me a sign, any sign, anything." He obliged her by removing the chopstick from her chignon and moved a stray lock from her face. That proved to be his undoing. As the burst of her shampoo and rich cinnamon scent hit him, she fled out of his office towards the hospital wing with silent tears down her cheek.