Chapter 2

Earlier that day

Hermione Granger looked at the mess in front of her. Clothes, books, papers, photographs, and other miscellaneous objects were strewn all around the quarters of the Hogwarts Potions professor.

Unfortunately, they happened to be her quarters now.

But these were not her belongings. Horace Slughorn had just passed away, and she was to take over both his position and his old rooms. The latter seemed rather daunting at the moment.

Why had nobody thought to clean out the rooms before she had arrived? Of course, it was weeks before school began, and most of the staff, including Headmistress McGonagall, were away on holiday. As far as Hermione knew, the woman hadn't taken a holiday in thirty years, so she probably deserved it.

So, Hermione was stuck trying to clean and organize everything in the sitting room and the bedroom. Hermione started with the bedroom, the lesser of two evils. It took her about two hours to clear everything out.

Part of her felt sad to be cleaning up after a dead man. However, Slughorn had lived a very long life. And he had seemed...for the most part...very happy in the years after the Second Wizarding War was over. He had even offered to continue teaching Potions...an offer which Headmistress McGonagall had been glad to take him up on.

During her time at Oxford, where she was the only Potions major and one of only five Wizarding students, she had frequently met with Horace Slughorn. Her apprenticeship had been with Marianne Abbott, the lead Potions researcher at St. Mungo's, who had encouraged her to use as many resources and connections as possible. Hermione knew that there were few certified Potions masters and mistresses in the world, and Slughorn was the only one other than Marianne that she had known. He was only too happy to accommodate a former student who had received all O's on her N.E.W.T.s.

They had met for tea several times a month over the last three years, talking about new theories in Potion-brewing, her pet projects, and his pet students.

In their last conversation, he had told her that he was retiring (for the second time) and both he and Minerva McGonagall had agreed that she was the best person to take over his position. At that time, she had been finished with her apprenticeship for six months and had been a Potions brewer at St. Mungo's. Although enjoyed that job, teaching at Hogwarts had always been her dream. She had always been passionate about learning...and she wanted to inspire students to feel the same way.

And it was so rare that a job opened up at Hogwarts, she knew that she would be a fool not to take it. Hermione had accepted the job almost immediately.

Unfortunately, the day after Slughorn had told her of his retirement, he died.

She and several others had delivered eulogies about the late Potions master at his funeral. Although he had made some mistakes in his life, he had atoned for them in the past few years. He had been at peace when he died.

If only the same could be said about the Potions master before Slughorn.

It didn't escape Hermione's mind that her new quarters had once belonged to Professor Snape. Even now, over five years after his death, it still haunted her. The picture of him dying in such a horrible way on the Shrieking Shack floor often surfaced in her mind. She had watched others die that day, yet for some reason, Snape's death bothered her the most. It seemed like a horribly unnecessary death. To this day she wondered why he didn't have an antidote to Nagini's snake bite. He must have known that getting attacked by the snake was a possibility, so why hadn't he been prepared?

Hermione sighed. She hated when her thoughts drifted to Professor Snape. She couldn't change what had happened and neither could anybody else. Dwelling on the past was a waste of time; she should be thinking about the present and the future.

Unfortunately, the only thing that she could see in the present and the near future was the mess that had been left by Slughorn. She could use magic to make everything disappear...but that just didn't seem right. Every object in the world that was important to Professor Slughorn was right here in this room. Disposing of it would be easy with her wand, but it seemed like it would be very disrespectful to him.

She knew that he had children, grandchildren, and great-grandchildren...she had met his daughter at the funeral. Hermione had decided to pack up all his belongings and send them to her when she had finished. After five hours, she had only cleaned out half of the sitting room. Slughorn had so many knickknacks that she couldn't imagine anyone, including his own relatives, wanting. He had items such as Chocolate Frog cards, stacks of articles from the Daily Prophet, decorative potions bottles, and several paintings of slugs. She had decided to put them all into a box and let his daughter deal with them.

Hermione was about to quit for the day when her eye caught something. It was a small box wrapped up like a present. The least she could do was send it along to the rightful recipient. There was a note on the top of it. Hermione slowly unfolded it.

Her heart skipped a beat when she saw the name at the top. It was for her!

Hermione...

Horace L. Slughorn

With her fingers shaking, she began unwrapping the box. Had he known that this would happen...that he would die and she would be the one to find this gift? She took a deep breath as she put the paper aside and opened the lid.

Inside was a stone, one that looked like a black diamond. "What ...?"

She picked it up and was shocked by the energy, the magic she could feel inside it. The stone definitely had some powerful spells on it.

It only took her a moment to realize what it was. She had never seen it before, but there was no mistaking the carvings on the rock.

The Resurrection Stone.

She had read the legends of it...and she even knew that the Tale of the Three Brothers was no fairy tale. But never had she imagined that she would actually ever get to touch it...let alone possess the Resurrection Stone.

She wondered if she would ever have the nerve to use it. It was interesting that Slughorn had chosen to give it to her when he could easily pass it on to one of his children or grandchildren, or any of his old students. She felt privileged that he had decided to give something so unique and valuable to her.

Hermione kept the stone in her pocket all day. It was not far from her mind, and she found herself occasionally touching it. She was careful not to turn it around in her fingers. It was important for her to think before doing something rash like summoning the dead. Nothing good could come of it, right?

**********************

"You seem preoccupied tonight," Harry said to her.

Hermione snapped out of her trance and looked up to meet the stares of Harry and Ron. She was at dinner in a café in Muggle London with Harry, Ron, and their girlfriends. Harry had been dating Padma Patil for the last five years, and Ron had just begun going out with Lucy Bennet, a Hufflepuff who had been three years behind them in school. Both of the girls had gone to the lavatory to gossip...they had invited Hermione, but she declined...so now it was just the three of them.

Hermione tried to smile. "I'm just thinking about the classes I need to plan. I have so much to do before school starts! Speaking of which, did you hear that Neville got hired on as Herbology professor?"

"Wow, Hermione, that's great news!" Ron said. "You won't be the only person on the staff under forty. Neville's still single, isn't he?"

Hermione rolled her eyes. "You know that Neville's just a friend. And he's not my type."

"What is your type, Hermione? You've never had a relationship longer than six months," Harry said.

"You know all those buffoons weren't good enough for our dear Hermione," Ron told Harry jokingly. It was true that the men she dated did not last very long. But none of them had stimulated her mind the way that she craved.

"I'm not that anxious to get married. I'd rather meet someone that really suits me than settle with just anyone. I don't want to spend the rest of my life with someone that I can't have a decent conversation with."

"But really, Hermione, when was the last time you had sex?" Did Harry need to be so blunt? She knew exactly when...two years and three months ago, two days before she broke up with David, her most recent boyfriend.

"That's none of your business. You know that I haven't had time for men. My research has been more important." Her two friends looked displeased. The two girls came back and the conversation, thankfully, took a turn away from her nonexistent love life.

As they arrived at the nearest Apparition point, Ron turned to her out of earshot of the others. "Hermione, you know that we only want you to be happy. Harry and I care about you as much as if you were our own sister."

"Thanks, Ron," Hermione said softly. She kissed him on the cheek then Apparated back to the gates of Hogwarts.

Throughout the entire dinner, she had been thinking about the Resurrection Stone in her pocket. She had been wondering whether she should ask Harry about his use of the Resurrection Stone. In the end, she had decided that he probably couldn't tell her anything that she didn't already know about it. He had only held it in his hand for mere minutes. Plus, asking him would bring about questions. She rarely kept secrets from her two best friends, but she wanted to test its properties and try to determine what type of magic had been used to create it. She would share it with them after that. When she arrived in her sitting room, she took it out and looked at it again.

Without even thinking, she turned it around in her fingers three times.

A dark figure appeared in front of her. She slowly looked over him. He wore heavy black boots and voluminous black robes. Her eyes traveled up the body to the face. Stringy, shoulder-length, black hair framed a face that contained a mouth set in a sneer and a large nose. His cold, black eyes stared at her.

Professor Snape.

Her heart began pounding. Why him? So many people that she cared about had died in the past, so why Snape?

"Granger, what the hell are you doing here?" he snarled. She didn't speak, just stared at him. She wasn't sure what she had expected. A ghost perhaps? But he actually looked just like he would have if he was still alive. Hermione felt her breath catch in her throat. Sadness welled up inside of her as the memories of that day came back to her. She took a deep breath to try to keep her composure.

He appeared exactly the way he had that day seven years ago in the Shrieking Shack. His clothing was the same as it had been that day, although she wouldn't really have known the difference because he had worn the exact same thing day in and day out when he was a Hogwarts teacher.

"Well?" he said. "Did somebody cast a Silencing Charm on you?" Sarcasm. This was definitely the same Snape. She decided to at least give him an answer, although she didn't know what it would be.

"I'm sorry, sir. I'm confused myself. Of all the people to summon from the dead, I don't know why you appeared." It was true. His appearance before her was completely shocking. Not only because it was he who appeared, but also because he looked and spoke just the way that he had when she was his student.

"I have no idea what you're talking about," he told her. "This is my laboratory. Please leave me alone."

Hermione looked around her, as if checking her surroundings. This certainly wasn't a laboratory.

"No," she said, "this is my sitting room."

"Miss Granger, I don't know what you're on about, but I want your Gryffindor pranks to stop. One of the nicest things about being dead is being away from you and your moronic friends, and I'd like that to continue."

"But sir..."

"Don't you have friends or relatives you can go to? Slughorn just died; go bother him. Or how about Albus? You're dead, Miss Granger. Certainly you wouldn't want to spend time with me. I don't want to spend time with you."

Hermione felt her body grow cold. All of this talk about death was eerie. "I'm sorry, sir, but I think you're mistaken. I'm not dead and I'm not in your laboratory. I've used the Resurrection Stone. Although I..." She didn't finish her sentence. Telling a former professor that she didn't wish to talk to him was certainly not the right thing to do.

He looked thoughtful for a moment, then said, "The Resurrection Stone, Miss Granger? Do you know nothing about the Stone? You chose the person you wanted to appear."

Hermione nodded, then decided to change her line of questioning. "Since you're here already, can you please talk to me? I have many questions and..."

"Granger, I don't have time for this!" He scowled.

"You're dead! What exactly is so important that you can't even spend a few minutes to talk to me?" How could the man be rude to her even after he was dead? She had spent six years at Hogwarts trying to impress him until she had found that it was impossible. Apparently it still was, for he was unwilling to have a conversation with her.

"Leave me alone," he said, folding his arms. He continued to stand there and glare at her.

"Please, sir, I really want to..."

"Miss Granger, please leave. I don't want to speak with you. "

"I will use the Resurrection Stone again," she vowed. "And if you appear, I will be more persistent."

"I can't wait," he said dryly.

She set the stone down on the table in front of her. As soon as he disappeared, she collapsed on the sofa. All the emotions she had experienced at the funerals, the memorials, the yearly tributes to the war heroes resurfaced. She had tried to be strong, avoiding crying when others were around. But when she was alone, the tears had come.

And they came again. Seeing Snape for just a short time brought back so many memories of that day. She had never been his friend (not that he had ever been friends with any student) but she had long held him in high esteem, admiring his intellect, respecting his position in the war, despite the sarcastic and scathing comments he had directed at her.

After a few minutes, she calmed down and began to think rationally. The experience had certainly been strange. It was obvious that he didn't want to talk to her. Hermione kept going over the possible reasons why Snape had appeared instead of somebody else. She had known many people who had died. Why not Dumbledore? Or Remus? Or Tonks? She could think of at least ten people that she would choose to talk to before Professor Snape. Perhaps it was because she was in his old rooms? But then wouldn't she have seen Slughorn also? The next day, all thoughts of tidying her new rooms were cast aside for research on the Resurrection Stone.

Hermione read through the Tale of the Three Brothers several times, finding out nothing that she didn't already know. The main message of it was clear: Nobody can bring back the dead. But they can still be insulted by them, she thought wryly.

She wasn't planning to try to bring back the dead; however, she did want to know a little bit about the Resurrection Stone. Perhaps she should have waited to use it. That had been rather stupid of her.

After a few hours of research in the Hogwarts library, she had learned a few important things. There was very little about the Resurrection Stone itself, but she studied up on the properties of it as much as possible. She was not an expert in gemstones, but she had found out a few things. After doing a few experiments on it...using her wand and several potions to test its hardness and its elemental makeup...she realized that, as she had suspected, it was a black diamond. The huge amount of carbon and the durability both pointed to that.

Hermione wished she could take it to an expert to have them look at it, but there was no way she could show anyone else the Stone. She knew that the diamond itself was rather rare. According to scientists, black diamonds originated from outer space and had arrived on Earth in meteors. Most of the diamonds had been found in Africa or South America. She wondered where this one had been found. Certainly not in Britain.

However, its extraterrestrial origin was nothing compared to the magic that had most likely been involved in changing it from an extremely rare stone into one of the Wizarding World's most powerful objects. The enchantments on it were amazing. She tried to figure out which charms had been used on it but was unsuccessful. It was some very strong magic. This stone was like nothing else she had ever seen or held. Even the Invisibility Cloak, with all the magic that had been used to create it, didn't radiate this much energy. As her hand touched the cold stone, she felt like her magic was getting stronger and that she could do anything. However, it was an illusion, of course.

Since diamonds were the hardest known minerals, she imagined that the carvings in it had been done by magic. She wondered if the Elder Wand had been used on it. Probably not...if the legend was true, the Peverell brothers had created their Hallows for individual reasons and hadn't shared with each other.

She read several articles that had spoken about use of the Resurrection Stone. Unfortunately, she learned little more than she already knew. The person using the Stone would summon whomever they wanted or needed to speak with the most (she had snorted in disbelief when reading that), and the dead person that appeared would look the same as the day he or she died.

Despite finding out everything she possibly could about the Resurrection Stone...namely its chemical makeup, and past accounts of the use of the Stone...it still wasn't enough. She still had no idea why Severus Snape had appeared.

Over the next few days, she did a lot of research on the Stone and the Peverell brothers. She spent a lot of time at the Ministry's library and had traced the genealogy of the Gaunt family all the way back to a man named Kadmus Peverel, who had been the brother of Antiochus and Ignatius Peverel. The Peverels had all been born in the 14th century. The spellings of the names were different but it was obvious that these men were the Three Brothers.

Finally, Hermione went to Little Hangleton. She knew that many people from the Ministry had looked at old documents in that house, but perhaps the reason that nothing had been found there was that they were looking for something different from what she wanted.

She wore Muggle clothing, but it was unnecessary since the village was almost completely deserted. Nobody saw her, or if they did, they didn't make themselves seen.

Hermione walked up the path to the Gaunt house and nearly stepped on a snake. She gasped, but managed not to cry out. The grass around the house was high, probably home to many other snakes. She hated snakes. When she got to the door, she cast a quick charm and found that there was nobody inside the house, and the only magic on the house was a weakened Muggle-Repelling Charm that had probably been cast over fifty years earlier.

Of course, because the Ministry had conducted investigations since Voldemort's death, she wondered if there was even anything left in the house. The bottom floor didn't appear to have been cleaned any time in the last twenty years, although it contained nothing of interest to her. There was little furniture...only an old sofa with torn upholstery that smelled of mold, and a table and chairs set in the kitchen. Hermione did all the proper locating charms to determine that there was nothing of interest.

The second floor was just as bare. She found a few papers, but they all were from the mid-18th century, after the Peverells' time and before Voldemort's time. Finally, she got to the attic. There were many boxes of old parchments. Hermione used her wand to perform a cleaning spell on the ground, then sat down and began searching. After three hours of leafing through old papers from the years 1300 to 1500, a letter caught her eye.

My dear son,

Good luck, my boy

The letter was unsigned, but she knew what it was and whom it was from. It was Cadmus Peverell's suicide note. When Hermione got back to her rooms that night, she used the Stone again. Snape appeared once again. The sneer that seemed to be a permanent fixture on his face had not disappeared.

"Professor Snape!" she said, surprised. Can I not contact anyone else? she wondered. It seemed that way.

"Granger, I told you not to bother me. Please. Go. Away." She had been expecting this animosity, so she ignored his words and looked at him a little more closely than she had the evening before. He wore the same black robes that he had always worn for teaching Potions. His hair was the same length as it had been, his skin still pale, his teeth still far from perfect. Overall, nothing had changed.

But she wondered....

Hermione couldn't resist the impulse to stretch out her hand and try to touch him. She expected her hand to go right through him. Hermione gasped when her fingers touched the cloth of his robes. She could feel his arm underneath her fingers.

She kept her hand on his arm for a moment. "Miss Granger, may I ask why you're touching me?"

Her hand snapped back as if burned. "I apologize, sir. I just wanted to see..."

"You wanted to see if I was a ghost, even though you already knew the answer to that question?" His tone was biting, but she didn't care. She changed the subject.

"I'm really curious as to why you're the person who came up when I turned the Resurrection Stone."

"Why indeed, Miss Granger. I'm sure that you can answer that question better than I can."

"Perhaps," she said thoughtfully. "What's it like? Death, I mean. People have spent millennia searching for answers, yet they never find out until it's too late." But I can find out, she thought, although she didn't voice it. It sounded too selfish.

"Miss Granger, you're sorely mistaken if you expect me to tell you the answer to the question that's been eluding people since the beginning of time," he told her.

Hermione sighed. "I'll talk to you again later, Professor."

Hermione put the Stone down on the table, and he was gone.

She tried not to be annoyed, although she began wondering how she could choose whom she brought back using the Resurrection Stone. Severus Snape seemed uninterested in making conversation with her.

Yet she wanted to keep talking to him. He was dead, but she felt like he was almost alive again. Talking to him like this almost made her feel like the events of the Battle of Hogwarts had never happened.

Of course, that was a ridiculous thought. He was dead. Nothing she did could change that.

That night, she couldn't sleep because she was too busy thinking about Severus Snape.

The next day she sat down on the sofa, picked up the Resurrection Stone again, and turned it. She used all of her will to concentrate on Lupin, Tonks, Sirius Black, Colin Creevey, and Dumbledore, hoping that one of them would appear instead of the derisive Potions master.

Severus Snape appeared once again. Why?!

"Miss Granger," he said. "Am I to expect that your invasion of my privacy will become a daily occurrence? If that's the case, please tell me now, so that I can clear some space in my very busy schedule."

"And what are you so busy with? You're dead, so I can't imagine that you have that many important affairs to attend to," she said snidely. He wasn't the only one who could be sarcastic.

"My affairs, as you call them, are none of your business. Now tell me what it is that you really want," he said.

"I ask nothing from you. I only wish to understand the nature of this fascinating object left to me by my predecessor. Professor Slughorn would have wanted me to use it. It's unfortunate that I can't contact anybody else."

"Can you think of any reason why I would be the one contacted?" he asked her. "Perhaps you are of the mistaken belief that I have a fortune hidden somewhere? Believe me, everything I own was left to Hogwarts upon my death to help cultivate the next generation of lazy students."

"I'm not interested in money."

"No doubt then you want the fame that your beloved Potter so desired. It's not enough that you and your two idiotic friends are the heroes of the Wizarding World; now you want to discover the secrets of life and death. Only then can you outshine Potter."

"I assure you, Professor, that you know absolutely nothing about me. Your guesses about my motivation are completely wrong. I have no desire to be famous, nor have I ever."

It was true; she preferred the reclusive lifestyle of a Potions mistress, staying out of the limelight except for the few moments of glory she had experienced when published in the European Journal of Potions, one of the leading journals in the Wizarding World. Still, that didn't make her famous; it only served to give her credibility in the (very small) Potions community of Europe.

"Miss Granger, what do you want?" he asked again.

"Just... knowledge. I have in my hand one of the most powerful and mysterious objects in the Wizarding World. It's only natural that I would want to learn more about it." He didn't respond immediately. She wondered what he was thinking, or even how his thought processes worked. He was dead, after all.

His voice was softer, rougher, almost nice. "Miss Granger, I understand that. But why me?"

She was silent for a moment. Then she spoke. "I apologize, sir. But I really don't have an answer to that question."

"You are one of the most exasperating witches on the planet, dead or alive," he told her, annoyance appearing in his expression.

"And you are impossible even when dead!" she fired back.

"That's quite enough, Miss Granger. Don't bother me again."

She threw the stone on the floor, and he disappeared. What a bastard! As if she even wanted to talk to him again!

Hermione wished that it were easy to forget about the Resurrection Stone and concentrate on things that were real, not people who had been dead for many years. She had a lot to do...especially since she needed to start planning Potions classes. Slughorn had left her copies of his syllabus and all his lesson plans, but she wanted to change a few things around and adapt them to her own personal style. Seven different years of classes was a lot to plan for! How did all the teachers do it? Throughout the week, she thought a lot about the Stone. She had been constantly wondering why she could only contact Snape, and nobody else. Her confusion had been deepened by the knowledge that both the user of the Stone and the person who they contacted had to want to see the other person.

She could only think of one thing. She had been one of the last people to see him alive and always felt a sense of guilt. She had later found out that he died at least a half hour after she and Harry left the Shrieking Shack. She constantly wondered if there had been some way that she could have saved him. She wondered, did he want to talk to her too? So far, their interactions had not had much depth, but she knew that she could have an intelligent conversation with him if she was given the chance.

It was almost a week before she picked up the Resurrection Stone again. Even though Snape had told her to leave him alone, she couldn't help it.

"Professor," she said after using the stone. "How are you today?"

"Still dead," he said wryly. Had that been a joke? She wasn't sure, so she hid her smile. Did he know how to tell jokes? "Where were you the last few days?"

"I was here. I thought that you didn't want me to bother you anymore."

"Yes, well, I suppose that I can be inconvenienced for a few minutes everyday for the sake of the advancement of scientific research. Have you found out anything more about the Resurrection Stone?" She smiled. She had been waiting for a chance to talk about it with him.

"It shows the user a person that they most want or need to see. And it only works if the dead person wants to see the user," she said with amusement in her voice.

"Miss Granger, I assure you that I've never had any desire to see you since my death." His voice was unconvincing, she thought gleefully.

"Uh huh. About the Stone, it will not bring a person back to life, as Cadmus Peverell found out. You're not alive, although you certainly aren't a ghost."

"Obviously," he said dryly.

"I'm confused, though. I don't know why you are the one person I would most want to see." She realized how rude it sounded as soon as she said it. "Not that I don't want to see you, sir, but I, erhm..." Shit. She didn't know how to explain herself because she really didn't have any idea why he was the one her mind had chosen.

"Miss Granger, I realized many years ago that your social skills are sorely lacking. However, as I am dead, there is little that will offend me anymore. How is your personal research going?"

"My personal research?"

"Your investigation into the Draught of Living Death. You thought I didn't know about it?"

"But how could you? You're dead!"

He laughed, a sound that was so foreign, it nearly scared her. "You think that just because I'm dead I know nothing of the outside world? I've seen Horace Slughorn a few times since he died. Much to my displeasure, he talks of you all the time. He even has a copy of your Master's Thesis. It was very...thorough."

"You talk to Professor Slughorn? And you read my thesis?" Hermione was shocked. This was the first glimpse he was giving her into what life after death was like. How could he possibly get access to something that had been written after his death?

Suddenly the questions started coming out of her mouth, causing his relaxed features to become tense. "Where do you live? What else do you do?"

"Miss Granger, that's enough. I asked you about your research. I did not ask you to bombard me with questions."

"I apologize, sir, I'm just very curious. But I'd love to talk to you about my research."

The two of them began discussing the alterations she had made to the Draught of Living Death. He seemed very interested in what she had done for her Master's thesis and what she continued to do.

Finally, Hermione realized that it was getting very late. She couldn't believe that she had talked to Severus Snape for so long. What was even more amazing was that she had actually enjoyed talking to him about it.

Something in the back of her mind told her that it was not good for her to be spending so much time with a dead person. She needed to focus on what was real, what was alive.

She pushed those thoughts aside almost as soon as they came into her mind.