Re – 417 Hz – Undoing Situations and Facilitating Change

Re – 417 Hz – Undoing Situations and Facilitating Change

The celestial harmony of the solar system is of a scope and harmonic complexity that no single approach can exhaust. The nearest one can come to understanding it as a whole is to consider some great musical work and think of the variety of analytical approaches that could be made to it, none of them embracing anything like the whole.

Joscelyn Godwin: Harmonies of Heaven and Earth

Dear Professor Vector,

I have, upon the most careful consideration, decided that I do not wish to start an apprenticeship. I feel, given the recent past, that it would be beneficial for me to take a year away from everything and then re-evaluate my future.

Hermione crumbled the parchment. Sod this. It's not like she really cares! She took another parchment, wrote a short, polite, and impersonal letter of declining the apprenticeship, rolled it up, and took it up to the owlery.

From there, she headed for the gate and Apparated first to Gringotts and then to Inverness in search of a cottage somewhere remote.

By the time she returned to Hogwarts for another night, Hermione had secured a rural cabin in the Scottish Highlands. From the outside, the place looked like a Muggle's idea of a witch's home: a triangular structure rather than the cottage style typical for holiday cabins in Scotland and entirely built with local logs, blending perfectly with the surrounding forest. It offered the standard Muggle facilities: a functioning kitchen with sufficient utensils and storage space as well as a gas stove and an electric fridge, a bathroom, a small living room with a fireplace, above the mantelpiece a curious-looking clock with three triangles in a circle, a cosy too-pink bedroom with a four-poster bed, a patio with a hammock and a tiny vegetable patch at the back and a small front garden full of herbs and flowers planted seemingly in no particular order. Being able...and willing...to pay up-front for an entire year, together with some formerly unknown haggling skills, had left Hermione with a real bargain of accommodation. She felt positively accomplished and smugly regarded the keys in her hand before Apparating back to Hogwarts.

"Hermione, what are your plans now?" Harry asked, looking up from the chessboard in the common room. "I overheard Vector tell McGonagall that you won't apprentice with her."

Hermione looked at her friend and shrugged. "I decided to take a year off. Kingsley said he'd help me get a job if I need to, so I figured taking some time just for myself would be a good idea." She was not quite willing to share her exact plans with anyone, not even her best friends. Researching a whisper of music from an unknown source wasn't exactly a heard-of pursuit.

Ron's eyes met hers. "I'm going to Egypt for the summer. That money really came at the right time." Then he nodded at Harry. "Still no idea what you're going to do, mate?"

Harry shrugged. "Not yet. Doing absolutely nothing for a few months before Auror training starts sounds great to me."

The last days at Hogwarts were filled with social activity. NEWT results came in, and students were hit with the epiphany that life wouldn't be quite the same. Despite the rapid growing-up imposed upon them by Voldemort's reign, no-one could quite fathom the profound changes adulthood brought, only that life was somehow going to be different...even different to the responsibility they'd been burdened with while Voldemort had been at his most powerful. Everyone made the most of those last days of their recently acquired careless freedom and lack of duties.

The Leaving Feast turned into the wizarding event of the century. Several students received Orders of Merlin, First Class, as did some teachers. Others received Orders of Merlin, Second Class. Professor Snape was...posthumously...awarded an Order of Merlin, First Class. The Minister honoured the dead man with a speech so passionate it left many a moist eye in the audience.

And suddenly, NEWT results were filed away, and Hogwarts was over.

Hermione woke with a start. A new life today... She rose, hurried into the shower before anyone else could beat her to it, dressed, then packed her last essentials and headed for a last breakfast in the Great Hall.

"Happy disappearing off the face of the earth, Hermione," Harry said gloomily.

"Oh, stop it," she admonished him. "An owl will find me any time!"

Ron snickered. "Aren't you in a brilliant mood to start a new life, mate?"

"Yes, Harry, what's up?" Hermione enquired mildly.

"I don't know." Harry frowned. "I guess leaving Hogwarts for good, not seeing either of you in the near future..." His eyes followed Ginny from the entrance door to the table, and when she plopped down next to him, he smiled. "I guess it won't be bad..."

Hermione was tempted to take the Hogwarts Express, if only for nostalgia's sake, but in the end resisted. She'd so been anticipating her new life that delaying it even for a few hours and no pertinent reason seemed inappropriate. She accompanied her friends to the station, her luggage reduced and stored in her cloak pockets and, after emotional good-byes, Apparated to the front of her new home in the midst of nowhere.

Beautiful, she thought, taking in the hilly forest, the vivid green leaves and deep green needles of the trees, and the bright green leaves of tall fern scattered about. Patches of grass grew wherever the sun had a chance to penetrate the dense canopy of trees. Hermione turned and started. There, not even ten yards from the cabin stood the three most perfect young, but already tall, king bolets. She grinned. "Dinner sorted."

With a plan forming in her mind, Hermione finally entered the cabin, spelled her luggage back to its original size, and put it on the floor. First things first. Hermione proceeded to take care of the ghastly pink in the bedroom, and a few wand flicks later, several hues of green interspersed with some very deep burgundy. Pink was now entirely absent.

The living room required no changes. The bizarre clock didn't bother her, and its strangely connected triangles and numbers starting at six at the top remained untouched.

Her next task required more wand work. Keys weren't convenient after having lived in the wizarding world for years, so Hermione set wards to recognise both her wand and herself. Satisfied with her work...nobody would come within a hundred yards of the cabin unnoticed...she moved her belongings from suitcase to drawers and wardrobe and from bags to bookshelves.

A trip to the grocery shop was up next, and on the spur of the moment, Hermione decided to go to Inverness to pay a visit to some book stores as well. The city had a wizarding quarter, and any grocery store there was bound to have a more interesting selection of foods than the nearest one in Grantown-on-Spey. She cast a glance at her watch, then looked at the sun, which was high up in the sky. No need to pick the mushrooms now; it'll still be daylight when I get back...

"Luce? You're back already! How did it go?" Narcissa asked as her husband entered the room.

He approached her in fast strides. "Don't ask." He laughed...a bitter sound...as he pulled up a chair to sit next to her and the bed. He glanced at the book he'd seen her put aside when he entered. "Shakespeare? You were reading Shakespeare to him? Hm, yes, makes sense. As refined in taste as Severus himself..." He smiled at her. "I love you."

"And I love you." She smiled back at him. "Now, tell me. How did it go? Did you meet her?" She extended her hands to cup his face and rose to place a gentle kiss on his lips.

He let out a sigh. "I met her, yes. She was not, uh... quite willing to talk to me." Another sigh escaped him as he stood up again. "Cissy... You'll have to go next time. She... She made that clear. She's not willing to talk to me. Said I'm tainted and male."

Narcissa looked at him, her face a question mark. "Explain yourself more clearly, please. You're not making much sense, love." Her reluctant smile reflected anticipated dread.

Lucius sighed again. "Well, I went to Emery Down, entered the forest, and found the clearing Lyra described. That was the easy part. Then I waited. And waited. And waited some more. Then this... hag appeared out of nowhere hurling insults at me, telling me how tainted I am...as if I didn't know that...and how I'm not worth her time. I just... sat there on this tree stump I'd found while waiting for her." He swallowed visibly before continuing. "She said how she never talks to males in any case, and the only reason she was willing to talk to me was because she'd heard whispers in the woods. And that it had something to do with us. She said..." he took a deep breath, "...she said that was the only reason she even talked to me. Then she told me to send Narcissa next time and disappeared."

"Did she mention when this next time should be?" Narcissa asked.

"Yes. Three months from now after the full moon." Lucius moved from his chair to embrace his wife. "Cissy," he murmured in her ear, "if you don't want to go, you don't have to. I can ask Lyra to go instead."

She returned his embrace and rested her head on his chest. "You are no more tainted than anyone else in this world, love. Don't let her words get to you." Stroking his shoulders and back, she added, "I'll go next time."

"Look out for mushrooms when you go," Lyra's voice interrupted the couple. "The New Forest is quite famous for them."

"Lyra!" Narcissa's voice was filled with relief at the Healer's arrival.

"Yes, I'm here now, dear. Go, take your Lucius and have yourselves a good time," Lyra soothed. "I'll take care of Severus." She frowned momentarily. "I wonder if a stasis charm might help..." Then she looked at Narcissa and Lucius who both stood up. "Go, my lovelies; just go and do what you want to do, what you need to do. I'll be here till you get back."

Hermione arrived back at the cabin, stored the groceries, and went back outside to harvest her dinner. The mushrooms had grown a little more since the afternoon but were still in pristine condition.

"Right," she muttered, remembering with clarity her earliest cookery lessons and repeating her dad's instructions as if he'd issued them minutes ago. "No washing, just brushing. Fry in butter after the onions start browning. Add garlic once the liquid evaporates. Then salt and pepper." She stepped outside into the front garden and found some parsley amongst the jungle-like setting.

Her first dinner was exquisite, and not only that; it set the quality for many future ones.

Finding mushrooms with her dad was one of Hermione's happiest childhood memories. As soon as the temperatures had remained steadily above freezing, as soon as cleansing, healing rain had penetrated the earth in Southern England, Hermione had waited impatiently for every Saturday and then willingly risen early, prepared cucumber sandwiches, packets of crisps, a little bit of chocolate, a few water bottles, all stashed into a backpack, grabbed a wicker basket, pocket knife, and off she'd gone with her dad on the nearly two-hour drive to the New Forest. They'd never returned entirely empty-handed. Sometimes, there'd been a handful of chanterelles or hedgehog fungi, often mixed with brambles or crab apples; other times the basket had nearly overflowed with a collection of many species, forever inciting delight in her mum and resulting in cooking frenzies that befitted a queen. She'd always felt somewhat sad to see the end of October, for that had announced the end of wildcrafting for the season.

Penny buns...porcini, as they were now fancily called throughout Britain thanks to an Italian celebrity chef who'd made his home in England...were a rare find before August in Southern England, but the Highland mushrooms held no such reservations. It was only June, and Hermione found them on a near-daily basis on her forays through the forest.

At first, she ventured out no more than a mile from her new home. She discovered a small lake where watercress was growing in abundance. The lake was fed by a spring with water so tasty, so real, it made her head spin. So this is how water should taste! As soon as Hermione arrived back home, she devised a spell to have the spring feed her kitchen tap.

When she felt she knew just about every inch of a mile's radius, Hermione decided to explore the nearest hill. The forest soon changed from deciduous to pines and firs. Penny buns made way for chanterelles. And a bass...a contrabass...started to rumble savoury nothings into her ear.

Where is this music coming from? Hermione gazed in every direction, at every tree, at every pine cone on the ground. Yet, no instrument showed itself. Suddenly, recognition dawned: it was the same sequence of tones she'd heard near Hagrid's hut. Her eyes widened. Good heavens...

She stumbled and landed right by a cluster of six chanterelles. Without thinking, she picked them, placed them in her cotton bag, and hurried back home, the thought I've heard the music again playing in her mind in the same tones the contrabass had brought forth and continuing long after the instrument's sound had faded.