Chapter 2

A/N: My Golden Trio each passed on this story: Shug (sshg316) alpha read, DeeMichelle beta read, and MagicAlly Brit-picked.

Rumour Has It

Chapter 2

by Subversa and SubHub

Severus stepped into the cavernous main room of the National Wizarding Archives, the artificial light provided by the Magical Maintenance Department filtering down through the motes of dust, giving the place an uncanny resemblance to an ancient cathedral. His lip curled at the thought. Were the Archives not indeed just that? A place of worship for those with a reverence for antiquities and books and learning?

He looked toward the large, circular desk which graced the centre of the room, and the first item on his mental checklist was ticked off: Only one figure stood behind the mahogany edifice, and it was not the Reference Librarian, but her dim-witted assistant. The assistant was a tiny girl, with wispy blonde hair and large, nearly round blue eyes that gave her the perpetual appearance of a startled hare.

'Sir!' the girl bleated, seeming truly surprised to see him. 'Prof...'

She stopped, as if remembering an oft-repeated admonition, and one of her hands rose to cover her mouth, before slowly dropping again. Interesting. Had her superior reprimanded her for using his out-dated title?

'Sir!' she repeated, persevering. 'I didn't expect to see you here today!'

He swept up to the desk, towering over the girl. What was her name? She had been a first-year when he taught Defence ... a Muggle-born, she had not been at school the year of his Headmastership ... she had lost a family member in the war ... a sibling?

Ah, now he had it.

'Good morning, Miss Creevey,' he greeted Dennis Creevey's younger sister. 'Why did you not expect to see me here today?'

The child flushed, as if pleased to have her name remembered, and answered. 'Because Hermione's on holiday,' she said, as if that explained everything.

Severus followed the direction of her out-flung hand and frowned at the brass plaque resting on the Reference Librarian's desk. 'And why would the presence or absence of Miss Granger dictate my movements?' he wondered aloud, slanting a glance down at the earnest young person.

'Because you might have gone with her,' Miss Creevey proclaimed, as if her statement made perfect sense.

Severus couldn't help himself. He knew he ought to maintain a calm demeanour to encourage the little twit to keep talking, but he would not permit such cheek to pass unremarked.

'What are you babbling about?' he demanded icily. 'Have you lost your mind?'

Sara Creevey seemed to collapse upon herself, as if his sharp words had deflated her. 'I'm sorry, sir...I didn't mean...' The girl turned from him and snatched up a newspaper and thrust it at him. 'But everybody knows!'

Severus plucked the paper from her, noting with a scowl that it was the previous day's evening edition of the Daily Prophet. It was quite thin, which was why he had never bothered with the evening edition; he preferred the full morning edition of the paper. Yet there, below the fold, was 'Me, Myself, and I', the gossip column written by the ever-annoying Rita Skeeter, and there was his name, in bold black typeface.

Lips pressed in a thin, white line, Severus perched his reading glasses on his nose and began.

A Succubus for Severus Snape?

by RITA SKEETER

The National Wizarding Archives, London – The scholarly quiet of the National Wizarding Archives has become the site of a scandal of no small scope, and this reporter has spared no effort to bring the story to you, Dear Reader.

The wizarding world has the right to know!

Severus dropped the newspaper as if it were soiled and wiped his fingers with his handkerchief. What a load of codswallop! And why that Skeeter woman was even permitted to publish her tripe was beyond his understanding. Returning his handkerchief to his pocket, he turned a very stern gaze upon Miss Creevey and spoke in his most authoritative voice.

'How could you permit such a ridiculous notion to take root in your mind?' he admonished the girl. 'You work with her! Surely you know Miss Granger well enough not to believe such twaddle.'

Miss Creevey flushed miserably and looked down. 'But everyone knows Hermione fancies you,' she said in a tiny voice.

'Don't be absurd!' he barked.

Now the little Gryffindor plucked up her courage and raised her round blue eyes to his face. 'She told me so herself, Professor,' she said resolutely, forgetting and using his old title. 'She thinks you have a nice bum. And everyone in the staff room is always teasing her about you coming in and demanding to speak to her and refusing to settle for anyone else.'

'She's the bloody Reference Librarian!' he all but shouted, earning a shhhh from the embattled Miss Creevey. 'When I have a question about reference material, with whom else would I wish to speak?'

Miss Creevey looked pointedly away from him, and Severus felt his head begin to ache. What did it matter, after all? It was preposterous that Skeeter had published such blatant untruths, and he would personally speak to the publisher about that, when this was all done. And it was ... unfortunate that Miss Granger had allegedly seen fit to confide an extraneous remark to a colleague...a remark which had, apparently, been repeated until an entire Department of the Ministry had the entirely wrong idea about Severus Snape and Hermione Granger...but again, that was not the point of his visit today.

He touched the hidden pocket of his cloak, wherein a very heavy Gringotts bag rested, and was reassured. He had a task, and he had a deadline, and irritating though it all was, he had obtained helpful information in this verbal exchange with Sara Creevey. It was rather more obvious now who the purported 'love of his life' was, and he had a fairly clear idea how the notion had come to be taken as fact.

It wasn't important what anyone thought. What was important was that Hermione Granger, who was believed to be on holiday, had actually been kidnapped and was being held for ransom. What was important was finding the bastards responsible and punishing them...oh, and finding Miss Granger as well, of course.

'Well, never mind that,' he said in a more moderate tone, and he was rewarded by Sara Creevey looking at him again. 'I wonder if you have a list of the Archive employees? Miss Granger was going to provide one for me, but it appears it must have ... slipped her mind.'

Miss Creevey looked vaguely distressed. 'Oh, that's not like her!' she said, beginning to rummage in a drawer of the waist-high desk. 'I'll find one for you, sir!'

Pleased with the success of his lie, Severus waited patiently for the list which Miss Creevey presently placed in his hand. There were fewer than twenty names upon the list, and although his blood did not run cold at the sight of the last three listed, he was entirely unsurprised to find them there.

Nott, Stephen

Selwynn, Kenneth

Death Eaters, all three, though of such a low level that only a member of the inner circle would have been aware of their involvement. Of course, Severus was helped along by the dubious pleasure of having been their former Head of House.

He placed the list on the desktop between himself and Miss Creevey. 'These three gentlemen,' he said, indicating the ones he meant with his fingertip, 'what are their jobs?'

Sara supplied the information immediately. 'They're Retrievers,' she said.

Severus evinced interest. 'What do they do, exactly?'

Sara became almost animated. 'They find books that are out of place and return them to their proper locations,' she said. 'And if someone has checked out a book and they don't return it on time, the Retrievers can fetch the item back to the Archives.' She pulled an old piece of parchment from beneath the counter and displayed it to him. 'This map shows the location of every out-of-place item registered to the Archives.'

Severus stared down at the blank parchment. 'I suppose you realise this is not a map?'

'Oh!' Sara said. 'I forgot!' She pulled her wand and touched the tip to the page, murmuring, 'I solemnly swear I'll keep the Archives in order!'

And at once, thin ink lines began to spread like a spider's web, joining, crisscrossing, and fanning to every corner of the parchment. At the top, in green ink, no-nonsense block letters proclaimed: The Retriever's Map.

'Hermione made it,' Sara confided, her voice filled with awe. 'Isn't she brilliant?'

Severus contained his smirk. 'Quite,' he said, thinking to himself, Unoriginal, of course, but a cunning application, nevertheless. 'Miss Creevey...Sara...may I borrow the map? Just to see how it works?'

As he had calculated it might, the use of her first name flustered her. 'Of course, sir...but you'll need to know about the key-cards as well, if you want to use the map.'

Severus' admiration for the adaptation of Potters' old map of Hogwarts to the uses of the Archives deepened. Miss Granger had added another layer of magic to the map? Impressive.

'Then let's see the key-cards,' he said and followed the girl through a warded door on the far wall of the room.

They entered a workroom, crowded with shelves of books, small worktables, stacks of parchment, Spello-tape, rubber stamps, and inkpads. Sara led the way to a rack upon the wall upon which hung dozens of wooden keys.

'These are the key-cards,' she explained. 'Each one of these represents an item in the Archives which is out of place. We don't really pay any mind to them during business hours, because patrons have stacks of books and periodicals and other materials piled up as they do their research.'

She looked interrogatively at Severus, as if to make sure she wasn't going too fast for him, and he twirled his finger once, to tell her to get on with it.

'After we make the rounds and replace all the items which have been left out at the end of the day, then we come to the rack and see if there are any key-cards left. If there are, we use them to find the item so it can be returned to its proper place.'

Sara plucked a key at random from the rack and touched it to the Retriever's Map. Immediately, the map changed from the interior of the Archives to the streets of a city. At the top of the Map, the following words appeared: The Western Wizards' Genealogy, Fifth Edition, Wellesley Road, Croyden, London.

'So, we know this book has been checked out by the person living at that address,' Sara explained, 'and it's overdue.'

She made a tsk sound of disapproval and took down a different key. When she touched it to the Map, the lines reformed to once again show the interior of the Archives, and the words at the top said: Witches' Fashionable Repository, 1809 – 1837, Room 2, Table 7-E.

'This means that the bound issues of that periodical are resting now on or near that table in Room 2.'

Severus nodded, his mind working. 'What if someone took that book and hid it from you? What if it was neither on the shelf nor on the table, but hidden under a table or behind a drapery? How would you find it?'

Sara offered him the key, and he took it from her, noting the cool feel of it in his hand.

'You would go to the room indicated on the map and walk around. When you got close to the book, the key would begin to grow warmer in your hand.' She smiled happily. 'We haven't misplaced a single item since Hermione designed and implemented this system.'

Severus replaced the key-card on the rack. 'Thank you for showing me how it works,' he said soberly. 'A system of this type would be just the thing for the Hogwarts Library. I would like to explore it further, so that I may be able to explain it more fully to the Headmistress. May I look at the map for a while?'

Sara looked around the room uncomfortably, as if hoping to see someone with more authority than she had to give him permission.

'I'm sure Miss Granger wouldn't mind,' he added unscrupulously.

Sara's face cleared. 'Oh, I know she wouldn't mind you having a look around, sir,' she said. 'Just bring it back to me when you're finished examining it.'

Severus nodded gravely. 'You have my word,' he said, and he seated himself at one of the worktables, hoping Sara would not object that the room was only for employees.

But the uncomplicated girl left him with a sunny smile, and Severus was on his feet as the door closed. He had a bit of exploring to do before the end of the working day.

As the last of the Archive employees gathered their belongings to leave for the day, Severus Snape lifted his Disillusionment Charm and stood before the rack of key-cards. With the patience of a (Dark) saint, he took the keys and touched them, one by one, to the excellent map designed by Hermione Granger to keep up with each and every item in her charge. At last, he found what he was seeking. With a knowing smile he murmured, 'Good girl,' and slipped the key into his pocket.