Understanding

A/N: Thanks to everyone who has read and reviewed (I hope to catch up on answering them soon). Thanks also, as always, to Cat (quaffswinegaily) for the Britpick. As usual, I was messing with it after she did her thing, so any errors are mine.

Chapter 8: Understanding

Hermione's realisation re-energised her, and she immediately dove into the Pensieve to watch the scene again. As she watched, she saw the spark that flew from the wand the toddler was waving and hit the sleeve of Dumbledore's robes. She could see that the child was singing as he waved the wand around, but unfortunately, she couldn't make out the song.

When she was finished, she glanced at Severus and said, "Let's go."

"Go?" he asked, catching her hand and halting her as she headed for the door. "Where exactly did you want to go?"

"To find the children, of course, and ask them about their activities yesterday."

Severus brought her back to reality. "Hermione, it's already ten-fifteen. Children that age won't be awake, nor is their mother likely to wake them to discuss this with you."

"Oh," Hermione said, deflated. "I suppose you're right. What shall we do, then?"

"Well," Severus said dryly, "Might I suggest we go check my stores for a contraceptive potion before it becomes too late to be worthwhile even if it's there?"

Hermione felt her cheeks grow warm. "Oh, right, we should probably do that." She was a little surprised that he seemed so sanguine about the whole thing, but she decided not to test his patience further. She headed for the door again, tugging Severus after her but not pulling her hand away. She half-expected he would let go when they reached the corridor, but he didn't. She found herself pleased, though she suspected his willingness to engage in such a public display was due to both lingering happy feelings relating to having just had a good shag, and the utter lack of people (or ghosts) anywhere in the corridor .

They arrived at Severus's private stores, and he disappeared inside. Moments later, he returned with a dusty flask. Hermione looked at it sceptically. "Are you sure that's still good? It looks rather old."

Severus sighed. "It is rather old, but it's all we've got and it's still within the standard shelf life."

"Really?" Hermione asked.

"Yes, really. It's fine," Severus said. "I thought you trusted me?"

"I do," Hermione said, and drank the potion, then made a face. "Ew, that's awful! Can't you do something about the flavour?"

"No," Severus said. "Now, I thought you were tired." He began herding her toward a door in the far wall.

"That was before I had an adrenaline rush. Now I'm rather restless. Maybe we should take a walk or something."

Severus didn't answer directly. Instead, he said, "My quarters are this way. I have a much better way to help you burn off your adrenaline, I promise."

When Severus woke the next morning, he found himself breathing into and out of a bushy mop of hair. This wasn't as awful as he might have predicted, since said bushy mop of hair was attached to a delightfully feminine figure that was half-draped across his naked chest. The stir of her breath across his skin was, however, giving certain parts of his body very definite ideas about what the first order of business for the day ought to be.

Unfortunately, when Hermione woke up moments later, she very clearly had different ideas about how the day should start. She sat up rather suddenly, narrowly missing hitting his chin with the top of her head. Glancing around quickly, she caught his eye and said, "Let's go, Severus! We have to go see the children today!"

She bounded out of bed with far more energy than seemed appropriate, given the myriad activities they had engaged in throughout the night, and hurried off to the loo. Sighing, Severus followed more slowly. His idea would have been a lot more fun, he reflected, but he supposed they should get this interview out of the way first. Then again, Severus thought, as he heard his shower start running, maybe I can convince her of the efficiency of shared showers ...

Forty minutes later, Severus was feeling significantly more cheerful about the day ahead. He had persuaded Hermione to slow down and enjoy their morning a bit by pointing out that showing up at the break of dawn would hardly endear them to the children or their parents. He had even convinced her that breakfast would be advisable before they set off for Hogsmeade. All in all, the day was going very well thus far.

As they approached the cottage they had seen the woman and children enter, Hermione began to feel anxious. "What if they don't remember what they did?" she asked Severus nervously.

"It was two days ago," Severus pointed out. "If they don't remember, surely their mother will."

"Maybe," Hermione said doubtfully.

"Relax, Hermione," Severus said, rubbing her back soothingly. "We'll figure it out. We've got most of it already. Now we just have to fill in a few details."

"Right," Hermione said, relaxing marginally. "Thanks, Severus. It's funny, you know. Usually, with the boys, I'm the calm, rational one. The voice of reason, if you will. I wonder why I'm so crazy now."

Severus's lip twitched. "Hermione, if you didn't fill the role of calm, rational one in your little trio, no one would. None of you would ever have survived your first year if you had relied on Potter or Weasley to do it." He shrugged. "With me, you probably fall apart because you know you can."

"That makes sense, doesn't it?" She stretched up to give him a quick peck. "It's really nice to be able to count on you for sanity, Severus. It makes for a lot less effort on my part, doesn't it?"

"Yes, I'm sure it does," Severus replied dryly. "Don't worry, I'm content to provide your voice of reason when you need it."

"Thanks," Hermione said, feeling much better. By now they had reached the front porch. Hermione raised her hand to knock when Severus forestalled her.

"Wait!" he whispered urgently.

"What?" Hermione whispered back.

"Listen!" Stilling, Hermione listened, and what she heard surprised her, because it seemed so trivial. Two young voices were singing a nursery rhyme that Hermione hadn't heard in years.

"Twinkle, twinkle, little star

How I wonder what you are!

Up above the world so high

Like a diamond in the sky.

Twinkle, twinkle, little star

How I wonder what you are!"

"Do you think –?" Hermione started to ask, but Severus stopped her.

"Shhhhh. There's more. Let's see if they know any other verses."

Apparently, they did, though Hermione had only ever heard the first one. Most of them seemed innocuous enough, praising the star for giving light when the sun was gone. But then they reached the last verse, and it was there that they found the answer to what had happened to Dumbledore.

"Twinkle, twinkle in the night

You must keep your light so bright

Now your twinkle starts to fade

So we offer you our aid!

Twinkle, twinkle little star,

How I wonder what you are!"

A woman's voice called something to the children, and the voices fell silent at last, and Severus whispered, "Let's go. I think we know what happened, don't you?"

"Yes," Hermione sighed. When they were back in the street, she said, "Now that I think of it, it did seem that he was missing his usual twinkle more than anything. I just assumed he wasn't feeling particularly cheerful because of the seriousness of the situation, but no matter how bad things have been at times in the past, he always had that twinkle in his eye." She paused. "Do you suppose she stopped them before they got to a reversal stanza?"

"Perhaps," Severus said, "But if there is one, I'm sure we can find it elsewhere, and that way, we can make certain it's correct. Children sometimes muck up the words to songs, and we have to get this right in one try."

"True," Hermione agreed. "So, I suppose it's back to the library for us."

"Indeed."

When they arrived back at Hogwarts at mid-morning, Hermione said, "Where do you suppose we're most likely to find the actual song?"

"I would think a book of nursery rhymes would be our best bet. Perhaps Lucius still has Draco's children's books."

"Actually," Hermione thought aloud, "I'd be more inclined to think the Weasleys would have a lot of them. With so many children and so little money, I suspect they'd be inclined to hang onto whatever books they get. Bill and Fleur probably have the entire Weasley collection at the moment. And even if they don't, Bill is a possible source of information on this type of accidental curse, don't you think?"

"Hmmm," Severus replied. "Can you contact him? Is he even in Britain?"

"Molly said something about them being back at their cottage for a while. Fleur is pregnant again, you know."

"No, I didn't know. Where's the cottage?"

"It's in Cornwall, but it's Secret-Kept so that's all I can tell you. I can go and be back quickly ..."

"We should go together." Severus wasn't entirely sure he wanted Hermione spending any time with Bill Weasley. The man was too rugged for his own good.

"Surely you don't think I need protecting from Bill and Fleur?" Hermione asked, surprised.

Well, not from Fleur, anyway. Unless, of course, she decides you're trying to steal Bill from her ... She's probably vicious in defending her marriage, and anyway, she might have hormone-induced insanity ... Severus doubted Hermione would appreciate his actual thoughts, so he said instead, "No, but if we go together, they're much less likely to keep you longer than you need to be there. You're too polite. I'm not."

She looked like she wasn't sure if he was kidding, but she answered him seriously. "True, but if I explained the time-sensitivity, I'm sure they'd ..."

"It's a surer thing if I'm there," Severus insisted.

"All right, but Bill is the Secret-Keeper, so I guess I'll have to owl him and see if he'll come to us or send us a written direction for you."

"Fine. Do you need parchment? Ink? A quill?"

"No, of course not," Hermione said. "I thought I'd be taking notes at our interview with the children, so I have them with me. May I borrow your desk to write him?"

"Of course," Severus said smoothly. He thought briefly of their activities last night on that very desk. Perhaps he could persuade her to christen his chair, too, once her letter was on its way. They would have time to kill while waiting for a reply, after all.

A/N: FYI, "Twinkle, Twinkle, Little Star" has several verses, but I made up the one that Hermione and Severus identify as having caused all this trouble.