Hermione Part II

Disclaimer: I don't own anything that is familiar. I'm just borrowing them and letting them out to play!

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CHAPTER 4: Hermione Part II

"Do you have any idea what he was talking about, Madam Pomfrey?" Hermione asked, dropping gracelessly into the chair next to Professor Snape's bed. She kept her eyes on him, watching the rhythmic rise and fall of his chest as he slept. He looked as if he had a bit more color to him than he had had when she arrived. It could have been from the rush of adrenaline from his abrupt wakeup, or it could be that there was some fight left in Severus Snape. Hermione hoped like hell it was the latter.

Madam Pomfrey was quietly arranging the vials of potions for when Professor Snape awoke again. The older witch was quiet for a long moment, pretending to make sure the potion vials were ordered correctly before she answered. "I have heard of geminus animae once before, Hermione. A long time ago when I was younger than you are now," she said, conjuring a chair that was just as uncomfortable-looking as the one Hermione sat in. Madam Pomfrey sank into it and stared at an invisible spot on Professor Snape's blanket. "I can't quite remember the names of the two girls with the condition... I'm not even sure condition is the right word for it. It is a phenomena really; if I remember correctly, it only happens three or four times a century. I don't really know how much of a help I can be, Hermione."

The mediwitch looked sadly at the young witch sitting next to her. Hermione forced a smile onto her face and patted the older witch's knee. "Tell me anything you can remember, please. I can ask no more of you than to give me somewhere to start. I'm sure I can find something in the library."

Madam Pomfrey snickered a bit at this and flashed Hermione an apologetic smile. "Books only hold so much and sometimes nothing at all that is any importance. Albus would be a good start, I'm sure he knows more about this than I could ever hope to know. What I do know is this. When two people are geminus animae...and it is always two people...they are more than twin souls. It is more like the same soul that has been separated and put into two bodies. They share a soul, and, quite often, they are eerily similar. I can't explain to you how it happens, or why, but I'm sure Albus could tell you more. Perhaps you should speak to him."

Hermione nodded, her mind already whirling in a hundred different directions, as Madam Pomfrey stood up and disappeared into her office. They share a soul, Hermione pondered, her brow furrowing as she worried her bottom lip. Two people with one soul. Hmm, sounds like the romantic concept of soul mates to me. I suppose it is something like that, without the romantic bit in there. Samantha Cole and me, twin souls? What great bloody luck I have, then. Sharing a soul with Severus' wife!

She couldn't have told anyone how long she sat there, thinking over the fact that...according to Severus, who'd appeared quite mad when he'd bolted up in bed...she shared a soul with the now dead Samantha Cole. Perhaps it was the fact that Samantha had been his wife that disconcerted her so much, given that she had nursed a hidden crush on the Potions master for a very long time. Hermione was perturbed that she had never read of anything like this in her many hours in the Hogwarts library, and she was under the impression she had read every book that wasn't in the Restricted Section, and a few that were. Perhaps Madam Pomfrey was right, Professor Dumbledore would know what to do. It seemed that he always did.

Looking quickly around her to make sure no one could see her, Hermione leaned over and kissed Severus lightly on the forehead before whispering, "I'll be back this evening with Andromeda. Sleep well, love."

Leaving the hospital wing in a rush, Hermione didn't notice the knowing smile on the mediwitch's face as she slipped through her cracked office door. She dropped into Hermione's vacated seat at Snape's bedside, chuckling slightly at the faint smile on the younger man's face. "Yes, I do believe you have more than Andromeda to keep you going, don't you, Severus?"

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Professor Dumbledore was chuckling jovially, his blue eyes twinkling madly, when he answered the door to his office. Andromeda was on her stomach in the middle of the headmaster's office, her legs bent at the knees, up in the air, and her feet crossed at the ankles as she swung them back and forth. She was propped up on her elbows, her black curls falling over her shoulders, playing with a set of marbles in a ring. "Oh, Miss Granger, won't you come in," he said happily, stepping aside to allow her to step past him.

Hermione smiled weakly and knelt down next to Andromeda. She leaned over, kissed her on the top of the head, and, stroking her curls, asked, "Have you had fun with Gampa, Andromeda?"

Her black curls swinging, Andromeda crawled up onto her knees and wrapped her arms around Hermione in a tight hug. "Gampa gave me marbles, Herminny. He taught me how to play, too." Andromeda smiled and rubbed her eyes, yawning widely. "Can I show Daddy how to play?"

Gathering the little girl up into her arms and sinking into the chair Dumbledore pulled out for her, Hermione replied, "I think he'd like that very much. You can teach him this evening when we go visit after dinner." Hermione blinked back tears as Andromeda snuggled closer to her chest, stuck her thumb in her mouth, and drifted off to sleep. "Professor Dumbledore, may I ask you a question?"

The older man smiled softly, leaning back in his chair and folding his arms across his stomach. "You may ask me anything you like, Miss Granger. And I will do what I can to answer your questions as fully and truthfully as possible."

Hermione smiled slightly, remembering the way things were when she was in school as the headmaster's eyes twinkled knowingly. "Have you ever heard of geminus animae, Professor?"

"Indeed, I have, Miss Granger. Why do you ask?" His eyes flicked over her face, a worried crease beginning to appear in his brow.

"Professor Snape woke up just now, sir, in the hospital wing. He grabbed my hand and asked me if I knew what geminus animae was," she replied, looking over Dumbledore's shoulder to the glass case that held Godric Gryffindor's sword. "It frightened me, sir, the way he acted when he woke up. There was something in his eyes, he looked quite mad actually."

Professor Dumbledore chuckled grimly. "I would be surprised if there wasn't a bit of madness to our Potions master right now, Miss Granger. Severus has been dealt many debilitating blows in his life, an abusive father, a mother who found it almost impossible to stand up to her husband, being despised at school, being drawn into the Death Eaters by Lucius Malfoy, spending more than half his life as a spy for the Order, and now losing the one person he ever opened up to enough to love. Severus is a very resilient young man, Miss Granger, but I have feared for a long time that he will break sooner rather than later.

"Now," he said, sighing deeply, "on to your question of geminus animae. It is a metaphysical occurrence in which there are soul groups, collections of like beings, who are bound to one another eternally. Each being amidst this soul group are what Muggles call 'soul mates' to one another. They are each a part of the other, some in a romantic situation and others not so. There are some instances where two beings are more than soul mates through the soul group; they are literally two halves of the same soul. One soul separated into two forms that are bound to come together to complete themselves during their lives.

"Some geminus animae have been documented to look, think, and behave almost identically. It is through this similarity in both physical and mental disposition that brings the two halves of the soul together. They tend to make decisions throughout their lives that eventually bring them to the same place at the same time. There is an almost instant feeling of familiarity and comfort between the two, and a camaraderie develops that others might find strange and disturbing. I know of three cases to happen in the last century, and two of those geminus animae I had the privilege and honor to know personally."

Hermione breathed deeply, trying to take in the information Professor Dumbledore had given her. She stroked Andromeda's curls as she slept in her lap and thought fleetingly of Professor Snape sleeping in the hospital wing. "If you don't mind my asking, sir, who have you known who were geminus animae?"

Professor Dumbledore smiled broadly at this and sat up straighter in his chair. "I wonder if you would mind if I answered your question with one of my own. What did Severus say to prompt your inquest?"

She swallowed and looked at the headmaster with wide eyes. "Sir, you don't mean... I mean, you can't be... Samantha... and me? That's what you meant isn't it, Professor. It's the two of us, we're the geminus animae, aren't we?"

"I believe you have answered your own question, my dear," he replied, rising from his chair and circling around his desk until he was kneeling in front of her. Hermione felt warmth spread through her at the memories of her grandfather that filled up her mind. He patted her hand softly and smiled. "Yourself and Samantha met as you were supposed to, and the similarities between you were unsettlingly striking. I believe Severus figured it out years ago, but refused to acknowledge it. The death of his wife has forced him to do so now.

"I must beg of you, Miss Granger, to not alter your treatment of Severus or your personality in any misguided attempt to help him. Doing so would be most troubling. He must come to terms with what he has learned, just as you must do the same." Professor Dumbledore stood and, popping a lemon drop in his mouth, said, "You know you are more than welcome to visit me if you are in need of someone to talk to, Miss Granger. However, I would also suggest you get in touch with Messrs. Potter and Weasley. Perhaps some moral support would not be amiss at present."

Hermione nodded and stood up, cradling Andromeda against her shoulder. Professor Dumbledore summoned the marbles and ring from the floor and placed them in a carrying pouch before handing them over to her. A few moments later, Hermione lay on the bed in her room watching Andromeda sleep soundly beside her. There were a few hours to go before dinner.

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It was a brilliant evening. The slanted sunlight was shining through the window over his bed as Severus sat reclined against a pile of pillows, a photo album across his lap. He stared down at the moving pictures that documented the last seven years of his life. There was a picture of his wedding day, a small ceremony in Dumbledore's office. Samantha stood beside him, an arm around his waist as she smiled up at him from the picture and waved happily. She looked so content, they both did. There were pictures of Samantha as she grew round with Andromeda, a few of them with Severus pressing his palms to her belly reverently. Photos of Andromeda as she grew up, a mass of tousled black curls and bright green eyes, looking more like her mother the older she became. Looking more like Hermione Granger.

Severus groaned and rubbed his hands over his eyes before closing the photo album and putting it away beneath his pillows. Madam Pomfrey appeared around the curtain a few seconds later carrying his dinner tray and smiling.

"Here you are, Severus," she said, sitting the try on the hospital table and pulling it up to his lap. "You may eat whatever you feel you can hold down, but do so slowly. I'll not have you making yourself ill trying to eat like..."

"Ronald Weasley," came a soft voice from the doorway. Severus and Madam Pomfrey both turned to the sound to find Hermione smiling at them, Andromeda holding on to her hand and swinging her marbles in their pouch. "I could never understand how he was able to eat like that!"

Hermione crossed the hospital wing to them, smiling softly at Severus as she sank onto the chair by his bed and pulled Andromeda into her lap. "How do you feel this evening, Severus?"

He was taken aback slightly by the fact that Hermione used his first name, but smiled at her nonetheless. "I'm feeling much better today, Hermione. Thank you." He wiped his hands on the bed covers, cursing himself for feeling so nervous. Every word he had said to her that morning was still running through his mind, the images from his dream of Samantha fresh as he looked over Hermione's face. There was something familiar in her eyes, in the small flecks of gold amid the warm brown depths, something that calmed the racing of his pulse and the uncertainty in his gut.

"Andromeda, why don't you show Daddy what Gampa Albus taught you today?" Hermione said, scooting her chair away from the side of Severus' bed, making room for Andromeda to set up her marbles in the floor. "This is amazing, Severus. We've been playing all afternoon."

Severus tried to sit up, wincing a bit at the wound that stretched across his torso that had yet to heal. Hermione stood up to help him, arranging his pillows behind him so that he could sit comfortably and smiled at the slight tremble of his hand when she brushed it with her own. She perched on the side of his bed and began arranging his dinner tray absently. They sat that way for hours watching Andromeda expertly flick marbles around the circle on the floor.

Notes from The Mistress: I want to send a thank you to Solar_Starr for the bit on metaphysics. She left it in a review and I thought it was an outstanding way to explain what was happening between Samantha and Hermione. I promise there will be more interaction between Severus and Hermione next chapter!