Chapter 20 - The Beyond

To the readers who were confused as to why and how Severus 'disappeared', re-read chapter 10. In that chapter, Severus converses with the Bloody Baron. And the Baron told him, "Think on it, Severus. When you want to move on, seek me out and I'll tell you the theory behind it. It's infinitely better than being bound to this place! But I have not the courage. Remember, lad, I'll tell you how. Regret nothing!"

Translation: Severus went to see the Bloody Baron, as mentioned in chapter 19. Why? So that he can learn the method to move on and go to the other side... Or is it? Is he in the other side or on a different plane inhabited by spirits? To find out – read this chapter and everything will be wrapped up.

A/N: To prevent confusion, please note that italicised scripts denote emphasis while underlined ones refer to titles of books, journals and so on.

Beyond Time and Space

Chapter 20 – The Beyond

Of all the great visionary wizarding thinkers, Hermione Granger is the one who wrote most and studied profoundly the inter-disciplinary characters of alchemy and other magical fields. That Granger, best known in recent years for her cure of werewolves, wrote about both potions and charms with respect to areas she called 'grey' magic and philosophy should be apparent to anyone familiar with her writings. She had already made this interest unequivocally clear in her D.Mag.A. dissertation for St John's College, Cambridge (founded by the famous witch, Margaret Beaufort) fifteen years ago. Unsurprisingly, the controversy she engendered earned her top awards in the Faculty of Magical Arts. However, that there is a connection between her writings on alchemy, philosophy and charms is less apparent; for many of her writings most concerned with the properties of potions' ingredients, such as her latest article in The Journal of Hermetic Alchemy, seem to be altogether non-philosophical, and her best known philosophical alchemy work has next to nothing to say about charms and spells. And yet, there is a connection between Granger's philosophy behind potion brewing and her understanding of charms and spells falling under the umbrella of 'dark magic' (or as she calls it 'grey magic'). Thus, the tripartite connection between potions, charms and philosophy is most apparent in Granger's pseudo-educational treatise Ironic Alchemy, which culminates in the philosophical education (interrupted by the magical education) of its fictitious subject.

In a response to a review in Ars Chemica, Granger, who is incidentally an intimate friend of the great war hero, Harry Potter, the boy-who-lived-yet-again, revealed that she regarded Ironic Alchemy as "the best, as well as most important of [her] writings." The academic wizarding world mostly subscribes to her judgement on this point as correct; and the excellent importance of that seminal work evinces her abilities to incorporate alchemical and philosophical themes. This same work is presently undergoing its third imprint to the delight of advance wizarding students interested in esoteric alchemical theory. Granger's appointment to the Potions and Arithmancy chairs at Hogwarts' School of Witchcraft and Wizardry, 20 years ago, had both fomented her analytical skill and her natural magical abilities. Upon taking up the two said positions, Hogwarts' reputation as school of impeccably high standards was enhanced. A recent survey in Wizarding Institutions, the foremost education guide to the wizarding world, has ranked Hogwarts above Durmstrang in standards. Not only has Granger maintained the paradigm set down by her predecessor and mentor, Severus Snape (whose D.Mag.A. dissertation has been recently published by Estoericae House), she has improved on it. Her exacting presence and teaching methods have been responsible for the 100% pass rate for Potions and Arithmancy at NEWTs level. This, in turn, has boosted Hogwarts' reputation as the world's premier wizarding institution. This same disciplinarian is also, unknown to many, deeply protective of her students. Many have believed this to be the reason behind her promotion to the head of Slytherin House. Albus Dumbledore, however, informs us that this Gryffindor's appointment resulted from the dearth of suitable former Slytherin candidates with the aptitude to keep the young charges in check. He also claims that she is too indifferent to Quidditch rivalries to bother supporting any one particular team. No where was her ability brought to the fore than two days ago, where she single-handedly defended several students when a chance mishap led a crazed griffin (that had escaped from the Game Keeper's compound) to the school. Several students interviewed, including the second year Gryffindor, Ronald Potter revealed, "We had to find Aunt, I mean, Professor Granger; she's the only one always around during wizarding holidays. We tried looking for Professors Dumbledore and McGonagall before we remembered that they were on holiday."

Apparently, a young Slytherin boy by the name of Crito Malfoy had wanted a closer look at the griffin, which had been recently imported for a Care of Magical Creatures lesson. In so doing, he provoked and enraged it to such a state whereby it charged into the castle to avenge itself on the boy. Luckily for him, he had called out to his friends, Ronald Potter and Harold Weasley, to avail themselves to the Head of his House. Harold Weasley, son of the famed dragon researcher, Charles Weasley said, "After we found Auntie, er...Professor Granger, she tried to gather all the remaining students in her office. There were only 30 of us in school due to the Gringotts Bank Holiday Week and she reckoned it would be easy. But she couldn't seal her office. The griffin had smelled Crito and started charging at her because she wouldn't let him near us." "She was bloody brilliant!" described the animated strawberry blonde Malfoy. "She cast a protection charm on us and used so many spells and dodged so many times that the griffin couldn't get at me, er...us. The griffin was so fierce; it nearly bit off her left arm. She had to hex it between its eyes before it would let go. But she didn't show she was scared, not one bit! She gave us an interrupt-me-and-you'll-be-scrubbing-cauldrons-by-hand-for-a-month look when she was done and limped off to get Hagrid to get rid of the griffin!"

If anything, this reporter is of the opinion that Granger shares her professional dedication of caring for students with her predecessor, the late Severus Snape, who tragically died in saving our world from the dark wizard, Lord Voldythingy. Rumours have persisted that Granger and Snape were one-time lovers; however, we have not been able to obtain any confirmation on the matter. Despite that, we do know that Hermione Granger's indifferent health after the griffin attack has made a turn for the worse. It was reported last evening that she was stable though feverish. Since we do not know for sure as the parties involved have declined to comment, I urge the British wizarding community to join me in wishing a speedy recovery to one of the best minds in alchemical scholarship. However, it remains in this reporter's opinion that Professor Granger will not likely live long. Griffin attacks have been known to cause irrevocable damage to all mortals. Recent evidence points to their saliva being highly poisonous, though this is still denied by griffin breeders.

* * *

Minerva McGonagall folded the offensive Daily Prophet that she had been reading aloud and put it neatly aside. Disdain was written all over her face. Thinning her lips, she angrily commented, "How tactless can Skeeter be? Wishing death upon our Hermione!" A movement in the bed next to her alerted her attention and she turned towards the pallid figure there. "Yes, dear?"

The figure's expressive chocolate eyes danced at her colleague and friend's as their owner spoke. "She has her reasons. I did keep her in a jar for an entire summer." There was no malice in her voice, only a certain melancholy. "At least, there was a tacit acknowledgement of my achievements."

"Hush, my dear," muttered an old wizard in a faded blue robe, bending down to kiss her forehead. "You must rest."

The figure in the black nightgown wheezed a laugh quietly before coughing. "Your beard tickles, Headmaster!" She coughed again, spitting into a chamber pot offered by Remus Lupin. "How are my children?"

Minerva sighed, removing the offending Daily Prophet out of sight, "Just like him." Dumbledore and his wife exchanged poignant smiles.

Remus patted her hand, ignoring the bloody mass in the chamber pot. He replied in a weak smile, "The Malfoys have been watching over them; they'll be fine. Don't worry."

"What about my Potions and Arithmancy students?" she asked, coughing into her duvet.

"Dumbledore's taken your potions classes and I've the Arithmancy classes," Remus answered quietly.

"Why is Ginny with my children? Isn't Draco enough to handle them?" she asked softly, trying to sit up but failing miserably due to her heavily bandaged left arm. "Still festering, I see," she muttered in an aside as she caught sight of her arm.

"You kn...know she ne....never leaves Dra...Draco alone these d...days," said Harry sarcastically. Hermione smiled warmly at him, glad that he had almost returned to his former self. He helped her sit up and she rolled her eyes at his last comment.

"He's even moved in with her next to Greenhouse One," Luna added, trying to make Hermione as comfortable as she could.

"How's our Ron?" Hermione demanded softly, before she spat into the chamber pot again.

"S...Same old, same old," mumbled Harry uneasily. "On the b...bright side, he's gr...great friends with Lock...Lockhart at St Mungo's now; always b...beats him at wizard's ch...chess. C...Come to think on it, he st...still b...beats me at it." He grinned sheepishly.

Hermione tried to laugh and was promptly rewarded with another coughing fit, alarming everyone in her chamber. She glowered weakly at all present. "What are you looking at? This is what an invalid looks like!"

Remus chuckled and tried to feed her some of Poppy's concoctions. She gestured him to keep them away from her. "Stop fussing over me! I'm fine. It was only a griffin, not a komodo dragon!"

"A what?" shot Minerva, tilting her head in disbelief. Her prize ex-student must be absolutely delirious if she's started naming non-existent dragon species.

Catching his former transfiguration teacher's look, Harry quickly interposed, "It's a m...monitor lizard found on the er...Indonesian i...island of Ko...Komodo; its s...saliva is re...reportedly highly poi...poisonous. Its bite, there...therefore, is fatal."

"As if I were incapable of delivering the mini-lecture myself," she muttered under her breath.

Dumbledore sat by her left and revealed brokenly with a heavy heart, "I'm sorry I wasn't around to prevent it... The griffin that attacked you..."

"I'm fine – really. No lasting harm done." She coughed more fiercely; this time throwing up large bloody blobs into the chamber pot. She stared at them, fascinated. Before she could examine them, however, Remus removed the chamber pot from her pale trembling hands.

"Hagrid's humanely disposed of the griffin that attacked you. It was very ill; its saliva did indeed contain a virulent bacteria," Dumbledore explained slowly, observing her pale face twist into a smirk.

"Great! A griffin with rabies, just what I need! Give me some time in the potions office and I can find something to restore myself..."

Luna interjected at this point, her large eyes brimming with emotion, "I've worked with Madam Pomfrey to find an antidote but it appears there's nothing to be done."

Hermione laughed fretfully at the five pairs of eyes staring unblinkingly at her. "Is that all? Give me a bezoar and a few hours later – poof – you'll find..."

A tear ran down Remus's cheek as Minerva turned to hide her sobs on her husband's shoulders. "We did," began Remus hoarsely, playing with her fingers as if uncertain of something. "You've reacted badly to it."

Hermione calmly leaned back into the pillow, allowing it to support her full weight. "Is that all? I thought it was something serious!" She closed her eyes lightly and reopened them without a trace of emotion. "Explains the spittoons of blood. We could start a blood bank with them; Luna, as a mediwitch, do you know any takers?" she joked, her voice dry and evenly modulated.

After some opposition, Hermione finally yielded to Remus and Luna's entreaties and consented to lie down for a bit so as to conserve her energy. She expressly conditioned, however, that she would not consume any medication or potion and would do not more than lie down and stare at the ceiling. Gradually, Luna, Harry and Minerva retired for the night when the clock chimed two, leaving her under the watchful eye of the Headmaster and the Defence Against the Dark Arts teacher. Hermione flickered her eyes to the former werewolf who was reading Xenophon's Memorabilia with great interest. Unexpectedly, Hermione struggled to sit up again. She had caught a familiar scent of herbs, wormwood and hellebore. She raised her head feebly and asked, "Do you smell something?"

Dumbledore turned away from the window and sniffed the air. He sighed quietly, his eyes unusually bright but not twinkling. "Get some rest, my dear. It's probably nothing."

Hermione closed her eyes, stifling a cough; but soon enough, she opened them again. She thought she had heard the woman, the Oracle again. It or rather she had instructed her to look up. As she did so, she imagined she could see a strip of roughly torn paper spiralling slowly down, towards her stomach. "There, do you see that?" Hermione whispered as if terrified of being overheard.

Remus dismissed it as a moth without looking up from the book. Dumbledore, however, could distinctively smell the rich scent of hellebore, wormwood and other herbs. Thus, he stepped forward to catch the torn parchment fragment. "Ah yes," he chuckled dolefully, turning pale before wiping something from his eyes. He bent down and whispered in Hermione's ear, "He kept his word."

She seized the proffered scrap of paper and held it before her eyes. On it, the unmistakeable neat curlicue script read "Venio". She lightly kissed the paper and tightly held onto it. "I thought he had moved on."

"He had," whispered Dumbledore, glad that Remus was mercifully oblivious to their conversation.

"How then could he return?" she sighed, winding a lock of her bushy hair on her finger.

"Upon their deaths, extremely proficient virtuous wizards head to a plane of spirits. They're more powerful than ghosts. Severus's mother is one such. They exist with us in a parallel cosmos if you like."

She smiled her comprehension. "It said Venio," she sighed, tightening her grip on the torn parchment. "He's coming," she mouthed to Dumbledore in a faint smile.

"I know," he murmured, shaking him head in a bid to stem the tears.

Succeeding a tense twenty minutes, Remus excused himself to the bathroom. At that exact moment, the candles and magically charmed lights in her bedchamber flickered out. Dumbledore heard the unmistakeable sounds of Hermione chuckling weakly through her coughs and gasps for air.

"Severus," her feeble and tired voice barely above a whispered lisp. "What kept you? Where have you been?" she continued breathlessly.

A silkily mellow and almost seductive masculine voice hissed in reply, "DO NOT question me, insufferable know-it-all! What kept you?"

Dumbledore fell noiselessly into a chair at this intimate conversation, quite overcome.

"I suppose you expect me to express gratitude, Headmaster," sneered the dangerously low voice before it softened in earnest. "You have adequately kept her out of harm, thank you – Albus."

Dumbledore removed his half-moon spectacles to better wipe his eyes when he felt a light pressure on his right cheek and a soft feminine whisper of "thank you for everything".

Upon the departure of the orange blossom and hellebore scents, Remus returned. He was astonished to find the bedroom shrouded in darkness. When he finally managed to light a candle, he was unprepared for what greeted him. Dumbledore had shut his eyes tightly and furrowed his forehead as if in pain, his fingers unconsciously drumming Hermione's hand. Alarmed, Remus examined Hermione to find that she had already expired with a silent smile on her lips and a tear streaking from her right eye. The clock by the bed, it seemed, had shattered and stopped at precisely a quarter to three.

~Finis~

Footnotes:

Crito is the name of an interlocutor of Socrates in one of Plato's dialogues. There is a dialogue named after him in the Socratic canon. Ironic, isn't it? *little wink*

Skeeter uses "Lord Voldythingy" because she still cannot bear to use the name Voldemort.

Venio is Latin for "I come".

The last line, "The clock by the bed, it seemed, had shattered and stopped at precisely a quarter to three" draws attention to the fact that Severus, too, died at 2.45am. This was mentioned in Chapter 1.

Dear readers,

Thank you for sticking with me and this story, despite the mad fracas over it. Your forbearance is very much appreciated.

My next tale, Proestigium (which also comes with the secondary title What the Seasons may Bring), will be my so-called last fic before I slip into temporary sabbatical from non-academic writing. I have many academic engagements and am unable to keep up with the demands of the quill on top of work, studies and my indifferent (some would say 'poor') health. I shall still pop 'round now and then. If all goes well, I may venture to write a Regency romance or something along the HG/SS line by this time next year. Proestigium is a novel in letters, 42 to be exact and is a response to the WIKTT Severus Snape as Arsenius Jigger challenge. The story is indeed complete, so, fear not. While the ending is not as 'tragic' as Beyond Time and Space, I flatter myself in the belief that it may amuse. However, the style may be off-putting to some readers who are not familiar with the tradition of epistolary literature.