Chapter 11

Chapter 11

Disclaimer: JKR owns the wonderful world of Harry Potter.

AN: Many thanks to septentrion and LadySunflower for betaing.

Poppy Pomfrey took one look at Severus and Hermione as they entered the second room appropriated for her impromptu hospital. She immediately Conjured a bucket, just in time for Hermione to double over it, retching miserably. Severus managed to restrain himself long enough to choke down an Anti-Nausea Potion offered by the long-suffering Poppy.

Eyeing the vial in his hands ruefully, Severus regretted that it only worked to alleviate physical symptoms of sickness.

'I feel the need to Scourgify my mind. Perhaps Hermione will consent to a mutual Obliviate?' Even as he thought it, Severus knew that she was unlikely to agree, even with no risk of a copious and painful nosebleed.

"I'd rather not know what can have nauseated the pair of you. That is, provided that it was something you saw and not a curse?" With no answer, Poppy turned to Hermione, Vanishing the bucket and its contents whilst his wife forced down the potion offered to her, grimacing at the unpleasant taste of it.

"I'm going to have to ask you to brew some more Anti-Nausea Potion, Severus. While there are stocks of U-NO-SPEW at hand, they are not suitable for usage on pregnant women. Poor Fleur has been having a terrible time with morning sickness. I suspect that it is something to do with her Veela blood, but my midwifery skills are a little rusty."

"I'll see what I can do, Poppy," Severus said slowly, distracted by Hermione mouthing 'U-NO-SPEW' with an outraged look on her face. If the Weasley twins were not already dead, he suspected that they very soon would be. "But we have far bigger problems at hand to concentrate on."

"I know!" Poppy snapped. "I'm sorry, Severus, but I'm a Healer first and foremost."

She got her wand out, trailing it over Hermione almost on automatic, ignoring her patient's protestations that there was nothing else wrong with her and that she needed to return to the Ministry.

"I beg to differ, judging by that cut across your neck, young lady!" Muttering a healing spell under her breath, a puzzled frown creased Poppy's forehead when it had no effect. "Strange... how did you get the cut?"

A hoarse voice from the corner spoke up reluctantly. "Alastor attempted to decapitate Atropos, even though it would do the same to Hermione. The curse backfired."

Poppy gasped. "Against Albus's orders? Alastor Moody, you bloody fool! You say it backfired. I take it Alastor's dead, then? I see." She sighed. "Well, there's nothing I can do to heal your neck. It might heal naturally, but it may permanently scar."

Hermione shrugged as if to say that scarring was of no concern to her.

Lip curling, Severus glowered over at where Lupin sat in the corner beside Tonks's bed, where she lay, hair a lurid pink cloud around her head. It was on the tip of his tongue to call the cowardly werewolf out, to force him to admit what part he had played in Moody's murderous insubordination.

"How are you, Tonks?" Hermione asked.

Severus scowled, peeved that she had changed the subject. He cast a baleful look at Lupin, promising himself that he would never leave Hermione in Lupin's company. Hardly rational, as it was clear that any attempt to kill her would backfire on the would-be killer, and Hermione had saved Tonks's life, but Severus did not trust the werewolf.

"Fine, thanks." Tonks beamed, freeing a hand from Lupin's grip to wave. "Poppy wants to keep me here under observation for a while, or I'd be back at the Ministry. I tried telling Remus to go back, but he wanted to keep an eye on me, sparing Poppy's attention for Hagrid and Fleur."

"Speaking of which, I had better return to them. Both are more lively now and so more of a handful." Poppy left for the original room she had claimed as the hospital in Grimmauld Place.

The smile faded from Tonks's face. She looked sheepishly over at Hermione. "Erm, sorry about the way I reacted when you brought me back. I, er, thought you were Atropos." She lowered her eyes. "What's more, when Atropos burst into Scrimgeour's office, I thought she was you at first."

Hermione moved over to Tonks. To the young Auror's credit, she didn't flinch away when Hermione laid a hand on her shoulder. "I understand: apparently it's a mistake easily made. The Weasleys knew me better than you, yet they also made it."

'I only hope that I would be able to spot the difference between them. I know I can do it with both of them in sight, but would I manage with just Atropos?' Severus wondered uneasily.

"Hermione..." Lupin looked up, his features guilt-ridden. "My only excuse for my part in Alastor's attack was thinking that I had lost Tonks. I'm so, so, sorry. Can you ever forgive me?"

To Severus's surprise, Hermione ignored Lupin, stony-faced. She squeezed Tonks's shoulder before withdrawing, turning on her heel, stalking over to the door and holding it open for Severus to follow her. A satisfied smirk spread over Severus's face as he heard Tonks begin to grill Lupin about exactly what he'd done before the door swung shut, reducing the voices to an unintelligible mumble. That smirk broke into a grin when a masculine yelp of pain penetrated the closed door.

Just as they were about to return to the Ministry, the front door swung open. Croaker stepped inside, holding a scrap of paper in his hands.

"Albus inducted you into the Order, then."

"Yes, 'e let me into the secret of this... charming place." Croaker looked around at the grim surroundings of the Order headquarters. "Once I gave 'im The Map, 'e thought I'd be most useful 'ere. Bless 'im, 'e didn't want to put me through seeing any of my colleagues dead. I still saw those already laid out in the Atrium...." He trailed off, looking haunted.

Severus was about to make their farewells and leave when Croaker shook himself, stepping into their way.

"Dumbledore wanted you two to stay 'ere, it seems that 'e thinks that we can solve the mystery of why that Necromancer didn't go into the Death Chamber, when we know that she could've."

"We do?" Severus asked, raising an eyebrow.

"Your missus got in, didn't she?"

"I wasn't a Necromancer at the time," Hermione said. From the chilly tone of her voice, Severus guessed that she was annoyed at being excluded from the conversation.

"Ah, but that's beside the point. Our records show that Grindelwald disguised 'imself to get into the Death Chamber for some strange reason, but was discovered by Dumbledore and killed before 'e could do whatever 'e was there for."

"He was killed in the Death Chamber? That's not mentioned in any book about him," Hermione stated.

"The Department of Mysteries is top secret, so of course the Ministry spun a different story for the historians," Croaker explained.

Rather than stand in the hallway to brainstorm, Severus suggested that they moved to the kitchen to find some refreshments and sit down in relative comfort.

"All I can think of is that I found the Death Chamber rather... unpleasant to be in," Hermione reluctantly admitted, her eyes lowered to the steaming cup of tea in front of her.

"I know you saw one of the occasional runic flares, when no one but an Unspeakable should 'ave been able to, but what made it unpleasant?" Croaker asked, blowing on his own cup to avoid burning his tongue, before taking a sip.

Shaking her head, Hermione dropped her head down to rest on her forearms, her bushy hair concealing her face and muffling her voice when she spoke. "I can't remember."

"What with the Ministry gone and all, I'm glad I'm not duty-bound to fulfil my old mission to Obliviate you," Croaker said, eyeing where Severus was idly polishing his wand, his knuckles whitening as he gave the Unspeakable a warning look. "After all, we'll need your memories of your foray into the Department, should you remember."

"Without knowing what could 'ave put a Necromancer off going into the Death Chamber, I'm stumped." Pausing to scratch his unshaven chin, Croaker continued speaking. "Well, I tell a lie. Those runic flares might explain something." Setting his cup back down on the table, he sighed gustily. "If only those runes could be translated. Whatever they say might 'ave a clue..."

Severus blinked. From what he had read in Hermione's diary months back, what Croaker had said made little sense to him.

Hermione lifted her head up, looking perplexed. "If? You mean to say that no one in the Department of Mysteries could read those runes?"

For a long moment, Croaker just stared at Hermione. Then, as the implications of her words sunk in, he grinned widely. "You can read them? Fantastic! I'll 'ave to return to the Ministry at once to retrieve the logs my Department kept of every runic flare in the Death Chamber."

It was evening by the time the Order returned from the Ministry. Croaker had returned, Levitating a stack of scrolls within minutes of leaving Grimmauld Place, and had spent hours sorting through them and handing likely ones to Hermione for her to translate. Severus had spent the time making the potions requested by Poppy. When the matron had entered the room to collect some of the newly bottled potions, Severus had taken a malicious pleasure in seeing Croaker cringe. It was clear that the Unspeakable had not forgotten bearing the brunt of the sharp side of Poppy's tongue after his botched attempt to Obliviate Hermione.

Most of the newly returned Order left for their homes, physically and emotionally exhausted. From the strained expressions and shifty looks on a few of them, Severus doubted that they would come back.

"With Croaker's map and a roster of the Ministry employees present at the time, I regret to say that approximately two thirds of them were killed. The upper echelons were particularly devastated, with none of the Heads of departments or the Minister's secretaries escaping," Albus said, accepting a cup of tea, although he looked queasy at the offer of food.

"That proves Atropos really is Hermione in some shape or form, killing Umbridge off like she did," Weasley muttered to Potter.

The quill Hermione was using to write down her translation of the current set of runes snapped in her hand. Groaning internally, Severus cursed the unthinking brat, who gave a guilty start as he looked over at Hermione's shuttered features.

Albus sighed heavily. "Atropos clearly has no mercy, for she did not even spare a clearly pregnant woman... which reminds me, Croaker, that map of yours does not indicate the presence of unborn children. The only ones who escaped Atropos either left by Floo or Apparition or were in the Death Chamber."

"Have you managed to find out why she did not or could not enter the Death Chamber?" Minerva asked, keen to hear of any progress.

"Only that she was inside it last winter solstice," Hermione managed to force out between clenched teeth. She shrugged off Severus's restraining hand, standing. Her voice shook when she spoke again. "And that she really is me. But there is confirmation in the other files concerning the Death Chamber that those who pass through the veil have never returned."

"Like Sirius... so we have to capture her and chuck her through the veil?" Potter asked, the pained tones present in his voice, presumably due to the memory of Black's fall through the veil rather than the implications that throwing Atropos through the veil would also send Hermione through.

"But won't that also chuck Hermione through, too?" Weasley, to Severus's everlasting surprise, displayed more intelligence than Potter.

"We'll cross that bridge when it comes to it. Before that, we have to capture Atropos in the first place." At Hermione's words, Severus glowered up at her. He had thought that his last reading of the riot act had sunk in, but obviously not.

Standing up, Severus wrapped an arm around Hermione's waist. "Presuming that our murderous Necromancer does not run amok before tomorrow, we shall take our leave." Pitched for Hermione's ears only, he continued. "It seems you need a reminder of your own self-worth, dearest."