Chapter 14

Chapter 14

Disclaimer: JKR owns Harry Potter. All I get from this are reviews and the enjoyment of writing it.

AN: Many thanks to my speedy betas, septentrion and LadySunflower.

"Hermione!" Severus broke free of the zombie Weasley restraining him, dashing over to his wife's side as she fell to her knees. He reached her in time to cushion her fall as she slumped to the floor, kneeling down and pulling her onto his lap.

Blood trickled from her nose: self-inflicted damage. Hermione had technically punched herself, after all. Grabbing a handkerchief from his pocket, Severus wiped the blood away, doing what he could to stem the bleeding without his wand. Fortunately for her, it did not feel as though she had broken her nose.

"Here." Tonks, judging by the voice, approached from behind, offering him his wand. His wrist still ached from where the zombie had forced him to drop it.

While no Healer, Severus was well acquainted with such first aid spells as magically staunching bleeding. The next thing he tried was to revive Hermione, with no effect.

"Will Hermione wake up?" Potter asked, his voice quavering. He sounded as though he was on the floor. Severus looked over his shoulder, seeing that Potter was crouched down, trying to stop the blood streaming from Weasley's leg. Weasley's undead brother had clearly been the only thing holding him up.

"The perti...nent question... is not will she... wake up, but... who will... wake up," Albus wheezed, his breathing laboured.

Severus twisted around, pulling Hermione with him. He looked over at Albus, alarmed by the old man's pallid skin and hunched posture. Most of Albus's right arm had been atomised, taking the overlying clothing with it. A cauterised stump was left, removing the danger of bleeding to death, but from the way Albus was currently hyperventilating, it was clear that he was in great danger of going into shock.

"Albus, we must get you to a Healer..." Minerva said, also clearly alarmed.

"Not yet...think! The paradox, she touched... herself. Likely not just physically, but... mentally, too. Severus, you know..." Albus trailed off, doubling over and gasping. Minerva beckoned Lupin over, instructing him to take Albus further into St. Mungo's to get him treatment. Half carrying Albus, Lupin picked his way through the bodies strewn across waiting room.

"Atropos tried to twist Hermione into being like her the last time they both made mental contact," Severus mused aloud.

"Snape, do you mean that when Hermione wakes up, she might be just as evil as Atropos?" Potter demanded.

"That is a possibility," Severus reluctantly admitted.

An exclamation from Lupin drew Severus's attention to the far side of the waiting room. Tonks ran over to him. After a brief exchange, Lupin continued on his mission. Tonks returned, a whimpering child in her arms.

"Beats me how Atropos missed this one. Poor thing was curled up next to a pair of bodies: his parents, I guess."

Severus could not resist satisfying his curiosity by making a brief foray into the confused, fearful jumble that was the child's mind. After finding what he sought, he was uncomfortably aware of Minerva glowering at him. Cringing slightly, he hastily offered the puzzling tidbit he had discovered.

"Atropos did not miss him. She had him at wand point, but spared him. Nagini tried twice to kill the child, but Atropos stopped her."

"But she killed everyone else! His parents, even. Why spare one toddler? It's not as if she didn't kill the other children in here," Tonks said, her raised voice startling the child into wailing.

Tutting, Minerva plucked the boy from Tonks's arms, rocking him as she sang a lullaby. Blinking in surprise, Severus wondered where she had learned to do that, as the child calmed down, slowly dropping off into an exhausting sleep. He was not aware of her having had a family, but he supposed it was possible that she had. It was not as if he had paid any attention to conversations about family life in the staff room.

"Potter, you'd better get Weasley to a Healer. That bite looks nasty," Minerva ordered, taking charge in Albus's absence. "Tonks, send a Patronus message to Grimmauld Place to get any available help. These bodies need to be dealt with."

"Righto," Tonks said, no enthusiasm for her grim task in her tone. Nonetheless, she sent her silver wolf on its way and began to lay the dead out.

Turning back to Hermione, Severus tried again to revive her. Despite having explained it to Potter himself, it hadn't fully sunk in that when she awoke, Hermione might have irrevocably changed for the worst.

"Severus, might it be an idea to restrain Hermione?" Minerva murmured, sounding as though she was afraid of his reaction. "Just in case."

Eyes widening as he fully realised the danger of holding an unrestrained, possibly hostile Necromancer in his arms, Severus raised his wand. Minerva had her hands full with her sleeping burden, unable to do anything other than watch as Hermione stirred.

"Oh, fuck!" Severus narrowly avoiding knocking heads with Hermione as she sat bolt upright, her swearing his only warning. Her eyes were wide as they met his.

Through the corner of his eye, Severus observed Minerva shifting her grip on the boy to cover his ears, shielding tender ears from the stream of invective passing Hermione's lips.

Taking advantage of Hermione's distraction, a muttered Legilimens allowed Severus to ascertain what her mental state was. He breathed a sigh of relief when he found that she was still the Hermione he loved, albeit in some distress, only to choke as the reason for her distress became clear. In his shock, he lost mental contact.

'Pregnant?!'

Looking apprehensively up at him, it seemed that Hermione had felt him prying inside her mind, and knew what he had discovered... and was afraid of his reaction. He knew better than to attempt to smile reassuringly when it would doubtless emerge as a grimace.

"I take it that she is herself?" Minerva asked.

His mouth working, Severus swallowed hard. "Yes," he finally managed to say, unable to keep from sounding strained.

"What is wrong, then?" Hearing Minerva step closer, Severus saw Hermione school her features into a more normal expression, if a little tense.

Croaker and Poppy arrived, giving Hermione time to come up with a convincing story. Or at least, Severus hoped that she would not tell the truth without first discussing the situation with him. It was a private matter, after all, at least at this early stage.

"Severus came across something a little disturbing when checking that it was really me," Hermione explained. "Something that has implications for our plan of dealing with Atropos. I need to check something urgently."

"Very well. We shall rendezvous at Grimmauld Place in an hour." Minerva did not look surprised to see that Severus intended to accompany Hermione.

After Side-Along Apparating them to Spinner's End, Severus waited until he had eliminated any possibility of being overheard, casting his own speciality silencing charm Muffliato.

"I do not wish to risk any eavesdroppers. It may be paranoid of me, but I take your safety very seriously," Severus explained, feeling the need to justify himself due to the look Hermione was giving him.

She flashed a small, discomfited smile at him. "I know. But I really do need to check something." She attempted to slip past him, making for the Pensieve standing in the corner.

"We need to talk..." Severus growled, grabbing hold of her shoulders.

"I know!" Hermione snapped, wrenching herself free from his grasp. "I'm well aware of what we need to talk about, Severus, and scared shitless about it to be perfectly blunt. But it's vital that I check something first: I was telling Minerva the truth."

Stalking over to the Pensieve, she drew her wand, holding it to the side of her head to extract a strand of silvery memory, shaking it into the enchanted stone bowl. Severus moved to join her in observing the memory, only to come to a sudden halt as he caught sight of a horribly familiar book in the hands of her past self. Even the memory of that accursed book was likely to be lethal to him.

"While I do this, it might help if you could sort through your feelings on... on..." Hermione couldn't seem to get the words out, highly unusual for such a verbose person.

"Impending fatherhood?" Severus suggested, bemused.

She nodded, looking as though she might be sick if she spoke. Touching her fingers to the memory, she was soon visible standing behind her past self within the Pensieve.

Walking over to his favourite armchair, Severus sank down into it, letting his head slump back against the cushions.

'This is hardly the best time for this to happen... She's still a teenager, even if she rarely acts like one... We never talked about having children... Any liking for children left me over my years at Hogwarts... But this is my child... I had atrocious father figures, surely I am not father material... then again, Hermione is too strong to allow any abuse, unlike my mother... But Hermione is clearly afraid, and not only of my reaction....'

After a futile attempt to sort through his turbulent thoughts, he ran a hand over his face, exasperated. "I could do with using that Pensieve to sort through this," he muttered to himself, kneading the bridge of his nose in an attempt to focus his thoughts.

"This is hopeless! All I know for sure is that I would do anything for her, including being a father." He snorted, disgusted. "Merlin! I sound like a Hufflepuff."

Moments later, Hermione had emerged from the Pensieve. Tight-lipped, she flicked the memory back into her head. White knuckled, she looked to be in danger of snapping her wand. Moving stiffly, she thrust the length of wood into a pocket and stared fixedly at the empty Pensieve, jaw tight with tension.

"Can I really be contemplating this?" Hermione's voice was almost too soft for Severus to hear. At his inquiring hum, she looked over at him. She shook her head; it seemed that she was not going to share whatever the problem was. The thought that she felt the need to keep anything secret from him was a stab in the heart.

"During my mental contact with Atropos, I learned more than just the fact that I'm," she gulped, "pregnant. She is, too...."

Severus was vaguely aware of his jaw dropping. "With Voldemort's spawn?" He shook himself, realising the implications of this. "But the Order will never send a pregnant enemy to their doom. Come to that, I'm not entirely sure I could."

"That's not the problem at hand. No, another thing I picked up from her mind is that she doesn't come from the future..."

"What is she? Your Boggart gone wrong?"

"If you would let me finish," Hermione growled, irritated. "According to The Book, passing through the veil kills everyone but a Necromancer. It turns out that to the latter, the veil is a portal into a hall of infinite identical veils, each a doorway into another world. These worlds are connected to each other, but differ in some way."

"Like in one world, you become the stereotypically evil Necromancer, and the other you do not?" Severus asked, guessing where she was going with her explanation.

"Precisely. In one world, Hermione Granger was killed by a troll, left to die by the boys who saved her and befriended her in our world."

"I knew it had to be Potter's fault," Severus muttered darkly. "So Atropos presumably destroyed her own world, coming through to this one to do the same?"

"Pretty much. She couldn't resurrect Voldemort in her own world, so came here in the hopes that either he was still around, or that she could bring him back."

"I see. When she can't, she takes the chance to perpetuate his legacy." Severus beckoned Hermione over to him, tugging her down to sit across the chair and his lap. "Then the Order's plan is doomed to failure," he murmured into her hair.

"Not exactly. Information on the veil in The Book is only theoretical, but Atropos is living proof of it. She came through the veil last winter solstice, but only put her schemes into action on the Ides of March."

"You said the veil does not kill Necromancers. What does it do?"

Hermione pulled away enough to meet his eyes, looking perplexed. "Bloody Book. I forgot about most of the contents even when I had an eidetic memory." She bit down on her lower lip, deep in thought. Severus gently freed it from her teeth before she could draw blood.

Snapping her fingers, she smiled grimly. "Atropos lost her powers, albeit temporarily. If we send her through the veil, it's virtually impossible for her to come back..."

"How so?"

"Apparently passing through it is very disorientating, and there are uncountable identical veils in that single hall. Anyway, I was saying that if we sent her through, she'd go through into another world, powerless. A world that at least has a chance of dealing with her before it's too late," Hermione said brightly, at odds with the deadened look in her eyes.

"As members of the Order, we cannot land our problems on others," Severus stated, picturing the outraged reaction of Albus or Minerva.

Jumping to her feet, arms akimbo, Hermione glowered down at him. "It's either that or she kills the rest of you one by one. What do you think will happen if she kills you? There'd be two Necromancers tearing the world apart, that's what!" She turned away, crossing her arms, almost hugging herself.

There was an uncomfortable silence, Severus searching for something to say. He stood up, hands curling into fists at his sides. "You do have a ruthless streak," he paused, wincing as she stiffened. "But so do I. We do what must be done, with not a word to the rest of the Order beyond the bare minimum. What Albus – Minerva, now, I suppose – does not know will not hurt them."

Hermione turned to face him. "Is that a Slytherin motto?" she asked. "If so, one of these days, it's going to turn around and bite you in the arse." A lone tear trickled down her cheek. "We will do what we must," she whispered.

Frowning, Severus wondered at the misgivings he felt, but Hermione's next words put every other thought out of his mind.

"We have a while before we have to meet with the others; you wanted to talk."

"Yes," he hissed. "Firstly, how did this happen? We were either within anti-conception warding or used contraceptive spells."

"I don't kno-oh! I remember...the anti-conception warding at Hogwarts doesn't work for married couples."

Severus had to fight back the urge to swear. "Of course... and we consummated our marriage there. So you will be a month along next Monday."

She nodded. "What are we going to do?" Hermione whispered, miserably. She was avoiding his gaze.

"I have no right to tell you what to do. It's your body," Severus murmured. He sighed, shaking his head. "But I want you to know that I will support you in whatever you choose to do. In such a small community as Wizarding Britain, abortion is illegal, but you did marry a Potions master."

"Come to that, it's within my abilities to cut off the blood supply myself..." Hermione choked on a sob, swiping at the tears trickling down her cheeks. "I don't want to, not when I can feel the life within me. N-not when it's a part of you and I can somehow sense that."

Groaning internally, Severus pulled her into his arms. He hated it when she cried: it made him feel so helpless. "If you do not want to terminate it, you do not have to..."

"Wh-what about the risk of Necromancy being hereditary?"

"Necromancers are almost always Muggle-born. I would say that the risk in negligible." There was also a possible resolution offered in a secret conversation with Croaker a few days earlier, but Severus did not want to raise false hopes. "Shall we give this child a chance?"

She nuzzled her head into his shoulder. It took him a moment to realise that she was nodding. Drawing away, she sniffed, wiping her eyes. A fairly simple charm removed all traces of her tears. She looked down at her watch. "It's time we left. The others will be waiting."

"Did you find what you were looking for?" Minerva demanded as soon as they set foot into the kitchen.

Hermione did not answer until she had sat down, Severus standing behind her like a sentinel. "Yes. It turns out that Atropos came through the veil in the first place from another world, a world where Hermione Granger became a Necromancer at the age of twelve."

"The Basilisk got her?" Potter asked, jumping to conclusions as usual. His usual partner in crime, Weasley, was obviously still at St. Mungo's. It would take some time for a bite from Nagini to heal.

"No, Harry, I was thirteen when Petrified by the Basilisk. The troll killed this otherworld Hermione."

Potter looked guilty. Severus suspected that he had something to do with the reason why Hermione had been in the same bathroom as the troll.

"But this is terrible! If she came through the veil, she'll be able to come back," Croaker moaned.

"It will send her back where she came from," Hermione said, a half truth if Severus had ever heard one. "Even if she tries to return here, we'll be ready for her. And we'll have an advantage: the veil is perilous. While it kills everyone else, it temporarily strips Necromancers of their powers."

"What will this do to you, Hermione?" Lupin asked. "If hurting her hurts you, then surely you will have a price to pay." The werewolf had obviously rethought the value of Hermione's life.

"So be it," Hermione spat. She sounded bitter, something that Severus wondered at. Surely she would jump at the chance to be rid of her Necromantic powers for a while? He felt those misgivings begin to stir once more.

"Before we get too ahead of ourselves, we still need to find Atropos and subdue her long enough to take her to the Death Chamber," Minerva reminded them.

"Quite so," Albus said from the doorway.

"Oh, for the love of..." Minerva exploded. "Albus, surely you are not fit to be here? You lost your arm only an hour ago!"

"I promise to stay out of the fighting, Minerva. I couldn't stay away." Albus moved to the closest chair, sitting down across from Hermione and Severus.

Severus exchanged a glance with Hermione. It was just as well that Albus had not returned sooner, or he might have realised that Hermione was not telling the whole truth.

"Now, I realise that this is a touchy topic, but am I right in presuming that you had mental contact with Atropos? Right. Then you know better than anyone what her next move is."

"I don't know," Hermione said, avoiding the gaze of her interrogator.

Albus sighed. "You are closer than twins, Hermione. You do not just look alike, but also think in the same way. If anyone has any idea of Atropos's next move, it is you."

Shaking her head, Hermione silently denied it. Severus forgot his misgivings when he saw her eyes slip closed as she mouthed 'no'. Albus did not seem to realise the effects on Hermione of what he was asking.

Under Albus's continuing badgering, Severus had to keep himself from lashing out at the interfering old bastard in his increasing concern for his wife as she denied the connection between herself and Atropos again and again, sinking down in her chair.

"Stop it," Severus hissed at Albus, only to be ignored.

"I DON'T KNOW!" she finally screamed, jerking to her feet. There was an unhinged look in her eyes as she stared around at the shocked members of the Order, dashing angry tears away. "Atropos has been a Necromancer for longer than me, without the support of friends like you. Over time, she became twisted and evil."

It did not take much for Severus to see that they were all wondering whether her sanity had snapped, Albus included.

The temperature in the room plummeted, as well it might with a furious Necromancer around. There was just time for those leaning on the table to jolt away before it iced over. With a strangled creak, the aged table gave way, falling to the floor with a crash, sending mingled splinters and shards of ice flying. Those still possessing wands shielded themselves and their neighbours.

Reaching for her in an attempt to calm her down, Severus was shrugged off.

"I am nothing like her," Hermione ground out from between clenched teeth. "Do you have any idea what she did to those in her own world?" She pointed an accusing finger at Albus, who was speechless. "She killed them. Her parents. Ministry officials. Her teachers. Her fellow students. The Death Eaters. Muggles." She counted each one on her fingers.

"Can you honestly tell me that I think like her?" Hermione growled, her hands clenching into fists.

"No," Potter said, his voice trembling. "You don't. You're not like her. You've got us. It's not much, I know, but we won't let you become like her."

"That's a relief," Hermione said flatly, but Severus could tell that she was touched by Potter's sentiments. The ice melted as the ambience returned to normal.

"So, we must wait for Atropos to surface again." Minerva glowered at Albus. It seemed that she had not approved of his interrogation techniques anymore than Severus had.

"It's a pity there's no way to track her," Potter muttered. "Unless... I can't believe I didn't think of it before! Thestrals have an uncanny ability to find things. If they can find Atropos, we could ride them at night, sneaking up on her. They're invisible against the night sky."

"Not to a Necromancer. They may be black to you, but to me they look white. They'd all but glow in the dark," Hermione reluctantly explained.

"I'd see them from a mile off."

Severus wondered for a moment why Hermione's voice had come from behind him when she was standing in front of him. Then he spun around, shock making him fumble for his wand.

'How the hell did she get into a Secret Kept place?!?'

Atropos darted around him, grabbing hold of Hermione's shoulder. "Excuse us, private conversation," she called over her shoulder.

He saw Hermione try to drive her elbow back into Atropos, only to be foiled. It seemed that both had been trained in the same method of self-defence. By the time Severus had his wand trained on Atropos's back, she had Disapparated virtually silently, and taken Hermione with her.