Chapter 3

Chapter 3

"May I come in?" Malfoy asked politely.

After a few seconds, Hermione found her voice. "What are you doing here?" she asked tersely.

"I prefer to discuss this in private. May I come in?"

Still in shock, she stood aside to allow him to enter, but he remained on the stoop.

Before she could ask, he replied, "There are charms on this house, and I must be verbally invited in by the owner."

"Come in," she replied, starting to get annoyed. Malfoy had once again managed to avoid any prosecution for his actions while serving Voldemort. The Wizengamot had believed his assertion that Bellatrix had placed his whole family under the Imperius curse and that they were forced to cooperate with Voldemort under threat of death. These circumstances had been seen as extenuating enough that he had been pardoned after turning in several other Death Eaters.

While they had all been disappointed, she had to admit that after watching the Malfoys in their home while they had been imprisoned there, the Wizengamot decision had probably been the right one.

Once the door was closed, she asked again, "What are you doing here?"

"I came to see you."

Now she was getting even more irritated by his inability to provide more than the barest answer to her questions. She hoped this would not continue. "This will go a lot faster if you provide more information with your answers. "Why did you come to see me and how did you know that I was here?"

He looked around the room, scanning the bookcases. "There was a charm on the house meant to notify me when someone entered. Since only you could have safely unlocked the door, I knew that you were here. As to why, I have been sent to deliver a message." Apparently finding what he was looking for, he selected a book from the shelf. Tapping it with his wand, he muttered an incantation that she could not decipher. After he opened the book, he picked up a letter and handed it to her. "Severus instructed me to deliver this to you should the house pass to you."

She eyed the letter warily, resenting even more the postmortem scavenger hunt Snape had set her on. "Why you?" she asked, still not taking the letter.

"I was told that this letter would answer all of your questions. I can say no more than that."

"Can't or won't?"

"Cannot."

Realizing that he must have taken some sort of oath and admitting to herself that she could see no reason for Snape to want to kill her, she finally took the letter. Malfoy moved away from her, giving her privacy to read the letter.

Breaking the seal, she opened the parchment and was once again met with Snape's tiny scrawl.

Hermione,

You see, I am not dead.

She stopped reading and sank slowly to the floor as her knees refused to hold her upright. How could Snape not be dead? Harry had watched him die. She had seen his lifeless body in the Shrieking Shack.

But then again, she could not recall anyone mentioning finding his body, and to the best of her knowledge, there had never been a burial service. It hadn't seemed important with the vast number of other war dead – he had just been a forgotten casualty. Returning her attention to the letter, she continued reading.

Since Lucius is there with you, my anti-toxin was at least somewhat successful at staving off my death. But no matter how good the anti-toxin, all it can do is keep me alive, likely comatose. That is why I left the house to you.

Severus Snape

She had no idea what to think. Snape alive? Could he possibly still be alive after so much time had passed? And why had Malfoy simply not taken him to St. Mungo's? After all, Snape seemed to assume that he would have been exonerated – surely the Healers at St. Mungo's would be better suited to saving him than she. After all, she had yet to even settle on a career and had no experience in Potions besides her schooling.

Looking up at Malfoy, she saw he had moved closer to her.

"Severus truly is alive. I have been entrusted with his safety."

"Take him to St. Mungo's," she said simply.

Malfoy shook his head. "That is not what he wants. They would have little motivation and even less ability to save him. This has to come from you."

"Me? I'm just a novice witch, one who hasn't even taken her NEWTs. And even if I had, I have no experience with complex potions." That was not entirely true since she had brewed Polyjuice Potion during her second year.

He moved closer to her. "But you have a keen analytical mind, and a rare natural talent for potions. Snape said so on more than one occasion. And you have all of the reference materials in this house. There are books here that St. Mungo's... does not have. That even the Ministry library does not have copies of. He assured me that with these books and his equipment, you would be able to find the antivenin using your keen intellect." His voice was smooth and velvety, the praise easily rolling off his tongue.

She ignored his flattery. "I want to see him."

This threw him off balance; it was clearly not the response he had expected. "It would do no good. He is unconscious..."

She interrupted. "Either I see him or I do not work on the antivenin." There was no way she would allow Malfoy to have the upper hand.

He considered her words for a few moments. "Very well. Though I will have to Apparate you there and back."

She was uncomfortable with this suggestion, but she knew that he would never let her know Snape's location. "Fine," she replied sharply. She had no idea why she was trusting him other than the fact that he had been entrusted with vital pieces of the puzzle, and she could not let this mystery go unsolved.