Title: Emergence: 31 December, 1997 (11)
Title: Emergence: 31 December, 1997
Team Name: Apparently, a Death Eater...
Word Count: 100
Rating: G
Challenge: Compulsion, Runaway
Disclaimer: I am making no profit. Nor am I claiming creation or ownership of anything Harry Potter related. All of it is J. K. Rowling's.
Ron Weasley overheard the Auror in charge of his training speaking to a woman, and addressing her as Hermione Granger. Then, Ron heard Hermione's distinct voice retort, "I told you -"
Hermione's admonishment was cut off by Ron's horrified exclamation, "Hermione?" After the Final Battle, they tallied the dead, tended the injured, and searched for the missing. Amoung those missing was the girl Ron loved: Hermione Granger. Ron now saw a witch of about a hundred, standing beside an equally aged Severus Snape.
"Yes, Ron, it's really me. But, my name is Hermione Snape now," the witch said, in Hermione's voice.
************
Before another word could be said, Kingsley Shacklebolt strode imperiously into the room. He wore his authority with casual confidence. No one questioned the commands he issued in his even tones. "Everyone in this room is to report to St Mungo's, except," he paused to observe Severus and Hermione, after a brief appraisal, he forged ahead with his assumption, "the Snapes. Go directly to the Unidentified Contagion Department, room three. Remain there, until I come for you personally."
No one moved.
"Now!" Kingsley commanded.
When the room was empty; except for the Snapes, Kingsley closed and warded the door securely.
************
Kingsley Shacklebolt looked at Severus and Hermione Snape, and shook his head in wonder. "I know that your age is noncommunicable. I needed to contain everyone who knows that you've returned. We'll have to decide if they need to have their memories modified."
Severus's silky baritone was unchanged by his apparent age. "What do you know about us?" he asked.
"I was told to watch for you to return from an unexplained disappearance. I was told that you might be older than you should be. If those things happened, I was ordered to compel you to take this Portkey immediately."
************
Severus and Hermione landed in front of an unusual little home. It was made out of a warm grey stone, as were the solid walls surrounding it's yard.
Kingsley had given them their wands when the Portkey activated. They immediately tried to escape. Apparition was impossible. There was no aperture evident in the walls. They cast every revealing spell known between them, to no avail. When Severus tried to magically blast their way out, he was met with spectacular failure.
The temperature began dropping as daylight waned.
They knew they would have to try to go in the suspicious house.
************
Severus touched the wrought iron of the door's latch. Wards dropped, and the door swung silently open. Severus drew Hermione behind him as they crossed the threshold. They stopped just inside the door. Candles lit, and a fire flared to life in a large hearth. They held their wands at the ready. All they could see was a comfortably appointed, and welcoming circular, room. There were several doors leading off it which they assumed opened into turret rooms. They could sense no apparent danger, however, they knew that meant little.
"Finally, you've come in."
The Snapes turned toward the voice.
************
"Silence! I will not converse with a two dimensional charlatan," Severus snarled at the portrait that had spoken.
Hermione placed her wrinkled hand on Severus's sleeve in comfort. He gently covered it with his own, his demeanor softening somewhat.
"Why aren't you hanging in Hogwarts?" Hermione asked Dumbledore's portrait.
"Ah. But, you see my dear girl, I, like my esteemed contemporary Phineas Nigellus, had many likenesses of myself created."
"Of course you would," Severus said with a contemptuous sneer.
"Please, please, let's save this. For now, there are many things that I must, rather urgently I'm afraid, impart to you."
************
"I was given information and compelled to reveal it to you only under these exact circumstances."
"No." Severus snarled. "Albus would have told me anything he wanted me to know when he was alive."
"Not in this case. He only wanted you to know if this unlikely occurrence came to pass. Miss Granger, did you help Severus escape by taking him into the past?"
"That's obvious!"
"Yes, I did."
"As was expected," Albus said.
"What do you mean, expected?"
"You were given a Time-Turner in your third-year for a reason. It's not common to hand them to children, you know."
************
"Albus expected me to save Severus?" Hermione asked. "There was nothing between us then. How could he... you... know?"
"That's absurd! I would never have -"
"I'm talking now," Hermione snapped at Severus.
"He had a premonition, if you will, that there would be something between the two of you."
Severus snorted.
Hermione and Albus's portrait ignored him. "He hoped that if you ever needed to, you would think of saving Severus by taking him to the past. Of course at the time, he thought that you would be saving him from Tom. But, by the end he feared these circumstances."
************
"I have heard enough," Severus said coldly. "We're leaving."
"Where will you go?" Albus's portrait asked. "Outside? You'll catch your death. No, no, best stay here. When we've finished our business, it will be safe for you to leave."
"Safe? What are you blathering about?" Severus asked curtly.
"Why, the fact that our dear Miss Granger -"
"Mrs Snape!" Severus growled.
"Is it? Well, congratulations! Although, you may find that your marriage is not quite what you think it is."
"Have you got Turpentine sickness?"
"No such thing."
"What do you mean, our marriage is not what we think?" Hermione asked.
************
"You were married to Severus in your sixth-year."
"Hermione," Severus said, "will you stop talking to that? It's clearly deranged!"
"You were married without either of you being aware of it. Severus, signed documents giving Albus access to his vault at Gringotts. You, signed adult-status documents on your seventeenth birthday. Along with these documents, you unknowingly signed yourselves in legal matrimony. The documents were drawn up by solicitors. They became legally binding once both of you had signed them."
"Why would you do that to us?"
"We knew of Severus's vow. You were tricked into marriage to keep you safe."
************
"Marrying me to a child, without my knowledge, was strategic security."
Like the real Dumbledore, his portrait ignored the sarcasm in Severus's voice. "Quite right. It's all about the compellability of witnesses. Our old law where spouses may not be compelled to testify against each other, has not been changed. Severus doesn't need that loophole right now. I'm sure Kingsley told you Severus was irrefutably cleared of all wrongdoing last week. But, you Hermione, helped a fugitive to escape from justice. You harbored him in the past. That is a very serious offense, with a mandatory ninety years in Azkaban."
************
Dumbledore's portrait smiled incongruously. "There can be no defense for you taking Severus into the past, Hermione. Of course, Severus can't be made to testify against you."
"The fact that I am not a compellable witness will not be enough in the face of our age!" Severus snarled.
"It will help if she is charged with aiding in your escape and harbouring you."
"That won't matter if she goes to prison for taking me to the past by illegal Time-Turner use."
"No, but, just as my living self gave Hermione the Time-Turner, he prepared for the consequences."
"How?" Hermione asked.
************
"The contingency plan is quite ingenious, if I say so myself. You see, my dear friend Nicholas Flamel gave me some of his special elixir before I died. Do you know what it is?"
"The elixir of life," Hermione said. Despite all the years that she had lived, that spark of the Hogwart's student she once was, drew a snort from her Husband. She smiled unrepentantly at him, and he returned it with an almost indulgent smile of his own.
"I only have two doses," Albus continued, ignoring the the aged lover's intimate exchange.
"How will it work?" Hermione asked.
************
"It will restore each of you to perfect health. Perfect health for your birth age. You Hermione, will be a perfectly healthy eighteen year old. And Severus, you will be an unscarred thirty-seven year old. No one will ever be able to prove that you lived seventy-three years together in the past."
Hermione could see that Severus was bristling to blast the canvas version of the manipulative old wizard into oblivion. She stepped between them, and asked, "Where is it?"
"In an indestructible box beneath the mattress, with a fertility potion," the portrait said with a twinkle in his eye.
************
Severus drew his wand. Portrait Albus ducked behind his painted chintz chair.
"Dear boy, I mean no insult. This is an integral part of the plan," Albus called from his insubstantial hiding place. "It's necessary that you impregnate your wife tonight. After you take the elixir -"
Severus raised his wand.
"Wait!" portrait Albus said, in a facsimile of his old commanding tone. "You can't speak of your marriage from the past. The paper marriage you were both tricked into signing could be contested. If Hermione carries your child, no member of the Wizengamot will allow a challenge to your marriage."
"How dare you?" Hermione asked shrilly. "This is my body. Mine. You have manipulated enough! I will not have you trying to dictate our reproduction or lack thereof." She seemed to have forgotten that it was a painting she was berating. "To stand there, in front of me, and have the audacity to tell my husband to impregnate me! I'll hex... I'll hex..." Tears of indignation streamed down Hermione's face. She couldn't seem to catch her breath. She was in Severus's arms before her knees gave. He supported her as she dissolved into his sheltering embrace.
Team Name: Apparently, a Death Eater...
Word Count: 100
Rating: G
Challenge: Compulsion, Runaway
Disclaimer: I am making no profit. Nor am I claiming creation or ownership of anything Harry Potter related. All of it is J. K. Rowling's.
Ron Weasley overheard the Auror in charge of his training speaking to a woman, and addressing her as Hermione Granger. Then, Ron heard Hermione's distinct voice retort, "I told you -"
Hermione's admonishment was cut off by Ron's horrified exclamation, "Hermione?" After the Final Battle, they tallied the dead, tended the injured, and searched for the missing. Amoung those missing was the girl Ron loved: Hermione Granger. Ron now saw a witch of about a hundred, standing beside an equally aged Severus Snape.
"Yes, Ron, it's really me. But, my name is Hermione Snape now," the witch said, in Hermione's voice.
************
Before another word could be said, Kingsley Shacklebolt strode imperiously into the room. He wore his authority with casual confidence. No one questioned the commands he issued in his even tones. "Everyone in this room is to report to St Mungo's, except," he paused to observe Severus and Hermione, after a brief appraisal, he forged ahead with his assumption, "the Snapes. Go directly to the Unidentified Contagion Department, room three. Remain there, until I come for you personally."
No one moved.
"Now!" Kingsley commanded.
When the room was empty; except for the Snapes, Kingsley closed and warded the door securely.
************
Kingsley Shacklebolt looked at Severus and Hermione Snape, and shook his head in wonder. "I know that your age is noncommunicable. I needed to contain everyone who knows that you've returned. We'll have to decide if they need to have their memories modified."
Severus's silky baritone was unchanged by his apparent age. "What do you know about us?" he asked.
"I was told to watch for you to return from an unexplained disappearance. I was told that you might be older than you should be. If those things happened, I was ordered to compel you to take this Portkey immediately."
************
Severus and Hermione landed in front of an unusual little home. It was made out of a warm grey stone, as were the solid walls surrounding it's yard.
Kingsley had given them their wands when the Portkey activated. They immediately tried to escape. Apparition was impossible. There was no aperture evident in the walls. They cast every revealing spell known between them, to no avail. When Severus tried to magically blast their way out, he was met with spectacular failure.
The temperature began dropping as daylight waned.
They knew they would have to try to go in the suspicious house.
************
Severus touched the wrought iron of the door's latch. Wards dropped, and the door swung silently open. Severus drew Hermione behind him as they crossed the threshold. They stopped just inside the door. Candles lit, and a fire flared to life in a large hearth. They held their wands at the ready. All they could see was a comfortably appointed, and welcoming circular, room. There were several doors leading off it which they assumed opened into turret rooms. They could sense no apparent danger, however, they knew that meant little.
"Finally, you've come in."
The Snapes turned toward the voice.
************
"Silence! I will not converse with a two dimensional charlatan," Severus snarled at the portrait that had spoken.
Hermione placed her wrinkled hand on Severus's sleeve in comfort. He gently covered it with his own, his demeanor softening somewhat.
"Why aren't you hanging in Hogwarts?" Hermione asked Dumbledore's portrait.
"Ah. But, you see my dear girl, I, like my esteemed contemporary Phineas Nigellus, had many likenesses of myself created."
"Of course you would," Severus said with a contemptuous sneer.
"Please, please, let's save this. For now, there are many things that I must, rather urgently I'm afraid, impart to you."
************
"I was given information and compelled to reveal it to you only under these exact circumstances."
"No." Severus snarled. "Albus would have told me anything he wanted me to know when he was alive."
"Not in this case. He only wanted you to know if this unlikely occurrence came to pass. Miss Granger, did you help Severus escape by taking him into the past?"
"That's obvious!"
"Yes, I did."
"As was expected," Albus said.
"What do you mean, expected?"
"You were given a Time-Turner in your third-year for a reason. It's not common to hand them to children, you know."
************
"Albus expected me to save Severus?" Hermione asked. "There was nothing between us then. How could he... you... know?"
"That's absurd! I would never have -"
"I'm talking now," Hermione snapped at Severus.
"He had a premonition, if you will, that there would be something between the two of you."
Severus snorted.
Hermione and Albus's portrait ignored him. "He hoped that if you ever needed to, you would think of saving Severus by taking him to the past. Of course at the time, he thought that you would be saving him from Tom. But, by the end he feared these circumstances."
************
"I have heard enough," Severus said coldly. "We're leaving."
"Where will you go?" Albus's portrait asked. "Outside? You'll catch your death. No, no, best stay here. When we've finished our business, it will be safe for you to leave."
"Safe? What are you blathering about?" Severus asked curtly.
"Why, the fact that our dear Miss Granger -"
"Mrs Snape!" Severus growled.
"Is it? Well, congratulations! Although, you may find that your marriage is not quite what you think it is."
"Have you got Turpentine sickness?"
"No such thing."
"What do you mean, our marriage is not what we think?" Hermione asked.
************
"You were married to Severus in your sixth-year."
"Hermione," Severus said, "will you stop talking to that? It's clearly deranged!"
"You were married without either of you being aware of it. Severus, signed documents giving Albus access to his vault at Gringotts. You, signed adult-status documents on your seventeenth birthday. Along with these documents, you unknowingly signed yourselves in legal matrimony. The documents were drawn up by solicitors. They became legally binding once both of you had signed them."
"Why would you do that to us?"
"We knew of Severus's vow. You were tricked into marriage to keep you safe."
************
"Marrying me to a child, without my knowledge, was strategic security."
Like the real Dumbledore, his portrait ignored the sarcasm in Severus's voice. "Quite right. It's all about the compellability of witnesses. Our old law where spouses may not be compelled to testify against each other, has not been changed. Severus doesn't need that loophole right now. I'm sure Kingsley told you Severus was irrefutably cleared of all wrongdoing last week. But, you Hermione, helped a fugitive to escape from justice. You harbored him in the past. That is a very serious offense, with a mandatory ninety years in Azkaban."
************
Dumbledore's portrait smiled incongruously. "There can be no defense for you taking Severus into the past, Hermione. Of course, Severus can't be made to testify against you."
"The fact that I am not a compellable witness will not be enough in the face of our age!" Severus snarled.
"It will help if she is charged with aiding in your escape and harbouring you."
"That won't matter if she goes to prison for taking me to the past by illegal Time-Turner use."
"No, but, just as my living self gave Hermione the Time-Turner, he prepared for the consequences."
"How?" Hermione asked.
************
"The contingency plan is quite ingenious, if I say so myself. You see, my dear friend Nicholas Flamel gave me some of his special elixir before I died. Do you know what it is?"
"The elixir of life," Hermione said. Despite all the years that she had lived, that spark of the Hogwart's student she once was, drew a snort from her Husband. She smiled unrepentantly at him, and he returned it with an almost indulgent smile of his own.
"I only have two doses," Albus continued, ignoring the the aged lover's intimate exchange.
"How will it work?" Hermione asked.
************
"It will restore each of you to perfect health. Perfect health for your birth age. You Hermione, will be a perfectly healthy eighteen year old. And Severus, you will be an unscarred thirty-seven year old. No one will ever be able to prove that you lived seventy-three years together in the past."
Hermione could see that Severus was bristling to blast the canvas version of the manipulative old wizard into oblivion. She stepped between them, and asked, "Where is it?"
"In an indestructible box beneath the mattress, with a fertility potion," the portrait said with a twinkle in his eye.
************
Severus drew his wand. Portrait Albus ducked behind his painted chintz chair.
"Dear boy, I mean no insult. This is an integral part of the plan," Albus called from his insubstantial hiding place. "It's necessary that you impregnate your wife tonight. After you take the elixir -"
Severus raised his wand.
"Wait!" portrait Albus said, in a facsimile of his old commanding tone. "You can't speak of your marriage from the past. The paper marriage you were both tricked into signing could be contested. If Hermione carries your child, no member of the Wizengamot will allow a challenge to your marriage."
"How dare you?" Hermione asked shrilly. "This is my body. Mine. You have manipulated enough! I will not have you trying to dictate our reproduction or lack thereof." She seemed to have forgotten that it was a painting she was berating. "To stand there, in front of me, and have the audacity to tell my husband to impregnate me! I'll hex... I'll hex..." Tears of indignation streamed down Hermione's face. She couldn't seem to catch her breath. She was in Severus's arms before her knees gave. He supported her as she dissolved into his sheltering embrace.