Prisoners of Azkaban: Editors’ Notes

VII. The later lives of Hermione Snape, Severus Snape, and Draco Malfoy

The years following their release from Azkaban prison, Severus and Hermione Snape spent much as their probationary diaries already suggest: Hermione Snape worked as Minerva McGonagall’s assistant, while Severus Snape stayed on as soup cook at the Three Broomsticks.

On 20 March 2010, Hermione and Severus Snape were married in a quiet ceremony on Eynhallow, and 3 May 2010 their first daughter, Adriana Amrita Snape, was born.

Apart from that life-changing event, the year after their release from Azkaban prison was spent quietly. They lived at the Lake House, with Draco Malfoy a frequent guest. Free days and holidays were spent at the lighthouse of Bound Skerry.

The review of their rehabilitation 31 August 2010 passed without difficulties.

Since Amrita Agan had yielded her secret to the power of their new wands, Severus and Hermione Snape spent most of their free time discovering and mastering the powers of their wands. As Amrita Agan had already told them, a core made from the hair of a great sea serpent creates a wand with extraordinary powers, especially for healing spells. At the pinnacle of their powers, when they had achieved complete mastery of their new wands as well as of their own talents, they were able to cast the most powerful spells of healing the wizarding world has seen since the days of Hildegard of Bingen.*

*Concerning that particular area of interest, Healing the Wizarding World by Muriel Mugwort is considered the seminal monograph on the topic.

The first task they set themselves was, of course, to heal Minerva McGonagall. It took them over a decade to disentangle the curses that had struck Minerva McGonagall and to make her shattered mind and soul whole again. Only by 2020 were they finally successfully able to heal their old teacher and friend. While Minerva McGonagall remained frail of body and fragile of mind, she was able to enjoy her remaining years in full possession of her mental faculties until she passed away, 21 March 2038.

The healing of Minerva McGonagall is often interpreted as the conclusion of both Hermione Snape’s and Severus Snape’s own healing processes. Certainly it was a first and vital step of a long journey of magical (self-)discovery.

Hermione Snape’s primary genius lay in spell-creation. That talent, already obvious during her school-days*, even before she devised the curse that killed Voldemort, truly blossomed in the complex healing spells she invented for the sake of Minerva McGonagall. After this achievement, it is not surprising that Hermione Snape was invited to join the Department of Mysteries, where Amrita Agan had already worked since 2010.

*An excellent title to discover the young Hermione Snape is Hermione Snape—The Early Days by Rosa Bulstrode. Of Hermione Snape’s time in the Department of Mysteries we naturally know almost nothing, though it can be assumed that she was involved in several sensitive and significant spell-creation projects.

Hermione Snape’s appointment as Unspeakable coincided with Padma Patil succeeding Aurora Sinistra as Headmistress of Hogwarts, School of Witchcraft and Wizardry.

Under Headmistress Patil, Hogwarts was restored to its former glory. At the beginning of the new school year of 2010/2011, Gryffindor House was re-established. Once more all students with magical abilities were welcome at Hogwarts, no matter their background, be they pureblood, half-blood or Muggle-born. But in the following years, Headmistress Patil truly revolutionised magical education by adding a “special needs” programme for squibs and offering summer courses to non-magical siblings and close-blood relations.

The first new teachers she recruited in 2023 were Severus Snape, who returned to Hogwarts to teach Potions, and Draco Malfoy, who joined the staff as Professor for Magical Ethics and Philosophy.

When Padma Patil stepped down as Headmistress of Hogwarts 2049 in order to become the Headmistress of the famous Siddhartha School of Sorcery in Lumbini, the board of governors unanimously voted for Severus Snape as her successor.

Once Severus Snape took office, Hermione Snape left the Department of Mysteries to join her husband’s staff as Hogwarts librarian, an occupation that allowed her substantial free time to conduct private research and write, eventually publishing an astonishing number of forty-two books and numerous articles and essays.

As Headmaster of Hogwarts, Severus Snape continued all programmes implemented by Padma Patil, and added some of his own, most notably the establishment of the Minerva McGonagall College of Magic in 2058.

What Headmaster Severus Snape is best known for, however, is his Sorting Reform. Before his 2050/2051 reform, Hogwarts students were only Sorted once—before they started their first year. Already Albus Dumbledore criticised this tradition, saying: “…I sometimes think we Sort too soon…” Severus Snape himself was convinced that the early and immutable Sorting encouraged the inflexible ideology that led to Voldemort’s reign.

Since 2050/2051, students are not Sorted into their Houses once and for all, but are re-Sorted every year. Now innate talent, individual choices, and the development of skills and character determine a student’s House on a yearly basis. While a few students remain in one and the same House—and even fewer are Sorted into each House at least once—most students belong to at least two different Houses during their time at Hogwarts. Additionally students may also remain Unsorted, if they are of age, or if their parents wish it. Since 2054 the living quarters of the Unsorted students have been in the attic above the Great Hall.

For more than ten happy years Draco Malfoy, Severus and Hermione Snape lived together at Hogwarts, until the death of Lucius Malfoy in 2053.

In 2054 Draco Malfoy decided to run for office and was elected Minister for Magic 19 September 2054.

Lucius Malfoy had done much to lead Britain back into the International Confederation of Wizarding Communities, but much remained to be done what a wizard of his generation and background could not achieve.

Draco Malfoy, however, turned out to be the leader the magical community of Britain had been waiting for. As the pureblood son of a Death Eater, lover of Harry Potter, hero of the war against Voldemort, and respected partner of Hermione and Severus Snape, he was the symbol of a new era in wizarding Britain, a time of reconciliation and renewal.

When asked about his motivation, Draco Malfoy always responded simply: “Harry always did what he could. I can do no less.”

His new office, a burden of heavy responsibilities and many duties, inevitably influenced his relationship with Hermione and Severus Snape. Although in their hearts and minds they remained one family until the day they died, for many years the time they actually lived together diminished to just a few weeks a year.

Only in 2099, when Severus and Hermione Snape retired, and Draco Malfoy stepped down as Minister of Magic (to be succeeded by his son, Scorpius Harry Malfoy-Snape), the harmony and happiness of the early days of their polyamorous relationship revived.

Draco Malfoy and Hermione and Severus Snape spent the last thirty years of their lives where they had set out together after the Snapes’ release from Azkaban prison: the Lake House in Hogsmeade and the lighthouse of Bound Skerry.

Cooking soups remained Severus Snape’s hobby for the rest of his life, and he won regional and international soup cook outs with terrifying regularity, the last being the “Hogsmeade Christmas Smash” of 2127.

All her life, Hermione Snape was a dedicated Kneazle keeper. Although she never achieved the Animagus transformation, her post-prison Patronus eventually appeared as a Kneazle with tiger stripes and leopard spots—looking exactly like her husband’s Patronus. This is considered a clear testament to the impact Millicent Bulstrode’s gift of the Kneazle Schroedinger had on both their lives.

At the end of her life, Hermione Snape possessed the largest collection of editions of Hogwarts, A History in the world. It is now housed in a special library at Hogwarts and open to visitors on every Hogsmeade weekend.

Draco Malfoy’s free time was spent either with the Snape family or at the lighthouse on Bound Skerry. Today the lighthouse keeper is Hermes Severus Malfoy-Snape.

Hermione Snape had five children together with Severus Snape and Draco Malfoy.

• Adriana Amrita Snape, born 2010
• Hermes Severus Malfoy-Snape, born 2015
• Minerva Luna Snape, 2020–2074*
  *Minerva Luna’s death of cancer in 2074 was by far the greatest tragedy in the later years of Hermione and Severus Snape’s lives.
• Albus Lucius Snape,* born 2020
  *His daughter, Minerva Dramione Snape (born 2074) succeeded Rose Bulstrode as Headmistress of Hogwarts in 2124.
• Scorpius Harry Malfoy-Snape,* born 2028
  *Minister for Magic from 19 September 2099 to 21 September 2159.

Severus and Hermione Snape died peacefully in their bed on 1 September 2129, surrounded by their loved ones: Draco Malfoy, their children, grandchildren, great-grandchildren and great-great-grandchild.

Hermione Snape’s last recorded words were: “Nearly 153 years or 1,833 months or 7,967 weeks or 55,769 days or 1,338,456 hours.* And now, eternity.”

*These figures denote length of time Hermione Snape judged herself to be in love with Severus Snape. From 23 December 1996 when she discovered his secret efforts to cure the cursed Albus Dumbledore to the day of her death and beyond.

Severus Snape’s last words were “My own Hermione”, just as he had predicted in his diary 31 August 2009.

Draco Malfoy died in his sixth floor bedroom at the lighthouse on Bound Skerry 1 August 2133. As he requested, he died alone. But on the low ledge next to his bed he had arrayed pictures of all his loved ones, first and foremost photographs of Harry Potter, and Hermione and Severus Snape.