Chapters 241-250

Sin

I am sure that I am somewhere near the Mediterranean,

Hermione typed.

Today is my birthday, the computer tells me. But it’s still warm and the sky is so blue that the colour almost hurts my eyes.

When a breeze carried the hymn of the midday prayer into her room, she paused, trying to identify the song. She was getting quite good at that—recognising the hymns based on just a few words. But she also had a lot of practice by now.

I am thinking about sin again,

Hermione wrote.

I am trying to translate psalm 51. Why that one? No idea. I stuck my finger into the Bible, and that’s the verse that came up.

She didn’t sleep quite as much anymore and she needed to fight the choking boredom of imprisonment.

I guess I can count myself lucky that I started to learn Latin for my apprenticeship. Or I would have nothing to read at all but the help file of MS Word.

Miserere mei, Deus, secundum magnam misericordiam tuam; et secundum multitudinem miserationum tuarum, dele iniquitatem meam.

Something to do with mercy. And destroyingmy iniquitas…

What I did wrong.

Amplius lava me ab iniquitate mea, et a peccato meo munda me.

Lavare…that’s washing. Wash away my sin? As if that’s possible.

I know that they made me do it. I know it was the Imperius. I know that I was just a tool. But that doesn’t change the fact that I broke the wands. And in that moment, I wanted to break them. In that moment, I wanted to kill my husband and my best friend.

and I did.

Quoniam iniquitatem meam ego cognosco, et peccatum meum contra me est semper.

Because I know what I did wrong. And my sin is always against me? No. Before me.

Hermione stopped typing and stared at her treacherous hands.

Yes, she thought, not bothering to wipe away her tears. My sin is always before me.

oooOooo

It was Hermione’s 22nd birthday and Snape hadn’t appeared for his classes. The house-elves reported that he was drinking in the dungeons. Minerva met Harry at the Apparition point and led him down into the dungeons. At the door of Snape’s private library, she left him.

‘Good luck,’ she said softly. ‘You’ll need it.’

‘A big wooden hammer would work better,’ Harry muttered.

oooOooo

‘Come to cheer up the grieving widower, have you?’ Snape sneered, without turning his gaze away from a photograph of Hermione he was holding in his hands.

‘Snap out of this!’ Harry shouted. ‘So you think that you ought to have died?’ The air was biting with the sharp tang of Firewhisky. ‘That you ought to have ended up without a left arm, struck deaf, blind and mute? Sorry, mate, but it doesn’t work that way. Do you think Hermione would want you to act like that? Locking yourself away and drinking yourself into a stupor to celebrate her birthday? Do you think you’re helping her any that way?’

For a long moment the room was silent, and all that Harry could hear was his own, heavy breathing. His eyes felt hot and heavy in their sockets.

When he thought that Snape wouldn’t speak again that day, Severus finally replied, his voice almost gentle, ‘Do you really believe that matters anymore? That anything I do—or you do—can help her anymore?’

‘Is that a reason to give up?’

Another long silence.

Then, very softly: ‘No.’

oooOooo

Cato and Alina sat with their backs to the parapet of the Astronomy Tower. It was a Hogsmeade weekend, so Hogwarts was empty except for the Firsties and the Second Years. And none of them dared to climb the Tower. For October and the Scottish Highlands it was an unusually warm day.

y didn’t you go to hogsmeade?

Alina’s words formed lazily on the piece of parchment she’d stuck to the stone beside her.

Above them Woodstock was soaring in crazy circles, a brilliant flash of purple, red and gold, playing ‘catch me if you can’ with some young thestrals.

Alina’s first experience with Hogsmeade had been pretty much a disaster. After the secret investigations hadn’t yielded any trace of Hermione, the Minister of Magic had decided to go public with the whole story. Alina—as the heroine of the adventure—was still caught up in the backlash of that decision. When she’d shown up in Hogsmeade with Woodstock on one shoulder, her trusty piece of parchment hovering over the other, she’d caused an Apparition jam with three minor Splinchings, just because so many people were desperate to get an autograph. Cato was not surprised that she’d decided to stay at Hogwarts today.

He looked at the pretty, dark-haired girl and considered carefully the best strategy for how to deal with the difficult Slytherin. In the end he opted for an approach she would not expect.

‘I like you,’ he said simply. Then he hesitated before he added meaningfully. ‘Very much.’ The words simultaneously appeared on his own piece of parchment.

‘So naturally I want to spend time with you.’

oooOooo

and then he asked if he might kiss me, Alina’s quill spelt out for Geilis. It was past curfew and they were once again ensconced in Alina’s four poster.

did you??

Gilly wrote back, green eyes wide.

Alina’s stomach fluttered with a million tiny butterflies when she remembered Cato’s warm lips on hers.

i thought i might as well try it…

Alina laughed silently. Then she gripped her friend’s hands and widened her eyes at her.

u know how the teachers always say that Cato’s so gifted?

Gilly blinked. Alina giggled even more.

they are totally right!

‘Wow,’ Geilis mouthed. Then she pursed her lips and grabbed the notepad.

and snape?

Alina grimaced. A hot wave of mortification flowed over her at the thought of the embarrassing crush that had turned the last weeks of her Second Year into agony.

will never stop trying to find Hermione

12 Responses to Chapters 241-250

  1. zauza says:

    Crush and Crushed

    Ah, Alina has a crush like any normal young girl! But she is not a normal young girl, is she?

    *worries*

  2. zauza says:

    Sin

    Snape better find Hermione really fast! She will be a nun in no time,if he doesn’t!

    Sweet, Alina and Cato!

    *hugs author*

  3. zauza says:

    A Very Merry Christmas

    A swan! Transformation, purity,union, love.

    Together for life!

  4. zauza says:

    Ugly Duckling

    I’m not liking Hannah very much at this moment either! But Harry certainly feels very strongly about her.

    And now he knows! She is alive.

  5. zauza says:

    The Hour that Sleeps the Swan

    Is magic working in any hidden way? How could a black swan in a dream leave her a white feather?

    And i have wondered…does anyone read what she writes?

  6. zauza says:

    The Beginning of Peace

    That is a wonderful reasoning. Why would the guys in black suspect one of their own church people, to have a friendship with a wizard?

    Very smart! Very Slytherin!

  7. zauza says:

    Summer Sadness, Summer Joy

    And life goes on! How will she not be profoundly affected by all that time all alone? And going back to so many new lives and a world so different?

  8. zauza says:

    A Dream Within a Dream

    Poor Hermione, she just gave up. She was dying…just dying.

    And now he is with her!

    *hugs author*

  9. zauza says:

    And now i have my answer! It all went wrong because of Umbridge!

    …and there are still some guys in black out there…and Voldybutt’s soul.

    And Hermione is alive with a darker determined Severus fighting for her!

    Life is good.

  10. zauza says:

    The Heart of the Labyrinth

    It’s too much for her to understand. Too much.

    She has spend to long locked alone with all that guilt and pain. It’s impossible to feel comfortable anywhere. How to learnhow to live again?

    And The Book of Death! For the Necromancer that Death likes. And she will be the best, the most powerful! Because she can hear now.

    Brilliant!

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