Chapters 81-90

‘The Apprentice and the Necromancer’ by JunoMagic
Chapters 81–90

And the Worst Thing is…

When Severus returned with a pale Alina in tow, Hermione had made her excuses and buried herself in her work. After grading a pile of essays from her First Years she had turned to a fat tome about advanced Herbology. But she found it nearly impossible to concentrate. Recent events weighed heavy on her mind. Heavy enough for her to develop a tension headache that had not abated for a minute during the last two days.

A knock on the portrait made her jump.

‘Hermione?’ Lois’ muffled voice drifted up from the main dungeons corridor.

‘Coming.” Hermione hurried down the hallway and down the stairs. Slightly out of breath, she swung open the portrait. Lois looked tired and worried.

‘Have you talked to Alina?’

‘Yes,’ Lois said. ‘I just left her at the entrance of her House. And I thought I’d drop by on my way back.—Ron’s going to come over and pick me up in a bit. If you don’t mind, I’d rather wait here with you.’

‘No, of course not. Come in. I think both of us could use some more tea. Rooibos?’

Her friend nodded gratefully.

oooOooo

A short time later Lois and Hermione were seated in the comfortable squashy armchairs in the library, meditatively staring into the warm flames of the fire. Even though the May sunshine was warm outside, the lower levels of the castle were still quite chilly.

‘How is Alina?’ Hermione asked. ‘I mean, obviously I’ve tried to talk to her about everything…but I don’t know how successful I’ve been.’

‘Well,’ Lois began. ‘Alina is not happy, of course. However, I do believe that this misguided attempt at ‘punishing’ her doesn’t really trouble her very much. She told me she knew at once that it was only a DADA exercise.’ Lois frowned. ‘I think she actually expected just to be thoroughly thrashed. Most of all she’s deeply ashamed that it took her so long to master that exercise—— never mind that it’s an exercise designed for Third Year students and not for First Years.
‘Luckily the more serious implications of illegal punishments in a torture chamber of all places completely escape her—yet. And I for one do not intend to enlighten her. It will be difficult enough for her to settle down with her entire House punished so severely. Have you any idea how they are treating her about that? Do her house-mates blame her?’

Hermione shook her head. ‘I’ve made a point of talking with all of the Prefects, and a number of the other students. I believe they do understand the mistakes they made now.’

She ticked off the points on the fingers of her left hand.

‘Punishing a fellow Slytherin without the explicit permission by their Head of House, ignoring all considerations of commensurability and common sense, using a torture chamber as the location for the punishment with all the connotations that entails, using advanced magic on a younger student…’ Hermione sighed. ‘Lois, you have really no idea how difficult this situation is. Beyond how wrong and hurtful it is what they did to Alina. The balance inside Slytherin House is precarious to say the least.
’While many Slytherin families are relieved that Voldemort was defeated, and quite eager to prove that they are not, and never have been, on the side of the Dark Lord and his Death Eaters, others take a very different stance. To them it is an affront that people like Alina—or Severus, for that matter, as his father was a Muggle, too—are even allowed into Slytherin House. That imagined slight to Slytherin House pride would have made them punish Alina much more severely.
‘Especially the Prefects are under a lot of pressure from their families. Ciardha Vaisey believed that he had to punish Alina. And he tried his level best to come up with something that wouldn’t frighten or seriously hurt her. Up to the point that he allowed Ginny to be present as a witness. That idiot boy! Couldn’t he have gone to Severus?’

‘Kids do the darndest things,’ Lois quoted.

‘It’s so stupid. Crookshanks always gets away from me. I never told Alina to keep him inside all the time. I only asked her to watch him.’ Hermione shook her head. ‘You know, for the majority of the students the whole thing was simply a lot of fun! They enjoyed the chaos and the adventure of searching for the damn cat. They were surprised at how civil Slytherins could be—asking for help and initiating a campaign that all four Houses joined. This could have been the start of the House-unity the Sorting Hat has been singing about for years. And now all it is is a big, flaming mess. They all tried to do their best.
‘But…as the saying goes ‘the road to hell is paved with good intentions’.
‘And the worst thing,’ Hermione whispered, ‘when this gets out, and it will get out, such things always do…I have no idea what they will do to Severus because of it. As Head of House, this is automatically his fault. And it’s not even a week since he fulfilled the conditions of his probation.’

‘Shit, I never thought of that!’ the Muggle-woman cursed soundly. ‘Oh God, Hermione—you don’t think they’ll—they’ll—’

Hermione’s lips trembled. ‘I don’t think so. But…I just don’t know. Maybe I’m just overreacting.’

‘Have you talked to him?’

‘Sort of…he said that the only good thing about the situation is that he doesn’t have to fear the parents of his own students anymore, now that Voldemort is gone and the remaining Death Eaters have disappeared. But apart from that…He’s been…I’ve never seen him like that as a teacher. He puts up a good show for the school. But down here,’ she gestured at the library, ‘it’s obvious that this really hit him hard. He’s furious, frustrated, disappointed. And he blames himself.’

10 Responses to Chapters 81-90

  1. Katy says:

    The whole entire bit about Hermione’s potion experiment was fantastic.

    How in the world did you come up with all of that logic?

    Brilliant work! ^:-)^

    • JunoMagic says:

      Oh, I’m so happy that bit worked for you. I remember that I was very nervous researching for it and writing for it, since I’ve got no background in chemistry or medicine. Yay! But research and discussions with experts really DO help with writing the strangest things. 🙂

  2. firewall says:

    Well, I made it here and I have done a little more reading here…your story is definitely extensive!! but I’m happy that I’ll have a story that I found a story that is completed for my reading enjoyment.

    Quirrell? The jerk.

    Oh dear another bell? At least she was careful with this one and I hope she goes to see Snape.

    I had forgotten that Hermione was working on her project and it seems to have come along quite nicely…hopefully, it will bring her some respite.

    I’m off to read a bit more before I go to bed. Nicely done.

  3. Birkasouce says:

    WoW, Quirrel? I had NO idea! It was a surprise.
    And i love these things with the bells and everything. Petrified portraits, oh how many great ideas do you have? 🙂

    • JunoMagic says:

      Mixing Garth Nix with HP felt strangely natural in this story … and it explained rather a lot, in retrospect … like why Voldemort wanted Snape of all people among his followers in the first place …

  4. obsidianjg says:

    Quirrel is Alina’s father? I dimly remember the name, gives me a bad feeling. And Alilna found the second bell. At least this time she didn’t ring it immediately. I hope she goes to Snape or at least Hermione with it.

    Is Umbridge’s portrait also in this petrified gallery? I hope so, but I also hope there is no way to wake up these portraits.

    • JunoMagic says:

      I wanted a canon wizard as Alina’s father, and not one of the usual fanfic suspects who would have caused even more drama. Quirrel fit those requirements nicely. 🙂

  5. Katie says:

    The art and photographs you’ve included in these chapters are beautiful! They do such a good job of enhancing the story!!

  6. Akleja says:

    Thanks for this magical reading! Honestly, are you a PhD-student? The description of how Hermione waits for Snape’s judgement on her studies is so accurate and spot on the feeling of supervision. Especially how she is so happy for the fact that he is NOT pointing out problems.

    • satismagic says:

      I’m glad you enjoyed the story! And while I never got around to getting my PhD, I have a degree in law and a BA in political sciences and history. I think you never forget those experiences with academia!

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