‘The Apprentice and the Necromancer’ by JunoMagic
Epilogue
Epilogue—Da Capo Al Fine
‘Ginny sent new pictures of James-Hermes. And Harry threatens to err…’ Hermione blushed.
‘Hex my bollocks off and serve them to me for lunch if we don’t attend the very same occasion next Sunday?’ Severus supplied with a snort.
Hermione laughed. ‘Something like that.’
‘All right. We’ll be there. Now, where are those ridiculous plants that you absolutely have to show me?’
‘Here.’ Hermione pointed at a meadow overflowing with blooming daffodils. ‘Look how many of them there are! Do you remember what that means?’
Of course he did. He would never forget their wedding day. ‘Joy and happiness,’ he replied, his voice very soft.
‘One day,’ Hermione said, her eyes filled with quiet determination, ‘maybe not tomorrow or next week…’
How Severus regretted the lines in her young face. How he mourned the lack of sparkle in her eyes. The absence of the shrill lilt of enthusiasm in her voice.
‘…maybe not even next year.’ She offered him a wry smile.
But she reached for him. Her almost spidery thin, always cold fingers curled around his hand. Her smile turned wistful. It was too bitter yet to be called hopeful, but there was a new hint of sweetness to it that had been missing since her rescue.
Hermione stepped into Severus’ embrace, her face turned up, her eyes never leaving his. ‘But I do believe that one day, one day, we’ll be fine.’
She drew his hand up to her lips and kissed his fingers.
‘Just fine.’
oooOooo
FINITE INCANTATEM
oooOooo
I loved your story. The format added to the suspense, and I constantly found myself saying “I’ll just finish this chapter” then being unable to walk away. I liked the ending. It was very real. Thank you so much for a wonderful story.
Thank you for your kind words, and I’m so happy to hear that you liked the format I chose for this story! Thank you for reading, and a happy New Year!
Amazing, just amazing. I’m sorry I can’t be more constructive, but it really WAS amazing. I love the length, the twists, the events that shaped not only the main characters but all the others as well. And your imagination is superb, great additions to the verse, well fitting. And I just love the graphics on this page. Much nice to read than, say, ff.net, or any other site out there.
🙂
Thank you for your kind words. I’m especially thrilled that you enjoyed the way I presented the story on my site. 🙂
Juno,
I vaguely remember reading this story (early parts of it)some time ago. I remember going to L’Occitane to smell the Vetyver fragrance. I came upon it again on TPP and had to read it all…and it’s really beautiful. I love your smell and sound imagery (fragrance and bells). Your original characters are very engaging, especially Alina, Death and Abbe Rigaud. I also really enjoyed the whole necromancy church connection–and your extensive use of Chartres and the labyrinth. Thank you for the lovely story! I was sad to have it end, but I look forward to reading your other works. Please keep writing!
Ruth
I still remember your comment! I was so delighted that that someone wanted to smell the scent that had inspired me. 🙂
Thank you for reading this story again, and for taking the time to leave such a kind comment. I couldn’t hope for a better compliment.
I’ve read this before and waited until ‘details’ faded a bit so I could approach it again. I just spent three days in your wonderful ‘world’ and still almost cried when I finished….could have happily spent a week…or two more. You are truly gifted and I appreciate your gift to us. I’ll probably be back again…and again…
Thank you for your kind words! To have readers return to a story is the best compliment any writer can hope for. I’m glad you enjoyed the story so much again.
Excellent story. Besides time spent for sleeping and my job, I’ve done very little besides read this fic since I came across it. I loved the format that you had for this story and I may have to try it for myself one day. Looking at my Avatar: the Last Airbender fanfics, they probably would have been better had I had a lot of shorter chapters. I may have even finished the series that I was writing, instead of losing steam three-eighths of the way through.
I thought that the revelations of Snape and Quirrel being Necromancers was a bit out there; there doesn’t seem to be much, if anything, in canon that could be used to support this. But it isn’t too jarring and so I can accept it easily enough especially in light of how good the story is (I will admit that my capacity for suspension of disbelief rises and lowers with the overall quality of a fic, and I’ll forgive a few big faults in an otherwise excellent story and at the same time nitpick every tiny detail in a fic that is growing dissatisfying).
I was particularly fond of Alina, which wasn’t of any surprise to me. Though my niece isn’t even five yet, even female characters in their mid teens are capable of triggering my uncle-ish tendencies and leaving me no choice but to grow attached to them. It doesn’t help that if she’s anything like her mother, I can definitely see my niece becoming more than a little bit like Alina.
There seems to be a few possible solutions for her hearing, by the way. If magical eyes were a possibility for Harry (and Moody, for that matter), then wouldn’t there be some sort of magical ear prosthesis that might be used? For that matter, a magical arm for Ron? The latter especially makes sense because while the effects of interacting with Death may have had too strong of an effect for any magical ears to overcome (it may be that it is not simply that her ears are not working, so to speak, but that she has completely lost the capacity to hear and that even were every physical fault were corrected she would still be lacking some essence or fundamental quality [possibly you have stated or implied this and I have simply missed it, but I have slept only as little as necessary in order to keep reading]), it was “merely” a splinching and a bullet wound that relieved Ron of his arm. More basic spellwork than replacement body parts is another possibility. What about a spell which monitored the sounds that were being made in a specific radius and then caused the target to hallucinate those sounds? Even if her very capacity for hearing was entirely lost, she should still be able to hear a hallucination within her own mind (that she can hear the voices of the dead and, presumably, her own thoughts, lend support to this idea) and all that this spell is doing is making it so that she is hallucinating very specific sounds. While such a spell probably doesn’t exist because of how limited its utility would be, I would think that it would be possible that Snape or even Alina herself could craft it. It would probably involve a combination of surveillance or detecting spells with mind-affecting magic, to start with.
I am glad to see that Draco is sticking around to watch over his son, and would like to point out to him that while he may not have a daughter as he had wanted, if he only waits long enough he’ll surely have a granddaughter eventually. If the downsides to being a ghost are not so bad that he won’t watch over his son, just so that he can avoid them, then the idea of suffering through them in order to watch over my family through the years and centuries is one that appeals to me greatly.
Thank you very for your thoughtful and detailed review — that’s a wonderful compliment for my story. And I think you make really good points. When I get around to working on the sequel again, I’ll definitely have another look at your comment.
I can not even begin to count all the little pieces of this story that made me smile and made my sad. I loved Alina, I always wanted to know what she was up to and what trouble she would get into next. I originally started reading this a couple years ago, possibly when you were first writing it on FF.net, just as a bit of a pick me up in my free time, but then life happened and I lost track of the updates. It wasn’t until this last week that I picked it up again (if that is the correct term to use when referring to a virtual story on an internet archive..) and have spent every free moment for the last couple of days reading it from start to finish.
Thank you for making me smile, and making me sad and sharing your stories with me.
I’m thrilled you found your way back to my story, and that you enjoyed it again! That’s such a lovely compliment. 🙂
Loved it. nothing more to say 😀
I’m happy you liked it – thank you for reading!
this is the 2nd time I’ve read this & I still loved it. It’s been several years since I first read it but I still love it! *hearts*
Wow, what a wonderful compliment! I’m thrilled to hear that you came back to read the story again and that it passed this test. 🙂
I absolutely adore this fanfiction. It took me about a week or longer to get through this, because sadly I didn’t have the time to read it straight through, which I probably would have done given the chance.
Originally I’d stay far away from stories concerning necromancy, but as I was looking for inspirational pictures for a HG/SS fic of my own, I stumbled upon fanart for this story multiple times and became curious. Man, I’m glad I started reading this! I was quite wary before starting because of the humungous amount of chapters, but gladly they’re all short.
I love how you kept the story Canon as much as you could (I have no complaints whatsoever) and also involved mythology and history in it. I love how small things in earlier chapters came back as quite important or even crucial in the later ones. And I absolutely adore Lois and Alina!
At first I thought she’d be an ordinary muggleborn, but after finding out about her talent, I thought she’d be one of the main characters and I was right. I was completely gobsmacked when I found out who her father was. I did NOT see that coming. Kudo’s for surprising me like that! I was a little surprised at the strength of her feelings for Professor Snape, but then again I can understand them too, having been in love with a couple of teachers myself. And Lois and Ron are just cute together.
I was specificly impressed with the detail you put into your plot, the sempiternum solution and it’s recipe and the way the Realm of Death looks. There aren’t that many fanfiction writers that put that level of detail and symbolism into their stories.
What I didn’t really like was how there was no happy ending with everyone returned to normal (I’m a sucker for happy endings), but I saw that you’re writing a sequel, so I’m still hoping for one. But the ending as it is is actually quite fitting. Ofcourse they wouldn’t be the same after that whole experience.
I’ll be giving myself a bit of time before starting on the sequel, but I WILL read it! Keep up the great writing!
I’m sorry I only reply now … life has kept me really busy. Thank you for reading, and for the author fav over at FFNet, too. I’m thrilled you enjoyed the story so much.
I absolutely understand that you would have preferred a happier ending — to be honest, I would have liked that, too — but it would not have fit the story.
As for the sequel, unfortunately I’ve been having a very bad year so far, so I haven’t been able to continue working on it. However, the story is not abandoned, and I fully plan to return to it as soon as I am able. Though when that will be I cannot say.
🙂 I very much enjoyed your story. I loved the elements of Sabriel/Abhorsen that you included, and Death seemed an absolutely fascinating character.
I’d love to read Alina’s adventures someday 😉
On a concrit note, the end seems sudden, with little transtion between Hermione’s rescue and the epilogue. I think the feeling stems from so much time being spent with her in captivity to not much passing before the epilogue. This in no way detracts from the epic fabulousness of your story though, so don’t think anything like that. 😀
Thank you.
Thank you for spending time with my story. Thank you even more for taking the time to leave a comment! I’m glad you enjoyed my story.