Socius Criminis

Chapter 4: Breaking The Children

"Ah, but still it would be utter shame

to stay so long and sail home empty-handed."- Homer, The Iliad

Hermione collapsed. Luckily for her, her bed was beneath her when she fell.

"I am so, so very tired," she sighed, and kicked her shoes off. Drusilla slid down beside her from her situation on the pillows.

"Thisssss issssss all your fault, misssssstresssss," Drusilla slinked, dropping off the bed and sliding around the floor. Hermione sat up.

"I have to tutor them, how else will they harness their powers? If they don't harness their powers, how will Lily save Harry? If they don't harness their powers, how will Severus prove his worth to Voldemort?"

"They can teach themsssssselvessss, misssssstresssss." Hermione pouted, but on reflection, sighed. She was sighing a lot at the moment.

"I suppose you're right. I'll talk to Albus about it later."

"Talk to me about what?" Hermione jumped as Albus' head appeared in the fire.

"Merlin's beard Albus, don't do that!" He chuckled, but the sparkling light that normally shined in his eyes was dulled.

"There is a small matter we need to attend to, if you would just step in my office for a minute." Hermione nodded, and giving Drusilla a stroke, went through the flames. Hermione, at Albus' offering, sat on the seat near the fireplace. "We are nearing the beginning of July," he said. "I trust you know what that means?" Hermione nodded.

"Exams, end of term nearing, getting students to pack their things..." she counted on her fingers. Albus shook his head.

"Nothing like that, my dear. Tell me, what happens on the first of July each year?" There was a pause for thought. Hermione paled as realisation dawned.

"Death Eater initiations," she whispered. Albus nodded.

"I have taken the liberty of listing those students who I think we will be losing this year. It would be best if you looked it over, to see if it is...correct." He passed a sheet of parchment to Hermione, who took it cautiously. Everything seemed to be in order... "I was a little pensive about the last one," he said. Hermione looked up. "I don't think he's in that frame of mind..." Albus saw the look in Hermione's eyes. "Although I get the feeling he's meant to be." Hermione nodded.

Of course I will have to do this, Hermione thought to herself. It's my fault he's not fallen into such a deep pool of despair or anger already, after all. There was no other way - if Severus did not turn to Voldemort, they would have no inside spy. If that didn't happen, millions more would die.

Hermione could not risk any more deaths than she had to.

"How long do I have to turn him?" Hermione asked. Albus sighed.

"Invitations go out on the 28^th June. Today is the 25^th. I believe you have long enough." Hermione looked at her hands. They had been clasped together for some time - a way of exerting her anger. Anger because she didn't want to do what she was going to have to. Anger because she knew how she was going to have to do this. Anger because she had nearly had someone she could trust. Anger because when she went back, he'd be just the same as he was before.

"Hermione?" Albus snapped Hermione out of her thoughts.

"I should go," she said, turning for the fireplace.

"He'll understand in time, my dear," Albus said as she left. Hermione wished she could believe it.

--

"You asked to see me?" a voice came from Hermione's door.

"Yes, at 7pm, Mr. Snape, not 7:15!" she snapped. Severus watched her warily, she did not normally snap at him. "I'm not going to tutor you anymore, and I no longer require your help with my research," she said, in that quiet voice that she normally reserved for scaring the first years out of pulling pranks. "It is not...necessary." She walked over to him and shut the door. "I expect you want an explanation?" she pressed. He nodded, folding his arms over his chest in an attempt to disguise his fear.

"Do you trust me?" He frowned.

"Excuse me?" Hermione stepped closer to him, forcing him to back up against the door.

"I said do you trust me?" she hissed. He moved one hand to reach for his wand but found it slammed against the door. "Did you not learn anything from our Unicus lessons?" she cried. "We don't need to use wands, Severus. We are not weak." He began to shake. The fact that she was shorter than him (though this could be considered trivial), that she hadn't been born yet...none of that seemed to matter now...she was frightening the life out him. Somehow, though, he knew it was right. He began to absorb her words without knowing he was doing so.

"I'm going to tell you something, and I'm only going to tell you this once. You will listen or you will listen, there is no real option. You have power. If you don't believe in your power then nothing will go right for you, understand? Sometimes the right thing to do is the wrong thing." Hermione had a dazed look in her eye as she stepped closer still. "You have so much power, so much promise," she said, stroking his cheek. "Why waste it? Your talent, your thirst for knowledge, your ambition...could do so much more," she whispered, moving her other hand up to hold his head in her hands.

"Look at yourself!" she cried, her voice having risen in volume now. Her hand connected with his face in a fierce blow. Severus closed his eyes and waited for the next blow to come. When it did, he shuddered and opened his eyes to look at her - a sign of defiance, though at the same time a sign of weakness. "You don't deserve to be Unicus if you cannot believe in your own power!" Hermione was shaking just as much as Severus as she dropped to her knees in front of him.

"I can't watch you waste your life, Erebos," she whispered, moving her hands down to lie on his chest. "Darkness has so much to give, why hide it all away? You are nothing, you are weak if you do not believe in your power, your intense, dark power..." He looked down at her then, a piercing stare, and wrenched his hand free from the door, breaking her curse. Lifting her up by the cloak, he pulled her towards him so that their faces almost touched.

"What makes you think I'm as weak as you say?" She smiled inwardly, while outside she remained passive. "You've never given me a chance to show you..." he wrapped his arms around her waist "...just how powerful I am."

It was then that Severus kissed Hermione, more anger than passion fuelling his movements. All the time Hermione's conscience screamed that this was wrong, that this shouldn't happen. Her body wanted it. He needed it to survive. It all seemed perfect, the combination of the two to make one, the sublime bliss that their touch created. Hands roamed and mouths kissed, neither of them wanting to stop, neither wanting to slow down, both wanting only the other.

Sometimes the right thing to do is the wrong thing.

Hermione suddenly realised what the wrong thing was. Screaming in Latin, she threw Severus to the other side of the room, smashing him against a shelf full of parchments due for marking, and ran out the door. She was halfway across the classroom when he stopped her.

"Nyx!" he cried, his voice full of hatred. "How dare you refuse me?" Hermione looked up but did not turn back.

"Do not underestimate Night, brother." Severus sneered.

"Do not underestimate Darkness, sister," he hissed in return, and shot a curse at her. Hermione doubled over, not having expected the curse.

"Crudus Penitus, Severus?" Hermione croaked. "Is that the...best..." she struggled for breath "...you can do?" She cringed as he laughed.

"Finite Incantatem," he muttered, and Hermione fell to her knees in pain. "Who's powerful now?" he asked. Hermione lifted her head in defiance.

"No one challenges Nyx," she whispered softly. He walked over to her and pulled her up. She groaned softly - whether at the pain she was recovering from or his touch she could not tell - and clasped her wand.

"I do," he whispered in her ear, brushing her hair away. Hermione swallowed nervously as he ran his wand around her neck and above her breasts, creating small purpling bruises that she would have trouble explaining later.

"Even Zeus fears Nyx, even Zeus will not cross Nyx," she pleaded, though with whom she could not be sure. Severus stroked her hair softly.

"Things change, Hermione," he whispered. It was then that she realised that although the power had clicked inside of him, although he believed in his power, he was not ready to use it yet. "Don't they? Won't they?" he continued.

"They will change," she replied.

"What will not change?" he asked, running the back of his hand across her cheek, mimicking her earlier movements.

"That I love you," she replied, looking down at the floor. He smiled, but then it turned to a frown.

"You think you can win me back by words?" he cried, staggering back from her. "How dare you defy me when I have so much power?" Hermione still did not turn to face him...she did not think she could bear it.

"There are those that have more power than you," she hissed. "Do I have to make you believe it? Do I have to force you to believe it?"

Hermione turned back then, a fire in her eyes that was not there before, and threw her wand across the room. "Unicus' duel," she sneered. "First one unconscious loses." Please accept this. He nodded, and threw his wand over to where hers was. The ritual of Unicus' duel was vague and most tended not to believe that this kind of power match would ever occur. Some things were known though - that the Unicus in question fought only with wandless magic, that they never had seconds and that neither died - it was merely a test of whose power diminished first. A test of strength, of stamina and of will. The will to live, fight and believe in one's power.

"Begin," Hermione commanded, and raised her hand. A beam of energy, as black and as dazzling as the night sky shot from her hand. Severus raised his hand in return and blocked it with a beam equally dark. Nyx and Erebos were entwined. Their energies fought to reach the other, pushing them to the brink of collapse...until finally, Hermione's beam, that which was slightly stronger pushed the other out of the way and smashed into Severus' body. He screamed, and Hermione laughed. I have won.

"Some power you have, Erebos," she smirked, unwittingly giving him time to react. Hermione was thrown back against the door to the classroom, creating a large thud that echoed through the dungeons. Hermione smiled to herself. After all, she had to let him win, no matter how much the warrior hidden in her wanted to watch him fail. "You think that will hurt me? A little burst of energy?" I am stronger than that, I know I am. She stood up, trying to hide her shaking.

"You have learnt nothing." I have failed you. Another burst of darkness shot towards her, but this time she had the sense to jump out of the way. The beam hit the classroom door, shattering it. Severus' next shot hit his target, and Hermione was thrown into the corridor. He strode out of the classroom and held his hand in front of her chest. She got up, ignoring the fact that Professors Sprout and Flitwick were hurrying towards them. She raised her hand to his chest in return.

Their curses hit at the same time. They fell unconscious simultaneously; neither won. The Unicus' duel had not truly ended. As neither won so it was that neither completed what they had set out to do. At least, not immediately.

--

Hermione awoke the next day in the hospital wing, Madam Pomfrey bustling around with an annoyed look on her face.

"Poppy?" Hermione asked, sitting up. Pomfrey's face lit up.

"Hermione! You're awake, my dear." She bustled over. "Albus told us," she said. Hermione looked puzzled. "About you and Peragro Tempus," she clarified. Hermione nodded.

"So you know why I ended up here? The hospital wing, that is." Poppy nodded.

"I think you were very brave to do what you did. There is one thing though," she said, the look in her eyes darkening. Hermione gulped.

"That being?" she asked nervously.

"Can you explain the bruises here?" the mediwitch asked, pointing just above Hermione's chest.

"I do not feel that I have to explain my actions to you, Poppy," Hermione said softly. Poppy, after watching her for a moment, nodded, and left. No more words were exchanged between them until Hermione left the hospital wing that evening.

It was Friday evening when Hermione left the hospital wing. She went to her chambers, with no greeting to Drusilla, and slept. She slept until late the next morning, not daring to go down to breakfast incase Severus was there. However, Drusilla, irritated that she had not received recognition the previous evening, convinced her that it would seem odd for her not to attend lunch, and so it was that Hermione found herself walking down to the Great Hall at approximately 12:30pm.

In the Wizarding community, post on Saturdays came at lunchtime. Hermione had forgotten this, so it was a shock to her when she saw a flurry of owls sweeping down to the tables.

"Albus," she asked, turning to her left, "what is the date?" Albus gave her a look. It revealed nothing, not a trace of emotion or feeling...only the soft glow, the God inside him hiding behind a pretence of mortal appearance. A reminder of how much power flowed through him.

"The twenty-eighth," he replied. Hermione swallowed her nerves and turned back to her lunch. But even she could not ignore the black owl swooping down to the Slytherin table, nor the eyes of it's recipient gleaming with pride. The fire of power burned inside his eyes also. Hermione realised she was about to be sick.

It was not because she thought she had failed...it was because she knew she had succeeded.

--

The location in which the ceremony was held had an eerie and historic mist about it. A chilling wind whipped round the stone and cascaded into a rather fitting snake-like hiss. There was no furniture - only the everlasting frozen grey of the paved floor. Nothing was required for the ceremony to take place, therefore no objects or decorations were there; only the sacrifice, and, of course, the Dark Lord and his brainwashed followers, clothed in their black cloaks and hidden from view.

Rule number one: you must not be seen.

Footsteps from behind.

--

She had to keep from screaming as she woke up. They were getting to her dreams now. He was getting to her dreams now. Nothing was sacred; someone was after Nyx, Goddess of night. Not even under her own watch was she safe. Nothing was safe from the clutches of that dark and oppressive power.

The wizarding world was collapsing under the strain of the Dark Lord's attacks. He was beginning to target people. Happiness was not in existence anymore; only sadness. Fear and longing. Despair and terror. The Dark Lord instilled them all into the hearts of those who dared challenge him. He was unstoppable.

Now he was after the Unicus to make sure that everyone was out of his way. He had only one problem - their identities were secret. When one of his new Death Eaters came to him with a proposition, he could not refuse. Information was, after all, valuable, and this follower could be trusted. Severus Snape was getting his revenge.

--

"Their names are Lily Evans, Albus Dumbledore and Hermione Granger, my Lord," the servant bowed. A cold head nodded.

"You have served me well, Death Eater. I will repay you." The Dark Lord turned to his other followers. "What prize shall we give this bringer of great power?" The Death Eaters' eyes shined with perverse glee.

"A killing! A killing!" they cried. The Dark Lord nodded in approval.

"Pick one of them," he said to his Death Eater, "and they are yours to deal with." A nod.

"The Granger girl," he sneered. Voldemort nodded.

"Then it is decided. Very well! You will deal with this Hermione Granger. I will deal with the Evans girl. Dumbledore will be left for now. He is too well protected." The Death Eaters nodded, and disapparated.

Severus Snape was getting his revenge.

--

Hermione woke up late again, the dream fresh in her mind. Holding a shaky hand to her face, she wiped away the tears on her cheeks. The school year had just ended. Now it was time to do what she was meant to. Unfortunately, the one person she loved was trying to stop her doing just that. She knew what she had to do, of course - become Lily and James' secret keeper. Albus had told her this, and she trusted him. Mentor was, after all, the voice of advice and knowledge.

"And Nyx was the fountain of night's perils," Hermione grumbled, throwing her dressing gown onto the bed and getting into her dress robes. Hermione was on her way to Lily and James' wedding, the location of which was a secret - it would not have done for Death Eaters to invade the wedding, after all. That was what Hermione was there to stop. Once the wedding was over, the Potters were going to live in a small house in Godric's Hollow, though of course, only Hermione, Albus and the Potters knew this.

After they had moved in, people would be told they had gone on a world cruise for their honeymoon. Hermione and Albus would perform the Fidelius charm, thus entrusting Hermione with the most precious information of all. She would then perform a Memory Charm on Albus that, unbeknown to Lily and James, lasted only until their deaths. Hermione was not looking forward to any of it. She hated knowing everything that was going to happen. What everyone was fated, doomed to become, or do, or see.

For the first time in her life, Hermione had sympathy for people who practiced Divination rather than disgust.