The Dark Side of the Moon

Chapter 10 - Dungeon Dwellings Part Two

'9998, 9999, 10000 ...'

Hermione rested her head desolately against the wall she was sitting adjacent to. She had been counting the cracks on the dungeon wall inertly to pass the time, which, consequently, she had completely lost track of after what she had estimated to be three hours. This was undoubtedly the most time wasting, pointless and undignified activity she had ever participated in. She made a mental note to purchase and/or steal a watch from somewhere upon getting out.

It was just now that she was beginning to come to the conclusion that one: screaming incessantly and banging madly on the dungeon door for over half an hour would do no good as nobody could obviously HEAR HER and two: that Snape wasn't going to be coming back for a while. A very ... long ... while.

Lousy pariah, she thought tetchily as she let out a weary yawn. I hope he drowns in his own grease.

Realizing how utterly improbable this prospect was, Hermione let out a small bitter laugh.

No, Snape was bad enough as a Hogwarts teacher, it was no wonder he was such a terror as a child. His parents must have abused him, Hermione concluded. That or he was being raised by a troll. Hermione began to imagine Snape, a fat toddler with long black hair, waving around a troll club menacingly at all the other troll toddlers.

She smiled despite herself and closed her eyes tiresomely. It must have been getting late now, past dinner at least, and the time would pass so much quicker if she were asleep. She was just drifting off when she felt the touch of fur brush against her arm. She opened her eyes very suddenly and looked down. Scurrying across the floor was the biggest and ugliest rat Hermione had ever seen.

She screamed.

Several things happened at once. Hermione, who had detested rats more than anything since third year, stood up a little too quickly and backed into a table scattered with many different coloured mixtures compiled in flasks and bowls. It toppled over, of course, taking her with it and bringing on another scream. A brick also fell out of the wall Hermione had been leaning against, revealing a very small passageway.

Then, as the rat tried to scamper away, it began rapidly increasing in size and squeaked in fright when the table Hermione had backed into turned over. Trying to scramble under a shelf piled with cauldrons, it got too large and soon enough the entire ensemble was on the floor, generating a thundering clatter.

And as Hermione slowly sat up, wincing as she removed a sharp piece of glass from her hand, she screamed yet again at the sight that lay in front of her. Sitting amongst the mess of cauldrons and pieces of wood was a boy, shaking from head to toe and looking at her nervously.

'Peter?' she exclaimed.

*-*-*

Snape swept over to his now bubbling cauldron, smirking widely as he stirred its acidic contents. He glanced sideways at the stick of magic lying on the desk. If Isabelle Johnston was ever going to return to her own time, she would do it without a wand. After it met this potion that Snape had conveniently invented himself, it would be reduced to nothing more than sweltering gunk.

'Double double toil and trouble,' he chanted with a newfound determination then frowned, muttering to himself. 'I toiled and troubled over that stupid Time girl - spill my potion why don't you - spent a whole month concocting just for it to - I'll show her - Time is of the essence - Ah Severus, you are a clever chap ... Double double indeed.'

*-*-*

'Er, hi,' Peter muttered, looking at the ground.

'What on earth are you - ?'

'Well I was ... I was uh ...' He bowed his head sadly. 'I suppose you're going to tell Professor Dumbledore that I'm a rat.'

He seemed dreadfully put out and in somewhat of a shock. Whatever he was doing down here, Hermione mused, he certainly wasn't expecting to see anyone, let alone herself. She'd just discovered his most prized and tremendous secret, and even though she knew it already, he didn't know she knew, and that made it sad. For a moment she actually felt sorry for him. Ew.

Hermione sighed and approached him slowly. He looked up at her rather like a little boy who'd lost his way. She held out her hand and he took it reluctantly, taking a step back from her as he stood and just managing to balance himself before he tripped over an empty cauldron.

'So, are you going to tell him?' he asked her timidly.

'Don't be stupid, I knew you were a rat long before you -' she stopped sharply as his brow furrowed. 'What I mean to say is that ...' she tried to think quickly, but all her rationalization seemed to have disappeared out the door when Snape left, 'is that at my last school, Animagi were very, very popular. Yes that's right. Nearly everyone was an Animagus so I er, I learnt to read the signs. Pretty obvious, really.' She strained a laugh and looked at him anxiously, praying that he didn't know that there had been only seven registered Animagi recorded that century.

Peter looked confused.

'So,' Hermione added hurriedly to change the subject. 'What did you say you were doing here? It must be terribly late.'

'Nearing midnight and ... it is not really your business ...' Pah. He was dying to tell her. Sure enough -

'But if you must know, I was ... running a few errands.' He cleared his throat and swallowed. Hermione knew he was hiding something. She figured he must be up to mischief with Remus, Sirius and James. 'And what about you?'

'I was getting to that,' she said agitatedly. 'Now, you can't tell anyone because I don't want to cause any trouble ...' She paused and continued only when he nodded. 'You see, Snape cornered me after Potions and we got into an awful row because I refused to go out on a date with him. Anyhow, there was a lot of nastiness and shouting when he finally lost his temper, took my wand and locked me in here.' There was a silence. Peter scratched his scalp.

'That's not very nice,' he said obviously.

'No, it wasn't very nice at all.' She took a step towards him and looked him carefully in the eye. 'Now Peter, I need you to do something for me and it is very important.' She waited for his nod of accordance before continuing again, just in case he couldn't process more than one article of information at a time. She went on slowly and articulately. 'I need you to fetch my wand off Snape.'

'Wha - what?'

She should have waited longer.

'It shouldn't be very hard for you because you can creep around as a rat - literally. It's just, I have no other way of getting out and, well, I'm so distressed!' She burst into tears, and she had to admit to herself that it really was quite good emotional timing, for once. It wasn't that she was so upset about being locked in the dungeons but it was more a mixture of wanting Peter to agree, frustration and anger towards Snape and an aching to be back home.

'No, don't ... cry,' Peter said awkwardly, and she could tell he had never faced a crying teenage girl before. He started backing away. 'I'll go get Remus or, or Sirius, or -'

'No!' she gasped, crying harder. 'You can't get them or they'll just make the situation worse. They'll beat up Snape for certain.'

Although this wasn't such a bad thing, Hermione knew that if this occurred then Snape would no doubt tell them everything about her and ruin any chances she may have had left of not changing the future.

'Please - you're so brave Peter.' She was now lying through her teeth. 'I know that you can do it. If anyone can find Snape, you can.'

Hermione peeked at him through her fingers; she knew he had been carrying the Marauders Map with him and sure enough, he took out of his pocket a piece of parchment with small figures moving about it. He was trembling madly but he obviously knew he had no choice. He looked up.

'But how am I to get out when I myself don't have a wand?' he said thickly.

Hermione dropped her hands in irritation. 'The way you got in, dolt!'

His eyes finally showed the slightest hint of understanding and without warning, he morphed back into a rat and scurried into the small passage in the wall, away from sight.

Hermione let out a deep breath. She didn't mean to be harsh with him - oh, who was she kidding? Of course she did. He was nothing but an incompetent little follower, and soon-to-be betrayer. But at least he was going to get her out of here, if all went well. She lay down in the largest space of floor she could find that wasn't scattered with mess and before she could think anymore, was fast asleep.

*-*-*

James, Sirius and Remus sat in the deserted Gryffindor common room. James was fiddling with a Rubik's Cube, sitting with his feet up on an armchair. It was charmed to rearrange itself at random. Remus was staring blankly into the fire. He was sitting next to Sirius on the couch. The atmosphere was as about as uplifting as a slab of cement.

'Where the hell is Wormtail?' Sirius said grouchily. 'All he was supposed to do was pick up the worst potion he could find that would be soluble in Snape's pumpkin juice. What's he doing, tasting everything?'

'I wouldn't be surprised,' James added, not looking up. 'I knew one of us should've done it; the stupid git can't even get to the toilets by himself.'

'Have either of you seen Isabelle? She wasn't at dinner,' Remus interjected unexpectedly. Sirius and James looked cunningly at each other and then at Remus.

'Oh shit!' James exclaimed as with a ting, the Rubik's Cube rearranged itself. 'And I'd nearly solved the bloody thing.'

'Come to think of it, Moony, I haven't seen her all night,' said Sirius as James opened the window in the room with a swish of his wand, threw the puzzle out and closed it again.

'And if Isabelle's missing and Wormtail's missing ...' he added, smiling slyly at Remus. Sirius followed suit.

Remus looked confused for but a moment before a look of horror spread over his face.

'Oh no,' he breathed.

*-*-*

Hermione found herself in the deepest slumber she had been in for weeks. She would often catch as little as three hours sleep every night, tossing and turning and thinking, trapped in the turbulent waves and dark shadows of her mind. Now all her unfathomable troubles and utter exhaustion seemed to sift away temporarily. She slept. And as she slept, she dreamed.

She dreamed she was walking around the lake on a bright summer's day. The sky was a periwinkle blue, the grass was as green and as fresh as she felt, and the sun was beating deliciously down upon her, filling her with warmth. The only things out of place were the trees that stood about her. Each tree that normally looked as healthy and alive as the grass was a dull grey colour, and seemed to droop in melancholy ambience. She found herself frowning every time she came to such a tree, but would look behind each of them without fail regardless. Hermione knew she was looking for something, but she was unaware what.

As she continued her stroll, a boy came out from behind one of the bigger trees.

'Surprise,' he said unenthusiastically. It was Harry.

'Oh, hello!' she greeted him from afar. 'I'm looking for flowers. Where's Lily?'

'Right here,' said Lily's voice and she too came out from behind the tree. Remus and Ron followed her. The three of them stood behind Harry, each looking terribly upset about something.

'What's the matter?' asked Hermione taking a tentative step towards them.

'They're not happy because you forgot about them Miss Granger,' Harry said, his eyes serious and deep.

'Did I?' Hermione said vaguely, moving closer to Harry. 'I didn't mean to.'

'Oh but you did,' he insisted, closing the remaining gap between them. He stared into her eyes - his were like storms welling, green storms. 'You wanted to forget us all, so you did.'

'I remember you, I do!' she spluttered insistently and made a grab for his hand, gasping as she touched thin air. She looked up at him, distraught, and noticed Remus, Lily and Ron all shaking their heads and moving slowly back behind the grey tree.

'Then why are we gone?' he asked, his voice now echoed and transparent.

Tears started rolling down Hermione's face and, in an attempt to hug him, instead fell straight through as if he wasn't there and onto the hard ground. The grass was now the same chilling shade of the trees, as was the sky. The sun's warmth disappeared and soon the rain began.

'Why are we gone?' he repeated, and vanished.

'Come back,' Hermione whispered as she lay in a puddle, cold to the pit of her stomach. 'I won't forget you, I promise.'

*-*-*

'Isabelle,' a voice that wasn't Harry's said. 'I'm back.'

Hermione opened her eyes and sat bolt upright, her breathing hard and fast. As if she had just been really crying, her eyes were stinging as she looked into the face of Wormtail. It showed no sign of concern but rather excitement, he indeed looked very proud of himself.

Good. I mustn't look as bad as I feel, Hermione thought to herself. 'What time is it?' she asked croakily.

'About 2am. It took me a while, but I had to get Snape to take his coat off and leave the room,' he explained smugly.

'What happened?' she said, now feeling much more awake.

'Oh, it was simple really,' he began. 'He was in an unused classroom making some sort of potion. I smashed him on the head with it and stole his coat.'

'Oh bravo,' Hermione said, sniggering. She hadn't really expected much from Peter Pettigrew, anyway. He, however, was bouncing from one foot to the other, beaming relentlessly with pride. Hermione concluded he'd missed her sarcasm.

'So ...?' she asked.

'What?'

'Where is it?'

'Where's what?'

She shook her head disbelievingly. 'His coat!'

'Oh,' Peter laughed. 'I left it there.'

Hermione gave a tut of incredulity. 'But you did get the wand?'

Wormtail brought a long black wand out of his robes and twirled it proudly. 'Sure did!' he pronounced.

Hermione's face dropped as she looked at it. 'That isn't my wand,' she said point-blank.

Wormtail stopped twirling it immediately. 'It - it isn't your wand?' he echoed, the look of victory wiped straight off his face.

She walked over to him and held her hand out for it. He gave it to her.

'You see this?' She pointed to an engraving on the wand. 'S.S, Severus Snape.'

'Oh, well - I-'

'I know you didn't mean to Peter,' she interrupted, trying not to sound irritated. 'Thankyou for doing this for me, anyway.' She was making an incredible effort to restrain from rolling her eyes. 'And at least it's a wand. I can escape with this and get mine back later.'

He gulped and nodded. Hermione made a poor effort to smile at him and made her way over to the door of the dungeon, stepping carefully over the array of broken glass, cauldrons and pieces of wood. She pointed Snape's wand to the lock and took a sharp intake of breath.

'Alohomora!' she chanted.

It was as if she had just broken into Buckingham Palace. An extraordinarily loud and high-pitched sound began emanating from the wand and she dropped it in alarm. Clamping her hands over her ears, she turned to Peter, white with shock. He too had his ears covered as the sound blared all around them.

'What's going on!' she tried to shout over the noise.

'What?' she saw Peter shout back - she couldn't actually hear him.

'I said -' she began but stopped as Peter's eyes widened.

He was looking behind her and pointing to something. Hermione followed his gaze and stepped back as a black beam began sifting out of Snape's wand. It was moving towards her at rapid speed. She frightfully continued to step back and felt herself reach the wall. The black beam approached her and before she could comprehend, it had formed a great black cage around her.

Abruptly as if someone had just pressed the off button, the sound impeded, leaving Hermione and Peter in a dead silence. They exchanged disorientated looks.

'You've got to be joking,' was all Hermione could utter.

Peter was effectively pulsating with fear. His hair had plastered sweatily to his fat head and his face was bright red. God, he was ugly. Hermione scrunched up her face in half-concern, half-disgust.

'Calm down, you're not the one in a cage here,' she defused.

Honestly, she knew he was a bit of a sissy, but not to such an extent. How he became friends with James, Remus and Sirius she never knew. She was about to assure him that she was the one who was going to get in trouble - not him, when she heard footsteps approaching. Her heart skipped a beat.

'Turn back, quick!' she hissed as she heard Snape chant something and the bolt clank.

Wormtail wasted no time and squeaked as he turned back into a rat, running as fast as his little legs would take him out the small passageway in the wall.

'Coward,' she muttered under her breath as the door opened, revealing a not-so-happy Snape. His jaw fell as he noticed the mess around the room. She gave him a look of thorough bewilderment.

'What on earth was that?' she said at once. Snape picked his wand up off the ground and looked at her almost fearfully. His voice however, was flat.

'I see you somehow attained my wand although I can't imagine how. It has, and very luckily I might add, various hexes to make sure no one but I uses it.'

'And an alarm,' Hermione added.

'And an alarm.'

'Trust you to have an alarm on your wand, Snape.' She slumped to the ground of the cage, crossing her legs and looking up at him condescendingly.

'You are dead,' he stated in the same flat tone.

Hermione let out a haughty laugh. 'You can't do anything to me.'

'Why not? You've no hope of getting out of that cage without a wand. I created it myself.'

'What an achievement,' she said sardonically. 'And you can't kill me because Dumbledore would know and you'd be sent straight to Azkaban.'

'Well I can't very well let you go, you'd tell on me,' he said, sounding particularly like a five year-old kindergarten bully.

'Damn straight,' she averred. 'I mean ... no, I'd never do such a thing.' She batted her eyelids at him, causing the vein on his neck to return, bigger and better than ever before.

'Fine, I'll just leave you to rot,' he said, his eyes gleaming with malice.

'Snape, this is a frequently used classroom. Someone will come eventually,'

'Before you starve?' he posed menacingly.

Hermione crossed her arms. 'Humans can last up to two weeks without food and water.'

'How do you know that?' he spat.

'I saw it on a World Vision ad,' she said briskly.

'What?'

'In other words, you've screwed up your plan, Snapey.'

The vein looked dangerously close to popping, Snape was angrier than when she had smashed the potion. Hermione figured it was because he knew he had lost again - as always.

'FINE then, you - you -' he called her a range of very colourful names. 'I'll let you go.'

She clucked angrily. 'About bloody time.'

'But bear in mind that I can reveal you to anyone I like, anytime I choose. I have the power to make it so that you were never born and if you so much as hint to Dumbledore that I -'

'If you tell anyone, Dumbledore will just expel you,' she cut off evenly.

'Ha!' he interjected, moving closer to the cage and glaring through the thick bars at her. 'I'm not going to fall for that, Isabelle, although that probably isn't even your name. Not even Dumbledore would expel me for letting a bit of information I came across slip. I could just turn around and say that while we were sharing passionate moments together,' and he smiled at this remark, 'you told me everything and I felt it my duty as a Slytherin prefect to let people know the truth. MWAHAHAHA!' He burst into malignant mirth that sounded more forced than anything. Hermione couldn't help feeling impressed despite herself.

'Wow, talk about evil scheme of the century - complete with the laugh and everything.'

'Why, thankyou,' he said, smirking.

'Now tell me, how many times did you practise that in front on the mirror before you came here?'

'Argh!' Snape let out a yell of rage and with a wave of his wand, made the cage disappear. 'Just get out of my sight, you stupid girl!'

Hermione triumphantly walked to the doorway and paused.

'Thanks,' she said, grinning. 'Oh, and sorry about the little disorder I created ...'

She looked around the room. 'I was a little bored. Have fun cleaning!'

She bolted up the stairs from the dungeon, chuckling to herself. It would take a powerfully strong clean-up spell to get the room back to its original state, and she strongly doubted that Snape was a mastermind at domestic magic. It certainly seemed that way as Snape, who had forgotten completely about the state of the room let out another menacing scream that echoed up the staircase and into the night.

*-*-*

Hermione didn't stop running until she reached the Fat Lady's portrait where she stopped and collapsed against the wall to catch her breath. She was so relieved to get out of the Dungeons, away from Snape, that she must have acquired momentary fitness. Well, it was fading - fast. She pushed off the wall and looked up at the Fat Lady who was snoring loudly in her frame, fast asleep.

'Excuse me,' Hermione said, panting, but the Fat Lady didn't stir.

'I said, excuse me,' she repeated more loudly this time, 'but I really need to get into the -' she broke off, knowing this wasn't doing any good. 'WAKE UP!' she shouted and the Fat Lady jolted awake.

'My, My!' she said crossly. 'All I ask is for a whole night's sleep but no they don't even give me that. This is the second time I've been woken up and I have a right mind to -'

'Veritas,' Hermione interrupted exhaustedly; she was far too tired to be polite at this stage.

With an angry huff the Fat Lady swung open her portrait and Hermione climbed into the Gryffindor common room. Right now, all she wanted to do was sleep for about a year.

As the portrait closed behind her and she turned around, she froze.

Remus, Sirius, James and Peter were all staring at her. Sirius and James were standing above Peter, who was sitting looking guilty on the couch. Remus was in an armchair by the fire, looking at her with an unreadable expression.

'Well, well, well,' said Sirius. 'Look who's back.'