This Present Darkness

Chapter Nine

"Set me as a seal upon thine heart, as a seal upon thine arm: for love is strong as death; jealousy is cruel as the grave: the coals thereof are coals of fire, which hath a most vehement flame."

Song of Solomon 8:6

"How art thou fallen from heaven, O Lucifer, son of the morning! how art thou cut down to the ground, which didst weaken the nations!"

Isaiah 14:12

"Did I fear a great multitude, or did the contempt of families terrify me, that I kept silence, and went not out of the door?"

Job 31:34

It was less than ten days to Hermione's 18^th birthday. She'd received an owl from Harry a few days ago, asking her if he could celebrate her birthday with her a weekend early as the Chudley Canons were playing in Wales the weekend of her actual birthday. He suggested Ron come along too 'so it could be just like old times when us three snuck around Hogwarts breaking the rules'.

Hermione grinned as she read Harry's note. Although Harry was busy with his up-and-coming Quidditch career and Ginny, and Ron was at the Auror's Academy and spent most of his free time with Padma, she still heard from 'her boys' very regularly. Especially during this strange and difficult time with her parents gone and Snape a dark presence in the day-to-day of her life, they had been particularly kind and attentive. She'd seen all of her friends regularly at Hogsmeade or Diagon Alley over the months since leaving Hogwarts and now saw many of them still at Hogsbridge during the day. As fun and relaxing as these times were, they were quite over-shadowed by her discoveries about her animagus, her guardian and the knowledge of how she could stop Voldemort.

It had also been eclipsed by her own emotional state which she still did not understand. Most days she felt unnaturally calm but she knew it was not real calm. As Snape had made her realise, what she really was was completely shut down emotionally. Occasionally her emotions erupted with volcanic force like the two nights she'd transformed into the black unicorn and the night she'd pegged books at Snape. In reality, she was always in a dangerous state of tension, ready to explode.

And then there was Snape. What the hell effect did he have on her, anyway? Why did his touch make her burst into life? Almost burst into flames, really. None of the boys she'd kissed at Hogwarts had had that effect. It was ridiculous. He'd hated her for seven solid years and never made any secret of it but now, he kissed her and she wanted to wrap herself around him and... and.... her face burned. If it was anyone else, she'd happily indulge in fantasies of what she'd like to do to him and with him but she had to face him every day still for over a week. Better to quash those thoughts immediately. Besides, although he'd made it graphically clear that he physically desired her there was no indication that he felt anything for her other than desire; desire which he seemed to have subsequently turned off like a tap - quite easily too. If he still desired her, would she be happy just to have a fling with him anyway even if he was up for it once he was no longer her guardian? She didn't know. She had no experience of these things to know how she'd cope in that situation.

She couldn't name her own feelings for him anyway. She certainly cared about his well-being and the thought of him being hurt or killed by the Death Eaters make her blood run cold. She suspected she knew more about him than most people but what did that count for? Their situation was intimate - uncomfortably so at times. Maybe that accounted for his unusual openness with her? Well, openness for him anyway, she qualified.

One thing she did know for certain, given half a chance she'd definitely jump him. She grinned to herself. She'd just have to deal with the fall out afterwards, she decided.

* * *

When Snape came upstairs for breakfast he saw Harry's note next to her plate with the Chudley Canons logo on it. "Another letter from your little boyfriend?" he sneered. "Can't lave you alone for two minutes, can he?"

Hermione simply gave him a 'look' as she forked scrambled egg into her mouth. "We're going out Saturday night. Probably a pub crawl between Hogsmeade and Diagon Alley," she informed him like a dutiful ward once she'd finished chewing.

"You won't be of age yet," Snape said with a frown, mechanically eating his own eggs. "You can't drink."

"I hardly think the pub keepers are going to be worried about it one week before my birthday," Hermione said truthfully.

Snape's mouth tightened but he didn't argue as he knew she was right. "It is just your little boyfriend?" he asked obnoxiously.

"If you're referring to Harry, then no. Ron is coming too," she said smartly.

"Ah! Your other little boyfriend who also won't leave you alone for two minutes," Snape said disdainfully. Hermione just gave him another 'look' which Snape completely ignored. "Is anyone else going?" he drawled.

"Nope. Just us," Hermione said cheerfully, buttering some toast.

Snape frowned. "Their girlfriends aren't going?" he probed.

"Nope. It'll be just us. Just like the old days," she replied, checking to see if she could fit anymore jam onto her toast.

"How nice. The three of you can go on a pub crawl and save the world again," he sneered.

Hermione suddenly got angry. "Oh sod off! You're just pissed because Harry got that Order of Merlin - First Class when he graduated from Hogwarts," she said maliciously.

Snape bristled. "You seem determined to have me be jealous of Potter," he spat. "Have you ever thought that maybe he's jealous about you? Maybe he's jealous that you care more about your study and career than about him?"

Hermione looked at him blankly as though he'd gone mad. "Harry loves Ginny, so why would he be jealous about me and my study?" she said simply.

Snape made a dismissive noise. "Typical, simplistic, Gryffindor thinking," he said contemptuously. "I'm sure he does care about Ginny but maybe she was a consolation prize because you preferred books?"

"Next you'll be suggesting Ron is secretly in love with me too!" Hermione said, rolling her eyes. Snape was meaningfully silent. "Oh, for goodness sake! Surely not!" Hermione said when she realised what his silence meant. "According to you then, the whole of bloody Hogwarts was in love with me! Hey, why stop at Hogwarts? The whole of Hogsmeade too! Maybe all of wizarding England?" she was about to go on when Snape hissed,

"Shut up! You're not very observant are you? Did either of them ask you out while you were at Hogwarts?" he asked sharply.

"Yes, they both did. More than once but that doesn't mean that they were in love...."

"Quiet!" he commanded, interrupting her again. "I'm sure that Harry cares about Ginny and Ron about Padma but that doesn't prevent them having strong feelings for you," he argued.

"No but you're complicating something very simple. Harry loves Ginny. Ron loves Padma. I love both Harry and Ron, and they love me too - but only as friends!" she stressed.

"You have to over-simplify everything, don't you?" he said with disgust.

"And you have to obscure everything, don't you? Get it through your head! Harry and Ron are not in love with me and if they ever were, it no longer matters," she said emphatically.

"Perhaps but it wouldn't take much to re-ignite their feelings. Maybe like a little alcohol?" he said insinuatingly.

Hermione snatched up Harry's letter and marched to her room. She'd had quite enough of Severus Snape for one day!

Snape stared at the cold, rubbery eggs left on his plate. His stomach was churning with sick anxiety. Hermione, Harry, Ron and alcohol were a bad combination to his mind. He didn't want either of those two touching Hermione or even thinking about her in anything but a platonic way. His lean mouth twitched. A couple of 18-year-old hotheads with an attractive girl like Hermione was a recipe for disaster. He knew what teen-age boys were like - add alcohol to the hormones and explosions were guaranteed. Those two cared about her, they'd protect her from other predatory males but he had grave doubts about their own predatory instincts. He suddenly felt nauseous.

* * *

Hermione looked at herself in the mirror and smiled at what she saw. She was wearing a red, tartan mini-skirt with black tights and high-heeled oxfords. The skirt wasn't too short on her, as she wasn't very tall. It came to mid-thigh and looked quite respectable but combined with the tight cashmere crop top and denim jacket, she knew she looked her best. She wore her hair out and lots of red lipstick, just because she loved it.

Harry and Ron were coming round to her place and they were all leaving from there together. Just as she was putting a few things in a small handbag, the doorbell rang. She skipped happily down the stairs to greet her boys and met Snape in the foyer, going to answer the door. He was hoping that the sight of him glowering at them might put a dampner on Ron and Harry's enthusiasm. Snape's eyes narrowed dangerously when he saw what she was wearing. Hermione grinned at him cheerfully and pushed past him to get to the door.

"Hello!" she said excitedly, as she let them in.

Ron and Harry's eyes widened. They knew Hermione was attractive but they'd never seen her dressed quite like that. "Er... wow, Hermione. You look great," Harry said with a lop-sided grin before giving her a hug.

"Yeah, Hermione. You look... you look... really good!" Ron chimed in sounding a bit lost for words, also giving her a hug.

"Thanks," Hermione said with a complacent grin. She turned to go back up the stairs with Ron and Harry when Snape blocked her path.

"Hermione," he said smoothly. "I don't think it's wise to go out in an outfit like that, do you?"

Hermione snorted. "There is nothing wrong with what I'm wearing. I mean, I'm covered from head to toe, really," she argued. Ron and Harry nodded earnestly in agreement.

"Hermione, you know exactly what I mean. I think you should get changed," he said sternly.

"Oh lay off. You know there's nothing wrong with what I'm wearing. Some girls wear far shorter skirts and far less clothes than I am!" she retorted.

"Yes, they do," Ron sighed dreamily. Hermione looked at him with amusement and Snape glared.

"Hermione, there is no need to go out on a pub crawl with your little friends looking like a hooker," Snape said coldly, making the word 'friends' sound like an insult.

"Well, I guess you'd know all about hookers," Hermione said with pure spite, not really believing a word of it. Her feelings were hurt and she knew how to fight dirty. "Besides, I'm not dressed like one - Daddy!" she said pointedly. That last jibe did the trick. Snape backed down immediately and stalked through to his rooms still glowering. Ron and Harry just stared at her. "What?" she said to them innocently, then turned and led them upstairs to the fireplace they were using to get to Diagon Alley.

It was a very long night that passed very quickly. Ron and Harry were in high spirits, as Harry had just found out that day that he'd been offered a place on the National Quidditch team for the World Cup that year. Hermione hugged him tight when she found out and they jumped up and down in a circle, hanging onto each other excitedly like kids in a playground.

After that, the course was set and they proceeded to get very merrily drunk very quickly. They danced together all night and stayed in a tight group. They bumped into George and Pandora at the Three Broomsticks later that night once they'd moved their pub crawl to Hogsmeade, and the five of them took over most of the tiny dance floor for hours. Finally, at around 3am Hermione was falling asleep against Harry, and George and Pandora had headed home an hour before.

"C'mon 'Mione. It's time to go home. You're nearly asleep," Harry said gently, nudging her.

"Hmmm..mmm," was all the reply he got. "I'm so proud of you!" she said again and gave him a hug. Harry grinned and then a minute later pulled her to her feet.

"I don't think she's going to make it via floo," Harry said to Ron with amusement. "We'd better get the Knight Bus."

Ron nodded sleepily in agreement and they headed outside to hail the bus. It appeared out of no-where two minutes later, it's headlights cutting through the darkest time of night and blinding the three friends. Several light posts jumped out of its way as it screeched up to the curb and lurched to a halt. They clambered aboard and Harry paid for the tickets. It wasn't the usual driver with the bad case of acne. This driver was a portly gentleman with a round face and dark hair and a Manchester accent.

They all sat on one bed and giggled as the bus screeched off again. That time of the morning there was only two or three other passengers. A hag sat quietly in one corner, knitting something out of what looked like bright green smoke. An ancient looking, white haired gentleman in eccentric looking robes was in a bed behind them, smoking a pipe of something rather foul smelling that definitely was not tobacco. Another wizard, not much older than they were was sitting near the driver. He was wearing a pointed wizards hat in purple with matching robes and sat bolt upright the entire time, leaning on an elegant ebony and silver cane. He would be quite handsome, Hermione thought hazily, if he didn't have such a severe expression on his face.

By the time the Knight Bus had dropped off the other passengers, it was close to 4am. "Snape is gonna be pissed!" Hermione said gleefully to the boys, the alcohol wearing off as she sipped from a bottle of water Harry had given her when they got on the bus.

"Yes, he is," Harry said, without hesitation. Then grinned too. Ron grinned back at them both.

After the bus had listed to a halt outside Hermione's house, several dustbins jumping out of the way first, they climbed off gratefully. An hour on the Knight Bus when you're drunk was not good for one's sense of well-being, Hermione decided. They tripped happily up to the front door, Hermione in the middle with her arms around each boy's necks and both boys with one arm around her waist. They playfully tried to step on each other's toes and giggled furiously. After Hermione discovered she couldn't unlock the door with her key, Harry gently took it from her and unlocked it himself. That set them all off giggling again.

Snape, who had been awake and paranoid the whole night imagining all sort of unlikely things that the trio were up to could hear them from his rooms. He sighed deeply in disgust when he heard the giggles but felt relieved that Hermione was finally home. He heard them come in, still giggling loudly.

"Shhhhhh! You'll wake up Snape!" Hermione said loudly then started giggling madly again. Ron and Harry joined in. They proceeded to thunder up the stairs.

"I've got to go 'Mione," Harry said regretfully. "I'll have to try and get in a few hours sleep before practise this afternoon."

"I'd better go too," Ron said, through a huge yawn.

"Okay," Hermione said amiably and gave them both a big hug before they disappeared through the fireplace, still yelling "bye" and "love you 'Mione!" as they went.

"Men!" she said after they'd gone. "They spend the night with you then leave just before dawn!" she sniggered to herself, impressing herself with her own wit when she was too drunk to know how silly she sounded.

Suddenly she realised she didn't have her handbag on her. "Great!" she said to herself and thumped down the stairs to look for it. Snape was in the foyer looking awful. "You look awful," she commented, spotting her bag on the floor where she must have dropped it.

"So do you!" he said coolly, examining her from top to toe. She poked out her tongue at him. She was too drunk to care how she looked and she'd had too good a time for Snape to put her in a bad mood.

"Well, I have an excuse! I've been up all night. What's your excuse?" she said reasonably.

"And you're drunk," he added pointedly, ignoring her question. She did look worse for wear, he acknowledged. Her red lipstick had worn off although it had stained her lips a bright red. Her eye make-up was a bit smudged and she looked pale.

Hermione climbed halfway up the stairs and sat down, resting her head on the middle landing and proceeded to go to sleep.

"You can't go to sleep there!" Snape said sharply.

"Why not? It's my house!" she pointed out sleepily and yawned so wide that Snape was astonished.

"Hermione, be sensible and go to your room," he commanded, frowning.

"Come over here and make me, why don't you?" she challenged in a very sleepy, unconvincing way.

Snape had very vivid memories of what had happened the last time she'd thrown down that particular gauntlet and he wasn't even going to go there again. "Hermione, stop behaving like a baby!" he said in his best school teacher voice.

"Go to hell!" she said amiably.

He marched up the stairs to her and firmly pulled her upright by one arm. "C'mon, up you get!" he pulled her to her feet and she quite deliberately leaned against him. Snape suddenly stopped breathing. She smiled at him, daring him to kiss her. Snape closed his eyes for a second and then tugged her up the rest of the stairs.

She leant heavily on him, smiling broadly to herself. Quite deliberately, she put one arm around him in a pretense of bracing herself against him. She staggered a bit too, just for fun. He smelled and felt wonderful. She pressed herself against him harder. Her grin grew bigger which fortunately Snape couldn't see because of the hair falling in her face.

Snape meanwhile, was beginning to feel slightly desperate. She was hugging him again! He could smell her hair and perfume. His face began to burn and he carefully controlled his breathing. All he wanted to do... he deliberately squashed the thought. If he started kissing her, he wouldn't stop. Besides, he knew very well that she was drunk and that was the only reason she was being so provocative. By the time she'd slept this off, she wouldn't even remember this incident.

Finally he dragged her to her room and shoved her onto her bed, feeling relieved. She lay there looking at him, a perfectly innocent expression on her face which Snape had serious doubts about.

"Are you going to tuck me in, Sir?" she teased and curled up on one side.

"Just sleep it off, you silly girl," he said, trying to sound stern but really only sounding a bit breathless. She laughed as he fled from the room, colour staining his sharp cheekbones.

When he got back to his rooms he was thankful that there was only a week left until he was freed of his role as guardian. Hermione had too powerful an effect on his emotions nowadays and the sexual temptation was nearly unbearable, particularly when she behaved in such a provocative way. He sat on the edge of his bed as his legs felt suddenly unsteady. He didn't know what to do. He was at a loss. He felt pulled in ten different directions. He knew he couldn't count her behaviour in a drunken state as any indication that she wanted him as a lover, particularly taking into account their very significant age difference but... He didn't trust himself not to give in to the temptation should that offer come his way again once he was no longer her guardian. If it ever came his way again...

On one hand, he didn't see anything wrong in getting involved with Hermione when she came of age should she want it. On the other, she was vulnerable and had been in a bad place emotionally for the entire time they had been thrown together, and maybe he would be taking advantage of her should she decide she wanted him? Then there was his own feelings on the matter and he doubted he would have the strength to push her away for her own good should she decide she wanted him in any way at all. Tiredly he rubbed one eye with the heel of one slender hand. He needed to sleep. Maybe everything would be clearer when he woke up.

* * *

Nothing became clearer over the next week to Snape except that this strange period in his life was drawing to a close. Hermione was busy with plans for her 18^th birthday party with all her friends and with her study. He felt odd most of the time. As though time was passing with the surrealistic slowness that seemed to precede momentous events.

Hermione was busy but she felt strangely still as well, as though waiting for something but she hardly knew what. It was a though there was a still pool of expectancy within her untouched by the rush of her days. She had conveniently pretended to forget her provocative behaviour towards Snape when she had been tipsy. After all, boys pulled that stunt all the time so why shouldn't she? She hadn't spent much time with Snape over the past week anyway. Most of her day was spent on campus and her evenings in her study or with friends. She couldn't escape this strange feeling of 'waiting' though.

What she was waiting for came for her two mornings before her birthday. As she was about to floo her way to Hogsbridge campus, she noticed a dark shape flit past the window heading downwards. She recognised Snape's black owl immediately and she also knew what it meant.

She bit her lip as she thought. There was no way Snape would be so careless as to leave the parchment lying around for her to find this time. She pondered for a while and then remembered Harry's Marauder's Map. If a map like that existed of Hogwarts, there must be some kind of spell connected to it that she could put on almost any map to locate people within a grid. Without hesitation she got up, took a pinch of floo and said, "Hogsbridge library."

It didn't take Hermione long to find what she was looking for. Then again, it rarely did. If the information was there to be found, Hermione was sure to find it very quickly. After all, she was experienced at finding her way around a library!

Carefully she enchanted a quill to copy out the information she needed while she hunted out some maps of Britain, especially the greater London area. Finally, loaded down with information she went home to begin the spell.

By lunchtime, she had enchanted a small map of Northern Britain and carefully looked it over. It was covered with tiny dots, some of which were moving slowly over it. When she looked closely, she could see the individuals clearly. It had worked! Now all she had to do was enchant all the other maps of the different parts of Britain and then keep an eye on Snape for the rest of the day.

Snape didn't go far from the house that day. He'd been in a funny mood over breakfast, she'd noticed; even more uncommunicative than usual. He wasn't in the garden much either, just brief periods while drinking a cup of coffee or watering a rose bush. When evening fell, they had dinner together but once more Snape was abnormally silent; even for him. Hermione guessed he was not looking forward to the Death Eaters meeting later that night. After all, unless he was able to please Voldemort again, chances are he would be tortured once more. The thought made her deeply angry and so she was quiet as well.

Much later that night, Hermione heard Snape moving around downstairs and figured his arm would be burning right about now. She pulled out the maps that she had enchanted earlier and muttered a charm over the dot that represented Snape to make him stand out on the maps. Naturally, at that time the maps showed that he was still in the house with her.

But not for long. It took her a couple of minutes to relocate his dot on a detailed map of the Northern Districts. They were obviously meeting somewhere in the North York Moors. Ironically enough, they were meeting just outside a place called Ravenscar near the coast.

Quickly Hermione looked up her directory of English wizarding towns in her Altas of the Wizarding World. Sure enough, there was a small wizarding town near Ravenscar called Raven's Hollow. She checked her map of the floo network and there was a small pub called The Tipsy Toad in Raven's Hollow on the network. Grabbing Harry's invisibility cloak, she made her way to the fireplace and wished she were old enough to get her Apparating license.

She arrived via floo in the cloak. She didn't want to be seen as she didn't know Raven's Hollow and whether or not it was a Death Eater's hang out. Most of the Death Eaters didn't know who she was or that she was Snape's ward but it was better to be safe than sorry. Silently she slipped out of the fireplace and out through the door, following a couple of suspicious looking characters.

Ravenscar was just North East of Raven's Hollow, less than a half hour walk but it was over rough ground so it took her longer to get there. She followed the roads that branched off the A171-Whitby to Scarborough. Ravenscar really was tiny, Hermione mused. It had one main road and two smaller streets that crossed the main road both ways. It was right on the coast on the North Sea and a fierce and cold wind blew in from the Arctic. Hermione was grateful for her cloak.

As she suspected, the meeting was slightly outside the small town and away from the trivial number of locals slightly further North and closer to the coast. She muttered a small location charm and got a reading of a large gathering of wizards in order to pinpoint them.

She could hear Voldemort speaking as she silently approached.

*"It is a hard, tough task which demands the commitment of the whole person without regard to any difficulties that may arise. You will be given details by in due time. Those taking part will be informed at the appropriate time. You have to maintain the strictest silence about this order, even amongst yourselves. The Muggle-borns are the eternal enemies of the purebloods and must be exterminated. All Muggle-borns we can reach now, during this time, are to be exterminated without exception. If we do not succeed in destroying the biological basis of the Muggle-born wizard, some day they will annihilate the purebloods and our great magical strength.

** "The Muggle-born is the ferment of the decomposition of people. This means that it is in the nature of the Muggle-born to contaminate and weaken because he lacks altogether any idea of working for the common good. He possesses certain characteristics given to him by nature and he never can rid himself of those characteristics. The Muggle-born is harmful to us.

*** "I believe, my friends, that you know me well enough to realize that I am not a bloodthirsty wizard nor a wizard who takes pleasure or finds sport in the harsher things he must do. On the other hand, I have strong nerves and a great sense of duty - if I do say so myself - and when I recognize the necessity to do something, I will do it unflinchingly. As to the Muggle-born women and children, I did not believe I had a right to let these children grow up to become avengers who would kill our fathers and grandchildren. That, I thought, would be cowardly. Thus the problem was solved without half-measures. At this time -- it is one of those things peculiar to this campaign - we are taking as many male Muggle-borns from England to our camps to build underground laboratories, and will later take yet more. Not one of them will ever come within the field of vision of the pureblood people. I am convinced that things would look bleak for the purebloods if we had not resolved the Muggle-born problem there, if, for example, the camps North of Gillamoor or the other West of Callington were still in existence."

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As Hermione approached, her ears pricked up to hear that Voldemort was holding prisoners in new underground camps. So they are not dead yet, Hermione thought anxiously. There is still time to save them.

Hermione had badly miscalculated. She made her way over the final rise to get to the gathering in a large hollow but found out the hard way that this meeting had been protected by charms unlike the last one. As she looked down over the hollow lit eerily with dim green lights, she found herself flanked by two very large Death Eaters.

"You can take off that invisibility cloak. We know you're there," one of them said in a low voice. Hermione's knees turned to water. Sprung, she thought.

****"Fear came upon me, and trembling, which made all my bones to shake."

She refused to take off her cloak and the hood was pulled roughly back off her hair. They didn't recognise her.

"Who are you?" The first man asked, his deep voice muffled by the mask. She didn't bother replying. "Oh, a stubborn one. Well, you won't be stubborn for long once you've met Voldemort." She still said nothing, clenching her jaw to stop her teeth chattering. She looked out over the assembly below her in the hollow. It held roughly the same number as the meeting at Snape's family mansion. Voldemort was still talking and no-one in the assembly had noticed her yet.

"What were you doing here anyway - a young girl like you?" The second man asked suspiciously, in a less deep voice and with a distinct London accent.

She didn't even look at him. By now, both men had taken each of her arms. They were obviously waiting until Voldemort finished speaking to hand her over. Of course, she couldn't tell which of the Death Eaters below was Snape. She was glad he didn't know yet that she was here but he'd know soon enough.

**** "Therefore snares are round about thee, and sudden fear troubleth thee."

She was having problems breathing normally as her fear deepened. At best, she would be taken to one of these underground camps and tortured with their 'experiments' for a very long time. At worst, she would be killed instantly. She felt icy cold and as though she was floating outside her own body. The scene before her looked surrealistic and suddenly seemed to make no sense to her. She swayed on her feet. Time slowed down strangely.

"Hey, stay upright," the first man said distantly, tugging on her arm.

Voldemort's voice stopped for a few moments. "Bring the girl," he said suddenly into the silence. Harry's cloak slipped the rest of the way off as the two thugs led her to Voldemort. He was even uglier than she remembered.

Voldemort examined her closely. "You look familiar," he hissed. Hermione stayed silent.

****"Fear took hold upon [me] there, and pain, as of a woman in travail"

"I know you! You're a close friend of Potter," he said slowly, his red eyes boring into her.

Hermione suddenly started out of the morass of fear she had been sinking into. She could feel something familiar yet foreign taking hold. Her breathing quickened as a restlessness rose within her, as relentless as the tide and fierce as a storm.

Snape's nails were digging into his palms until they drew blood. He was too terrified of what Voldemort was going to do to her to even feel angry with her for disobeying him, right then. He couldn't say a word or do anything sudden or unconsidered - it could guarantee rather than prevent her death if it was the wrong thing. Desperately he tried to think of a plan but his mind was numb with horror and fear.

"Snape," Voldemort hissed. Snape's stomach turned to ice. Did he know? Snape wondered. "Didn't you teach this girl at that infernal Hogwarts for seven years and haven't you been appointed as her guardian by that fool Dumbledore?"

Snape came forward, automatically pulling off his mask and hoping his face didn't betray him. He knelt briefly to Voldemort then turned and pretended to examine Hermione. His face was carefully neutral and impassive as he did so. I can't lie about it, he thought anxiously. Voldemort was not stupid. "Yes, my Lord. This is Hermione, my ward and Potter's friend." He said coldly.

Voldemort hissed through his teeth. "Stupid girl! Did you think you could carry information on the Death Eaters back to Potter? Even if you had succeeded, what would he have done with it? All he's good at is saving his own skin," Voldemort sneered.

Hermione glanced up at Voldemort and looked him dead in the eye, all her loathing and hatred for everything he stood for suddenly written clear upon her face. "I suppose you would see it that way, considering every time the two of you meet you come off the worse of the confrontation," Hermione sneered. "I wonder what your precious Death Eaters make of that little fact."

Voldemort's eyes glowed fiercely down at her in rage. "How dare you! You're nothing but a filthy mudblood! I know your background. You don't even deserve to be part of the wizarding community," he spat at her.

"That's your opinion," Hermione said smartly. If he was going to kill her, at least she was going to have her say first. "You're nothing but a pathetic has-been that was defeated by a baby!"

Snape listened to her in despair. She would not be allowed to live after those insults. He desperately tried to think of a way of turning the situation around.

Voldemort was apoplectic. "You filthy mudblood whore! You won't live to see the sun! I'm sorry Snape but I'm going to have to deprive you of your little ward," he raged like a beast. Voldemort raised his wand, a vicious look on his face.

Then he slowly lowered it again.

Because the girl was transforming.

Into a black unicorn.

Voldemort turned a sickly yellow grey as the magnificent beast reared before him, its ebony hooves flashing in the eerie green light. Before Voldemort could raise his wand again, the unicorn wheeled around, came down on all fours and turned one molten eye on him. The wizard froze. The two stared at each other. The beast focused on its prey, its powerful magic keeping him easily within its control.

Once again, Snape felt as though time had slowed down to a mere trickle. Feeling as though he was moving underwater, he took his wand out of his robes. He saw the unicorn lower its horn, its eye still fixed on its quarry. The creature charged, as graceful and liquid as moonlight on flowing water. It was hypnotic.

Suddenly the world snapped back into focus for Snape. He raised his wand and yelled, "Avada Kedavra". A ray of evil green light shot from his wand and made its way unerringly towards Voldemort. The split second the power left his wand, Snape knew the spell could not kill something no longer truly human. That was not his aim however. All he wanted was to stop the unicorn's horn connecting with flesh.

Just as the unicorn was a stride away from Voldemort, he disappeared into a black vapour and his clothes collapsed in a heap on the grass.

The unicorn charged into thin air.

(* Based on a speech by Himmler to Hoess in June 1941.)

(** Based on a speech given by Hitler on 12 April 1922 in Munich.)

(*** Based on a speech given by Himmler on 24 May 1945.)

(****Job 4:14 & Job 22:10 & Psalm 48:6 )