The Dream of One Night

CHAPTER THIRTY-FIVE

Avrille

The fact that I now knew myself to be pregnant didn't change much for me. I was very aware I simply did not have time to dwell on the fact when Severus was somewhere in need of my help. As I did a quick clean-up of the Pregnancy Potion, I shook my head at myself, remembering how my mom had told me during "the talk" as a teenager how it was possible to get pregnant your first time. I had rolled my eyes at her at the time, thinking how could anyone be so irresponsible!? I stopped shelving herbs for a moment and placed a hand over my stomach. A fluttering there, which I obviously knew was simply nerves, brought a giddy smile to my face. But then remembering I was in the middle of a mission, I closed up the classroom then ran at full speed back to Severus' rooms. There were still those folders of papers from the safe I needed to go through, something in there hopefully giving me the location of Severus' mother's house, and it was already well past lunchtime.

Even though the last thing I felt like doing was eating, I ordered some food sent down to me in Severus' parlour and sat on the couch flipping through the papers with one hand while I forced down a sandwich with the other. I remembered Severus mentioning after Christmas that he owned his childhood home, so I thought it was likely it would be the same house his mother had been in during my vision. Big houses like that tended to stay within one family. Being very careful not to drip mustard on the table, I scanned every single piece of paper, looking for an address that wasn't Severus' at Hogwarts. I was pretty sure I would need something concrete like an address to be able to try to Apparate there; having a quick glimpse of the place in my dream didn't give me enough of a feel for its location to really focus on.

The first folder ended up being completely filled with copies of Severus' grade transcripts from his two schools, his exams results, and a copy of his Black Arts Thesis from the Academia; all really interesting stuff but not very useful at the moment. The other folder provided me with much more personal information. It contained all of his family records, like both his and his mother's birth certificates. Unfortunately, neither of these provided an address. Underneath those was a marriage certificate stating Charlotte Odessa Greyadder espoused a Septimus Xavier Snape on June 2, 1957. Well, at least Severus' father had a name now as well.

Further on, there were death certificates for both of his parents. Septimus Snape had only lived a year and a half longer than his wife, and there was no cause of death noted, which I found strange. Underneath Severus' father's death certificate, I finally found something: the deed to a house.

There were two copies of the deed, one on ancient yellowed parchment that looked about to crumble and another, newer transcription. I carefully placed the original deed back down and studied the other. It was for a property called Greyadder House, which I figured was the one I needed since that was the same as Charlotte's maiden name. The acreage of the property seemed vast, which also fit since the house in my vision had seemed a veritable mansion. But most importantly, the deed listed an address; it was in Hampshire county, a mile outside of the Muggle village Puddingbrook. Dropping the deed back onto the table, I hurried over to one of the bookcases and pulled out a large atlas. Flipping through the pages, I finally found a map of the county and, to further cement in my mind that this was the place to go, I saw Severus had marked a small dot just south of Puddingbrook Village.

Well, it was by no means certain that this was the place Charlotte had told me to find last night, but it was a start. After taking a few minutes to clear up the important papers and locking them once more in the safe, I returned to my own rooms to pack a small bag. It was already the afternoon, and it was likely going to take me quite some time to reach the house and investigate. I packed a change of Muggle clothes, some biscuits and tea for a snack, thinking I could just Conjure a kettle from the castle should one not present itself where I was going, as well as some Muggle money I still had left over from my plane trip here in the summer. Since the house was only a mile or so from the Muggle village, I might be able to go there if I needed something else. Into a secure pocket I slipped two of the photographs of Charlotte: the one of her sketching from my vision as well as the one of her on the swing. You could see the exterior of the house in the background of the latter, so I could use it to make sure I was in the right place when I arrived. With optimistic hope, I also took Severus' wand with me, assuming if he had been at all able to, he would have come back for it a long time ago.

I dressed in layers since I had no idea what the weather was going to be like where I was going. Before I left I gave Caligula an extra-long hug and made sure both his food and water dishes were practically overflowing; not that he would know how to budget his food, of course. I bet that if I came back an hour later, it would all be gone anyway, but I was sure Pinky wouldn't let him starve. Slinging my bag over my shoulder, I triple checked that I had both wands before stepping into the fireplace and taking the Floo to the Shrieking Shack.

Not wanting to try to Apparate from that creepy place, I did a short-distance Apparation to the bottom of the hill instead. The air outside was warm and fragrant with the gentle perfume of springtime flower buds. It was a welcome change from the cold dungeon air I had been breathing constantly for the past few days. I took a few moments to inhale deeply and cleanse my lungs. Then, gripping my bag even more tightly, I closed my eyes and focused on the address of Greyadder House. I concentrated deeply on what it had felt like in my vision, what the exterior looked like in the photograph, and its location on the map in relation to where I was in Hogsmeade, hoping that these were all indeed the same place. With another deep breath, I thought of Severus and how desperate I was to see him, telling my magic that in order to find him, I had to first make it to this other location. With all of those thoughts stewing together in my brain, I turned quickly and tried to Apparate.

It's hard to explain exactly what happened next. I knew immediately that something had gone wrong since I was thrown backwards onto the cold, pine needle-covered ground of the forest I had been trying to leave. The force of the impact knocked all of the air out of my lungs, and for those first few seconds the only thing on my mind was trying to gulp oxygen back into my body as quickly as possible. Once I could draw breath once more, I stayed prostrate on the hard earth and tried to find a reason for what had just happened. It was strange, but though my Apparation had been unsuccessful, it's failure resulted in solidifying my belief that this house was the place I needed to find.

For one, in the nanosecond before I was tossed painfully back to Hogsmeade, I had caught the quickest glimpse of a sprawling grey stone manor house on top of a faraway hill. That house looked at a glance just like the house in the background of the picture of Charlotte on her swing. However, I knew I had barely enough time for my brain to register that it was a house I was looking at, so I couldn't be sure it was a definite match. No, what had really cemented my resolve was the magic I had felt shove me back through the void. My entire body was still stinging from its power, and my emotions felt raw from it, too. There was no doubt that whatever spell protected the property from Apparation, Severus had set it himself. The sensation that had jarred me away made me almost want to cry; I felt like Severus had slapped me.

But I forced the tears back down, focusing instead on the fact that, though his repellent magic had been hurtful, it was still his, meaning that house was the place I needed to go. The only problem now was actually getting to it. I jumped up, brushed the forest debris from my clothing, and closed my eyes again. I concentrated once again on everything I had the first time, but nudged the Apparation spell a little more northwards, toward the village. Hoping not only would this work, but also that I wouldn't appear in the middle of some Muggle family's backyard, I spun around and vanished from the spot.

This time I Apparated with no problem. It took me a few moments to catch my breath, since I was still recovering from the last failed attempt and now had the discomfort of this Apparation compounded on top of that. My ears buzzed like an entire colony of bees had taken up residence, and my fingers and toes still tingled a little from the residual effects of Severus' repulsion spell. Once I was fully recovered, I took a good look around at where I had managed to end up.

I was on an overgrown dirt path running up a long hill. The overview in front of me showed a large, busting Muggle town in the distance, which I assumed was the village of Puddingbrook. Looking up the hill, the afternoon sun was to my right, making that the correct direction in which to head to find the house. Hitching my bag into a more comfortable position on my shoulder, I began the slow trudge up the weedy path.

After a minute or so of walking, I turned a bend and entered a more heavily forested area. As soon as I passed beneath the first intertwining pine boughs, I felt the trace of a prickly spell designed to gently steer Muggles away from the area. It seemed to have worked because the path, wide enough to have once accommodated the two-way traffic of carriages, was even more wild and bushy up here than back down where I had first Apparated. The dry earth still bore the deep scars of long-ago wheel ruts, but these were barely visible under the litter of sticks, fallen pine branches, and a thick mat of decomposing leaves. I was glad I had worn durable pants and sturdy boots because the tangle of dead boughs and thorny vines seemed just as insistent on keeping me out as the slowly strengthening magical charms.

About fifteen minutes of steady climbing later, I emerged from the trees into a vast, wide open space, the descending sun blindingly bright over the tops of the trees I had just left behind. I stopped and took in the view, which was stunning. Much farther away on the hill and just barely visible was the large stone house I had glimpsed before. Expansive lawns, slightly ragged with new spring growth, stretched languidly from the house down to a set of tall iron gates a few hundred feet up the path from me. I began to move slowly forward, expecting at any instant Severus' spell to stop me in my tracks.

I made it three-quarters of the way to the gate before I was jarred to a sudden halt as I hit the barrier. It wasn't nearly as bad as when I had tried to Apparate in, and I didn't fall over, but it was like I had walked straight into an invisible stone wall. Again I felt the hurtful sensation of Severus' magic rejecting my presence, but I tried to not take it personally and focus instead on breaching this obstacle.

Dropping my bag at my feet, I pulled out my wand and gently prodded the space in front of me. The spell bristled and held firm, but didn't overtly repulse me away. I reached out slowly with my right hand and pressed it against the blockage while I closed my eyes and tried to read the spell with my wand in my other hand. Severus' signature magic was the foremost contributor to the spell, but I could also sense old, mostly faded, magics of the past. It seemed to me the original spell protecting the property had been set centuries ago, and Severus had simply been reinforcing it as the years progressed. The unfortunate thing was that, though there were many other contributors to the spell, Severus was by far the most powerful. If he had simply relied on the magic of his ancestors, then I could have easily broken though in a matter of seconds. That meant that the only thing standing between me and the gate was Severus' power alone.

As it was, I knew this was going to take some time to sort out. On a positive note, because I was almost as used to Severus' magic as my own, I knew I could eventually unravel the barrier. However, I was worried I might be simply wasting my time here when I should be putting my efforts into something else entirely. But I had no other leads to follow, so I put my faith in my vision of Charlotte and began to slowly pull threads of Severus' magic loose from the tightly woven barrier, one strand at a time.