Free Will and Fate

The minute Lily and his daughter stepped through the Floo and into his office, Severus Snape thought two things. The first, that he didn't give a damn what Dumbledore found out as long as the end result was what he wanted. The second, that everything he'd gone through over the years would be worth it if his wife and daughter were the reward. Despite being a growing pain in his life, even his intrusive stepson could not take this away from him.

He enfolded Lily in a hug first and kissed her briefly, searching her eyes for any sign that she had changed her mind about them. She closed her eyes quickly and embraced him tighter. "Is Bathilda well?" he asked.

Lily smiled nervously and stepped back. One hand fiddled with a lock of her hair as she said, "She is as well as can be expected. The doctors think her physical injuries will probably take another month to heal. And then we'll see."

We'll see, indeed, Snape thought. We'll see if my marriage can withstand the incessant meddling of that brat and the coming change in power. Pushing the thoughts away, Snape turned to the little girl that stood next to the fireplace brushing ash from her jeans.

He squatted with his arms open wide, his first true smile in ages crossing his face when Raven looked up at him. She ran into his arms and almost knocked him over in her enthusiasm, giggling when her father squeezed her tight.

"Do you know how much I've missed you?" he asked.

She grinned. She liked this game. "This much?" Raven held her thumb and forefinger an inch apart. Snape shook his head. She pulled back from the circle of his arms and held her arms out to their full length. "This much?"

He shook his head again and pulled out his wand. In the air, he conjured a small glass globe. Inside, the darkness of space floated inside, planets and moons whirled on their axes and stars shone in the heavens. Snape held up the globe so Raven could see the worlds living inside. "I missed you from the ends of this universe and into the next and I love you ten times as much." His daughter's arms came around him again and he caught Lily's smile over her shoulder.

Raven pulled away and smiled, her round eyes twinkling. "What about Mommy?"

Snape found himself smiling wider, an unusual feeling. "I don't know if it's possible," he whispered, "but I might love Mommy even more."

"What about Harry?" the child pressed.

Snape stood abruptly, not wanting his daughter to see his quick scowl. "There are no words to describe how I feel about him. Shall we go to breakfast?" Lily nodded and, grabbing their daughter's hand, led the way to the Great Hall.

"This has got to be one of the coolest things I've ever seen," Hermione said, turning the Marauder's Map. "And you said the Weasley twins have one?"

Harry nodded. "I got mine from them, but in this time, they would still have theirs. Where is Snape?"

"In the Great Hall with your mom and Raven." She shifted it again. "No one is in the part of the dungeons around his office right now. We can look there before we look at his living quarters." She refolded the parchment and tapped it with her wand. "Mischief managed."

Harry tried not to laugh at her expression as the Map cleared itself. If she was impressed with that, he couldn't wait till she saw some of his memories from their first few years at Hogwarts. Wordlessly, she slipped her hand into his and they made their way from the first floor to the dark, cool hallway outside Snape's office, careful to avoid the few students walking the halls that early. Hermione pulled out the Map to check it again.

"I don't see anyone, except a couple of Slytherins in their common room. Everyone else is still asleep."

Harry nodded. "Let's go."

Twenty minutes later, they walked out of Snape's office. Hermione began pacing back and forth in the isolated hall, her arms crossed tight against her chest. Harry leaned against the relocked door, his eyes closed as he considered their search options.

"You're sure we checked every possible inch of that office? There's not a hidden compartment or a safe or something we might have missed?"

Hermione sighed. "The only documents in there are the essays we turned in Thursday and papers from other classes. No compartments, no loose floor boards, no concealments that I can find. I tried every spell I could think of. There's nothing hidden in there."

Harry banged his head against the door once, causing Hermione to jump. "Tell me we're doing the right thing. Tell me this isn't going to be for nothing. If we can't find anything on him, I'm going to get in trouble for using the Time-Turner with nothing to bargain against it. I have to tell McGonagall the rest of the story soon." He opened his eyes. "Unless you think I can get away with not saying anything."

Hermione frowned. "Not likely, Harry. Even if you wanted to wait, you don't really have that option. We are doing the right thing. He tried to kill you." She stepped closer and put a hand on his shoulder. "If we can find proof of what he did to you or what he was trying to hide, I'm sure the Ministry will go easy on you. You did say Dumbledore likes you."

"He did," Harry corrected. "He's coming to see me soon and if I don't have some answers for him, I'll be in more trouble than I already am."

"We can't let that happen. None of this is your fault."

Harry frowned. "You can't really believe that."

Hermione rolled her eyes. "You didn't make him come after you. If he wasn't doing something that needed to be hidden from your mom--"

"Okay. All right. What now?"

"His living quarters." Hermione pulled the Map from her jeans and searched the dungeons again. "It's still empty." She scanned the Map. "They're in the courtyard now."

"Good. Hopefully my mom will keep him out there till we meet her for lunch."

Hermione closed the Map and slipped it back into her pocket. "Are you sure you're up for this? You seem really upset."

Without answering, he pushed away from the wall and turned to walk down the hall and around the corner. Glancing over his shoulder to make sure Hermione was following, he unlocked the door to Snape's living quarters and they snuck inside.

An hour later, Harry swore in frustration. "Check the Map again."

"Harry! I just--"

"Please, just check it again," he said. He looked around the front room one last time while Hermione consulted the Map. "This has been a waste of time."

"It has not." Hermione folded the map and slipped it back into her pocket. "We know he doesn't keep anything hidden here. That means--"

"It means he could have nothing incriminating."

"Yes," she said. "It also means he could just be keeping it at the house. Is there anywhere else we can look? We could try Professor Lestrange's office next."

"No, they made it clear she didn't have anything that needed to be hidden. She gave him something of value." Harry started for the door, then froze in place. "But we could try Potions storage. He always kept that room locked against students. Now that he's teaching Defense Against the Dark Arts, it's the last place anyone would look for something belonging to him. And it's our last hope. If there's not some evidence there--"

"Then we'll have to go to the house. Tomorrow."

Harry caught Hermione's gaze with his own after she made the suggestion. "We can't get caught leaving the school grounds. I know McGonagall's on our side, but if Snape catches us leaving or finds out where we went, we'll be worse off than we are now."

Hermione reached for the door. "Remind me why we can't just tell Professor McGonagall we're searching the school. She could help us."

"Or she could stop us," Harry said. He locked the door and glanced up and down the hallway. He grabbed Hermione's hand and they headed for the private storage room. "She may want to protect me, but that doesn't mean she'll be okay with us going through his things. She'll probably think it would be safer if she did it."

"She'd be right," Hermione said. When they reached the door, Hermione tried three separate spells to unlock the door, with no success.

"Let me try," Harry said. "Hopefully it means something that this door has extra protections on it." He pulled out the knife Sirius had given him and slipped the blade between the door and jamb. He slid the blade up until there was an audible click and the door popped open. Taking one last look around the hall, Harry pulled Hermione into the storage room behind him and closed the door.

They stood in the middle of the room, staring at the towering rows of shelves.

"Where would be the easiest place to hide a concealing door? It looks like nothing but shelves of bottles," Harry said. He blew the dust off the bottle closest to him on a shelf. "And it doesn't look as if anyone's been in here in ages."

Hermione turned in a circle slowly, surveying the room. She smiled. "I have an idea." She performed a Summoning Charm on the stepladder in the far corner of the room and climbed to the top step, craning her neck to look at the bottles on the top shelves. "Push me, Harry." He began moving the stepladder around.

"Are you sure you can see up there?" He looked up and then looked down again quickly. At least she's wearing jeans and not a skirt, he thought.

"I'm fine...stop!" Hermione jumped up and down on the top step and squealed. "There's a place behind these bottles that's completely clear of dust. It's the only clean spot on the shelves. Let me see if there's anything back here." She pushed a few of the bottles to the side and then pulled out her wand, whispering every counter spell she knew for reversing concealment. After a couple of minutes, a recess appeared in the wall behind the shelves. "There's something here, Harry."

He looked up at the excitement in her voice.

"I'm not tall enough. Get me higher," Hermione said. Harry levitated her slowly, careful not to bump her into any of the bottles on the shelves. Hermione reached back behind the shelf, strain turning her face bright red. After a minute, her fingers closed around something in the dark and she pulled back. Harry lowered her to the top of the ladder and she climbed the rest of the way down, a thick notebook of parchment held tightly in one arm.

Wordlessly, they sat on the floor together and opened the notebook.

"Soul division theory? What kind of book is this?" Hermione began flipping through the pages quickly, stopping when she saw a picture of a red stone and a description of its properties. "The Philosopher's Stone? Elixir of...I can't read this writing."

"Elixir of Life. It's what Voldemort wanted to live off of first year," Harry said. "It makes the drinker immortal." He pulled the notebook closer to himself and turned back to the front page. "I'm not sure, but this looks like Dumbledore's handwriting." He shook his head. "I haven't looked at it in years, but I think it is." He looked at Hermione. "If this is what Snape and Lucius Malfoy have been hiding, it's possible they've been trying to help him get another body."

"That's impossible! It's..."

"It's not impossible if the Philosopher's Stone is still in Gringotts and they can get to it. And if they know where Voldemort is."

Hermione stood from the floor and began siphoning dust from her jeans and shirt. "I don't understand. If You-Know-Who's not in a physical body, how can anyone know where he is? How can he talk to anyone?"

Harry shrugged and stood. "I don't know. From what Voldemort said, he convinced Quirrell to let him possess him. He didn't just take over his body. It's not possible he's done that again, is it?"

Hermione shook her head. "No. I saw him just before a class yesterday. He seemed normal. A little dippy, but otherwise the same. No turban or any other concealments. With the exception of Professor Lestrange and Professor Snape, everyone else is acting normal as well." She started to pace back and forth in the room, her teeth tugging on her bottom lip. "But if he's not possessing a teacher, what would Professor Snape, Mr. Malfoy and Professor Lestrange need with this information? What good would it do them if they didn't have the soul that needs a body? Or would it even classify as a soul? It sounds like it would be something else altogether. Something--"

"Something less than human," Harry said. "Voldemort mentioned something like that in the graveyard."

"And why would any of this be in Dumbledore's handwriting? Why would he ever need to know any of this stuff?"

"He was doing research on Voldemort for years. That must be why he knew to hide the Philosopher's Stone in the school." Harry grabbed Hermione's arm, halting her nervous pacing. "Maybe that's why he sent the Auror to search the school. He's looking for this." Harry held up the notebook. "If we can tell him Snape stole it, would that be enough to get him sent to Azkaban?"

"Maybe. I don't know. Stealing isn't enough to get someone sent there for very long, if we could even prove it was stolen. For all we know Dumbledore left it here three years ago and it was hidden so students wouldn't find it. Plus, Professor Snape isn't teaching Potions, so he would have no reason to hide something in this room. We can't prove he was going to do anything with the information."

"I don't care," Harry said. "It's the only bargaining chip I have right now. He's coming either today or tomorrow and I'm going to give this to him."
"Harry, no!" Hermione shook her head. "We can't take it anywhere. Dumbledore has to find it where we did. We'll just tell him where it is."

"No, I want to read it before we turn it over." Harry glanced at his watch. "We can't stay down here all day, my mom's going to start wondering where we are soon."

"We'll make a copy, then."

"A what?"

Hermione smiled. "You grew up in the Muggle world. You've heard of a copy machine?"

"Yes, but that won't work here."

She rolled her eyes and pulled out her wand. "Honestly, you never read your school books, do you?" Waving her wand in mid-air, Hermione conjured a stack of blank parchment. "Hold the notebook open," she said.

Harry turned it to the first page. He watched in fascination as Hermione waved her wand over the sheet, muttered an incantation and a duplicate of the words on the page lifted into the air. She transferred them onto a blank sheet of parchment.

"It's the easiest way to transfer information without having to write it down. It won't last forever, though. We'll have to do a Binding spell to keep the words from fading after a while. Our copy should last a few months."

"Hermione, you're a genius."

She smiled and blushed at his words. "It's simple, really." She leaned over to look at Harry's watch. "You'll have to do this with me so we can make it to lunch on time. Be careful to keep the pages in order. I'll do the Binding spells."

With that, they sat on the floor and copied the notebook, page for page. Afterwards, Harry sat staring at the stack of pages they'd copied, smiling from ear to ear.

"I'm surprised people don't do this with their homework."

"Besides the handwriting and writing style issues, there's the obvious drawback of professors who can do magic as well. They'd be able to pick up on the spell easily and then both students would probably get detention for the rest of the year or worse." She stood and stepped back onto the stepladder. "Help me up again?"

After she replaced the book, reinforced the concealment and moved the bottles back into place, Hermione stacked their copied parchments, shrank them, and stuck them into the front pocket of her jeans.

"There. We should be able to sneak upstairs without anyone noticing these. We can start going through this stuff as soon as your mom leaves."

They opened the door and went back into the hallway. Harry took out the knife and jiggled it in the lock until he heard it click into place. Before they could get down the hall to the stairs, they heard voices around the corner.

"Crap, we forgot to check the Map," Harry said.

Hermione flattened herself against the wall and pulled Harry close to her by his shirt. Leaning up, she pulled him down into a kiss.

Harry broke away quickly. "What are you doing?"

"Stop talking!" She pulled his head down again and moved her lips firmly on his, encouraged when he began kissing her back. Of their own accord, or so Harry would tell himself later, his hands moved over her hair and down her back, finally settling on her hips as he pulled her closer to him. He opened his mouth to ask another question and Hermione slipped her tongue between his lips, coaxing him into a speechless state that was instead filled with heavy panting as they kissed and touched.

Suddenly, Hermione stiffened against him and Harry pulled back from her, a question in his eyes. "Why'd you stop?" he asked.

"Because you've been caught," a voice from behind him said. Harry whirled around to face Bellatrix Lestrange. A blushing Nymphadora Tonks stood behind her, a small smile on her face.

Harry cleared his throat. "Um..."

"I expect there's a good explanation for the two of you being down here. Not trying to catch up on any more of my assignments, I presume."

"No, professor," Hermione said. "We just..." Her eyes slid to Harry and she put an arm around his waist. "We knew no one would be down here this time of day. We're not in trouble, are we? We just wanted to be alone."

"I can see that," Bellatrix said. "No, you're not in trouble. This time. I do recommend keeping your...urges to a minimum. I'd hate to see two of our brightest students getting expelled for doing something reckless."

Hermione covered her mouth with one hand in shock. Harry had to stop himself from laughing when he realized she was blushing. Serves her right, he thought.

"No, Professor. It would not have gone further."

"I should hope you know better, Harry." Bellatrix cocked her head to the side. "Shouldn't you be outside? Your mother's here."
"Yeah, we were going to meet her--"

"When you were done...dawdling." Bellatrix nodded. "Go. Now."

Grabbing Hermione's hand, Harry pulled her to the end of the hall. He spared a nod for Tonks as he passed by, waiting until they had reached the ground floor before he stopped and leaned against the wall, laughing.

"What is so funny? We were almost caught. You heard her. We could've been expelled!"

"Only if we'd finished what we'd started the other night."

Hermione closed her mouth then, her next words dying unsaid.

"There is a bright side to that episode."

"What?" Hermione asked. "That it wasn't your stepfather?"

"That too. But now that she sees I'm firmly taken, maybe she'll stop being so overly friendly with me."

Hermione stared at him for a moment before she burst into laughter as well. "Come on," she said after a while. "Let's hide the papers upstairs. You need to meet your sister."