Possession

I´d give up my hope of heaven just to hold you.

Do you feel the same way?

You´re the only chance of happiness

That I´ll ever get

Yet somehow it all slipped away.

Marcus Clemens, Deeply, from Beloved and other poems (1914)

These were the first lines that caught Hermione Granger´s eye as she opened the think black file that contained all the letters and poems Marcus Clemens had written. The librarian kept looking at her in mild amusement. She looked at the papers.

It had taken her some time to adjust to the fact that the librarian of the University of Wizardry and Witchcraft was a gorilla. This had happened because of an unfortunate accident during a Transfiguration spell. The librarian had resisted all attempts to turn her back for reasons known only to her and Almighty God.

Hermione had studied Magical Literature for five years and she was now a junior lecturer of that department. The library was her favourite place and she´d frequented it ever since the beginning of her course. At the age of 26, she was still not tired of coming here to read the poems of her favourite wizard poet Marcus Clemens.

Today was a special day for her. For the first time, she was being allowed to view some of Clemens´ personal papers. Seeing his handwritten work made her heart leap with joy and excitement. All around her the portraits of late authors and poets smiled and nodded. She took a seat and began to rummage through the papers.

Marcus Clemens had a very nice handwriting. Another thing about him that pleased her was that he had been a Gryffindor and the Potions Master of Hogwarts. She had visited his home in Belfast but she respected his privacy and she had never made any attempt to talk about him with his descendants.

Most of the papers she came upon were bills, professional letters and the drafts of some of his poems. Deeply had been the first poem she´d seen upon opening the file and it was one of her favourites. Nobody had successfully identified the woman his poem was about. Critics said that it was perhaps about an unhappy love affair of which little was known.

She suddenly came upon a letter written on a yellowing piece of paper. The writing was still legible but she couldn´t help noticing that the letter was not dated. It read,

Dear Miss Whiteface,

I beg your forgiveness if I am intruding upon your privacy but ever since our conversation at the Great Hall, I have been unable to think of anything else. Headmaster Drinkwater was so kind to let you sit with us; you seemed so lonely. Are your parents back from their trip abroad?

Do you not think it strange and unusual that we should understand each other so well immediately? In truth, Miss Whiteface, I have never met anyone who had such knowledge and understanding of my work as you do. I myself greatly appreciate and admire your work, which I read in

Witch Weekly, my favourite being `Requiem´. I hope you will grant me the pleasure of calling upon you sometime so that I may learn more about your intriguing vampire topic.

Yours sincerely,

M.C.

He had signed his name only in his initials - almost as if he did not want anyone to find out that he was contacting this woman. And who was Miss Whiteface? Another poet? Hermione frowned. She had never heard of a gothic poetess in the early 20^th century. Nevertheless, she was intrigued. The letter sounded so urgent - so unlike all his other letters. She couldn´t tell when exactly he had written it since there was no date on the letter. But she couldn´t wait to find out more.

Was it the beginning of something? Or had it ended right there?

Glancing around her stealthily, Hermione took out her wand from her robes and muttered, "Terminus." The letter glowed for a moment. The spell which protected it from being stolen had been lifted. She quickly pocketed it and left the library, her heart pounding in her breast.

As she walked down the hallway, she came upon her good friend, Jonus Bagshot. Jonus was from the United States, specifically from Salem and they had known each other for three-and-a-half years. Like her, he was one of the junior lecturers in the university and he was also an expert on Clemens. She´d been the Maid of Honor at his wedding, which had taken place just a few weeks ago. After the initial greetings, Hermione wondered if she should mention her discovery. It would perhaps be unsafe since she regarded it as her discovery but she was quite curious about one thing.

"Do you know a poetess named Whiteface?" she asked casually.

Jonus frowned and thought for a moment. "Whiteface? Ah, yes, Melinda Whiteface. She wrote gothic poems, didn´t she?"

She shrugged and he continued. "She wrote in about the same literary period as Clemens, though he started before her."

"I´ve never heard of her," confessed Hermione.

Jonus raised at eyebrow at her. "You haven´t? From what I hear, she´s pretty popular among the gothic witches. They added her to the first year syllabus. She wrote this three-hundred-line poem called Drowned World. Very depressing."

"Have you read her poem `Requiem´?" asked Hermione.

"Yup. Lovely; I like to read it out loud sometimes." He looked at her. "Why are you so interested in her all of a sudden?"

She said nonchalantly, "Just am. You know me." They walked together in silence. Then she asked, "Do you know any experts on Whiteface that I could talk to?"

"There are quite a few Whiteface scholars here. But frankly, the best person to talk to about her is her descendant, Severus Snape."

Hermione stopped dead in her tracks. "Severus Snape?"

He looked at her. "Yes. Why? You know him?"

"Know him? He was my Potions Masters for seven years at Hogwarts." They started walking again.

"He was? You never really told me about him like you did about all your other teachers."

"There wasn´t much to say." She grimly remembered how much she had feared him while she had been a Hogwarts student. Never before had she thought that she might have to meet him again. She could always go to the Whiteface scholars in the university. But would they know about her as much as Snape would?

As she reached her flying car in the garage, she had already made her decision. She must go to Hogwarts as soon as possible. She drove past the clouds in the sky, occasionally looking down at the landscape below. At other times, she liked to admire the green landscape but today, her mind was on the letter she had found.

She felt somewhat guilty that she had stolen university property, but she had felt possessed at that time - almost as if she could not choose to do other wise. She had never really stolen anything in her entire life and now was not the time to start developing criminal habits. If she were caught, she would be fired - or worse, imprisoned. That would not be so terrible as it once was since Azkaban was no longer guarded by the Dementors.

When she got to her tiny but neat apartment, her cat Crookshanks greeted her by springing into her arms, which made her laugh. Once upon a time, she shared this apartment with her former lover Vernon, but they´d separated after realizing that they didn´t really love each other.

Hermione found his absence unbearable sometimes but she knew that life had to go on. How could one not know that when one had personally waged war against Lord Voldemort? Voldemort was dead now, Harry having finally avenged the death of his parents. Harry was now an Auror, married happily to Ginny. Ron was working in the Ministry with his father and Percy and he hadn´t gotten married yet. She hadn´t seen either of her best friends in two months, nor had she heard from them.

As she moved to pour out a bowl of milk for her cat, an owl swooped into the kitchen through the window, a message attached to its leg. It was from Harry and Ginny, who wanted her to come over to dinner the following Sunday. Hermione was glad to receive the invitation since she had been missing her friends, but after her discovery this morning, she realized that she had some more important things to do. Nevertheless, an invitation was an invitation. After replying to their message and sending away the owl, Hermione packed some stuff, got into her car and headed out towards Hogwarts. She had to talk to Snape. She had to find out more about Marcus Clemens´ relationship with Miss Whiteface.