I hold the universe when I hold you

3 la terra

Hermione wished she could be a fly on the wall when Severus Snape arrived with the Carrows at Hogwarts. She wished she could see the dismay and horror on the portraits of the former Headmaster's faces when Severus presented the new Ministry's order for his appointment. Of course, Hermione never wanted to see Minerva despair, but she would have liked to have known how the conversation went.

It was two weeks before the start of term that Voldemort's Ministry swept over everything, even Hogwarts. Students were not at the castle yet, but Voldemort's presence was over everything.

After that night at Spinner's End when Hermione's addled brain had finally come to rest, Severus had been gone. They had eaten supper in silence, the soup excellent. It was only as Hermione went to the settee that he told her to take his room. She did not argue.

It was as she laid down and he went to his makeshift lab that he spoke again.

"You are not the child I knew. You survived, and by some strange circumstance, found me. And somehow," he sighed, pausing in the doorway, his back to her. "I find that your presence is...soothing."

Hermione had smirked and laid her head on his pillow.

"I will let you know about Hogwarts, and we can arrange a way for you to come in unnoticed. Until then, you may stay. Do not touch the books in the study. The books in this room are safe. The lab is out of bounds."

And with that, he closed the door and left her alone.

She did not see him again until the evening after he had become Headmaster. In that time, she had snooped and slunk and read through all the 'safe' books. It was mostly Muggle fiction and paperback romance novels from the fifties. There had been plenty of food, and Hermione found a drawer in a wardrobe in the elder Snape's room, some more of Eileen's old clothing. She hand washed the other things, and began scanning the study with her wand to understand if any of the books were hexed or cursed. They were not. It took her only a leisurely hour to break into the lab and find he was working on several potions at once, all under stasis or protective wards. His notebook was jinxed, and she felt she should at least respect his privacy in that.

It did not take long for Hermione to figure out what he was doing, and she frowned.

One was a very specific antivenin. It was probably similar to what had been given to Arthur. As it was under stasis, she could not smell it to tell for certain. One was Draught of Living Death, and she could tell it was altered, and recently started. There were phials upon phials of Potent Exstimulo in racks near the door. There were ingredients neatly stored and bottled all around the room, but only one cauldron made her worry.

Felix Felicis.

Severus had an idea, and it was probably from Dumbledore. Hermione figured she would never have to tell him how it all came to end, but if the potions were any indication, it would not end at all. That thought alone cheered her.

A note appeared on the kitchen table a few days after Severus was gone, and Hermione sighed.

'Tomorrow. Go to the Shack, I'll bring you from there at 11 PM. SS.'

Finally. Finally, was all she could think.

She had begun writing on some paper she found in the bedside drawer in Severus' room and an old ballpoint pen she found in the kitchen. At the table, sipping on some milky tea, she tried to bullet point everything she knew that had happened before the Battle of Hogwarts, things she learned outside her Horcrux hunt. Her knowledge about specific events surrounding Severus and Hogwarts in the later part of 1997 were sorely lacking. She did recall that Neville had attempted to steal Godric Gryffindor's sword from the Headmaster's office in the autumn, maybe early October.