I hold the universe when I hold you

4 i pianeti

No one came to the rooms for two days. The elves remembered her, and sent her meals, all rather rich and complicated vegetarian dishes. Hermione, sitting on the chesterfield, annoyed by the sound of her own chewing, wondered if there had been vegetarian students. It was a detail she surely would have picked up on in school. All the same, she silently thanked the elves for their skill in flavor. She might be going stir crazy, but she was not going hungry.

Hermione cleaned. She knew it was probably an overstep, but she was not sure what else to do. She started with the lab, not moving things around, but taking care of stains on the floor, on the worktables, and making sure the proper areas were sterile. She even headed into the greenhouse and began tending to the plants she did recognize. In the far corner in a small bed with simulated dappled light she frowned.

It was 'bagweed'. The only reason she knew what it was was from helping Molly degnome the garden at the Burrow when Rose was two. There was a patch of it at the far edge of the garden, hidden behind a low hedge. Molly Weasley nearly lost her matronly mind, screaming for Charlie, and ripping it up in handfuls. Hermione figured Severus grew his own for reasons similar to Charlie's. She had never imbibed.

On the second day, after breakfast, Hermione was done looking at Severus' meager belongings. Chewing on another slice of apple, looking at the door to the dungeon corridor.

There had been no Severus and no Irma. She had gone to the Library the night before, silent, unseen, and slipped into the Restricted Section. Not even the ghost of John Dee was there. There had been a handful of books on the subject of time on the table near the fireplace. Hermione spent the late night hours scanning the books, hoping that someone would appear. No one did.

The books, while interesting, were pointless to her situation.

Swallowing her juicy, sweet apple, Hermione decided. She donned her cloak, her boots, and slipped her wand into the holster on her belt. Inhaling deeply and cursing under her breath, she put her hand on the knob and twisted. The door did not make a sound despite its weight and the ancient hinges. Quickly, she raised her hood and peered out into the dark. It was as she remembered.

The only light came from torches down the dungeon passage, near the entrance from the Potions classroom. The entrance to the Slytherin Common Room was between two snake headed gargoyles that hissed at non-Slytherins. The entrance itself was a bare stone wall, and the password cycled just as every other House did. However, directly across from the hidden door to Severus' rooms was another stretch of bare stone wall. Hermione knew if she whispered into a particular crack, serpat quiete, the wall would soften and she could pass into the passage that ran behind one side of the Slytherin common room. The passage was only meant for surveillance, and was a dead end. Hermione imagined Dumbledore may have had it installed, but there was no way of knowing.

The corridor was empty, and Hermione took another breath and silently closed the door behind her, the wood melting back into an illusion of a stone wall. Then with four long strides, she was pressing her nose to the crack.

Serpat quiete indeed.

She waited for the passage to reform behind her before moving. Hermione's eyes adjusted as pale watery green light at least thirty meters ahead allowed her to see. Her cloak fluttered around her ankles in the narrow passage, and she slowly lowered her hood. There was an old potions glassware crate below the source of the light, and Hermione smirked. Slughorn.

Through the one-way view, Hermione could see most of the Common Room. The large windows looking into the Black Lake cast everything in green, even the silvery blond hair of a teenage boy sitting with two gargoyles of his own near the fire. Hermione moved the crate quietly and sat. The Common Room was not full, but there were many younger students sitting together on couches or talking at tables. The young ones looked so tiny to her, babies, she thought.