Chapter 2

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Hermione finally pulled herself together enough to reach down and gather the folder she had dropped. Erin had shut them in the room and watched without much of a reaction as Hermione gathered herself.

"I did not want to divulge further until we arrived. We would prefer no one to know he somewhat survived the incident until we have helped him to move on or pulled him back to his body. We cannot risk anyone overhearing that we have him here. It took a lot of time obliviating all the individuals who were first aware when he was brought to St. Mungo's," Erin paused while Hermione stood, holding the now dishevelled folder. She figured it now matched her appearance; despite always attempting to appear put together, she was feeling anything but at the moment.

Hermione took a deep breath, "I understand. Is there a reason you felt it was time to include me in this particular... task?"

"Well, like I said, we have exhausted pretty much everything. No Legilimens has been able to break his last barrier. It is quite strong. I hoped you would have more luck, and perhaps it will help you know him."

Hermione chuckled, "Hardly. He was my professor for years, but... aside from what I know because of Harry, I know nothing extraneous about the man."

"Be that as it may, you are one of our most skilled Legilimens. You're remarkably resourceful. I think you may be the key here," Erin shrugged, "And if not, we will keep trying. He hasn't aged much more than a month since he's been in our care. We have all the time in the world."

Hermione nodded slowly, "Right... I will take some time to read over this." She held up the thick folder as Erin turned to make their way out.

"The room is now warded so that only you can enter; you are the sole person on this case as of now. All other personnel outside myself have had their memories modified. Let me know if you need anything, Granger."

And with that, she was alone.

Well, not exactly alone, but...

She looked down at the man again. He had not changed at all. His face had the same sharp angles, and his hair was jet black with random tendrils of grey, though it had a certain sheen to it, given the blue liquid. His bare chest was covered in many scars, and she spied the two marks that signified Naigini's bite on his neck. She was decidedly against examining him further. Turning, she sat the messy folder down beside the cauldrons and pulled out her wand.

She might try a clean attempt without notes, she figured it couldn't hurt.

She pointed her wand at the man, certainly not for the first time in her life, but the first time casting this particular spell, and quietly uttered, "Legilimens."

It was like swimming upstream to gain any sort of ground, but she muddled through by pushing her own mental archives harder and harder until they finally hit something. It was sharp. She paused, letting her consciousness take hold of what was there.

Slowly, the picture formed in her mind. She was looking at a highly overgrown hedge. It was covered in thick vines adorned with thorns. Humming to herself, she allowed herself to walk down the hedge to see if there was any sort of entry—no such luck. Considering the possibility that she could simply try to push harder and see where it got her, she suddenly heard a high-pitched scream and decided to push her way out.

That was... different. She considered the man before her. He was the one who attempted, keyword: attempted, to train Harry as an Occlumens. She presumed he would be a very accomplished Occlumens himself, but this was on a level she had never experienced, even in her reading. Not only were his mental faculties in enough order to occlude her away, but they were so strong that she wasn't sure he was aware of his walls at this point.

She sat on the one chair in the room, opened the folder, and began to read.

By the time she finished flipping through the folder, she had arranged it into piles of what she considered the most critical information to the least important. The files that contained the most essential information were those in which they had managed to drop another piece of his mental wall.

Their methods were not because of their own abilities to unravel securities on one's mind through the use of Legilimens; they had been through the use of magical cures that the Department of Mysteries possessed. There was even a note that had the philosopher's stone not been destroyed; it likely would have dropped the walls.

She considered magical cure-alls she had encountered in reading. Nothing that they had not already tried immediately came to mind. Glancing at the pile again, she decided to jot down a quick list of objects they had already used. Grabbing a quill from the table, she began to write.

Objects:

Water from Yolen's healing well

Siberian tree sap

Kittredge's magic ring

Playing Quarstop's magical healing harp

Irish healing bell

Ethiopian healing scrolls

Phoenix tears

Golden fleece

Various healing draughts:

Mandrake Restorative

Cerebri auxilium,

Sanamente capturam

Myalo draught

The list included every item that other Unspeakables had used and made an improvement toward bringing his walls down. Given this, she had to conclude that the walls themselves were not intentional on Professor Snape's part. He likely threw them up when Voldemort summoned him. The man needed help by any magical means to help him move forward and unlock his mind.

Given her conclusions, she set off to the most restricted area of the Department of Mysteries: the library.

The access badge that Erin had left in the folder was red. Unaccustomed to having unfettered access to the Department of Mysteries library, Hermione quickly pulled her hair back, threw on the badge, and set off.

After several hours of research to no avail, she was famished. She stood, cleaning up the area she had made use of, and departed swiftly.

As she finally entered the lift out of the Department of Mysteries, she let out an enormous sigh and rose to what felt like the real world meeting her. Her reflection in the lift was marginally more dishevelled than when she came into work that morning. The bun she had thrown her hair into somewhat tamed the bushy curls, but aside from that, she was clearly exhausted.

As if on autopilot, she found herself sitting in the Leaky Cauldron, ordering a firewhiskey and whatever the daily special was. A few minutes later, she was eating the fish and chips that sat before her, contemplating how her morning had gone.

Severus Snape was alive. Well, he wasn't dead.

Harry would undoubtedly act irrationally; that was for certain. But so would the majority of the wizarding world. The entire situation was fascinating, but she was sure it was the right choice to keep it secret. Recovery from the war was slow and laborious; most of the world still believed Severus Snape was a villain until Harry finally did an interview revealing the truth nearly a year after the battle at Hogwarts. He hadn't revealed everything, Hermione knew. Only those who were at the battle were privy to that information regarding Snape's great love.

It was surprising that no one had shared that information — whether they believed it or were unwilling to divulge secrets shared during a vulnerable moment, Hermione did not know.

As she drank, she thought about their journey to defeat Tom Riddle. The elder wand came to mind. Could it potentially be used to heal Snape? She considered this but decided that Harry was right ten years ago; the wand belonged with Professor Dumbledore.

However, the Deathly Hallows were a start. She could research outside of her usual repertoire of texts. If the war had taught her anything, it was to believe in the unbelievable.

Sighing, she knew this meant that Ron would be a valuable resource in her research. He was one of the few people she was close to who was raised in a traditional wizarding home. She needed to arrange a meet-up with her friends.

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