Hermione Snape and the Divergence Point Vol. 4

Chapter 2: Dads and Daughters

Casting a silencing spell on the door had been enough for Hermione to leave their living quarters without alerting Remus or her father, who were thankfully fast asleep in their living quarters. Now she padded along the long dark corridors to the library, shifted into her cat form, no one would pay attention to yet another stray roaming the castle.

Well, almost no one.

Mrs Norris leapt down from a window sill and stared unblinkingly at Hermione with challenging yellow eyes. She sniffed the air and the skeletal grey cat approached her, nose first, keenly aware Hermione was not simply another cat roaming the corridors. Just like Crookshanks knew that Scabbers was not just, as Sirius Black put it, 'a garden variety rat'.

You're coming with me...Mrs Norris approached, her shoulders arched, but despite her age and skeletal appearance, she did not pin her ears back.

Hermione backed up and did arch her back, bristle her fur and pin her ears back. She was younger and more spry, but here Mrs Norris seemed to be the one in control. Mrs Norris leapt forward to pounce on her, and Hermione, with a hiss dashed out of the way, bounding off the stone wall. She flipped and skidded down the corridor, Mrs Norris in pursuit.

Once she found a ground floor window, open to let in the cool summer breeze, Hermione dove through it, knowing that Mrs Norris wouldn't follow her. The old cat didn't like to go outside and deal with the countless animals that roamed the grounds.

"There you are, my sweet," Filch's voice said from above the window. "What is it? It's summer and the only student here is Snape's brat."

The window, the little brat is right there!

"I'll keep looking around, my sweet," he said. "Let's go."

Hermione listened for the footsteps leading away from her, and leapt up into the window when they were no longer in eyeshot.She continued down to the library, careful to prowl along the shadows. A stray cat would pass her by every now and then, but they seemed to pay no mind to her. Rats would flee at the sight of her.

Eventually she reached the massive oak double doors and carefully checked by sight, hearing and smell to ensure nobody was coming. Hermione then turned into her cat hybrid form to keep her heightened senses in the dark.

"Alohamora," she whispered, tapping the ancient lock.

A series of clicks announced the doors unlocking and Hermione whispered "silencio" over the door. If she could cast silently, she would cast it on herself to keep from making any noise, but her chances to practise what she read in Confronting the Faceless were scarce when her father and Remus kept their eyes on her. Why they kept such a close eye, Hermione had no clue, but wondered back to that Japanese woman from the restaurant, but it wasn't as if she had much to go off of if she wanted to dig into her past.

No, they've been like this since I came back from Japan... She thought back, remembering just how little privacy she got all summer so far. She thanked Merlin for the increased staff meetings to interrupt their watchful eye.

Though I guess I can't blame them, Hermione remembered her father's horrified white face when she came to, coughing up inky river water.

Hermione crept up to the restricted section and unlocked the gate after silencing the hinges. She remembered back to her first year when she used an Owlsight potion to see in the dark, creeping around to research what turned out to be the philosopher's stone. She wondered just how much of her research over the years involved skulking around the library after hours as she stumbled upon the familiar Alchemy section.

She remembered the stone's ability to grant immortality and wondered if some other alchemical or cursed artefact would somehow support a disembodied Voldemort. She found Artefacts, Alchemy and Famed Wizards where it sat before and flipped back to a disturbing passage she remembered from three years prior.