Amour

GODRIC'S HOLLOW

Snape walked away from the castle; he had to get away from the place which reminded him of his loss and his inability to do anything about it.He was tired of masquerading who he truly was- he wasn't sure which of his faces were real;the cruel one,or the despondent one,or the one that was imperturbable."You can't leave now,it's the middle of the night-"Amycus Carrow halted him by putting a hand on his shoulder."Try and stop me."Snape said in a dangerous voice.Amycus took one look at him and dropped his hand and Snape continued down the field, billowing his robes behind him.He disapparated outside the gates.He didn't know where he could go, and involuntarily,without thinking, he arrived at Godric's Hollow.At first, he stood contemplating.A light snow was falling and he wrapped his cloak around himself tighter, looking every bit like the overgrown bat he was infamous to be.Irresolutely, he started walking down the road; it was mostly deserted but those who were strutting around shrunk out of his way, if they were muggles, they felt threatened by his appearance and if they were people from the wizarding world, they were frightened because of his reputation.The cold night air was stinging his face but he didn't mind much.Snape thought of going into a pub but then he heard the sound of carol singers floating through the air from a distance.His feet carried him towards that direction.He reached a church,a faint glow of light was coming from inside and the music intensified.But he did not feel like going in.This place is too holy for someone like me.Instead he strolled into the cemetery adjacent to the church.The gate was slightly ajar,he pushed it all the way open and sauntered in.The snow on the gravelly path was pushed out of the way by traversing footsteps that had gone in and out.He passed by all the new tombstones to the older and more ominous part of the graveyard.He had no idea why he was here,suspecting his dismal and foreboding character was acting subconsciouslyfor him.He eventually stopped and sat on a bench overgrown with creepers.Looking up towards the sky he saw the soft snowflakes falling on his face and hair,leaving them wet.He sighed deeply and a cloud of vapor erupted from his mouth.As he brought his eyes to the front, a familiar name caught his attention. Granger .He got to his feet and went closer to the graves."Patrick and Catelyn Granger."he read.The inscription on it also read,'The only enemy left to defeat is death.' It was right next to the pathway and someone had laid a wreath of flowers on them.He bent down to inspect it further;the petals were still intact,like someone had put them there just a while ago and the thin film of rime over the headstones had been disturbed by prints of fingertips.He touched it with his fingers too and an odd sense of warmth spread over him. It may have been his imagination but he inhaled a perfume Hermione used to wear,however vague it may be.He straightened up and whipped around.Hermione!Are you here? He knew the possibility was unlikely but still there was a possibility.Who knows where the quest for the horcruxes is taking them?But then again she might just have been visiting her parents' graves given it was the occasion of Christmas.He inferred that she might have been there a few moments ago and he had just missed her.Or she might still be around,hiding under the invisibility cloak.He became more agile and walked out of the cemetery, down the road as he guessed where her next stop might have been had she really been visiting her parents's old hometown.He came around the corner and saw the house that could only have belonged to the Grangers.The hedge and garden were overgrown, untended for twenty-three years. The house itself was a ruin, with its top floor partially blown apart—evidence of Voldemort’s backfired curse.Again the powdery snow at the gate had been imprinted with a handprint,like someone had touched it right before him.As soon as he touched the gate, a commemorative wooden sign rose up, with golden letters explaining that the house, which is invisible to Muggles, has been kept in its destroyed state “as a monument to the Grangers and as a reminder of the violence that tore apart their family.”He held onto the gate with his head bowed down.What a tragedy indeed.Suddenly there was a flurry of snow at the far end of the street,like someone had just walked hurriedly round the corner.They might have been muggles or just some fellow wizards or witches but he decided to pry on.He followed the sound and got a glimpse of some figures dissappearing into a house at the end of the long narrow street,just as he came around the corner.They were too far away for him to recognise but he deliberated whether to pursue them or not.What am I doing shadowing random strangers?But isn't that what spies do?As he took skeptical steps towards the building,he thought.As far as I remember The Dumbledores also lived in Godric's Hollow.Perhaps that's where they are going next?But it wasn't Dumbledore's house they had turned to.Snape knew the house at the end of the street belonged to Bathilda Bagshot.Before he could even knit his brows together quizzically as to why people were trespassing into an abandoned building, since Ms.Bagshot was dead for quite a while now,he heard sounds of unrest and flashes of light coming through the gaps in the barricaded windows.............
Inside the building, Hermione,Ron and Harry tried desperately to tackle the enormous snake,both physically and with the help of magic.Nagini ,only moments ago revealed itself,coiling out of the dead body of Bathilda,with the help of which,it had lured them in. Apart from resisting the assaults of the python, Hermione was having visions of Voldemort getting excited and on his way to Godric's Hollow.At one point she was so lost,that the snake had flicked his tail at her so hard that her wand flew out of her hand and she stopped its mouth from snapping at her face by blocking it with her purse.Its teeth ripped through the material of the bag and stopped inches from her face.At that moment, Voldemort arrived and she jerked the bag off it,pulling out one of its tooth in the process and they jumped out of the window,disapparating in mid air.......................................................
As Snape ran towards the house,as he knew those sparks could only have been made with magic,he felt his dark mark burn and at the same moment, he saw one window at the first floor, break open and three figures jumping out.His eyes widened as he caught a teensy glimpse of Hermione,Harry and Ron linking hands in mid-air and disapparating.He had already felt the dark lord's presence,but then he saw Voldemort’s skeletal form appear at the blasted window frame and curse loudly,as he failed yet again to catch the trio.Snape dived out of the way,not willing to give himself away as he had no explanation regarding his presence there and he waited for Voldemort to disapparate from there,till he himself also apparated back to Hogwarts.So my suspicions were true;it was indeed Hermione and her friends.I don't know what made them take such a risk but I hope they got what they came for.That was a hair-breath escape!............
"Hermione,what are you doing?"Harry asked,coming out of the tent,"We have destroyed one horcrux.Take it easy mate.Are you still obsessing over the Deathly hallows or are you just passing the time by experimenting with potions for recreational purposes?" "Ssh,let me concentrate."Hermione scolded as she pulled her hair out of the way and again got immersed in preparing a complex potion with the venom from the tooth of Nagini that she had found stuck onto her purse when they had safely returned to their refuge.Ron was sound asleep inside,resting after a night of action and Hermione was relieved in a way.Out of the two of them,Harry was the less interfering and as she expected,he just shook his head and went away to catch some fish.She finished adding all the ingredients that she could get her hands on and was necessary for the experiment,glad that she had brought her school equipments along with her in her magically-expandable purse.After letting it brew for a certain amount of time, she quickly took off the spherical crystal pendant that Snape had given her and ladled some of the potion into it and closed it up tightly.After bottling up the rest of it,she cleaned up after herself.This might come to be of use for the battles to come.Harry returned with a freshly caught trout dangling from a hook and a grin upon his face.After they had a good meal,Ron asked,"Now,where to miss?" Hermione licked her fingers and said tl their surprise,"To the post-office.".....
Snape was sitting at the desk in Dumbledore's office when he heard a brisk knock on the door."Enter,"he said lazily,not really in the mood for conversation.He made an even uglier face when he saw who it was."This package arrived at the owlery today, addressed to you Sevvy."one of the Carrows told,shaking it in front of him."Leave it on the table."Snape said,pretending not to be interested although his heart skipped."And don't ever call me 'Sevvy'."he snapped.As soon as he closed the door behind him,Snape jumped out of his chair and tore the packet open.He found that it had been opened before and clumsily taped back together.Those rascals,they are meddling in everything.He found a hardcover book inside.There wasn't a title and no note on it.He turned over the cover and opened the first page.It contained a single inscription written in ink:
So long as men can breathe
                        Or eyes can see-
So long lives this
           And this gives life to thee.
He tried to turn over the rest of the pages but they were tightly shut.He took out his wand and tried to hex it open but it wouldn't budge.Snape understood that if Hermione was trying to send him something, she would put it under a locking spell that would take only a particular process to open so that it won't give away its secret if it fell in the wrong hands.Maybe the Carrows had tried to open it already but failed ,unable to keep up with her cunning.He sat with the book open in front of him,chewing at the end of his quill,trying to think of a way.Incidentally, a drop of ink rolled off the tip of the quill and fell on the paper and immediately a line appeared beneath the inscription.So it's a password.But what could it be?He tried Hermione's name but it was obvious and it wasn't the right one.He tried writing the names of spells that opened things but everytime his writings were soaked into the paper,leaving it as blank as before.He shook his head and focused instead on what Hermione had written.She can't have chosen this particular verse without a reason.He recognised it to be a Shakespearean sonnet.Sonnet 16 ,I guess.He wrote that down but to no avail.Then he tried William Shakespeare but again failed.Come on,come on,I can do better than this!Then he remembered what the world-famous poet was also known as;he was also called:The Bard.As soon as he made the correct entry,the page turned over by itself and he discovered that the book wasn't a book at all;the middle part of it was cut hollow to make a chamber for a pendant stored inside.He took it out to realise that it was the same locket he had gifted Hermione and it was now filled with a purple potion.There was a small note inside:Eveyone dies-it's not the when of the dying that matters,it's the how of it.
You are mine.Mine,as I'm yours.And if we die,we die.But first we'll live! 💘