A Living Secret ~ COMPLETED

Chapter 10 ~ Searching for the Stone

“Oh Hermione, I am so glad you’re here to help me clear out my files,” Poppy said, smiling as Hermione sorted through folders removing records and placing them in boxes, sorting them according to last name, house and year.

Poppy must have had some kind of enlargement spell on the inside of her cabinet, because the bulk of the documents removed so far exceeded the capacity.

“When is the last time you did this, Madam Pomfrey?” Hermione asked her curiously.

“It’s been about fifteen years. It’s long overdue. But, I can always fit more folders in the drawers so I didn’t really concern myself about it, but it will be faster finding newer files this way,” Poppy replied.

“That’s a long time,” Hermione said, glancing at a Slytherin’s record from the class of ’85 before placing it in the Slytherin box, leafing through the separator parchments between the years and slipping ii in.

“Yes, it is,” Poppy said.

Hermione fell silent for about half an hour, wondering how to broach the topic of Signature Stones without making the medi-witch suspicious. Then she had an idea.

“You know, Madam Poppy, I’ve been considering what field I’m going to go into after I graduate. I’ve been thinking about becoming a medi-witch,” the witch lied.

Poppy turned to her, looking delighted.

“Oh Hermione, medicinal magic is a very rewarding field,” she gushed, “A witch as bright as you would be a wonderful addition, though I would think if you pursued instruction as a healer that would be even better.”

Hermione nodded.

“You know, I was doing a little reading about items used in healing and came across something I had never heard of. Signature Stones. Have you ever used them?” the witch asked innocently.

“Oh yes, of course. I have a signature stone for every staff member and student at Hogwarts. I create them when I give the students their initial check-ups when they arrive their first year. And the staff has them created when they are first examined as well. Have you ever seen one?” Poppy asked the young witch.

“No, I haven’t,” Hermione replied.

Poppy smiled.

“Well let me show you what they look like,” the medi-witch said, putting down a pile of parchments on her desk and brushing off her hands. Hermione put down the papers she was sorting and followed Poppy to the back of the infirmary.

There were several closets with glass fronts, and slender drawers inside which had labels on them. Between each closet was a small table. Poppy opened the first closet. The top drawer’s label read “Staff.” She pulled the drawer out and set it on the table.

The drawer itself had inserts that boxed it into sections. In each section was a piece of quartz and several thin slivers. Hermione could see the teachers’ names on a piece of tape attached to each stone. They were multi-colored. Albus’ stone was there, a bright blue piece of quartz. Minerva’s stone had striations and looked a bit like cat’s eye. Severus’ Snape’s crystal was a smoky gray color. There were plenty of slivers.

Poppy reached in and took a sliver of quartz from her own box, colored a bright yellow. She pulled out her wand and placed the sliver against the tip of it. It magically adhered. Then she passed the wand over her body. The sliver immediately lit up as a bright yellow light, then the tip of Poppy's wand turned blue.

“The Signature Stone focuses the healing spell and makes it more attuned to an individual’s body, and more effective. They really come in handy,” Poppy said, smiling at the witch. Suddenly the door to the infirmary opened and Filch tottered in.

“Poppy, I hear you have some boxes to be stored,” the caretaker said, his eyes narrowing when he saw Hermione.

“Oh yes, Argus…one moment,” the medi-witch said, then turned to Hermione, “I’ll be right back, dear.”

She walked down the infirmary and into her office, followed by Filch.

Hermione looked at the drawer full of stone slivers. Her heart pounding, she quickly took several slivers from both Dumbledore and Severus’ boxes, and shoved them into her robes pocket. Gods, she was stealing. But it was for a good reason.

“What are you doing over there, witch?” Filch called down the infirmary suspiciously, two large boxes stacked on top of each other in his wiry arms.

“Waiting for Poppy,” Hermione called back, afraid the squib had seen her pocket the slivers. Argus scowled at her and muttered something about untrustworthy students and hobbled out of the infirmary, Poppy shaking her head as she walked back to Hermione.

“Argus is the most distrustful man I have ever met…outside of Sev…”

The medi-witch’s voice faded away. She had been about to say Severus’ name. Her blue eyes started to glisten, her lip trembling.

“It’s all right, Madam Pomfrey,” Hermione said softly to the medi-witch.

“I still can’t believe he turned on Dumbledore that way,” Poppy said in a near-whisper. “Albus loved him like a son.”

Poppy had cared about the Potions Master too. You couldn’t patch a wizard back together as much as the medi-witch did and not feel concern for his welfare. It had broken her heart doubly when she found out what Severus had done. Once for Albus and once for Severus. It was a horrible thing. She believed in her heart something had driven Severus to do it. Something terrible.

Hermione wanted to give her words of comfort, but didn’t. She didn’t want to tip her hand in any way, so she just embraced the older witch. They stood there for a moment, then Poppy wiped at her eyes.

“Let me put this away,” she said, picking up the drawer of stones and putting them back in their proper place, not noticing anything amiss.

They began to walk up the infirmary and back to the office to continue sorting.

“Madam Poppy, how do you dispose of the stones when the students graduate?” Hermione asked her as she gathered up more parchments.

“Oh we don’t destroy them. They are stored in the subdungeons. Albus insisted that they be kept there, though they aren’t of any use. Any medi-witch or healer can make a new stone at any time. A waste of space really. We must have stones down there that go back a hundred years or so,” the medi-witch replied.

Hermione felt excited. She didn’t ask Poppy where the stones were kept though. She’d find out. So far she had slivers for the Headmaster and the Potions Master. All she needed now were slivers from Voldemort’s stones.

The two witches worked far into the evening, Poppy ordering sandwiches and pumpkin juice from the kitchens. There were ten boxes of documents when Filch returned. Hermione was ready for him.

“I’ll help you take these down, Mr. Filch,” Hermione offered.

Filch scowled at her.

“These boxes are heavy. You can’t carry them to the dungeons. You’ll give out before we make it down the first flight,” he groused, “Better that I do it myself.”

In answer, Hermione pulled out her wand and reduced the boxes to a much smaller size, just big enough so two people would have to carry them…otherwise Filch would have taken them all himself in one go.

She wasn’t a squib.

Filch’s jowls quivered as she gathered up five of the boxes. Smart-assed little show-off. Filch bad-temperedly took the other five boxes.

“Come on,” he said, walking quickly but arthritically.

“Bye Madam Pomfrey, I’ll see you tomorrow to help with inventory,” Hermione said to the medi-witch.

“Goodbye, Hermione…and thank you,” Poppy said as the pair exited the infirmary.

Filch grumbled as he walked ahead of her. The headmistress said she would be helping him, despite his protests. Well, if she were going to go with him to the subdungeons, she’d have to go the way he did. A nasty smile crossed the squib’s face as he stopped near a suit of armor. Hermione stopped too, looking confused.

“What are you doing, Mr. Filch?” she asked the caretaker.

“Just come with me, witch,” Filch said, lifting the right arm of the armor. The wall to the right of it slid back and he slipped through the gap. Hermione stared at the hidden door.

“Come on, girl!” Filch hissed from the recess.

Hermione cautiously entered. They were in a passageway…a very short one. Filch walked to the end of it, facing a solid wall. He looked over his shoulder at Hermione.

“Come on, you’re slowing me down,” Filch declared.

Hermione walked up and stood alongside the old man. Filch looked at her sidewise.

“Hold on to your packages,” he said with a toothless grin, then pressed a stone.

The floor dropped under them and they fell, Hermione screaming at the top of her lungs as they landed on a slide and slid downward, Filch’s stringy locks streaming back as he roared with laughter, Hermione shrieking behind him as they flew through spirals, over ripples, through a horrible looptie-loop and even going airborne for a few seconds before landing back on the slide, continuing at a sickening speed down into the bowels of the castle, Hermione’s heart in her throat.

Filch reached out and hit a lever as he passed, knocking it back. The slide leveled out and they slowed, sliding over one final rise and landing on their feet, Filch hobbling out of the way as Hermione landed behind him. He turned to look at her, grinning horribly at the trembling witch’s red face and tangled hair. Hermione looked like she stuck her finger in a muggle socket.

Well, now she knew how Filch got around the castle so fast. They passed a number of levers. Possibly the slide could stop on every single floor. At least she didn’t drop any of the boxes, though they were slightly dented from her clutching them for dear life.

Filch hobbled through a set of heavy iron double doors with two great iron rings on them. Hermione followed and entered into a huge open area, filled with arches, pillars and curtain after curtain of spiderwebs. She was in the bowels of Hogwarts. Something scuttled behind her and Hermione jumped and spun, seeing a huge, bald pink tail sliding between some boxes. There were boxes everywhere.

“This way,” Filch growled at her.

Hermione followed the squib to an area piled high with boxes. They were sorted in sections.

“Medical items go here,” the squib said. “Items that can be sorted by houses go where the symbols are. They are on the floor. Newest to the front.”

Hermione looked down. Yes…there were the house symbols. The lion, eagle, badger and serpent. The boxes were set back a distance from the symbols presumably to make room for future storage. The boxes themselves led back into the darker recesses of the space. Yes, it looked as if there really was one hundred years worth of items here.

Filch put the boxes down, read the names on each, and put them quickly in their proper places, then scowled at Hermione as she did the same, taking out her wand and enlarging the cartons. Her eyes wandered over to the pile of Slytherin boxes. Tom Riddle’s Signature Stone was somewhere in that pile. Filch’s eyes narrowed.

“Don’t think you’ll be snooping around in any of those boxes Missy,” he said, “They’re off-limits. You have to get permission from the Headmistress to go through anything…and she’s not going to give it to you. You have no business sticking your nose in things that don’t concern you. Now come on. It takes a lot longer going up than coming down.”

Filch hobbled off as Hermione took one more longing look at the boxes, then followed him. At least she knew about the slide.

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At around midnight, a disillusioned Hermione cautiously made her way to the infirmary floor, a silencing spell around her to muffle any sound she might make. Filch was old, but he had sharp hearing. A single scuff of her trainers could get her caught.

She found the suit of armor and carefully raised the right arm. The wall slid back and she sidled through. A single torch spluttered and she walked to the far wall, braced herself and pressed the stone Filch did. She dropped and once again found herself flying down the slide, watching the levers fly by. Shit…she didn’t know what lever to pull and instead tried to judge the timing between the drop and when Filch hit the proper lever.

She started to hit the next one, then hesitated, catching the following lever instead. The slide leveled out and she slid to a standing position. Yes…there were the heavy iron doors. She pushed through them and entered the storage area. It was extremely spooky now, though it looked precisely the same as when she was here with Filch.

Hermione quickly walked to the back of the Slytherin pile of medical records. Filch had left small aisles between the boxes and they were sorted by year. Hermione lit her wandtip for more light, grimacing as she wiped the cobwebs and dust away with her hand so she could read the writing on them. She located the boxes for the year of Voldemort’s graduation.

“Yes…Slytherin…nineteen forty-five,” she breathed.

Hermione was grateful Filch was so meticulous in his storage methods. She went through eight boxes before she found one stacked with the flat drawers the stones were kept in. She removed all the boxes, then opened each one, holding her breath.

It could be that Tom Riddle realized his stone might be used in some way against him and removed it when he left Hogwarts. But then again, the stones weren’t considered to be very magical. He might not have bothered.

Hermione found Lucius Malfoy’s signature stone. It was a rich green. She didn’t want that. She opened another box and smiled. Yes…there it was…Tom Riddle’s signature stone. It was a deep crimson color…the color of blood. It seemed fitting. Hermione quickly selected several shards, then hurriedly returned the drawers to the box and resealed it.

She had what she needed, and made sure to take enough slivers that she would be able to make a necklace for Harry too. She hurried out of the storage area and to the long flight of stairs that would lead to the dungeon corridor. Then she would disillusion herself, return to Gryffindor Tower and make her necklaces. She would have three clusters of slivers on her own necklace and one crimson one on Harry’s. Hermione intended to wear her necklace at all times, especially when out in public. If Severus Snape was about and she came into close proximity, she would know.

What she would do if she did locate him, she wasn’t sure…but Hermione knew she wouldn’t turn him in. At least not until she had a chance to talk with him.

If he gave her a chance, that is.

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A/N: Another chappie done. Lol. Filch is a real bastard, isn’t he? Hermione had no warning whatsoever. Poor witch. Well, now she has the stones she needs to detect Severus, Albus and Voldemort. This ought to be interesting. Anyway, thanks for reading.