Keogh

~***~

Severus’ eyes were looking at the parchment before him, but he wasn’t truly seeing it. His thoughts were still in turmoil after the events at the World Cup.

Damn Lucius and his penchant for brandy.

In retrospect, he should have kept Hermione from leaving the tent. Things likely would not have gotten as far out of hand as they had if she’d been present. She was still an unknown element to the others; known to be a fan of Dumbledore’s and still not entirely trusting of her biological father. With her out of sight, however, his old ‘friends’ had allowed themselves to get a bit wild, culminating in a bit of muggle torture and reminding everyone present that the Dark Lord’s followers were still about. His part in the events sickened him, even though he’d only kept to blasting tents out of their path and not actually inflicting any harm or embarrassment on the muggles directly.

He would need to be somewhat less acerbic towards the Diggory boy this year. He couldn’t be kind of course, but Cedric had kept Hermione out of danger. Though not quite of age, he was very close and had more talent towards magic than most. Like his daughter, Diggory’s birthday fell a bit too late in the year, making him older than most of his fellow sixth-years. He would turn seventeen shortly after the start of term. A grown man by magical reckoning.

Thank Merlin the boy was a Hufflepuff. He’d be concerned by their budding friendship had he been in Gryffindor or Ravenclaw. He suspected Hermione had better sense than to let herself become entangled with any of the current Slytherins. Diggory epitomized his house, possessing honor and fairness in spades. He would be more apt to keep his hormones in check than someone from one of the other houses. Not that Severus thought him a eunuch; he just believed the boy was more trustworthy.

“Does everything meet with your approval, Sir?”

Severus pulled himself back to the task at hand. Having already helped Hermione secure her books, new robes and dress robes for the coming year (he still thought the neckline was too low) and her other school supplies, he had agreed to let her meet her friends at Fortescue’s for an ice cream while he attended to ‘other matters’. He hadn’t wanted to discuss them in front of her, but changes needed to be made to his will. Previously he had everything divided to go to his godson, Draco, and to the school. Now he had a daughter, however, and the bulk of his possessions were rightfully hers upon his demise. She didn’t need them, of course, but it was the principal of the thing.

“Yes, this all appears to be in order.” Draco would still inherit a sizeable portion, but his home, his books and the rest of his liquid assets would be Hermione’s. He’d purposefully left out any clauses to force her into marriage. He knew better than to try and dictate such things to her. She wouldn’t have any need of his money to survive and even if she did he doubted that she would bow to his wishes. Sometimes there was too much of her mother in her.

He sought out an instructor near town to teach him muggle fighting arts. Says you were his inspiration for it.

Severus frowned at the little snippet of memory. Kathryn had been interested in such things. The more intricate and demanding on her, the better. Her body had been taught and firm, a sculpture of sinew and muscle that had just enough fat on it to keep her from looking overbuilt. He hadn’t loved her, had barely even liked her, but he had adored her body and the flexibility it had possessed. At times it had almost made him forget Lily, but not quite.

He took the quill and signed his name on the last parchment before handing it over to the Ministry clerk. He should have done this last year after learning about her, but the shock had still been too new. And, perhaps, he’d been afraid that it would turn out to be some elaborate hoax. Now, however, he was certain. The girl was his blood. He took credit for her brains and for her magic and thanked the fates that she’d gotten her mother’s looks.

He only hoped that was all she’d inherited from Kathryn.

~***~

“So what’s his house like? Does he have skeletons manacled to the walls?” It was amazing how Ginny could look utterly innocent when asking such things. Ron and Harry sniggered into their sundaes.

“Yes, he does. And there are bottles of poison on every bookcase. Honestly!” Hermione rolled her eyes and fidgeted with her bags again. She’d stopped by Mr. Ollivander’s shop before meeting them and had been presented with a polished oak case containing her new wands. The aged wizard had been fairly trembling with excitement and made her promise to tell him how they worked for her as well as finagled a promise for a demonstration later on. He seemed to think he would be seeing her again fairly soon.

She’d only held them for a brief moment. She knew that they were the same weight and size as her dummy wands, but the addition of the magical cores made them feel wonderfully strange. And powerful. Perhaps a bit too powerful.

What was she getting herself into?

Ron grinned at her. “At least he hasn’t demanded you be moved to the dungeons. You can at least stick with your own kind.”

“I wouldn’t move to the dungeons if he put me in chains and hauled me down there physically. I’m a Gryffindor unto the end!” She punctuated her statement with a flourish of her spoon and the other three people at the table gave a hearty cheer. They were, perhaps, the only truly happy ones present. The news about the events at the World Cup had most people on edge. Not that she could blame them.

“Have you heard from Cedric since the attack?” Ginny and Ron shook their heads. She knew the Diggorys lived in the same area as the Weasleys, but she supposed they weren’t close friends.

Harry gave her a slight smile. “But only because everyone’s been busy. Mrs. Weasley baked a whole box of sweets and sent it over to the Diggorys for him, to thank him for looking after you and Ginny. I wouldn’t be surprised if he gets a Christmas sweater this year. She’s right taken with him at the moment.”

Ron rolled his eyes. “Like he needs any more female attention.”

“Ron, that’s hardly fair! Cedric doesn’t ask for attention. It just sort of… finds him.” She exchanged a grin with Ginny, thinking back to the twittering girls who had been watching Cedric from afar before everything had gone to chaos. For a moment she was grateful not to have been born beautiful. It seemed like a horrid burden.

“What about you, though! Fudge sure was impressed by you, Hermione. Dad says he’s mentioned you by name since the Cup.” It took her a moment to figure out what he was talking about, but it finally dawned on her.

“Oh, that. That was nothing.” She shifted a bit uncomfortably in her chair. She was going to have to keep a lid on things. Watch herself more closely. It was one thing for people to think she was a know-it-all. It was entirely something else to actually be a know-it-all.

Harry looked about to say something more but stopped, his expression becoming stoic as his eyes looked above her head. “Good afternoon, Professor.”

“Mr. Potter. Mr. Weasley. Miss Weasley.” That was about as polite as Severus ever got. She supposed she should be thankful he wasn’t giving them detention. Hermione looked up and over her shoulder at her second father.

“Would… you like to join us, Sir?”

He arched a single brow at her, but she thought there might have been a twitch at the corner of his mouth. Maybe an aborted smile? “Thank you, but I do not care for ice cream. At any rate, it is getting late in the day and I do desire to have dinner at a reasonable hour. We should go.”

She swallowed and nodded. As she got up she took time to hug all three of her friends. Perhaps even lingering over it a bit longer than needed just to see if Severus would make one of those impatient tsks of his. He did. Then, gathering up her parcels, she followed him back out of the alley and they made their way home.

~***~

“Okay, that guy’s just plain creepy. Cool thing with the eye, though.” Hermione swallowed and tried to keep her own eyes off Alastor Moody. She’d grown used to the silence since the Cup. After Kathryn’s ‘punishment’ the disembodied voice in her head had taken off to parts unknown. She should have known she’d pop back up when school started. Something told her that Kathryn was a bit jealous she didn’t have a special school she could attend when growing up. Some place for people with unusual talents but not quite witches.

Dumbledore went to finish his explanation as to why there would not be a Quidditch Cup, and the reason behind it floored her. Surely she’d heard wrong, only everyone else was excited, too. They couldn’t possibly be serious!

“What’s wrong? Sounds like fun.”

“It’s dangerous! People have died in the Tri-Wizard Tournament.”

“A school tourney? That’s a bit much, isn’t it?”

That was exactly the point. Still, everyone went their common rooms buzzing with excitement. And students from other schools, though. That was something. She wondered who would make a play to get in.

“I’m not too keen on the ‘possible death’ angle, but you could do it.”

“What! I’m not skilled enough to be in that tournament.”

She felt Kathryn snort. “A few choice tutors and you could be with no trouble. But, again, I don’t like the thought of you dying. Not over anything so silly at any rate. If you’re going to be killed, go out in a blaze of glory doing something worth while.”

Hermione nibbled on her bottom lip as she climbed into bed. “Did you go out doing something worth while?”

There wasn’t an answer for the longest time, and Hermione thought that she’d made Kathy cross with her again. Then, finally, “I believe that I did. It was something worth while to me at any rate.”

~***~

The weeks passed by far more quickly than she would have expected them to. It helped that she was always busy. Especially with worry over Harry about his scar and the visionary dream of Voldemort. Kathryn found this interesting as well, and not only from the view of what she seemed to consider an inevitable conflict between sides she had designated ‘good guys’ and ‘total fucktards’. Her other take on Harry’s scar was interest in the artifact from his past possibly granting him some odd type of clairvoyance or precognitive ability. To that end, she often left Hermione alone and made no bones about stalking Harry. Hermione found it disquieting. At least the school ghosts were usually visible when they were spying on you.

She also had her studies and, of course, her training. She’d had to work out a schedule of physical training on even days and practice with her new wands on odd days with Sundays firmly off limits to either. That way she only had to dedicate an hour to each on any one day and give herself something resembling a rest. Today, however, wasn’t a rest day. And it wasn’t a physical day. Today was a Gustav day.

The champion duelist was in the back of her mind, coaching her. After returning to school they had first returned to the basic steps developed with the dummy wands. That meant using only one of the two wands, casting a spell with one tip before flipping it over and casting the next spell with the opposite end. She used a steady rhythm as she did so in a sort of one-two beat, picking up the pace slightly as she did so.

Once she had that down they added simple foot work. One, two, step and pivot, then one and two in the opposite directly. Eventually she worked up to doing to pivot while casting the spells, though this threw off her aim slightly and she had to practice a bit longer to get it back. The room of Requirement had provided life-sized dummies with targets on their chests to help give her something to ‘attack.’

After she had one hand pretty much down, they added the second wand and started over from the beginning with simple one-two drills with alternating hands before working up to adding the footwork. Even though she knew she was casting spells with the same speed of a skilled duelist with one wand, she was still abysmally slow. The idea was to get skilled enough she could take multiple targets on at once, but she could still get hit from behind when concentrating on someone in front of her. She had to get to where she could think the spells quickly enough that she could cast a shield charm behind her back to deflect a curse while casting a hex at someone in front of her.

Gustav and the late Mr. Ollivander were both pleased by what she’d accomplished so far. “You’re trying something that’s never been done before, Girl! I dare say that few wizards would have even contemplated such things. We’ve grown so used to the concept of ‘wand hands’ and how things are usually done. You’ve done remarkably well to have mastered non-verbal spell work at such a young age as it is.”

She gave a snort and answered out loud, taking comfort in being the only living body in the room. “I’m sure that had nothing to do with you grilling me about it the entire summer.”

“We achieved the desired results.” Gustav had a tendency to sound horribly smug at times. He’d admitted to her that he’d been in Slytherin in his day, though as a half-blood with very close ties to his muggleborn father he seemed to have no troubles accepting her. He’d gotten his skill at dueling defending his reputation against his house mates and took no small amount of pride in relating that they had learned to respect, and even fear, him by the time he’d reached his fifth year.

“Now, I think we can risk changing things up a bit.” She frowned, but listened. "I believe we need to get you to where you can think and switch targets automatically. To do that, we’ll need to randomize the dummies. They’re hinged in the middle to pop up, so it should be possible.”

Hermione gave a sigh that was directed upwards so that it blew an errant curl out of her eyes. “Right. Magical whack-a-mole.”

“Pardon?”

“It’s nothing. Muggle reference.” She flexed her shoulders, holding her wands down at her sides and centering herself. “All right. I’m ready.”

She almost was. The newly added dimension shook things up a bit. She quickly realized that her aim had gotten better because she had grown accustomed to the targets remaining stationary and had fallen into a pattern. With the added difficulty of not knowing which target would pop up next she was shaken out of her comfort zone and her aim was off again, though not by as much as before.

Hex. Turn. Hex. Shield. Spin. Hex. Hex. Pivot. Shield-Hex-Spin-Curse-Jinx-

“Bloody Hell, Granger!”

She gave a yelp and turned, stopping in a tensed pose with one wand at the ready and the other slightly above and behind her, parallel with the floor. Cedric Diggory was standing a few feet inside the door, dressed in his warm-up gear and gaping at her circle of hinged practice targets.

“You should have at least sent off a jinx in his direction. He could have been an enemy!”

She ignored Gustav. “Hi… Cedric.” She lowered her wands, a bit embarrassed at having just now thought about them. “Uhm… what are you doing here?”

“I knew you came up here about this time, so I came up to see if you’d like to practice together. Thought you might help me keep up with my training and teach me a few things.” He swallowed and looked… scared? “Where… where did you learn that?”

She blinked. “I… well… I got the idea from you, actually.”

“Me?” He seemed confused. She nodded.

“Last year, after you watched me practice. You mentioned something about using two wands and… well… I sort of came up with this.” With a good deal of help and prodding from a few friends.

He seemed to be going through memories in his mind and came across the right one. “I’d forgotten about that, but I didn’t think you’d actually try anything.” His eyes fell to the wands. “May I see those?” She nodded and met him half-way, extending the walnut wand out for his inspection. He took it gingerly, turning it over in one hand with an expression of wonder. “A double ended wand. I’ve never heard of anything like this before.”

“Mr. Ollivander helped me come up with them.” It was true, of course. Still, she felt a bit nervous. “Look, Cedric, I don’t mind you knowing. I mean, I trust you, and it was your idea that got me started. Only… I don’t think I want anyone else to know. I just…” She trailed off, not really knowing what kind of excuse she could give to explain why she didn’t want anyone to know.

Cedric, however, seemed to understand. “I can see that, but you should at least consider telling Professor Flitwick. I know he doesn’t look it, but he was a dueling champion in his early years. You should probably have some faculty member supervising you for safety reasons if nothing else.” He handed her wand back to her. “I… should get going.”

Hermione felt sick. He was scared! He was afraid of her! Her wand felt oddly heavy when she took it back, but she knew it was all mental. “Cedric, I’m still me. I’m still just… Hermione.”

He blushed a bit, running a hand through his hair. “Yeah, I know. It’s just…” He paused and took a breath. “You’re a fourth year, and I’m pretty sure you’ve just shown that you can likely trounce the entire seventh-year class. Or you’ll be able to. That’s a bit much to take on at once.” He gave her a somewhat apologetic smile. “I… just need a bit of time.”

The bottom dropped out of her stomach and she felt as though she might want to cry. “Sure. I understand.” Not really, but it was just what you said in times like these. She gave Cedric a somewhat tremulous smile as he turned and walked back out.

She kept her feelings bottled up until two days later when Kathryn finally decided to grace her with her presence. ”It was horrible!”

“You scared the boy, Hermione. Guys don’t like finding out a girl is tougher than they are. Pricks at their pride.”

“But he already knew I could fight. He’s seen me.”

“And what did he do? He started learning it himself, though that could just have easily been to get an excuse to wrestle with you as anything else. I got the impression that he’s the playful kind.” She rolled her eyes and kicked at a rock near her foot. “I wouldn’t worry about it, Hermione. Cedric seems like a good person and I’ve been asking around about these different houses and such. If he’s true to the edicts and manners of his house he’ll come back around.”

She sighed. She didn’t even know why she was letting this get to her. Cedric was two years ahead of her and in an entirely different house. It wasn’t as though they were very close, though he had been friendly to her at the Cup and he did help her avoid the Slytherins last year.

Kathryn gave a snort. “Not to mention he’s absolutely delicious. Nice bum and a great smile if you can get your eyes above his waist.”

“You are the biggest pervert I’ve ever met.”

“Only because I don’t censor my language around you. I’m sure you’ve met bigger.”

She was about to deny it when she stopped, frowning at the grassy patch beneath her feet. Something was… off. Tilting her head to one side, she stared at it in contemplation. She felt Kathryn seem to hold back as though waiting for her to do something.

Crouching down, she placed a hand on the bit of earth. Though she knew that it was warm, kissed by the sunlight from above, it struck her as being cold. Abnormally so as it was her sense of perception being at odds with her sense of touch. It made no sense… unless…

“Hello? Is someone… down there?”

The answer came in a mental voice that was strong and tinged with a bit of humor. “I should say so? I most definitely am a someone.”

She hadn’t really expected an answer, but somehow she wasn’t surprised. “What are you doing down there? I mean, I didn’t think there was anyone actually buried on the grounds except for a few old headmasters, and they’re all clearly marked.”

“True. True. But I wasn’t buried on the grounds. They stuck me under in Hogsmede. All of us are from there.”

Hermione frowned. All of them? She looked around the grounds as if she should be able to see little mounds of earth and grass. Frowning still, she closed her eyes and sort of ‘reached out’. A gasp escaped her and her eyes popped open. All about her, all tucked under the soil of the manicured lawn and reaching out to where the rocky hill sides lead down fro the castle were… bodies. No graves or coffins, but bodies. Hundreds of them from what she could tell. “What are you all doing here? How did you get here?”

The voice laughed, but it was out of amusement. “We were asked to come here, Dear Girl. A long time ago. We were told that there was going to be a rather annoying idiot rearing his ugly head, threatening the school and the world in which our descendants are living. So, we volunteered to move up here and be ready to defend Hogwarts when needed.”

This made no sense! Dead bodies didn’t move!

“But they can move, Hermione, if the reason is strong enough for them to do so.” Kathryn sounded amused by her confusion. “I’ve asked for it to be done before, as did my father. And they just got up if my grandfather needed them whether he wanted them to or not. They say that when my father locked up my grandfather’s Dedaspeak, corpses got up from the cemetery near his house and spelled out messages in rocks in his back garden.”

Hermione blanched. “That’s dreadful!” She covered her mouth quickly, looking about and grateful no one was nearby to have heard her. The voice underground laughed.

“You are young yet, Dear, but you’ll understand in time. Now, if you will excuse me, I’m not quite where I need to be, yet. It’s been a long trip and the ground between the village and here has been hard to get through.”

“How long have you been at it?”

“Oh, decades, Child. We all have.”

Hermione swallowed and suppressed a shudder. This was all too creepy. No longer worried over Cedric she turned and walked back towards the castle, eyes on the floor as she walked, her mind spinning. She came up short, however, when Dumbledore’s voice cut through her thoughts. “Did you have a nice chat with your friends in the yard, Miss Granger?”

She gaped at him. “I’m sorry?”

Dumbledore’s eyes twinkled. “We found one by accident about ten years ago when they were digging a new flower bed. Took us all quite by surprise, finding a body on the grounds. Had one of the ghosts not advised me of what was happening I might have been concerned. We had to return him to the cemetery in Hogsmede, of course, but as the others were unknown to anyone save myself and the ghosts, I left them as they were. Of course, we haven’t put in any new flower beds.”

“You… the ghosts told you, Headmaster?” She felt scared and suddenly very exposed. “How… how did you guess?”

His smile was barely visible through his beard. “I’ve known from the beginning, Miss Granger, although I didn’t know how you were to come about learning of your unusual gifts. The bit of arithmancy was quite clever. Once I realized what had happened, however, I felt it better to let you and your mother… acclimate to one another.”

“Oh.” She didn’t know what to do with her hands, so she kept them in her pockets. Kathryn was watching them warily. She’d gotten very good at sensing her mother’s emotions. “Have… you told him?”

“You mean Professor Snape? No, My Dear. It’s your secret to tell, not mine. However, I had hoped you would come to me yourself rather than try to take on this burden alone. I understand that what you are going through is unique, but I am here to support and help my students to the best of my abilities.”

She blushed, feeling somewhat ashamed at not having told him. “Sorry, Sir. It’s just… I didn’t want to get into trouble. I know the magical world frowns on people like me.”

“No, Miss Granger, it frowns on necromancers. I dare say that we have never encountered anyone like yourself. Although, for your safety, I think it best not to tell too many about your peculiar talents. I don’t think you would like being under a magnifying glass while they try to figure you out.”

“No, I don’t think I’d like that at all.”

Dumbledore nodded and gave her another smile. “Now, I believe it’s time for dinner and I could use a clever escort to the Great Hall. Plays up on my vanity, you know.” He chuckled and she relaxed a little, falling into step beside him.

“So… you’re really not mad? And I promise I won’t cheat at my lessons! I’ll earn my marks on my own!”

“I would never expect any less of you. I’m certain that in certain things, such as Dark Arts, you’ll know a bit more out of necessity, but I have no doubt that you will take your exams under your own power. And, of course, there is your wand practice.” She blushed scarlet. “Yes, I know about that as well, and your Mr. Diggory is right in suggesting that you at least have a faculty member supervising you for your own safety. However, I think that perhaps I should fill that role given that I suspect you will be bringing other talents into play soon. Skills that we would not want certain individuals learning about.”

She completely missed that ‘your’ in front of Cedric’s name. “Like what, Sir?”

He looked over at her, eyes still twinkling behind his glasses. “Like those that might be seen as a possible risk to security. Which reminds me, if you plan any unsanctioned visits into Muggle London this year, please see if you can pick me up some new socks. I never can find time to shop for them on my own and some of mine are wearing a bit thin. And some sherbet lemons if you run across any. Honeydukes doesn’t carry them.”

She tripped, but caught herself. He knew about that? She would have said something, but they had gotten too close to other students making their way into the Great Hall. The headmaster parted ways with her after reaching her house table so that she could join her classmates for the evening meal.

Hermione’s mind went over the conversation, still a bit numb from the shock. Kathryn probably summed up her feeling on the matter the best.

“Well fuck.”

~***~