Adult-FanFiction.org : Harry Potter

Bringing Him Back	By : shsa0702 Category: Harry Potter AU/AR > Het - Male/Female Views: 3586 -:- Recommendations : 0 -:- Currently Reading : 0
Disclaimer: I own nothing. J. K. Rowling is the ultimate creator of the Harry Potter universe...I just try to tag along when I can. I make no money. I just stare longingly at her millions.

Chapter List
- 4
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I toyed with the idea of forever giving up this story; I had just hit such a writer's block with this one! The scene that started the whole idea for this fic was that of the last chapter; where Harry actually tells Hermione she Snape wasn't given the Dementor's Kiss, but turned into one instead.

I tossed and turned with the idea, finally coming close to actually deleted it, but then all of a sudden I was flooded with a ton of ideas! Once I got one, another and another kept coming until I finally thought that it may be possible to finish this story.

Fingers crossed, let's hope this creative outburst continues. :)

Now, on with the story!

Hermione couldn't think. She sat numbly upon her bed; navy blue attire askew and tendrils of loose curls framing her face. She couldn't wrap her head around the news she had received that night. Every time her brain came close to bridging the subject, she felt the annoyingly familiar and anxiously tight pinpricks at the corners of her eyes representing the tears that threatened to fall.

Swallowing dryly, she struggled to maintain control as she reviewed the situation. After Harry had informed her of exactly what Snape's sentenced had entailed, she demanded more of an explanation and had dragged the pair inside for further inquiry.

However, that was nearly the extent of all they knew; in fact it was just about all anybody knew about the situation. Harry had mentioned that there was a small article in the Daily Prophet a few weeks back dictating what had transpired in the courtroom before the Wizengamont, what his sentence was, and nothing more.

Snape was gone. Not solely in the sense that he had died, or perhaps reclusively gone into hiding, but that he no longer existed on any plane of being.

She felt her skin prickle at the thought. How could you no longer have an identity?

She knew that those whose fate was to be administered the Dementor's Kiss still existed on some plane; there were many myths and legends about what happened to those people, and their souls in particular. But Snape…simply ceased to exist. No after life. No fate to be resigned to. What he was now would never resemble what he once was. There was no more Severs Snape.

The tears that had threatened to spill finally came, and she slumped in defeat as the twins trails of salty wetness paved the way down her face. She sniffled, overcome with thoughts that she couldn't bear to think. Severus Snape, a man who had lived a life of servitude by bravely walking the line that had divided the fate of the Wizarding world had been punished simply because he was forced to toe both sides in order to commit victory to one in the end.

Not bothering to wipe the tears away, she slowly pulled off her thin silver heels, casting them beside her bed. She moved without reason or purpose as she mechanically peeled off her dress, not caring that the tears began to flow even more freely. She pulled on her sleeper shorts and t-shirt, and reached around to unclasp the chain that held her diamond pendent. She set it upon her dresser next to her wand, and got into bed. The mattress gave slightly as she sat, defeated. So many different emotions during the course of one day, it was completely exhausting.

She sat there and cried, letting her tears fall onto the bedspread. She continued like that for quite some time until she felt that there were no more tears left to give. To her surprise, some slight relief did find her as her distress finally gave way to a feeling that she was well accustomed to; curiosity.

What exactly was ones' soul? During the course of her studies, she had come upon many different theories; particularly in Ancient Runes and Muggle Studies. Many science based theories said that a soul was the spontaneous energy a human body contained, the energy that started a beating heart. Others said it was the plasmic-like substance that ghosts seemed to be composed of; however she had never read upon any scientific proof that this substance was actually found within a human body.

Religious views most often stated that your soul was the consciousness of your being that went to either figure of afterlife, particularly heaven or hell. A moral and emotional nature or perhaps one's sense of identity was what defined a person's everlasting being. What defined an identity?

Whether it was human or non-human, spiritual or substantial; was there any hint or trace at all of the man that once was?

And what exactly happened to you if you didn't die? Could you be brought back to life? Suddenly, the feeling of despair vanished completely, only to be replaced by the burning need to sate her hopeful curiosity.

With the small seed of smoldering hope, she lay back against the pillows and closed her red rimmed, puffy eyes. However, behind closed lids in her mind's eye the only thing she could see was the heartbreaking figure of Severus Snape; helpless and forever alone.

Hermione wasted no time the next day even though it was Sunday, her day off. She made a hasty trip to the Ministry to access the personal library it housed. However much knowledge the Hogwarts library contained, it was nowhere near as much as this. It was about as comparable as the library on high-dose steroids with an unlimited restricted section.

Exiting the floo system, she felt a sense of unease at the lack of activity within the Ministry. It seemed that everyone who was in a research or clerical department was gone, but that was only to be expected. After all, she was never here on weekends. Walking across the flagstone, she passed the occasional lone witch or wizard, many whom she didn't recognized. She assumed that they worked in departments that could never really close, such as the Auror or Accidental Magic Reversal departments.

She took the elevator down to the basement, almost nearly to the very bottom floor. Exiting the lift, she approached a large security door. Next to the door was a lone pedestal upon which sat a short, slotted, wooden bookshelf.

She could feel the buzz of magic from the numerous levels of security enchantments placed upon the entrance. Although one wouldn't think a library as anything that needed high security, there was a lifetime's worth of dangerous information inside. Books on dark magic were not restricted, and indeed plentiful upon the shelves. Access to the wrong person could spell disaster.

She whipped her wand out of her sleeve and performed an intricate pattern while simultaneously opening her flow of magic to allow her identity to be recognized. Although the door opened, she could still feel the familiar unseen force pushing against her, not allowing her access until she completed the final step.

She reached over and placed her wand into one the wooden slots, barely fazed by the shimmer of magic as the shelf bound her identity to that particular wand.

When she had first started working here she was intimidated by the seemingly extreme magical measures taken upon the place. It also didn't help that there was one eerily unclaimed wand sitting in the fourth slot that no one ever seemed to address, and quite frankly she had been too scared back then to inquire about it. However now the process was as familiar as taking the floo system, which she did multiple times on a daily basis.

These security measures aimed to prevent the use of magic within the library. Those who worked towards the safekeeping the knowledge within wanted to prevent any magical transportation or reproduction or the content inside. However, it was also stressed that while wandless magic was still possible, the activity inside was monitored and any breach of security could result in immediate termination and possibly criminal charges.

After Hermione had deposited her wand, she stepped through the haze of enchantments into the vast library. It was a large difference from the exterior, which consisted of the cold, green flagstone and large security door. She passed underneath the arch that was the entryway, and entered into a library set up not un-like Hogwarts. It tastefully decorated, with a sitting place to the right with a set of antique wooden desks placed for research.

There were also some wing-backed chairs seated in front of a roaring fire place, and a couple of oversized couches. The flooring and walls were a milk-chocolate paneled wood, with burgundy and cream colored furnishings. The chairs and couches were upholstered similarly, with gold threading and tassels on the end, with wooden clawed feet to finish. There were antique red rugs situated in the seating/study area here and there.

There were lamps for soft lighting upon the desks, with four comfortable chairs surrounding each of them. All in all, it was reminiscent to a cross between the Hogwarts Gryffindor common room and the library. Beyond this seating area were rows upon rows of bookshelves, going past and around the room. The room eventually curved off, the shelves following suit. However, it was essentially one long hallway of a room, not one that a person could really get lost in.

Hermione had not brought a bag with her; she really did not have a need for any materials. It was forbidden by the ministry to copy or take notes upon any of the materials within the library; however books and tomes could be checked out. The process to do so was lengthy however, and since this wasn't really a work endeavor that she didn't wish to broadcast, she decided that any information would simply have to be taken away only in her mind.

She set to work walking down the aisle of carefully organized books. She walked down the rows, scanning the subjects as she went. She passed by a variety of topics such as Time Travel, Xylomancy, Earth Magic, and Apparition. Finally, she came upon a row labeled Body/Soul/Spirits, and turned down that aisle.

She scanned the titles, finally resigning to grabbing a few different books. She continued on down the aisle between the bookshelves, scanning the other rows. She came to a row labeled Magical Creatures and ventured down there to eventually find and grab a book entitled Dark Creatures: Mystical and Magical.

Before she had left her flat, she attempted to narrow down just exactly what it was she was looking for. She came up with a list of questions that she had wanted to answer. The questions she had she had written down upon a small slip of paper, which she now pulled out of her pocket. She glanced over the short list.

What is a soul?

Where does it go after death?

What is a Dementor?

How are they created?

She decided that she had enough to at least get started, if not possibly answer all of her questions, so she brought the lot back the study area and proceeded to do what she did best; research. She set her collection down upon one of the antique desks, separating and sorting them by subject. She decided to start in order of answering her questions, and grabbed the first text.

She poured over the tome, thankful that they were magically enchanted against dust. The book she started with was entitled Nature of the Human Soul.

Looking for, in particular, the substance of a soul she read quickly through chapters and eventually came upon one passage that she deemed the most useful thus far.

"…while there are many theories as to what a soul actually consists of, it is widely believed that a soul contains the energy that a human has within; particularly the energy that is first created along with the human being in the first few moments of life. This spontaneous burst and creation of energy is part of the soul; the other part is identity, or what one sees as memories.

This is consistent with the idea of the plasmic-like material that ghosts are created of, however this theory has never been tested…"

Hermione made a mental note that she would have to go to Hogwarts and test out this bit of theory. It would be easy to question one of the resident ghosts; perhaps Nearly Headless Nick would be willing to participate in her little experiment.

She checked that information away in her mind, and after a fair bit of further research decided that was about as close as she was going to get. She then moved onto a book entitled Journey of the Soul, and while the book contained many theories, there was nothing really substantial she could use other than, again, the existence of ghosts.

Otherwise, the book contained theories on everything from reincarnation, heaven and hell, to the Greek mythology of The River Styx. There was also the idea of purgatory or limbo, the various layers and levels of Jannet and Jahannam, and the idea of temporary respite in The Summerland.

Hermione had learned about many of these already in classes such as Ancient Runes and Muggle Studies, but she didn't really deem any of the this information useful since none of it had actually been proven. She supposed to could add this to the list of questions that she would ask Nearly Headless Nick.

Lastly, she grabbed the book entitled Dark Creatures: Mystical and Magical. Looking at the Index, she was right away able to spot a whole chapter on Dementors.

She quickly flipped to that section; however it largely consisted of pictures. There were sections of text, but they were on things that she was already familiar with such as their ability to suck 'happiness' out of the atmosphere.

Suddenly, she was struck with an idea. What was 'happiness' but the ability to think happy thoughts? And weren't happy thoughts the strongest? Weren't they in fact what Patronuses consisted of? It seemed that memories and energy were the most prominently emerging themes thus far.

She continued reading, and finally she came upon something useful in the last section of the chapter labeled 'Creation'.

"...many are not aware Dementors are in fact created, not born. The process is difficult, subject to error, and requires a great deal of skill.

A Dementor is, in essence, a decomposed human body with the animation of a human. However, there is no personality to a Dementor other than the immeasurable need to contain 'happiness', or the positive memories of others. In extreme cases, they will even take the souls of other human beings in an attempt to satisfy this immeasurable need through a process which is commonly known as Soul Sucking, or The Dementor's Kiss.

A Dementor is created by using this process. However, while the subject is in the state of implementation of The Dementor's Kiss, the Soul is intercepted through a by standing Wizard who then completes an intricate series of spells. These spells are found in further detail in Chapter 14."

Hermione set the book down, letting out a big sigh. So far, she had acquired quite a bit of information, many of it pertaining to what she was looking for. However, nothing here that she had found today proved that what she was researching wasn't possible. She had one more stop to make before she was satisfied.

As she packed up she was overcome with a strange feeling. She realized that she wasn't afraid of finding out that whatever she was searching for wasn't possible; she was afraid of what she might do with the information if she found out it was.

Please, please, please review! Let me know what you think, if there are any gaps missing in the story yet or if I've gotten something wrong! I really appreciate it!
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Bringing Him Back