Title: Looking for Magic in All the Right Places -- COMPLETE.
Genres: Romance & humour. The final chapter of my response to the WIKTT 'Summer School Challenge.'
Rating: PG-13
Warning: Occasional poetry!
Disclaimer: See Chapter One.
Epilogue: A Theory Worth Testing
'It's breakfast time.'
Hermione, touching the roses that had opened fully since the first light of dawn, looked over her shoulder and smiled.
'Look at them. Yesterday they were dead. Now . . .'
Snape moved up beside her and looked wryly at the blooms. 'They don't like me very much,' he said. 'I blasted some of these bushes once in a fit of temper.'
Hermione chuckled. 'Oh yes. The fourth-year Yule Ball. You'd better keep a respectful distance.'
'What about breakfast? Aren't you hungry?'
'After being up all night? Starving. But--' Hermione moved past a splashing fountain to one of the carved benches and sat down. 'I don't feel like being with all those--people-- right now.'
'Neither do I.' He sat next to her, keeping a respectful distance. Both fixed their eyes carefully on the rose bushes, the dancing waters, and the sun-drenched grounds beyond.
After a while, Snape said, 'I sent your chemistry exam results off to Cambridge yesterday.'
'Oh?'
'And I should tell you--'
'I know. I didn't do very well, did I?'
'How you do jump to conclusions, Miss Granger! I was about to say you received an almost perfect score.'
Hermione beamed. 'Really? I'd given it all up as a disaster. And the strange thing is that I didn't care. All I could think about was . . .'
'Yes?'
She blushed. 'Finding the right words. Finding magic.'
'Is that all you found?' said Snape very softly, not looking at her.
'Well,' said Hermione, striving for lightness. 'I'd say breaking Voldemort's last curse and restoring Hogwarts to glory isn't a bad night's work.'
'O let this dancer dance,
This yearning centre spin,
That I, opening at last,
May let such power in.'
In the clear light of a late June morning, it embarrassed her to hear him repeat her passionate words from the night before. Why else would her face flush and her breathing quicken?
'Did you mean those words, Miss Granger? Once such an invocation is uttered, it takes on a life and power of its own. Possibly a dangerous power.'
She turned to glare at him. 'What are you saying, Professor?'
He still wouldn't look at her. 'I'm saying--are you sure you chose the right words?'
'I? What about you? "Till the bridge I will need to be formed, till the slender anchor hold/Till I catch the filament of light you fling, o my heart,"' Hermione shot back. 'Isn't that a rather dangerous thing to say to someone who was still your student? Are you sure you weren't just using me to invoke the right emotion?'
Now Snape faced her, his mouth drawn tight and his eyes as cold and uncompromising as if he were about to punish a second-year who'd just made her cauldron explode.
'As of today, you're no longer my student. For which I'm profoundly grateful.'
'Oh--the gratitude is mutual.'
'The last time I checked, Miss Granger, you had a brain,' Snape said, his voice dangerously quiet. 'Think. Do you honestly believe we could have invoked and sustained this order of magic if either one of us hadn't been fully committed? Fully open to all possibilities? Last night, and now, and . . . '
Snape stopped himself. Hermione took a deep, slow breath.
'Last night, and now, and . . . what?' she said, as carefully as if each word were a footfall on thin ice.
He dropped his gaze. 'And . . . very likely irrelevant, given your plans.' His tone became businesslike. 'I imagine you'll be in Cambridge for at least four years. Longer if you pursue graduate studies.'
Now it was Hermione who looked away. 'Until this week--until last night--I was convinced I had no other choice than to leave Hogwarts as soon as summer school was over. And I didn't think I'd ever be coming back. What would have been the point? Now--everything's changed. Everything! Or at least I thought so until about fifteen seconds ago.'
'I don't understand.'
'That's when you implied quite strongly that you don't care one way or the other if I turn my back on the wizarding world. "Irrelevant, given your plans." You know all about my plans, do you? Quite an assumption, considering I'm no longer your student.'
His head snapped up. Their eyes met. His expression was wary, guarded.
'You mentioned something else oh--thirty seconds ago,' Hermione said 'about being open to all possibilities. You said "Last night, and now, and . . ." And what?'
'I'll answer your question if you answer mine. Last night--did you choose the right words?'
Hermione raised her chin, ready with a tart reply. The taut expression on his pale face brought her up short.
At that moment, she understood the time had come to speak what was in her heart.
'Yes. I chose those words and I meant them.'
Snape's eyes flared, losing their cold opaqueness. 'Hermione, I owe you nothing less than the truth. You're right--I was using you at first. I sensed you felt something for me other than fear and loathing, much as it tested the bounds of belief for me to think so. I thought I could use that emotion. But--' he gave a short, bitter laugh --'I had forgotten that the most effective invocations are like a binding contract, requiring complete commitment from both parties to work properly.'
'It took both of us to raise the power,' Hermione whispered.
Snape's eyes never left hers. 'And my part of that contract is now signed, sealed, and delivered.'
The core of her and the world around her became liquid light.
'You still haven't answered my question,' she said, her mouth dry.
'I was thinking about possibilities. Not only last night, when we invoked magic; or right now, as we sit so close to these blasted rose bushes; but tomorrow, as you decide your future. And then beyond tomorrow.'
'Severus.' At the sound of his name coming from her lips his heart opened, and the damaged wings of his spirit began a slow unfurling.
'I have a theory,' she said, her face serious but her eyes laughing.
'Tell me.'
'If you and I were the catalyst for bringing magic back, then I suspect you and I will need to work together to make sure Hogwarts stays in one piece.'
Snape took her hand. 'That theory is well worth testing.' His warm fingers entwined with hers.
'Ah, Severus! Miss Granger!' Snape dropped Hermione's hand as Dumbledore, beaming, came down the steps of the Main Entrance towards them.
'Are you planning to join us in the Great Hall? The house-elves have truly outdone themselves today.'
'Erm--yes, of course sir,' said Hermione, standing up a bit too quickly.
'No, no. No need to come in immediately. Plenty of time. Please sit down again, Miss Granger.' After a curious glance at Snape, Hermione sat.
'I wanted to tell you earlier, though of course we've all been a little busy' said Dumbledore, his blue eyes merry, 'that according to the judges and--I think it's safe to say--the popular vote, you took first place in the Invocation Slam, Severus. Which means you took second place, Miss Granger. Congratulations to you both.'
Snape inclined his head. 'Thank you, Headmaster.'
'And I couldn't help noticing,' Dumbledore said, smiling mischievously, 'that you've each already claimed your prize.'
'By these words, enlightened,
By joy, unchained,
By magic, reclaimed,
By one kiss, set free.'