~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~
It's a well known fact that the dungeons of Hogwarts are not primarily under the great lake; they are in fact buried deep within the rock that Hogwarts Castle sits on. However, the lesser known fact is that some of Salazar Slytherin's domain does indeed venture below the great chasms of rock that hold up Hogwarts. No student has ventured down there in hundreds of years, of course that is not for lack of trying... The secrets that Hogwarts has are twisted into its very foundations. The mystery of what lay below the dungeons just happens to be one of them....
Out of all the houses of Hogwarts, Slytherin has always been the one with the most secrets. A Gryffindor would say that is a bad thing as they can not be trusted, but a Hufflepuff would wisely point out that secrets are best left to their owners and a Ravenclaw would state: that to hold a secrets is knowledge, and remind the others that knowledge is power...
~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~
Severus Snape awoke with the knowledge that not only was it cold, but it was bloody cold. His breath spiralled up into the air above him to prove his point to be fact. He could vaguely tell that is was some ungodly hour in the morning by the lack of natural light in his chambers, although truth be told he very rarely got natural light in his chambers anyway. With a sigh of resignation he got up, his bare feet complaining as they touched the icy stone floor. His sleeping quarters were relatively small compared to some of the lavish rooms within the castle itself, but lavish had never been Severus's style so plain and simple it was. The time was somewhere between 5:20 and 5:50; these early hours of the morning were often just light enough to be able to see vague outlines of the forest from Severus's living room window which was carved in to the face of the rock. His routine was the same as it had been for the last ten years: get up, get changed into muggle running gear, go to the far bookcase in his living room come library and pull out the slim volume labelled "The Road to Everywhere" this then would activate the mechanism behind the bookcase causing it to move aside revealing a gloomy spiral staircase that led up to the ground floor of the castle (the opening of which could be found behind a painting of Viscount Quentin De La Faire and his faithful familiar Rodney the porcupine). Snape used this very portrait to make his exit from the spiral case that morning; he stood in a silent corridor with the morning gloom barely seeping in. He would have loved to have said that it was deadly quite, but it was Hogwarts so chance would be a fine thing. No, there was the slow dull sounds of hundreds of paintings fast asleep to keep Snape alert. Snape, who was dressed in the appropriate clothes for running, fumbled up his sleeve trying desperately to grab his wand and illuminate the dim corridor. At times like this Severus really wished that the wizarding world had a more sensible dress sense as although cloaks were good for looking ominous and keeping your wand in they weren't exactly designed for running in... By the light of his recently found wand Severus walked quickly down the corridor.
Multiple lefts, rights and stairs later Severus was standing by the edge of the Great Lake. He took a breath of fresh morning air in, looked out towards the lake and started to jog. Jogging was one of the things during the war the kept him sane. Working as a double agent came with its fair share of stress; he had found that going for a run relieved that stress a little. Severus found that he could become hypnotised by the sound of his methodical footfalls and the fresh burning sensation in his lungs. Truth be told Severus was not a morning person and if anyone encountered him before his morning ritual of a jog around the Great Lake then there would be hell to pay. He melted into the run, letting all his thoughts slide to the back of his mind. The only thing he needed to concentrate on now was the sound of his footfalls and his heart beating in time with them.
The morning light began to creep over a nearby hill by the time Severus had finished his run. The mist that was laying on the lake was began to make its way towards the shore, rolling onto the ground like silent waves. Severus began to slow his pace as he finished the final stretch; he bent over resting his hands on his thighs, he breathed in through his nose and out through his mouth as he mentally willed his heart to continue in a more regular beat. Severus looked up to see the morning light hitting the the castle bathing it in a pale golden glow. He began his walk back up towards the castle in a slow leisurely pace -taking in the beautiful scene before him as he went. The dew from the grass began to soak into his tattered muggle running shoes as he stopped for a minute and turned back to look towards the lake. What greeted his was the beauty that was Hogwarts in the morning. The hills that surrounded the castle were covered in green trees, but with hints of brown peaking through the foliage to announce that Autumn would come early this year. Across the lake lay the forbidden forest shrouded in mist and mystery as it ever was. Of course due to Potter and the rest of the trio keeping students out of the forest was an increasingly difficult venture. The problems was that due to Potter running off into the forest every five minutes during his years at Hogwarts gave the rest of the students the idea that the forest suddenly became a lot less forbidden all of a sudden. This of course led to Madam Pomfrey's sick bay becoming full to the brim with a variety of injuries form sprained ankle to nightmares about Acromantulars eating people's brains. Yes, it was a lovely image to go to sleep on...
Severus averted his eyes from the forest and instead sat down on the damp grass. He brought his knees up to his chin and rested his for arms on them. He sat there in the cold morning dew and reflected on what the day had in store. Coffee hopefully. But unfortunately one Miss Granger was bound to find her way down into his dungeons and irritate him at some point during the day.
Well better get it over and done with...
He though with a mental sigh of resignation after a few more minutes of quiet contemplation.
He got up and stared to walk his way up to the castle relishing in the cold morning air that he felt was it last breath of freedom.
~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~
Hermione had woken early that morning. The thought of being back at Hogwarts had crept up on her like the morning sun. She stretched her arms outward and slipped her feet over the side of the bed, the heavy covers, in part, coming with her. There were two things that she instantly had noticed upon waking. One: that the floor was particularly cold this morning, and two: that there was someone in her room... She looked around the bed to locate where she had thrown her wand the evening before. After rooting around the surprisingly large amount of books that she had on her bedside table (for only having been there for less than twenty four hours). Once she had found it she got up tucked a wayward curl behind her ear and shuffled forwards towards the possible assailant.
As she got closer to the noise she discovered it was some sort of humming... As humming was not usually the sort of thing Death Eaters (or even ex Death Eaters) did Hermione lowered her wand slightly. She continued to creep through her quarters towards the grand fireplace where she found a small tattered looking House Elf cleaning the grate of the fire. Hermione coughed to get the small creature's attention. It jumped at the sudden noise and span around holding a soot covered brush in front of it in defence.
"Hello there. Don't worry I won't hurt you." Hermione said, in what she hoped to be a calming voice. "I'm Hermione Granger. May I enquire who you are?"
The small elf looked up to Hermione with huge blue eyes, shuffled its feet and toyed with the brush that was still in its hand. "H-Hinky" the elf stammered at she (as Hermione assumed that Hinky was female) looked sheepishly at her feet. "I is called Hinky Miss Hermione Granger Miss."
Hermione smiled at that moment which gave Hinky the confidence to carry on.
"Hinky has been sent to Miss Granger to help the Miss in any way Hinky can."
"Thank you very much, but I don't really need a House Elf-" She was cut off by a sudden high pitched screech emanating from the elf. Tear drops welled in her eyes and the little elf began to shake slightly.
"You- you don't want Hinky's service? What has Hinky done to upset the miss?" The young elf's voice was barely above a whisper and shook from time to time.
Something within Hermione snapped at that point and she rushed forward to reassure the poor elf that she was indeed happy with her service and that she (as a muggleborn) was just unused to such additional help. The small elf nodded at that, but still looked like a kicked puppy.
"Hinky." Hermione said with an air of determination. "I would love you to be my house elf!"
At that the elf looked up and beamed at Hermione.
"Oh Hinky is honoured miss! Hinky will be the best house elf to miss Hermione!"
Hermione laughed to herself and asked Hinky if she would unpack the rest of her belongings while she decided to reacquaint herself with the some old friends. Obviously the old friends that Hermione thought of were the long term residents of Hogwarts Library and had in fact had been missing the young witch just as much as she had been missing them. The books themselves, for they were the friends in question, had not been in such regular use since that tall skinny boy from Slytherin had started to peruse the shelves, but of course that was well before Miss Granger's time.
The books of Hogwarts library were not what you would classify as living, but yet they were not inanimate objects either. They, in fact, were a strange mix between the two. Much like the castle itself in fact. The books had memories, much like the castle had, or the closet thing to a memory a book could have. They also were able to know which wizard or witch had taken them off their shelves. Now, it goes without saying, but each book had a different personality, but they all managed to fit into a number of different categories. The first of these categories being for the oldest tomes, the wisest and ones most filled with knowledge. If you were to meet a book like this, one would instantly think of a rather grumpy old wizard with a long flowing white beard and a penchant for telling you about "the good old days" and to "close the damn door" because they weren't as young as they looked you know.
The second category of book was designated to those in which tales of romance, daring do and quests occurred. Of course these were the fiction books which could whisk you away on an adventure in the blink of an eye. Other categories of books included the "trashy romance section", an unofficial name that Hermione had given to them. She had obviously left them well alone and therefore didn't particularly know what they were like.
Hermione pushed the heavy oak door with a feeling of familiarity coming back to her. There were a number of things that Hermione particularly loved about the library. The first was the silence. Well not quite silence as there was the odd mumbling student or sound of pages turning. She found these natural sounds comforting and found that she could spends hours in a trance like state being uninterrupted by anyone else.
The next thing that Hermione recognised was the smell. The scent of old books and fresh air filled the library and Hermione's lungs that morning. It brought a feeling of calm to her the sort of tranquillity that only can be found from somewhere that you love.
She settled down into the alcove she always thought of as her own, looked around. Everything was how she had left it. Memories swam in front of her eyes. An image of Ron and Harry from their second year played out in front of her. Her memories of early researching sessions for S.P.E.W came to her mind. Then came a study session that she held in her fifth year which she had roped Harry and Ron into. She missed them both terribly. A melancholy feeling came over her which she banished away with thoughts of the her future.
On that note Hermione got up and made her way out of the library and to the main hall in time for breakfast.
The cold of the castle enveloped her in a trance like state as she made her way down to the main hall. The castle was more alive now than it had been when Hermione awoke. She wandered through the old stone hallways once again reliving memories that she had made during her school days. The old pale stone looked as it had back then; it was strange to think that in a few days time these halls ways would once again be full with student, young and old, but all excited once again to start a new year.
She turned a corner and the sound of bird song reached her ears. She recognised a few of their calls, but only really the Blackbirds and the Skylarks. The courtyard to her left was one of the smaller ones that resided in Hogwarts. The carved stone led out to a beautiful patch of green with one or two trees at one end. Although Hermione would have loved to have stayed in the courtyard all day breakfast was a main priority at this point. She promptly left the courtyard and made her way down the rest of the corridor that ended with a large oak door. It groaned in protest as Hermione unlatched it and made her way through. On the other side of the door she found herself in another of Hogwarts' corridors. This one was lit with stone columns which at the top of them a flame danced happily as she walked by. The carved stone walls reflected both the pale morning light and the light from the young flames. She walked quickly towards the door which stood half way down the corridor. Once through it she found herself in the grand staircase tower. She didn't have to wait for a staircase to arrive as one was already standing waiting for her. She mentally thanked the castle and trotted down the stairs to the Great Hall.
~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~
Hermione stood in front of the old wooden doors she knew so well. Beyond them lay the Great Hall. Memories danced before her eyes: her first year sorting ceremony, the duel in second year between Lockhart and Snape, sleeping on the floor of the Great Hall in her third year because the threat of Sirius Black was at its peak, the Yule Ball forth year, her O.W.Ls in her fifth, obviously the Battle and more recently her N.E.W.Ts. That hall had seen a lot in its time and Hermione was thankful that she was still here to see it once again.
She was just about to push the door open when a cold sarcastic voice came from behind her.
"Are you going to stand there all day Miss Granger or do you actually plan to attend breakfast?"
Hermione turned around quicker than Ron would have if he had been next to an Acromantula. A red blush creeped onto her cheeks as she bit her lip in embarrassment.
She looked around wildly for some way out of the situation, but the castle clearly enjoyed her discomfort at that moment and presented nothing to aid her.
"Umm. Oh good morning Sir. I was just about to go in. Only with the students not here yet I was wondering where I needed to sit." She scratched her bushy hair as she talked, feeling rather irritated by the man's imposing presence.
Snape looked down his nose at her and snarled. "I asked for an explanation Granger, not an essay."
At that Hermione balled her fists in anger resisting the growing urge to punch her previous professor. That was another side affect of the war; Hermione was finding it increasingly difficult to control her anger. She always did and it never came out, but it was difficult sometimes and not something she was proud of.
Realising she hadn't said anything Snape spoke again.
"You, Miss Granger will sit on the dais with myself and Headmistress McGonagall along with the rest of the faculty when the students have arrived. Until then I have no interest in where you sit." Just as he had finished he swept past her into the main hall looking very much the same as he had done when Hermione attended.
She carefully walked through the doors making sure not to bash against one and make more noise to attract the rath of Snape again. Professor Snape. She mentally scolded herself, he was going to be her Potions Master again once term began.
She quietly walked up to the dais and took a seen next to Professor McGonagall who now sat in the golden throne at the centre of the head table.
Hermione smiled happily at the headmistress and with that settled herself into a routine that would last her the next how many ever years she decided to stay at Hogwarts.
~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~
Wow guys!!! Hello I'm still alive! I cannot believe it's been over a year since I updated time really does fly. Sorry this chapter isn't as long as I want it to be, but I have literally no time. Applying to University along with finishing my A-levels (N.E.W.Ts to all us magic folk out there) and dealing with health problems has really prevented me from working! But I'm back (ish) now and will update when I can.
Comments and votes are always welcome!
Thanks
K