Chapter 12: Year 2000

June 2000, England, Great Britain.

In the great city of Cokeworth, there was a very dreary and worn out little house situated at the end of Spinner's End street, this house was located in a very depressing and unpleasant place for the great majority of people, in this place where the houses are made of brick, old wood and mostly deserted with broken lampposts and dirty gray windows where they are barely distinguishable in the dark, is where Severus Snape lived all his life, near this place, there is also a large dirty river and an abandoned mill with a chimney on top.

In this house Severus Snape was currently inside a small living room next to a young woman, where the walls were completely covered with books, most of them bound in black or old brown leather; a frayed sofa, an old armchair, and a rickety table were grouped in a pool of dim light projected by a lamp full of candles hanging from the ceiling. The place had an air of neglect as if it were not habitually inhabited.

In front of a Cauldron and a large circle that gave the idea of a strange ritual, stood Severus Snape at work brewing a potion.

"Professor Snape!" said a female voice.

"What do you want Granger?" said a slightly irritated Severus without even glancing at the young woman who spoke to him.

"I..., well, I still fail to understand why Headmaster Dumbledore didn't tell Harry everything from the very beginning" Hermione brought up again to Snape something she had been wondering in the two years they had been locked in the old professor's house, he never gave her an explanation.

"We already talked about this Miss Granger and I don't have time to repeat myself, as you will see, I'm busy" Snape replied as he continued to look at the cauldron.

"Then...at least tell me why you trusted Dumbledore's plans again if he had already failed you once by not protecting Lily Evans," Hermione said in exasperation, but this seemed to strike Snape as he turned his gaze to her.

"TCH did you not already see my memories Granger, you should be able to draw your own conclusions by now without having to bother me."

"I could only see things in the third person, there are a lot of inconclusive things that I can't come to understand, like what you and Dumbledore were thinking."

"Oh, so you weren't satisfied with just seeing my memories, but now you want to know my thoughts as well," Snape said irritably.

"I..., I didn't mean that professor, I just..." Hermione couldn't finish speaking because Snape interrupted her.

"Look, Miss Granger, it wasn't that I trusted Dumbledore, I just didn't have a choice. I asked him to protect Lily because he was the only wizard capable of standing up to Lord Voldemort, I became his spy for that reason alone, it wasn't because I trusted him, it was because he was my only option and as you said, he failed."

"Now shut up and keep practicing your Occlumency, you know how important and essential it is in the plan" finished Snape turning to look at the cauldron.

Hermione wanted to curse him, and he evaded his question again, but despite her anger, she knew the importance of the potion he was making and didn't want to ruin her last chance to stop Voldemort.

Still, she couldn't help but raise her point.

"Professor, I must remind you that my level of Occlumency is high enough to even prevent Headmaster Dumbledore from seeing inside my mind, thanks to your guidance in these two years I managed to reach a level of Occlumency that is on par with yours," Hermione said confidently.

"May I remind you that that same confidence and carelessness is what ruined all of Dumbledore's plans along with the order."

"That's not true!" said an elated Hermione.

"Oh, are you sure Granger, if I remember correctly if you guys hadn't been so stupid to take on so many death eaters and just followed Dumbledore's plans, we wouldn't be in this situation now!"

Hermione was silent. She knew there was something right in his words.

After Dumbledore's death, Harry knew what he had to do to put an end to Voldemort, but after a while, Ron left Harry and her in a critical situation by throwing a tantrum because of his childish and unfounded jealousy. Harry in his anger was impatient and careless in looking for one of the horrocrux, which led to the two of us facing a large group of death eaters, she did her best to help him, but the two of them alone couldn't face or escape from so many death eaters.

"Maybe with Ron there things would have been different" Hermione kept saying to herself in her head.

But Ron never showed up and Harry finally died at the hands of Lord Voldemort who appeared in person for his execution, she could do nothing to prevent it, she fought with all her strength, but still, she was oppressed and captured, she cried for a long time, but nothing was going to change what had already happened.

She knew that she should have insisted more to Harry or looked for better ways to persuade him, but he was so angry and frustrated, that she could not convince him to do otherwise.

Hermione had been captured and Harry Potter, her friend, was dead, and all because of a mistake he had made in his carelessness, a mistake that led to his death and then led to the fall of the Order of the Phoenix along with the death of almost the entire Weasley clan, the members of the Order of the Phoenix and many more who were against Voldemort.

Hermione knew that as a Muggleborn it was likely that she had only been captured to be tortured and used as an example for those who opposed Voldemort's evil regime, so she had sworn to herself that she would die fighting as her friends and loved ones had done.

She was calm knowing that her family was safe somewhere in the world without knowing anything of what was happening, that let her continue fighting calm, she would not only accept her fate, but she would fight until the last breath left her body and, if possible, she would come back to torment all the death eaters, she didn't care about the torture that awaited her, she was determined to fight, but her plans changed when Professor Snape released her from her prison.

"TCH, no response, as expected" growled Snape after seeing Hermione being lost in her own thoughts for a good while.

That used to happen to her and he hated it.

Hermione remained silent, she had seen into Snape's memories, she knew how devastated he was when he heard of Harry's death, she knew he blamed himself for the death of Lily Evans, and then after the death of Lily's son that he had promised to protect, for Snape, it was like failing Lily all over again.

"Professor, could you at least tell me what is going on outside right now, we have been locked in this house for two years with no news from outside, but I know you are still in contact with Voldemort and his followers to keep up your facade of loyal follower, so you must know what the situation is" Hermione decided to change the subject, she knew she would not get the answers she wanted and pressing would only lead to insults from Snape.

"You're such a pain, can't you get an idea on your own?"

"I can, but it's been a year since you've told me anything about what's going on in the magical world so it's hard to know how the situation stands."

"Would it change anything for you to know Granger?"

"No, but I still want to know," Hermione said.

"I thought in these two years you might have matured, looks like I was wrong. Very well, I will satisfy your intrigue Granger" Snape shook his head as he continued "For starters, Voldemort and his followers, the death eaters, have already taken complete control of the magical world in Britain, they now go about the streets beating, cursing and killing anyone who opposes them or thinks differently. They have also taken over different parts of Europe and little by little they are advancing further, perhaps by the end of this year, the European magical community will fall."

"Oh, and you should also know that you are the last living Muggleborn witch in England, congratulations."

She already knew that she must be the only living Muggleborn, it was quite obvious, but knowing Snape, he must have mentioned it to annoy her.

"Are you satisfied now Granger?"

Hermione decided to ignore his words and mocking tone, but when she began to process what he had said she was quite surprised, as she had seen the possibility that in these two years Voldemort could take over some part or another of Europe, but she hadn't expected things to be this bad in the magical community already.

"But... how is that possible, the International Confederation of Wizards should have already intervened to stop him?"

"The International Confederation of Wizards, what a laugh, they're just a bunch of idiot politicians" Snape commented in derision.

"But with the forces and allies the Confederation has they should be able to stop Voldemort, not forever, but at least a few years," Hermione said.

"As I told you Granger, a bunch of idiot politicians."

"But..." started Hermione but was interrupted before she got to say anything.

"Look, Voldemort played his cards right, the Confederation called several meetings to discuss the conflict in Britain, but Voldemort had already taken over the Ministry so he already controlled the British magical community, and then it was easy for him to circumvent the Confederation through different policies and legislation. It was only after a year when Voldemort finally began to advance on other European countries, that the Confederation called an emergency meeting to send a delegation to Europe to address the conflict that was endangering the magical world," Snape explained and interrupted.

"So..."

"Oh, but it was too late, Voldemort had already convinced many families across Europe to join his cause, now Voldemort's army is not something the Confederation can stand up to" explained Snape interrupting Hermione again.

Hermione hadn't thought about that, she knew that Voldemort was powerful and had a big army, but she always thought that if the International Confederation of Wizards took the decision to stop him they could do it for a while, her biggest worry was that Voldemort wouldn't die because of the Horrocrux, so he could continue his plans for many years without dying, but she believed that at least they were going to be able to stop Voldemort from taking other countries, she thought it would be years before Voldemort could defeat the Confederation.

"How... How did they not send a delegation to stop him sooner, they knew he was dangerous, so why?"

"TCH, you don't seem to be listening to me, Miss Granger. The Confederation only intervenes when the conflict affects the entire magical world, for example in the case of Gellert Grindelwald who committed magical riots in front of the Muggle community putting at risk the exposure of the magical world, there if they were willing to intervene immediately, but Voldemort was smart and first took power in Britain, then was recruiting followers from around the world and then take what he wanted little by little without attracting much attention"

"So, if your plan doesn't work Professor, the magical world..." started Hermione but Snape cut her off immediately.

"It will work!" he said effusively.

"I have no doubt that it will work Granger, so you'd better keep waiting a little longer in silence and let me continue with my work, meanwhile, take advantage and use the time you have left to prepare for your future, you only have a few hours left, don't waste them."

Hermione didn't protest and let Severus finish making the potion.

Although she still had many questions to ask him this last day, she decided not to protest and let Professor Snape finish making the potion without further interruptions, she had already tried to get information out of him throughout these two years, but Snape only had ahead for his plan, he did not care about anything else, it was already difficult to make him leave his studies to teach him Occlumency properly if it were not because it was something essential to the plan, likely, he would not have bothered to teach her anything.

But Hermione could understand, she knew that Snape had lost all reason to live and that it was only because he decided not to give up and do something right once and for all that, it was now possible to have a chance to stop Voldemort.

He had a plan and also had the knowledge to carry it out, but it was not possible for him to be the protagonist of the plan, so he had to turn to someone he trusted and that person did not exist, so he could only turn to the only person he knew capable of helping him and that was her, Hermione Granger.

That was why he took her out of prison because she was the only one who could now do something and although Voldemort wanted to torture her, Severus had managed to convince him to give her to him in custody for only two years, with the simple excuse of torturing her on his own by using some new potions he wanted to try in a mudblood. Apparently, it was not difficult to achieve because Voldemort was still convinced of her loyalty all these years and besides, as leader of the death eaters, he had a lot of things to take care of.