Mist to Rain
Chapter 22 of 34
Ariadne AWSHermione returns to Grimmauld Place, looking for answers. She does not expect to find Severus Snape. Best Fanon Het (Quill-to-Parchment, Round 2). Runner-up ~ Best HG/SS, 2006 OWL Awards.
Summary: An untangling web and an interlude for Severus.
A/N: A note to readers: Tayet promises she will wake up soon. :)
She was hungry. And her feathers itched.
-------------------------
Severus trailed his finger down Tayet’s increasingly iridescent plumage as she settled back to sleep. Lovely.
She let out a note of agreement.
Severus chuckled softly.
Sitting on a Transfigured armchair, her legs tucked under her, her head resting on her hand, Hermione asked, “How long do you think I’ll need to stay in here?”
He shrugged. “Until daylight, probably. If nothing happens between now and then, we can assume that the wards will hold.”
“They’ll go away then?”
“Not unless something wanders by that appeals to them more… and that’s not bloody likely. But if nothing happens tonight… Dementors are efficient. If there’s a way in, they’ll find it quickly.” He looked at her and hesitated.
“What?”
“You would be safer at Hogwarts.”
Two evenings ago she and Ron had gotten their pointed revenge on the Dursleys for their ill-treatment of Harry. Two evenings ago she had arrived in the kitchen. Two evenings ago she had fallen into this web, this labyrinth of silence that was memory, myth, and magic, and ever since she had been following the thread laying before her, a few inches visible at a time, her path proscribed by the past and future of this man, this man whose arctic eyes and infernal passion both repelled and compelled her.
She would be able to see the Thestrals now. She wondered what they looked like. Even the illustrations in the Care of Magical Creatures sources she’d checked remained blank, until…
She ran her fingers over her eyes. “Safer at Hogwarts. Yes, I suppose I would be. But how long will Hogwarts remain safe without my work here?” she smiled, a sad smile, to be sure, but the courage in it, her acceptance, her commitment – all were unmistakable.
“Succinct, and accurate.” His eyes reflected some new measure of respect, and the last traces of some old shadow fled from his features. Innocence lost.
“Besides,” she continued, adjusting in her seat. “Do you have any idea what effect Apparition might have on a fledgling phoenix?”
“No.”
“Me neither.” She rested her head on her hand again and closed her eyes. Lily’s book nudged her. Sighing, she opened her eyes. “Hello, there,” she said to it tiredly, and opened the back cover to thumb through the index..
Transfiguring the broken mirror into a seat for himself, and the hat rack into an ottoman, Severus sat back and steepled his fingers.
Faith. He snorted. He was really out of his element.
She looked up, and he waved her back to the book. “Read,” he said.
He looked more tired than she felt. Of course he does. She turned to the middle of the book.
“Tayet,” she began, aloud. “Goddess of Weaving.”
“Webs.” He snorted, beyond irritated.
She glanced at him as if to say, “What did you expect?” and continued reading. “Associated with Anubis, funerary rites, and the underworld, via the cloths used in mummification to bind the body and spirit for its passage.” Binding. Spirits. Souls. Oh, gods.
He snorted again. Really. If it hadn’t been completely impossible, he would have suspected the meddling of a certain former headmaster. It simply reeked of the kind of thing he would have enjoyed.
Hermione continued reading. “Represented in funeral rites by a linen curtain” – she looked, involuntarily, at the strangeness of Severus Snape in white – “hung in the chamber of Anubis, symbolizing the liminal point between…” Bloody hell.
He looked up sharply, just as she let the book fall to her lap.
“… between the known and the unknown, I presume?” he drawled. Had Dumbledore been alive, he would even now have been flowing up the spiral stairs outside his office, spoiling for another tempestuous debate on the relative merits of order and chaos.
He was definitely in the mood to argue with Dumbledore.
Eyeing Hermione speculatively, he decided she would do in his stead.
She was gazing at Tayet, her mind roaming freely. Tayet and Anubis. So, she looks to him, then. She felt a pang of envy, which she promptly squelched. He needed the phoenix bond more than she did. Still… she sighed, her hand coming up to trace the circle on her heart.
Her sigh – or, more accurately, the memory of her breath on his neck, that last night –
drove the argument he was preparing out of his head. Chaos.
She couldn’t feel it through the cloth. She listened with her mind. The wind in the image was gusting, rushing, its “voice” – for so she thought of it – no longer screaming, just a low, distant keen. That’s an improvement, at any rate.
He watched her hand, hypnotized as she undid one of her buttons and pulled the cloth aside.
She glanced down to check it. The circle was, perhaps, slightly more full than it had been. Not by much; just enough that she didn’t doubt her perception. She pursed her lips and rested her chin in her hand, one finger curled over her mouth. So much still to be done. How to destroy… how to heal… how to… her eyes closed.
He watched her sleep.
It was the longest time he’d gone without consciously directing his thoughts since one Saturday afternoon twenty years before.
Lily’s book seemed to sigh in Hermione’s lap as it slipped out of her hands. Silently, he caught it before it hit the floor.
Its bloodstained cover warmed under his touch, and, resting his arm on the back of Hermione’s chair, he leaned his forehead on the book - feeling the rough weave on his skin, the worn corners, a thread from a frayed corner brushing his eyelashes.
Lily, he thought. I’m sorry.
The thread flicked to his cheek. It might have been moving in his breath.
Forgive me.
The thread brushed his eyelid closed, lingered, and was still. It might have stopped when he stopped breathing.
Tayet murmured a soft, sleepy note.
He started breathing again. He opened the cover, and read the inscription one more time. He smoothed his hand over the page, lightly outlining the witch’s smile with his fingertip, stopping to rub his thumb over the wizard’s too-small, wrinkled robes… He started to close the cover, then stopped, closed his eyes, and raised the book a last time, to breathe the scent of the slow, spiraling steam.
As he inhaled, it changed.
Before, it was autumn.
Now it was rain.
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Latest 25 Reviews for A Walking Shadow
230 Reviews | 5.53/10 Average
Such an amazing, complex story. Hate to see it unfinished, but maybe it will be someday. Faith, right? Thank you, for writing such beautiful tales..
Any chance you'll be able to finish this ? It's such a suspense story, just working up to the climax! I've enjoyed Tayet very much - you have a way with animals.
Response from Ariadne AWS (Author of A Walking Shadow)
...It was finished in '06; I've just not finished uploading it to this site; RL has utterly intervened in my time on fic archives. I think you might be able to find it if you poke around the internet. :)Thanks for reading!
Response from Ariadne AWS (Author of A Walking Shadow)
Hi,
oh this thin line between light and shadow, between earnesty and laughing about the irony, about the funny side of everything.
I am glad he still has his sense of humour.
yes, that woman is the road to hell, but she plasters it with lots of genious and wits and love and passion and fun and perfection.
one really feels how they deserver and need each other.
I like your Snape, may he be non-canon or not. He is adorable.
He was curious to learn about what the Mirror hat revealed her.
Interesting, how Molly took her death sencence.
Always worrying about her family, and now it is her she has to worry about. But it seems she doesn't, or does she?
She couldn’t deny the truth. “I still hate it,” she muttered.
“Good. Use that hatred, when the time comes,” he said. “It will keep you whole.”
I find his advice here very very good and not for nothing I am sure. He is really concerned about her staying whole. He is adorable. also to be seen when he explains about making unforgivables... It is always " am already bruised, so I will do it for you, he did it for Draco, he does it for Hermione, he is a good person indeed.
it's not done because it cannot be done."
Minerva looked at Dumbledore's portrait. "So naturally you had to try."
I love your sense of humour. makes the dark story lighter, more human more alive.
What a brilliant plan!! You are grand.
Let Pettigrew get imperioused, do the job, and 2 Horocruxes are done. great!!
I bet this works out! it sounds just soo clever.
"She seemed to scowl back"... that made me laugh!! Oh sodding Severus makes a big deal out of her trunk entering his bedroom or not. Her entering his real life or not.I can not quite follwo him here. he lives under the same roof with her. he spent a night in the hiding room with her. he shars his mind or her mind when entering there, he shares the knowledge ot her and his death and how and almost when. Where is the problem in sharing a room or a bed, porperly?I have no idea.he expains it with wait...his rigid sense of honour, his saftey net. all right o,k,. but, still, not so understanable. and then he let her choose. Why? she had already, hadn't she.Her responce : "I'd only hit you with it anyway " was rather taking the tenseness away. good idea. and much more natural than anyhting.And thank you thank you thank you for letting us peek at the soo necessary conversation between McGonagall and Dumbledore.tehe.He solved the problem of how to make her trust in Hermiones source without giving it away or giving to much information brilliantly. Trust her Arithmancy? well, if so, then you must only know, that it can only work with the correct information.Good idea of yours!!As so many others are and were.keep up the good job!!
Response from salvamea (Reviewer)
oh, and I agree with the other reviewer!! not being able to finish reading this WOULD be tragic!or anything like that.
What did he offer to put lower?
His hair?
What had happened? I must have missed quite a bit here.
But The Poenix Tears were healing or fixing someting, this much I know.
And Tayet is fully grown, this I also know.
You descirbe it all so marvellously. it is a real pleasure to read it.
Never blunt, or plump. always a little transcendent, like a little behind a veil, weaving your words in a poetical, philosophical way. very interesting.
thank you for sharing!
he let Voldy bind Wormtail to him. Sounds clever. he is glad about it, so it must be of use for him.
Hermione wanted Wormtail, now she has him.
Still am in the dark about how that would help. But it MUST! please...
Their interrupted lovescene got even more intense after the new developements, it seems to me.. phew. quite a scene.
i wonder why she wanted him in these robes. Everyone would have expected her to be absolutely turned off, but no.
Maybe a chance to dis-charm the brutal character of the deatheater uniform.
What will he do about his new task? find her and bring her to me? he will do that? and when and how? and what will happen there and then?
awful.
I am glad I still can click on to the next chapter. But soon enough I will up to date, and then I will have to wait as patiently as ... Tayet for her feathers to grow?
You mentionted it would be some 30 more?
Happy as I am to hear that, I am also eager to hear that the next 30 will not last for 2 years? got a plan? anything?
the whole chapter was soo funny.
especially McGonnagalls reaction on finding out that Dumbledore was well aware of the going ons and awake for quite a while!! her being furious. I would love to hear THAT conversation!!
hope she gives him her piece of mind!! ha!
and seeing Severus so playfull, and right in the middel of a wonderful seduction HE the bloddy VOLDY comes to summon him. Bad timing.! But what would one expect of the person who has no heart, seven souls and none of them good.
bah.
And he is soo close ..shiver...
Your Tayet is just soo adorable.
How she reads the one persons thoughts and acts in their behalf. I love these scenes. touching.
Is she really just one day old? cant belive how much had happened in this very short time.
So many revellations.
Horrible, to know that you have to die, from the hands of someone you love, and that this willl be a gift too, and that all has to be in a certain timetable or connected to some progresses. awful. unbelievable.
They found the Trapping Spell. and he has to cast it. and either he kills her then, or he will die. also horrible.
She says they bloddy well are the main charactes in this story. well, I think they are both right.
Voldy and Harry on the front line, Hermione and Severus doing the mind-work in the back. both lethal.
I also like your Mrs Black, she is quite tamed now, and her Rommy - I want to know what is going on in the library - game... just sweet.
how sweet, Arthur wants to join his Molly in death. He is soo sweet.
I do so hope that he will not have to. and that she will not have to do this.
Hermione saying farewelll to her parents. what a bitter jounrey, a what she will call her last visit. bruta. so sad.
he has no one to say goodbye to.
Minverva is writing letters.
Hagrid? well, he will say good bye to G....
Molly has her family around.
Very touching scenes.
and Severus asking her to come home, oh so sweet.
Now please be quick, and show us what happens at 2 o'clock!!
please!!
What does he mean with his appearance.
have faith!
She worked that out already!!
And how dare he say anything about their "relationship" whatever it may be.
He is so mixed in it, the planner and plotter and everything.
grr.
At least he gave Severus his blessings. sort of.
And he made away with the awful thing hanging between them about his death and guilt or not guilt.
I liked that. Him thanking Severus.
That was the best about his visit, Ifeel.
ah, so they have to take the Horocrux itemst with them through the veil. But how does she mean that they don't have to die then? er?
coming back isn't possible, I thought?
Hagrid will have to kill Nagingi, did I get this right?
Hermione has to give Severus time to run, and when all is done, and Nagini dead, and Harry seperated form his Scar then
HE will KILL HERMIONE??
WHAT IS THAT!???
Why? what for?
Did he make an unbrakable Vow?
About her in person? or about the person he would find fit for the job. And with whom did he make the vow?
urgh, that is soo ugly.
This man!!!
poor Minerva, she took it like a really powerful strong Lady.
wow.
I don't understand. The deatheaters are trying to kill all those who could free or undo the horocruxes? But if they do,then the Horocuxes will be destroyd, I thought?
So it must be the way the people die, that destroys the Horocruxes?
Still in the dark about that.
And poor Hermione had to be veeery strong here. "In what position is he?" well, very often inside her .. mind...
nice chapter again.
It’s not actually impossible to lie about love to someone who has the evidence of your broken soul emblazoned over her heart, but it really is the height of bad taste.
I can't belive it!
He took her on the floor, then, when she cried these black tears? I didn't realise. oops.
and now he wants her love to be safed, but can not provide any love of his own. Tragic.
good hit, Hermione.
I am all caught up now, having somehow lost track of this story. The complications just suck the reader in, don't they? You have to work at understanding, but only because it's richly complicated and savoury. I do hope you come back and finish it.
I love your words are like slow drops of rain....wonderful!! Your Snaape already makes me cry....Alan Rickmans face as he is portraying Severus killing Dumbledore is one of the saddest scenes ever. you have beautifully captured the afetr effects...
I love it I already LOVE it!!
Now things really begin to heat up.
I know Tayet will play a crucial role (hopefully in keeping Hermione alive and/or healing Severus' torn soul that he be able to love again) before all this is done.
Brilliant idea to drop the Horcruxes through the veil. I hope Wormtail's prosthetic hand will be able to pierce it since it is not living flesh, only animated by Voldemort's magic and Wormtail's intent. I suppose intent is the key word here.
Wonderful update, I was beginning to wonder if I would get the chance to finish reading this beautifully written story, because not to would have been a tragedy.
I am completely in love with this story. Thanks for the wonderful update, I can't wait for more.
Phoenix magic is very powerful. :)
Very good, Love the new Phoenix. Looking forward to more.
I think this chapter is key to everything that follows. It's taken a while, but I think I get it. The inclusion of Hermanubis as a healer made the formula so perfect there could not be one name as a solution...it had to be both, but not either/or...it had to be you in the plural. But, because the whole is much greater than the sum of the parts, the prediction of death went up in flames and the phoenix was born. This inverted the passion, desperation, and sacrifice of the formula and its conclusion on the parchment into the faith, hope, and love represented in the phoenix. It is so perfect the way Tayet reflects both the light and the dark of Herminone and Severus combined. Severus' despair, but at the same time rejecting it by tearing off his many-buttoned frockcoat. The spontaneous appearance of both Hermione's and Severus' patronuses. Awe, playfulness, healing, and nurturing. Hermione going back to planning and researching, taking charge, and sending Severus to collect fireflys (nurturing). This is story telling at its best.
Funny, poignant, and a phoenix.
"I'm to stay here while I research. Um...uninterrupted....orders....I have orders."
"It's an acquired taste"...."Dark, bitter, enervating." Sounds a lot like "tall, dark, and brooding."
The agony of getting the formula to work and the wait.....almost unbearable.
The wonder of the birth of a new phoenix....beautiful
Funny, poignant, and a phoenix.
"I'm to stay here while I research. Um...uninterrupted....orders....I have orders."
"It's an acquired taste"...."Dark, bitter, enervating." Sounds a lot like "tall, dark, and brooding."
The agony of getting the formula to work and the wait.....almost unbearable.
The wonder of the birth of a new phoenix....beautiful