Blood Magic (II)
Chapter 6 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: What happened in the kitchen. And on the stairs. And in the library. Oh, and a Horcrux.
A/N: As always, a special thanks to: Luna305 (welcome back) and Melenka, my stalwart betas, and Anastasia and Wandlimb for writing advice and encouragement. My eternal gratitude to Southern_Witch_69 for generously taking the time to put a fine, sparkling polish on this edition! *blows kiss*.
6: Blood Magic (II)
Inside her burning mind, the pieces of Severus Snape's soul howled a confession the world would never hear.
...He pressed them into her skin.
Hermione screamed.
---------------------------
Her scream echoing in his mind, Severus collapsed, chest heaving, spent.
What have I done?!
She stirred.
I'm crushing her. He rolled onto his back, holding her, but drawing out of her mind.
"Don't go..." Her thought sounded almost sleepy.
"Only for now," he told her. Privately, he thought it unwise to be inside her mind when she returned to full awareness.
Hermione felt a mental caress, and the voice in her mind was gone. Softness against her cheek, his strong arm holding her protectively, possessively... but something had changed.
She blinked, trying to focus her thoughts. Her mental vision split into two screens, and reformed, as the images she'd received in a rush played more slowly, in reverse... Not Sirius... Regulus? ... The split resolves... James... "Who-oh, no..." ... And finally a slow-motion flash of pain, a breaking bone, a fist her whole field of vision, growing smaller, and smaller, the vision fading as she heard her own voice saying "... please."
"Severus..." she whispered, horrified, "... what have we done?" She raised her head slightly, and the darkness spun around her.
She jerked away from him, scrambling out from underneath the table. "Light," she choked, struggling to get to her feet. "I need light."
The lamp flared to life as she lurched, stumbling, out of the room.
She was halfway up the stairs before she collapsed, vomiting, tears forced out of her eyes. Her hair being gathered behind her. She arched again, choking. A scalding hand on her face; inarticulate words, soothing her, grounding her. Weakly, she pushed his hands away, focusing on breathing. "Don't touch me."
Evanesco, he thought, watching and waiting.
Finally, she spoke. "I don't understand everything I saw, but I felt it. What was it?"
His face was still, guarded.
"You were powerless, of course, I felt that, too, but there was something else consistent, something worse. Everything pointed to one thing."
She frowned, thinking, then glared at him accusingly. "The web. You, in the middle. Protection."
He couldn't deny it.
"Was that blood magic, then? It certainly felt... old."
"To spontaneously activate blood magic, three conditions must be met," he began as though reading from a book only he could see. "Passion, desperation, and sacrifice." He refused to look at her.
"Passion," she repeated. "Yes, well," she continued briskly, "of course. You knew that already."
Brushing his hand across his chest, he murmured, "Mine, Hermione."
"Oh." The darkness seemed lighter. She reached for the banister and stood, stepping down a stair.
He closed his eyes against the hope in her voice. He knew the whole of it and what came next.
"I "
His tone quiet, almost flat, he interrupted. "Don't, Hermione. Blood magic deals with elemental emotions. Real passion is not the pretty thing you imagine it to be."
"Severus," a note of steel entered her voice. "What happened in the kitchen was not 'pretty.' Or did you perhaps" a hint of acid "miss the metaphor?"
He opened his eyes a fraction. "Most assuredly, I did not."
Silhouetted against the dim glow of the lamp from the kitchen, she was dark fire, outlined in light.
His voice a sharpening, unrelenting edge, he asked, "But which event were you speaking of? When I pressed you against the wall and closed my hand around your throat? Did part of you want to die? When I comforted you afterwards, tracing the symbols of my knowledge on your forehead, did you want to stay there forever? Or when I invaded your mind, brutally taking your innocence, gripping your head in my hands, covering you with my body, pinning you to a dirty floor, filling you with the forbidden knowledge that you had been asking, begging me, to teach you? Did you find it thrilling, Miss Granger?"
A harsh silence echoed in the stairwell.
Her eyes narrowed. "You don't believe it was blood magic, do you?"
He closed his eyes. "We share no blood. It can't have been."
"Light your wand."
He gave it an irritable twitch, and it glowed.
"Open your eyes." She held up her hand, and he saw the scratches and splinters embedded there. "I saw the wood in library." She touched his cloak, where the blood had stiffened. "The wound you ignored while getting my hair out of my eyes. That wood was covered in your blood."
He exhaled softly.
She continued, "I don't understand blood magic, but I do understand you, a little, after what happened. And I have been watching you for a long time. Nothing less than a force of nature could make you lose control." She touched his elbow briefly, stretching up to place a gentle kiss on his cheek. "I don't hate you." She turned and walked downstairs.
The air seemed cooler where her lips had been.
He had no way of knowing exactly what had just happened, but he had a good general idea. Blood magic governed three things creation, protection, and destruction always in combination.
He wondered which combination this would prove to be.
---
She stood by the fire in the library, twisting her hair into a loose knot, appreciating the warmth of the flames after... well, after everything.
"Brandy?" he asked.
"Yes, thank you."
He Summoned two snifters, and she took a sip. Better.
He sat, warming his drink in his hand.
After a moment, she said quietly, "I can't believe you survived it all."
His lips twitched. "I believe I answered that question before. I had no choice."
"Yes, I see that now. There are one or two things I saw that I still don't understand, however."
"One or two?" He opened his hands, inviting her to ask.
That's new, she thought. Take advantage while it lasts, Granger.
"The other man in the boat with you. Regulus Black?"
He nodded.
"He was underage?"
He hesitated. "Potter told you Dumbledore's theory, then, about the boat?"
It was her turn to nod, and his estimation of Potter increased minutely. If the boy had managed to remember that detail after that night... Interesting.
"Was he... I'm sorry, Severus. Was he your friend?"
"Black? No. But we were allies, briefly."
Searching his face for signs of concealment, she found none. I must be dreaming. "All right, then. That settles R.A.B." She glanced toward the kitchen and bit her lip. She'd had no opportunity to check Kreacher's nest yet. She frowned and looked at her watch. 9:30?! Feels like it's been a month.
"I believe you said you were looking for something," he began and reached into his pocket. He pulled out a heavy gold pendant.
She drew a sharp breath. "Slytherin's locket."
He nodded.
She watched it dangle from his fingers, spinning slowly at the end of the chain. Her skin crawled. "It looks so harmless."
He said nothing.
Sudden fire in her eyes. "One of my friends will have to die. For that." She snarled the last word and turned her back on it, facing the fire. She stared at the flames, blinking rapidly.
He gave her a moment, watching the locket as it spun slowly.
"Put it away, please," she said finally.
He set his brandy down and joined her by the fire, reaching for her hand to give her the Horcrux.
"No."
"Hermione, you must. If I am Summoned by the Dark Lord..."
"And you've left it in your pocket for how long?!" she asked, clenching her hand.
"A few hours. Since right before you arrived."
"Hm," she sniffed disapprovingly.
She sounds like Minerva.
"How did you know where it was?" she asked.
"Mundungus Fletcher is incapable of complete discretion, Hermione, and had he found this, I would have heard... something. Dumbledore told me of his thievery, so I put feelers out in Knockturn Alley, 'listening,' "
"Spying, you mean," she said bluntly.
He glowered. "Hearing nothing, for months, I deduced that it might still be here in this house. I'd been looking for it." His mouth twitched. "I've had very little to do, after all... and your house-elf liberation front..." He shrugged.
Firmly ignoring the surge of irritation that followed whenever anyone mentioned house-elves in favor of latching onto the far more interesting fact that he'd been thinking about her, she concluded, "So you didn't Disapparate when the wards shifted."
"I had to give it to the next member of the Order to appear, no matter who it was, but I had no intention of dying in the process. If I could avoid it."
"So you readied a curse."
He nodded.
"Did you have to strangle me?"
"Even my restraint has its limits and had you moved..."
She snorted. "Harm to protect."
He hesitated. "For what it's worth "
She held up her hand. "No, don't. Really, it's not necessary."
"But this is."
He drew her hand up, and she opened her fingers. The chain caught the firelight, sparkling as it coiled into her hand.
She shuddered and shoved the locket firmly into her pocket. "Okay. How very... strange," she breathed. "I have a piece of Voldemort's soul in my pocket."
He cocked his head to the side, assessing her. "Extraordinary."
"Relatively speaking, not at all. Having a piece of someone's soul in your pocket should be extraordinary, yet it isn't, given that I seem to have all of yours as a tattoo."
He levitated his brandy to his hand.
"Considering everything else that's happened this evening, even finding the locket seems almost mundane. And that's just... wrong." She shuddered again. As if to herself, she added, "But it fits the equation somehow." She turned back to him, drawing herself to full height. "So. If you would, please, clarify something else for me?"
He met her eyes.
"Did you, or did you not, make me your Horcrux?" Her voice was steady, her eyes calm as she waited for his answer.
Respect flared in his eyes. "No, Hermione. Even were it possible... No."
She exhaled a shaky breath, "Oh... that's good."
His mouth twitched. "Indeed."
---
Whenever blood magic had touched him and it had, too frequently for his comfort it seemed to take perverse delight in making his life more difficult.
Dumbledore had always told him this was its gift.
He preferred to call it chaos. And at this moment, chaos was standing before him with unfocused eyes, arranging and rearranging pieces of the puzzle that would eventually decide the fate of their world.
And she only had a few of them.
His heart warmed, and his hands stayed perfectly still.
Story Actions
To follow, favorite, like, and more either log in or create an account.
Leave a Review
Log in to leave a review.
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