Chapter 4 - Barbie, Bluebells, and Athames

I've got a busy few days ahead of me so I thought I'd post a chapter before it got too bad.

All canon characters belong to JKR.

As always, thank you to the lovely June for her help and being my beta.

I've got a busy few days ahead of me so I thought I'd post a chapter before it got too bad.

All canon characters belong to JKR.

As always, thank you to the lovely June for her help and being my beta.

Chapter 4 – Barbie, Bluebells, and Athames

After Severus left the room, Hermione gathered the parchments he had given her and placed them on the desk next to her laptop. She saved what was already written and closed the laptop. She then silently turned and walked to Viktoria's room.

Her daughter was already up and dressed. She was sitting on her already made bed, reading a book that had belonged to Hermione as a child. Hermione had always loved Cinderella, and was happy she had saved all of her storybooks for her daughter.

"Well, someone looks like she's been up for a while," Hermione said as she sat next to her daughter on the small bed.

"I didn't want to disturb you, Mummy. I heard you on your computer."

Hermione was glad her daughter had not come into the room. While Severus did promise not to reveal himself to her daughter, she felt relieved that Viktoria hadn't wandered into her room and found her talking to the leather chair next to the desk. While the professor was amused by Hermione's earlier conversation with the kitchen chair, her daughter might find her mother's behavior odd, to say the least.

"Come, let's get you some breakfast. You must be hungry." She took Viktoria's hand, and they walked down to the kitchen. She made some eggs and bacon, and sat with the girl as she ate. When Viktoria was done, they went outside for a walk and picked some of the wildflowers that were growing in the garden.

Severus watched them from the window of Hermione's bedroom. He tried to remember if he had ever done anything like that with his own mother. He closed his eyes and sighed. 'Yes,' he remembered. It was vivid in his mind now. One afternoon stood out in his mind now. He and his mother went into Hogsmeade one afternoon, while his father had been away. His mother always made her trips there with him when his father was gone. In that way, there would be no explanations as to what was purchased or why they had been gone so long.

On a bright day in April ... no, May ... he recalled his mother taking him through a field of bluebells. He could almost smell their scent all around him now. They both walked through a field that looked like a blanket of violet snow. They picked so many, that by the time they got home the tips of their fingers were tinged with the blue-violet color of the flower.

She loved him. Severus fondly remembered how, that night, she made it a point to tell him at every opportunity. Looking back now, he knew she must have known how important it would be for him to know that, during a brief period in his life, he was loved by at least one person.

He heard laughter coming from downstairs. Hermione and Viktoria had returned from their walk. Severus approached the stairs quietly, and heard Hermione giving her daughter strict instructions to not interrupt her until lunchtime.

"Yes, Mummy. I'll play with Barbie while you work."

Severus wondered who this Barbie could be. He saw no one else in the living room. He glided back to Hermione's room and waited for her. When she entered, he was sitting in the leather chair once again.

"I didn't know you would be back so soon," she said. "I was going to begin transcribing the notes you gave me this morning." Hermione didn't want to make him feel as though she judged him for anything he had said that morning. It was not her place to judge him. The Severus Snape she had known while he lived was a good man of high principle. It mattered not how he became that man.

"Who is this Barbie person? There are no neighbors in this area with young children."

Hermione stifled a laugh.

"Barbie is a doll. She has movable arms and legs. She has an enviable wardrobe, and she is quite the career-oriented woman."

He rolled his eyes.

"Dolls," he snorted. "Thank Merlin you don't dress the child in those pink frilly frocks." He shivered.

Hermione shook her head in amusement and smiled, then opened her laptop cover and readied herself for him to begin another recitation.

"Now, in order for one to become a Death Eater, there is an initiation in which the Dark Mark is embedded onto your skin. This process is done using the darkest of magic, and is something that cannot be reversed. The Dark Mark is forever." He held up his left arm. "As you can see, I cannot escape it, even in death."

Hermione looked at the Mark on his arm. It was there as he said; even as a ghost, he bore the Mark. As she studied the Mark, she wondered if he had noticed that it no longer looked as it did in life. True, it depicted the skull with the snake emerging from its mouth, but it looked almost as though it was going through a metamorphosis. It was not clear yet what it was becoming, but it was not the same Mark. She looked into his eyes and nodded her understanding of his words.

~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~

The Dark Mark ceremony involved few things, but they were very important things.

First and foremost was pain. If you were not willing to accept the pain, then you were not worthy of the reward.

Second, there must be innocence, in order that at the moment of corruption the innocent soul can be siphoned and combined with that of the initiate. For one brief moment, you were allowed to be a god. For one brief moment, you touched the soul of another, only to tear it to pieces.

There were many innocents taken and corrupted the night Severus was initiated. Those who wished to join had to bring their own victims. Most brought young adult males and females, yet many had taken children. During the ceremony, he took the life of a young woman, ripping through her virgin membrane all the while bleeding her with his Athame. As the initiates all chanted together in that dark moonless night, the ground seemed to tremble. It was as though the earth wanted to shake itself away from the evil that was growing above it. As though it wanted to clean itself of the filth, yet no cleansing waters came, and it was left bloodied and dirty with the echoing cries of the dying slowly ebbing away.

After it was over and they had washed the blood from their hands, they all looked at their bodies and noticed the Mark. Never had Severus felt so lost as he did that night, yet he looked for no guiding path. That path would not be visible for many long nights.

~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~

As Hermione typed, she willed herself to hear the words yet not listen to their meaning. 'Words, Hermione,' she thought to herself, 'they are just words.' She didn't dare actually listen to what he was saying, knowing that if she did she would never be able to sleep comfortably again.

The two worked until it was time for lunch. Severus felt it was also time for them to stop for the day. They had only worked several hours, yet he could feel her emotions were troubled. He knew that what he told her had been difficult to hear, and he did not want to overburden her mind with visions of death and doom for too long. He would leave her to transcribe the parchments of notes he left her earlier. The information in there was fairly general and somewhat tame, compared to the words he spoke that morning.

"We can begin again in the morning," he said brusquely. "I believe we have made good progress for today. The notes will provide sufficient information for you to put together a bit more of the mysteries of the Death Eater mind. I gather you are growing tired of the sound of my voice" He tried to make light of the situation, hoping it would boost her mood.

She smiled and saved her work on the laptop.

"I could never grow tired of your voice, Professor." She flinched. 'I did not just say that out loud,' she thought. Even though he had been a stern professor, his voice always held a sort of calming affect on her. It was so deep and smooth. She loved hearing him speak, even when he was being a nasty sarcastic git.

He smiled but said nothing as he disappeared. If she loved to hear him speak, then she would get an earful the coming week.

~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~

I'll be working on another chapter in the next few days. I will not be going into too much detail as far as the book goes, so one more chapter with a few bits and then on with the story.

Thank you for reading.