Chapter 19

Several weeks had passed, and they continued to explore unremarkable cave complexes. They had traveled higher into the mountains. There was a rare beauty to the mountains. The area had once had many volcanoes, and it was riddled with caves. Vegetation and flora were everywhere. The meadows were filled with brilliant colors, and streams of icy water were fed by the snow in the higher mountains.

They saw Lynx, wolves, and bears. Simple repel spells kept the animals from bothering them and gave them wonderful views of the wildlife. One day they sat for several hours at a stream and watched beavers build a dam. There were little villages here and there, but for the most part they avoided people. One night, they came upon a caravan of Gypsies. Back in 1964, Gypsies had been forbidden to roam, and they had formed communities here and there. Yet there were still a few who traveled the mountains in caravans, staying ahead of the local authorities.

They were invited to sit around the campfire. Dinner was a gamy stew and coarse bread, but it was wonderful after their diet of dried beef stews. Hermione would be the first to admit she wasn't a cook. There was fresh fruit and baked tarts. They sat and listened to the music, heard stories, and watched some magical performances. Gypsies had their own form of magic, and many of them were seers. Hermione could feel the magic around them.

She had moved a few feet away from Raven as he talked with a man who was separating some herbs he had gathered in the woods. He was the medical man for the people in the small caravan.

She felt a hand grab at her arm, and she turned to find herself looking into an ancient face. The woman's eyes were white like boiled eggs without the yolk. She held herself up by a cane hewn from a branch of a tree. She wore many beaded necklaces, and a scarf was wrapped around her hair. She was dressed in the traditional layers of heavy skirts and had a vest of patchwork fabrics. She warned, "The place you search for is evil, and you must beware. Love can be lost there, lives changed, futures unknown, good, bad, it is what you make it."

The woman turned and hobbled away.

Hermione stared after her with her heart in her throat. Up till now, the idea of really losing Raven had only been one possible future. It was one they talked about but something she would not allow herself to believe was going to happen.

If Severus Snape looked at her with horror after he was returned to himself, how would she convince the man she had known that as Raven he had loved her? She had promised Raven she would do it, but there was no way to guarantee that any such reunion would be possible. Severus Snape had been a hard, horrible man on the outside. She did not know if a life hardened by his choices would allow him to reach out and love her again even if he remembered pieces of their life. She was terribly afraid Raven would be lost forever. Now this woman had said, 'Love can be lost.'

Hermione turned to watch Raven talking animatedly to the old Gypsy. He seemed to be learning about the herbs the man had collected. His face was alight, and his search for knowledge was satisfied for the moment. Hermione felt tears sting her eyes. She wiped them away and smiled at Raven when he turned to look her way.

Later, when nearly all the people had retired for the night, they sat with a few of the older couples at the fire and asked them if they had seen or sensed any unusual magical energy from any caves or areas that they might have passed in the last few weeks. The cave they sought in this area was not as well documented. They weren't even sure it was a cave. Severus had written that he'd sensed something in the area. He'd searched the place as best he could in the time he'd had one summer, but he hadn't been able to pinpoint a location from the odd magical signature that permeated the area. Hermione had hoped the Gypsies would have some clues for them.

The oldest man said, "You should go home and live your life. That sort of evil should not be stirred up."

Hermione tried to explain that the magic was residual and that the wizard from whom the evil originated had been destroyed. Yet they seemed reluctant to speak of the places that they may have felt or seen.

Finally one old man said he'd felt a strong magic that had made his skin crawl in a gorge about ten miles due west. He tried to describe the area and told them that if there was a cave hidden there, it was not visible from 50 or so feet back. The area had made him fear for his life, and he had run.

Hermione and Raven thanked the Gypsies for their hospitality and help and returned to the tent that they'd hidden in the woods nearly five miles from the Gypsy camp.

They talked into the night about the possibility that this might be Voldemort's lair, and they brushed up on their spell work. Hermione quizzed Raven about the spells he might use for different situations.

They made love slowly that night, feeling very blessed that they had each other. Finally they held each other as they fell asleep.

*********

In the morning, they packed their bags with food, water, and weapons (always a good practice in a fight). If a wand was lost in close hand-to-hand combat, a weapon was the next best thing. Slim knives and some decoy bomb products from Weasleys' Wizarding Wheezes. Raven had laughed when they had sent Minerva to the shop to buy gag gifts, but Hermione knew he would be grateful for them if they were needed.

They rode the horses close to the gorge and then tethered them in a secluded corps of spruce trees. They warded them and blanketed them with a concealment charm.

Hermione could feel the deep, possibly dark, magic that seemed to seep into their pores. She and Raven concealed themselves and crept carefully into the gorge.

The tall, limestone cliffs that rose above looked almost polished in the sunlight. Hermione saw bits of moss clinging to the sides of trees nearby. She pointed them out silently to Raven, and he nodded in comprehension. The moss was the same as the one in the sample Snape had left for them. They crept along one of the walls of the gorge. It took them two hours of climbing and searching the thick underbrush before they got to the back wall. They started their journey along the wall. Raven had his wand at the ready, and Hermione cast spells to detect wards and concealments.

About two kilometers along the wall, they detected an unseen barrier. There was a ward ahead. Hermione looked at Raven with mixed emotions: happiness that they might have found their goal and fear that they could be injured or killed by what lay ahead of them. Hermione cast a reveal on the wall. Slowly the wall began to shimmer, and a rough, low opening in the wall appeared. Before they could go forward, a spell like a beam of light shot out and burned the surface of a tree near Raven. He ducked behind the tree and fired off a returning volley. Hermione had ducked behind another tree and shot off a spell. They fired off spell after spell. Raven went toward a closer tree, and Hermione watched in horror as a spell shot toward him. He managed to raise his wand and knock the spell back but not before he received a shock like an electrical shock. He went down but fortunately rolled behind a large rock. Hermione shot off another spell. It hit a man in the shoulder. The spell caster fell out of the mouth of the cave. A Death Eater mask rolled away as the person hit the ground.

"Death Eaters!" Hermione called to Raven. "Be careful. These men are well trained."

Raven nodded, rubbing at his shoulder to force feeling to return. He moved closer and found himself under fire from someone else in the mouth of the cave.

They fired more spells as they worked their way closer tree by tree. Finally close enough, Hermione pulled a stun bomb from the pocket of her jeans and with a deft aim tossed it into the cavern door. A blue light erupted from the mouth of the cave. A muffled scream was audible, and then silence ensued.

Hermione placed a spell-reflecting shield around them, and they moved swiftly to the door. Raven lobbed a flare into the cave door, and it lit a room about 25 meters by 40 meters. Several Death Eaters lay unconscious on the floor. Not having expected the stun bomb had caught them by surprise. Hermione said, aloud, "Incarcerous." Ropes appeared and bound the men and one woman. Raven quickly found their wands and collected them. He searched their robes and found several knives, and one Death Eater had an extra wand tucked into a boot.

Hermione surveyed the room. There didn't appear to be any other exits. There was a stockpile of supplies. But upon closer look, the Death Eaters appeared very thin and malnourished. Their supplies where nearly gone. The place was dirty and stank from their long use.

"A Death Eater hideout," she said with disgust. "This scum killed friends and maybe my parents." She pointed her wand at one of the men who was coming around and struggling against his bonds.

"You!" he spat, catching sight of Hermione, "The great war hero. Your parents begged for death," he taunted her. Then noticing Raven, he said, "Look, it's the traitor. We thought you were dead."

"Reports of my death are greatly exaggerated," Raven replied in a Snape-like voice. "Tell us where Voldemort's lair is."

"I wouldn't even if I could. I was not a trusted member of his followers like you," he growled. "You had his trust, and you chose to stand by half-bloods and Mudbloods."

Raven felt an uncharacteristic rage envelope him. He knew what "Mudblood" referred to. He swung his foot and caught the man in the ribs. The Death Eater cried out in pain and curled away from Raven's foot.

Hermione had watched frozen. She felt such rage. She felt her magic welling up inside her, and she wanted to Crucio the murdering Death Eater. This was the group who had murdered her parents. She raised her wand and cried out, "Crucio."

Raven simultaneously raised his and blocked the spell. It hit the wall behind them with a deafening boom. "No, Hermione! If you do this, you will never forgive yourself. You cannot become one of them. Our magic is for defense only. I will not let you kill those who have killed your parents. I do not even remember murdering my father, but knowing I did it makes me feel tainted by evil, and I do not want you to feel regret afterwards."

She was staring at him with anger. "It's not the same thing. They deserve to die! I didn't ask for your interference. This scum killed the only family I had. They deserve a horrible death. They probably killed friends, dear friends. People I loved." She was crying now.

"They deserve the very worst. We will send them to Azkaban. From what I've read, it's a living death...far worse than you killing them now."

She turned a stricken face his way. Her disappointment in him was evident, but she would not cross him now. She turned and ran out of the cave, leaving him there alone with the five Death Eaters. Realizing the danger he was in as a novice in spellwork with five heavily trained, evil wizards, he called out, "Dobby, I need help."

There was a loud crack, and Dobby stood there with several other house-elves. Albus had agreed to send house-elves to help if they needed it. House-elves had their own powerful magic. Raven, having been adamant that no one know he was alive, had accepted the elves' help because he knew they would be duty bound to silence.

Dobby placed the Death Eaters in a kind of stasis spell after he'd taken in the scene. It would prevent them from using non verbal or wandless magic."

The little elves took charge of the Death Eaters hovering them in the air and wrapping them in magical chains.

"Sir?" Dobby asked. "Miss Hermione, she okay?"

"Yes," Raven said, looking into the elf's wide, liquid orbs. "Please tell Minerva and Albus that I am taking care of her. I would prefer my part in this be obliviated from their minds. Tell the headmaster this was not the cave we sought. We will journey on. Thank you for your help."

A wide smile appeared on the little elf's face. "You're most welcome, sir. Dobby is here to serve." He bowed, and with a loud crack the elves and prisoners Disapparated.

Raven turned and ran from the cave out into the trees. He looked for Hermione and didn't see her anywhere. The evil feeling that had tried to repel them earlier that morning was no longer there. The spells broken by the capture and binding of the spellcasters. Raven saw that the grass at the edge of the cleaning before the cave was crushed a bit, and he followed a trail of broken twigs and crushed plant life deep into a forest of spruce and heavy foliage. The forest gave way to beech trees, and he found a stream bubbling along through the forest. A footprint in the mud showed him that she'd jumped the tiny stream. He followed, realizing she was still running from the murderers of her parents or maybe her desire to murder them as well. Was she running away from him? Would she forgive him for stopping her? The idea made him gulp with fear. He would not know until he caught up with her.

He followed what trail he could see. Then when the forest got darker and denser, he used a tracing spell and followed the trail. Nearly three hours later, exhausted and at his wits' end, he stumbled on her, curled in a ball at the foot of a huge tree. He picked her up, and she buried her face in his neck. "Raven, I'm sorry," she whispered.

"There is nothing to forgive," he told her. "You gave me such a fright."

Taking his bearings, he realized they weren't too far from the tent. Hermione having run from the cave but fortunately toward the tent had brought them most of the way back. It took him another 30 minutes of stumbling through the darkened forest before he was able to detect the wards on their tent. He slipped into the warded area and then carried her into the tent. She had stopped sobbing, but she still clung to him with such strength as he tried to place her on the bed. In he end, he kicked off his shoes, slipped into the bed, and just held her long after she'd fallen into an emotionally spent sleep.

******

When he woke the next morning, Hermione was still curled up against him, but he could tell she wasn't asleep. He reached out to caress her arm, and she moved back against him even closer. "You okay?" he asked quietly.

She nodded. "I've killed Death Eaters before, but I've never hated like I did this time. I wanted to set them on fire and laugh as they burned. My reaction scared me so much. I had to get away. Once I started to run, I couldn't stop. It felt as I ran that the hate and the pain washed away."

"I thought you were disappointed in me, disappointed that I was weak, that I stopped you from what it was you wanted to do," he said.

She turned her body toward him and caressed his face. "I will never be disappointed in you, Raven. Your goodness made me feel ashamed."

"Goodness?" He laughed sadly. "I'm the one who kicked him first. I couldn't stand him hurting you anymore than he already had. I wanted to tear his face off for even daring to call you that."

Hermione gave him a wan smile. "Good thing we both had some sort of restraint. What happened? I should never have left you."

"I called Dobby and he brought other Hogwarts house-elves. They bound the Death Eaters and took them to Minerva." He looked past her. "I was afraid they would escape me. I do not know enough to fight their kind of training even though you had immobilized them."

She nodded. "You have always been a wise man, Raven. Forgive me for deserting you. I promise I will not run again. I will be more prepared. I was horrified to come face-to-face with my parents' murderers and more horrified to come face-to-face with my own demons of revenge. I did not think myself capable of that."

"Having read a lot of information of Snape, I guess I am capable of anything, Hermione." He drew her close, and she let him kiss her and caress her, taking the tenseness out of her body. They lay kissing gently for some time and just enjoying each other before finally getting up to pack their stuff and ride to their next destination.

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This chapter came about because I misnumbered previous chapters and had to write an extra one. I am not sure if I like it, and/but hope you find it somewhat entertaining. Thank you to Lisa for her Beta work. I couldn't do this without her.