Chapter 20

The next day they reluctantly packed after deciding the cave had been a useless search. They rode toward the next place. The trip high in the mountains took five days. When they got off their horses, they were slapped in the face by a sharp, icy wind. They quickly put a warming charm around themselves and erected a small shed for the horses and added a warming charm for them. Dobby had delivered hay bales shrunk into small cubes, so they expanded them and fed the animals. Hermione added a charm to replenish it if they didn't come back that day or the next.

Raven pulled out his wand and said, "Erecto." The tent opened and set itself up.

Hermione commented, "You're getting good at that. Let's change into our warm clothing."

Once changed, they decided to go into the cave right away.

They found the mouth of the cave buried beneath five feet of snow. There was barely a hint of the landmarks Severus had written about in his journal. When they entered the cave, Hermione felt the hair on her arms stand up. She saw Raven's eyes widen, and he shivered. He held his wand high to give them light, and Hermione held hers tightly and ran through defensive spells in her mind. There was definitely something here.

They cautiously moved forward. This cave had spikes of sharp ice sticking from the walls and ceiling. They had to side step some of them because they were that low.

A shriek of rage split the air around them, and they heard a shuffling sound ahead them. Hermione felt her breath leave her. Tangible fear was emanating from Raven.

"Back out! Back out!" she cried. She pulled back as a creature the size of a bear, covered in white fur, came galloping at them. Its face was long, and two sharp tusks protruded like boar tusks at the sides of its mouth. They stumbled and fell back, and Hermione's shoulder was pierced by one of the sharp ice shards. Raven grabbed her up, and they rolled head first out of the cave entrance. Hermione managed to fire off, "Duro!"

Instantly, the creature froze with its long paw with lethal claws still reaching for them. The beast had several rows of shark-like teeth. Six legs...all sporting wicked claws...held up the massive body... Its eyes glowed with a deep redness...even in stone.

They watched in horror as it started to warm and shake off the spell.

"Raven, get us into the tent!" Hermione screamed. She could feel the blood seeping from the wound in her shoulder, and the pain was like fire. "Avis Oppugno!"

Small birds with razor-sharp beaks came from her wand and flew into the creature's face. Its claws drew back, and it swatted at the birds, becoming distracted for a few precious seconds.

Raven dragged Hermione into the tent. "Cave Inimicum!" she shouted before fainting.

Raven glanced down at her in alarm and then at the lunging beast. It seemed to hit an invisible wall and bounce back. It whined, got to its feet, and tried again. Pawing at the shield, it seemed confused. Raven could see it through the door of the tent. It tried several more times and sniffed at the edge of the shield as Raven held Hermione against him. Finally the thing stopped trying to test the shield and turned and vanished back into the cavern.

Raven turned his attention to Hermione: Blood was covering her right shoulder. She was still out. He used his wand, as Poppy had taught him, and removed Hermione's jacket and shirt. He got potions from the bag he carried. He gave her a vial of blood replenisher and used another potion to sterilize and seal the wound. Then he wrapped her shoulder and laid her down on the bed. He would wait the required hour for the blood replenisher to do its job. If she had not regained consciousness by then, he would send for help.

He took his own jacket and shirt off and pulled her close, wrapping himself around her for warmth. The minutes seemed like hours before she finally groaned with pain and called to him, "Raven?"

"I'm here," he said, smoothing her hair down. "Take this pain potion. It will help."

"What happened?" she asked after swallowing the potion.

"You fell against one of the ice spikes."

Suddenly remembering, she asked excitedly, "That thing, what happened to it?"

"You put some sort of freeze spell on it and then made an impenetrable field around the tent. But the freeze spell wore off in less than a minute, and it came after us. It could not get through the shield around the tent. It finally gave up."

She trembled and laid her head on his shoulder. He held her close. "I need more practice. When I saw the blood, I just froze. I didn't react. You could have been killed, and I stood there like a statue and let it happen."

He got up and moved away. His shoulders were stiff. "This not having the part of Snape that makes me brave is a hindrance."

"You fought the Death Eaters just fine, Raven. You are brave. What happened that was different?"

"The blood, your blood," he admitted. "I was terrified; you have no idea. I wondered what would happen to me if you died. Nothing would matter to me at all. You are my life, Hermione. You are an anchor to a life I had. Without you, I'm a bum in a cardboard box. I can't go back there. I can't."

"Raven," she called to him and held out her arms, grimacing a bit with the mild pain the potion hadn't eased.

He came to her but knelt by the bed and laid his head on her knees. She stroked his hair for a long time.

****

The next morning they were both starving, and Hermione was much better. Only a little soreness remained. After breakfast, they moved the tent further away from the cavern's entrance and put a concealment charm on it as well as the wards.

"There," Hermione said as she set the last ward. "We are quite safe here, and the rock facing will give us some protection against the wind. "I'm afraid we are going to have to go back in there. That animal's guarding something."

"Agreed," Raven stated. "But before we do, I need some instructions and practice with the shield charm, the stone charm, and any others you think might help. That charm didn't keep him down long, but it gave us time to escape."

"The fact that it didn't keep him down means he's enchanted. He's got a reversal spell woven into his makeup. It didn't affect my shield...only those directed at its physical body."

She spent the morning teaching Raven the shield charm and several other defensive spells. He was so quick to learn. She only had to show him once or twice, and he had the spells down. They spent an afternoon running out in the snow firing spells at each other. Magic seemed to be in Raven's blood. It was more instinctive than learned. His body knew these spells well. Hermione realized that his mind just had to be reminded.

They ate well that day, trying to fortify themselves. They decided to wait till the next morning to enter the cave again. They would try a concealment charm to start with and see if they could get past the cave's guardian. They tried not to hope this was the real deal. Had they found Voldemort's lair, or was it just some other wizard's private lair? They had little doubt that there could be some serious obstacles ahead of them. They also knew this might be a false lead. Voldemort would never have considered defeat, so this could be just a tactic to throw people off. But it didn't matter: They had no clock to race against; all they would find were the ghosts of Voldemort's past. There would be formidable protections, but the wizard was dead, and enchantments from dead wizards eventually disintegrated and could be broken through with powerful enough spells. Dumbledore and McGonagall had given Hermione spells that caused destruction and death that could help. The young witch didn't really want to use them unless she had to. Having come close to killing the Death Eaters, she did not want to go there again.

That night they held each other, each thinking his or her own thoughts, and finally feel asleep.

The next morning, they packed some survival equipment and food. They made their way under the Disillusionment charm to the mouth of the cave. Hermione also put a silencing charm on them. There was some sort of natural light, like lichen, that grew on the walls of the cave. It allowed them to see without using their wands or torches. The cave seemed to expand about fifty feet in. They still had not seen any sign of the creature.

Fortunately, the inner cave didn't have icy spikes to navigate. They heard a rumbling ahead and discovered the beast slumbering in a small alcove. With stealth they slipped past the animal, and Hermione placed an impenetrable shield behind them. After that they let go of the Disillusionment and used their wands to brighten the area so they could see better. They could feel the magical wards pressing against them. This place was definitely hiding some secret. Abruptly, the cave floor vanished. Hermione, who was a step ahead of Raven, screamed as she felt herself falling. Raven's hand shot out and clamped onto her arm. He fell to his stomach and was half dangling over the edge. By some miracle, his feet found a crack in the cave floor, and it anchored him. His arm wrenched with the weight of her, but he hung on until she was able to climb back onto the edge of the cliff. She fell to the cave floor next to him, gasping for breath as she helped pull him back away from the crevasse.

A roar split the air, and they were on their feet and running into another branch of the tunnel. The beast was coming after them. Hermione placed a shield charm at the mouth of the cave, but they didn't know if the shield would hold for long under the onslaught of the magically enhanced animal. They were no longer in their own tent but under the rules of the cave itself. The tunnel opened into another cave, and they stopped short as a rope bridge spanning a 100-foot gulf appeared to be their only way forward.

Hermione, already weak from the injury and having just exerted a lot of energy climbing back from the abyss, was already panting with effort. Raven didn't have the ability to hover them past the bridge to the other side. And Hermione, who had always been afraid of flying, had not packed a broom. She cursed her fear of heights.

Raven said, "You go head. If you get into trouble, save yourself. Don't worry about me.

I'll enhance the bridge with a strength charm, and you run."

"Raven, no! You have to come with me. I won't leave you!"

He grabbed her arm and pushed her, "Hermione, trust me and go." He yelled at her with some of his old strength and authority.

She turned and ran. She grabbed the rope rail to help steady herself and moved along as fast as she could. She felt the rope burning her hand but kept going. She then felt Raven running behind her, the bridge erratically bouncing as they went and making it harder not to lose her footing.

Halfway across the enormous gulf, the animal must have reached the bridge because it started to shake even harder, and Raven sounded a bit frantic as he urged her to move faster. Just as she reached the other side, the bridge gave way, and she screamed as she leaped for the other end. She hit the edge and managed to use the rungs of the bridge to stop herself from falling into abyss. "Raven! Raven!" she sobbed.

Then a hand grabbed her, and Raven hauled her up and onto the level ground.

She flung her arms around him, sobbing and nearly strangling him. "I thought you were gone! How?" she demanded.

He held her, trying to calm her, and managed to say, "I don't know. I was falling, and then I was here."

She pulled back to look at his face. "What?" she asked for clarification.

He shrugged. "I was falling, and then I was there. It was instantaneous...like when we Apparate."

"Your body must remember how! Self-preservation," she said with relief. She suddenly felt weak legged and sat in the dirt. "Merlin, that was close." Her body had started to shake.

Raven plunked down next to her. "You have no idea. I thought I was a goner."

She grabbed his hands. "We still haven't taught you the right stuff. We have no clue what's up ahead, and I'm not as good as I thought with all the tactical planning. Maybe we need to ask Dumbledore for help."

Raven felt his heart shrink, "No! This is our responsibility...well mine at least. I won't ask anyone else to put themselves into danger."

She touched his face, seeing his fear. "I understand you don't want to meet any other wizards, but there are good people out there more than willing to help. Neville Longbottom, Luna Lovegood...they are brilliant and would be happy to help."

"No." He pulled away from her, got up, and stepped away. He could not imagine having to deal with someone else...especially someone who knew Hermione. He didn't feel he could share her right now, and he also knew that was foolish. They weren't really qualified for this job. She might be brilliant, but she was handicapped by his inability to do the all magic he obviously knew. He couldn't depend on his ingrained magic to save him every time.

He felt her hand on his waist, and then she drew him close, laying her head on his back. "All right, Raven. I understand. We'll go a little further."

The next hour they traveled unmolested through the only tunnel that lead forward. They would have to find another way out of the cave because they could not return the way they had come. They had heard the beast's roars for some time. They had finally faded when they got far enough away.

They turned a corner in the tunnel and came face-to-face with a dead end. Hermione pounded her hands against the wall and cried in frustration. "There has to be something here. That guardian is here for a reason. This place has enchantments."

Raven watched big tears fall down her checks. He pulled her to her feet and held her tightly. "It's probably just a decoy cave ...something to waste the searchers' time. Maybe it had alarms when Voldemort was alive." A shadow passed across them, and they looked to see the beast blocking the escape route.

In seconds, Raven shoved Hermione behind him and raised his wand. The beast was inches from his face when it suddenly stopped, sniffed, and then reached out and licked his face.

Both Hermione and Raven were stunned as the great beast began to jump around him like a large, happy puppy.

"I'll be dammed," Raven said.