Chapter One Hundred-Fourteen: Arithmantic Charms

Chapter One Hundred-Fourteen: Arithmantic Charms

Wednesday, 7 April 1999

"You're early," Severus said. Another interruption, albeit this one from a friend, not a one-time enemy.

"So is she," Gareth said, leaning on the doorjamb. "What are you doing back, Poppy?"

"I am going to become very tired of answering that question, I can see that now," Poppy said with a sigh.

Gareth laughed. "Well, never mind, then." He turned to Severus. "So are we still on for this evening? I'll understand if you want to cancel."

Severus looked at Poppy.

"You two made plans," Poppy said. "You carry on. I have things I can do...or I could watch you. I'd be on hand if one of you had an accident."

"That's all right," Severus said. "We'll send for you if we need you, though I doubt that will be necessary. We won't be doing anything strenuous."

"Sounds good to me," Gareth said, sitting in the chair that Moody had vacated fifteen minutes before. "I thought I'd have dinner here, which is why I'm early. Also, Snape, we need to talk. Actually ... can you come by the house tomorrow?"

Severus shook his head. "We will be leaving on holiday tomorrow. Unless it's an emergency, I am not changing those plans."

Gareth hesitated for a moment, looking torn. "No, no emergency. Nothing that can't wait a few more days."

"Is the house all right? Did the new fireplace explode? Or the new electrics?" Severus asked.

"No, no, nothing like that. Just something ... you can see it next week. That will be soon enough. There's nothing urgent about it, honestly. Just, you know, the, um, decorating and so on."

"As long as you haven't blown the place up," Severus said.

"How is Monday, then?"

"I have a meeting here in the late morning, then after lunch, I have to go to St. Mungo's to see Melina. I should have time in the late afternoon, unless you'd rather do it in the morning right after breakfast."

"You aren't planning to do that on your own, are you?" Poppy asked, trying not to sound hectoring. "I mean, I hope you have arranged for someone to go with you to St. Mungo's."

"I thought you might like to accompany me," Severus said.

"I'm sorry, I can't. I have a meeting with Gladys and Brighthead here on Monday afternoon."

"I can, Snape," Gareth said.

Snape nodded. "That would be convenient."

"Then we can go directly to the house from Mungo's."

Poppy looked as though she wanted to say something, but she just took a breath and nodded, then said, "If you need me, Severus, I can try to change my meeting."

"Thanks, but there's no need. I know you have to make the final arrangements for the staff training next week, and this way, McGonagall here can bring me to the house to show me whatever ghastly surprise he has waiting for me." Severus smirked.

Gareth chuckled shortly. "I'll come up to the castle, then...lunchtime?"

"You do like your free meals," Severus said with a snort.

"The company's not bad, either. It can be boring eating every meal on one's own. Mum's going to be returning to the estate when she comes back from the Zauberstrand, Hermione's still on holiday, Tarrant's busy bonding with his new girlfriend..."

"He's not seeing Hermione anymore?" Severus asked.

Gareth shook his head. "He liked her more than she liked him, I think, and he also wants, um, something more, um ... more serious than she seemed to." He shrugged. "Anyway, apparently it wasn't a very good match, or the timing was bad, or something. It didn't help that almost every time he's asked her out recently, she's been too busy to see him."

"She is taking on a lot," Poppy said. "You're her master. Can't you get her to cut back? She's going to miss out on a lot if she schedules herself too much to do. She needs to have fun, too."

"According to her, all of this is fun. But she won't be doing summer classes, and I think that once she made that decision, she felt relieved. Lately, though, she's been spending a lot of time over at Weasley's, getting him in order or something." He grinned. "She does like to take charge, that girl. Anyway, with Alroy preoccupied with the coming baby, the term holiday at the university, and Arthur being away in India with his family, she should have a nice relaxing holiday. Of course, I did give her some work to do over it, but not too much."

"Aren't you going to have a holiday?" Poppy asked.

"I am having a holiday. A quiet one. I've done a lot of travelling in the last dozen years or so. I am enjoying being in one place, and no war going on, no desperate work, just everyday stuff. Besides, I'm working on a paper I'm presenting at the European Conference of Arithmancers. I'm also leading a workshop for it, and I've not even started organising that."

"You're going to the conference?" Severus asked.

Gareth nodded. "Yeah, and I know that Aunt Minerva wanted me to take Vector's classes, some of them, anyway, but I'll be at the conference for the whole time, and so will Hermione. Mum is only coming for a few hours, giving a presentation, and returning immediately afterward, so she said she'd do it."

"Gertrude mentioned her presentation," Poppy said. "She is spending time working on it this week, much to Pomona's dismay. But she wouldn't say what the topic was. Not that it would mean much to me. I haven't done any Arithmancy in years, but I was still interested."

"She's not telling anyone. The programme for the conference just announces 'a presentation by Professor Gertrude Gamp,' and that's it."

"Do you know what it's about?" Severus asked.

Gareth shrugged. "I have an idea. She's been working on something for years, and I think that her paper is an extract from that, but ... well, I shouldn't say anything, but it's not as though you'll tell anyone, right? It's a new theory of space-time malleability in Arithmantic charms. It's very technical, nothing you'd be interested in, but from the little I've read through for her, it should be ground-breaking."

"When you say, 'nothing you'd be interested in,' you mean, 'nothing you'd understand,' don't you?" Poppy asked with a grin.

Gareth laughed. "Pretty much. People are going to be chewing it over for weeks after, I'm sure...provided they understand it enough to realise how important it is."

"We never even really covered Arithmantic charms," Severus said with a frown. "I did a NEWT in Arithmancy, and it was only mentioned in one of the theoretical sections the final year."

"We keep it from the hoi-polloi," Gareth said with a grin. "No, actually...although in a sense that's true...it's just very advanced Arithmancy. Hermione's only beginning to work with Arithmantic charms at all. Most Arithmancy masters don't even use them much. They used to be used much more commonly than they are nowadays, although the common ones were simple charms, not particularly complex ones. A lot of what used to be done with Arithmantic charms is now done with simpler, ordinary charms designed from the Arithmantic ones, or it can even be accomplished with potions. Because of that, Arithmantic charms fell out of favour as a topic to be covered in regular schooling. The simple ones weren't viewed as being particularly useful, since ordinary charms are easier for most people, and the complex ones are just too advanced even for most NEWTs level students. At Beauxbatons, they don't even teach the theory of Arithmantic charms. I understand from Robert that, at least when he was in school, Durmstrang taught some of the rudiments of Arithmantic charms to students in their final year, but that was ages ago, and I don't know if that's still the case."

"When did they fall out of favour?" Poppy asked curiously.

"Oh ... it was a gradual process, but the simplest Arithmantic charms were still fairly common in the fifteenth century, ones for warding or for crop maintenance, for instance, but by the late seventeenth century, they were rarely used, and by the eighteenth century, they were used only by eccentrics. I fancy that, outside of those who actually practice Arithmancy and are Arithmancy masters, there are now probably only a handful of witches and wizards who are acquainted enough with them to be able to use them at all. Uncle Albus, of course, is quite proficient at even fairly complex Arithmantic spells, but Grandmother Siofre is, as well. It surprised me when I realised during my apprenticeship that some of the magic I'd seen her doing when I was a kid was actually Arithmantic spellwork. Melina uses Arithmantic charms in some of her experimental Healing, but from what I understand, after she's done with the design, she then converts the process to eliminate the Arithmancy."

Poppy turned to Severus. "You see now why I say I'd never have been a Healer of Melina's calibre?"

Severus shook his head. "I'm sure that Arithmantic expertise is not required to become an artful and powerful Healer."

Poppy sighed. No point in arguing with him. It was good of him to have such a high opinion of her abilities, though.

"You know the apothecary jar that Poppy gave you for your birthday?" Gareth asked rhetorically. "You can still feel the charms on them after more than five hundred years, and that's because they are Arithmantic...the symbols on the jar are part of the Arithmantic spell."

"What are they?" Severus asked curiously.

Gareth shook his head. "I couldn't interpret them without a reference book. I only recognised a few of the symbols. They're derived from an ancient Arabic notational system. Most apothecaries and potioneers in Spain at that time were trained in an Arabic tradition. They were the most advanced apothecaries of the time, which you obviously must know."

"I had wondered about that," Poppy said, "why the charms on it were still so detectable after so long. I have my great-grandfather's broomstick, and the charms are basically dead on it, and that is only a little over a hundred years old."

"Well, listen, I'm sure you two have things to discuss," Gareth said, standing. "I'll see you at dinner, then we can spar after, Snape."

Severus nodded.

"See you later, Poppy." Gareth bent and gave her a kiss on the cheek.

She smiled up at him. "We could have a drink together, the three of us, after you're finished practising...unless you want a lad's night."

"No, that sounds good to me," Gareth said, looking toward Snape and seeing his nod of approval. "We might even invite another staff member or two."

"That would be nice," Poppy said, though a frown flitted across Severus' face.

"Maybe Flitwick and ... Helena's still here in the castle, isn't she?"

"Indeed," Severus replied. "I understand that she will be here through the end of June, unless the vigilante is caught before then."

"I'll just pop around and ask her if she'd like to join us, then," Gareth said. "Don't want to have her feel left out, rattling around in the castle on her own."

Snape smirked. "I'm sure she can take care of herself, McGonagall. But if you do 'pop around,' she's got new rooms. They're up near Ravenclaw Tower. She has a portrait of a rather wild-looking warrior woman on her door."

"I know the one," Gareth said.

After Gareth had left, Severus gave a short laugh. "I think he is becoming quite a fan of our Canadian Seeker."

Poppy grinned and nodded. "He and Helena seemed to get along very well at Albus's party the other night."

"I noticed that, too. He claimed to have no interest in her when I mentioned her a couple weeks ago, but he'd never really talked to her, either," Snape said.

"Wouldn't it be nice if they started dating!"

"I will not begin match-making," Severus said stiffly, then paused. "However, if they were to ... date, I believe it would be a positive thing for them both."

"Their children would be gorgeous," Poppy said with a happy sigh.

"They have not even had a single date, and you already have them procreating," Severus said, amusement in his voice. "I also would prefer not to speak of other people's procreation, just ours."

"Procreation?" Poppy asked. "Ours?"

Severus went pink. "I meant, of course, the activities leading up to such an event." He cleared his throat and looked down. "However, it is not an entirely unpleasant thought." He glanced over at Poppy. "Is it?"

"Ah, well, um, no, not entirely," Poppy said, clearly at a loss for words. "Of course not. But, um, hmm. How long do you think your duelling practice will last?"

Glad to have Poppy change the subject, though more than a little ambivalent about Poppy's noncommital response, Severus replied, "Probably only a half hour or so. Yesterday was a work-out for me, and only want to get a feel for McGonagall's level tonight. I promised him a longer practice next week."

"When are the two of you duelling?"

"The twenty-fourth," Severus said.

Poppy nodded. "Just when we're trying to help the students...and staff...recover from the violence of the last years, we will have a duel to entertain them." She sighed.

"Gareth and I won't be very violent with each other," Severus reassured her. "I had considered cancelling the duel with him, but he seems to be looking forward to it, and I don't know whether Flitwick could find someone else to match him with at such short notice."

"Because of what happened with Filius yesterday?"

Severus shook his head. "No. I wouldn't have used that type of spell on McGonagall, anyway." He shrugged. "I thought, out of deference to Professor Gamp. She may not be very comfortable with him duelling, particularly someone ... someone with my particular background. However, I do not believe that is an issue, and Gareth has insisted that it is not."

"What do you want to do until dinner?" Poppy asked.

Severus gave a wicked grin. "I have a few ideas."

Poppy laughed and stood. "Back to your suite, then?"

"Immediately, before we have more visitors," Severus replied, waving his wand and returning Poppy's comfy chair to its usual hard, unwelcoming, straight-backed state.

~*~*~*~

Gareth took the stairs from the dungeons at a good clip. He would stop by Helena's new suite and accompany her to dinner if she was there, and ask her to join him, Severus, and Poppy for a drink later in the evening, but first, he needed to see his aunt.

He wondered whether he had done the right thing, letting Severus go off on his holiday before coming by Spinner's End, but he and Poppy needed a nice holiday. No point in having Severus in some kind of mood before they even left. No, it had waited all these years. It could wait a few more days.

He was less certain whether he should have done what he'd done at all. Once he'd found Eileen Prince Snape's witch's cupboard...not really a cupboard, but a concealed area beneath the floor under her desk...he couldn't resist trying to open it. He justified it to himself by remembering what Severus had said about just burning whatever private papers he found of his mother's, that he didn't care to see them. He had told Severus at the time that he would put them aside for him, pack them up with the rest of his mother's things, if he found them. Naturally, though, once he'd opened the hidden compartment, he had to see what papers were there.

He had found the cubby entirely by accident. The room was finally empty and bare. He was standing in the middle of the small room thinking about colour schemes when he took a step toward the window. He had been in and out of the room many times over the last week and a half, but this time, as he began to cross the spot where Eileen's desk had been, he felt the distinctive tingle of a charm.

On his knees, he began to feel the floorboards, passing his hand over them until he found the specific spot from which the charm originated. After trying a few different standard revealing and opening spells, Gareth decided that the charms were not simply concealment spells, but protective wards. His own work with wards was fairly meagre, but he did have a few tricks up his sleeves. He knelt there, considering the invisible compartment for several minutes before coming to a decision. He could open it, and he would. He'd need something organic to hold his spell. He preferred grain, but if there were no oats, barley, or flour in the kitchen, he was sure he could find something else to substitute. He wouldn't use blood, though. He wouldn't need anything that strong, and he had an aversion to blood use in spellwork, even if it was animal blood. Besides, most blood use was banned by the Ministry...not that that ever stopped his great-grandmother from using blood in magic when she thought it was necessary, but he wasn't Grandmother Siofre, and even she would likely agree that using blood would be overkill in this instance.

Down in the kitchen, Gareth began to think that he'd either have to go home and get a bag of grain or flour or else make a trip to a Muggle market, but then he saw a half a bag of sugar on a shelf. The sugar was hard from having sat in the cupboard for who-knew-how-long, but it would work.

He brought the bag upstairs and used his wand to granulate the sugar again, then he began, strewing it along the outline of the invisible warded compartment. He put a thinner layer of sugar inside of that outline. He sat on the floor and thought for a while before doing anything more, composing the spells in his head, calculating and reducing, until he was sure of the Arithmancy.

Standing, he drew his wand and began to cast. Symbols began to appear, some raised in the sugar, others drawn in it, baring the floor beneath. Eyes closed, Gareth concentrated on the spell, then opened his eyes and cast once more, and the many symbols began to dance and shift until in a swirl of white, there were only three symbols remaining, and one word beneath them. Gareth nodded and spoke the word. "Astrum."

A glow now outlined the perimeter of the compartment, showing its edges, and then suddenly, startling Gareth, though he was prepared for it, the square of floor flew off and clattered against an empty bookcase on the other side of the room. Gareth forced himself to be methodical. First he used a sweeping spell to sweep up the sugar, which he then dumped in a bin bag in the hallway. Then he picked up the section of flooring that served as the door to the compartment and examined it. It was unremarkable, though it had slightly bevelled edges where it fit neatly against the edges of the hole, which were also bevelled. Only then did he sit down cross-legged on the floor and begin taking out the contents of the compartment, one thing at a time.

On top was a journal. Gareth flipped through it, but it was gibberish, probably password protected. That could be broken if Severus wanted to read it. Gareth set the journal aside and pulled out a sheaf of parchment. Records of some kind. Another bundle of papers, carefully tied with a ribbon, looked like correspondence. There were two more similar bundles of letters, followed by four old, completely filled journals, also gibberish except for the dates, then at the very bottom of the compartment, there was a single envelope.

Gareth looked at the front of the envelope. Severus's name was on it. Just "Severus." The envelope was unsealed. Gareth warred with himself, then he finally replaced everything in the compartment but the letter...no better place to keep it, after all...and cast a quick password charm, but not replicating any of the wards that he had broken.

He went down to the kitchen and fixed himself a cup of tea, then sat at the table and contemplated the envelope. He would just take a quick look at it. Severus hadn't even wanted to see any of Eileen's old papers and things, after all. Although this was addressed to Severus. Perhaps a suicide note? Severus had said that none had ever been found. But the handwriting didn't look like that in the journal. More like a man's writing, Gareth would say, and besides, why would someone write a suicide note and then conceal it where it might never be found?

Gareth carefully untucked the flap of the envelope and pulled out the letter. As soon as he unfolded it, he folded it up again and set it on the table.

"Bloody hell ..."

He sat and drank his tea and contemplated the letter. He was Severus's friend...he'd like to think he was his best friend, aside from Poppy, of course. The little he had seen when he had unfolded the letter made him think that Severus might need a supportive friend. Besides, he couldn't give it to him without knowing what was in it. Snape had already been through a lot. If this was shocking or upsetting in some way, he should know that before presenting him with it as though it were nothing more than an old grocery list. Besides, he was curious. Curiosity alone wouldn't allow him to read the letter not meant for him, but he didn't think it was a good idea to give it to Snape without knowing its contents.

Gareth unfolded the letter and began to read. When he was finished, he read it again, folded it, replaced it in the envelope, then went back upstairs.

"Prince." The outline of the compartment appeared again, and this time, Gareth used his sgian dubh to pry off the lid. He made a cursory examination of the bundles of letters, looking at the return addresses and postmarks, then pulling out letters at random and glancing at them, occasionally taking a minute to read to read a paragraph or two that caught his eye. He'd have to come back and scan them properly later that evening or in the morning, but he already had a thousand questions, and he was sure that Snape, when he saw these, would have even more. Or perhaps just one.

Time to hop over to Hogwarts and get Snape to come by the house. He needed to see these letters. Gareth couldn't imagine what Snape would think. It seemed all too bizarre ...

~*~*~*~

Gareth reached the gargoyle guarding the entrance to the Headmistress's Tower. "Angus Óg."

The gargoyle stuck out his tongue, but grated aside to reveal the stairs up to his aunt's office. The door at the top of the stairs opened to him when he arrived.

"Gareth? I wasn't expecting you," Minerva said. She got up and came around her desk and gave her nephew a quick hug. "This is a nice surprise."

Gareth kissed his aunt's cheek. "So, Aunt Minerva, what do you know about Snape's dad?"

Author's Note: I hope to continue to be able to update A Long Vernal Season at least twice a month now, although there may only be one update in October, as I will be travelling. I do apologize for the long hiatus! I don't plan to abandon any of my fics, I promise.