Chapter 9: Past in the Present

Author's Note: Story depicted may be unpalatable to sensitive readers for its portrayal of Hermione and Ron's relationship. Hermione may also not be likeable to readers. Some readers might consider the characters a little OOC. Some organisations and Ministry of Magic departments are made-up.

It would help readers following the story to view it as a 'cinematic' experience whereby there are shifts in perspectives, as well as shifts between flashbacks, the past, the present, dreams and reality within the space of one chapter.

Footnotes, translations &ca follow chapter.

Emphasises are italicised and book titles are underlined.

From the Blood of the Gorgon

Chapter 9 – Past in the Present

Now that part of the veil of strangeness hanging over her since the recurring night terrors had been lifted, Hermione felt more ease with herself. She was still the same witch as she ever was, only now it seemed she was marked by an air of purposefulness. Indeed she was of the opinion that her latest discovery had brought her the affirmation she needed, and the confirmation of effectiveness of her methods. It lifted the tremendous weight of her own speculated madness from shoulders, and enabled her to act more decisively in the home front. No longer desirous of staying with a man who treated her so shabbily by openly cavorting with his mistress – a mistress who had the temerity to declare herself 'virtuous and beautiful' while advertising their affair to the wizarding community, Hermione decided a clean break was in order. For now she had her career, and if she played her cards right, she would get joint custody of the children. She had already taken the first step forward in this worthy cause by consulting Hiero McGonagall (nephew of the former Hogwarts deputy headmistress) upon departing from the Canary Wharf flat of her pupil and sometime potions master. She had also made the second step forward in this worthy cause by renting a flat in Saint Stephen's Garden in the Hyde Park area after picking up the documents and Hogwarts Yearbooks she had requested from her senior clerk. In fact, she was in the process of packing the last of her things from her marital home when Ron decided to return to their Chelsea residence.

"Where are you going?" he demanded, pointing to the two bags he had earlier stepped over.

"Isn't it obvious?" she said, blowing aside a loose lock of hair from her face, and placing the shrunken pieces of furniture and shelves into her briefcase. "I'm moving out."

"You can't leave me!" he protested feebly. "You won't dare! None of the Weasleys' divorced. You will not dare do this!"

"Watch me," she said without a trace of emotion in her voice.

"Why?" he barked, tightening his grip on her arm and raising his other hand at her.

"Not satisfied with having an affair, you are threatening to hit me now? How very gallant," she deadpanned.

"Why are you leaving? If you get along with Lavender, things will be hunky-dory! So why leave?"

"Why? Because we're getting a divorce, I've just filed the petition today. Thankfully, with your infidelity, things should be much easier. Speak to me at Chambers or through Hiero McGonagall if you wish to discuss the matter." She flicked a wrist testily at him to magically pin his arms to his sides, and on giving him one last look of exasperation, Apparated to her new flat.

The first thing she did upon unpacking everything was to look through the Hogwarts Yearbook of 1977 so as to determine whether there were any similarities between the young Severus Snape and the fellow presently calling himself Perseuss von Bastiae. Taking the papers to the chaise lounge where she usually did her hard thinking in her office, Hermione made good progress in taking down the features of the young Severus.

Beyond the fact that his German adoptive parents had straightened his hitherto broken nose to render it more aquiline, made his teeth more even, nourished him, and changed his hair style so that it highlighted his cheekbones and gave him a more imposingly aristocratic aspect, Chiswell Square Chambers' pupil did, in essence, bear a passing resemblance to the young Severus Snape, but only if one was looking for some form of likeness between them. Luckily for Hermione and for him, he had a very natural German accent which led most British wizards to look on him as just another foreigner. Hermione wondered – as she naturally would – how long would it be before Severus was completely subsumed by the curse of the dark prima materia from Nagini's bite. Under what circumstances would he fully regain all his memories? Given that he could recall a great deal as to his tenure as Hogwarts' employee, perhaps it would be a matter of time before he regained his memory in full. Or could it be that chunks of his memory were missing because of the curse of the dark prima materia in his blood? She recalled reading somewhere that the curse of pure dark prima materia was meant to eat away at one from the inside out, starting from the very centre of life – the soul.

"Which book was it?" she muttered to herself, rising abruptly and scanning her shelves. "This constitutes as the Dark Arts, so it should be at the bottom shelf." She squatted down and ran her fingers through the book spines, reading off them as she did so, "Necromancy, Poisons and Potations, Curses I: Reviving Body Magical, Curses II: Living Manageably in the Shadow of Death, ah, here it is – Curses III: Dying and Living Painfully by Cotefredus Agilolfing."

"Very interesting," she mumbled to herself, clicking at the pen that she had just removed from her hair as she turned to the cover page. "Good heavens! 'From the Estate of Percival Dumbledore'. How fortunate that the series caught my eye at Tamsiq books the last time I went there! Pity I hadn't read it sooner. I wonder how long this had been lying in there."

Wetting her finger with saliva, she quickly fanned the pages to the section she wanted and leaned into the bookcase. On reading the beginning, she found that the author did not deviate from the view of most experts in the theoretical study of curses, for he wrote of the near impossibility of countering a curse of dark prima materia, especially if it were somehow injected into one. The person suffering from the curse would not live very long, and even if the victim should by chance find his life extended, the curse would gain in strength until completely eroding the wizard's soul.

Of the two known methods of removing the curse from the victim, one was already known to Hermione. The victim must find a substitute who is willing to take on the curse and die on his behalf. A rite will have to done to transfer the curse to the replacement. The replacement will die in the manner that the original victim would have, that is, if the original victim was meant to implode, the replacement would implode. However it should be noted that the transference of the curse onto a replacement has certain consequences for the original intended victim. Because the original victim had willingly wished suffering and death upon another person for his own selfish reasons of wanting to continue living, a mark will be branded on his forehead forevermore proclaiming him to all and sundry as a murderer. According to the author, the most famous instance of this was that of Cain of the biblical Cain and Abel fame. Muggles at the time who saw Cain's mark and heard the extremely sanitised and highly edited version of his story, believed that he had the mark because he had murdered his own brother. However, the truth of the matter as circulated according to wizarding tradition stated that Cain had been cursed by an extremely powerful wizard for farming on his land and ploughing over his melon seeds. As he did not die instantly, he feared a long and lingering death. This was more so given that his blood was by then pulsing with the accursed dark prima materia. His brother, the kind hearted Abel could not bear to see his brother in agony and volunteered to take on the curse for him. Cain immediately jumped at the opportunity to free himself from the curse and proceeded to perform the rite for the transference of the curse. As Abel was of a weaker constitution than Cain, he died on completing the ritual. Since then, Cain had to bear the mark of a murderer.

"All very fascinating," said Hermione as she carried the book back with her to the chaise lounge. "But where is the part where he talks about the second known method of handling the curse?" Settling deeper into the cushions, she flipped another page until she saw the magic words 'the second mode is believed by some to be the truest way of getting rid of the curse'.

The second method, however, seemed to Hermione to be steeped in myth. It spoke of using the holy and pure powers of the powdered stone of heaven and mixing it in the Chinese Draught of Soul Cleansing. Whatever this stone of heaven was, it came in many forms. The author spoke of the powder of the blood stone of heaven as the only effective type to be used in countering curses of dark prima materia. According to the author:

The ancient Chinese had long been aware of the qualities of the stone of heaven. When worn next to the skin, it gave the wearer spiritual guidance by encouraging the pursuit of wisdom and moral courage. The incorruptibility of the stone renders it especially suited for counter-curse potions. The tomb of the ancient Chinese wizarding Empress Hsi Wang Mu recorded the recipe of the potion and the story behind it. While Muggle Chinese scholars believe Hsi Wang Mu to be an extremely powerful mythical deity controlling the Taoist afterlife; some Muggles even worshipped her as a goddess of immortality. In the ancient Chinese legends of the Warring States period, Hsi Wang Mu was believed to have defeated a barbarian (that is, a person who was non-Han Chinese) king sometime before the period of the Xia Dynasty through diplomacy.

The lake, it was said, turned completely turquoise when it replenished itself. The Summer Palace of Empress Hsi Wang Mu later became the Muggle Taoist temple of Mount Tai. The peaches of the tree overlooking the Turquoise Lake came to be known as the Peaces of Immortality because the Empress was miraculous revived by one the peaches despite being mortally wounded by a wizard's duel to the death with the barbarian king when attempted to subjugate China yet again. Due to her miraculous revival, the Empress realised the true power of the stone of heaven and concocted her own recipe whereby she would drink the powdered blood coloured stone of heaven with the waters from the Turquoise Lake infused with the nectar of the Peaches of the Immortality. Her recipe, which modified the Draught of Soul Cleansing was believed to have extended the life and lifted a dark curse from her daughter. A translation of the recipe is listed below...

Hermione bit her lower lip as she took down the recipe and tried to separate the myth from the facts. The ancient Chinese Draught for cleansing the soul was relatively straightforward – it used the standard Chinese herbs of cordycep sinensis and the insect attached to it, mulberries, essence of bracket fungus, betel nut sap and the powdered dragonfly wings. All those ingredients were easily obtained from the Covent Garden shop she frequented. More perplexing was the whole 'stone of heaven' nonsense. Just was this 'stone of heaven'? What was the difference between it and the 'blood of the stone of heaven'? Where was she to find one that was naturally shaped in a symbol of immortal mirror? Would she have to make a trip to this Turquoise Lake to collect its waters and sneak away a Peach of Immortality? How was she going to express the nectar from the peach's stone? While pondering these questions, she sank back into the soft comfort of the cushions and lulled into slumber.

This time, as soon as Hermione found herself no longer in her study, she realised she was dreaming again. Out of frustration for her own perceived laziness (for she was supposed to be thinking of a possible cure for Severus and cracking the riddle of the stone of heaven), she threw her hands up in the air in a silent curse at whatever gods were making sport of her. She hated being in the dream state. She detested it more now that she was conscious of being in it. While she had previously allowed herself to be borne by the ebb and flow of the dream, she decided she would make use of her consciousness to manipulate it this time around. That should be relatively easily seeing how her dreams always seemed to involve the same scenario of her futile stab at saving Severus Snape's life after he had been bitten by Nagini.

Unfortunately for her, this dream was not the recurring nightmare where she was unable to save Severus, and as such, threw her into mild confusion. Instead of the Shrieking Shack with a dying Severus in the corner, she found herself back at Hogwarts. Just what was her infuriating sub-consciousness trying to tell her? What made the whole scene even more surreal was that it seemed to her as if she reliving her school years. She was in her school uniform and was hurrying along the corridors en route to Dumbledore's office. She did not know why she was in such hurry, nor did she know why she was devoid of her usual entourage. The only thing of which she was certain was that she had to speak to Dumbledore. After repeated attempts at the password before the gargoyle, she finally managed to get through to the revolving spiral staircase. His office was unusually neat and empty, and it seemed as though he was vacating its premises at long last. She stumbled upon him just as the headmaster was occupied with the mundane task of clearing his desk, and humming snatches of Christmas carols.

"Ah, just the person I wanted to see," beamed Dumbledore as he wrapped a reddish object up in a thin linen fabric.

"Yes, sir, you requested my presence?" she asked as he waved her into a chair

He chuckled and looked at her from the corner of his eyes. "Oh no, I sent for you."

"And not Harry?" she challenged, fixing her suspicious gaze at him.

Clasping his hands together, he sat by the edge of the large and oddly empty desk holding nothing on its surface but the linen wrapped object Hermione had earlier glimpsed. "He does not have as open a mind as you."

"You flatter me, sir." She inclined her head forward in a slight bow.

"I flatter everyone, including myself," he said mildly. "Tell me, has there been any progress thus far?"

She swallowed hard and flopped into a chair. "Not much. There are more puzzles within the puzzles. If I didn't know better, I would say you are torturing me."

"Oh no, everything is your hands." He idly braided a part of his beard. "Or soon will be. How is he after the strange epiphany?"

"Shocked, disbelieving, doubtful – the usual reactions you would normally expect from him," Hermione replied, her brow furrowing in confusion. "Hang on a mite, Professor Dumbledore. Just what are we talking about?"

The older wizard pushed his half-moon spectacles up his nose with an infuriating twinkle in his eyes. "You know as well as I do. There is no need to spell things out."

"I hope you realise I think you're a meddlesome and manipulative creature even in death," she sighed, shaking her head. "That is, assuming this is not an ordinary dream and you really are trying to tell me something."

"Well, my dear," said Dumbledore thoughtfully tapping a finger by the side of his nose. "The line between dreaming and reality is as thin as the line separating insanity and sanity. Who is to say what is real and what is a dream? Who is to say what is mad and what is sane? In light of recent developments, your notion of these lines has evolved. Look at the fellow who is the subject of our conversation. He is no longer himself, yet he is still himself. Life is very strange mirror. It either shows us the soul that we wish to hide or it shows us the side of us we most despise. Some are more fortunate than us. Have you ever seen that James Bond film starring Sean Connery?"

Hermione could not resist the urge to blink incredulously at him. What sort of a dream was this? Could the characters in her dream make sense for once instead of rambling disjointedly about nonsensical topics? One moment, he was semi-philosophical in speaking about souls and mirrors. The next moment he was asking about a James Bond film. She closed her eyes so that he would not see her roll them, and in so doing, she managed to steady her thoughts. No wonder observers often said Dumbledore was a little 'dotty'. He was not 'dotty'; he was a scatological thinker – if there was such a thing. Deciding that she would humour him (or she would hear no end of his opinion of Sean Connery as an actor), she pursed her lips into a smile and politely asked, "Which one, sir?"

"The one where we see Blofeld..." He snapped his fingers as he tried to remember the title. "Ah yes! You only live twice. The song is particularly meaningful, especially in present circumstances. How does it go? 'You only live twice, or so they say -- once for yourself and once for your dreams.' You and I, my dear, we live for ourselves. Then there are those like your husband and Harry who live for their dreams. Those who are more fortunate live both the life outside the mirror and the life the mirror image shows them. Those fortunate enough to experience both a life for themselves and a life of their dreams should be given a helping hand."

"What if I should be unable to help him?" Hermione asked with fear brimming in her voice.

"He believes you would be able to, otherwise he would not have sought you out," he opined with a supportive hand on her shoulder. "The fates have a very odd way of unwinding the ball of yarn with which they play. They have only just begun to disentangle it. Do not let their efforts go to waste."

A knock in the background made them both jump, and they exchanged a speaking look.

"Well, look at the time," announced Dumbledore. "I must whiz. You will be triumphant in it, I know so."

Before she could answer, she found herself back on the chaise lounge awoken by a protracted banging on her door. As the hammering became more pronounced, she swept out to chase the idiot away from her residence. Before she could offer any cutting remark to the person at the door, Severus Snape or Perseuss von Bastiae – however you choose to address him, squeezed his way into her living room.

Hermione narrowed her eyes in what she hope was a suitably malevolent glint at the unwanted guest. "Do you know what time it is? If this is about the Tajik case, I thought we would discuss this in Chambers!"

"This isn't about work, Miss Granger," he said quickly in a quiet tone. "Congratulations on leaving the Weasley twit by the bye. You deserve better."

Mildly mollified by his mode of speaking, as she had long been accustomed to hearing people tell her that she ought to be glad she managed to marry Ronald Weasley, she closed the door and gestured for him to follow her into the study. "Please be seated," she murmured, swerving to avoid a stack of precariously piled books next to the chaise lounge. "Well, what new developments have you uncovered?"

"Shouldn't I be asking you that question?" he riposted frostily, crossing his legs and folding his arms across his chest.

Hermione rested her head on the cushions and waved a limp hand at him. "Look at us, the contrast is remarkable. You are so tightly wound that you may snap at any moment from your defensive position. I am reclining in an overly relaxed position that leaves me prone to danger. What does that tell you about our characters?"

"I am not here to play charades!" he snapped, his eyes flashing angrily. "My foster father told me certain things when I contacted him earlier."

"Do tell." She flicked her wrist to summon the tea-things from the kitchen.

"Not if you tell me something first. Exchange is no robbery," he insisted, looking down his nose at her.

"I think I can help you if you will trust me," she said simply. "Perseuss... Professor Snape, please, I think I can help. Perhaps your adoptive parents could contribute to our efforts. They may know of some of Professor Dumbledore's plans for you."

"That would not be necessary as I had already spoken to them. It seems you are right," he confessed grudgingly with a look of apparent self-loathing in his eyes. Hermione noted with a satisfaction that his hands had begun to tremble in what she deemed to be a combination of uncertainty and trepidation. "When I laid bare all that you had said to me to Father, he revealed that I wasn't just a foundling. Dumbledore had made arrangements for me to travel to them by portkey."

As Hermione nodded at appropriate intervals to Perseuss/Severus's elucidation as to the facts she already knew, she found herself marvelling at the officious foresight of Dumbledore. If the old goat could foresee that Voldemort was going to move against Severus and order his death, why did he not remove his spy from harm's way? Dumbledore had always stated to his students that choosing to save and protect life was far greater than allowing one to sacrifice oneself. So why did he not choose to protect Severus until it was too late? Furthermore, given his wisdom and his contacts with foreign notable wizards, he could have arranged to have Severus secreted somewhere away from Voldemort's enactment of the night of the long knives. It would do her no good to delve into the mind of a man long dead. Merlin alone knew what Dumbledore thought!

"Even my adoptive father did not know what Dumbledore intended. He was only told to hide me, and should the potion reduce me to the state of a babbling child, he and his wife were to care for me as if I were their own. Eventually, when parts of my memory returned, they were to apprise me of my history. I suppose he meant for me to live a little while longer before succumbing to the inevitable death via dark prima materia! Bloody incorrigible fool! As if there can be any way to purge it from the system?" hissed Severus lividly with clenched fists.

Much amused by his narration of his fate and his colourful description of Dumbledore, Hermione noted with pleasure that she was not the first to privately abuse the late headmaster's character. On his part, Perseuss/Severus was so caught up in hypothesising his anticipated death that he had quite forgot his early reticence.

"If only he had given us the means of resolving this conundrum, I would not be in this situation where I begin to doubt myself and my true nature," he spat a trifle ruefully.

"Then you will doubt yourself no more," declared Hermione decisively. "As an insufferable know-it-all, I may have a possible means of treating the curse of Nagini's venom though as yet, I do not know if it is plausible." She paused deliberately to pour out the tea for she still did not know how to put into words her complete befuddlement over the strange ingredients recommended by the book. After allowing the tea to scald her tongue and her mind into action, she continued to present her guest with an economical version of her discovery. "The brewing instructions are relatively simple. A clay cauldron may be acquired from the Northeast Asian speciality shop in Diagon Alley. I know where we can find most of the potion constituents."

"Why do I sense a 'but' hovering in the air?" he purred, looking up from the rim of his teacup.

"We are barristers. There is always a 'but' hanging on our words."

He raised a quizzical brow. "Are you going to tell me or do I have to pluck it out of you?"

Her only response came in the form of a single gesture. She held out the book she had earlier perused, marked at the page of the recipe.

"What's so difficult about it?" he asked, without looking up from the page.

"Oh, just that fact that we would have to travel to China for the waters of the Turquoise Lake and the Peach of Immortality," said Hermione with an air of false placidity.

"We don't need a visa to go to wizarding China," he pointed out as a frown settled on his brow. "Apparation to and from the place at Mount Tai can be done in a trice. The nectar from the peach's stone can readily be distilled with the right equipment."

She curled her lips into a tight smile to suppress the groan of vexation that would have otherwise escaped her. "There is also the small matter of the powder of the 'blood of the stone of heaven', which before its powdered stated, had to be naturally in the shape of the immortal mirror."

"It is supposed to be a representation of the immortal mirror," he corrected, thoughtfully tapping his lips with a finger, evidently intrigued by her findings.

"Don't you see?" Hermione set down her teacup carefully to mask the smile she could feel was forming on her lips. For all his efforts at looking monstrously annoyed with her, she could tell that Severus had grown to have a certain grudging respect for her

"See what?" he snapped, closing the book dramatically to signal his irritation at his interrupted reverie. "Which part of your work-addled brain is shutting down? You are thinking that there are wheels within wheels to everything. Try thinking simplistically for once."

Twitching her lips in annoyance at his unwarranted but understandably frustrated outburst, she tried to pry the book out of his hands. "Do you expect me to take this as a riddle or a charade?"

"Yes," he hissed back abrasively, slapping away her hand and turning the pages of the book to the relevant section. "What is Burma most famous for?"

"The green and yellow that its people see on telly! The economic sanctions placed over it! What are you getting at, Professor Snape?" she demanded when he continually shook his head mockingly at her, still blocking her attempt to snatch the book.

"I said, think simply," he cautioned with a half smirk. "The tourists go there for the Pagodas and ..."

She caught his drift immediately and gasped, "Jadeite. And where are we to find one that is the natural symbol of mirrored immortality? And even if we do find it, we do not know if it will work."

"You know, Miss Granger," he began in a slow and deliberate tone. "There is much to be said for simplistic thinking. The ancient Chinese revered jade as the stone of heaven. That should be more than apparent to you. Not all jade is green – that is something you also should have known. All this talk of immortality does not render the potion drinker of this brew invincible. What does the fact that the brew is essentially constituted of powdered jade? Its only claim to 'immortality' is its cold purity. This quality enables it to purge the contaminated body of the effects of a dark curse."

"We can't just grind up any old piece of jade," said she, resting her chin on an obliging cushion. "There's the nonsense of it mirroring immortality..."

"I may have just..." However, he could not finish his words for someone had yet again decided to pound desperately at Hermione's door. As he caught his Head of Chambers rolling her eyes, he rose and offered his services. "I'll get it. At this hour, it could be young hooligans."

Thanking him with a smile, she lay back on the cushions of her chaise and pondered as to the significance of her meeting again with the professor she respected most after all these years. The faint sounds of raised voices in the living room did not bother her. If it were indeed a young hooligan, he should have no problem dispatching the fellow and that would be the end of it. He had dealt with screaming children and temperamental colleagues at Hogwarts, dealing with a local hooligan who had too much to drink and decided to make trouble was likely as easy as combing as his hair for him.

As the sounds died to something of a harsh whisper, she retreated deeper into her cushions and thoughts. Could it be that she was meant to receive his memories instead of Harry? Would she have interpreted them in a way that would have changed Severus's fate? Did it even matter whether she could change his fate? A part of her thought that it was just as well she became acquainted with him prior to discovering his true identity. As Perseuss von Bastiae, he had become an integral part of Chambers, and proven himself without the scrutiny that would have otherwise accompanied any effort on his part to rehabilitate himself in the wizarding world. He had none of Severus Snape's old cares, and Hermione believed this gave her an insight as to what he would have been like if he had been nurtured and cared for since childhood. If he had been protected and known familial affection as he apparently had with his adoptive parents in Germany, he would not have had an inferiority complex and sought to distinguish himself from the other more popular lads at school as he had evidently done during his boyhood at Hogwarts. If he had received the care at home at Spinner's End as he had with the Merovingian family, he would have had no need to go through the torment of feeling neglected and unwanted, and he would not have turned to Voldemort in his misguided need to belong somewhere.

In a way, she could see the whole situation of his alleged death at Nagini's fangs as instrumental to Dumbledore's final gift to Severus Snape. By making all the necessary preparations for faking his death, reviving him, reversing time and age, facilitating his flight and providing a safe haven where he would be protected, Dumbledore had in effect allowed Severus to live his life again sans Voldemort as he should have done were he given all that he needed to develop as a human being and a wizard.

This Severus Snape in the form of Perseuss von Bastiae possessed self-confidence and friends for whom he had a most pleasing affection (as Hermione clearly recalled the way he tried to save poor Heinrich from making a cake out of himself in front of Fleur). He was less misanthropic, more willing to enable in regular human intercourse, and desirous of shaping the world in which he lived by entering the legal profession. Though he was still cynical and still possessed a caustic tongue, he was well respected by others, and spoken of highly by his colleagues as something of a wit. Hermione also believed that he liked himself better in this life as von Bastiae. He did not struggle to hide the admiration he had of other human beings who were better than him in other fields, and he no longer hid in the shadows as if he were some ghoulish creature with the ability to blight everything he touched. This then, thought Hermione was Severus Snape as he truly was when stripped of all the circumstances that had shaped him into that which he was at Hogwarts.

"Come to think on it," she said aloud, moving to the swivel chair at the desk when she heard the loud sounds of shuffling footsteps re-entering the study. "Perhaps it is just as well you are back in this guise. It has given you a new lease at life, wouldn't you say, Severus?"

Instead of the low purr of the pupil's voice, Ron's disgusted tone fell down upon her ears. "I knew it! You whore! You are having an affair! You left my house and I find you cavorting with your new pupil in your new flat! I've always known you had a crush on Snape. So you prefer the greasy git to me, do you? Do you think by calling your new lover 'Severus' he will be like Snape and have his non-existence qualities you used to lecture us about? He was vindictive, petty and a ruddy git, and a Slytherin not the haunted and tormented soul at Dumbledore's beck and call you always said he was. You are deluded, sick, idiotic, and deluded if you think that!"

"I think you should know, Mr Weasley," coughed the presently translated Severus delicately in the manner Hermione had heard him do so in wizarding Crown Court number four over his Cambridge University Wizarding Student Union case. "I am still present and privy to your... assessment of my character." He then coughed again and addressed his hostess. "My apologies at being unable to prevent him from barging in, Miss Granger."

"Shut up, you!" bellowed Ron, his eyes bloodshot with rage. "I didn't say you could speak to my wife!"

Pointedly ignoring him, Perseuss/Severus continued his explanation coldly, "Mr Weasley had caught me off guard with a stunning spell when I was attempting to remove him from your premises. Luckily, his inner turmoil rendered his spell fairly weak and I was able to break it. He proceeded to challenge me to a duel for being in your home, but I declined. The altercation you may have heard briefly was the result of my refusal. I have since managed to remove his wand from him."

"I didn't ask you to! I want an explanation, Hermione! You are still my wife, and you are answerable to me!" Ron demanded in a manner reminiscent of a rabid, madly barking dog with spit flying from his mouth.

She curled her lips and mentally applauded Perseuss/Severus's professional manner of responding. Ron's sudden intrusion and unjust accusation did not deserve an answer. Accordingly, Hermione did not dignify to give him one. She chose to spin her chair around and cast a particularly frosty glower at her soon-to-be former husband's new found eloquence.

Taking his wife's silence as an admission of guilt, Ron ignored Perseuss/Severus's presence and barked at her. "So this is what you've been doing every time you claim you're busy with work! Is frolicking with the new pupil at Chambers now considered work?"

Hermione smiled serenely at him. She had always reminded Ron against transplanting his own follies and guilt on others, and as he had never heeded her advice, it was not surprising that he should relapse into the habit. "I suppose flaunting your mistress openly and allowing her to write about your affair is proper behaviour, my dear hypocrite? I am not the unfaithful party in this relationship. You are! Don't pull the injured party stunt with me because it won't work on me. Not this time. I have had enough of you dumping your guilt on me. I have not had an affair, and as you can see from the books and papers strewn about here on ever possible surface, Herr von Bastiae and I were discussing work. But I see there is no talking to you in this vein."

"All I see is your unfaithful smug little face lying to me. Is this what I get after taking the effort to find you? I had to go that Slytherin – that snivelling excuse of your solicitor to trace you! What about the children? What did you tell them?" he growled in what he hoped would pass as an intimidating manner. That only made Hermione laugh, which in turn, further incited his wrath. He raised a hand and would have struck her in the time honoured way favoured by budding abusive husbands the world over had Perseuss/Severus not caught his arm.

"Tut, tut, Mr Weasley," purred he in a low dangerous voice. "I think the courts would be extremely interested to learn that you are not only an unfaithful husband, but a violent one as well."

Hermione nodded her thanks. "The children have my address and will not have problems reaching me. I told them the truth – that their father prefers another witch; they deserve to know."

"How could tell that to our children!" he screeched. "You don't have any compunctions lying do you? You're a blooming lawyer! I don't have to take this!" he asserted, flinging off Perseuss/Severus's restraining arm. "I will see myself out."

"And seek solace in the arms of the virtuous and beautiful Lavender Brown," said Hermione curtly. "Please convey my best regards to her."

Those words succeeded in rendering Ron so tongue-tied that he turned redder than his hair. Unable to find any words or a working portion of his brain, he settled for the next course of action, namely, storming off.

"Well, that temper tantrum should keep him away for the time being," said the pupil as soon as he watched Hermione lock the front door and belatedly cast a few protective wards to repel unwanted visitors. "You'll get your divorce, you'll see."

To which bracing words, Hermione jerked her head around with a thin smile on her face. "What about the red jadeite in the symbol that mirrored immortality? Where do we find that?"

"That, my dear Miss Granger," declared he in a low purr, "is something already in my possession."

FOOTNOTES:

Legal references are to British Law. American readers, please bear with me. My beta also made the suggestion that readers unaccustomed to the legal jargon herein pretend you are watching Rumpole of the Bailey or Sherlock Holmes.

Silk is British legal slang for King's/Queen's Counsel because the gown for the KC/QC is made of silk.

Chambers – for definition and explanation, c/f footnotes in Chapter 1.

Head of Chambers – for definition and explanation, c/f footnotes in Chapter 1.

'Employed' barrister – for definition and explanation, c/f footnotes in Chapter 1.

Barrister – for definition and explanation, c/f footnotes in Chapter 1.

Solicitor – for definition and explanation, c/f footnotes in Chapter 1.

'Brief' or 'Briefs' – for definition and explanation, c/f footnotes in Chapter 3.

Tamsiq Books where Hermione bought Cotefredus Agilolfing's Curses series was mentioned in Chapters 2 and 3. It was also where she first met our hero.

Tamsiq is qismat spelt backwards. Qismat is the English transliteration of the Persian word for fate or destiny, frequently romanised as Kismet.

Cotefredus Agilolfing, the author of the fictional Curses series is the Latinised version of Gottfried (died 709AD), one of the Merovingian Dukes of Alamannia. The Agilolfings were a family of Frankish or Bavarian nobility that ruled the historical territory of Bavaria on behalf of their Frankish overlords ca. 550-788AD. He and his fictional book were mentioned in Chapter 2.

Xia Dynasty (2070-1600 BC) or Autumn dynasty is a legendary dynasty of China, and the first to be described in the Records of the Grand Historian and unofficial Bamboo Annals. According to legends, the Xia dynasty lasted 431 or 471 years, and was preceded by the legendary Three Sovereigns and Five Emperors, and followed by the Shang Dynasty.

The Warring States (5th Century BC-221BC) was a time of great political upheaval in China where regional warlords annexed smaller states around them and consolidated their rule.

Jade was particularly valued by the ancient Chinese, Japanese and Koreans, and was considered an imperial gem. The ancient Chinese, Japanese and Koreans associated carved-jade objects as intrinsically valuable, and they metaphorically equated jade with human virtues because of its hardness, durability, and (moral) beauty. The ancient Chinese emperors believed jade was the stone of immortality and drinking a concoction of powdered jade prolonged life and could potentially lead to immortality. They believed certain designs on the jade warded off evil and absorbed all bodily harm of the wearer. It was for them a symbol of purity, holiness, virtue, wisdom, moral courage, and power. Even Confucius waxed lyrical over the supposed properties of jade, calling it the symbol of harmony, humanity, intelligence and justice.

Jadeite, with its bright emerald-green, pink, lavender, orange, red, and brown colours was traditionally imported from Burma to China. Some Asians call the red and/or brown jade 'blood jade'.

* In this story, I use Jade and Jadeite interchangeably.

The "green and yellow" Hermione says is seen on Burmese telly refers to the military officials on inspection tours of the country (green) and Buddhist monks (yellow) whom the junta occasionally use to legitimise their regime.

Hsi Wang Mu, the Queen Mother of the West, was the highest female goddess in the pantheon of the Taoist religion. As the ultimate embodiment of yin, Hsi Wang Mu was originally a creator figure. Linked with the embodiment of yang, Dong wang gong, Hsi Wang Mu engendered heaven and earth and all beings. Most scholars assert that the earliest description of Hsi Wang Mu was recorded somewhere between the third and second centuries B.C.E. in the Mountains and Seas Sutra (Shan hai jing). In the Shan hai jing, the Queen Mother is portrayed as a humanoid with tiger's teeth and the tail of a leopard; three bluebirds gather her food and carry her messages. Taoists, however, believe that this is a description of an emissary of the Queen Mother, rather than the Queen Mother herself. In later descriptions, Hsi Wang Mu is referred to as a beautiful and stately imperial ruler. She became the Keeper of the Peaches of Immortality on Mount Kun-lun in her palace by the Turquoise Pond. Hsi Wang Mu served as a model for female Taoist priestesses and adepts, appearing to them in dreams and visions, and protecting them at each stage of their spiritual life. Many popular local shrines as well as several Taoist monastic temples were dedicated to the Queen Mother; the great Taoist temple of Mount Tai has a turquoise pond in front of it, which in 1980 still went by the name of the Queen Mother's Pond. Hsi Wang Mu's great popularity may have been regarded as a threat to the masculine, hierarchic authorities. Interestingly, Hsi Wang Mu was a very popular goddess, particularly in northeast China, where she was attributed with ending a great drought in 3 B.C.E. For purposes of this story, I have played around this timeline.

Ankh was the Egyptian hieroglyphic character that originally stood for the Egyptian word for 'mirror' or 'image', but gradually became used to represent the word 'life'. Egyptian Deities are often portrayed carrying it by its loop, or bearing one in each hand, arms crossed over their chest. It is also known as the Egyptian Cross or the key of life. The ankh appears frequently in Egyptian tomb paintings and other art, often at the fingertips of a god/goddess in images that represent the deities of the afterlife conferring the gift of life on the dead person's mummy; this is thought to symbolize the act of conception. Additionally, an ankh was often carried by Egyptians as an amulet, either alone, or in connection with two other hieroglyphs that mean 'strength' and 'health'. Mirrors of beaten metal were also often made in the shape of an ankh, either for decorative reasons or to symbolize a perceived view into another world.

Prima Materia or Materia Prima is the primitive formless base of all matter, according to Aristotle and the Alchemists, given particular manifestation through the influence of forms. According to the latter, lead could be turned to gold by reducing it to prima materia and imposing the form of gold on it. In the broadest terms the concept of the prima materia states that all particular substances are formed out of one and the same original substance. Considered in this way it becomes apparent that, in one form or another, this is a universal concept, possibly of an archetypal nature. The most prevalent notion of the prima materia to be found in modern thought is the atomistic theory which we inherited from the ancient Greeks. In this conception all material structures are composed of tiny building blocks of indestructible 'substance'. This substance is considered to be pure matter, and in an entirely materialistic paradigm this equates naturally to the concept of the prima materia.

Night of the Long Knives was a purge that took place in Nazi Germany between 30 June and 2 July 1934 when Hitler ordered the execution of 85 or more people attached to Sturmabteilung (SA) and other groups within the Nazi Party (or groups that had broken away) for political reasons.