KUNDALINI
The beginning of fifth year at Hogwart's for Harry Potter and his friends. Students straggled in to the Great Hall, many of the older students still sad after last year's events. The first year students fidgetted nervously in front of the Sorting Hat. Behind it stretched the long table of the tutors. Professor Dumbledore sat, his face drawn and silently watched the students be Sorted.
Harry noted Snape was absent, his chair unfilled. As he stared, a side door opened and Snape appeared, his hair longer and tied back in a perfunctory ponytail. He took his place. Dumbledore leaned forward, nodded to the Potions master, who merely flicked his eyes in the Headmaster's direction. Both men looked tired.
Between Snape and Madam Hooch, the Quidditch Master, was another empty chair.
The final student was sorted; a tiny elfin-like girl picking her way to the Hufflepuff table.
Dumbledore stood.
"Welcome back to our old students, a hearty welcome to our first years, and greetings to the teaching staff. First, please note that Peeves has greased the stairs to the Divination Tower and Madam Trelawney would like to warn Lavender Brown and Melissa Chadwick that they are the ones most in danger of breaking their legs. Second, Professor Snape will be teaching Potions only part-time this year, to the upper classes, due to other commitments. His first, second and third year classes will be taken by another teacher. Third, could the student who set the Quidditch hoops to blowing bubbles please reverse this spell immediately? Fourth, we have two new members of staff. Madame Gripp will be taking Defence Against the Dark Arts, and the junior school Potions classes. All students will be assigned extra Defence classes, due to….recent developments." Harry knew he was referring to the rise of Voldemort.
Grippe was an ethereal blonde. She obviously knew every student was doubting her skills, because she raised her wand, and blasted one of the Hogwarts banners into strips. Dumbledore looked only mildly startled.
"Thankyou Madame Grippe. It will be appreciated if you will repair that later. We also have a new subject. It has come to my attention that, as a group, we are not particularly active, so I am taking a leaf out of Muggle schools. Professor Viridian is our new Physical Education teacher. There will be standard P.E. classes for the junior school, as well as classes in Body Energy Magic for the upper school. In addition, I have asked her to hold a physical fitness class for staff, should any of you think we are being unfair to students." The door Snape used opened and a tall woman stepped through. Her hair was cropped almost to the skull and was a mixture of faded red, and white. She was thin, raw-boned, with a face of ginger freckles. Harry was sure he could see white Muggle trainers and a leotard poking out the bottom of her black robes.
She took her place between Snape and Hooch.
"This is Professor Viridian."
Ron jabbed Harry in the ribs. "I'm signing up for everything she's teaching," he gasped.
Hermione leaned across the table, eyes narrowed. "She's not that beautiful. Not even any veela in her." It was a reference to the Triwizard Championships last year, when a student witch from another academy entranced Ron with her beauty.
"I think she's ruddy gorgeous," Ron hissed back. "In an older sort of way."
Hermione thumped back down in her seat. Harry sized up the new Professor. Pretty, in a way, he supposed, but nothing to write home about. Should he ever want to write home to the dreaded Dursleys about anything. Which he didn't. They'd most likely send the letter back marked 'not at this address'. With postage owing.
A few of the boys in the senior school were similarly impressed with the P.E. teacher, and whispering to each other, just the way the girls had whispered when Gilderoy Lockhart had joined the staff. Harry hoped Professor Viridian didn't turn out to be the disaster Lockhart had been. He heard the wizard was still at Spellings, the Special School of the wizarding world, learning to read and write all over again.
Dumbledore cleared his throat. "There will be no need to rush to sign up for any classes. Elective sheets and time tables are on your beds. Now, let us feast and celebrate the new year."
He waved his arms and tables creaked under the weight of good food. All summer Harry missed the taste of fresh pumpkin juice, and gulped two big glasses before helping himself to roast chicken. Ron was useless for conversation. When he wasn't staring at Professor Viridian, Hermione was flicking peas at him, and making know-it-all remarks about red hair, Mrs Weasley, and Sigmund Freud. Harry watched the teachers talk amongst themselves.
McGonagall leaned back in her chair and spoke along Flitwick's back to Hooch, who laughed and passed the comment to Viridian, who in turn leaned back in her own chair and grinned at the older woman. Viridian nodded, and Harry could see her clearly say "Yes, it means everyone. Early mornings for the staff, scheduled classes for the students. But teachers can go to any other class that suits them."
McGonagall rolled her eyes, as if to say I'm not sure any of them suit me.
Viridian shrugged. Hooch smiled.
"It will do us all good to get some exercise," she said. "Build up the arm and leg muscles for Quidditch."
This involved the two women in a discussion of musculature all the way through their soup. Snape looked ready to drown someone, anyone, in said soup.
Harry turned his eyes away from the teachers and tried his own tack.
"Ron, didn't you say before that the Cannons were trying out a new Seeker this year?"
Ron nodded, his mouth full of roast chicken, and tore his gaze from Professor Viridian. He was off on his favourite topic, the Chudley Cannons, red-haired teachers forgotten. Hermione shot Harry a look of gratitude.
At the high table, Hooch drew breath on the subject of Quidditch, turned to her left and chatted with tiny Professor Flitwick. Viridian watched her soup plate disappear and a clean dinner plate take its place. She helped herself to hot vegetables, and cold pumpkin juice. Snape was adding something from a flask to his juice. He saw Viridian's stare.
"Makes it palatable," he said, and offered her the flask.
She hesitated. "Potion of some sort? Will I grow horns?"
Snape didn't bother to reply.
"Will I grow long, black hair, then?"
He eyed her head. "You could do with some. And it's whisky."
"It's not really part of my diet," she began.
Snape rolled his eyes. "Dieting? I would scarcely think the P.E. teacher would need to diet. Are you sure your classes are effective, Professor?"
"You'll find out tomorrow morning, Professor. First session for the staff, before breakfast."
"I'm sure you'll enjoy yourself."
"You too. They're compulsory." She shot him a chilly smile, and took the flask. "Thankyou." She poured a small amount of whisky into her juice, and handed the flask back. It hadn't touched her lips, but Snape wiped the mouth of the flask anyway before stoppering it.
Hooch re-engaged Viridian in conversation, pumping the woman for details of the exercise classes, and Snape picked at his food, peeling meat off a chicken leg one strip at a time. Exercise. How disgusting. What was wrong with spelling away excess fat, and commanding muscles to be at peak fitness? And what good had physical fitness ever been against Voldemort?
As he finished his plate of food, Viridian finished hers, and noted half a bread roll left on Snape's plate.
"Eat up, or you won't get any dessert," she chided.
He shot her a venomous look. "You didn't eat your meat."
"I'm a vegetarian."
"How dull."
In a trice, the tables were cleared, and desserts arrived. Viridian glanced at her own hot fruit pudding, then at Snape's chocolate mousse.
"Want to swap?"
"No."
She stuck her spoon into his dessert and scooped out a small amount, and scoffed it.
"Have you no manners?" he asked, eating around the now-polluted scoop mark.
"I believe in trying everything," she said, grinning.
He edged his plate further away from her and ate quickly. Why were all the women at this place utter lunatics?
A mouse ran across Snape's face, it's little pink tail flicking up his nose. As he opened his eyes, it perched on his pillow.
"Compliments of Professor Dumbledore. Physical jerks in the main tower dungeon in fifteen minutes."
Snape pulled his blankets up. The mouse opened its mouth and Dumbledore's voice rolled out. "Come along Severus, rise and shine, as the Muggles say."
Severus probably knew more ways to swear than most Muggles and Wizards put together, and he used the most creative phrases as he pulled on his socks. The mouse waited to see Snape dressed and out the door before disappearing into a handy mouse hole. Trust Dumbledore to enchant the Hogwarts mice into being alarm clocks.
The main tower dungeon had been converted into a warm gymnasium, complete with basketball hoops. The hoops were tilted upright like Quidditch hoops. Presumably Filch and Dumbledore hadn't known what basketball was. Across the polished floor were spread a variety of mats and rugs. Sitting on her own purple mat in front of them all was Viridian, clad only in a black leotard.
Even McGonagall was hobbled onto a shag pile rug.
"Mice!" she was hissing at Dumbledore. "You sent mice to wake us."
"I didn't want to disturb the owls," the headmaster said. He looked comfortable in his cross-legged position, unlike most of the staff, who were complaining of stiff knees, and in Madam Trelawney's case, a third eye-ache. Professor Sinistra, tired after a late night Astronomy tutorial, was trying to nap on a square of foam rubber. Madam Hooch was doing sit-ups on a plastic pool lilo.
Snape grimaced. The only mat left was centre-front, right before Viridian. He cursed. Even when a student, he liked to lurk up the back of classrooms. He knelt on the bear skin rug.
"Now that we're all here, we'll begin," Viridian said.
She took them through a series of stretches. Many complaints.
"It might help if you all took off your robes, and put your wands down," Viridian said.
Great discomfiture. Most of the teachers had not been out of bodily contact with their wands for years. Hooch saw the light when she bent forward over her knees and poked herself in the cheek with her wand. Worse still was the shedding of robes. Rarely had the teachers seen each other out of 'uniform'. Snape's Edwardian clothes were nothing compared to Dumbledore's kaftan, or Grippe's leggings and mini skirt.
Viridian moved into a spread-legs posture and leaned forward. Snape took his wand and pointed it at her. He muttered and Viridian froze. Snape sat up.
"Really Headmaster, is this necessary? It's not adding to the dignity of any one of us here." He gestured to Viridian, legs far apart, hands touching ankles, head bowed. She appeared to be looking…. Never mind where she appeared to be looking.
"Considering what is come amongst us, Severus, I would think you would be glad of physical fitness. Who knows what you, or any of us, may be called upon to do." Dumbledore was in a milder position than Viridian, but still seemed abnormally supple for his age. "Unfreeze her."
Snape muttered the counter spell and Viridian shook her head and looked up. She caught Snape's eyes and held them. He felt a pulse of energy envelop him, warm, sensuous for a moment before the leg cramp hit. He held firm, didn't let it show, but his teeth were bared. The cramp affected every move he made for the next twenty minutes.
In the final ten minutes, Dumbledore spoke. "Professor, perhaps you could take us through your Body Energy techniques. I'm sure most of us have forgotten the theory." Most of the staff drew breath to complain. "Who knows when any of us might be without our wands." That silenced them.
Viridian got them to their feet. "Well, wand magic is easier, Headmaster…."
"That as may be, but wands can be broken."
Viridian sighed. "As you all know, the body generates its own field of energy. You can tap into this for magical purposes. We've all done it accidentally, before we were trained. Made things happen without meaning to. The purpose of Body Work is to feel that energetic field and use it, and there are exercises to enhance the energy flow."
Most of the staff knew the theory. Several knew of the exercises involved but had never practiced them. Fewer still knew the advanced theory. McGonagall was one of those who apparently did.
"You're not suggesting we-" She waved her hands vaguely.
"No." Viridian paused. "It's too cold, for one thing. And we are in public."
She caught Snape's look. He clearly knew the advanced theory. She felt herself blushing and was glad to turn her attention quickly to explaining the exercises.
At the end of the class, Snape was first out the door, first to spell the aches and pains from his body, and more than a little chagrined that no spell would completely eradicate the cramp from his left leg.
Harry regretted every moment that Ron had talked him into taking the Body Energy Workings elective, as well as the compulsory P.E class. Ron presented himself centre front, Harry to one side, Hermione to the other. It was a double session with the Slytherins. Malfoy and Pansy spent their time making snide remarks. Finally, Viridian had enough. Harry expected to hear the usual 'points from Slytherin' but Viridian took another approach.
"Mr Malfoy, you and your friend to one side please. Everyone else, please continue with the spinal twists. The aim is to feel something stir in the base of your spine. " She focussed on the sneering pair. "Stand on one leg, raise the other into a crook, placing the foot on the inside of the balancing thigh. Fold your hands into prayer position in front of your chests."
Malfoy was all ready over balancing. Pansy wobbled.
"Now, please stay like that for the rest of the lesson."
Viridian turned her back on them and continued the lesson.
Harry was twisting from side to side. All he could feel was a stitch. No stirring in the base of his spine.
"This is ridiculous," he whispered to Hermione.
No reply. She was trying to perfect her twist, making it even on both sides, concentrating for any effect in her spine. Ron was barely moving, his arms only just swinging.
"I think her hair's just about the same colour as mine," he said. "Except for the white."
Harry wondered if he'd get any sense out of his friend at all this year.
Malfoy fell against Pansy and both of them went down in a heap. Viridian tch-tched.
"Such a shame. Now I'll have to take ten points each from Slytherin. I was hoping not to do that. If only you'd held your poses….."
She dismissed the class fifteen minutes early, asking only the girls to remain behind. Ron lagged, straining over his shoulder to see what might be happening. Harry dragged him along.
"Come on, she said girls only."
"But what's she going to do?"
"We can ask Hermione later. Come on."
Hermione found them in Defence Against the Dark Arts.
"Well?" Ron asked.
Hermione looked smug. "Special exercises, just for we women." She emphasised the word 'women'.
"What sort of exercises? What for?" Ron demanded.
Hermione shook her head. "Can't tell. But we have to do them every day."
Harry and Ron exchanged looks. No wonder Hermione was pleased. Extra work. The door was flung open. Madame Grippe entered.
"For the next month, we will concentrate on Deflection Spells." She flipped back her long hair, batted her eyes, and swished her wand. The whole class were turned into geese, and a few moments later, turned back again. "Now, you should have seen that coming when I raised my wand. Let us begin with simple Deflectio Dissipatia. Everyone take up their wands."
No mucking about in this class. Not now, with You-Know-Who on the loose. This suddenly felt like the most important class they'd take this year. Harry picked up his wand and prepared to pay utmost attention.
Grippe smiled, lowered her wand. "Sorry, I forgot to take the roll. Oh well, just call out your names and I'll hear the missing ones."
All of a sudden, Grippe seemed harmless, cute, completely blonde. He saw Ron and Crabbe thinking the same thing. Instantly, all three of them were turned back into geese.
"Didn't you last teacher say to be vigilant, always?" Grippe asked. "Don't let a good appearance fool you for one moment."
When Crabbe transformed back into his usual ugly self, he had been grooming, and had a mouth full of grey feathers.
Snape ate his evening meal quickly and hurried through the marking of the Potions essays he'd set the Year 5's during the holidays. Did Neville Longbottom think a few traced drawings were going to substitute for written words? Why, oh why did Hermione Granger write so small and for so long? Harry Potter's essay half-arsed as usual. Ron Weasley – there ought to be a punishment more fitting than docked house points for people who copy their older brother's work.
The cramp was still in his leg, making him more irritable than usual. Even one of his own personal potions hadn't worked.
He rose from his chair and stretched his back. That ached too, but not as badly as he'd feared. He recognised the Muggle exercise regime of yoga. He had done some years ago, and hadn't been impressed back then. What made Viridian so special that she was hired to teach it? He thought of that pulse of energy, all without benefit of a wand, and grimaced. What a clever party trick.
His leg twinged again.
He sent a spell ahead of him, a courtesy to other staff. The staff bathroom, properly enspelled, was endlessly accommodating. It could expand to house the privacy of all the staff, should they all wish to bathe at the same time. Privacy screens erected, turning each bath into its own cubicle.
At the door to the bathroom, Snape reckoned, from the strength of the spells, that three other staff were bathing. The room seemed as normal, but that was part of the magic. Somewhere beyond the illusion of the wall were at least three other 'bathrooms'. Someone had erected a strong sonic screen, which meant most likely that Professor Dumbledore was singing in the bath again.
Snape shut the door behind him, and pointed his wand at the huge, porcelain bath. Hot water poured from the mouth of the dragon-shaped tap, its ruby eye open and glaring at him. Snape considered the tap the height of bad taste. Probably a Gryffindor design.
He poured the contents of a small potion vial into the water, which turned it slightly oily. It smelled heavily of herbs which Snape knew would ease his cramp. He stripped and slid into the water. The bath was long enough to stretch out completely. The tap turned off immediately it saw the bath was full, and its eye shut, preserving the modesty of the Potions master.
Under the hot water, Snape's body wavered. He observed it objectively and allowed himself a modicum of pleasure that fat blasting spells worked so well. The dark mark did not burn when he was in water. He turned his wrist over and looked at it. It was heavy black. Voldemort was gaining in strength, but so far, Snape had not been summoned. It would only be a matter of time. Better to go to Voldemort first, receive his dark grace, than be called. Snape turned his wrist again, drowning the mark.
The shields around the bathroom rippled for a moment. Someone had left their bathroom and the room had contracted accordingly. Snape shut his eyes and dozed.
The water in his bath was tepid when he woke. His wand was too far away. He concentrated on his own energy field, summoned it. There was no room in the bath for wild contortions to build the energy. He sent a thought to the bath.
"Empty and refill."
Nothing happened. The dragon tap slept on. Sighing, Snape sat up and manually pulled the plug. The water made dirty sounds as it slurped away down the plug hole. He was glad to put the plug back in and wake the dragon tap. He poked it with his finger.
"Refill, hot, steam."
The water rose around him, almost scalding. If he turned his wrist under the flow, he could not feel the dark mark at all.
Steam eddied around him, and a quick blast of cold air hit him.
"Occupied," he called, just as Professor Viridian stepped through the steam.
She stopped short.
"Sorry. I didn't know the etiquette for using the bathroom. I-"
Snape was staring. She was clad only in a short bathrobe. Just below the crook of her elbow was the dark mark. She automatically pulled her sleeve down to hide it.
Snape cleared his throat. "Room expansion spell," he said. "Privacy screens, sonic as well, if you wish."
"Thanks, I didn't know." She turned to go.
"You wear the dark mark."
Viridian stopped. "As do you."
"He is growing stronger."
He saw her shudder and when she turned to look at him, every trace of her normally cheerful expression was gone. The muscles in her legs were twining. He indicated the edge of the bath. She sat gratefully on it. Both were unmindful that he was nude. The water shut off and the dragon tap closed its eyes, after a glance at both of them. Apparently it was not unusual for staff to share a bathroom. Snape allowed himself one second to wonder who.
"What will you do?" Viridian asked.
Snape rubbed at his dark mark. "Go to him. It is inevitable. And you?"
Viridian looked away. "I am of no use to him now."
"Everyone is of use to him."
"I ran away. Broke my wand. I lived among Muggles as one of them."
"Yet your mark burns."
Viridian reached down, trickled hot water over her arm. It seemed the heat brought momentarily relief.
"I will run again."
"He will find you." Snape read her face. "He will have the use of you."
She shuddered again, hugging her bathrobe to her. "I was not a very good witch when he found me, not successful. And I wanted to be. He was….very persuasive, promised me power."
"As he did to us all." Snape had long since come to terms with his past. He loathed what he had done, but no amount of Forgetfulness Potion made the memories fade.
"He saw potential in me. He used the Imperius curse at first. Had me do….things."
Snape could imagine. He himself had had humiliations forced upon him, had his mind twisted so that he welcomed them.
"I ran before the end. Broke my wand and went to live with the Muggles."
"But your magic-"
"It kept breaking through. I had to learn control, how to channel it."
With every mention of her past, she seemed diminished, another layer of confidence stripped away.
"What did you do in the Muggle world?"
Viridian gave a wry smile. "I lived in India. I studied yoga in an ashram there. It helped me control my energy field."
"That explains the contortions, and the haircut."
"And the dull vegetarianism, as you call it. Some habits die hard."
Snape allowed himself a smirk.
"And the swig of whisky?"
"I wasn't a very devoted follower of the yogic path either."
Snape's water had grown less than boiling again. He tapped the dragon head. "More, hot."
It filled to the brim.
"I remembered the old theory classes on body magic, and started new studies. I studied kundalini yoga, and some forms of dance to enhance energy. I found I could work magic without a wand. Then Dumbledore owled me in Mongyr, said my skills were needed. And here I am."
Snape let his gaze wander over her. "Here you are."
Viridian stood. She was goose pimpled over all her exposed flesh and shivering. "I'll go find my own bath, if you'll excuse me. What spell did you say it was again?"
Snape slowly drew his knees up. "Get in. You're freezing."
Viridian turned. Snape nodded slightly towards the vacant end of the bath. Viridian surveyed Snape's body, for the first time aware of what she could see under the water. Not just Voldemort's mark of summoning, his black kiss of possession, but Snape's thin, hard body, dark chest hair descending into a line down his stomach and spreading again around his loins.
Viridian loosed her bathrobe. She was finely muscled, angular, and freckles dusted her body. The room was unnaturally silent. Both felt it.
"I can't see why you didn't have more dessert," Snape said as Viridian stepped into the bath. "You need the weight."
The bath lengthened to seat both of them and the water level sank. The tap added more water. They sat at either end of the bath, not speaking, both feeling the easing of their dark marks in the water, both feeling companionship of sorts. The walls shimmered around them again, indicating another bather had left.
Twice more they added hot water, until Viridian broke the silence.
"Do you normally bathe with the other professors?"
Snape shifted in the bath, caused eddies of warm water. "Only those who give me leg cramps." He stuck a white bony leg out of the bath. "What do you propose to do about it?" His version of levity.
"I don't have a wand," she said. "I suppose I could try energy healing with my hands."
"No Muggle solutions?"
She pretended to think for a moment. "Well, there is always massage."
A thin, wolfish smile crossed his lips. "Proceed."
He didn't anticipate her hands being so strong. He suspected she did more damage than good. It certainly hurt a great deal. He was silent, enduring the discomfort as a distraction. She worked her way up his leg, stopping short of the fleshy part of his thigh. Snape stared at her.
"We are only two of seven who have not returned to him."
She swallowed. "He will Call us."
"If we work together…. Tell me what he had you do."
She shook her head. "No. Too much pain."
Snape grasped her wrists, slid her dark mark over his own. As they came in contact, the maddening itch eased for moment.
"Then perhaps we can turn the pain into something else."
It was easy to lift her over him. She was surprisingly light in the water. The bath widened, giving room for her knees either side of his hips. Viridian paused before she slid herself onto him.
"This is the only time this happens," she said.
"Agreed."
Slowly she pushed herself down, opening around him. Water touched them both, hot as blood. His hands caressed her breasts, pausing to pull at her nipples. Gentle at first, then hard when he saw she could take it. He could pull the whole breast forward from the tip until she gasped. He poured hot bath water over them, then began again. Abruptly he sat up, pushed her breasts hard together and took both nipples into his mouth. Water sloshed over the side of the bath. The dragon tap had both eyes open, and if possible, its mouth gaped wider in astonishment. It didn't have to be told, it simply added more hot water. The bathers' mouths were too busy to issue commands.
Viridian circled her hips, using Snape as her centre point. He was sitting under her now, both their spines straight. He clutched her back with one hand. She felt energy at the base of her spine, building, snaking through their connection to his spine. Snape reached a hand between them, thumbing her clitoris. She pushed herself against his hand, rocking back and forth. More water on the floor. Viridian tangled her wet hands into Snape's hair, pulling his face against her. He suckled any available flesh, leaving mouth marks on her.
Both had been too long without contact. Their climaxes built, tipped over. Viridian felt energy pool in her stomach, then shoot up the spine and through the top of her head. Snape threw his head back as heat shot through him. The dragon tap came to life, becoming a small gold dragon with legs. It snapped at both of them, hopped down from the bath and waded through the water on the floor. It slid under the door and was gone. Snape's towel grabbed Viridian's bathrobe and did a fast lambada.
Snape met Viridian's amused gaze.
"Next time I suggest we channel that energy constructively," he said, his breath still ragged.
She shifted minutely on him, making one knee more comfortable against the porcelain. The feeling of her surrounding him was exquisite.
"I thought there was to be no 'next time'."
"There isn't."
"Agreed."
Students noticed staff eating voraciously. Exercise before breakfast could do that to a person. Dumbledore made his announcements around a croissant.
"I would ask students to maintain decorum during their stay at Hogwarts. Last night, a staff bathroom was flooded. If this is a practical joke, it is not funny, and Mr Filch is most anxious to find the culprit. On another note, a small dragon is loose in the school. It is gold, with red eyes. It spouts boiling water. Anyone finding it may put it on a shoelace leash and bring it to my office. Thankyou."
Harry Potter saw Professors Viridian and Snape exchange glances. A dragon loose in the school? He would bet anything Snape had set it loose.
During Body Energy Workings, he noticed Professor Viridian favouring her right knee slightly. He wondered if that had anything to do with Snape. He'd seen them looking at each other. He wouldn't put it past Snape to be cruel to the P.E. teacher.
