Disclaimer: I just want to say first of all I own nothing Harry Potter related, that is all property of JK Rowling.
IMPORTANT
I also want to make a point that any mythology that is in accurate in this story is fully intentional. I have read piles of books on mythology and searched nearly every website on the internet as well. I have taken huge liberties with some of these legends and such like and I am going to use the excuse of poetic licence and if you have a real problem with anything in here please let me know privately, not screaming and shouting on a review, constructive criticism only!
When Heaven and Hell Collide.
Chapter 1 – Mythology 101
Hermione gently blew away the rest of sand from the small piece of broken pottery in her hand.
"Have you seen this Pierce? The markings are fantastic."
Hermione had been working with the department of mysteries for only a short time. Currently she was based in Egypt on an assignment for a sub department, ancient mysteries and demons. There had been reports of magical surges from strange places and they all seemed to have no obvious connections. Most people believed that it was something to do with the North Star but Hermione was not entirely convinced and leapt on this assignment with glee, although she wouldn't mind jumping on her partner, Pierce Corbett, with glee either.
"What's that?" Pierce asked as he walked through the dark passage to the small room Hermione was busy in.
He was holding his torch before him and looked sweaty and alluring due to the humidity down in the airless corridors of the pyramid.
"Look these hieroglyphs talk of the evil entombed somewhere, I can't make it out clearly it's been worn away. Oh look here it talks of some sort of resurrection."
Pierce looked sceptically at Hermione. "You dragged me from inspecting that pile of gold in there to look at some religious crap from centuries ago? You know I don't believe any of this stuff is true."
He began to walk away.
"And you didn't believe in magic either till that vampire nearly sucked you dry." She said quietly to herself but just loud enough for him to hear.
He stopped in his tracks thought for a millisecond and then turned and sat next to her.
"So what else does it say?" he asked trying not to remember the vampire experience.
"Not much it's been worn away and I can't find the rest of the pot."
"Well then we shall have to find other clues then won't we?" Pierce said looking around the room and at the walls. "That's weird; there are no paintings in this room." He got up and stated to look around and closely at the walls. "Nothing, not marks, not anything in here."
"I know, there isn't even the rest of this pottery. I can't get any compass signal in here, when I try to get to north it goes to west and if you step out the chamber it lets you find north again but in here it always points west."
Pierce tried it stepping in and out the room with him compass. He looked to true west but there was nothing there. Directly above him, in the centre of the ceiling, was a tiny hole which you could see straight through to the sky outside. Directly below the hole was another that went down, into rock presumably as they were at the lowest point of the pyramid.
"Hermione this is weird. Seriously weird."
Hermione seemed non-plussed.
"Slightly bizarre I agree but never mind there seems no immediate threat in here, oh except that sand viper by your foot." Hermione said showing no panic.
Hermione lay on her hotel bed thinking about the mission brief and information that they had so far. Occasionally her mind would wonder to how cute Pierce's smile was those muscular arms, that broad chest…
"Snap out of it Hermione." She said to herself.
She found talking to herself helped her sort her thoughts out.
"Ok so what do we know so far? We know that there are magical surges at the minute. We know that sightings of ancient and rare creatures and demons are being seen all over the world. We know the strongest magical forces seem to be in Egypt and Greece and we know that I have no clue what that means except something about resurrection and entombed evil and I have no clue what its all about."
Hermione heaved herself off the bed and went to splash her face with cold water, the heat of Egypt was taking its toll on her and her hair. It was ridiculously frizzy even more so than usual. In the end he had admitted defeat and had it all braided and just tied it back. It made her look a bit like the kind of girl Charlie Weasly would like but it was easier than trying to brush the mass of tangles every hour.
As Hermione emerged form the bath room there was a knock on her door.
"Come in!" she shouted at the door.
"hi." It was Pierce. "I was wondering if your super brain had come to any conclusions so we can wrap this thing up as soon as possible."
"No I got nothing. All I know is its something to do with Greece and Egypt and a lot of magic."
"Isn't there anything in mythology? I mean they were different religions weren't they? Both places can't be connected can they?"
Hermione sighed, his ignorance of magic and religion was endearing sometimes.
"Both places are very powerful in mythology." Hermione began. "Look sit down this could take a while to explain. Although all the gods that have existed in different religions look different and have different names, essentially they are the same and as their true form was never seen people made up their own faces to go with the deities. Now in reality there aren't different gods they are deities, they are powerful and control certain aspects of life to some extent. They are spirits and demons; creatures that morph."
"So all of them are the same in every religion? Just different names and appearances?" Pierce asked his brow furrowed in concentration.
"Yes."
"Is there still heaven and hell then?"
"Yes and no. there are two places which are outside of time and reality. One harbours the good and the other the bad. It's hard to explain. Magic exists everywhere; it's not good it's not bad it just exists. It's the creatures, spirits and people they determine what the magic is used for. It has no choice over how it's used and it knows no difference between good and bad, it only knows power and that's what it is attracted to. Forces that use magic for good reside in Elysium and forces that use it for bad reside in Abaddon."
"So you go to those places when you die, you know Elysium if you're good and Abaddon if you're evil?"
"No. you go to the after-world or you stay in limbo depending on the person."
"Right so what have these places got to do with what is going on?" Pierce clearly wanted her to get to the point; all this magic was confusing him.
"Well if there are strong points of magic it means that its leaking in from somewhere, meaning the barriers between this world and those two dimensions is weak somewhere. Seeing as both good and evil spirits and demons are being sighted it means barriers to both dimensions are weakening."
"And this means?" Pierce asked.
"It means I have no idea what's going on!" Hermione shouted throwing herself face down on the bed. "It also means that you should start looking up magical protection, you know amulets and such like."
Pierce got up wandered to the door leaving Hermione in her own personal hell of not being able to unravel a problem. As he reached the door the muffled voice of Hermione came from the bed.
"Don't bother with garlic and crosses for vampires it doesn't work. Look into real magic not fiction."
Hermione wished she were back in England. At least there she could lock herself in a magical library and just research until something triggered off thought. But unfortunately that took days, maybe even weeks for something as big as this.
She rolled over on to her back and picked up a hand held mirror off the side of her bed.
"home." She said to the mirror.
The face of the mirror began to fuzz and wobble and eventually the face of her mother swam into view.
"Hi mum. How are you?"
"I'm fine darling, oh dear you look awfully hot. is it terrible there? How's the food?" Hermione's mother had never been one for the Asian countries; Europe and America were the only continents she wanted to set foot on.
Hermione waited for the usual string of questions she always got from her mother when she called home.
"Oh so what time is it there dear? Its 9pm here."
"Its 11pm here then, we are 2 hours ahead of you, as always."
These conversations used go on for nearly and hour about what her mother had done during the day, and would Hermione like her to send some food over. She would be told exactly what all the neighbours had been up to and what her parents were planning to do for the rest of the week. All in all the usual rigmarole of the middle aged mother.
"Anyway mother," Hermione finally said after an hour of this torture, "I better go. I have to pack my things up, I'm coming home for a few weeks and we leave tonight. Do you want me to bring you anything back?"
Her mother gave this little tinkling laugh.
"Oh dear what would I want from Egypt? I have every civilised item I could want here."
"Mother! These people were centuries ahead of us when it came to civilisation."
"Of course darling. No I can't think of anything I want. I will see you soon sweetheart, are you coming for Sunday lunch? Are you bringing your lovely friend with you?"
"Mother you are beyond believable. I will be there on Sunday and I will be alone. Night mum."
"Good night dear."
The image swam out of focus and the face of the mirror went blank. Hermione looked round her already packed room and sighed. She had an hour before the portkey would be ready to leave. Rolling ungracefully off the bed she got up and headed to the bar downstairs. As usual Pierce was in there swigging beer.
"Alright ace?" She asked sarcastically she stood at the bar.
"You packed for leaving?" Pierce asked.
Pierce although accompanying Hermione on this magical investigation, was a pureblood muggle. He had not an ounce of magic in him. He was an experienced archaeologist and treasure hunter and had been mauled by various magical creatures when he went on digs and expeditions. Hermione had saved him from is most recent attack. He had been in Albania looking for some ancient burial ground or sacrificial plane, that's what he wanted to find out, when he was attacked by a particularly vicious vampire named Semaz Von Bergen. Luckily for him Hermione was conducting experiments on the active magical field in one crypt and saved his life.
Since then Hermione had fought to have him as her partner on such things. The ministry had given in as he was already fully aware of mythical creatures roaming around and for some reason the ministry had never erased his memory of them. Hermione's theory was that the ministry made a mistake and were too proud to admit it and so decided to utilise the man. Hermione could of at least one way she could utilise him.
"Yes I'm packed. Oh a beer please Rudiju." Hermione said to the bar man.
He placed a bottled beer on the counter.
"Am I putting on the room miss?"
"Yes please Rudiju."
Hermione took a long drink of the cooling beer.
"Oh I will miss this place." Hermione sighed as she looked out the window towards the temple at Karnack.
"Well I have an idea that we will be back sooner than we anticipate."
Hermione and Pierce arrived back in London just after midnight. Both had nauseous feeling in their stomach. Luckily the portkey supervisors had arranged for it to transport them both to Hermione's back garden as she had had it disguised to muggles for just this type of occasion. At first she had used international portkey sites but after having to travel miles to get back home she had managed to clear it with authorities so she could get straight back.
The weary travellers bustled into Hermione's kitchen.
"Tea? Or I have coffee."
Pierce wasn't listening. He was too busy ingesting his surrounds. He had never been into Hermione's home and was curious to see how she lived.
"nice." He proclaimed after having a long look round. "Oh sorry." He said seeing her standing there with the kettle. "I'll have tea please."
He dropped his bags and slumped down at the kitchen table. Hermione placed the steaming hot mug in front of him.
Footsteps could be heard above their heads.
"What's that noise?" Pierce asked apprehensively.
The footsteps moved away and were heard coming downstairs. Hermione hadn't heard Pierce and was chewing her lip while looking at the kitchen door.
"Hermione…" Pierce said but no sooner had he uttered it the door opened and a figure stood before him.
It was a man, some years older than himself and Hermione and fairly thin. The man's black hair was so long he had tied it back. Pierce knew at first sight this man was a wizard, he was wearing robes.
"Oh your back. You must be Pierce." The man said and extended his hand to Pierce.
"Yes I am and you are?"
"Hermione's partner, Severus Snape. How do you do?"
Pierce took the man's hand and shook it, slightly bemused. Hermione had never mentioned she had a boyfriend or a partner. He decided not to embarrass her by saying or showing he had no idea who this man was.
"So you're Severus. Good to meet you, I mean I have heard so much about you."
Severus gave the faintest hint of a smile to the tanned muscular man before him.
"Did you two have a good trip?" Severus asked seating himself next to Hermione.
She was looking at Pierce, her eyes said sorry in more ways than could have been put into words.
"Yes it was good." Hermione said and conjured another steaming mug for Severus.
"I forgot to say and owl has just arrived for you." Severus said holding out the letter to Hermione.
Quickly she opened it and read it. While she was occupied the tension in the room grew, the silence seemed to roar in Pierce's ears.
"Oh Severus! We have been asked to go to Olympus in a week." Hermione was clearly excited but trying to sound dismayed.
"Really? More investigations?"
"Yes apparently there have been sightings of satyrs and sylphs. As you know Severus they haven't been seen for centuries this is getting strange."
Severus looked at Hermione, he could see her trying to suppress the desire to leave this second and take the next portkey to Olympus.
"Well then as I hardly ever see you…" Severus began. He was going to say that they would spend the whole week together before she left, but a glance in Pierce's direction and seeing how this man looked at his girlfriend, he decided to change it. "I think I will accompany you this time."
For a second too long silence reigned supreme again.
"Yes Severus that would be wonderful darling. Well then Pierce I think its time you were going. We have had an awful night and we will see each other in a week anyway." Hermione got up and quickly ushered Pierce to the fireplace.
He promptly took the floo powdered and disappeared in a cloud of ash and green sparks.
When he had left Hermione turned round. She saw the un-amused look on Severus' face and her stomach began to churn.
"You never told him about did you?" Severus asked evenly.
"Well I didn't see any point I thought it was going to be an assignment or two cos he knew the areas I needed to study and I wouldn't see him again. Personal information didn't seem important."
"I'm getting to old for this type of bickering Hermione. I am going to trust what your telling me is true. Don't make me regret it."
Severus got up and walked towards the door.
"I'm going back to my study, put fire out before you come to bed." And with that he turned and left, shutting the door behind him.