Disclaimer: Neither am I JK Rowling, nor do I own any of her characters. Even though I would love to have my own Sev clone...
Chapter Music: This part had to be written to the Pastoral Symphony, because it's what I have been listening to these last few weeks, on repeat, nonstop.
*~*~The Unknown Woman~*~*
~Chapter 7~
"Well, my dear Mister Filch, it looks as though we have nothing to worry about! And with that, I shall wish you a good night, sir, for I hear a delicious cup of elderberry tea with two cubes of sugar and a trollop of cream calling my name at the moment." And with that final farewell, Dumbledore pulled Hermione down one flight of stairs and up another until they reached the hall which housed the Room of Requirement. The door of said room stood ajar when they arrived, a faint flickering glow emanating from within.
The headmaster held the door open for Hermione, and she went in. The room was very different from anything she had ever seen it become before. It was like walking into a small, square, private courtyard. The pathway they were on was bordered with low cut rose bushes, just beginning to flower a beautiful shade of burgundy. Right in the center was a large brick circle patio and above was the open night sky which was twinkling with stars, or at least, what the room made to seem like the night sky. It was a magical castle, so anything could be possible.
To one corner of the courtyard was a small area with a large elegantly designed wrought-iron bench and another smaller bench. It too was surrounded with the beautiful rose bushes. In the two corners that were on the opposite sides of the door, were two different portcullis' that seemed to lead into other parts of the garden. And in the final corner was a door, a plain and simple black wood door. Snape stood in the middle of the center patio, seeming to wait for them. He was leaning over a large fire pit that was in the center of patio that was the source of the light for the entire courtyard.
"Hello, again, my boy!" The headmaster jovially greeted his former student. "I have found our damsel in distress. I will never understand how you always seem to know when something is going wrong." Dumbledore strode into the middle of the circle, Hermione following behind him.
"Sir, in all my years of teaching Miss Granger, she has always been perfectly punctual. It was simply not like her to be more than one minute late to anythig."
"I much appreciate your concern, Sir," Hermione addressed her professor, "I think that if the Headmaster had not arrived when he did, I would have severely embarrassed myself in front of Mr. Filch."
"Well, enough with the small chat, I think we should get this ceremony over with, and then we can figure everything else out. Agreed?" Dumbledore's eyes twinkled.
"Yes, sir." Hermione stepped into the center of the patio.
"You are certain that you want to go through with this, Miss Granger?" Snape eyed her suspiciously.
"Please, sir, I want to help."
"Alright, if you're sure," Hermione could not tell if he was angry at her willingness to aid him or if he was simply agreeing to letting her help him. One could never tell with him.
Dumbledore spoke up again, "There are three important parts to this ceremony. Three parts which will bind the two of you together through the most ancient magic in the world. There are three tasks which you must accomplish together, to prove yourselves worthy enough to be bonded by the magic. The first task lies through the door on my right, your left. Within that door, you must face whatever there is, without fear. The same goes for the door on my left." The elderly professor gazed at them over his half-moon spectacles. "Be warned: They who wander this path full of hardship, become clean through fire, water, air, and earth. If they the terror of death can overcome, they shall vault from the earth, heavenward. Illuminated., they shall be in good standing, consecrated to each other and to the magic that binds them forever." Hermione and Snape nodded their assent to the terms. "You must give me your wands as you face these tasks, in order to test yourselves and each other." The wise wizard held out his hand and both Hermione and the professor gave him their wands. "Now, your tasks await you through that gate. I will be here. Trust each other and go."
Hermione looked up at her professor, who led the way through the first gate. First they were met with absolute blackness. The next thing they knew, they were standing in dimly lit a cave. The ledge they stood on protruded about three feet over what sounded like a roaring river. Only after a few moments of trying to figure out what was going on did they begin to hear the faint cracking sound that was emanating from the ledge they were standing on.
"Of course we would have to deal with a task that was centered around my greatest fear..." Hermione groaned as she pressed herself tightly against the wall.
"Yes, I assumed that you may be either afraid of heights or falling when you hung out with the two largest quiddich dunderheads in our school and yet refused to play." Snape said back to her as he too pressed himself up against the wall.
"Falling, not a fan of falling. I appreciate your observing skills, however, I want to get out of here as soon as possible. Even though Dumbledore said they nothing bad could truly happen to us, I really don't like this one bit."
"The Gryffindor Princess afraid of something as simple as falling. I can guarantee to you that we will be completely safe." Just as he finished speaking, the rock ledge began to tremble and the stone around the edges began to disintegrate. Snape watched as Hermione went completely white. "Miss Granger, take my hand, and hold on tight." Hermione reached out and clutched the long fingered hand that was being offered to her.
"Why should I hold tight? What are we going to do?" she looked as though she was going to lose her supper.
"The best thing we can do is to jump. Together. There is water beneath us. The worst thing that could happen is that we hit the water a little bit hard, and it certainly defeats falling into the water in a rush of debris and stone, and potentially getting injured." He gripped her hand tightly. "If we are lucky, removing our own weight from this ledge may just stop it from crumpling" The rock they were standing on groaned again.
"How do we jump?" Hermione asked him nervously.
"Walk over towards me, if we hug each other and wrap our cloaks around each other we will land a little bit easier, and any debris that may potentially hurt us will just hit our cloaks." Hermione nodded, and walked slowly towards her professor and soon to be partner in crime. He opened his arms to the frightened young woman who wrapped herself around him. She took a moment to appreciate the warmth that emanated from beneath his clothing. She found it oddly comforting. "I will walk us towards the edge, and on my count, we will jump." She nodded against his chest. They carefully walked towards the edge. "Miss Granger, do you trust me?"
"Yes I do," came the young woman's muffled reply.
"I don't know what I have done to earn your trust, especially considering all the horrid things I have done to you an your friends, but please know that I truly appreciate your trust. It means a lot to me." He took a deep breath, "We will jump in three... two... one... now." Right before their feet left the ledge, he tightened his arms around her.
Together, they fell. The rushing of the water coming closer and closer to them. They fell through time, space, and things that no science or magic would ever be able to explain. As they fell, the slowly realized that the further they went, the location of the sound of the water changed. Where as it was below them, it was now above them. And then, light as a feather, they were set on top of a soft patch of what felt like grass.
"You have returned!" They heard Dumbledore call from just outside the gate they had just walked through to enter the cave, only now, this side of the gate was just a continuation of the garden that was the Room of Requirements.
They carefully disentangled themselves from each other, trying to save what little self respect each of them still had. They still stood close together as they walked through the arbor into the garden that the headmaster was standing in.
"Well, only two more tasks. I trust you survived the first one well enough?"
"Yes, sir." Hermione said as she looked up at her professor who had just nearly saved her life.
"Alright, well, off you go," Dumbledore said pointing them in the direction of the second door. Hermione hesitated a little bit, but Snape reassuringly took her hand and off they went.
They had no less than stepped through the arbor when they found themselves inside a dungeon surrounded by death eaters. Hermione his out of the line of their line of sight behind Snape.
"Ah, well I see the traitor has decided to arrive again!" One of the death eaters said in a raspy voice.
"And look how considerate he was! He brought along a toy for us to play with!" Another one on the other side of the circle chuckled. Hermione could see from the point where she was that Snape was not too happy about the situation they were in. Dumbledore had promised that they would be completely safe, and this did not feel very safe. One of the death eaters moved to grab Hermione's arm, but Snape threw himself in the way.
"Take me, not the girl."
"Well, Severus, I hate to oppose you, but she's no girl anymore. This young woman has truly blossomed. Leave her to us, she'll be fine!" The first death eater scoffed.
"You. Will. Not. Touch. Her."
"I think that we will have whatever we want, Severus. The Dark Lord himself granted it to us. But, if you feel so strongly about it, then why not touch her yourself? We can make you do that, you know," The other death eaters laughed.
"NO." Snape, stood guard in front of Hermione, shielding her from any danger.
"Well, that was the wrong answer, Snape. You loose this time. Tough luck for you." The second death eater pulled out his wand, "Crucio."
Hermione watched, paralyzed with fear as Snape fell to the ground, writhing in the excruciating pain. She could not protect herself from the men's magic since she had no want, but she had to do something to stop them from hurting Snape anymore.
"What do you want from us?" She said, addressing the crowd of death eaters.
"Nothing you couldn't give us, sweet thing," another death eater said. His voice was eerily familiar, but Hermione could not place it.
"Take whatever you want. Just don't hurt Severus."
"Severus, is it then? I didn't know the two of you were on a first name basis..." Another masked death eater spoke up.
"Shut. Up." Her eyes did not leave her professor who was still writing on the floor under the curse. She had to do something.
"Enough playing," the first death eater said, "I'm getting hungry. Come on, gentlemen, I do believe we have a feast waiting for us, and from the looks of her, she promises to be quite... scrumptious." The group of death eaters began to advance on Hermione and the incapacitated Snape.
"Her-mione. R-un." A raspy and tight voice came from the floor. Snape was watching her.
"No. I'm not leaving you here."
"RUN. N-ow."
"No. I'm not leaving you here, Severus. I love you too much to let you just stay here and get killed!" Merlin's saggy y-fronts... Had she just said that? She let it out of her mind, assuming that he probably had not heard her anyway.
And then an idea dawned upon her. Just because she did not have her wand... Did not mean that she could not protect herself... She doubted it would work, but if needed she would try it was a last resort.
The first few death eaters were only a few feet away from them at this point. Inside herself, Hermione gathered all the energy she was able to find. She had never tried wandless magic in her life, but she prayed to Merlin that it would work and that what she had read in the books was true and applicable. She gathered all the energy she would find, including her fear and her anger and combined it all. Then, she pushed it out of herself through her right hand, straight up in the air.
She heard the death eaters gasp in horror. She laid her left hand on Severus' chest, and with all her might, she willed the energy magic into a protective barricade between herself, Severus and their onslaught of attackers. She could feel the raw, untrained magic sizzle in the air as it separated them from the death eaters. The flames of fire that were formed by the magic encircled them completely and domed over them. Hermione heard Snape gasp for air as the curse was lifted off him. Once the magical barrier was formed completely around them, everything else, including the dungeon, disintegrated, and the two of them were left in the open garden in the Room of Requirements under a barrier of sizzling magic.
Hermione did not even realize that they had returned until she felt Severus' arms wrap around her.
"You are too much of a Gryffindor. Have you ever conjured wandless magic before?"
"No," Hermione hid herself in his arms, enjoying the comfort before she had to face reality once again.
"It was beautiful to watch. You stayed to protect me. I have always been afraid of being abandoned. Abandoned and helpless." Hermione hugged him tighter. "However, I think that now the headmaster would like to have a word with us. He seems a little unnerved that he cannot break through your magic.
Hermione looked up at what she had created, and with a flick of her wrist, it disappeared.
"Well, you seem to have completed two of your tasks successfully. He looked at the faint scorch marks that marred the otherwise pristine grass where Hermione's magical barrier had been. He chuckled softly. "One's first wandless magic is a beautiful thing, but that was especially incredible. Now, let us continue to the final task: The ceremony itself." He led the way into the center of the patio circle. He instructed Hermione to stand on one side of the fire pit and Severus to stand on the other. With a flick of his wrist the flames that came out of the pit turned a strange shade of dark purple. He pulled two pieced of cord out of his robes.
"They have wandered this path full of hardship, become clean through fire, water, air, and earth. The terror of death the have overcome. And now they shall vault from the earth, heavenward. Illuminated, they shall now and forever be in good standing, consecrated to each other and to the magic that shall now bind them forever." With that he handed Severus the dagger. "The man swears to give his life to the woman. Forever connected. Please prick your ring finger and put five drops of blood onto the woman's hand." Snape did as he was instructed, and Hermione accepted the blood in her own palm. "And now the woman swears to give her life to the man. Forever connected. Please prick your ring finger and deposit five drops of blood into the man's hand." Hermione did as she was told, and returned the dagger to Dumbledore.
"Now, connect your palms together. Unite as man and woman." Dumbledore wrapped one end of the golden cord around Hermione's hand and one end of the silver cord around Severus' hand. Hr proceeded to intricately knot the the cords around Snape and Hermione's hands. "You have overcome true obstacles to prove yourselves. Now you shall be together." The flames lept up from the fire pit and engulfed both of their hands, but did not burn them. The cords began to shimmer and then after a few moments, the flames extinguished themselves. In their place around Severus and Hermione's hands was a glowing silver and gold orb. With each word that Dumbledore chanted in some ancient spell language that even Hermione did not know, the orb grew larger and larger until it completely engulfed the couple. And then it popped. The cords were gone, but there was a sharp pain around their ring fingers.
"It is complete," Dumbledore said. "Let us sit down and figure things out."
I thought we would be able to hear each other... Hermione thought to herself. She watched Snape raise his head and meet her eyes, raising one of his eyebrows.
I do believe that we can, a smirk appeared on his face. Let's go sit, and then we can test this as much as we want.
A/N: I'm sorry it's taken me so long to update this. These last few weeks have been insanely busy. In the little bit of free time, I was able to jot down some notes about what I wanted to do with this chapter, so here goes.
