Disclaimer: Nope..nothing's changed. I still don't own Harry Potter or the Darkness or Will and Grace. But hell knows I've tried.
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Chapter 11: Fishing For the Moon
They both returned to the cottage and almost immediately Snape disappeared. Hermione had the right mind not to bother him, he seemed upset. Hemione tried not to let her curiosity overwhelm her but gods she hated not understanding things. She had no idea what the Egyptian dervish meant when he talked to Snape about, what she assumed, removing his blindfold. Severus did say that he wasn't actually blind, so she couldn't understand what was wrong with his eyes. Wait, when did I start thinking of him as Severus? Hermione thought as she put her swimming suit back on walked down to the dock with a nice beach-reading novel.
She was slightly surprised to find Snape standing at the edge of the dock with a fishing pole in his hands, the line in the water. His fingers were gently gripping the line near the base of the reel.
"Hey, are you okay?" Hermione asked. Snape shrugged, "A little frustrated that's all."
"I'm sure they were just trying to help."
Snape smiled. A genuine smile, the creases around his mouth cheeks and nose deepened into the most charming smile Hermione had ever seen.
"I wasn't talking about that," he said, "I'm not catching anything." He sat down on the bench. "But yes I am a little upset."
He shook his head, "I have lived like this, blind, if you will, for about seventeen years, and was content with it. And now.." Snape let out a pfft sound, "they expect me let go of my contentment because some dead President can't let go and accept his fate."
"I don't get it, what is wrong with your eyes?" Hermione asked.
Snape turned to face her, his cheek muscles quivering, he answered turning back to face the lake, "My sight is cursed as is the rest of me."
He stopped and Hermione didn't push the issue, but only did she realize that Snape gave the pole a sharp tug then started to reel the line in vigorously. Hermione spotted the line moving hard from side to side as Snape jerked the pole back. The fish came up and it was a thick and chubby lake fish. Snape pulled the line towards him out of the water.
"Here's the trick in getting the line out," Snape said, "Make sure to grip it tight and fast so it doesn't wiggle and prick you with it's fins." He in turn gripped the fish tightly while weaving the hook out of the fish's mouth, "There we go," he gently released it back into the water. "I'll make us dinner."
"Would you? Oh, that's so sweet, do you want me to help?"
He gave her another smile that made her feel light-headed. "Could you make the salad? I'm smoking a turkey tonight and it takes time and concentration to smoke one with wandless magic."
Hermione had made the salad and laid out the other food while Snape was out still smoking a turkey he had found in the food pantry. He had felt better, the awkward company of Ms. Weasley was comforting. Formerly he would have dealt with the stress alone and in solitude, but the companionship of his former student was like a breath of fresh air. But it could be the drugs talking, loosening him up.
Hermione set the table as Snape brought in the wonderful smelling smoked turkey. "Gods that smells delicious," she breathed. He carved the turkey and Hermione was subtly reminded of his dexterity during Potions and Defense Against the Dark Arts class as the defined muscles of his forearms rippled with the sawing motion in cutting the turkey. She didn't remember him this muscular. He was still relatively thin, but not as sickly thin as she remembered. His skin was darker, and…was that..an earring?. As his head listed to the right, his left ear peaked out from his black hair. A gold hoop earring was on the end of his left lobe and a diamond stud was up further on his ear. When did he get those?
Hermione didn't mention the earrings during dinner, and she was glad she didn't. They talked about trivial things like the British Minister of Magic and Snape's job.
"Where do you live? Do you live in the city or Alexandria?" Hermione asked. "Or do you live at Mount Vernon?"
Snape took a sip of his drink (Hermione saw him mixing one but didn't know what it was), "If I do get the night off, I own an apartment in the downtown area near Hiawatha Square."
"What do you mean if? From what I hear, you're a typical workaholic. McDorren practically forced you not to work."
"Yes, but now I'm working to combat an outraged spirit. You're right, that brings a lot off my work load," Snape retorted back with his old sarcasm. Hermione couldn't help but smile at the wave of nostalgia that poured over her at that moment. But this was different. She wasn't meek or embarrassed as she would have been seventeen years ago. Now she was an adult who did her part in destroying Voldemort. Snape's sarcasm wouldn't affect her this time, even if it were meant to be playful banter.
Snape returned to the subject, "I do stay at Mount Vernon when the work load calls for me to be on the site for several days."
"I'm sure that's comfortable."
Snape snorted, "Hardly. But it beats going back and forth twelve times in the course of two days."
He scratched his stubble, "What about you? What is new with your work? Aside from this mission."
Her eyebrows rose. Did Severus Snape just ask her how her life was going? Indirectly of course, but it was odd to even think to have any civilized conversation with this man. "Actually this mission is probably the most exciting thing to happen in work in a long time. The Ministry has me do library work in between investigations."
Snape snorted and Hermione knew why. As a child she'd always been known to love libraries and research, so one would assume she would be more grateful to the menial tasks the Ministry binds her to when she's not spirit hunting.
"To me, this is the perfect investigation. Foreign lands, mystery, history, and plenty of researched rolled into one. But I do have one question."
"What would that be?" Snape's voice was low, but he picked up her empty plate as well as his own and put them in the sink to be cleaned later.
"Have there been any other investigations on this problem?"
"A few cleansing rituals that did not work. That is why we are stuck, we are not sure if what we are dealing with is in the spirit realm or is something else entirely. Assuming that the Kemetic dervish is correct, it is something else."
Hermione performed a Cleansing Charm on the dishes, "Hopefully we will find more when we get back tomorrow. After I check up on my boss and my assistant--."
She stopped in mid sentence, she remembered Malfoy and the books she asked her to examine. They were Snape's and the few she had read sounded something that could be connected somehow. It would seem to fit. The Vita Secundum Excessum did mention ancient curses that tore away at the soul. Jenatep did say that it was likely that Washington's cursed soul was destroyed because of a curse like those. And the Origins of the Dark Arts mentioned a curse in Egypt….could it be?
"Where did Monstrenoir travel to in Egypt again?" Hermione asked. Snape's expression did not change even though the subject did.
"I'm not sure, why?"
Might as well tell him. "Not long before I came here, Draco Malfoy gave me a pile of books to examine. Books from your old quarters. I'm not even sure I know how to ask where you got a copy of Origins of the Dark Arts."
His jaw muscles quivered and his head turned away.
"In it, the author or authors mention an ancient curse found in Egypt. They called it Skotinotes.."
"The Darkness.." he said.
"The curse worked like what Jenatep said. It virtually consumes the soul and tears it apart, in turn it grants dark power. It is a living curse and creates a symbiotic relationship with the victim."
"And you think that Monstenoir may have received the curse on his Crusade in Egypt?"
"Well it would make sense. The journal did say after came out of the cave he changed into some kind of monster."
"It could be any other ancient curse.."
He looked at her determined face, he knew he lost, "Your adamant, aren't you?"
"Oh, yes. I have a good feeling about this."
"Well, I guess tomorrow once we get back, you should do more research. I have to go back and make sure the estate isn't falling apart."
Hermione rolled her eyes, "I'm sure it is fine."
"I know I wasn't going to ask you this but, how did get a copy of that book. I thought they were all destroyed."
"Not the one belonging to the Prince clan," Snape answered settling into an easy chair.
"Your family was into the Dark Arts?" It was a stupid question Hermione knew, but she didn't to make herself look like a complete ass if she was wrong.
"Not especially to my knowledge no. They more or less dwelled in those barrier Arts. Nature magic. The foundations of magic itself. At least that's what I gathered."
Hermione thought that it would suit him well, the barrier arts. It would match his personality, neither good nor bad. But no one was pure good or pure evil. Representation of good and evil were just conjuring of conservative society in the Middle Ages. The Christian theologians made everything in society seem black and white, contrary to the earlier religious practices of Druids and others. If the Princes were that old and that prominent at one point, it would be no surprise that they would hold a book like that for centuries.
Hermione went to bed and Snape followed shortly after but did not go to sleep. Even with Weasley's cat purring at his side he willed himself to stay awake. He knew what would happen if he entered dreamland.
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A/N: Shorty chapter I know. But it is a transition piece. Next: Hermione and Snape have a nice dinner….together (again). And we find the interesting origins of the Prince clan. The title of this chapter is based off a play performed at the American Folklore Theaters located in Door County, Wisconsin. If you ever go there check the plays out they are all pretty funny. Fishing for the Moon was written by the late Fred Alley.