Chapter 09 – Blood Rite
The Astronomy tower was unused, the classes cancelled, the stairs and approaching corridors put out of bounds. In an unprecedented move, Professor Dumbledore even cancelled the wards that held the huge telescopic lenses in place and dismounted them for the first time in living memory. Severus hurriedly prepared the topmost area for the Ritual to be held at sunset, not an ideal time, but it was the only time they had. Runes decorated the walls, a circle marked out on the floor with two interlocking triangles cutting through the clean lines. A Cleansing Ritual, usually performed the night before the Consecration Ritual, had been hurriedly undertaken, Minerva McGonagall taking the part of the UnderVoorter. The part was not hard and needed little preparation apart from holding chalices and passing brushes so she had agreed. Fortunately, Severus did not explain that the UnderVoorter was usually the Vampire's blood bottle and slave, he was quite sure Minerva would have baulked at playing such a subservient role, even for such a good cause. Once flat viewing area was cleansed, sanctified and prepared with both potions and High Court magic it would remain empty until the main participants in the spell were in place.
There was no Family alter of carved stone so Severus decided just to use a couple of gurneys from the hospital, which would serve the purpose as they were high enough and sturdy enough. Placing them on the north/south axis with the south end oriented on the castle's magical centre, he locked the wheels and removed the pillows, leaving only the bare mattresses to pad the metallic bases. Minerva offered to transfigure them into stone but he refused the offer rather ruefully. The magic might interfere with the Ritual and that would be a disaster. Once the runes were painted on the ground and beeswax candles affixed to the appropriate points, Severus ushered Minerva away and finished the ritual by sprinkling his own blood over the runes, one drop per figure, the power immediately beginning to gather. By the time the sun set and true vampires were rising for the night, the power to enhance the Ritual would be at its peak.
The child, female again, lay flat on the gurney, her feet pointing to the castle's magical centre, her arms spread at ninety degrees to her body. Minerva, as UnderVoorter, had been slightly horrified when Severus had asked her to bared the child's torso and wash her with a potion he provided. After an internal debate, Severus smirked and reassured her, not mentioning that in his Family, the child was stripped naked so that all the Family could see for themselves that the child was perfectly formed. The potion cleansed and sanctified the skin over her jugular vein ready for the piercing so that infection would not undo all their good work. Still, what Minerva didn't know, wouldn't hurt him.
Remus lay on the second gurney with the top of his head pressed against the child's, his arms also spread at ninety degrees. He was stripped to the waist also, again not as far as he would have been in a Mountain Ceremony, his torso cleansed and treated in the same way. Severus hovered over the pair, staring deep into Remus' eyes for a long moment before he drew his black wand. At a blink from Remus he drew a deep breath and steeled himself for the upcoming ritual. Raising his wand, Severus began to chant in High Court, the language of the Ural Mountains Vampire clans, the torches around the walls spontaneously bursting into flame, the candles springing alight with a still, clear flame in the same moment.
Fascinated by such a display of wandless magic, Minerva almost missed her cue but managed to step forward without disturbing the lines on the floor, offering the tray she held. Severus turned and took it with a ritual nod of his head before he turned away and Minerva's part in the Ritual was over. She stepped back, bowed, stepped back, bowed, stepped back and out the door, almost stumbling over Albus and Poppy on the top of the stairs before the door shut in their face without the help of human hand.
As head of Family, Severus invoked the Rite of Fealty, selecting various potions vials and adding the required drops to the golden Family challis in the centre of the tray. The beautifully chased cup, set with emeralds and square cut onyxes, had been central to most of the Snape Family rituals for many centuries and was imbued with a build-up of magic sympathetic to the Snape cause. The potions did not need mixing, they combined under their own influence, ready for the final ingredient in this particular Ritual, one that made it quite illegal in Britain. Admittedly, the restrictions against Blood Rites were beginning to be eased, but they were still held tight in all but bonding ceremonies. Taking up his wand once again, he tapped it to the side of the golden challis he held in his left hand.
The spell he invoked was as old as time and usually used to consecrate a child to serve as cattle to a young vampire, literally becoming a walking blood bank. Because Severus was not a vampire he had to use a rather illegal decoction he had purchased in Knockturn Alley many years before and for quite another purpose, to simulate the saliva of a vampire. He had quite adequate canine fangs if he chose to use them, but they were not hollow and he could not puncture precisely enough to make the neat bite required, nor would his saliva stop the holes from clotting, even if he did use his own teeth. Instead, he chose to use the tip of his wand, dipped in potion to make a pair of tiny, free bleeding punctures in Remus' jugular vein, catching the resultant flow in the golden challis. A second touch of his wand sealed the punctures, and he repeated the process with the child, taking a little less blood, as she was to be the receptor, not the donor.
In a slight twist to the original ceremony, Severus bared his own throat and drew his own blood in slightly less quantity to Remus' contribution but greater than Angelinus'. He could feel the strength draining out of his knees even as he sealed the wounds and carefully held the challis above the two heads touching below him. The spell was complex and one slip would kill a participant, but Severus had learned the language and the ceremony at his Grandmother's knee, and had the scars to prove he had learned it perfectly. His back and throat throbbed painfully as he formed the syllables, emphasis here, sibilant there, turn the challis three times clock wise. Take a pinch of myrrh. Stir anticlockwise with the index finger four turns; suck clean, tongue to curl twice. Ambergris, one gram and pixie skin, three square inches, powdered, ground together with a granite pestle then folded into the mixture until it is thick enough to stick to the fingers.
Transfiguring his wand into a brush, Severus drew the symbols on Remus' chest, opening a gate to allow a magical conduit to form. Remus gasped once as the magic was drawn to the surface of his skin, not damming the flow around his body but diverting a portion of it, and as a consequence, gathering a portion of his strength, ready for the use of his 'master'. The receptor on the child's chest was also drawn in blood, much smaller but equally potent and ready to accept the flow of magical energy from Remus. Before activating the conduit, Severus opened his own robes and drew a small control sigil on his own chest, connecting him to both participants. If something went wrong, the sigil would alert him in time to sever the connection so he could at least save Remus from any consequence of this folly. Because, and the tiny fraction of his soul that was not ruthlessly controlled cried out for Remus' forgiveness, if anything went wrong then the child would be sacrificed, not the werewolf!
Holding the challis with the small fraction of blood that was left above his head, Severus finished the spell, dripped the necessary drops on the two participants' foreheads, eyes and tongues, and quickly drank down the dregs himself, licking the inside of the challis clean before he slumped. Remus' eyes were now open, and he looked so sad and worried as they stared at each other, as if asking for forgiveness for some unknown misdeed. Severus half smiled at his husband and for a moment he wondered if he had done something wrong, almost anticipated the cut of his grandmother's riding crop across his shoulders, but then the spell took hold and ripped his guts out.
He screamed soundlessly, his mouth distended as he felt his magic ripped from his core. Even as he managed to control himself, Remus cried out in agony and the child gave a high-pitched gargle of protest that brought the three people hovering outside the door in at a run. Aghast, Poppy tried to run forward but was stopped by Albus, who had some knowledge of how the Ritual worked. Minerva took his lead and stopped short of the painted runes as tangible beams of magic rose from both Remus' and Severus' chests and arced toward the child who seemed to glow with the influx of pure, adult magic. Her small, frail body rose a good foot from the gurney with no visible means of support and no Wingardium Leviosa cast.
Remus and Angelinus were gasping great gulps of air, Remus almost lifting off the bed at each horridly deep breath too. The small body flickered from male to female and back again with hardly a moment's pause between forms. Finally, the child retained female form, the steady pulse of magic flowing into her chest thinning and going into the invisible spectrum as the connection settled. Slowly, her body followed, touching down on the gurney's pad with never a sound. Severus slumped to his knees, head hanging for a long, steadying moment. He too gasped as if drowning before painfully clawing his way up the gurney's frame to check the punctures on his mate's and his child's neck. They were sealed and healed, the flow of magic between the two a steady throb in his chest. He paused and bent to kiss Remus gently, fleetingly, before straightening and pulling his robe closed over the bloody marks on his thin chest.
"It is done, we have bought twenty-four hours," he said without looking at the small audience. "Do not remove the sigil or the conduit will be broken. Where is the original Muggle medicine? Thank you, Poppy. I will go straight to work."
"Are you alright, Severus?" Albus asked softly, laying a hand on one thin, black clad shoulder.
Severus hissed at him, baring his fangs then controlled himself mercilessly. "What do you think, Albus?" he sneered as he stalked away.
Author's Note: Sorry this is so short. I tried to spin it out more but it sort of lost impact so I chopped it back to the original revamp, if that makes sense. Oh well, I know what I mean. Hope you liked it.