Chapter 29: Black and purple

The clouds slowly enveloped the moon, casting the whole world below it into darkness. Two figures descended the castle's steps and strode out into the darkness. The man stopped and muttered something incoherent; a large light suddenly surrounded him seemingly coming from the tip of his wand. He waited, watching as the smaller figure caught up, her hair hastily tied into a scruffy bun and her arms clutching various shaped jars. He nodded and set off again, now and then pulling out a small pocket watch from his robes.

"It's just up here," he said breaking the eerie silence. They had entered the forest quite some time ago under the cover of darkness and she had to admit that it wasn't on the top of her "Things to do on a Saturday at midnight" list. She watched as the tall figure ahead of her stopped abruptly on the ridge of the hill they had been steadily climbing. He gestured with his hand for her to come closer. Slipping now and then on loose stones she finally made it to the top. A field of dark purple and black flowers lay before her; she gasped and turned to Professor Snape. Without a word he climbed stealthily down into the sea of midnight chaos.

"Miss Granger are you just going to stand there gawping or are you going to bring those jars down so I….we can start collecting them!" he shouted from below. Snapping out of her reverie she clambered down the bank not quite as gracefully as her Professor had done minutes before her. He nodded gratefully before taking the jars out of her hands.

The plants of darkness as they were so aptly named where extremely delicate, as Hermione soon found out to her horror. The slightest wrong move and they would disintegrate into nothingness never to return again. She had resorted to watching Snape at first as he carefully picked the flowers, his long fingers curling around the black stem before lowering it just as carefully into a jar. The jars were soon all filled and Snape was now making his way towards her.

"All done?" he asked gruffly. She nodded showing him the jars now full of chaos and darkness. She turned to move before realising that he was still there standing stock still his eyes alert watching the flowers.

"Sir?" she asked questioningly. He slowly raised his left hand and as he did so a torrent of wind whipped through the clearing. Black merged with purple as the petals of the flowers started swirling like a tornado round and round. Hermione soon lost Professor Snape amidst the darkness that ensued, she watched in wonder as the wind suddenly stopped and the petals vanished in front of her eyes. The Professor was stood just where he had been before seemingly unperturbed by what had just happened.

"That was…," she whispered.

"Exactly," she heard a silken voice whisper back.

The journey back was uneventful and they soon found themselves at the castle steps again. Hermione shifted nervously on the spot as she waited for Snape to take the jars off her.

"What are you waiting for?" he asked, his eyebrow raised questioningly at her.

"I thought, oh never mind," she said walking towards the dungeons. His footsteps followed hers as they arrived at the classroom door. With a flick of his wand the door opened silently and he strode through. He made his way over to the far wall before placing the jars on a desk behind him. Hermione watched as he placed his wand on the same desk and proceeded to raise both hands as if he were trying to push something. With a small click a door handle appeared and he grasped it before pushing it hard. The door swung open to reveal row on row of jars and phials. The room seemed to stretch back as far as the eye could see. A tall wooden ladder with wheels at the bottom was propped against the shelves. He climbed it quickly reaching the twentieth shelf above him.

"Pass me the jars," his muffled voice said. She picked them up and took them to him. He grabbed each one in turn, labelled them with a swipe of his finger, and placed them neatly in a row. Soon they were all done and she retreated back into the classroom as he descended the ladder. Seeing his wand on the desk she picked it up to give back to him. A burning hot pain shot up her arm and his wand dropped onto the stone flagged floor with a clatter. She raised her hand to find the skin was blistered and raw. She let it drop but a cold hand held it for her. Without a sound he disappeared back into the store cupboard. He soon returned with a small phial filled to the brim with a bright pink liquid, unscrewing the top he carefully poured the substance on her hand. She cried out in pain as the liquid hit her skin, she tried to pull her hand away but his held hers strongly. As the pink smoke cleared she turned to look at her hand to find now healthy skin.

"You should not have touched my wand," he said simply still holding her hand.

"How was I supposed to know that it would do that!" she shouted tears still streaming down her face. He turned to look at her, his eyes connecting with hers for one split second before he wrenched his gaze away. She felt his hand leave hers and saw out of the corner of her eye him picking the wand up off the floor.

"This wand is charmed to let nobody but myself hold it," he said holding it up to the light. An awkward silence soon fell, neither knowing when or even if they should break it. "Would you like a coffee?" he asked abruptly turning towards her.

"Yeah, I'd like that," she replied shyly remembering her sudden outburst a couple of minutes ago. He inclined his head and headed into his living room. Getting used to the fact that he expected her to follow, she did so, closing the door tightly shut behind her.