Part 53

The grove was much as Hermione remembered it, mystical and elemental feeling, but that night it also carried an aura of foreboding about it. The snow was undisturbed, but it had snowed many times since Christmas Eve and tracks would easily have been obscured. She and Severus trod upon it almost reverently, he carrying a shoulder bag, its contents as yet unknown to Hermione. When they came to the spot where they had buried their elder pieces; or as close to it as could be determined in the snow, Severus began to unpack it. He pulled out a blackened copper dish and several phials and set them on the ground.

"Do you trust me Hermione?"

"With everything I have."

"Then do as I do, and don't be frightened at what you might see or hear." She nodded, but a shiver ran down her spine anyways.

She watched in awe as he worked, preparing for a spell she had never seen cast, but had read about in the library. Aurors used it to reconstruct the scenes of crimes, but it required so much natural energy that it was rarely used, and rarely worked.

Severus poured the contents of the phials; three different colored powders into the dish and then pulled out his wand. He bid Hermione kneel on the ground with him, which she did, watching his face as he spoke an enchantment that turned the tip of his wand white hot. He touched it to the powders, which began to smoke. A grey cloud arose from the dish.

"Do you have your knives?" He asked her.

She nodded and pulled the roll from her bag.

"Take the silver one." He pulled his own from his cloak and then pulled off his glove. "Spirits of the grove," he spoke out into the night, far above the column of rising smoke, "We seek your help, and offer this sacrifice." He drew his own blade across the fleshy portion of his palm, just under this thumb, and as before, let the blood run, this time onto the fire. He looked at Hermione, who trembled, now feeling the same energy she had the first time they had been in the grove, the smoke and the words had woken something. She pulled off her own glove, and cut her hand as he had, adding her blood to the embers. The smoke began to change, and grow white.

"I love you Maya." His voice was hushed and reverent. She knew why he had spoken the word again, it was powerful magic, and thy needed all the help they could get.

"I love you too Severus."

"Spirits of the grove, we seek news of our friends, two boys who came here before, to hunt and give thanks for your wood. We wish to know if they have returned, and where they may have gone from here."

The smoke began to coalesce into a tableau or sorts between Severus and Hermione, and the electricity of the air became palpable. At first faint, but growing stronger, the images of the two boys took shape, making their way through the trees and through the snow.

"They have been here." The voice was low, spoken on the wind, and had Hermione not witnessed the spell cast, she might not have even believed that she had heard it.

"When?" Severus asked.

"Four days after the solstice."

"Christmas Day." Hermione whispered.

"They offered their sacrifice, and it was pleasing to us." The images of the boys shifted to their obvious offering of blood and some other liquid. Hermione could not guess at what it might be.

"Did they ask for your help?"

"They did."

"May I ask what they requested of you?"

"A name." The voice swirled around Hermione and made her shiver.

"They were seeking their parents' whereabouts."

"Their parents are dead." Hermione could not help but utter a little cry of shock, while they had all suspected that truth, hearing it could not have been easy for Denis and Richard.

"They asked for the name of the person who killed them?"

"They did."

"And did they receive it from you?"

"Their sacrifice was pleasing." The voice repeated, this time from closer to Severus Hermione thought. Severus understood and reached into his bag again, pulling forth on final phial. He uncorked it, and tipped its contents into the brazier with the still smoldering embers. The spirit moaned softly on the wind as the pungent scent hit the air and travelled upwards with the smoke.

"The name you seek is Adolphus Black."

"Black? But there are no more from his line living to accomplish this."

"Ah, but there is, child of Cygnus Black, a stepbrother to Bellatrix, Narcissa and Andromeda. The name was his to claim at his step into adulthood, and he did claim it, and followed the Dark Lord just as his sisters and cousins did."

"He lives still?"

"Oh yes, the Death Eater lives, he was the one who sought out your parents child." The voice curled around Hermione again, like a snake this time.

"My parents?"

"Do you not wish to ask if your spell was enough to save them?"

"Yes, please, tell me spirit, are my parents well?"

"They live; but are never far from danger." Already cold, Hermione had not thought she could feel more frozen, but the words of the spirit managed to bring it on in her blood. The smoke was beginning to fade as the potions were consumed, and Severus knew he had only moments left.

"The boys have gone to seek this Adolphus Black then?"

"They have."

"Thank you spirit, for your guidance." The smoke petered out to nothing as the last ember went dark.

"Severus?" Hermione's voice was laced with tears; he could hear her distress and quickly lit his wand again.

"We will find them my Beauty, your parents, Richard, Denis, and this Death Eater. I promise you." She threw herself into his arms and began sobbing.

Severus had packed his gear quickly, only momentarily taking his eyes from Hermione, who remained kneeling in the snow, crying quietly enough that she thought Severus could not hear it.

"Come on my Beauty." He stood and held a hand out to her, folding her into his cloak for a moment. Her body shivered against him, and he could think of no further words to reassure her, he only led her out of the grove and back to the waiting carriage where he could again wrap her in blankets and kiss her head softly as she remained pressed to him.

"They are alive." She whispered to hear it herself for the reassurance.

"Yes they are. And your instinct to send them away was the right one. This Black Death Eater obviously wasn't able to find them."

"Not yet."

"Not ever, now that we are on his trail. We will tell the Ministry, everyone at Hogwarts, all our friends, the whole world will be searching for him. He will not last long in the face of our combined strength."

"Thank you for saying that Severus."

"I firmly believe it to be the truth Hermione. And so should you."

"I will try."

"Stay with me tonight, we will tell everyone that we spent the night in searching. Everyone will understand by now. I cannot imagine we will be the only ones."

Hogwarts was, in fact, as suspected, a hive of activity for most of the evening and night. Professor Hooch had all the Slytherins of age contacting their families for help and news, she herself had been through both boys' trunks for any clues, and Professor McGonagall had enlisted Harry, Ron and Neville to search out the hidden places in the castle, known only to the students. And she herself waited in her office for news from anyone and any source.

Severus and Hermione had both stabled the carriage and left the Thestral to return to the forest. They trod back to the castle in the snow, over a path well worn in the last few hours. They went straight to the Headmistress's office with their news.

"Another Death Eater? How is it that the Ministry have let so many escape?"

"I must hazard the guess that he has been heretofore unknown by all but the Black Family themselves. And they are not ones to give up their secrets easily." Severus was pacing nervously again in front of the fire.

"I will send world to the Ministry immediately of your discovery. Perhaps they may yet surprise us and have a way to find this person."

"They should go to Azkaban and question the members of the Black family there." Severus offered.

"I imagine they will."

Hermione's voice was quiet, but she still felt she should speak, "They should go and speak to Narcissa Malfoy." Hermione actually didn't know what had become of the Malfoys. Draco had never returned to school; not after his father was arrested, and he himself stood accused of crimes perpetrated on behalf of the Death Eaters. Hermione knew in her heart that he had been cast into an impossible situation, and had done only what he could to survive, but that might not have been enough of a defence. She shuddered to think of him in Azkaban; he would have broken so easily under the dementors' torments, but she pushed it from her mind. "Narcissa was Adolphus' half sister. If she can be found, she may know how to find him."

"Do you know how to find the Malfoys Severus?"

"Yes, I believe so."

"Perhaps you would like to speak with her? You were friends once, were you not?"

"I don't know that I would call it friendship Minerva, but she owes me for services I gave to her, to save her son. If she has knowledge, perhaps she will give it to me for that reason."

"We must try Severus, there has been enough death already."