I liiiiiiiiive!
I'm so sorry to have left you all in the lurch for so long. My personal life became rather hectic after starting my new job. My boss is a doctor with her own practice without other doctors or APRNs who can take over if she has to call out. Well, shortly after my job started, she had to take a leave of absence for a family member, and then not long after she got back from that out of state trip, said family member had a medical emergency and she had to leave the practice for several days again. With several weeks worth of cancellations, I was backlogged with rescheduling everyone.
Just as I was getting into the swing of things, the pandemic struck and I had to go through the process of switching every patient over to virtual appointments. Meaning I had to contact ever single person on record, and that's a loooooooong list. And just when I thought I had that all taken care of, my boss herself had a medical emergency and she to take a two month medical leave. SO even more rescheduling. I have been slowly getting accustom to my job, but it kept me from doing much in the way of writing.
I know I could have done a post letting you all know what is going on and that I hadn't abandoned the story, but from my own personal experiences, nothing sucks more than seeing a story update alert, get all excited and click the link, only to find it's an author's note.
Writing is going to be slow getting back into the saddle, so expect possibly some more mundane chapters padding the plot. I am also besieged by the inspiration to another HP fic on Snape that I hope to start soon, hopefully a much shorter fic as well.
If Someone Cared Enough
Chapter 141: Bubble, Bubble, Wash Away Troubles
Severus snorted as an iridescent bubbled floated loftily through the air and landed on his nose, where it burst. Sniffling and rubbing furiously at his face, he eyed another approaching bubble with ire. Almost as if the little soap remnant suddenly gained sentience, the bubble's trajectory slowly changed course and drifted up to the ceiling.
"Amazing," Lily murmured thoughtfully, "Your scowl even scares bubbles."
Renee held back a laugh, steadfastly avoiding Severus gaze and trying valiantly not to return Lily's smirk.
Lily huffed at Severus lack of humor and whacked him on the arm, "Oh come on. That was funny and you know it."
Severus sighed, "As infallibly on point as your humor is, would anyone like to explain to me why we're here again—without sounding as if they've been over using cheering charms," he added casting an annoyed look Nesme's way.
Nesme glowered at Severus, an act made far more comical by the impressive beard of bubbles she sported; complete with a handlebar mustache.
"I just thought," she began with somewhat of a pout, "a larger body of water was more practical than us gathered around one little sink when it's time to wash up."
Severus just frowned more, "I'm the last person to give a lecture on breaking the rules given the last year or so, but I'm pretty sure it won't look too good for me or Lily to have sneaked you in here." He gestured around them, sparing a rueful glance to the stain glass mermaid preening and brushing her hair in the window.
"The regular students' bathrooms don't have a bathtub like this," Nesme insisted.
"Nor did we require a bathtub," Severus pointed out, "The runes are going on our arms, not our whole bodies."
"Yeah but it's so relaxing in here," Nesme said, merrily floating on her back.
Renee chuckled as they swung their feet back and forth in the water next to Lily, "You just wanted to use the Prefect's Tub."
"Guilty as charged," Nesme said, completely unrepentant, "It isn't fair that only a select few get to soak their troubles away in here. The rest of us have got stress too."
"Just be glad I'm wearing a swimsuit," she added with a laugh.
Lily laughed aloud, "Yeah, thanks for not flashing us. Not sure I want to know what my friends look like naked."
"You've already seen Sev naked," Nesme remarked.
Lily turned scarlet, sputtering indignantly, "We have not—how did you—that's different!"
"Yeah, Nes," Renee cajoled, "They get naked to touch bits, not feel the breeze between their knees like you."
While Lily squawked in protest, Nesme wrinkled her nose.
"Ooh," she said with distaste, "Can't say I'd want to do that."
"Well then good thing no one here is offering for you to," Severus quipped with little humor, "Ignoring how you two somehow found out—"
Renee snorted, smirking at Nesme, "Somehow, he says. As if it was hard to figure out what they were doing whenever they disappeared together."
Nesme nodded, "Lily walks funny after they come back."
"Ignoring how you found out," Severus plowed forward, cutting off Lily's embarrassed screech, "We should probably get going with all of this before some other Prefect decides this is the ideal time to take a bath. Or worse, the Head Boy."
Lily grimaced, "Something tells me James probably would have a lot to say about finding you and me in here together."
Severus nodded, "Probably would hardly notice these two are here; he'd just zero in on us and jump to conclusions."
"Which wouldn't be wrong, per say," Renee pointed out, "I mean you two are sleeping together. Just...not right this moment."
"Wait…" Nesme said suddenly, standing up in the water, "You guys haven't done it here, have you?"
"Of course not," Lily said far too quickly, at the same time as Severus said, "None of your business."
"Okay, Sev's wasn't a 'no'," Nesme said, "And it's suspicious how quick you answered, Lily."
She looked down at the water.
"Yep," she said after a moment, "I'm getting out."
Lily let out a series of nonsensical noises of indignation, "T-they clean the tub after every use, you know!"
"Okay, now I know you two definitely shagged in here," Nesme declared, hefting herself up onto the rim of the tub.
Severus huffed, eyes rolling skyward, "You act as if we're the only ones who could have possible buggered here. You do realize at least three other prefects are in relationships, right?"
Nesme grasped her head in horror, "Oh Morgana's lace thong; it's been like an orgy in here!"
"They can scrubbed the tub clean but no cleansing spell can scrub away whatever imaginings just popped up in your head," Renee said sagely, smirking at Nesme.
Nesme grimaced, waving her arms about as if to dispell said imaginings, "Let's just get on with this, okay? Sev's right; we don't want to linger too long here."
Severus scoffed, "Oh so now you care about getting caught. Well, whatever. We should probably get this underway; the paint will need time to dry before washing off."
Everyone moved away from the tub, gathering to one side by Nesme while she rummaged around in her bag.
"This is a special mehndi dye," Nesme stated, presenting an ornate glass jar to their little group, "It's imbued with demiguise hair that's been boiled down to its purest essence. It's one of the most powerful methods to runecast...so needless to say it's not exactly something they let just anyone have."
"And the reason you happen to possess it is…?" Severus prompted.
Nesme gave him a look caught between offended and sheepish, "Because, my dad has legal access to the stuff."
"So he let you borrow it?" Renee asked skeptically.
Nesme shrugged evasively, "Officially, no. As far as the Eastern Sorcery's Ministry of India, this little baby is under lock and key in my stepdad's study. But in actuality, he lent it to me to use because he knows we're going to need more protection than Hogwarts can provide."
"What exactly makes this stuff so powerful?" Lily asked.
"Or for that matter, what makes it so dangerous?" Severus added.
Nesme tapped the bottle, "The demiguise hair gives the dye rare, concealment properties. Almost immediately after applying, the dye disappears; you wash the dye off without actually being able to see it. But you can feel it's there while your scrubbing."
"Makes sense," Severus mused, "Be pretty hard to utilize the protections if people could see it advertise on your skin and work out countermeasures a head of time."
Nesme nodded, "Exactly. Anyway, the runes stay invisible until they have been activated by the wearer for whatever purpose they were bestowed. The trouble with this is mainly a matter of applying the runes properly; if you screw up writing the rune or make a mistake, you could cause great harm to yourself when the rune is activated. Mixing up which runes you write on yourself can lead to some nasty little surprises. A single misplaced line could make all the difference between protection and harm."
"So this requires precision," Severus surmised.
"And minimal distractions," Nesme clarified, "That's why a bathroom is ideal; all the privacy and the general lack of activity. I couldn't imagine pulling this off in a common room."
Nesme shook the bottle between her hands firmly before fixing her friends each with a serious gaze, "Now, I'm already doing something pretty unorthodox doing mehndi for you guys at all. In the wizarding world, the use is nearly twice as meaningful and symbolic among my father's culture; as in it is very disrespectful for a wizard outside Indian heritage to get mehndi done 'for fun'. It's a big deal and great honor to be offered one, it isn't some fad or trend that one should take lightly. So understand that this is a huge privilege that my dad is granting you all. Like, massive."
"Trust me, we understand the implications," Severus said, "We are very grateful that your father is extending such protections to us."
Lily nodded, "Please tell him thank you for us, Nes."
Nesme gave them a grim smile, the severity of why they were doing this taking the fun out of Nesme being able to share a part of her adopted heritage with her friends.
"Well," she said with finality, "Let's get started. Keep in mind these are by no means a guarantee of protection in battle. They're a failsafe against plenty of attacks, but there isn't a single enchantment or spell in existence that can save you from a direct hit with the Killing Curse."
She held her hand out expectantly for Lily, "You first, then."
Lily rolled up her sleeve and offered her arm without question, "I'm in your capable hands, Nes."
Grasping Lily by the forearm, Nesme examine the expanse of skin, "This you dominant hand, right?"
"Yeah…?" Lily answered with a shrug.
Nesme hummed, yanking Lily's arm closer. She tapped Lily's inner wrist, "This spot should work."
"Does which hand you use matter?" Renee asked curiously.
Nesme grunted out her assent, lips pursed as she gripped Lily's arm gently between her hands and pressed in lightly with her thumbs, "There's magic in your entire both, but your dominant hand is primarily where you wield it from, as an extension of your core. So if the arm you typically use to raise shields and deflect spells bears the runes, then you have the most control to use it. At least that's what I've heard."
Nesme untwisted the filigree top of the bottle and pulled it out to reveal a fine tipped stem tapering off into a point. Pressing it to the inside of Lily's wrist, she made a short, bold stroke, followed by a thin angled line.
A shimmering, ombre ink appeared in the applicators wake, but to the astonishment of the group, vanished into the skin, as if being blown off like specks of dust.
"Bloody brilliant," Renee breathed under their breath.
Severus shushed them quietly, "She needs to concentrate."
Nesme worked diligently, tracing some indiscernible lines over the expanse of Lily's arm up to the inner elbow. She seemed to be following the path of Lily's radial artery if Severus were to hazard a guess.
"Magic courses through our veins," Nesme murmured, tattooing Lily's arm with almost trance-like precision, "In our blood. The runes will draw power from our magical core. So theoretically, the stronger magical core you have, the stronger the power of your runes."
As the last of the dye disappeared on Lily's skin, Nesme pulled a clear bottle out of her bag with one hand and uncorked it, a hard to describe woodsy, yet somehow spicy scent filling the air.
"Camphor oil," was Nesme's short, unprompted explanation. She smoothed her moistened hands down Lily's arm, massaging into her skin thoroughly, "No idea how it does it, but it seems to seal the dye's essence beneath the surface.
She guided Lily's arm into the water of the tub, before turning to Severus, "Alright, you're up next."
Severus allowed himself to be roughly handled into the position that suited Nesme best as the Hufflepuff quickly went right back to work, "So will one of us be drawing on you?"
Nesme snorted as she prodded Severus's wrist and palm, "No need, my great Aunt practically smothered me in this stuff before I returned for the semester. Pretty sure she put every ward and enchantment she could think of on me."
Renee snickered, "Lucky you."
Nesme rolled her eyes, "Lucky...yeah that's what you call it when your Auntie has you standing naked in a giant basin while she rubs you down."
"...did not need the visual, thanks" Renee remarked dryly.
"Shh, you'll throw off my concentration," Nesme scolded. She began working on Severus's arm with the same trained focus as she'd done with Lily.
The first stroke of the ink on Severus's skin was a slow drag, pressing in with just the slightest amount of pressure. Nesme dragged the ink down horizontally, then brought it upwards with a flick.
"So what runes are you doing?" Severus asked. With how quickly the ink vanished after being applied, he was having a difficult time seeing just what Nesme was drawing.
Nesme waved him off with a simple flick of her wrist, "Just some standard protection runes, shielding, warding, stuff like that. You'll all be getting pretty much the same markings."
She pulled Severus forward, causing him to jerk towards her with a grunt of surprise.
"Now sit still," Nesme chided, "And let me do my magic."
For several minutes, the only sounds in the room was the sloshing of the water in the tub from Renee's feet and the soft, wet drag of ink on skin, the earthly scent of henna wafting around.
The Mermaid in the stained glass played with her luxuriously long hair as the sun filtered in around her.
"I'm surprised the others aren't here," Lily commented when it looked like Nesme was wrapping up with Severus.
Nesme slapped her hands together with the oil before rubbing it into Severus's skin, "Well Mary has sensitive skin, so I couldn't risk her without a possible allergic reaction raising questions with Pomfrey. And Remus was a definitive no because I have zero clue how such strong wards would react to his curse. You know, light magic doesn't mix with dark and all that nonsense. Can never be too careful."
Severus was nearly dunked face first into the tub when Nesme yanked his arm into the water to wash off.
"That's two down," Nesme said happily, "One to go."
Renee held out their arm expectantly, "Ready and waiting."
Having gotten accustom to the process after the first two tries, Nesme marked Renee with relative ease and speed and it wasn't long before Renee was also submerging their arm in the tub.
"Make sure you all scrub thoroughly," Nesme advised, "This stuff may be invisible, but it's still ink. If you smudge it around instead of washing it off, it can dry in odd shapes and completely change the meaning of the runes."
Lily was carefully cleansing Severus's arm with care, having finished washing her own arm already, "I know this isn't a guarantee of anything, but I feel a little safer now."
Renee nodded, "Any precaution is a leg up against You-Know-Who."
Severus snorted, "At the very least, it should keep us from harm when dealing with his less competent followers. He recruits straight out of Hogwarts for must of his army and unfortunately for him, looking solely for people of the same mindset can leave you with plenty of dunderheads not even capable of slinging a decent insult, let alone an adequate curse."
"They were adequate enough to nearly kill you two on more than one occasion," Nesme pointed out, gesturing to Severus and Lily, "Hell this whole journey to the top of You-Know-Who's shit list started with Avery nearly decapitating you with your own spell on the train."
Severus scoff, "He only succeeded because he caught me off guard. I never would have been beaten that easily otherwise"
Nesme quirked a brow at him, "Hasn't Potter used a spell of yours against you before as well?"
Severus ignored Nesme's shrill shriek and Lily and Renee's cries of alarm as he knocked Nesme into the tub.
Show of hands, how many of you saw the title and thought this was going to be a sexy shower scene between Sev and Lily or something?
I'll admit that my job wasn't the only reason I was kept away from this story. Rowling's recent stunts as a transphobic bitch have sort of soured my feelings for the series. I know they say to separate the medium from the artist when they do terrible things, but its hard to do when I'm such a strong supporter of transgender rights. As some who was sexually assualted by a ciswoman, I don't appreciate Rowling disguising her bigotry and hate as some noble "fear for ciswomen's safety" as I know first hand that ciswomen are not automatically victims and that having a penis doesn't automatically make you a rapist. And don't get me started on her dismissal of Transmen!
So I took a step back from the fandom for a while because I felt dirty having anything to do with someone preaching hate simply because their victimhood as a white woman is threatened transwomen of color being victimized just as often and wanted inclusion into safe spaces not dictated by the sexism and misogyny.
But...I do love writing and all of you supporting me and reviewing has gotten me through some very tough times in life since I started writing. Using scenes of mental health and domestic abuse as a catharsis for my own experiences has done wonders for me and you all have encouraged me to keep going, stuck by me through the more tedious sections of this story. I mean, god, you guys have stuck through over one hundred chapters of this saga! I'm going to continue this story even as I distance myself from Rowling's empire of transphobic twat waffleness. I won't even buy something related to the series ever again or see another movie, but that doesn't mean I should abandon a fandom that has become bigger than Rowling and her toxic influence. True Potterheads embraced the message of the series; that we should stand up for those mistreated for their differences. That being being different doesn't make one inferior or superior. That everyone deserves to have their rights defended and protected.
Thank you all for stick with me so far and for many more chapters to come.
~Shain
