Chapter Seven
"For your hands are defiled" Isaiah 59:3
The next night was a Sunday, and Severus and Hermione were discussing wedding plans in the main sitting room. The first Severus-the-first and Hermatica had come back to their portraits in the room and were very smugly helping them plan.
"I think I want it to be very simple. Just a small ceremony in the Manor chapel, and a reception with cake and champagne then everyone can piss off home," she said grumpily.
"That sounds reasonable," he agreed gravely.
"And no ostentatious theatrical effects either. Flowers from the gardens, and your family's linen and silver," she added.
"I quite agree," he said. "And it's our linen and silver, especially now," he added pointedly.
"And no horrible baroque organ music," she added meditatively.
"Definitely not," he said, sounding appalled.
Hermione's mind was really elsewhere however. "I need to show you something," she said after a pause and then fished the small Darke Creatures book from her pocket. She opened it up to the passage about the black unicorns and gave it to him to read.
She saw his slender body tense and a deep frown appear on his face. "Where did you find this?" he rasped.
"In one of the rooms here," Hermione said truthfully but deliberately vague.
Severus was too distracted by what he was reading to have noticed the fact that she was prevaricating. "Imagine what this wand could do," he said, lowering the small volume and staring unseeingly into the fire his dark eyes glowing intently. "It would incredibly dangerous in the wrong hands," he added. "Maybe too dangerous to be worth making."
"Do you think it would be strong enough to destroy Voldemort?" Hermione asked.
He glanced at her sharply but wasn't really seeing her, absorbed in his own thoughts. "Possibly. My own wand weakened him for a decade, image what this wand could do." Severus was sunk deep into thought for the rest of the evening.
* * *
Only a few days later, Hermione could feel a quickening in her blood late in the afternoon. Her visit to the underground room had upset her considerably and the urge to run was growing rapidly. She had not promised anyone not to transform as she never made promises unless she knew for sure that she could keep them but she felt she owed it to at least Severus to try not to.
By twilight, she was clutching her own arms compulsively and pacing by the library window, her gaze returning again and again to the deep green of the Dark Forest on the horizon. Severus was in his potions laboratory near his study and had no idea of the battle Hermione was fighting within herself.
As the night drew closer, tears ran down her face and she shivered. She could not believe how hard it was not to open the window and climb out and apparate to the forest outskirts. She was on the verge of doing so when Severus came into the library for a reference book and stopped dead at the sight of a tearful and shaking Hermione. He had never seen her in that state in his life.
"What the hell.?" he began, striding over to her scowling at her condition. He stopped again when he saw her eyes. The grey was streaked with fine lines of red and gold. His heart nearly stopped, it looked so eerie. It was like something else was looking out of Hermione's eyes.
"I need to go. I have to go." Hermione said almost breathlessly, swallowing hard.
Severus thought hard and did battle with himself for a few seconds but the expression of desperation on her face convinced him. He took her hand and they apparated to the edges of the forest. A second later the black unicorn and a raven were making their way through the night forests, one following the other as though connected by an invisible thread.
The forest was active that night. Fairy rings spotted the forest floor where Bacchus and his wild girls gathered to welcome the faery folk into the forest for a night of carousing. Obviously it was some kind of festival for the magical folk in the Dark Forest. Pixie lights were strung up in the ancient trees, glittering with multi-coloured lights and making the branches glow softly. The tree and river dryads could be seen slipping from their homes to join in the festivities and paths had been lighted along the forest floor for the forest folk to follow to the dancing and feasting grounds. In the distance there was sounds of strange music, crystalline and clear that made the hearer feel both restless and overpowered with its sweetness at one and the same time. The Dark Forest, usually brooding and silent with only odd patches of light or hidden activity, had come to life in the most enchanting way.
For the first time, the black unicorn encountered a family of white unicorns. Severus in his raven form watched the black unicorn's reaction with interest. The unicorn family were in a in a small clearing lit dimly with delicate fairy lights amongst the tree roots. The mother was nudging the foal with her nose. As beautiful as the black unicorn was, the white unicorn was just as glorious. The black unicorn was like dense shadow reflecting the light of the moon off its coat. The white unicorn was its opposite - it glowed with a gentle white light and lit up the night around it with a soft glow. Their horns were silver and their eyes shone the same colour mixed with midnight blue. Seeing a family of them was a potent experience that lodged forever in the spectator's mind and heart like a precious jewel.
Severus expected the black unicorn to go up to the family in the clearing but it did the opposite, it melted into the shadows of a thicket of twisted old oak trees. Severus could see one red and gold eye watching the family with fascination. Suddenly he realized the beast was ashamed to be seen by the family. To his horror, he saw a molten gold tear escape the creature's eye. Where it fell on the ground, it left ash.
The family soon moved on, walking deftly on ivory hooves and throwing out their diffused light. As they moved off, they sang gently. Severus sat in his raven form on a branch, completely transfixed. The only sound the black unicorn made was a cry that tore apart the universe. The white unicorn's song seemed to stitch the universe together with beauty and peace. While Severus could hear it, he could hardly believe that evil could exist - it seemed impossible.
Close to morning, the beast stopped finally and pawed the moist ground, lifting its snout to snort into the night air. It turned its head and spied the raven on a branch above. The raven flew down suddenly onto the unicorn's neck and took a hair from its mane in its beak. Shortly after, dawn broke and Hermione and Severus apparated home feeling tired, dazed and slightly bewitched from the strange atmosphere in the forest that night.
"Did you get it?" Hermione asked tiredly, swaying on her feet in the now cold library.
"Yes," he replied and held out his slender hand. Across the palm lay a strip of dense shadow, thin as a hair. Apart from its dimensions, there was nothing hair-like about it. It looked merely like a hair-shaped piece of space devoid of any light. They both stared at it in fascination, never having seen anything like it.
Severus summoned a small phial from his laboratory and carefully placed the longish hair inside, sealing it carefully. "We need to get changed, Hermione. We need to go to Ollivanders as soon as it opens," Severus said decisively.
Wearily she nodded and they both walked to their separate dressing rooms near their shared bedroom.
* * *
Mr Ollivander looked at the strange hair for a long, long time.
"This is top secret Ministry business, do you understand?" Severus growled, glowering at the slight, white-haired old man with a merry face.
"Yes, I would imagine so," Mr Ollivander said seriously, still looking intently at the mane hair.
"It needs a casing of ebony," Severus explained sharply. "How long will it take to make?"
"Oh, not long. It's not the manufacture of the wands that takes the time and care but rather the gathering of the rare components," Mr Ollivander explained. "Wait here. I imagine you will want to observe the process." Severus nodded, still keeping a tight hold on the precious hair whilst the small, agile shopkeeper went to his supplies of wood and pulled out a long, slender piece of ebony already polished and ready for manufacture. "It's like its been waiting for this hair all along," Mr Ollivander said, lovingly showing them the beautiful shining wood.
Mr Ollivander carefully split the wood into two pieces and hollowed out the middle slightly with a few muttered charms. He indicated to Severus to lay the hair along the hollow in one piece and still muttering charms, he then sealed the two pieces together. As soon as the seal was completed the wand began glowing red and spitting gold sparks. "Interesting," Mr Ollivander said. "Very interesting."
The glow and sparks quickly faded, and Mr Ollivander handed Severus the wand carefully. He immediately hid it in his wand pocket deep in his robes.
"I won't ask where that extraordinary hair came from," Mr Ollivander said, as Severus paid him. "I imagine that is Ministry business but I will say that it looks remarkably like white unicorn hair, only black."
"What makes you say that?" Hermione asked, coming forward curiously.
Mr Ollivander quickly trotted to the back of his shop and came back with a long, thin, solid gold box. He carefully opened it and took a long, hair- thin piece of light out and laid it across Hermione's palm. It was pure white light that glowed gently across her palm with seemingly as little real substance as the black unicorn hair. She stared at it, unable to take her eyes off it.
The unicorn hair suddenly went very bright then went out, almost like a muggle light bulb that had blown. She was left with a bit of translucent hair in her hand. She gasped and Mr Ollivander's twinkling blue eyes suddenly went very wide. "Well, I've never seen that happen before," he remarked.
"I've ruined it!" Hermione said, her eyes filling with unusual tears. "I'm sorry!"
"Never mind, dear. That unicorn will donate plenty more hairs and I've got a boxful here," he said comfortingly, patting her hand.
Severus led the genuinely distressed Hermione out of Ollivanders and they apparated back to the Manor. "Why did it do that?" she asked him, rubbing her forehead.
"Hermione, you are the black unicorn remember?" Severus said. "The black unicorn is simply a white unicorn that was exposed to much evil when young. I imagine the evil that turned you into a dark creature still lives in your skin and would affect white unicorn hair that way," he said, sitting down tiredly. It had been a long, long night.
Hermione held up one hand and looked at it. Tainted, she thought. I'm completely tainted. She left the library and went to her study. She wanted to absorb this new insight and mourn in private.
Severus watched her go with penitent and knowing eyes.
"For your hands are defiled" Isaiah 59:3
The next night was a Sunday, and Severus and Hermione were discussing wedding plans in the main sitting room. The first Severus-the-first and Hermatica had come back to their portraits in the room and were very smugly helping them plan.
"I think I want it to be very simple. Just a small ceremony in the Manor chapel, and a reception with cake and champagne then everyone can piss off home," she said grumpily.
"That sounds reasonable," he agreed gravely.
"And no ostentatious theatrical effects either. Flowers from the gardens, and your family's linen and silver," she added.
"I quite agree," he said. "And it's our linen and silver, especially now," he added pointedly.
"And no horrible baroque organ music," she added meditatively.
"Definitely not," he said, sounding appalled.
Hermione's mind was really elsewhere however. "I need to show you something," she said after a pause and then fished the small Darke Creatures book from her pocket. She opened it up to the passage about the black unicorns and gave it to him to read.
She saw his slender body tense and a deep frown appear on his face. "Where did you find this?" he rasped.
"In one of the rooms here," Hermione said truthfully but deliberately vague.
Severus was too distracted by what he was reading to have noticed the fact that she was prevaricating. "Imagine what this wand could do," he said, lowering the small volume and staring unseeingly into the fire his dark eyes glowing intently. "It would incredibly dangerous in the wrong hands," he added. "Maybe too dangerous to be worth making."
"Do you think it would be strong enough to destroy Voldemort?" Hermione asked.
He glanced at her sharply but wasn't really seeing her, absorbed in his own thoughts. "Possibly. My own wand weakened him for a decade, image what this wand could do." Severus was sunk deep into thought for the rest of the evening.
* * *
Only a few days later, Hermione could feel a quickening in her blood late in the afternoon. Her visit to the underground room had upset her considerably and the urge to run was growing rapidly. She had not promised anyone not to transform as she never made promises unless she knew for sure that she could keep them but she felt she owed it to at least Severus to try not to.
By twilight, she was clutching her own arms compulsively and pacing by the library window, her gaze returning again and again to the deep green of the Dark Forest on the horizon. Severus was in his potions laboratory near his study and had no idea of the battle Hermione was fighting within herself.
As the night drew closer, tears ran down her face and she shivered. She could not believe how hard it was not to open the window and climb out and apparate to the forest outskirts. She was on the verge of doing so when Severus came into the library for a reference book and stopped dead at the sight of a tearful and shaking Hermione. He had never seen her in that state in his life.
"What the hell.?" he began, striding over to her scowling at her condition. He stopped again when he saw her eyes. The grey was streaked with fine lines of red and gold. His heart nearly stopped, it looked so eerie. It was like something else was looking out of Hermione's eyes.
"I need to go. I have to go." Hermione said almost breathlessly, swallowing hard.
Severus thought hard and did battle with himself for a few seconds but the expression of desperation on her face convinced him. He took her hand and they apparated to the edges of the forest. A second later the black unicorn and a raven were making their way through the night forests, one following the other as though connected by an invisible thread.
The forest was active that night. Fairy rings spotted the forest floor where Bacchus and his wild girls gathered to welcome the faery folk into the forest for a night of carousing. Obviously it was some kind of festival for the magical folk in the Dark Forest. Pixie lights were strung up in the ancient trees, glittering with multi-coloured lights and making the branches glow softly. The tree and river dryads could be seen slipping from their homes to join in the festivities and paths had been lighted along the forest floor for the forest folk to follow to the dancing and feasting grounds. In the distance there was sounds of strange music, crystalline and clear that made the hearer feel both restless and overpowered with its sweetness at one and the same time. The Dark Forest, usually brooding and silent with only odd patches of light or hidden activity, had come to life in the most enchanting way.
For the first time, the black unicorn encountered a family of white unicorns. Severus in his raven form watched the black unicorn's reaction with interest. The unicorn family were in a in a small clearing lit dimly with delicate fairy lights amongst the tree roots. The mother was nudging the foal with her nose. As beautiful as the black unicorn was, the white unicorn was just as glorious. The black unicorn was like dense shadow reflecting the light of the moon off its coat. The white unicorn was its opposite - it glowed with a gentle white light and lit up the night around it with a soft glow. Their horns were silver and their eyes shone the same colour mixed with midnight blue. Seeing a family of them was a potent experience that lodged forever in the spectator's mind and heart like a precious jewel.
Severus expected the black unicorn to go up to the family in the clearing but it did the opposite, it melted into the shadows of a thicket of twisted old oak trees. Severus could see one red and gold eye watching the family with fascination. Suddenly he realized the beast was ashamed to be seen by the family. To his horror, he saw a molten gold tear escape the creature's eye. Where it fell on the ground, it left ash.
The family soon moved on, walking deftly on ivory hooves and throwing out their diffused light. As they moved off, they sang gently. Severus sat in his raven form on a branch, completely transfixed. The only sound the black unicorn made was a cry that tore apart the universe. The white unicorn's song seemed to stitch the universe together with beauty and peace. While Severus could hear it, he could hardly believe that evil could exist - it seemed impossible.
Close to morning, the beast stopped finally and pawed the moist ground, lifting its snout to snort into the night air. It turned its head and spied the raven on a branch above. The raven flew down suddenly onto the unicorn's neck and took a hair from its mane in its beak. Shortly after, dawn broke and Hermione and Severus apparated home feeling tired, dazed and slightly bewitched from the strange atmosphere in the forest that night.
"Did you get it?" Hermione asked tiredly, swaying on her feet in the now cold library.
"Yes," he replied and held out his slender hand. Across the palm lay a strip of dense shadow, thin as a hair. Apart from its dimensions, there was nothing hair-like about it. It looked merely like a hair-shaped piece of space devoid of any light. They both stared at it in fascination, never having seen anything like it.
Severus summoned a small phial from his laboratory and carefully placed the longish hair inside, sealing it carefully. "We need to get changed, Hermione. We need to go to Ollivanders as soon as it opens," Severus said decisively.
Wearily she nodded and they both walked to their separate dressing rooms near their shared bedroom.
* * *
Mr Ollivander looked at the strange hair for a long, long time.
"This is top secret Ministry business, do you understand?" Severus growled, glowering at the slight, white-haired old man with a merry face.
"Yes, I would imagine so," Mr Ollivander said seriously, still looking intently at the mane hair.
"It needs a casing of ebony," Severus explained sharply. "How long will it take to make?"
"Oh, not long. It's not the manufacture of the wands that takes the time and care but rather the gathering of the rare components," Mr Ollivander explained. "Wait here. I imagine you will want to observe the process." Severus nodded, still keeping a tight hold on the precious hair whilst the small, agile shopkeeper went to his supplies of wood and pulled out a long, slender piece of ebony already polished and ready for manufacture. "It's like its been waiting for this hair all along," Mr Ollivander said, lovingly showing them the beautiful shining wood.
Mr Ollivander carefully split the wood into two pieces and hollowed out the middle slightly with a few muttered charms. He indicated to Severus to lay the hair along the hollow in one piece and still muttering charms, he then sealed the two pieces together. As soon as the seal was completed the wand began glowing red and spitting gold sparks. "Interesting," Mr Ollivander said. "Very interesting."
The glow and sparks quickly faded, and Mr Ollivander handed Severus the wand carefully. He immediately hid it in his wand pocket deep in his robes.
"I won't ask where that extraordinary hair came from," Mr Ollivander said, as Severus paid him. "I imagine that is Ministry business but I will say that it looks remarkably like white unicorn hair, only black."
"What makes you say that?" Hermione asked, coming forward curiously.
Mr Ollivander quickly trotted to the back of his shop and came back with a long, thin, solid gold box. He carefully opened it and took a long, hair- thin piece of light out and laid it across Hermione's palm. It was pure white light that glowed gently across her palm with seemingly as little real substance as the black unicorn hair. She stared at it, unable to take her eyes off it.
The unicorn hair suddenly went very bright then went out, almost like a muggle light bulb that had blown. She was left with a bit of translucent hair in her hand. She gasped and Mr Ollivander's twinkling blue eyes suddenly went very wide. "Well, I've never seen that happen before," he remarked.
"I've ruined it!" Hermione said, her eyes filling with unusual tears. "I'm sorry!"
"Never mind, dear. That unicorn will donate plenty more hairs and I've got a boxful here," he said comfortingly, patting her hand.
Severus led the genuinely distressed Hermione out of Ollivanders and they apparated back to the Manor. "Why did it do that?" she asked him, rubbing her forehead.
"Hermione, you are the black unicorn remember?" Severus said. "The black unicorn is simply a white unicorn that was exposed to much evil when young. I imagine the evil that turned you into a dark creature still lives in your skin and would affect white unicorn hair that way," he said, sitting down tiredly. It had been a long, long night.
Hermione held up one hand and looked at it. Tainted, she thought. I'm completely tainted. She left the library and went to her study. She wanted to absorb this new insight and mourn in private.
Severus watched her go with penitent and knowing eyes.
