A/N: Just fair warning that there are descriptions of historical events in this chapter that could upset some readers. This chapter touches lightly on the warrior culture of the Scythians and its not pleasant reading.





Chapter Fourteen

"And after all that is come upon us for our evil deeds, and for our great trespass, seeing that thou our God hast punished us less than our iniquities deserve, and hast given us such deliverance as this;" Ezra 9:13

It took a while for Hermione to work up the courage to go back to that evil black hole under the Manor but finally she did. Whenever she did go back to the room underground, she took the small frame with Severus-the-first and Hermatica with her to explain things that she found. She propped their frame up on the lab bench and went back to the nauseating Dark Arts library. She found a volume she had missed the first time with an interesting title, The Earlie Magikal Historie of the Snape Lineage and Historie of the Deathe Eaters.

"And why isn't this in the main library upstairs?" she pondered aloud, taking the book back to the laboratory bench to read. She lit the lantern she had brought with her that time and opened the book.

*"The Scythian soldier scrapes the scalp clean of flesh and softening it by rubbing between the hands, uses it thenceforth as a napkin. The Scyth is proud of these scalps and hangs them from his bridle rein; the greater the number of such napkins that a man can show, the more highly is he esteemed among them. Many make themselves cloaks by sewing a quantity of these scalps together.....Such as the Scythian customs with respect to scalps. ---- Herodotus, History"

"Oh, nice," Hermione said sarcastically, curling her lip with distaste. "Why would you start a family history like that?"

*"Perhaps the most striking feature of Scythians was the enormous amount of gold they wore and used. The ancient legend tells the story about the one- eyed people, Arimaspians in Scythia who had on-going battle with the griffins who guarded the gold."

"They fought griffins?" Hermione said, perplexed. "These people are mad."

*"The Scythians sprang from the three sons of certain Targitaus, a person of supernatural birth who dwelled in the Black Sea domain. Together the three brothers ruled the land until four golden implements - a plow, a yoke, a battle-ax and a drinking cup - fell from the sky and suddenly began to blaze. Colaxais, the youngest, proved to be the only one of the brothers who could pick up the burning objects, and thus became sole ruler of the Scythian kingdom."

"That explains the family's magical origin very clearly," Hermione murmured.

**"The Scythians were famous for their bloody tribal custom. Warriors not only cut off the heads of slain enemies but also made leather-bound drinking cups from their enemies' skulls. They lined these grisly trophies with gold and proudly displayed them to impress their guests."

"Yeah and I'd invite these people over for dinner, for sure," Hermione muttered sarcastically.

**"The act of war was one in which the Scythian women participated in equally with the men. Scythian women were tattooed like their mates, and the ancient historian Diordorus commented that Scythian women 'fight like the men and are nowise inferior to them in bravery'.

"Maybe I should bring this to Severus' attention next time he tells me I should stay home rather than go on a mission," Hermione said, glowering.

"He doesn't want you to stay home because you're a woman but because you're the black unicorn and thus Voldemort's prime target," Severus-the-first reminded her sternly.

Hermione merely snorted. "He's just bossy," she said. Further on the book described the history of the other main branch of the family.

***"During the Golden Age of Islam, the Moorish Empire was the most advanced state in the world. Cordova was the most wonderful city of the tenth century; the streets were well-paved, with raised sidewalks for pedestrians. Public baths numbered in the hundreds at a time when cleanliness in Christian Europe was regarded a sin. Moorish monarchs dwelt in splendid palaces, while the crowned heads of England, France, and Germany lived in big barns, lacking both windows and chimneys, with only a hole in the roof for the emission of smoke."

"The Moors had an insatiable lust for knowledge, and acquired it from East and West, translating into Arabic all they could find, even ransacking monasteries for rare books. One king had a private library of 600,000 books. In Moorish Spain education was available to the most humble, while in Christian Europe 99% of the populace were illiterate, including kings. The incredible city of Cordova had 800 public schools. The Moors made great advances in mathematics, physics, astronomy, medicine, botany, chemistry. The Moors also introduced the first shooting mechanisms or rifles known as firesticks which revolutionized European military science, ultimately causing their downfall when their enemies used gunpowder to drive them back into Africa. Their contributions to European civilization were vast."

"And to think you were a Prince in Cordova," Hermione said to Severus-the- first who was looking rather smug at that point as she'd read those paragraphs out loud.

"I was the Prince of Cordova," he said with a touch of arrogance.

"They were amazing times," Hermatica said wistfully.

Severus-the-first looked at Hermatica with glittering black eyes so un- nervingly similar to Hermione's Severus' eyes. "You should have been there with me, by my side," he said, his deep voice sounding gravelly and so familiar to Hermione.

Hermatica merely took his hand and leaned against him. "It's a long time ago now but your accomplishments should never be forgotten," she said softly.

****"While the rest of Europe was engulfed in the Dark Ages, a time of deep superstition and ignorance, it was the Moors who were building a civilisation unparalleled since the time of the Roman Empire. With an estimated force of only 20,000 it is often asked how an army of so few could invade and conquer an area the size of the Iberian peninsula with such ease. They had one advantage that would prove to be decisive when it came to the invasion and this was their mastery of gunpowder. They saw enormous potential in the area and started to develop huge tracts of land for agricultural purposes. Due to the dry climates of North Africa, the Arabs were masters of irrigation and in only a few short years they transformed the area into a region of vast agricultural wealth and prosperity and introduced new crops such as rice, asparagus, artichokes and melons."

"Unfortunately the occupied people of Andalucía had no answer to the Moors' superior knowledge, agricultural acumen or technological prowess. On a more positive note they were dragged from an era of ignorance and superstition, where witchcraft was commonly held to be the biggest threat to society."

"And what greater damning consequence of ignorance could there be than a fear of witches and wizards?" Severus-the-first asked with the characteristic Snape sneer.

"Quite," Hermione agreed.

"Thanks to their conquerors, there was no country in Europe as advanced as Al-Andalus and there were more prosperous towns and villages in this region than anywhere else in Spain. Another reason for the Moors' success as a civilisation was that unlike Spanish Christianity, which prevented curiosity about many aspects of life on the grounds that it was heretical, the Arab invaders were comparatively free-thinking and scholars were granted far more intellectual freedom to discuss and to teach issues which had evaded the early Christians. Moreover, different religions were free to live side by side, which paved the way for greater social tolerance and development.

"In particular, the Arabs were masters of astrology and medicine, and such was the degree of their success in these fields that even today many mathematical and astrological terms remain in Arabic. Their medical knowledge was the greatest in the world and while other countries in Europe still believed in leeches and the power of prayer to cure ills, the Arab settlers were already experimenting with surgery that would form the basis of modern day medicine.

"The most progressive period during the Moorish occupation came when the leaders on the Iberian peninsula decided that they wanted greater independence from the Middle East. They persuaded the region's finest artists, scholars and architects to come to Al-Andalus and turned Córdoba into Europe's greatest city, with a population of over a quarter of a million. As in the days of the Roman Empire, the city's success was dependent on its technology and Córdoba boasted a sophisticated sewage system, universities, hospitals and its famous Mosque."

"And to think those uneducated and unwashed Christians used the knowledge we gave them to drive us out of the land we had conquered, settled and made prosperous," Severus-the-first mocked.

"No-one could withstand the Spanish Inquisition. It was sophisticated guerilla warfare that attacked every part of a person; the body, soul and spirit," Hermione sighed. Severus-the-first brooded darkly on the injustice to his bloodline. "There is a great legacy of cruelty from the Scythian side," Hermione reflected.

"My brother's wife's side of the family. That bastard should never have married that little whore. Still, she did have a powerful if evil magical legacy from that race," he said meditatively with a touch of viciousness.

"I wonder if that legacy of evil somehow has polluted the bloodline," Hermione postulated.

"Nothing but murderers, thieves, whores and more recently bloody Death Eaters in almost every generation. That's why there's hope now, Hermione. The current heir, your Severus, may have gotten off to a bad start in life but he pulled himself right by some miracle. Now because of you, he has a reason to live and not just that but to carry on the Snape name with pride. He can teach his children better values than those he himself was exposed to but he needs your help," Severus, the first said with persuasiveness and passion, his dark eyes glowing. "Maybe the two of you can erase the evil heritage."

"Using what spell?" Hermione said a touch despairingly.

"The most powerful one of all," Hermatica said simply. "Love."

* Sourced from http://www.silk-road.com/artl/scythian.shtml

** Sourced from http://www.hempbc.com/magazine/jul95/scythians.html

*** Sourced from http://www.ibiblio.org/nge/blacked/bl6.html

**** Sourced from http://www.marbellalife.com/history-and-culture/moorish- occupation.html