Part Three: A Visitor on All Hallow's Eve
"Wake me up inside.
Wake me up inside.
Call my name and save me from the dark.
Bid my blood to run.
Before I come undone.
Save me from the nothing I've become.
Bring me to life…"
--"Bring Me to Life" by Evanescence
Severus lay on a navy blue velvet couch, right arm draped over his eyes, and a bottle of vodka in his left. His boots were tossed haphazardly against the door, and the papers he had carried littered the tiny desk that rested in his new drawing room. He gently swirled the bottle around, before bringing it to his lips again. He really shouldn't have blown up at Minerva that way. She was just trying to be kind and considerate, but really, it was the first thing most people needed and it was the last thing Severus ever wanted. Pity… the people he had loved never pitied him. They understood him better than that. Either that, or they had their own deeper pain to deal with. "But, Gryffindors…" he said aloud. "They never know when to quit."
"Indeed. One of our more endearing qualities, Severus," a cheerful and familiar voice countered.
"Oh, do shut up. I have no desire to have an argument with my own drunken stupor this evening."
An amused chuckle was the immediate response. "Severus, please. I must speak with you."
Sev lifted his elbow and his half-lidded eyes widened. He gave a yelp and fell off the couch, spilling some of the vodka on himself in the process. "Damn it Albus!!!!"
The spirit merely floated in midair and lifted an inquisitive eyebrow at the normally controlled Potions Master laying on the floor in a disheveled heap. "It is wonderful to see you as well, Severus."
Sev got up too fast and nearly fell over as his head swam. Bracing himself on the arm of the couch, he leaned down and picked up the bottle, trying to brush the clear liquid from his robes. "I should have known that you would haunt me even after you were dead," he muttered. "You did it so well in the time that I knew you as a living person."
The ghost smiled. "Severus, I have missed your rather acerbic wit in my absence… it is a pleasant memory. I came because I needed to speak to the other members of our Inner Circle. I cannot find some of them. Where are they?"
Severus swayed over to a table in order to set down the bottle. "Well, Lupin is most likely still at St. Mungo's waiting for the other mutt. Black hasn't woken up from his coma yet. Minerva was in the Staff Lounge last I bitched at her. I haven't been getting on with her well lately… nor the rest of the Staff for that matter."
"And Harry?"
The ghost flinched as the bottle shattered against the wall, and the clear liquid ran down the stones to the floor as Severus collapsed on the couch his head in his hands. He made no move to explain, and Albus could sense that the dark wizard was in great pain.
"What, Severus?" he asked compassionately.
"Harry's dead," he replied flatly. "Bled to death on the battle field. I can't even stand red ink any more, nor some of the reddish potions."
"You must give considerably higher grades."
Sev glared openly at the specter. "Was there a point to this line of questioning?"
"I had simply wanted to speak with him. I have not seen him in the months since the battle, Severus. I am nearly certain that he is not with us in the other realm," he admitted, floating closer.
"What?!?" Sev roared.
"He is not on our side of Death's barriers." The spirit sighed. "He must not have crossed over."
"We buried him, Albus. He died in my arms. I heard his last words!" The Potions Master was nearly shaking with rage. "How the hell can you tell me that he has not crossed over?"
"Severus, think. What are the ways that a spirit can be bound to this realm?" Albus asked, not entirely certain of all the ways that could be covered with Darker magicks.
"He could have been necromanced, or he didn't die… or he could be bound to a person with a Soul-Bond, in which case he would end up wherever that person was in that exact moment."
Dumbledore frowned. "Did you have a Soul-Bond with Harry?"
He nodded. "But I would have been able to see him, I think. He would have come to me if there was a way for him to." Severus paused uncertainly, a look of sheer horror draping his features. "And Draco?"
"Draco is deceased as well?"
"Yes."
"I have not seen him either, Severus."
The mortal put his head in his hands. "Draco was killed by a vampire as the battle stretched into night. It is possible that he may have been turned. I did not even consider that… I left the country after the battle, until almost the start of term. I have not been back to the cemetery since. Draco may still be here."
The ghost sighed. "Severus, I do not even want to fathom how difficult this has been for you, but if they have indeed died, then they deserve to cross over if that is their desire. Or at least find them, if that is impossible."
And with that, the sun rose, and Severus was alone. And he wept.
Severus sat in a quiet corner of the Staff Lounge, having graciously accepted the journal back from Minerva after apologizing for his loss of control the previous night.
"So, Severus. We missed you at the Feast last night. Is anything amiss?"
Sev set down his quill and arched an eyebrow. "'We' being whom exactly?"
"Why, Celia, Minerva, Hagrid, Arabella…"
"You could have simply stated the entire Staff, Filius," Sev said. "Why don't you have a seat?"
The shorter professor smiled and accepted the chair across the table from him. "You didn't answer the question."
Sev sighed. "No more than usual. Oh, and while I was relaxing, a walking spirit visited me and asked me for a favor. I hate Halloween. And he was just so nice and cheerful that I decided to take him up on the task."
Filius looked at him strangely. "That's nice, Severus. Dare I ask what the task was?"
Severus smiled. "To locate a lost soul or two."
"I see. And how did all this happen?"
Sev picked up his quill again; trailing his finger down the book's page as he wrote left handed on the parchment, backwards. There was the spell that he had been looking for. Phoenix tears, a sample of his blood, rosemary essence, lilac blossoms; this wasn't a complex potion, it just required a true heart bond, and his full power. He shook himself and focused back on the fact that there was a professor before him. "Merlin only knows. My favorite question of the past 24 hours has been 'Why me?'" He looked up at Flitwick and sighed. "Dear gods, Filius, I haven't lost my mind yet. I was planning on keeping it for the next 100 years or so. When I start offering lemon drops, then you'll know I've lost it."
"I miss him, Severus, don't you?" He sighed. "I was expecting to hear that he had walked last night. Him and some of the others from the battle. But no one's said anything about that." He looked over the book, written entirely in Latin and caught a few words, but said nothing. What would Severus need with an ancient Convocare spell used only by the ancient Druids, and recorded by Slytherin himself?
Severus noticeably paused in mid-sentence, allowing some ink to fall on the page.
"Severus, are you alright?"
"So I was the only one who got a visit?" he asked in a fierce whisper.
The shorter professor nodded. "I assume so."
Snape set the quill down and pensively brought his closed fist to his chin.
"Why? Who was it?"
"Albus. You'll excuse me, Filius." Sev gathered his books and walked out of the Staff Lounge.
Footsteps were the only sound in the corridor as he walked to the North Tower. He felt the breeze from the top, collapsing on the cool stone. He sighed. Silently he removed a bundle from his cloak and placed it in front of himself. He untied a leather thong keeping it closed and folded back the cloth to reveal several small items. He turned to the North, and pulled out a pouch, sprinkling a circle of salt across the flagstones, then drawing a five-pointed star in the center of it, each point touching the edge. In the center of the star he set a grey stone bowl and placed a candle at each point. He took a few vials out of the package and poured different amounts into the bowl then began a Latinate incantation. "Conjuxanimus, peto te." He took a deep breath and continued.
"Soulmate, I seek you. I call to you from my heart, to reinforce the bond we made in times past." He reached into his cloak and removed a blood red and golden scarf that had been soaked in something to stain it reddish-brown… Harry's own blood. He had worn this scarf on the day of the battle, for luck he had claimed. It was one of the few things he had left that still smelled of Harry's scent. It was a small sacrifice to see if Harry was still alive, but it was a sacrifice nonetheless. Sadly, he placed it in the bottom of the bowl, then placed his hands over the bowl.
"I invoke the powers of the North… guiding star of mankind from ages past, I beseech thee, guide me even now to the heart that is as my own." He waited as the candles lit, from his own wandless magic.
"I invoke the powers of the East, from whence comes the light to Earth, and brings life to all… I beseech thee to return to me the life that is as my own." Emboldened by the surge of power he felt, Severus went onward.
"I invoke the powers of the South, balance of the North, and as constant as she… the holder of new worlds. I beseech thee to send your strength and warmth to the darkest lands to find the soul I call my own.
"I invoke the powers of the West, to which the sun has gone. To you must we all fall someday. But yet has my soulmate not gone unto thee. I beseech thee to return the essence of the man I call my own.
"With the powers of the four ends of the Earth, I call to the mortal known as Harry Potter, bonded of my own soul and his… If in this world he still resides, I command that he be shown to me tonight, wherever he is."
Fire sprung from the liquid in the bowl, using the scarf as a wick, and in the blue-white flames, he saw the beautiful face of his beloved. The teenager turned, looking over his shoulder with a feral demeanor, and looked straight into Severus' eyes.
Harry's eyes glowed an almost unnatural green, and he was dressed fully in black, from the choker round his neck to the nail polish he wore, and the trench coat he wore swung in the wind. His skin was pale in the moonlight and he shifted easily, adopting a very feline posture as he transferred his weight from foot to foot.
Severus could see no clues as to where Harry was, but the boy was not dead: that he could tell, and his heart melted. He frowned as the bowl became infused with the blood and the image clouded over. "Damn!" he thought, speaking the words to end the spell. The wind blew the candles out and he wrung out the scarf, holding it tightly as tears fell down his cheeks.
"Severus Septimus Snape, what the hell was that?" McGonagall asked from the stairwell.
He turned to the Headmistress, smiling sadly, as she took in the ritual site. "That was the hardest Elemental spell I have ever done. And it worked. He's alive, Minerva… he's alive."
Hundreds of kilometers away, Jade looked over his shoulder, feeling a sudden chill on the wind. It wasn't the splinter in his mind that he knew as his master, Xanatos, but it was magical, that he could tell… His master wasn't magical, as he was… it must be someone else. But the magic was dark and as old as his kind, although he was less than a year old, according to his kin.
He ran his fingers through his unruly black hair, sighing. It was a memory, the last vestiges of his life as a human, like a cozy fire on a cold evening though, the presence warmed him. His human side clung to it like a lifeline, hoping to quash the demonic urges.
But in the end, it didn't matter. He was consumed in the bloodlust, lost in the need for food, and he smelled a settlement of humans not more than 500 meters away, and ran his pink tongue over his elongated canines, his breath catching in his throat. He smiled and ran towards the nearest human, thinking of how he was to beat the sun…
--00--
So… a bit of exposition for those who want it. And before anyone asks, I made the spell up myself. Not a Wiccan, but for the purposes of this story, I hope I didn't mess it up too badly. If I did, help me out so that I don't offend anyone else. Yup… being part of the Anglican Communion didn't really help me out here. Like I said, tell me and I'll change it. I respect any religion that doesn't require bigotry as a condition of membership.
Latin translations: "Convocare"- Summoning
"Conjuxanimus, peto te." - 'Mated spirit, I call to thee.'
Another Author's Rant: My mum has been really sick recently… so sick that she went to the doctor for a routine appointment and ended up being admitted from the hospital, 200 miles from where my apartment is, so I went home and looked after her for a few days. Otherwise, it would have just been my dad and brother in the house and neither one can stand the other for prolonged periods of time… that and the fact that my dad is the biggest worrier I've ever seen. But as for my mum, she's out now, however as you can guess, no fanfic updates, nor time to work on finding the other stories. But don't worry, until I get a job, I have plenty of time to help you out.
Thanks for all my reviewers:
Lexi, ZetaStar, bet's, bet's (again :p), Maria (I think it was 1-800-flowers, but I lost the link with the rest of my computer… see Tears of the Wolf 5 for details), Els-chan, koko, jliles, SpiderGoat, Little Bit
By the way, I just got so hooked on the music video for this song on MTV… thought I would die. Had to use it, and besides, I misplaced my Aida insert… sorry. Oh yeah, and I don't own that song either. Grrr… I am just a poor uni student… I don't own jack shit.