Disclaimer: I don't own Harry Potter. Nope, not me.

A/N: So you thought you were going to get Remus this chapter, eh? No such luck. Remus and the Department of Mysteries will have to wait till next chapter... Because a certain Severus Snape has taken over this one. This chapter reveals some more about the Arachniae that you might find… interesting…

___________

"You have brought him?"

Helena nodded. "He is here."

I never knew that stating the obvious could be so damn… mystical, Severus thought. He had heard rumours that the priestesses at Telae Domus held traffic with wights and he would not be surprised if it were true. He had never known anyone to be so spiritual and serene as these priestesses.

The priestess standing at the door to the temple nodded her head to him in acknowledgment. "I am Marianne," she told him, "and I am the Guardian of the First Door of the Temple of Arachne."

"I am Severus Snape," he answered.

"Welcome, Severus." Marianne inclined her head a second time.

"Thank you."

Marianne turned to Helena. "He has passed the test?"

"One night he slept in the Glade of the Lady," Helena replied, "as the lore prescribes. He segued."

"What did you see that night, Severus?" Marianne asked.

Severus took a deep breath. "Memories," he said hoarsely. "The first… was in my seventh year at Hogwarts. I was brewing a potion with… her. The only woman I have ever loved."

Marianne inclined her head a third time. "She is known to us," she said quietly.

"My… the Mark on my arm burned," Severus continued. He had not heard anyone say her name for many long years now. "And I realised… that I was not good enough for her… that she was too pure for me to touch."

Helena touched his arm encouragingly. "She was special," she told him softly. "It is no wonder that she was beloved by so many."

"Please, continue," Marianne urged him gently.

"Then… then I saw Remus Lupin. In our seventh year again. He was telling me -" Severus gulped, "- telling me to stay away from her. That I could never know what she was to him. I told him that I wouldn't stay away… and he hit me. But Merlin only knows I deserved it," he added bitterly.

"The attachment of Remus Lupin is well known and documented here," Marianne acknowledged quietly.

"And the last memory… it was only a few days ago. Aemilia Fudge came down to my classroom to ask me to make a Dreamless Sleep Draught for Lupin… and she told me about his mother."

"Cursed be her name!" Helena and Marianne spat in eerie unison.

Severus looked up, confused. "You know Lupin's mother?"

"She took her from us," Marianne said acerbically. "Pray, go on."

"And… I realised, that no matter how much I have suffered and will suffer… that I am not the only one. And," he said softly, "by my own measurement, I believe that I could never have suffered as much as… as much as Remus Lupin in his life."

"No man with hubris may be allowed to set foot inside the First Circle of the Temple of Arachne," Marianne said. "In the Glade of the Lady, your hubris was broken."

She threw open the door behind her. "You have passed the first test, Severus Snape."

*

The first circle of the Temple of Arachne, Severus considered, was a little like Hogwarts. There was an ambience of schooling and study.

"Is this…?" he asked Helena.

"This is the Circle of the Novices," Helena answered. "Here, priestesses are clad in brown until they pass the test that admits them to the Second Circle."

"Priestesses of the Second Circle wear grey, do they not?" Aralinda had worn grey, he remembered.

"Yes, they do. Priestesses of the Third Circle wear black, and the High Priestess wears white," Helena told him.

Helena must be a priestess of the Third Circle, then, Severus thought, and she would have been too.

A giggling group of young women in brown robes went past. "A man!" Severus heard one titter.

Helena turned a disapproving gaze on them and they fell silent. "You may see quite easily, I think, that for a priestess to progress to the Second Circle, she must have both discipline and restraint."

"And so too must a man."

Severus resisted the impulse to jump at the new voice. There is definitely something eldritch about this place, he thought.

This new priestess inclined her head. "I am Miriel," she said, "and I am the Guardian of the Second Door of the Temple of Arachne."

Severus nodded in response. "I am Severus Snape," he replied.

"Welcome, Severus."

"Thank you."

"He has passed the test?" Miriel asked Helena.

"He sought out the recipe for the Elixir of the Stars," Helena answered, "amidst many things that might sway him from his purpose. He did not make a foray into sentimental reminiscences as he might have."

Oh, love, Severus thought with a pang. Lady, lady, lady.

"Is this true and veritable, Severus?" Miriel asked. "Do you know how to make the Elixir of the Stars?"

He closed his eyes and bowed his head. "I do," he replied.

"No man without discipline and perspicacity may be allowed to set foot inside the First Circle of the Temple of Arachne," Miriel said. "In the Gatehouse, you demonstrated these things."

She threw open the door behind her. "You have passed the second test, Severus Snape."

*

The Second Circle of the Temple of Arachne reminded Severus of the Ministry of Magic. The noise and bustle of students was distant now, shut behind doors back in the First Circle. Instead, here, a fountain tinkled, and grey-robed priestesses walked past in attitudes of perfect tranquillity and peace. There were no gossiping students here.

For an instant, Severus could almost picture her here. She would not be out of place in this world of serene academia. Even when we were at school, he thought, with a pang, she would exude such peacefulness, such quietude. I cannot picture her -

"She progressed straight to this Circle when she became one of the Arachniae," Helena said. "She was never a novice. She had progressed so far alone."

Idly, Severus wondered how Helena knew what he was thinking. It cannot be Legilimency, Severus thought.

"Your Occlumency is not at fault, Severus," Helena told him.

"Then how -"

She smiled. "You forget that I am a priestess," she answered, "and that we are in one of the Lady Weaver's most sacred places."

"Sacred to maiden, to mother, to crone," a new voice said, "but will you allow it to be sacred to man?"

This third priestess had long dark hair that fell to her waist, and flashing dark eyes. She was holding a shallow silver basin. She looks like Aemilia, Severus thought dazedly.

She inclined her head. "I am Ysylde," she said, "and I am the Guardian of the Third Door of the Temple of Arachne."

"I am Severus Snape," he answered.

"Welcome, Severus."

"Thank you."

Now, Severus thought, she will ask Helena if I have passed the test.

But Ysylde did not turn to Helena. Her fathomless dark eyes remained fixed on Severus.

"Only once a year is a man admitted beyond the Third Door," she said, "and, as in all things, there is a price to pay."

"A price?" Severus asked bemusedly.

"All men who enter here must give of their blood to the Lady," Ysylde answered. She drew a curved blade from her belt. "Will you do the Lady's will?"

Severus was not unaware of all the potential uses for blood. He was a potion master, after all, and more than once he had brewed concoctions with blood in them. Give of yourself to another, and you give them control over you.

But all he knew was that this was where she had been, and he would have died a thousand times over for her.

"I will," he replied, and extended his left arm.

And then, as Severus stood, a bleeding line traced over the Dark Mark, Ysylde placed the basin holding his blood on a stone pedestal and threw open the door behind her. "You are in the Lady's service now," she told him softly, "and you have passed the third test, Severus Snape."

*

The first thing Severus noted about the Third Circle of the Temple of Arachne was how few priestesses there were. The First Circle had been veritably teeming with brown-clad novices, the Second Circle was certainly far from empty, but the Third Circle…

A single woman, dressed in black robes, passed them by. "Sister Helena," she said, nodding.

"The priestess's path is not one for everyone, Severus," Helena told him, once again responding to his unspoken question. "Very many never make it higher than the Second Circle, and even more never make it past the First."

"So they are novices all their life?"

"No," Helena replied. "They leave. The lady Arachne is selective in who she calls, and not all those who come to Telae Domus are called to the goddess's service."

"How long have you been one of the Third Circle?"

"Seven years."

Severus restrained himself from gaping. "But -"

"Like her, I was never a novice, and passed very quickly through the ranks," Helena answered. Severus noted her deliberate modesty.

The Fourth Door of the Temple of Arachne had no guardian. The doors were heavy and oaken, and reminded Severus very much of the front doors of Hogwarts.

"This Door needs no guardian," Helena explained softly. "It is our last measure. The door will only open to those who pass the last, unspoken test."

"How -"

Helena took one of his hands and placed it on the knocker. The knocker was large and silver, in the shape of a stag with many-tined antlers. "Knock three times," she told him, "and you will know the answer."

Severus raised the knocker.

Once.

Twice.

Thrice.

There was a moment of awful silence, and then…

…with an ominous creak, the door opened.

"Welcome, Severus Snape," a voice came from within. "I have been expecting you."

_______________

REVIEW!