A/N: I don't own Harry Potter. Nope, not me.
A/N: In theory, this is the chapter for Monday January 5. However, I'm not going to be around then, so you get it now.
Here is the long-awaited Severus chapter, in which he finally makes his potion... The recipe for the Elixir of the Stars is entirely my own invention (the herbs are symbolic, as some of you may realise) as is the accompanying poem… so enjoy!
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Diana gazed sadly at the effigy of Lily Potter, encased in gold and glass. "Lily came here soon after her marriage," she told Severus. "It is not necessary for a priestess to live at Telae Domus, you know, and Lily did not. She would Apparate in here during the day and then leave in the evening to spend time with her husband, who worked, as you know, in the Department of Mysteries. She never returned after the birth of her son, though." She laid one long, pale hand on the glass that encased the simulacrum. "In the history of the Arachniae at Telae Domus, only three women have never been novices and passed straight to the Second Circle. One was Regina. Helena, whom you met earlier, was another. The third was Lily Potter."
"But, why -"
"I doubt, however," Diana said, almost sharply, "if Lily would have joined us if she had not had the mission of another order at her heart. The Order of the Phoenix, to be precise." She sighed. "We knew what she was doing - she confessed it freely. But, like everyone else, we had no desire to see He-Who-Must-Not-Be-Named rise to power. He would have smashed us without a second thought."
"What - was she doing?" Severus asked.
"We have great stores of magic here that many places have forgotten," Diana answered. "Magic that is ancient, that survives only here and in the minds of those long dead. It is said that we traffic with wights, and I do not deny it."
Death magic! Severus thought immediately, but did not say anything. He did not think it would be a pertinent - or beneficial - subject to raise.
His eyes were drawn inexorably back to Regina's face. It was hard for him to believe that she was not really there, that it was not her body that lay there, encased in a tomb of gold and glass. So beautiful, he thought.
Diana smiled at him. "You have entered this place with love in your heart, and looked on the faces of our best beloved with love still," she said softly.
She took his hands. "All tests are passed now, Severus," she told him softly. "Beyond these doors is the Chamber of the Loom, where the Elixir of the Stars may be made in the sight of the lady Arachne herself."
As she led him through the final doors, Severus could not resist looking back on Regina's face, one last time.
*
The room Diana led him into was perfectly round, with a high, domed ceiling. In the centre was a cauldron that really looked more, Severus considered, like a baptismal font.
"All that you need is here," Diana told him softly, "if you look with your heart."
He turned to ask her a question but she put a finger to his lips. "The Goddess will provide, Severus," she said, smiling. "She always does."
And then, silently, she Disapparated, leaving Severus alone.
Severus exhaled audibly. For a moment, he simply stood where he was, perfectly still, but after a second or so he walked toward the cauldron.
His first assumption had been right - the cauldron did look a lot like a baptismal font, but it was much deeper. Instead of being made out of pewter like the cauldrons Severus generally worked with - though he had worked with gold cauldrons before - this cauldron was made out of marble. Inside, it was coated with what looked like silver to prevent the stone soaking up the fluid, but, when Severus touched it, he discovered it was pewter, polished to a high shine.
Severus took a deep breath, and then another, and another. He tried to recall the page in the book that had contained the recipe to the Elixir of the Stars. Regina's book.
Love begins and love ends all
So, if you wish to touch the sky
First add three flowers of acacia
Gathered when the moon hangs high
"Three acacia flowers, gathered under a moonlit sky," Severus muttered. "Love herbs."
He cast around, but he could see no ingredients. The Goddess will provide, Diana had told him, but she did not seem to be providing any time soon.
He closed his eyes. Regina, he thought, help me. Please.
So useless, it seemed. He passed all these tests that the priestesses had set them. He had changed - and was it for naught?
Hopelessly, he opened his eyes. His face broke into a smile.
Oh Regina, he thought.
There, before him, were three acacia flowers.
Regina, he thought. Oh lady, lady, lady.
*
Severus threw the acacia flowers into the cauldron one by one as he tried to remember the next step.
Stir nine times right with a sprig of cedar
Then add thereto a leaf of tansy
In honour of air that we all breathe
Add straight after a yellow pansy
"Cedar," he said aloud, his voice sounding hoarse. "Regina, I need cedar, tansy leaf and a yellow pansy blossom."
It seemed to him that more and more things were appearing before him. It as if they had always been there - he had just not been looking right. Look with your heart, find out what you already know, and you'll see the proper way, Regina had told him once.
Severus smiled. "Oh, Regina," he said, not caring that nobody could hear him. "Regina, you were wiser than all of us put together."
He took up the cedar and stirred the flowers nine times clockwise, though there was no liquid to mix them with, before throwing in the tansy and the pansy.
Fire is the source of life
For this grace pour nettle wine
Into the cauldron, stir it twice
With a sprig of the jasmine vine
After this wait minutes ten
Before adding a sheaf of wheat
Powder it well so it is like the soil
Of the earth beneath your feet
Beneath the cauldron light a flame
For eight minutes let it burn
Then add a pint of water
And a frond of a spring-green fern
Stir it well with a finger
Then add a leaf of mistletoe
Stir it again, nine times left
As it is above, so below
In your life there is joy
There is hope, and there are woes
But in the hope of a greater love
Lastly, add one red rose.
Now the potion is close on complete
Stir it thrice with a silver spoon
And when Arachne's daughters drink of it
You too, perhaps, may touch the moon.
Making the potion seemed a bit of a blur to Severus. When, at last, he had finished, he stood back and admired his work.
The recipe, as he remembered it, had not been difficult, though the particulars were quickly slipping from his mind. He supposed there must have been some sort of eldritch memory spell on the recipe so that it was not made illegally. However, he could never remember a potion ever being such a labour of love.
A fine vapour was rising from the cauldron, twisting upward in tendrils of shining silver and gold, spiralling higher, illuminating the room with its radiance.
"Let there be light," Severus murmured.
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