Distribution: Just Ask
Rating: PG for now but will move up to R in later chapters.
Disclaimer: J.K. Rowling owns everything except the plot and the original characters, creatures, etc. The language Quenya and most anything elven related is the creation of J.R.R. Tolkein.
Authors Note: As always, I want to thank my partner in crime Zenura Ravenscar. Without her support I would've never had the courage to write a single sentence. I'd also like to thank the dedicated fans who gave me so many wonderful reviews for my other fics. I hope you enjoy this as much as the others.
Chapter 7
"Now what are you all looking at me for? Is there something in my beard?" The wizened old wizard asked candidly, seeing the eyes of his colleagues trained on him.
Collectively, several eyebrows raised as if questioning whether the oldest member of their group had finally given in to senility. "Don't give us that load of dragon dung Old Man. None of us lives under the delusion that you have enough free time to spend an afternoon sipping tea and watching a group of teenagers show off new toys. What's happened that you need to tell us, or what do you need us to do?" Drakkara questioned.
Albus rolled his eyes dramatically and made a show of relaxing back into his chair and taking another sip of tea. "Nonsense Drakkara. I came by for a few reasons, none of them dire emergencies. Minerva and I needed to find out what textbooks you and Remus plan on using for your classes so that we can include the appropriate titles in the student book lists. I also wondered if I could have a look at the treasures I know you must have picked up in your travels. I believe both Minerva and Alastor share that desire."
"You are the strangest man Albus. Making time to look through my things indeed. As it happens I have collected quite a treasury of unusual items in my travels that I'll be happy to show you and anyone else who wants to have a look. There are also presents stowed away that I've saved over the years for the time when I returned to give them to many of my old friends. Just let me go upstairs and retrieve my trunk." The dark haired woman replied before standing and leaving the room.
She returned a few minutes later, having checked on the teens before bringing the trunk back downstairs. Drakkara floated the large trunk back into the sitting room and set it down on the floor. She laid her hand on the seventh stone and commanded the trunk to open that chamber. "I'll give you a tour through the last few chambers, that's where you'll find most of the interesting things." She gestured for her friends to enter the trunk and followed shortly after.
* * * * * * * * * *
Inside, they found themselves standing in a library of a size to rival the one at Hogwarts. "We'll pick out the textbooks first. If anyone wants to look around, feel free; just don't touch any of the volumes on the shelves marked 'restricted'. The books on those shelves are protected by very powerful curses and can only be removed from their shelves by my hand. Anything on the normal shelves you can safely browse through."
The group split up to explore the huge library. Drakkara led Remus to the shelves containing books that might prove effective as classroom texts for DADA. Kingsley and Tonks followed them, as DADA was a large part of their careers. Moody went straight for the restricted shelves to see just what sort of books the younger woman would be placing curses on.
Albus went for a shelf labeled Rare Books, while Minerva quickly found the section for transfiguration. Hermione, obviously thinking about the challenge Drakkara had lain before her, went for the shelf marked Ancient Languages. Sirius and Molly just wandered through the many shelves, looking at the huge variety of books on every subject they could think of.
Rather too soon for everyone else's liking, Remus and Drakkara had picked out five different books they wanted to use for their classes and called everyone back. When they appeared from between the many shelves, each carried at least two books. All except Moody that is, but he was giving Drakkara a hopeful expression in between glances back toward the restricted shelves.
When asked, the raven-haired woman agreed to lend her friends and colleagues the books they wanted to read, explaining that she had a card index that would track the books wherever they went and admonishing them to be nice to her books under penalty of a good hexing. She turned to Moody last and asked, "Alright Alastor, I know you're dying to say something about my restricted books, and you probably want to get your hands on some of them. Which ones do you want?"
"Little Girl, do you realize you probably have the most complete collection of Dark Arts and Black Arts books in the world sitting here in your trunk where anyone could get at them? The Dark Lord would proclaim himself a muggle loving Gryffindor if it would get him access to those books." The ex-auror ranted, pointing violently at the shelves. To the mind of the paranoid man, having such a collection of books in an unprotected environment was a severe breach of security.
Drakkara lifted her hand to hush her older friend and explained, "Quit ranting at me Alastor. What I actually have on those shelves are a vast array of trashy muggle romance novels cleverly disguised as my actual collection of Dark and Black Arts books. I warded those books heavily so that if anyone tried to steal them, they wouldn't be suspicious that the books weren't protected. The actual books on Dark Arts are in a very secure place and will only switch themselves with the fakes when I personally take them off the shelf. Now which ones did you want to read?"
Moody took his young colleague back into the stacks of restricted books and pointed to the ones he wanted. She took them off the shelves for him and handed the genuine books over, threatening him with dire consequences if anything happened to the valuable texts.
When they returned to the group, Drakkara led them to the wall next to the ladder that would take them back out of the trunk. There were nine stones in a row set into the wall and the woman explained at these stones could be used to travel between the chambers without leaving the trunk. She laid her hand on one of the stones and a door appeared in its place. Opening it, she led the others through.
* * * * * * * * * *
The group soon discovered that they'd stepped into a treasure trove. The large chamber resembled something between a muggle museum and Aladdin's cave. There were shelves, tables, and glass cases scattered throughout the chamber holding untold amounts of treasures. "Anything that shouldn't be touched is in the glass cases. There are descriptive cards next to each item if you want to know what something is. I beg you to please be careful with everything in here, this is a lifetimes worth of collecting and most of it is extremely valuable." Drakkara cautioned as her friends set out to explore.
The violet-eyed woman motioned for Sirius, Remus, Albus, and Moody to follow her. She led them to a large cabinet in one corner of the room and opened it. "I thought since we were here, you might like to see how much of the cold drake hide is left. It's in here along with some other interesting fabrics and things."
The hide of the large snake-like beast she'd killed was folded and laid on the bottom of the cabinet. Needless to say, the skin was huge. The cabinet was very big and had a lot of space, but the folded hide must have stood as least four feet in height and it covered the entire bottom of the cabinet. Albus leaned down and touched the hide, marveling at the sheer size of it and imagining the size of the beast it came from. "I thought you were exaggerating when you said this creature was almost as big as a basilisk. I can't imagine what you went through in battling this thing." He said in quiet amazement.
"It was one of the most difficult battles I've ever fought, but I'm glad I did it. This one hide will make enough protective clothing to keep our friends safe from just about anything. The only trouble we may have is finding enough people to make the clothing from it. As I said last night, I have a few shirts already made, but once school starts I'll be too busy to make many more." As she spoke, Drakkara leaned up on her toes to reach into the top shelf of the cabinet and withdrew a small suitcase.
She placed the suitcase on the floor and opened it, revealing a half a dozen shirts made from the silvery hide. She removed three of the shirts and held out one each to Remus, Sirius, and Alastor. " These should be large enough to fit you three. I think the other three should go to Arthur, Bill, and Charlie. I wish I could give one to Severus as he has the most dangerous job, but there would be no way for him to hide a piece of clothing that repelled curses from Voldemort. I do however have something that should help in his spywork."
"Ah, let the nasty git get cursed Kara. I'm sure whatever it is you think might help is far too valuable to give to that greasy bastard." Sirius stated, sneering with displeasure.
Before Albus could say something to the younger man, Drakkara shut the suitcase and stood to face her friend. "Sirius, you sound like your mother. We're not children anymore, this hatred you have for Severus needs to stop. If you remember, he did some truly despicable things to me while we were students, far worse than whatever he may have done in retaliation for your pranks. If I can put aside my dislike for him, so can you. I don't expect you to like him, but he does deserve some respect for the work he does for the Order."
Sirius hung his head, ashamed to admit that what she said was the truth. It had been the actions of Severus Snape that brought about Drakkaras' true integration into the Marauders group, rather than just being a friend of Lilys'. "You're right Kara. Snape is a nasty bastard and I highly doubt I'll ever stop hating him, but I won't antagonize him anymore. I make no promises where his treatment of Harry, Remus, and you are concerned though."
The raven-haired woman nodded her consent and replied, "That's all I can ask. Now, let's go wander around with the others. I need to get into another cabinet back here for some things and I'll meet you in a few minutes."
The men wandered off and Drakkara picked up the suitcase containing the remaining shirts and walked off toward another cabinet. Inside the locked and warded cabinet, she found the items she'd bought over the years to be given to her friends upon her eventual return. Many of the objects were just knick knacks without any real value except in sentiment, but among them were treasures that would be of great value or use to the ones she gifted them to.
There were large trunks labeled 'Harry', 'Sirius', 'Remus', and 'Albus' that she shrunk and put in her pockets. Three boxes bearing the names Alastor, Minerva, and Bill were also shrunken and placed with the trunks. She placed a jewelers box marked 'Severus' in the suitcase last and then locked and re-warded the cabinet.
Leaving the others to continue looking through her treasures, Drakkara left the trunk to take the trunks and boxes up to her room. She wanted to give her friends the gifts privately and planned to invite the individual recipients up to her room later. When she stepped out of her trunk she was startled to find Ginny sitting on the couch. "Oh, Ginny I'm sorry. I forgot you were going to join us when you finished your essay." The older woman said.
"No problem Kara, I just came down a few minutes ago. I figured you guys would be in the trunk when I saw it open but I didn't want to go in without your permission." Ginny replied, smiling at Drakkara.
The dark haired woman returned the smile as she replied, "Good thinking, we weren't in that chamber anymore anyway. I need to put something upstairs, why don't you go on into that chamber and look around, I'll join you and take you through to the chamber the others are in when I get back."
When the girl nodded and climbed down into the library chamber, Drakkara hurried up the stairs to her bedroom and put the shrunken trunks and boxes on the bed. She left the room quickly; not too fond of the notion that her friends and colleagues were wandering unsupervised through her collection of treasures. As she descended the stairs into the entrance hall and turned the corner, the slender woman found herself smacking face first into a black robe clad chest.
"OOF!" Both Drakkara and the person she'd run into grunted from the impact and struggled to regain their balance. When she was steady on her feet again, the woman started making apologies. "Sorry I ran into you, I didn't see you there."
She heard a long suffering sigh and looked up into deep onyx eyes as Severus Snape replied, "I see you're still scampering about without looking as if you were one of those bloody Gryffindors you love so much."
The woman rolled her brilliantly colored eyes and replied, "Oh shut up Severus, you can antagonize me later. My little brush with clumsiness has reminded me that Tonks is wandering around in my trunk among my most valuable artifacts, probably without one of the others watching her. If you're looking for Albus he's in there too so you might as well follow me."
"And just what, might I ask, are Tonks and the Headmaster doing in your luggage?" The dour man replied as he followed Drakkara into the sitting room.
Drakkara couldn't help rolling her eyes again, any more than Severus could help being sarcastic. "Tonks is probably doing her best to accidentally destroy my things, and Albus is no doubt walking around thinking that all his Christmases have come at once. Climb on in Severus, I'm conducting a tour of my belongings as per Albus' request."
The tall, thin potions master climbed gracefully into the trunk and down the ladder. As he turned to look at the room he'd landed in he saw the youngest Weasley examining a book from one of the many shelves. When Drakkara joined him a moment later, she couldn't help chuckling at his open mouthed gaping. "Like my library Severus? I'll let you look around before we leave. Right now we should join the others before they start wondering where I've gone."
Severus barely managed to control his excitement at the prospect of being allowed to look at Drakkaras' library. From their school days, he knew the woman loved the art of potion making almost as much as he did and would doubtless have a vast collection of books on the subject. He made the decision to refrain from being overly nasty to the woman until after he'd made a thorough examination of her books.
Drakkara called Ginny over and opened the door into her treasure chamber again, allowing the teen and Severus to precede her. As she shut the door behind her, they heard a crash from the other side of the chamber. "Oh good Merlin I hope that wasn't the Chinese dragons." She sent the plea toward the sky.
Severus and Ginny followed her as she strode quickly toward the spot where the noise came from, gaping at the beautiful and priceless objects they passed along the way. Severus swore he caught a glimpse of a rare Amazonian Heart Diamond in one display case and a set of runic warding stones in another. The trio found their friends gathered around a broken glass display case.
"What happened here? Where's the necklace that was in that case?" Drakkara demanded, having realized what that particular case had contained. An invaluable piece of jewelry, it was said to bestow the protection of a magical guardian. The guardian would appear at need to smite down anything that sought to harm its wearer. The raven-haired woman had found the necklace in the ruins of a castle in Denmark, and after researching the beautiful amulet and learning of its power, had sought to hide it away and keep it from the hands of those who would misuse its power.
Hermione came forward and showed the older woman that the necklace was now around her neck. "I don't know what happened Kara. I was walking past the case and the necklace just leapt up and flew through the glass. It clasped itself around my neck and now it won't come off. I swear I didn't do anything to make it do it!"
Drakkara could see that the girl was clearly upset, probably thinking that the older woman wouldn't believe her story and would think she'd broken the case to take the necklace for her own. The tall woman crouched down and took Hermiones' chin in her hand, raising the girls' head so she could look at her. "It's alright Hermione, I believe you. It seems the guardian has chosen a new innocent to protect." Drakkara drew the young woman into her arms and gave her a hug of reassurance. "Don't worry over it dear, that necklace is a powerful form of protection for its wearer, it's nothing bad I assure you."
While Drakkara was busy talking to Hermione, Remus drew his wand and repaired the glass case. When the woman stood and looped an arm around the brunette girls' shoulders she said, "Alright, I think we've had about enough in this room. Let's move on to the last chamber. Anyone who wants to come back here later is welcome, but the children will be wanting dinner soon so we don't have much time to wander about."
Before she could lead them off Albus interjected, "Drakkara, before we leave I was wondering if you would allow Molly and Minerva to have a look at that cold drake hide. Both of them are excellent seamstresses and may be able to aid you in making the protective clothing we need."
The violet-eyed woman nodded and led the group back to the material cabinet. She opened it up and pulled out some of the hide. She'd cut it up into manageable pieces before storing it away and now handed one of the large pieces to Molly for the two women to examine. "It's already been treated and just needs to be cut to pattern in the measurements we need and sewn. It's not the easiest material in the world to work with, but the protection it offers is well worth the effort." She explained as they looked closely at the hide and felt it for texture.
"I think I can work with this, what about you Minerva?" Molly said as she turned to the deputy headmistress.
Minerva nodded as she replied, "Yes, it shouldn't be too difficult. Albus, I suggest you also ask Poppy to help with making the clothes. Between myself, Molly, Drakkara, and Poppy we could probably outfit the Order by Halloween."
Once Albus agreed to ask the school mediwitch for her help Drakkara pulled out three more pieces of the hide while the other women refolded the first piece. Minerva, Molly, and Poppy would each start with a single piece of the hide and Drakkara would supply more as needed. Carrying their bundles, the three women led the way to the spot where they'd come in and found another row of keystones.
Holding her piece of silvery hide in one arm, Drakkara used her free hand to open the door to the last chamber she wanted her friends to see, snickering internally and wishing she had a camera handy for when Severus saw her potions lab. The chamber she led her friends into was even larger than the previous two. It held several rooms and she led them through each one as a group.
Closest to the door where they'd come in was what she called her hobby room. It was equipped for doing many types of craft projects and she laid her piece of hide on a table set with a sewing machine and supplies. The women, being more craft inclined than the men, complimented Drakkara on the wonderful room.
Next down the hall was her study, a smaller version of the office she had in another chamber. She'd designed this room specifically to aid her in translating the many scrolls and books she had from their original language to English. At the moment, there were several ancient looking texts written in Latin and Spanish sitting on the desk next to the computer.
They exited the study with Albus asking Drakkara if he could possibly borrow some of the translated texts he'd seen. The last room on that side of the hall was a greenhouse that would make her former Herbology professor proud, if not a little jealous. They wandered around among the plants for a few minutes, until Drakkara had to smack Severus' hands away from one of her rarer plants whose leaves were used in several types of complex potions.
If Drakkaras' library had made the nasty tempered potions master decide to be civil to her, her greenhouse made him reluctantly decide to extend the civility to Black and Lupin. But the last room she led the group into made the dour, sarcastic man decide to do whatever it took to get back in the womans good graces.
Severus had stepped into a potion master's dream come true. A well ventilated, well lighted potions laboratory, completely equipped with everything one would need to create any potion known to wizarding kind. He closely examined the work benches, cauldrons, and equipment in the room. In one corner a large cauldron held a bubbling potion in the making. He tried to determine what it was by its appearance and smell, but found himself stumped.
As he mentally ran through every potion he knew, Drakkara stepped up to check the mixture. She took a stirring rod from its place on the workbench and gave it a few stirs. "Coming along nicely. Tell me Severus, can you make a guess as to what this is?"
The greasy haired man sighed in defeat; "I haven't a clue. I would hazard a guess that it is mostly mineral in content which I can't fathom a purpose for, with a few plant and animal ingredients but it is nothing I've ever come across. Something of your own invention perhaps?"
"Excellent deduction on both counts. It's my own version of the Wolfsbane potion. I've tested it over the last year on two lycanthropes that I felt I could trust to keep it a secret until I'd fully tested its effects and proven its worth over a defined period. I plan to release the recipe to the public in the coming months. It makes the lycanthropic transformation almost painless and allows the werewolf to retain his or her human mind." Drakkara explained, proud of her discovery.
Severus gaped at his former classmate, the only challenge he'd had for the top spot in potions during their school career. He'd been extremely pleased that she'd chosen DADA as her course of mastery rather than potions, as it provided him with less competition for the top marks. "Learn from a master and then go them one better. The master I apprenticed with invented the Wolfsbane potion, I've been trying to create a potion with these properties for the last six years."
Everyone was gazing with awe at the two potion makers. Remus was fighting to refrain from jumping with joy and crying with relief when he heard his former fiancée speak about the properties of her potion. The others sent happy smiles toward their werewolf friend, pleased that with the aid of this potion his transformations wouldn't put so much strain on his body.
Severus was looking at Drakkara with respect as he said, "You have my congratulations, from one maker of potions to another. What do you call it?"
Violet eyes turned to gaze with love at Remus as she replied, "I named it Lupins Hope. I doubt a complete cure for lycanthropy will be found in our lifetime. If I'd found a cure I would've called it Lupins Dream, but Hope is all I could accomplish."
Tears filled the werewolf's eyes as he stepped around the workbench and embraced the raven-haired woman. "I can live with hope Love. It's more than I ever thought I'd have in this lifetime. You never cease to amaze me Kara, I doubt you ever will." Remus said quietly, releasing Drakkara and holding her at arms length. He took her ethereally lovely face between his large hands and lowered his lips to meet hers in a gentle kiss. "Thank you." He whispered against her mouth.
She caressed her former lovers' face gently and kissed him again, "You're very much welcome Remy, I'm so happy I was able to do this for you." She whispered as her arms looped around his waist for another hug.
The others turned away in order to give the pair a few moments of privacy and continued looking around the lab. It was Hermione who first found the ingredients storeroom and the girl let out a squeal of delight which brought the others over to investigate, Severus' long legs bringing him into the room first.
Onyx eyes skimmed over the rows and rows of potions ingredients, the vials and jars holding every ingredient he'd ever heard of from the common to the extremely rare and difficult to acquire. Hanging from the ceiling were several plants, drying in preparation for use. Long fingers reached out to caress a large bottle marked 'Unicorn Blood Willingly Given'. The silver fluid was one of the rarest of all potion ingredients, since it was almost unheard of for a unicorn to willingly donate its blood.
It was obvious to the group that their potions master was currently in a state of bliss. The man turned his dark eyes on Drakkara with a pleading expression on his normally hard features. Ignoring the fact that he was about to plead for use of this room in front of his colleagues and, even worse, two of his Gryffindor students, he said, "Would you allow me the use of this room and some of these ingredients Drakkara?"
Surprised that he'd gotten up the gumption to ask her, she responded, "Of course. Just be frugal with the rarer ingredients. As you can imagine, I had to harvest most of them myself and they weren't easy to come by. You'd probably also like to read through my collection of potion books in the library. Why don't we all head back there and get out of the trunk."
Back in the library, everyone except Severus and Drakkara climbed up the ladder and out of the trunk. The woman led the way to the bookcase that held her large assortment of potions texts. As the dark haired man examined the books he asked, "I realize its asking a lot from you to allow me the use of your lab, ingredients, and books, and I thank you. Since you're planning on releasing the recipe for Lupins Hope to the public, I was wondering if you might answer a question for me regarding it?"
Drakkara nodded, anticipating the question. "You're wondering at the large mineral content I assume?"
"Yes, I've never seen a potion that relies heavily on minerals. The ones you used didn't seem to be of a metallic nature as it would've shown in the color, and I've never heard of non metallic stones used in potions." The man replied.
Telling Severus to stay behind, Drakkara moved off into the stacks. She returned a few minutes later with a thick volume entitled 'Magic of the Earth, the Power of Stone'. "I found this book while I was living in the muggle world. Wizards have known that some stones had magical properties for centuries. We enchant stones to make charms, imbue them with spells, and use hollowed out crystals to hold more volatile potions and ingredients."
"When I found this book, I too had never heard or thought of using non metallic stones in potions. But as I read through it and saw the properties of the different stones, I considered the possibilities. I watched a muggle who called himself a witch doctor use several stones set in a necklace to alleviate the pain of a woman with cancer, and it seemed to work. I began experimenting with crushed stones in existing potions and saw improvement. Lupins Hope is the first potion I experimented with from scratch using stones with properties to speed healing, provide inner balance, and aid transformation." She explained, handing the book to her colleague.
Severus took the text and pages through it, skimming over descriptions of different stones and gems and their powers. "If the results of Lupins Hope are as powerful as you say, then this is a true discovery for wizarding kind. If you don't mind I'd like to borrow this book and examine it. Do you have a selection of stones in your storeroom?"
The woman nodded, and the pair headed toward the ladder. "Yes, I have many of the stones listed in that book. When you're ready to make your own experiments with them let me know. I'll provide you access to my experiment notes and a list of the potions I've already experimented with and seen improvement in for the adding of crushed stone. I'm not a potions master Severus, that was your love, not mine. Lupins Hope is the only potion I had the desire to create. I look forward to seeing what a true master of potions can do with this information."
"You may not be a master, but you could have been. Lupins Hope and the discovery of stones as potion ingredients proves your worth in the field. I believe your potion and insights could earn you honorary membership to the Potion Masters Guild if you desired it." Severus replied, truly impressed with the womans accomplishments and unable to hide it behind his normal sarcastic mask.
They'd reached the ladder by the time Severus finished speaking. "Don't you have to be nominated for honorary membership? From what I've heard the Potion Masters Guild is as difficult to get into as the Defense Masters Guild, not that there are many Defense Masters left in Britain." She heard voices coming from above and continued, "We should talk more about potions and using stones at a later time, perhaps after the school year commences."
The greasy haired man nodded, wanting to say more but not daring to as yet. He preceded Drakkara up the ladder and out of the trunk, then watched silently as she was drawn into a conversation with Minerva and Molly. He drifted over to continue his watching from the shadows, until the face of Sirius Black blocked his field of vision. "You listen to me Snape. Kara made me promise I'd stop antagonizing you, much to my disappointment. I see the way you're watching her and I'm warning you to stop it now. You had her once and screwed it up royally. She and Remus belong together, and I won't allow you to try to come between them. She may have softened toward you over the years and be willing to be friendly with you again, but you'll never have her back, so don't even try."
"If you think I don't realize that Black, then you're stupider than I thought you were. Now get out of my way, I came here to speak with the Headmaster and he seems to be free now." Severus pushed past his life long antagonist and crossed the room to engage Albus in conversation.