Summary: AU, SSHG, Crack, In a world where Lily lived, life was not perfect for Severus Snape. Hope came with the arrival of Hermione Granger who first became his apprentice, friend, and then so much more. But old friends are not happy with his happiness, and one spell changes everything.
Beta Love: Dragon and the Rose, Dutchgirl01
Barely
Chapter Four
The day the child realises that all adults are imperfect, he becomes an adolescent, the day he forgives them he becomes an adult, the day he forgives himself, he becomes wise.
Alden Nowlan
"You're such a ruddy toerag, James Potter!" Hermione hissed as she stooped to pick up her books from the floor.
The mop-haired boy grinned with such smug arrogance that Hermione's hair stood up on the back of her neck. Her wild curls seemed to rise up as energy zipped and sparked along the strands.
The black-haired boy next to James only grinned cheekily, pulling James along with him, jerking his head to keep moving.
Severus handed her the fallen books with a scowl, his silence a testament to his anger.
Hermione's expression softened, and she touched his arm. "Thank you, Severus."
Severus nodded, his impossibly black eyes flicking towards the space the other boys had left from only a moment before.
Somehow, the boys that had started out their Hogwarts' careers throwing mashed potatoes and peas at the Head Table had formed a lingering grudge against her and Severus. She and Severus had done their very best to ignore them, keeping mostly to themselves and their studies as usual, but it was almost as if the wizards were always looking for trouble—and for any and all ways to bring it upon their most favourite targets.
After having received a rather extensive formal apology from the Head of the Noble and Most Ancient House of Black, Orion Black, as well as the head of the Potter family, Hermione had believed the matter to be settled. But if anything, Potter and Black simply became more insidious with their pranks, and now they had the help of two others, a thin, sandy-haired boy named Remus Lupin and a short, obnoxious young hellion named Peter Pettigrew whose table manners (or lack thereof) resembled those of a starving vermin rooting through a Muggle dumpster rather than a hungry teenaged boy.
Hermione said Lupin smelled strange, and the strength of the odd scent seemed to rise and fall throughout the month. After a few experimental sniffs of something Lupin had touched, they both boggled at what exactly they were smelling.
Severus thought they were both a little too inexperienced in their Animagus forms to understand what they were scenting, and Hermione tended to agree. So, they began to teach themselves various scents, drilling each other with scent bottles with samples they collected until they knew almost every one without having to think too hard.
When Minerva caught them sticking their noses into bottles and sniffing, she realised what they were up to and laughed, teaching them a spell to make collecting scents easier as well as how to transfigure small glass vials out of sand and make their collection grow all the more exponentially. When DCI Nora Matthews found out, she started drilling them on scents much like how they trained the sniffer dogs that rooted out drugs and tracked lost children in the Muggle world, and that added a bit of excitement to their weekend lessons.
Severus, Hermione discovered, had a very sensitive nose even when he wasn't shifted, and there were many scents he could recognise without having to change form including the bitter almond scent of cyanide (something Nora tested him on just out of sheer curiosity).
Hermione, however, scented far better as a feline, tasting the more interesting scents using the back of her mouth as well as using her nose. In her human form, she could hear things that Severus could not. They decided that teamwork was their best option and it was good they got along.
Nora and Minerva heartily agreed.
And one day, the pair had an epiphany together, when they realised in their Animagus forms they could still understand each other, and the mystery of why he hadn't been able to understand her after that first initial shift fell right into their laps.
"I'm such an idiot," Severus said with a sigh.
Hermione shook her head. "We're much better practised now. Maybe you can even understand me when you're like this."
"You've never had a problem understanding me," Severus said.
Hermione shrugged. "I guess I just expected to understand you, so I did."
"That sounds pretty strange."
Hermione made a face. "I'm not an expert."
Severus sighed. "Ok. Change back and let me try again."
Foop.
A somewhat larger cub now sat in Hermione's place. She itched one ear with her hind foot.
She stared at him.
Severus stared back at her.
He frowned, frustrated.
Suddenly he heard a mental giggle in his head.
"You prat!" Severus accused. "You were saying nothing on purpose!"
Hermione rowled and lay on her back, legs up. See, I told you could do it!
Severus slumped. "I suppose."
Hermione rolled up and hopped into his lap, purring. I knew you could. I wouldn't have teased you if I hadn't believed in that.
Severus couldn't resist rubbing her furry tummy. He huffed. "I'm glad you had such faith in me."
Always will! Hermione said cheerfully, her tail lashing as she mock-mauled his hand.
"I think you're bigger now."
You're taller.
"Am I?"
Mmhmm. The cub yawned widely, exposing all of her pearly whites. I really want some chicken right now.
"That's your inner feline talking."
Can we get some chicken for supper, pleaaaase?
Severus shook his head and scooped the cub up. "Fine."
Hermione's joyous mental whoop caused Severus to smile despite himself. No matter how bad the day was, her warmth always seemed to penetrate his brooding and fill in the cracks he didn't even know he had.
"Let's go then," he muttered grumpily, but he was smiling on the inside.
Most people thought Severus had a feline familiar, and that was fine with him. Hermione was such a pill in her feline form. She was always following her whiskers into the next thing that caught her attention whether it be a mouse, Fawkes, the school owls, or (much to his horror) one of the huge centaurs that stood guard at the edge of the forest.
Fortunately, the centaur had been friendly, charmed by Hermione's furry feline wiles.
They named her Dapples in the Sun, Sunspot for brevity but not out of disrespect. They gave Severus the name Rowan, saying that his courage and protective instincts when it came to his friend were very like the Rowan tree. Faces painted, and inducted into the herd, Severus found the centaur had adopted him by nightfall and all because one curious cub followed her nose straight into a centaur leg and then introduced herself by dropping the freshly killed rabbit she had caught at their hoof.
The centaur had taken the generous offering and invited them to stay with them. They, unlike Severus, had no trouble at all understanding her.
Severus and Hermione were gathered with the foals and taught as they were, and when they came back to the school with faces painted in earth pigments and smelling like woodsmoke, Minerva only asked how her herd was doing.
She batted not an eyelash.
Time with the centaur was added to their weekly schedule, and the centaur had given their permission to visit whenever they were able.
"I think she knew we were going to find them," Severus said.
"How could she have known when we didn't even know?" Hermione said, boggled.
"Foresight," he replied. "Not that divination rubbish. She knew we'd bump into them eventually. She obviously did at some point."
"She's a teacher. Surely they've all met the centaur," Hermione speculated.
Severus shook his head. "I don't think so. Magorians sire, Alder, said that very few humans ever visit the forest and even fewer show them proper respect."
"Good thing I had the rabbit," Hermione said.
"Never been so glad for your hungry stomach and prowling instincts," Severus commented. "The books say nothing about first meetings with centaur should come with an offering of food. It was sheer luck that we met them with food in hand."
Hermione smiled. Their faces were still painted with the earth pigment, and tradition in the naming ceremony said that it could only be washed off by the rain as acceptance of the gods. It was due to rain in the morning, so they were stuck with pigment over their face until then.
Potter had wasted no time in making fun of them, but Hermione and Severus had been far too elated by their experience to be brought low by the immature wizard's malarkey. Besides, they had been given permission to enter the Forbidden Forest, and they knew Potter and his band of swaggering tag-a-longs did not.
Severus yawned, stretching.
"You should sleep, Severus," Hermione said. "You have that potions project you're working on tomorrow."
Severus rubbed his eyes. "I know, I know, but—" He shook his head. "I was supposed to work on it today when we ended up in the forest."
Hermione frowned. "I'm sorry. I just really, really needed a rabbit."
"You didn't even get to eat the rabbit."
"We gained friends? And—adoption?"
Severus laughed. "I guess. Alder makes a better da than Tobias ever did."
"You're not mad are you?"
"Mad? Whatever for?"
"Me distracting you from your project."
Severus huffed. "It ended well. I know I was complaining, but this—this was good. We make friends. Allies even. That seems important with Potter running around trying to turn the school against us."
He paused, thinking. "Tell you what. Make it up to me."
Hermione tilted her head.
"Help me with that transfiguration project we have to do tomorrow, so I can get to my potions project sooner."
Hermione brightened. "Okay!"
Severus stood. "Come on, let's brush our teeth. I know you get all bent out of shape if you don't."
Hermione scoffed, but she was up and toothbrush in hand in a flash.
Minerva, watching silently from her grading desk, only smiled as her apprentices put themselves to bed.
Dear Nora,
I think you'll be happy to learn that Hermione and Severus have been up to their necks in busyness lately. They've managed to meet the centaur, and as you suspected they made friends and were adopted in a matter of one afternoon. Both of them are furiously working on the projects I assigned them, and they working together very well.
It makes me happy to know they are relying on each other instead of trying to do everything themselves.
Albus seems determined to separate them as often as possible to "mingle" with their respective houses. I don't know what he's up to, honestly. I understand that he's very strongly invested in the old house system, but they are my apprentices, and I care about their overall health—something I don't think being forced into mingling with the seat of her main abusers are.
I'm not quite sure what to do about Mr Potter and his friends, Sirius Black, Remus Lupin, and Peter Pettigrew. They seem to be forming what the Muggles like to call a schoolyard gang. They are always together, cackling like a pack of hyenas, heckling other students, pulling outrageous pranks, and sometimes committing a variety of malicious misdeeds that never fail to make my teeth itch in frustration.
I've caught them numerous times, and I've punished them repeatedly, but they just seem to take it as a challenge to get better at being bad. Something is strangely off about them, though. They are getting into areas where they don't belong, and I am not sure how. I hear them, but then I don't see them. I tell you, Nora, it's driving me mad.
I have, however, arranged for them to have Sunday free for your outing and "canine" training. I will transfigure them both into a pair of German shepherds for the day and drop them off for training. They are very excited. You're going to have a number of people wondering where they can get such intelligent "dogs." I'll be around four in the afternoon to turn them back and we can go for dinner.
I hope things are alright with you, Nora. I know there have been some stirrings of increased violent crime in the Muggle districts. I truly worry for you.
Be well,
Minerva
Her seal, the rampant cat
Canine Trainees Bust Drug Smugglers!
The London canine training programme just gained a lot of support today after two of their experimental trainee sniffer dogs discovered approximately ten kilos of cocaine during a patrol exercise in the Port of London. While other contraband was also discovered, the drugs were a great victory both for law enforcement and the bid to gain public support for the new dog training programme.
"We hadn't expected to actually find anything today," admitted canine training officer Gordon Davies. "We were just drilling, testing training plants, and suddenly the two dogs, Simon and Hazel, took off like a shot, zooming past the plants we had set up and ran straight to the real deal!"
The contraband, which was found hidden in a carefully concealed cargo hold, has been seized by the authorities and both the owner of the ship and the company itself are currently being investigated.
The future looks very promising indeed for the London canine training programme, and while Simon and Hazel came here on loan from a law enforcement facility in Scotland, they paved the way for obtaining and training more canine comrades to fight crime in London.
"You are not allowed here, human foals," the stallion centaur snapped, his hulking size looming over them thrice over. He jerked them up by their collars as the cloak they had only been partially hidden under fluttered to the ground.
One of the boys paled and frantically tried to grab for it, but the centaur reared, jerked the four of them up by their robes and carried them back to the edge of the forest at a full gallop.
"No! The cloak!" the mop-haired boy yelled.
"You don't understand! We were here to visit our friends!" another protested.
The centaur stallion slammed them down on their collective rumps at the edge of the forest where both McGonagall and Dumbledore stood waiting for them, looking quite displeased.
"The Forbidden Forest is—forbidden. And for very good reason," Dumbledore said, stroking his silvery beard. "The hard-won peace between Hogwarts and the resident centaur herd is not to be tested. Only those specifically invited by them are permitted within the forest.
"Do you always have your students out here testing the rules, Headmaster?" a man with a quill and parchment asked as he scribbled notes.
Dumbledore's jaw set. "No. Normally our students, while occasionally guilty of a youthful error in judgement, do not wander off into the Forbidden Forest when they know full well it is strictly forbidden."
The man, obviously a Ministry education official of some sort, continued to quill away at his notes. He looked up suddenly, staring at one of the boys with clear interest. "You're Lyall Lupin's boy," the man declared. His eyes narrowed, and the boy's green eyes went wide and fearful.
"These foals claimed they were in the forest to see their friends," the centaur put in, stomping one hoof firmly on the ground. "But they are not friends of the centaur."
"We saw them go in-OW!" Black said, yelping as he received a swift kick to the groin from his mate.
"Saw whom?" Minerva asked icily.
"Evans and Snape!" Peter blurted, yelping as James elbowed him sharply in the ribs.
"Obviously they are not your friends if you cannot even address them by their given names," Minerva bit out, her jaw setting into a fine line.
"The foals you speak of we claim as members of the herd," the centaur said with another stomp of the hoof. "They have the right to come and go as they are our own, and they have been taught the safe ways in which to walk. Those which are thankfully free of the Acromantulas and whatever else the half-giant inflicts upon us."
Dumbledore flinched and cleared his throat uncomfortably. "Glaucus, I am truly sorry that the herd has been disturbed by the intruders in your forest. What can we do to make this right between us?"
"All students other than those claimed by the herd or escorted by the teachers and staff of Hogwarts are to be absolutely forbidden from entering our forest from this day forward. Should this warning be ignored, they will forfeit our protection due to their status as human foals. All that they have littered upon our beloved forest shall be taken by right of the Herd."
Dumbledore nodded. "That is fair. I—"
"No!" James cried. "I have to get—"
"I have warned you many times now that your rule-breaking has been treading the fine line between mere harmless fun and the truly dangerous," Dumbledore said sternly. "The Forbidden Forest is a very dangerous place that I have consistently warned students not to enter without supervision, and whatever it is you may have lost in there is not worth your life. You are only lucky that Glaucus was there to bring you back to us unharmed."
"No one would have seen us!"Peter blurted. Then, his eyes wide, he immediately spewed out a bunch of nonsensical reasons.
"Obviously that was not the case," Dumbledore said as he eyed the obviously suspicious centaur. "Detention for the lot of you with Mr Filch where you will do whatever he requires of you every evening for the next month—at the end of which I will evaluate your progress. For the dangerous situation you all have put yourself in, I will take fifty points from Gryffindor from each of you. Now back to the dorms with you at once. I will warn you only once, should I catch wind of any further mischief, there will be much more severe consequences than letters being sent to your parents via owl."
"Glaucus, my most sincere apologies to the herd for any distress or disruption that this evening may have caused the herd," Dumbledore added.
"Foals should be kept under a far stricter watch until they are grown enough to hunt their buck alone with tools of their own making," Glaucus said grimly. "They are lucky they did not run into the spiders." With that, the centaur snorted and walked back into the forest.
"Undersecretary, I must apologise for the unfortunate detour this evening, shall we now resume our discussion and tour of Hogwarts?"
"Yes, Headmaster, that would be acceptable," the Ministry wizard said with an approving nod.
"Minerva?"
The Scottish witch turned to look at him after watching the young wizards tuck tail and go toward the castle. "Yes, Headmaster?"
"Are you satisfied with the punishment of your House?"
Minerva nodded grimly. "My unhappiness for the shadow across my House is overwhelmed by my anger that they have eluded being seen until now. I can only be thankful that Glaucus has better senses than I."
"Yes," Dumbledore said with a sigh. "It is good that he was there to retrieve them for us."
"And what did you young foals find tonight?" Alder said with a whicker.
Severus held out seemingly nothing, and Alder frowned until Hermione's feline head popped out of "nothingness."
Alder reached out to touch the "nothing" find and found his hand touching a bundle of sheer fabric. His eyes grew wide. "An invisibility cloak. How unbelievably rare. Glaucus said he saw only the rump of the foals at first, so this is certainly why."
"You have done quite well, Rowan, Sunspot," the elder centaur said. "Did you have any help?"
"Snowberry, Briarfoot, and Slipleaf helped us remain unseen while Glaucus confronted the intruders," Severus offered.
"Very good, and what did you learn?"
"That most people are too noisy, even when they are entirely unseen."
Alder smiled. "It is a good lesson. Now, let us show you what we do with things that are too powerful for the world of men."
"Eaow!"Hermione chirped, ears perked forward.
Severus tapped her lightly on the nose. "Curiosity killed the cat."
Hermione wrinkled her muzzle. "Eaow!"
Alder laughed. "Come, there are some things that are done with the entire herd."
Alder lit a cedar bundle and wafted the smoke across a stone altar lined with furs, stones, claws, bones, and skulls that were saved from various hunts. "Lord Hades, the Unseen, the Giver of Wealth. Hear us. We, the Free People of the Forest call to you. Please forgive us for calling you away from your domain and wife in the moment of our need. Forgive us, Goddess Persephone, for this moment of indulgence."
Alder set the incense down in the bowl and bowed his head, and all the other centaurs did the same.
The colours in the surroundings seemed to slowly leach away, and the air grew chilly as tendrils of mist rose up from the ground. The mist grew thicker and seemed to take on form.
The form of a dark-haired man from the waist up and a blacker-than-black stallion from the waist down—
"Children of Chiron, the herd of the Enlightened One, what great moment would have you call upon Hades?" The voice was neither cold nor warm, not angry or happy. It was every bit as neutral as the domain he tended.
"Great Hades," Alder said, keeping his eyes carefully cast down. "We have come across an object in the hands of men that disturbs the fine balance of skill and prowess. It was touched by a far greater power. To be held by mortals would be a true gift, but this gift was found in the hands of callow youth, used to invade our safe lands, and to bring misfortune upon those unaware of its existence. We ask you, Great Hades, to take this thing far away from the hands of mortals so that it may tempt no other to use it to torment anyone else."
Hades snorted, mist rolling off his body. "And what thing would you think requires a god's removal?"
Alder jutted his jaw, and the group of foals that had found the cloak deposited it together on the altar.
"This is what we found, Lord Hades."
Hades was as still as stone. It seemed as if the air had gone utterly still, as if nothing, not even dust fell.
"My cloak," he said after what seemed like a century. "Young foals, put it upon my back."
The foals, including Severus and Hermione, carefully lifted the cloak together and drew it across the god-centaur's back. They fastened it carefully, their fingers working with the fabric by feel as much as sight, as their vision was unreliable. They stepped back carefully, waiting for either Hades' approval or wrath.
For a moment, his body seems to disappear, shimmer, and reform, and the god let out a soft sigh of relief. His eyes glowed as he let out a breath.
"My cloak, how I have missed it. Long ago, it was how I visited my Persephone during the seasons when her mother demanded her daughter's presence for the growth of the world. While she was the goddess of the harvest and agriculture, my wife is the goddess of growth and spring. The mortals called her Kore, but it was but another word for maiden, and hardly a word to describe the life held within her grasp. She wove me this cloak that I might visit her in secret and hide from her mother's domineering gaze. Her mother had held the world hostage, cursing the world that its plants would wither and die unless her daughter, my wife and queen, was returned to her. The world prayed to Zeus, my brother, to save them."
Hades let out a soft snort. "But because Persephone was wise, she had made sure to eat a very specific fruit of my Underworld, the pomegranate. So, Zeus decreed that while Demeter could have her daughter for the tilling of the land, I could not be denied my wife forever. But my wife was not without her own needs. She longed to see me as I did her, so she wove this cloak from the threads of night and the Underworld that I might visit her and yet remain unseen."
Hades stomped the ground with his front hooves. "But three brothers came to my Underworld, defying my dog, Cerberus, and crossing into the lands that they were not dead in which to see, breaking the rules—they did not believe in gods. They did not believe in death. They asked three boons of me, one for each of them, and they promised to leave the Underworld and release the spell they cast upon Cerebus. And the one—he asked for my cloak, knowing that it was special."
Hades blinked slowly. "The Underworld needs Cerebus to keep the border between the dead and the living. I could not deny them. My cloak and the one who took it, disappeared from sight, never to be seen until the time of their death, often so weak and feeble that they spent too long suffering in secret. But even in their deaths, they did not return my cloak, no. They passed it down from father to son, generation after generation—defying me. Denying me my visits to Persephone."
"And even my wife's anguish was great, so much so that sometimes the world grew dry when it should be fertile, arid when it should have been moist—great deserts spread across the once fertile land as each season passed and we could not meet but for a few months out of a year."
Hades let out a long sigh. "You have done a great thing for me, children of Chiron. You are as enlightened as he, following in the footsteps, not of the violence of your beginnings, but the knowledge and wisdom of the one who was not, and you have seen past your ancestors' prejudices and adopted into your own those who would bring you great honour and friendship."
His lips pulled upward into a small smile. "For this, I grant your people a forest that shall never be lacking in game as long as proper respect is paid for each death. The trees and plants shall remain ever-bearing throughout the seasons, a gift from my wife, my beloved Persephone. Tonight, shelter with each other and be safe, for a frigid cold will descend upon this forest, and all that were never meant to be here shall perish. When you wake, my Mark will be upon all of thee that no one doubts whose favour you carry, and the forest shall be renewed—a home fit for the Free People of Chiron who returned my cloak to me. Now, come before me, and receive my blessings."
One by one, Hades took each foal to him, pressing a kiss to their forehead as he painted their skin with alabaster white pigment, and a laurel of cypress formed around their heads, growing from their hair as a living crown, woven with the precious metals of the earth and natural, uncut gemstones whose beauty needed no cuts to make them stunning. A dark curving stripe formed along their backs, the mark of the serpent and symbol of Hades.
He did the same for each of the centaurs, young and old, taking the time to paint each face, trace the stripe down their backs, and breathe his boons into their lungs.
"Live a long and prosperous life, children of Chiron," Hades said as he began to fade away. "Only then, shall I welcome you to my Underworld in peace and homecoming."
With both solemness and celebration, the centaur returned to their shelters, tucking all the foals beside them. Severus slept nestled with the young Magorian, Bane, and Firenze, a bundle of feline fur nestled possessively draped over his arm and tucked in the space between his arm and body simultaneously.
And while the entire herd slept soundly until morning, the wildest and fiercest of winter storms blew over the Scottish Highlands, burying it in mountains of snow like none had seen in a great many years, if ever.
Many throughout Scotland would say that while the amount of snow they discovered in the morning was truly astonishing, they had never slept so deeply and peacefully in their lives.
But those at Hogwarts wondered why a certain half-giant wouldn't stop sobbing into his tablecloth-sized hanky for weeks afterwards…
"Fancy yourself a queen, do you?" Potter hissed as Hermione walked by his table on her way to assist one of the first years with their homework during study hall.
Some of the other students chortled quietly into their books at the joke, but Hermione said nothing, ignoring his taunts as she continued on her way. It had been over a year since Hades had first given His boon to the herd, but many hadn't done their research enough to recognise the symbols of Hades' favour on the two apprentices—Potter and his gang most definitely hadn't.
Being adopted by the centaur, the pair had found themselves facing a great deal of ridicule from those who did not understand and didn't bother taking the time to learn.
Strangely, the headmaster seemed to grasp what many others did not. His attempts to force them to mingle with their houses had suddenly stopped. His face had paled when he noticed the laurels upon them, looking as if he'd seen a ghost.
The Ministry was now sending a team of education officials to Hogwarts every few months to check on things after the "incident in the forest" and some said it was because Orion Black and Fleamont Potter had outright demanded more oversight over the school that had allowed their sons to dishonour themselves so horribly.
The truth, however, remained ever elusive.
The scions of the two great pureblood families, however, didn't seem to care at all what their family thought of their shameful behaviour, and their heckling and harassment didn't seem to stop with Severus and Hermione. The Hufflepuffs were tired of the lavatory taps randomly springing to life and flooding their dormitories, the Slytherins were angry that their firsties were constantly being hit with curses and hexes in the hallways, and the Ravenclaws had stopped socialising in the common areas altogether, preferring to hole up in their own common room where they were safely out of the line of fire.
Severus was finding Potter's ever-obnoxious behaviour more than a little annoying, even with McGonagall and every other professor practically bringing down Gryffindor House down to their last few rubies in the counters and a virtual zero in overall house points.
It was like the group didn't even care that they were being punished.
They'd caught Severus off guard a few times with their juvenile pranks, but since they had caught more than just Severus, it was pretty hard to prove that they were targeting him specifically. It had become far more insidious of late than just dung bombs and slime traps, and some angry parents were now writing to the headmaster to complain.
The headmaster, however, was proving to be frustratingly unhelpful.
What good was giving them more detention when they obviously didn't give a ruddy damn about detentions?
"I think our master is writing to the Blacks and Potters again," Hermione noted as she scribbled out another series of Arithmancy calculations for her homework.
"Pity it won't accomplish anything," Severus said gloomily as he rubbed the bridge of his nose with his fingers. He'd spent the bulk of the lunch hour scrubbing the godawful stench of something exceedingly foul off his skin and hair that went above and beyond anything that he had ever experienced before.
"It's like they don't care about anything at all," Hermione observed with a sigh. "About themselves or their house or even what the teachers think."
"Not everyone cares what their teachers think," Severus replied.
"But they are teachers!" Hermione said, visibly horrified.
Severus gave her a look. "Not everyone cares. Ob-viously."
Hermione wrinkled her nose.
"Just like we can't always get along with our families," Severus pointed out. "Not everyone gets along with their teachers."
Hermione shuddered, having problems wrapping her mind around the heresy of disrespecting one's teachers.
Severus rolled his eyes at her. "You're impossible."
Hermione puffed up at once. "What?!"
"Seriously, stop worrying about what other people think about their teachers and finish your homework," he huffed.
Hermione pouted, but she quickly returned to scribbling equations and focusing on her homework.
Severus eyed her as she refocused as a tug of a smile pulled at his mouth. He plotted out his potions project for the week with a heavy, active quill.
"James, I swear to Merlin," Frank Longbottom cursed as much of the Gryffindor side of the potions classroom blew up amid a series of epic cauldron meltdowns from the surrounding desks, "I'm going to make you eat those sodding dung bombs!"
"Whoa, mate, it was just an accident!" James protested, fanning his hands out just before Frank did the most unwizardly thing of all and punched him directly in the face, completely ignoring the other wizard's attempt to placate his fellow Gryffindor.
Angry glares came from most of the other students with half of the class hurling their breakfasts all over the floor as the hideous stench began to spread throughout the room.
"We're taking O.W.L.s next year, and all you can manage to do is constantly piss off everyone around you! You and your bloody band of immature little sycophants who can't even think without your bloody permission and the others are too afraid they might grow enough of an actual spine to tell you off!"
Alice Wood hastily cast a spell to suck up the stench and channel it into a compact funnel cloud, her button nose wrinkling in obvious disgust.
"Whoa, hey, it was just a—" Sirius attempted to defend his best mate.
Frank jerked his wand sharply, and Sirius' lips clamped together and sealed shut. He tumbled-staggered with his arms frantically windmilling about, knocking both himself and James into the swirling cyclone of stench that Alice had used to funnel away the dungbomb fueled potions disaster.
The pair choked and flailed, tumbling arse over tit into the Hufflepuff side of the classroom, and the few cauldrons left standing immediately began to burble and boil in an imminent chain reaction explosion—
KABOOOOOOOOOOOOOOM!
"I swear I left the room for only a few minutes to speak with the headmaster," Horace said as Poppy finished wrapping both boys up like mummies.
"The ointment needs to set on the skin for a day, so the bandages are going to have to stay at least for that if not more depending on how severe the burns are and how long they take to heal," Pomfrey said with a put-upon sigh. "I've already sent owls to their respective parents, of course, because this is hardly a run of the mill sort of accident and their recovery may prove problematic. There might be complications."
Horace slowly rubbed his temples in an attempt to ward off a migraine. "I have no idea what got into them," he said. "Those boys seem bound and determined to bring misery to others, no matter the cost to themselves and their fellows."
Madam Pomfrey frowned. "Perhaps some sort of curse, jinx, or hex," she speculated. "An extraordinary compulsion of great power. An obsession rooted in magic. I do not have training in the kind of diagnostic spells that would be required to determine what we're dealing with here. We would need a consultation with a mind healer of the highest order. Even then, we'd need to get permission from the parents."
"Somehow, I don't think that will be a problem, Poppy," Horace said with a frown. "They've been troublemakers ever since their first year."
The wrinkles around Poppy's eyes became even more pronounced. "I will consult with the greatest mind healer I know," she said, "but I guarantee you that Albus won't like it."
"If they're a healer, why would it matter?" Horace said with a look of confusion.
Poppy's jaw set. "He wanted to help heal Albus' younger sister, Ariana, back in the day. Albus refused to even consider his brand of untested magic. He flatly forbade it. And we both know how that ended."
Horace's eyes widened. "Ariana could have been cured?"
"Very likely. He and his magic are ancient. He's lived through more lifetimes than we mere mortals can fathom."
"Is it true then, he's immortal?" Horace said, his growing excitement plain.
"He hasn't died, yet," Poppy said with a shrug. "Who is to judge when one's lifetime is even longer than the history of men?"
Horace's eagerness to meet such an impressive figure of history seemed about to burst his buttons. The curls on his moustache positively wriggled with energy. "Will he come here? Will we get to meet him?"
Poppy shrugged. "That is entirely up to him and the headmaster," she said. "Even if the parents agree, the headmaster must allow him to visit."
Horace twitched at that. "I'll see to it personally."
"Horace?"
Slughorn shook his head. "It's important. And to meet someone like that—I'll take care of it."
Poppy's eyebrows rose up into her hair. "Very well, I will write to the parents and the DoM and get the paperwork started."
When the healer arrived from the Department of Mysteries, Hogwarts was abuzz with whispers. It had been a secret that the best healer Wizarding Britain had to offer was coming to Hogwarts, therefore everyone knew.
After letters from the families arrived insisting that their children be checked for insidious magic, Dumbledore reluctantly agreed to allow the healer's visit to Hogwarts.
"Ahhh, Minerva," the dark-skinned man rumbled as he walked through the gates. "How good of you to meet me. And are these the apprentices I've heard so much about?"
Severus and Hermione bowed slightly in respect. "Master Healer Morgan," they said together.
"Such politeness," he rumbled. "Be at ease. I do not bite unless asked."
Both apprentices were startled a bit before realising the man was smiling. He had a soft expression on his face.
"Poppy tells me there may be some possibly dangerous magic that may be affecting your students," the healer said to Minerva. "Something that dates back a few years at least."
Minerva nodded. "Their behaviour is beyond the rational, I fear, Manfred," McGonagall said with a furrowing of her brows. "All the teachers have reported that they seem oblivious to the harm of others and uncaring of whatever punishments may come back at them. They have single-handedly made enemies of all the Houses, and we're at our wit's end. Albus keeps thinking it's just a bit of pranking gone wrong, but even he's had to put his foot down on a number of occasions. Poppy had tried to bring you in earlier, but the headmaster—"
"We have an unfortunate history," Manfred said. "The kind of distrust and suspicion as well as fear of the unknown. I have, alas, inspired such things simply by existing. Humans whether magical or otherwise tend to fear what they cannot understand or do not want to, and it makes it hard to treat those unable to make decisions on their own."
Hermione seemed to have an epiphany as her expression brightened suddenly.
"Ah, I see you've figured me out," Manfred crooned. "And what have your keen senses told you?" His expression was warm, amusement pulling the edges of his mouth into a smile.
Hermione exchanged glances with Severus.
"You're a bit confusing, sir," Hermione observed. "You smell like two things that normally do not mingle. Well, maybe they could possibly mingle a little, but—"
Manfred chuckled. "And what things would those be, hrm?"
"Bat," said Hermione.
"Dragon," said Severus simultaneously.
Healer Morgan rumbled appreciatively. "Both are correct."
The two apprentices went wide-eyed.
"I was birthed in the darkness of Creation when that which brought fear far outnumbered the few things that dispelled it," Manfred said. "But they say that the very best healer also knows exactly how to break you. That's why they can expertly put you back together."
Hermione flushed with excitement. "Have you always been a healer? Do you teach? Do you take apprentices?"
Severus glared at her meaningfully, and Hermione cringed.
"Sorry," she hastily apologised.
Manfred laughed. "I have yet to find someone willing to learn from me because it would take a very long time as mortals measure it," he said. "I have taught many a fine healer, however. Poppy is one of my best. Perhaps, if I find someone willing to take up my cup, breathe my air, I would be willing to teach them many things."
Hermione's hair was practically standing on end in excitement.
"I fear I may have to relinquish my apprentice to a higher order," Minerva said with a puckered lip, projecting pure amusement.
Manfred laughed. "She is already halfway there, Minerva," he said with a pleasing rumble. "Evolution is but a step away. A breath. A surrender. A relearning of a form honed and tempered in the Writhing Dark of Creation." He chuckled. "Saying it out loud makes me think that is probably why no one has actually wanted to apprentice with me. To surrender oneself to the mercy of the Writhing Dark is hardly intuitive to life as a healer. Even my dearest Poppy found she could not cross that line and take such a tremendous leap of faith."
Manfred shrugged and sighed, "She is a remarkable healer, regardless. I just think, sometimes, of what she could have been."
Manfred crooned, a sound that seemed strangely inhuman coming from a human throat. "Tell you what, my young warcat," he purred. "Look upon my true form when it is time to heal your fellow students, and if you still desire to take up the healer's cup, I will apprentice you if that is what you truly wish."
Severus huffed. "She is completely fearless. Nothing you turn into will scare her off. She doesn't even fear me, and no one bloody knows what I am."
Manfred smiled as he gestured them forward into the school. "I might."
"There is a vile curse upon them, Headmaster," the master healer said with a dispassionate expression. "Subtle and utterly insidious," he said. He sniffed the air as if to identify a particular scent. "Long term. Afflicting them for at least a few years now, and yet—it is shared between them rather than focusing on only one of them. I have a feeling it was originally meant for one person, but it was an opportunist, much like a cat finding a warm sunbeam. It found itself a home in multiple bodies."
"What sort of curse?" a shorter, dark and silver-haired man asked. His intelligent grey eyes seemed to darken slightly with the intensity of his concentration. "Is it something that is perhaps rooted in family magic? I fear the Black family has a great many secrets, even unto themselves."
The master healer shook his head. "No, this curse does not have the distinctive feel of familial magic. The curse was shared equally amongst them. I have a feeling there are others who are similarly afflicted. Those two have friends, yes? Comrades in delinquency?"
"Messrs Lupin and Pettigrew are usually with them," Poppy confirmed with a grim nod. "Often sharing a bed right next to them."
"What could have possibly happened to curse them as a group?" a much older wizard asked. His hair was far more silver than black, but his pewter robes were impeccable and neat.
"A proximity curse," the elder Black hissed under his breath. "Very sloppy. Inconsiderate."
"Proximity, Orion? That would mean whoever cast it didn't even care who it hit."
"Yes, Fleamont," Orion said with a dark scowl. "That is precisely what it means."
"Can this be traced?" Fleamont Potter asked, visibly furious. "This needs to be traced at once! There could be others affected, not just our sons and their friends. What if there is some reproductive element that corrupts the body and the soul? Our family line has had a hard enough time begetting children as it is—"
"A trace would need to be performed by the Aurors, possibly with assistance from the Unspeakables," Healer Morgan said with a sniff. "So the pertinent facts would be on the record and completely beyond reproach."
"Hogwarts does not usually invite Aur—" Dumbledore began.
"Maybe it should," Orion snapped, his eyes flashing with anger. "Maybe there should be Aurors stationed at Hogwarts. On the bloody train for all we kn—"
"The train," Manfred said, his eyes narrowing in sudden realisation. "That would be the one place they were all together prior to their arrival."
"Now the Aurors must be called," Fleamont said. His angry expression was darkening exponentially. "If the Dark magic in itself wasn't enough, this may have affected many more than just our children. I want this traced immediately, and I am sure that once I am finished speaking with Lyall and Jerome they will both agree."
They stared at Dumbledore.
Albus closed his eyes, his jaw tightening in silent conflict. "I will arrange it."
The tension in the room didn't dissipate one iota.
"Good," Orion said with a deep intake of breath. "With that said, what is to be done with our children, Master Healer?"
Manfred tilted his head, his eyes narrowing as he caught Albus staring daggers at him. "Once the curse's focus is found, they will need to be treated first. Then all satellite infections must be treated as well. There is also the possibility of a secondary anchor. A smart Dark artist would have wanted it to always remain with them. It's quite possible that it is right here at Hogwarts. The curse did not care who was afflicted at first, but they would have wanted it to remain and that takes a constant source of energy outside of the host. Something rooted in great power that wouldn't notice a constant drain. It is most likely a living source of energy supply. Ley energy does not take kindly to manipulation by any who are non-ley-born. Places like Hogwarts are tied to the leys from a time when ley-masters were far more common. It is what allows the castle to become almost sentient, quirky, and mysterious."
"Master Morgan," Orion rumbled. "I cannot thank you enough for rooting out the poisoning right under my own roof."
"Think nothing of it, child," Morgan said sombrely. "Ah, do forgive me. My sense of time is—exaggerated here so close to the leys."
Orion chuckled. "Oh, to be called a child again," he laughed. "I am truly flattered." He tilted his head, clearly quite amused.
Morgan closed his eyes. "Once the Aurors and Unspeakables complete their scans and traces, I will need to start treating them immediately. Those afflicted will need to be stunned and brought outside where the elements themselves can assist us in freeing them from the curse.
There was a loud crash from the adjoining room as they heard a "We're getting out of here, Pads!"
The family elders burst into the next room to find Severus being held at wand point while the other pressed a wand to Hermione's neck.
"We're leaving, Snivellus," James Potter snarled, jabbing Hermione in the neck. "And you won't be doing anything about it, now will you?"
The tendons in Snape's neck were visibly straining as his jaw tightened.
Black took his wand with an evil grin as he transfigured it into a broom. The pair mounted it, clearly intending to keep Hermione hostage with them. "No followers. Or we let her go from far above," Potter warned with a smirk.
"Son! You're cursed! Let them help you!" Fleamont cried.
"I've never been clearer, father," James said, his smirk morphing into a cocky grin, jerking Hermione tightly against himself as the pair flew out the window.
The moment they left, Severus ran over to the window, his fists clenched as his knuckles went bone white. Energy was drawn to him, drawn to his simmering fury as his body jerked and twisted. Even as wicked claws sprouted from his fingertips and his features began to blur and change, the energy formed into cords as if lightning had solidity, and it arced through him. The adults saw what he saw—the two boys fleeing with their hostage only for the hostage to transform into a very large, very angry feline—
She swiped at them, and they pointed wands at her, sending stunners at her. Her body went careening off the broom and the two boys, her claws tearing at their clothes and flesh before tumbling towards the ground below.
Severus howled, launching himself out of the window, his newborn wings flaring outward as he dove toward her. The ley energy that was arcing around and through him zoomed ahead toward the two boys.
CRACK!
There was a brightness in the air as the energy smashed the broom into countless thousands of pieces and the screaming boys began to tumble and plunge.
Dumbledore yelled out a spell to slow their descent even as his attempt to hit Hermione with one missed multiple times.
Manfred jumped into the window sill and out as Fleamont and Orion shouted in their rising panic.
Manfred let himself fall out the window, a look of serene detachment on his face. His body shimmered and expanded, jerked, and twisted as scales, fur, muzzle, wings, and claws replaced the form of man. A Dark malevolent aura seeped out from his very skin as the power he had been hiding under a guise was set free. Energy crackled around him, rippling over his body.
His massive leathery wings beat against the wind as his rear legs kicked off of Hogwarts and propelled him forward like a torpedo as lingering leys seemed to cling to his body and helped him gain speed.
SCREEEEEEE!
His wings blackened the sky even as a smaller set below him dove toward Hermione's plummeting body.
Severus' body collided with Hermione's as his arms wrapped tightly around her, his wings beating painfully against the fall of gravity to slow their descent. The force of the impact caused them to spin 0ut of control as Severus fought desperately to figure out which way was up and keep them aloft.
The gathering leys seemed to slither around him and her, jolting into their bodies as they formed a net-like lattice and caused their bodies to slow from their frantic freefall.
Manfred's huge body moved like a shadow of Death over the two falling boys, and his rear feet twisted down and up to snatch them out of the air as his claws dug around their bodies without the mercy of being careful. His body twisted in mid drop, his wings moving against the air streams.
SCREEEEEEEE!
His great wings blotted out the light as if extinguishing the sun with each powerful flap. He rotated his body, flipping himself around to carry the boys back toward the school as they screamed their lungs out and pissed themselves in incoherent terror.
Caustic vapour wisped out from Manfred's mouth as he roared, his wings sounding like booms of thunder against the walls of Hogwarts.
As he landed down on the green, Dumbledore, McGonagall, Pomfrey, and the elder Black and Potter all rushed out to meet them.
The dragonbat's lips curled back from his teeth as caustic saliva dripped from his mouth. Vapour seethed from his throat, circling his fangs, and escaping his mouth like trails of sentient mist.
His chest pumped like a bellows as he slowly released his death grip upon the boys.
The gathered adults seemed a little leery of approaching with haste.
A ripple of frost and electricity signalled the landing of Snape as he touched down, releasing his squirming charge from his tight embrace. The great feline—and it seemed that she had indeed grown significantly along with Snape—gave Severus an affectionate lick of appreciation before bounding over to Manfred and headbutting against his body with a rumbling, happy purr.
ROOOARRRWRR!
Gone were Hermione's cublike noises. In their place, the feline's mature meowing roar indicated her excitement as she rubbed, purred, and arched her back as she made efficient use of her scent glands all over Manfred's towering form.
Manfred lowered his head, his breath circling his muzzle.
Hermione thumped her forehead against his, nuzzling the bottom of his jaw and licking under his chin.
Manfred's jaws opened as a thick cloud of vapour escaped and seemed to explore Hermione's body before it shot into her mouth and into her lungs.
Her body seemed to shiver and thrum, all of her fur standing on end. The leys that were still connecting her to Severus moved to join with Manfred's and their bodies seemed to shatter into tiny particles of light and darkness, swirling together into a great electrical storm cloud.
The gathered adults pulled the boys' bodies away in a hurry even as the cloud seemed to pulse wildly, lightning crackling within like the great storms of Jupiter.
There was a low, rumbling laugh.
It was both malevolent and not as if nature itself was laughing.
Manfred Morgan walked out of the cloud in human form followed by Severus and Hermione.
"As they say in the feline world," Manfred rumbled to Minerva. "What's yours is mine. What's mine is mine. The leys have decided as Olde Magick has blessed us. I take these two under my wings as apprentices in shared partnership with you Minerva McGonagall, that I may teach them the ways of the Heart of Magick, as all ley-borne must be taught, even as you teach them the ways of the magical world as all mortals must learn at least once."
Minerva let out a soft meow-like sound as she could only nod in assent.
Severus tched as he suffered Hermione's hug of gratitude. "I told you she was fearless. She couldn't fear a dragonbat if it literally blew her out of the sky."
Manfred smiled. "And you, young Severus, are also fearless when the need is right."
Cracks of Aurors and Unspeakables Apparition sounded out as they homed in on Manfred.
"Get out of the mud, Bumstead!" Moody barked. "You call yourself an Auror, but you can barely stand up!"
"Sir!" the Auror muttered as he stood again, wand at the ready as his fellows arced around the area in a well-practised formation.
The Unspeakables moved about like white-clad wraiths, their goblin-silver masks marking them as the elite guard.
A slim red-robed figure stepped out from the gathered crowd, tsking. "I swear to Merlin, Manfred Morgan," Amelia chided, "you had better have a damned good reason for transforming in public and setting off your emergency beacon."
"I can give you at least two reasons covered in their own piss, ma'am," Manfred placated gently. "A foul curse tied to multiple people, and two new apprentices christened by ley magic."
Amelia's sharp blue eyes took in the scene quickly. "Why is it always you two?" she asked Severus and Hermione with a sigh.
Hermione managed to look a bit sheepish as a ley tendril fussed with her hair and made her stand up straighter in front of Amelia.
Severus managed to look somewhat put upon as if everything was such a dreadful inconvenience.
Amelia sighed. "Alright, please fill me in and make it good. Sika, Mati, go register Manfred's new apprentices. Get them duly indoctrinated before something else happens. Marcus, Stephen, get statements from everyone else. Victoria, lock down any and all messaging out of Hogwarts until a blanket wipe can be done to mitigate the effects of Manfred's very public shift. Connor, you handle the wipes. Beth, you go with him and make sure he doesn't manage to Obliviate himself."
"Ma'am!" they called out together and hustled off to work.
"And you, Aurors!"
"Ma'am!" the Aurors cried, standing at attention save for one Alastor Moody who grouchily rolled his eyes.
"Do whatever the hell Alastor tells you to do!"
"Ma'am!" they cried.
Minerva beamed with pleasure upon watching Amelia order her people around with ruthless efficiency. "This is going to be quite a night to remember," she whispered to Poppy.
Poppy, who seemed to be gazing at Manfred with both respect and a little bit of fear, simply nodded. "He's never accepted an apprentice before," she said quietly.
"Weren't you, dear?" Minerva asked.
Poppy shook her head. "He was my mentor, but I was never his apprentice."
Minerva tilted her head. "Whyever not? You're such a good healer."
Poppy sighed wistfully. "When I was tested, I failed," she said quietly.
"Failed? That doesn't seem like you," Minerva said, frowning.
"I failed to trust him when it mattered," Poppy admitted, lowering her eyes.
Minerva, who had experienced firsthand the wave of knee-knocking terror the moment Manfred had made the shift, nodded in sudden understanding. "You saw his true form."
"He shifted in order to gift me with his healing breath, and I ran screaming," Poppy recalled, shame written all over her face. "He never offered again. In not trusting him, I lost his trust in me. He taught me the healing arts but offered nothing more. And today, two students who have never even met him or heard of him until today have gained something beyond price."
"You're still an excellent healer, Poppy," Minerva said bracingly.
"But I could have been so much more," Poppy sighed regretfully.
Minerva squeezed her colleague's shoulder in comfort. "We are what we are. No more. No less. We can only be what we are capable of at the time. Look how many lives you have saved and helped here. You help the next generation grow up to be who they need to be. There is no shame in that. We all have a place where we belong, and I think you've found it here. Those two have a different destiny, and it is an honour to be their teacher for a time."
Poppy smiled at her. "You are a true friend, Minerva."
"I do not approve of so many Aurors and Unspeakables moving about my school," Albus complained as paced his office. "It disrupts the students."
"I do not see an alternative, Albus," Alastor snapped as his mad eye jerked from side to side. "The rise of ley energy in the school would be enough all on its own to bring in a ley master from some obscure place in the world to set things right. You not only have that, but ye got cursed children that tried to escape out a window with a hostage who would have died had the leys not assisted. You'd have two students on the run, cursed, and wreaking havoc across Scotland and wherever else."
"I know, I know," Dumbledore said as he paced his office in agitation.
Fawkes watched him from his perch looking quite perturbed and annoyed. Half of his feathers were falling out, and the bird did not look remotely happy about the situation.
"Is something going on?" Alastor asked. "You seem terribly put out by this. Is it because the families are involved?"
Albus rubbed the bridge of his nose and then waved his hand dismissively. "No, the families are an annoyance, but they are not—ever since Minerva took those apprentices without even asking—"
Moody narrowed his eyes. "You didn't ask anyone when you took Minerva as an apprentice, Albus," he reminded. "You just showed up with her and told ol' Dippet where to stick it."
Albus winced. "I know."
"Then what's the problem?"
"Something isn't right, Alastor," Dumbledore said. "And I feel like it started when those two first became apprentices."
"As I understand it," Moody said. "They've had outstanding grades, treat everyone with the utmost respect, and even have the Muggle teams singing their praises."
"Doesn't that seem a bit too perfect?" Dumbledore asked.
"That we have two highly competent apprentices from Minerva McGonagall?" Alastor scoffed. "No. It seems perfectly natural and even expected. I would never expect old Minerva to do anything less when she finally decided to take an apprentice, Albus. And the fact that ol' Manfred finally took an apprentice, well two, just shows what good judgement of character the ol' cat has. The DoM, all of Britain really, doesn't have a better healer than Manfred Morgan, and we're just damn lucky he's on our side. If he wants to train up two young ley whispering healers or whatever else, then we are damn lucky he is willing to. He trained ol' Poppy as I understand, and she could have had the pick of the world, but she came here. Damn lucky."
Albus rubbed his temples. "I know his resume is vast, but he's dangero—"
"And so are you, Albus," Moody pointed out, "but just because he's got a bit of dramatic flair doesn't mean he's not damn good at his job. You took out a rising Dark Lord, Albus. That makes you the most dangerous wizard alive. It doesn't mean you're eating babies or accosting young witches and wizards from behind trees. Look, I do preach the entire constant vigilance, but Manfred isn't one of the bad guys. He looks the part, but he's not."
"I just feel like—"
There was a loud knock on the door.
Moody jerked his head. "I know that knock. Enter!"
Two Aurors spilt into the room. "Boss," they said at once. "We followed the trace from the kids to the train car, and we found the tracing signature for the secondary anchor."
"Well, where is it?" Moody barked.
"This office, boss," the Auror on the right said.
"The anchor is somewhere here," the other Auror said, gesturing with his wand as a tracer ball came zooming into the room from the stairway. A bright green beam came shooting out of the ball of light and connected to Dumbledore's chest.
The tracer beam lit up in a bright, glowing red and was obnoxiously hard to miss.
The two young Aurors exchanged worried glances.
Fawkes spontaneously combusted into ash as Moody's jaw tightened. He stood up from the chair with a grunt. "We need to have a talk, Albus. Under caution."
"What am I really?" Severus asked.
Manfred chuckled. "A chimaera," he said, "judging by the story of when and how you transformed the first time, you transformed into something that was very scary for Hermione."
"She leapt into my arms and purred," Severus said. "She wasn't scared."
Manfred shook his head. "No, I mean you were very scary for her benefit. That girl you spoke of, this Petunia. I imagine she found what you were very, very scary, indeed."
"So, I turned into the scariest thing she could think of?"
"More like the scariest thing in her subconscious," Manfred said. "Visceral. Instinctive. I happen to look like something that made people flee into their caves and made them pray the fire wouldn't go out. I was also what most life with any concept of true fear feared long before that. You took on the form to best protect your friend which happened to also be what her sister feared far more than simple childhood magic. Judging by your form, I would say she has a very unhealthy fear of a great many things with teeth and claws, and I have a feeling she is the type that watched Muggle horror movies she wasn't supposed to while young and then had nightmares about them. They do some very scary things with the big screen that to Muggles is as real as magic is to us."
Severus frowned. "At least I don't look like a hairy-faced man with fangs jutting out of my mouth or an aquatic swamp monster."
Manfred chuckled. "Classic Muggle fare," he noted. "But no, while I was birthed looking as scarily sexy as I always have been, your transformation took a need to protect your friend to trigger its form. You have the advantage of having a human form first to fall back upon like muscle memory. It took me quite some time to find an acceptable human facade that didn't combine some animal feature I didn't realise was not acceptable amidst human company."
Severus seemed to think for some time before he said, "the Boogeyman."
"Ah, no, that one is an old friend who never ceases to remind me that I made a better god than a human in any age," Manfred said with a heavy sigh. "They are out there scaring the living daylights out of any and all things and devouring the tortured souls of the damned. It is the life they are best made for. We all have our roles to play."
Severus blinked, tried to say something, thought better of it, and then closed his mouth.
Manfred chuckled. "Oh, child, you will have plenty of time in which to hear all the stories. Just not for now. For now, we will stick with the simple things: how not to fry your allies with ley lines while learning the human arts of magic."
"Will it always be like this?" Severus asked as a tendril of ley energy nested in his hair and caused his hair to stand up straight.
"This is like the honeymoon," Manfred said. "The leys will find you super interesting for a while, which is why I will have to remain near until that period is over. Once you settle in, the leys won't be trying to rub on you like uninvited cats, and you will be safe to be around without someone like me being here to keep others safe from curious ley lines. They won't mean to hurt others, but they are not—how shall I say this?—exactly compatible with fragile human bodies, and magical bodies even less so than Muggles. A ley-line is pure magical energy, and it is a powerful attractant to other magic in its raw, uncontrolled, wild state. If you look at how lightning forms, you have opposing charges building up inside a cloud. The air is the insulator. As the charges build up, the air can no longer effectively insulate between them, and there is a fast channel or discharge of electrical energy as the charged areas in the atmosphere equalise and then it 'strikes' the ground. That is lightning. With ley energy, it seeks the most appealing energy in which to go to rather than seek the ground. It doesn't strike so much as it chooses the most welcoming place to go. That's the main ley line or a ley-born if there is one. The main ley line will not move, but it has tendrils that do move and can be manipulated or channelled in helpful or destructive ways."
Manfred's expression wrinkled as he pondered his explanation. "The reason they are dangerous is that ley energy is highly seductive to other forms of energy, magic most of all. A Muggle may walk near a ley and merely get a headache. A migraine, they call it. It scrambles their energy pathways, but since they don't have magic, it's a temporary annoyance at best. Now, in places like this school where leys are used to power the magic within the castle, routes are made more appealing to the ley tendrils so they leave the smaller bits of magic alone, otherwise simply being near the ley lines would cause everyone's magic to go play with the ley lines and not come back. In some cases, this is how Squibbing occurs."
He scratched his ear with his hand. "Basically, magic wants to be with magic, but pure magic draws other magic to it if not properly insulated. A place like this has been insulated many times over by the original ley-born that helped craft the school. And most people would never know this place was any more or less magical than any other place where magical people live."
Manfred sighed. "I have a feeling I am not explaining this terribly well."
Severus jolted a bit. "No, I was just thinking about what you were saying. So being ley-born doesn't mean you were born in the leys."
"It means you were reborn to the leys."
Severus blinked.
Manfred ran a finger down his chin. "It means that when the Covenant between you and ley was forged, your body was reborn unto the leys. It devoured you. Everything that you were before. And then it reformed you. Ever watched the Muggle television show Star Trek with the fancy teleporting technology where they 'beam' people from ship to planet?"
Severus nodded.
"Much like that, only, if the leys hadn't accepted you as a part of itself, you would have been drained of all magic as the ley 'left' on its way," Manfred said. "You see, it isn't that the magic touches you—it's what happens when the energy leaves."
Severus' eyes widened as he began to comprehend what his new master was explaining. "So, for some bloke who attracts ley energy, they get all the magic they could ever use, and then it simply swans off and takes all their magic along with it."
Manfred nodded. "Exactly. But for a moment, they would feel like a god, perhaps."
"Why did the leys choose us?" Severus asked.
"There is no solid equation that tells us what makes one person appealing to the leys and another not, I'm afraid," Manfred said. "It is a mystery known only to magic itself, but I can tell you this. No person, being, or creature born of the leys has ever shirked their responsibility to the magical world. Our vigil is as eternal as magic itself. And perhaps, they sensed something they wish to preserve in us that we might speak for them."
"I remember being so angry, afraid, and then there was this focus. I could feel that they wanted to help. To save her. They wanted to help me to help her," Severus explained.
"It is a gift, young Severus," Manfred said seriously. "And a great responsibility. You cannot have blind ambition as a ley-born. You must always set yourself apart, dipping your toes into the world around you but never losing sight of that responsibility both to the leys and the magical world. And many will never know what you have done for them, but our rewards come in different forms."
Hermione, who had been listening to the entire conversation while lying flat on her back with her head resting in Manfred's lap, flicked her ear idly. An obnoxiously fluffy yet strangely disgruntled-looking phoenix chick rested on her abdomen.
I feel at peace, she said, her tail flicking into a loop and then straight and back again. The phoenix chick yawned widely and snuggled into her warm belly fur, seeming quite content. Like when Lord Hades kissed my forehead.
"Perhaps, it was His blessing that helped the leys decide on you," Manfred said, looking thoughtful. "That is only speculation, however. The truth is that I am here to teach you what I can and help you become the best that you can be, much as Minerva is. Magic makes its choice, much as we do, and it is up to us to keep the balance intact so that others may practice magic safely."
Manfred cracked his neck, moving his head from side to side in a good stretch. "Now I know that you, my feline apprentice, have accepted my breath and a healing path, but you, Severus, have a choice ahead of you. You must discover what it is that calls to you, and hopefully it is not something I haven't a clue about like that utter tripe known as Divination."
Hermione's muzzle wrinkled and she bared her teeth in frank disgust.
Manfred chuckled. "I'm so glad that we agree."
"I am rather fond of potions," Severus said slowly. "I am rather good at it."
"Then potions it shall be," Manfred said, nodding in approval. "Between Minerva and myself, your lessons will be more even. Since she has her usual classes to teach, it will take considerable pressure off her with my wings in the mix. Transfiguration, while fascinating, was difficult for me, which was probably why it took so long for me to settle on a human form."
I have a hard time believing that anything was difficult for you, Hermione said, clearly quite dubious.
Manfred chuckled. "I have had many lifetimes' worth of practice, child. Even the most intricate of maths seem perfectly understandable to me, now."
Hermione's muzzle wrinkled until she realised her master was joking with her. Her tail looped in amusement and she flopped her head back down on his lap with a throaty mrrrwhuff.
A ley tendril that had been nesting in her fur rippled across her body and then seemed to sink into her skin once more.
"What will happen with the headmaster, Master?" Severus asked, frowning.
Manfred sighed, his nose wrinkling. "We will treat the root of the curse, which is the Potter boy," he said. "Then we sever his connection to the anchors—both the train compartment he and his friends found and Dumbledore himself. Once the anchors and the root are purged of the curse, then his friends can be treated as well."
Why not deal with the anchors first? Hermione asked.
"The root of the cursed, the first inflicted, must be dealt with first, or the curse will use him to reinfect the others. It is his connection to the anchor that must be severed after he has been treated. That makes it safe to treat the others without fear of relapse," Manfred explained. "But, each of the boys must be separated from his fellows, lest the curse uses the other afflicted to jump to and then back. The boys have become too familiar for the curse. A home. A comfortable place. It will not simply jump to anyone. It will always seek out what it knows. Whoever made the curse cared not who was initially affected, but they were very thorough in giving it an anchor that they knew would never leave Hogwarts. Thus every single time James Potter went into the headmaster's office, the curse was refreshed anew. Every punishment only reinforced it. A terrible, constantly renewing cycle. Admirably tenacious. And it makes me wonder what other things might be anchored to the headmaster knowing that he is the most stalwart figure in this school."
"We have a new DADA teacher every year," Severus observed thoughtfully "Master McGonagall complains every year that they have to hire someone new because something unfortunate always happens to the DADA professor by the end of the school year."
Manfred's eyebrows lifted into his dark hair. "Now that sounds like something very interesting indeed."
Manfred patted Hermione and ruffled her fur, gently shooing her and the phoenix chick from their comfortable spot. "Off to bed with you both," he said warmly. "I will speak with Minerva and then tend to the requisite treatments. If I am not here in the morning, do not leave these chambers until I return. We do not want any ley casualties from curious wayward ley tendrils.``
"Yes, Master," the two chimed together as Hermione stretched up into her human form, hastily covering an epically jaw-cracking yawn.
"Sleep well," he said to them. "Do not worry if you have a good lie-in in the morning. It takes a bit of time for your body to adjust after being atomised and reborn."
Severus scowled. "You make that sound so simple."
Manfred smiled. "It is so very simple, Severus," he said. "It's just the explanation itself that is terribly complicated."
Severus sighed, shaking his head as he headed toward his quarters. Hermione smiled at him before they both disappeared into their rooms.
Manfred smiled, a hint of fang glinting. "Ah, Lord Hades. You always did know how to keep life interesting. Whoever created that foul curse will come to know you soon enough. I thank you for bestowing me with the blessing of your chosen."
End of Chapter Four
A/N: All hail the Dragon and the Rose for propping up her eyelids with toothpicks in order to finish beta-ing this chapter.