Hey hey hey!!
I am so happy you liked what you read! Let's move on now and see what else there is to find out… well, for now. You don't think I'll reveal all the cards now, do you?
So, onwards! Chapter 23.
***
Hoyt Cade sashayed into the pub not too far away from the offices of the Daily Prophet, basking in the spotlight that Rita's death had afforded him. His performance at her funeral was well, to die for- Hoyt chuckled at his own put- and the fact that he had access to Rita's office, notes and very private Dirt Stash, where she kept all the interesting little details about everyone she had ever met made him a pet or someone to be aware of, just like Rita had been.
"One firewhiskey, straight up, my man," Hoyt grinned suavely at the barkeep, glancing around at all the witches shooting glances at him. He had been considerably more noticed by the fair sex, too. Much more than he had been when he was the access to Rita Skeeter, not the Rita Skeeter, the reporter that could make or break anyone chasing limelight or spotlight, or any kind of light, really. So he didn't except someone to grab him from his beautiful dark red ponytail and force him to apparate out of the pub, just as he had picked up his glass.
By the time he had time to gasp, he was in a small dark room, with hellish wind howling outside, and someone else that was still in the shadows. Hoyt dropped his drink, and the smash of the glass lingered in the air. Was this Rita's murderer? Was he, too, going tobe murdered now? Hoyt tried to disapparate, but found he couldn't- anti-apparition spells had been put in place while he was still started.
"Please," Hoyt rushed to beg. "Don't hurt me! I don't know anything Rita did! I don't have access to her files! She has warded them all! I don't know anything worth killing for! Please!"
The man opposite lit up a cigarette.
"Shame," grinned Guiren Bai as he stared with coldness at the shaking man opposite me. "Because access to what Skeeter knew and her files is all that can possibly make you worthy to me."
"Guiren Bai?" Hoyt sounded almost disappointed to see who his kidnapper was.
"Disappointed?" Bai picked up on his tone immediately. "You shouldn't be. The last Death Eater that was disappointed, died screaming for his mother."
The disassociated tone of factual evidence made uncertainty creep back into Hoyt. Wasn't Guiren Bai discharged for brutality and unauthorized murder?
"But I'm not a Death Eater. You only target those, don't you?" he challenged worriedly.
"Skeeter was killed by someone very likely to be. If you obstruct my research, you'll be their accomplice, thus one of them in my book. So, Hoyt- what will it be? Are you still unable to access Skeeter's files, or have you just thought up of a way to give me what I want?" Bai grinned like a crocodile before certain dinner, waving his wand idly at the reporter.
"An… an idea just came to me," Hoyt stammered breathlessly. Guiren Bai nodded.
"Genius," he sneered sarcastically.
***
Minerva dipped her finger into the tea to spell more brandy into it before she sipped it, not even noticing the drink was still hot.
"Slytherin and Gryffindor, you say?" she murmured. Rasmus nodded.
"Yes. I don't know much about the beginning except that Salazar Slytherin did roam the Mediterranean before settling in Britain to found Hogwarts with his friends. That he learnt his great skills at Legilimency from another, still surviving Prime Wizard. Some say it was the blind Tiresias, others that it was one of the Sibyls of medieval times; anyway, it's not important. What's important is that he took Gryffindor to a tour of Italy of the time, and that's when they stumbled upon Isis cultists."
"All this is so mental!" Ron couldn't help exclaiming. "How do you know all this?"
"Yes, Mr. Snape, how do you know this story that, I must admit, not even I knew about our Founders? I had heard the two had some adventures together, but nothing specific," McGonagall said.
Rasmus sighed and his shoulders seemed to become more burdened.
"My mother told me. She… she needed to explain to me… so many things I couldn't understand," the young Slytherin's voice became heavy with old chagrin. He looked up.
"I guess you know of Aello Galanou, right?"
"For sure," McGonagall nodded. "A great innovator in many magical areas."
"That was just the byproduct of her real struggle," Rasmus swallowed. "I guess in a way, so was I."
"You were not a byproduct!" thundered Severus from his portrait. "How dare you say such a thing?"
"Because it's true!" Rasmus snapped back. "It was true, at least, for how I came to be, wasn't it? Not even she denied it, so don't you go sugaring things up for me now!"
Hermione's eyes watered as she bit her lip and looked anxiously at the last Headmaster's portrait, and even Ron didn't try to find comments to make.
Severus averted his gaze for a moment, then looked with displeasure at the rest of the students in the room.
"This is a private discussion, son," he said.
"Then don't try to have it now," Rasmus' voice was steely and cutting to the bone, just like his father's so often had been when alive. Minerva shuddered and tried to divert the discussion from that sort of thin ice- though she burned to learn just what both father and son were alluding to.
"Please, Mr. Snape," she said gently. "Tell me what your mother was truly doing. Was she working against the Isis cultists?"
Rasmus sipped from his cup again and found it empty of tea, but it promptly refilled itself.
"Well… the cult of Isis went unmatched for several millennia. In fact in the beginning, the people considered the cultists a virtuous group- until their forays into Dark and powerful magic turned Egypt from a fertile valley with rolling green expanses into the desert we know," Rasmus said wryly.
"I know that book had more than a grain of truth in it!" Hermione piped up in triumph to a question that obviously had bothered her for ages, then she sipped her own tea as everyone turned, half-glaring at her for a moment.
"Yeah… well anyway, it took several centuries for any sort of opposition to them to form even after that, and Isis made it a point to hunt and kill any wizard or witch with the potential of undermining them. Until Pythagoras. You know- the math guy Pythagoras."
"The Tetractys- he designed it, didn't he?"
Rasmus nodded to Hermione's question.
"Yes, it is actually a formula of Augury meant to ensure, protect and maintain Harmony in Nature- in short, to thwart Isis in her quest of getting to manipulate Nature as its master. Pythagoras himself had Anchors, and he lived several lifetimes ensuring that the Pythagoreans balanced out Isis' cultists, and the world could continue. He definitely met with Salazar in his final lifetime."
"Salazar didn't kill him, did he?" Harry couldn't help asking, and it was obvious it was a question Ron and Hermione wanted to voice as well. Rasmus looked at them oddly as he shook his head.
"No. Pythagoras initiated Salazar and Godric into the Pythagorean cult- the one that opposes Isis. They fought with us against her cultists and her and Osiris, and Salazar tricked Osiris into handing him one of the Keys, which he hid. It isn't certain, but it could be that Godric got another one, because we only have two. The Omphalos and Rea's Lava, which is the Key of Fire."
"And who has the last one?" Harry asked, but it was obvious he had guessed at the answer.
"They do- those of Isis," Rasmus answered. "We don't even know which one they have."
Rasmus seemed exhausted as he paused again, and it pained Minerva that she couldn't release the young man to rest, that this couldn't yet end. How could Galanos hide all this from her? How could the – wait a minute!
Minerva turned to Snape's portrait.
"Do you know all this? Everything that your son is narrating?" she asked in the demanding voice that signaled to the portrait he could not refuse her. Severus glared at her, but was forced to choke out:
"Most of it, yes."
"Rasmus, are you a Pythagorean?" Harry asked softly, distracting the Headmistress just as she was about to speak again.
Rasmus grinned a little, but his grey eyes shone with ferocity and power.
"Everyone in my family is. Everyone."
"Severus…?" Minerva asked with affront.
"You already have your answer," was all Snape said.
"Oh, come on, Minerva. Why, who could ever refuse an offer to study within the Pythagorean fold?" Dumbledore's portrait piped from the opposite wall.
"You knew about that, too!?" Minerva felt anger build unreasonably.
"Severus learnt a lot in that sabbatical- I couldn't help but infer the truth, and though he never told me, he never refused it, either. And I was doubly glad, doubly assured of his allegiance ever since."
"My pledge to you, my despair for what I did to Lily, my absolute love for her that drove me was not enough, was it?" the sarcasm from Snape's portrait was so painful Minerva felt thankful for the bubble that popped and chimed, Poppy's charm to remind Snape's son to take his potion.
"We have left many things unsaid yet, but that is quite enough for now," she said with authority. "Mr. Snape, we have all nearly forgotten you were bedridden only a few short hours ago. Go and take your potion, and then I believe nourishment is in order. Mr. Potter, Weasley; Miss Granger, you too. You will be just in time for tea, since we all missed lunch with all of today's happenings."
Harry nodded and got up, and Rasmus nearly too fast in his effort not to appear weak. He couldn't be weak, especially not now that his godfather was so vulnerable, hovering between life and death after everything he had already been through. He frowned to himself. Nikos was an excellent dueller, so…
He turned around to face McGonagall again, and said quietly.
"Headmistress, if anyone managed to beat my godfather, he or she must be very strong… and they'd know we're here… and they might feel they need…"
"Do not worry, Mr. Snape," Minerva nodded firmly. "You go on to get some food in your body; the rest I will see to."
The boy nodded, glancing once at Snape's portrait, then about turned and left, following the steps of the Golden Trio. As soon as the door was shut, Minerva turned to Snape.
"You will have some consoling to do very soon," she said, shaking her finger at Severus.
"Which would not have been necessary if you hadn't scratched my son's old wounds," Severus bit back.
"That is precisely why I sent all of them out," Minerva nodded. "I am done tolerating your whims; in deference to the sensitivity that your son displays you will be the one to tell me your story."
"My story? Whatever do you mean? Being a Pythagorean is not a story- it's just a notch over being granted membership in Wizarding world's geek club!" Snape said in exasperation, but Minerva could see he was simply hedging.
"Well, I wasn't invited in, and everyone knows I qualify for that requirement," Albus said, with a bit of a pout.
"You know what I mean, Severus," Minerva ignored Dumbledore. "You will tell me what Aello was doing, what her brother is currently doing, and how come you and Aello had that boy, who seems to be hauling around far too much responsibility, not unlike Harry Potter used to."
"Don't compare Potter to my son!" Severus growled, but there was no loathing in the eyes of his very life-like portrait. There was fear. "He will not ever stand in the way of Avada Kedavra!"
Minerva sighed and sat back down in her chair.
"Tell me, Severus," she said quietly, and she knew the portrait would.
"It began with a letter- like it has now," Severus Snape's portrait began.
***
And that's that! Still couldn't manage everything in this chapter, but tomorrow's will definitely have Snape's and Aello's story, told by the next-best thing to living, breathing Severus, too! How do you like that, eh?
Oh, the book Hermione is referring to is Fingerprints of the Gods by G. Hancock. ;)
I'm a little fearful that maybe I am still unloading a ton on you, but don't worry. Everything will come to play smoothly in action, and then you'll just recognize everything said here. I am rather smug, and need to say that most of what Rasmus says is a (very generously liberal) take on true fact about both the Egyptian religion (it survived as a dominant one up to roman times, and the burial custom of mummification until well after the advent of Christianity. If you feel like it, google "portraits of Fayum" to see some of the latest beautiful art specimens of people practicing versions / sects of this religion) and the Greek ones (there were several takes on religion in pre-Christian Greece), as the Pythagoreans also had a religious belief system to go with their scientific one. I just put the 'magic of Potter' spin on it for this story. So the Tetractys actually exists as a mathematical model, and everything else as well. Oh, 'Rea's lava' doesn't exist. That's totally me. :p Rea is one of the Earth goddesses of the Greek primary pantheon. [mother of Zeus, wife of Cronos and a daughter of Titans, if anyone's interested]
Also: Greek youth tend to join the ranks of fighting adults (when necessary) as early as they can, so Rasmus is a member of the Pythagoreans legitimately and fully, though he is only 15. For example, during the Greek Occupation in the dreadful years of 1942-45, children as young as 5 or 8 years old took on Nazis, jumping upon distribution vans to steal bread (the Nazis had imposed famine, especially in Athens) without fear of being shot on sight, and often they were. They also were key participants in all kinds of sabotages, exactly because they were too young to be suspected.
There, more cultural snippets for you! I hope I didn't tire you. If you need me to clarify ANYTHING, please say so. And if you have any thoughts, comments, anything, I really do want to hear it. I am writing this story mainly because I want to share fun. :)
Sindie: Thank you! Maybe because I'm an author myself that's seen publication, I like to be original without twisting an established setting out of its own rules. Rowling has hinted at magic hubs being around the world, so I basically grab onto that to see what there might be out there ;) I am SO HAPPY you like it. And I won't even break the rule to somehow make ALL the trouble be about Harry Potter, too. Just not ONLY Harry Potter. Hee hee hee! Thoughts on this little bit? I really look forward to your reviews. :)
And that said, see y'all tomorrow! (and all the more for you who thought I wouldn't update this weekend!)