Hello hello!
Ugh, February and March tend to be pretty hectic months. So bear with me please if I update every other day… And try to see if I doodled something instead, those days. :p
So, Onwards! Chapter 33.
***
Harry smiled to himself as the spell was completed and worked, making the map of Great Britain suddenly animated like the screen of a radar.
"Yes!" he grinned and nodded to Hermione. "See? I can do it, too."
"You will get the same result as me," Hermione rolled her eyes. "The British Museum, and nothing more specific because we don't know how to ask for anything more precise."
"No, I won't," Harry said smugly, peering at the map as a tiny set of glowing footprints began tracing a route across the island. "Here they are! These guys are on the move."
Hermione and Ron clustered to all look at the floating map in front of Harry's wand, and stared as more and more little footsteps began appearing and converging in several areas. Hermione was speechless, Ron kept blinking at the map that seemed to keep adding pairs of footprints smearing routes across the paper.
"Just… how many are they?" Ron whispered. His left arm was still held immobile against his torso in a sling, and whether he would be gaining full use of it was for time to tell. Ron had not told Hermione or Harry as much, but he still had no feeling in two of his fingers, and the entire limb was numb, with the sensation of stinging needles burning through the flesh occasionally. "And who?"
Harry's silence was brooding.
"Look at where they all are: Stonehenge, Tintagel Castle, Buckland Abbey, Hermitage Castle… the traces all are headed or clustering to very specific sites, highly magical or high a great history for wizards," Hermione said, pointing at the locations with her finger.
"They are looking for the Key," Ron nodded.
"They must be Isis' cultists," Hermione muttered, eyes fixed on the skittering little footsteps.
"They are the Death Eaters we have been looking for," Harry said grimly, and swished his wand to end the spell. "Dolohov was one of them, and there is also Avery and others of the inner circle Voldemort had had."
"What?" Ron exclaimed. "How can you know that?"
"Thanks to Guiren, actually," Harry said, getting up to stare at the ancient Gryffindor common room's fireplace- the secluded place where they had brought Rasmus. "He had asked Susan Bones for a favour, and she brought him this information. He was dead by that time though, so Bones got me instead. Isis saved Dolohov from death, and through him she recruited everyone that survived Voldemort. Bones got me a list of Death Eaters that were sighted or presumed sighted, and that's how I could make the spell be more specific, by the way, Hermione. I asked for specific Death Eater names."
There was silence in the room, and Harry sighed with a small smile.
"Guiren knew how to dig for information. With Skeeter's files and Bones' list, we can very well throw a net and pull all those bastards in for Azkaban."
"And in the same time locate where Isis and Osiris are," Hermione added.
"Why would we want to locate Isis and Osiris now? They will eat us up for breakfast," Ron scoffed, rubbing his restrained arm without thinking. "They did when we were all whole."
"Oh, I'm sorry," Hermione hissed and hugged Ron, snuggling against him. "I didn't mean it that way. I'm sure there's some way to ambush them."
Harry exhaled with force.
"I hate saying it, but Ron is right. We are too weak for their sort as we are. I was just thinking of nabbing those Death Eaters in Guiren's name."
"Does the Headmistress know about this?" Hermione watched Harry as he paced the room. He looked frustrated and haggard somehow, as if he wanted to do several things at once and knew he would not be able to do any.
"Not yet," Harry admitted. "I only got the information yesterday, and stayed up all night reading through it."
"And you only told us now, after what, nearly all morning classes are over?" Ron frowned, unable to not take it a little bit personally.
Harry winced to himself and sighed.
"Sorry Ron; I guess I wanted to have something worth the while to show you. Or… well… sorry- I got the papers in my hand and just wanted to read them. I wasn't thinking."
"Clearly, something you undeniably excel at," came a sneer from the wall making the Golden trio jump. Severus Snape was standing in front of the large Round Table, ignoring the annoyed looks of the several knights he was forcing to crowd on other sides of the painting.
"Merlin, you are even worse of a menace as a drawing," Ron blurted out, making the potions master smile in superiority. He otherwise ignored the redhead and rested his eyes on Harry.
"Well then, Potter. Now that we have established you have perfected the art of not thinking and gawking, let us see if you have become any better at following simple instructions."
Harry rolled his eyes and glared.
"Honestly, professor, I can pay attention without being goaded half the time. What do you want to tell me?"
"You have an excellent way to gain leverage against Isis and Osiris, but it requires coolness and planning- not Gryffindor qualities, I'm afraid. What you should do is go with it to the Headmistress, and then set yourself to actually learning some magic amidst all the rule breaking and impetuousness."
"The Headmistress is also Gryffindor, professor," Hermione couldn't help pointing out with a rather cheeky smile.
Severus scoffed.
"Miss Granger, the Headmistress is too old to be Gryffindor all the time."
Harry made an effort to focus on the actual advice he was being given, and not on the baiting.
"What sort of magic do you want me to learn, professor?"
"Whatever Galanos has to teach you would be encouraging," Severus said with a bit of reluctance. "Do not dare miss a single of his classes, whether you like it or not. If of course, you want to confront Isis without having others pave the way for you like I had to do."
Whatever ire had been swelling in Harry dispersed at the reminder that he actually owed Snape his life- and had not once acknowledged it to the living specimen- and even Ron looked to the side and kept his silence. Therefore, only Hermione was the one who said seriously:
"We will do what you are suggesting, professor. Thank you."
***
After his morning class, Ancient Runes, Rasmus headed towards the DADA classroom to seek out his godfather. His heart beat strongly against his chest, and he kept chewing on the inside of his lower lip. He felt liable to Nikos, that he had let him down by doing things wrongly, below standard- by messing up what had already been achieved. So he had to go back to Nikos to reconcile with something that could set things straight, something to counterbalance his blunder.
It hadn't been easy to find, and Rasmus wasn't certain if he had found anything anyway, that could at all make it up for allowing Osiris to have his blood for a second time. He sighed, his hand tightening around the book he was holding at his side. Lost in his thoughts, he ignored the glances and whispers of groups of girls and boys as he walked past them, even when little snippets of dialogue reached his ears, like what people said about Greeks and love, or even characterizations like butterfly boy from the vitriol camps.
"Hey, Snape! Dance the hula for us!"
Rasmus arched an eyebrow at the three who were blocking his way. One he knew- it was a seventh year Slytherin by the name of Podger, who had a reputation for being curse happy. The other two were from Ravenclaw and Hufflepuff, and Rasmus didn't really care to learn names of anyone outside his House that he didn't need to interact with.
"Why on earth would I dance an intricate Charms Saltation to invoke protection of the Earth and Flora for you, when you clearly don't need to be protected by anything than your own selves?" he rattled off the jibber jabber with a poker face, only his eyes lighting in slight amusement.
The three students glanced between themselves awkwardly, and Rasmus moved in for the punchline. He leaned forward with a condenscending, pretentious smile.
"Oh! You all thought the hula was a muggle dance for sissies, didn't you? Some dances are actually intricate charms invocations- especially those that impressed the muggles."
As he was talking in a smooth, silky voice dripping in irony, Rasmus walked through the group and shot the Ravenclaw a disdainful glance. "I'd expect someone wearing the blue and silver to at least be able to deduct as much. Now you won't know if when you dance to the Weird Sisters next time, you won't accidentally invoke lightning to blast you off your pants."
The students that had gathered up to watch laughed, and Rasmus hurried away before the three could react and stop him, robes billowing, evading yet one more altercation without having to draw his wand.
Reaching the corridor where the DADA class was, he saw classmates filing away numbly, limping and nursing arms and legs that looked completely healthy, muttering to themselves exhaustedly.
"Snape, your godfather is a tyrant!" growled a Slytherin girl called Matilda as her eyes fell on him. She was leaning against Finn, who looked delighted to be of service, though shaken and slightly disoriented himself. Rasmus couldn't help grinning.
"He can be, that's for sure," he nodded. As Finn winked at Rasmus to gloat about being around a girl, the two began waddling past. Rasmus said to them:
"Eating chocolate will help you get over the shakes of the spar. Oh, and a hot bath will complete the job."
"Excellent!" Finn told Matilda suggestively. "Why don't we go share some?"
"In your dreams, Finn," the Slytherin girl shoved him away, but nearly toppled in the process, allowing Finn to resume holding her.
Rasmus chuckled to himself and walked in the classroom. Nikos was tidying it with quick wandwork, himself looking tired but satisfied.
"Hello," Rasmus called timidly to attract his attention.
"Hey," Nikos smiled, immediately perking up. It looked to Rasmus as if his shoulders weren't weighed as much. "Isn't your class with me not until tomorrow?"
"Yeah," Rasmus nodded a little awkwardly, avoiding eye contact as he shoved his hand in his pocket. "Are you going to put us through your duel spars, too? You've already traumatized the fifth years."
"Absolutely," Nikos grinned. "It should prove especially interesting with Harry Potter and his friends in the class, too. I already know your mettle."
"Mmm," Rasmus made a vague sound, and a pregnant and tense silence ensued for a moment.
Come on, out with it!
"Look… uh… I don't know your schedule now, but… but I did say I … I'd come on my own when I'd be ready to… to talk about what happened… you know… that caused the deaths." Rasmus was looking at the edge of Nikos' desk with remarkable interest, and all mirth had washed away from his face like watercolour under water. It made Nikos' heart constrict.
"I have no other class until the first years in two hours," he said softly. "We do need to talk."
Rasmus looked up a little, and Nikos smiled at him. He conjured up a slab of chocolate and broke off a piece.
"Here," he said, and draped one arm around his godson, leading him to sit down with him in one of the front desks. "Have this, and while you are savouring it, listen to what I have to say first."
***
And that's that! I hope you liked it. I think that Harry, Ron and Hermione would be a little awkward between themselves right now- obviously they haven't really talked out what happened with Osiris, and Hermione how she felt about her behavior when she left Harry alone to care for Ron, that Ron is actually still injured, and all that. That will surface really soon though- it's brewing under the surface.
Also, since this is pretty much wizard high school, I doubt nobody would think to use the fact that Rasmus dances against him. More of that will come, too.;)
Oh! And I have drawn a portrait (of sorts) of Nikos creating a Sigil. Go to my DA account to see it! (it's now in my author's profile for a quick click). He probably is nothing like you picture him in your head…
Zoe Bright: I sent you a PM, don't know if you got it. Finn has his own agenda of sorts, and his own skeletons in his closet. There's a reason he's in Slytherin and not Gryffindor or Hufflepuff. ;) Snape was absolutely appalled to hear his son announce 'I wanna be a dancer when I grow up!' He probably pictured him in a tutu for a second. :D But then he got to watch, and he liked what he saw (Aello sent him a strategically extremely manly dance that Rasmus performed before she ventured to have him see anything else!)
Sindie: We definitely will see more of Snape soon. And at some point, that is all we will be seeing- him and Salazar. (Maybe I shouldn't have said that)
Everyone who fave'd or put this story on alert: Thank you! Hope I get to hear from you at some point or other ;)