Hello, hello!
Did anyone miss me, like, at all? :P
As you probably all have gathered by now, only during strong holidays do I have the chance to be updating fast. I do hope you will still come back and read this little story while we are entering the most intense part of it. Well it's the final part so it should be, shouldn't it?
So, without anymore ado, onwards! Chapter 39.
***
"Rasmus. Son," the quiet call reached Rasmus' ears, making the wiry teen shiver with a pang of pained longing. Rasmus halted near the painting, but he didn't turn to look at Severus, bending his head to let his hair hide his eyes. His knuckles tightened around his schoolbooks.
The dark wisps of paint making up what there remained of the Potions Master within these three dimensions seemed to flinched, but his voice remained even.
"I believe we do need to speak," he said matter of factly, "in private. Your godfather's office would serve best right now, as he's rather busy with Miss Gaunt."
"With Gaunt?" Rasmus blinked at the painting in surprise. "Whatever would she want with him?"
"Come," Severus said and left the painting frame, forcing Rasmus to go to Nikos' office quickly and forget all about Sinistra's arithmancy class he had been heading to.
Nikos hadn't changed anything in the office that the late Professor of Defense against the Dark Arts had had. It was a constant reminder that despite McGonagall's official hiring of the Greek auguror in the position for the rest of year, Nikos didn't feel truly part of Hogwarts' staff. So everywhere around, Rasmus could see stacks upon stacks of filing boxes with Guiren Bai's handwriting, several spare wands on a shelf, along with other gadgets and things Rasmus suspected were odd contraptions made by Professor Bai for his protection or potential attack.
All around the office there was no space for any painting frame amidst the boxes and the stacks of books and heavily loaded shelves of dull, drab items except the contraption shelf, but for one spot, directly in the line of sight of the person sitting at the desk: a painting in soft pastel colours that reminded Rasmus of the early dawn, of a young woman jiggling a little boy lovingly on her lap. It made the last remaining Snape's heart drop a little.
Severus entered the frame less forcefully than usual, and the two original occupants smiled and left gracefully, leaving their frame as if giving their permission for the Potions Master to use it. Rasmus slid his hands in his pockets slowly, looking at his father with a blank, closed expression that was not unlike that of his father. For a second, the painting and the boy looked at each other.
"Thank you for coming so promptly," Severus began, but the atmosphere was heavy. Rasmus shrugged one shoulder. Then, he sighed and asked:
"What do you want, father?"
"I watched you with that research," Severus said. "And its content is commendable."
"How did you read it?" Rasmus asked suspiciously. Snape's mouth quirked upwards slightly smugly.
"Nikos' easy chair is right in front of a rather large frame with just the right angle to read over his shoulder. You definitely have your mother's gift for breakthrough and, I do not refrain from adding, your father's daring for experimentation. And that is exactly what I need to warn you about."
Rasmus' face fell.
"If it is as great as you say, godfather would have at least praised it before class, and you wouldn't need to warn me."
Snape clicked his tongue and shook his head, his long fingers tapping lightly against his side of the frame.
"No, Rasmus; no. You know better than that- the only reason Nikos hasn't commented on it yet is because he is frightened. Blood magic is very dangerous, and the basis of your remedy for Osiris' anchor to this world is exactly that."
"It is the only way I found and could piece together to send Osiris back to hell after my blunder! I let Osiris have my blood all over again, no matter what godfather's saying!" Rasmus' voice escalated, his grey eyes flashing. "What has he got to be afraid of unless he thinks I'll botch it up?"
"Blood magic should be feared," Severus said calmly, but his son interrupted, beginning now to pace in the room like Severus had, too.
"He's taught me a great deal of things that are dangerous, deadly even. That fight all those students ogled at in the DADA practical, dad? It's nothing compared to what is a real spar between us and what kind of deadlies he teaches me to dodge or parry! Why in blazes does he think blood magic is more frightening that anything else I've dabbled in with his encouragement, and yours and mother's even?"
Severus knotted his hands in front of him while watching his son's tirade.
"Because son, it is what killed your mother."
The soft statement winded Rasmus and he blinked at his father.
"I…didn't know that," he almost whispered unwittingly switching back to Greek. "Just that the cultists got her. I… thought it'd been fast and… and painless."
"Nobody felt you needed to know that, son. You were young and I couldn't be there as long as I would have liked. It was best for everyone that you didn't know the details." Snape's voice was more emotional than usual even if it was even. "But because very soon you will need to make your decisions on your own, it is time you knew just why it is your blood that Osiris has always been after to anchor himself. Then, and only then, will you be able to speak to Nikos in the manner he needs to hear."
Rasmus breathed in and sat down on a stool, looking up at his father's portrait, his eyes glistening.
"Tell me," he said softly, and Snape began to narrate to his son.
***
Minister Dawlish screamed through tears of frustrated rage as she got the report of no survivors left of the one raid she had counted on to establish her rule once and for all. She kicked around, maddened, trashing her office under the jeering glance of Pollux Black leering at her from his frame.
"I told you so," he smirked and Isa yelled once more, grabbing her inkwell and throwing it at the portrait. The dark red ink spilled as the china inkwell smashed flamboyantly in a representation of the blood she had spilt because she strayed from that accursed Auguror's instructions. Guilt and rage burdened her alike, as she screamed for her assistant to come inside.
The secretary scampered in- thankfully it was not that confounded Weasley- and watched her fearfully as he stood as close to the door as he possibly could.
"Gunther, ensure there's a complete hush on this-this shambles. I don't want to read a single line about the operation in Stonehenge in any newspaper or magazine- not even the trashy ones, you hear? If anyone does leak something I'm sending you to Azkaban without a trial! Understand?"
"Y-yes, minister," the man blinked at her, and Isa growled.
"Well what are you standing here for, go!"
The man bolted and she spelled the door to close behind him with a bang. Relative silence ensured for a few seconds after that, but then Pollux sneered at her through the rivulets of dark red ink slowly drying on the canvas:
"A complete hush, a shut down on this news, hm? I take it your illustrious plan includes not telling McGonagall?"
"Sure, why not," Isa said dryly as she reached for the firewhiskey in her- yet untouched- cabinet, kicking files and papers that now littered her floor away with her shoe.
"You do not think the auguror she's managed to acquire in that menagerie of a school, will not tell her, and not in a way you can control? You do want McGonagall on your side, don't you?"
Minister Isa Dawlish's eyes flashed angrily, and the moment she downed her drink she let the glass smash.
"Shut it, Black!"
"Just make sure you get an appointment with the Headmistress," Pollux said as he slid out of his marred portrait to request cleaning from the janitor downstairs.
***
Nikos sat down next to Adeline Gaunt and offered her a seat. Then with his wand, he warded the classroom for sound.
"All right, Adeline, I am listening," he said as evenly as he could make it. The 7th year Slytherin sighed, wringing her hands, but managed a thin smile.
"I like it how you call us by our first names and not the surname. It makes me feel so much better in this class rather than any other."
"I remember first names better," Nikos said but didn't go on to comment further that it didn't suit him to call kids by their last name as it was nearly never done where he came from.
The girl realized that the Greek professor was waiting for her to speak, so with a flinched she leaned forward as she sat and said:
"I know about the keys, because of the portrait."
"Professor Snape's?" Nikos asked dubiously.
"No, Merlin no! Professor Snape's portrait never speaks to me; I think it hates me. No, I'm talking about Salazar Slytherin's."
"I see," Nikos said, his mind working a mile a minute. "Tell me."
"Well, he …Salazar's portrait is the only family I really have. The only one that… well… anyway that's irrelevant. We speak in parseltongue. When Salazar's portrait speaks in parseltongue, he says a lot more things than one would imagine. He has told me of the Pythagoreans and of the five Keys. You are right that he hid it here in Hogwarts. He has told me where to get it if I ever want it. Even how to use it."
Nikos felt his heart skip beats. Salazar's portrait revealed other information through parseltongue! Of course, of course! Nikos felt both triumphant and sheepish, wondering how nobody had ever thought of it, and why he had not.
"That is wonderful, Adeline," he said sincerely, his nearly amber eyes scrutinizing her closely. "Tell me, why does Salazar's portrait speak to you so much? As I know it, he nearly never speaks to anyone and even to Tom Riddle he was silent."
Adeline bit her lip and side glanced at Nikos a little tentatively. She lowered her eyes but Nikos had already seen the answer, half-proud half-fearful, twinkling in her eyes.
"He feels you are his real heir, doesn't he, Adeline?"
Adeline's head rose with aggressive assertion but still she was silent.
Nikos smiled and nodded, rising from his chair.
"You don't need to give me any other answer, Adeline. Come, let's go to my office, and see if the Headmistress won't see us with what you have to tell us."
Adeline got up but still she stalled.
"Wait; I will help you, but I want you to help me in return."
Nikos arched an eyebrow.
"I'm sure we can work something out."
"I want…" Adeline sighed again. "I want you to take me to Greece with you, when you return. Where nobody knows the name of Gaunt."
You'll be surprised how much gossip works in Greece, Nikos thought ruefully but nonetheless he nodded.
"For sure, if you still want to by then, then you can come over," he smiled casually. Adeline tried to keep her mouth from smiling but failed.
"Thank you," she said truthfully. "Will you swear it?"
"My word is my contract," Nikos said, "but if you need insurance, I will give it with this," he raised his wand.
It was only then that the smile reached Adeline's dark eyes that were so used to be just angry and suspicious.
***
And that's that for now! Write me your thoughts and comments please! Where do you think Salazar has hidden the key?
Duj: You are right, this is not something they'd be able to do on their own. But in some way or other, didn't they always get some sort of help?
Remi Hakvoort: Well I will certainly hope it shall! This is a quiet chapter, but it is necessary for what is coming that is not so quiet….