Sorry for the delay in my posting schedule. It is largely due to being too inspired to work on my other fic (The Black Prince—my dark!Harry fic I posted a few days ago if anyone missed it and wanted to read it). Unfortunately, I haven't written much on this recently. I have a bunch of great ideas it's just a point A to point B problem right now. I'm working on it though. Don't worry—I won't abandon Skin Deep. I hate it when authors abandon fics just when they get interesting.
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Chapter 41Today was the first day that Tallis would be actively using healing magic. He wasn't yet ready to use it on a human being but he was finally allowed to cast the spells. Madame Pomfrey had purchased a few dummies for that very purpose. Many witches and wizards were allowed to practice on patients from the beginning because it was unlikely that they could truly damage anyone but with the extreme magical strength that Tallis had no one was willing to take any chances. He could send the spells at the dummies as if they were patients and a magical reading would be performed, letting him know the strength and efficacy of his spell.
"Good morning, Madame Pomfrey!" he greeted cheerily, after seeing that there were two patients in the Infirmary already. He tried to use formal names for the professors when students were near.
"Good morning, Apprentice Snape. Are you ready to begin today?"
Tallis looked toward the two young girls sitting on beds halfway down the aisle, silently inquiring whether they needed assistance. "They're just waiting for the potion to take effect. Botched de-sapping in Herbology." Tallis nodded, smiling lightly. Those plants could be dangerous if you messed up. As young as the girls were the sap was probably not terribly dangerous but it was no doubt uncomfortable or caused some irritating (but not deadly) reactions.
Poppy led Tallis into a side room where the dummies awaited him. She closed the door and activated the spell that was permanently on all of her private doors which allowed her to see and hear anything that happened in the Infirmary. "The first thing that you will be doing is simply trying to send a force of blanket healing magic at the dummy. Don't try to push it to fix anything, don't twist it for any specific illnesses or injuries. Just send a simple blast of healing energy."
Tallis looked at her doubtfully. He had been studying for this moment for almost two months now and he still wasn't entirely certain he understood it. The books were incredibly vague when they described how one went about using healing magic. Apart from explaining that it was a branch of magic all its own no one could actually describe it. Much like mind magics, either you had a natural bent toward them or you didn't. If you didn't then there wasn't much hope that you would ever be able to progress beyond the theoretical part of it.
He held out his wand—a ten and a half inch ebony with phoenix ash and unicorn hair core—toward the dummy and concentrated on healing magic. He wasn't sure if his new wand would hurt him or help him. He hadn't used it very much since he had gotten it over the summer because he had little cause to use it during potion work and he wasn't yet allowed to use healing magic. Aside from using it nonstop during those days when he and his Father were trying to get his spell strength back under control he hadn't used it regularly. In some ways it might help him since he wasn't used to channeling his magic through this specific wand in a certain way yet. At the same time though, it was nerve wracking, casting incredibly difficult and unknown spells on a virtually untried wand.
He pushed harder, trying to get any sort of reaction. Absolutely nothing happened. He lowered the wand and looked toward Poppy, confused as to what he was doing wrong. "Keep trying, dear. The first time's always the hardest." Tallis looked at her incredulously but he obediently turned back to the dummy and tried again, this time trying to physically gather his magic and push it through the wand. Nothing happened.
After about ten minutes on intense focus he gave up and turned to Poppy again. She was still smiling encouragingly at him. "I need to step back into the Infirmary and check on our patients. Keep trying, dearie."
"Don't you have any suggestions?"
"It is different for everyone Tallis. I'm sorry, I really don't have anything useful to tell you. Just keep at it. You'll get it sooner or later, I'm sure. You definitely have the gift, you just need to tap into it." She slipped out of the door, leaving the spell down so that Tallis wouldn't be distracted by the sights and sounds of the busy Infirmary. Tallis turned dejectedly toward the dummy. He wasn't used to this. He had never struggled before like this to get a spell right. Sure, sometimes he needed a few hours to do it but he always got some sort of reaction the first time.
After another thirty minutes of fruitless spell casting Tallis tossed his wand aside and sat down on the small bed and decided to meditate for a few minutes to see if that would help. He forced himself to calm down, breathing slowly, and letting go of his irritation. He traced the threads of his magic to his core as he always did. Once there though, he didn't know what to do to access his healing magic. Poppy and his Father assured him that he did have it but he wasn't able to discern it from his other abilities.
He had long ago learned how to unravel the individual threads of his power and identify them based on his magical gifts. As far as he could tell though, he had identified them all. He couldn't see healing magic. It must be there, he just didn't know how to identify it or seek it out. He pushed around the mass of power for a long time, searching desperately for this new gift. He finally gave up, realizing that his desperation was destroying his meditative state and wouldn't allow him to do any good at all.
He opened his eyes and looked at the clock, shocked to realize that it was already almost lunchtime. He decided to try one more time before leaving for his lunch break. He turned toward the dummy, clutched his wand tightly and concentrated hard on the task at hand. Once again, nothing happened. He sighed and pocketed his wand, opening the door into the Infirmary. Poppy looked up eagerly and just offered his a smile when he shook his head at her. "Don't worry. You'll get it soon enough. Go and have a nice lunch with your Father. Why don't you take the afternoon off to relax? You'll never get it if you're stressing yourself out over it."
Tallis nodded and made his way slowly to the Great Hall. Draco was waiting for him outside, ready to walk in with him. "How did it go?"
"Terribly. I couldn't do anything."
"I hear that's pretty common. It takes some witches and wizards months or even years to access healing magic. I'm sure you'll get it soon."
"Thanks, Dray. How has your day been?"
"Uneventful. Are you needed back in the Infirmary later today?"
"No, Poppy's given me the day off." By this point the boys had reached the front of the Hall and they stood there chatting for a few moments. "Do you have classes?"
"No. I had Herbology but it got canceled. Some sort of sap disaster or something. We should do something."
Tallis got a gleam in his eye that always made the Gryffindors wary. He was planning something big. "Let me talk to my Father. Meet me after lunch."
Draco agreed and quickly sat down at the Slytherin table. Tallis eagerly sat down by his Father. "Were you able to get anything?" Severus asked quietly.
Tallis looked disheartened momentarily but soon perked up. "No, nothing. Poppy gave me the rest of the day off to relax though and I had an idea."
"Yes?" Severus prodded. He was slightly nervous. Tallis had the "Harry Potter" gleam in his eyes. He was planning something. He could only hope that his son's Slytherin side would show through and it wouldn't be some sort of rescue-adventure-disaster type thing.
"Well…I still haven't been able to go through my vaults at Gringott's. I thought that maybe Dray and I could go visit Bill and sort through them." He had been eager to see what was in the Potter vaults since he had finally read his parents' will. They hadn't mentioned anything specific but he was still curious, especially as Bill and Ron told him more about what many Purebloods kept in their vaults. Since he knew nothing about his parents…or, rather, his mum and adoptive Father, he figured that anything he found would give him some insight into their lives.
Severus glared at Tallis. "Do I need to point out that you cannot go through those vaults with Draco?"
Tallis deflated. He had forgotten that Draco didn't know the whole truth. He clearly couldn't take him into the Potter family vaults without some sort of explanation at hand. There was no way that he could convince him that Harry Potter wanted him to go through them. He sighed. "I could still visit Bill. I miss him."
"You just saw him this morning. The boy has practically moved into our quarters. I feel like I'm tripping over Gryffindors at every bloody turn."
"Oh. Is that bad? Should I tell him not to stay as much."
Severus sighed loudly and pinched the bridge of his nose. Merlin, sometimes dealing with Tallis was too much for him. He was really not good at watching his speech and he found himself slipping into snarky bastard mode more often around his son now that they were at school. "It was not said in an attempt to get rid of him, it was merely a statement of fact. You cannot possibly miss Bill yet."
Tallis shrugged his shoulders and smiled sheepishly at his Father. Severus shook his head. "All right, fine. You get this sort of Gryffindorish behavior from your mother I'm sure: it is certainly not from me. You can go to Gringott's but you will not leave the bank, even for a moment. You must remember that Draco's life could be in danger, even by a quick trip to the Quidditch shop. Have I made myself perfectly clear?"
Tallis grinned, making Severus realize that perhaps the boy had been cooped up for too long if he was that excited about running an errand to a bank. "You can go into some of the Snape vaults and try to find a few artifacts that might be helpful in the fights ahead." Tallis' grin lowered into a simple smile, acknowledging that he was, in fact, paying attention to more than the fact that he could go and snog his boyfriend at work. He knew that he had been given a very real and important job. Ron had sorted through a few of the vaults but had not seen them all by any means. Since they didn't know what they were looking for it was not exactly easy to do.
"Brilliant. Will you make us a portkey or will we floo?"
"Floo there but I'm making you both portkeys for your return. When you arrive you are to find Bill immediately so that he knows to keep an eye out for you two. Do not, under any circumstances, decide to leave."
Tallis rolled his eyes. "I promise, I won't! We'll stay right there. Can I go tell Draco now? It looks like he's done."
"Please make certain that you are not overheard. Gringott's is safe enough but I would rather not risk an attack. I doubt anyone would dare attack anything run by the Goblins but I will not rule it out."
"Ok Hermione," Tallis muttered. He saw his Father's glare increase a bit at being compared to a Gryffindor, albeit the smartest Gryffindor that Hogwarts had seen since Lily Evans. "We really will be careful, dad. I promise. We'll be back before you even miss us!"
The glare had been wiped completely when he heard Tallis call him 'dad.' Tallis had never before knowingly called him that before. If he weren't in the Great Hall in front of hundreds of students he just might smile. He found himself struggling to keep up his blank mask. A hint of a smile crept out anyway. "I know you'll be careful. You know I worry anyway."
"I do. If nothing else I still have my ring. We'll be perfectly fine."
"I'll leave the portkeys in the top drawer of my desk. Have fun."
Tallis waved goodbye to him and ran down to tell Draco the news. Even Draco had been feeling the pinch of forced confinement and was thrilled at the idea of an outing, even if it was only to the bank. The walked down to the Slytherin dorms for Draco to change clothes and then went on to the Snape rooms so that Tallis could drop off his books while Tallis explained what they were looking for. He told Draco that they were looking for potential weapons to use in a fight against Dumbledore and that might help the war effort, knowing that he couldn't act as if the fight with Voldemort was his personal fight too. They stopped by the office to grab the portkeys that Severus had made for them while Draco was changing and then left for Gringott's.
They arrived in the main floo in the lobby of the large bank. The bank was quieter than either boy had ever seen it before. Tallis hadn't been there in years, and when he had been there it was on one of the busier days of the year in Diagon Alley because all of the students were getting ready to go back to school. Draco had been there many times but he was usually there on weekends or busy shopping days. Tallis hesitantly walked up to the counter.
"Excuse me, sir?" The goblin glared at him and Draco suppressed a snicker. Tallis was always so polite. He had never heard anyone refer to a goblin as anything remotely so proper. "Is Bill Weasley here?" The goblin glared harder at him.
"Why would you inquire after Mr. Weasley? What do you need with him?"
"Erm…I…" Tallis blushed lightly, trying to explain to the goblin without telling them that he was asking about him because he wanted a quick make out session with his boyfriend.
Draco stepped in. "He is Master Snape's lover. Tell him that we are here" he said coldly. Tallis looked relieved that he didn't need to deal with it. The goblin glared one more time for good measure but he did leave to go find Bill. Ten minutes later Bill stepped out of an office and caught sight of Tallis and Draco. As usual when he went to work, he had foregone wearing robes. They often got in the way of his more hazardous duties. He looked thrilled to see his boyfriend during the workday. Tallis had never been able to visit him at work before.
"What are you two doing here?"
Tallis quickly stood on his toes to brush a light kiss on Bill's cheek which Bill had to bend down a bit so that his small lover could reach. "Father sent us to look through some of the Snape vaults."
"That's a good idea. Do you know which ones still need to be looked through?"
"All of the odd numbered ones. I think they're on the left side of our hall, I'm not sure."
"I'm a bit tied up right now but when I'm done I'll come visit you two. Be careful. You know Severus has some really dark things in there. I wish he had sent a house elf with you to help."
"We'll be fine. We won't mess with anything if we aren't sure it is safe to touch."
"I have dealt with more than my fair share of dark artifacts and I am well aware of how to recognize them and handle them when necessary," Draco said. "We'll be fine."
"All right. I'll be down soon." He bent down and whispered something in Tallis' ear making him blush and then turned and went back to his office.
"Do I want to know what he just said?" Draco asked, teasing his already blushing friend. Tallis just shook his head, completely bemused, and started walking toward the carts so that they could go back to the Snape vaults. The boys climbed into an empty cart and a goblin shortly joined them to take them down to the Snape vaults. As they pulled up to their destination Tallis' jaw dropped. He had known that they had a hallway of vaults but somehow he had thought that meant a hallway like in the apartment, with three or four doors. This hallway was extremely long—there had to be twenty five vaults on each side, each one under high security.
Severus had already explained to his son that the vaults could be opened by applying his blood to the doors. When Ron had gone to the vaults he had to bring with him a signed note that he handed over to the goblins which contained Snape's magical signature and a drop of his blood. The goblins used the note to disarm the wards surrounding the vaults that Ron wanted to enter. Tallis hesitantly stood before one of the massive doors as the goblin quickly drove away. Draco motioned him to open the door and Tallis nervously complied.
The door opened to a vault stuffed to the ceiling with gold coins. The money was almost nauseating in its totality. "Let's move on, we won't find anything here," Draco said, pulling a dazed Tallis away. The young men shut the door again and heard the protections instantly spring back into place making them both shudder. They walked further down to the next door which Tallis quickly opened. This one would perhaps be more useful. It was full of odd trinkets and furniture. Not the most promising lot but certainly more promising than a mound of gold.
The two split up and started sifting through the various artifacts. Tallis found a stack of old portraits and asked them if any of them knew of anything that might help them. Most of the witches and wizards had been asleep for too long to recall anything immediately but promised to start thinking about it. Tallis moved on to the shelves that lined the wall that were covered with jewelry and trinkets. He sorted through them carefully but again didn't find anything promising.
Draco was having more luck looking through an old trunk. He found some old potions journals that he knew Sev would want to flip through and a small stack of letters written between a Snape many generations back and Desidus Nestirius, the man who had written one of the seminal works on mind magicks. He set those aside to look over more carefully later. They might all just be harmless chatter but they might have some important information from one of the founding fathers of mind magics as they were known today. More significant than the fact that he practically founded modern mind magics was the fact that he had also been the most well versed wizard in his day in the ancient art of mind magic. Perhaps he would reveal some of the forgotten secrets about the long dead art.
Bill stood outside the vault hesitantly, calling out for Tallis. He assumed he was within the vault but he didn't want to find out the bad way that he wasn't. If he was in a Snape vault without a Snape present or blood protection from a Snape then the protections would spring into place. What was not commonly known to wizards outside of Gringott's employ was the fact that being locked inside a vault was the least of a thief's worries. The protections the high security vaults had would not only go into lockdown but they could also liquidate a man in seconds if he wasn't supposed to be there.
Tallis rushed forward, thrilled that he could finally kiss Bill properly. He threw himself into Bill's arms pulling him into the vault and was instantly lifted off his feet in a mind numbing kiss. Tallis wrapped his legs around Bill's waist pulling him in closer, rubbing his suddenly half hard member against Bill's answering hardness. Who knew that a Gringott's vault could be such a turn on? Moaning softly, he begged Bill to take him to another vault. "We can't love, or Draco will get hurt. You can't leave the vault with him in it."
Tallis reluctantly put his feet back on the floor but didn't step away from the embrace. "Why not?" he pouted.
"The Snapes can be a nasty family, Tallis. They have the highest security on their vaults. It is dangerous for a non-Snape to be in here without your protection." Tallis wasn't ready to give up. He pressed his palm against his lover's straining cock, making Bill moan as he rubbed lightly. Tallis quickly undid the button on Bill's pants and unzipped them, squeezing his small hand around Bill's thick member. "Merlin Tallis," Bill moaned. "You'd better stop now…I can't—"
Tallis squeezed harder, pulling a pearly drop from the leaking cock. "Oh Merlin" he groaned, giving in. Draco heard the commotion and peeked around a large shelf that had been obstructing his view and realized what they were up to. Tallis stood in front of Bill and was blocking Draco's view of him but it was blatantly obvious what he was doing. Tallis evidently did have a bit of an exhibitionist streak in him. Draco smirked and went toward the back of the vault, busying himself with the trunks at the very rear.
Bill gasped quietly as he came into Tallis' hand. Tallis slowly started to lick his hand clean, inserting each long finger into his mouth to savor the last of it. Bill pulled Tallis closer to him and, feeling that he was still hard, thrust his thigh between Tallis' parted legs, rubbing him roughly through his robes. Tallis clutched his shoulders tightly as he rocked back and forth against his hard thigh, a never ending stream of moans slipping from his parted lips. He wavered at the edge of his peak for a long moment, enjoying the rough ride but needing more. Bill bent down and lightly bit his full bottom lip, thrusting harder into Tallis and nearly lifting him off the ground. He swallowed Tallis' quiet scream as he came hard in his pants.
Tallis collapsed into Bill's arms, supported almost entirely by Bill's tall frame. "I can't believe you just made me do that in a Gringott's vault with a bloody Malfoy not twenty feet away."
Tallis snickered softly and leaned further Bill's embrace. "You loved it. You know it. I'm sure Draco was at least thirty feet away, really. And we kept our clothes on…mostly."
"You are such a bad influence on me. Merlin, I'm acting like a bloody teenager, getting a hand job at work!"
Tallis just laughed harder. "Come on, we haven't really found anything yet. You can help us look." The two made their way further back into the vault, looking through shelves and chests as they found them. After another hour's search they all decided to move on to another vault, hoping for more luck there. They didn't really know what they were looking for, they were just hoping that they would find something that would help them, either in the fight against Voldemort or in the fight against Dumbledore.