Chapter 4
When she came to, Hermione found herself on a bed with very colourful linens. They were made from rough wool but very nicely dyed and they smelled of grass, air, and freedom.
A quiet conversation intruded on her brain before she fully opened her eyes. One glimpse at the colour had been enough to find that it was too bright. Apparently, Malfoy and Luna were in the room with her, so they had all survived. So far, so good.
"Well, in any case, it was very clever, Malfoy."
"How did you know?" Hermione heard Malfoy's gruff voice as if he was reclining somewhere.
There was a break and Hermione imagined Luna shrugging. "I see things. I feel things. Things that belong together are colour coded. There are more things between heaven and hell than we can even imagine and some just go together. It requires an open eye and many people don't believe before they see written proof. It makes it difficult to get them to hear you."
After a pause, Malfoy replied quietly, "Yeah, I get that."
A few moments passed before she heard Luna again. "How did you know, Malfoy?"
Good question, Luna, Hermione thought. I would like to know that as well.
She heard him chuckle before he answered. "Granger thinks she's so clever "
– which she is, don't get me wrong, " Malfoy added quickly when Luna made a sound of disagreement. Hermione listened with baited breath.
"However, there's magic and there's magic, and some differences you don't understand unless you suck it up with your mother's milk. Unless you breathe it before you can think, right?" Hermione heard a sound of reluctant agreeing.
"Hear me out, Lovegood, you will agree." He chuckled again. "You know, there's the magic we wield, it is inborn to us, passed down from generation to generation and sometimes even to people, Muggles, who have the right genetic set-up. Like Granger, here." Luna grunted agreement.
Malfoy seemed to take this as a signal to continue. "Then there is magic that belongs to nature, magic we wizards and witches can channel if we are so inclined, but which doesn't really belong to us. It can be dangerous because it is much bigger, much stronger than the vessels of our bodies can hold. A part of channelling it is always to cut it down enough for manageability. Voldemort went that way, and he went decidedly too far. He paid a price for it."
Luna stayed quiet, but Hermione assumed she was listening just as intensely. Where was Malfoy going with his elaboration? "And then, there is divine magic, the magic of higher beings, in higher dimensions we cannot even begin to comprehend. It drives you mad to even glimpse parts of it because your mind cannot see so far and so wide. No earthly being should ever be touched by it."
"But Hermione did?" Luna asked. By her tentative tone, Hermione figured she was just as confused.
Malfoy snorted. "Thank heavens, no. She wouldn't have survived that. And neither would we. But she tapped into earth magic. By re-creating her blinding spell, I'm sure you saw that one …" He waited for Luna's reply before disclosing more of Hermione's secrets. It came in form of a light laugh.
"Oh, yes, the one she puts on her every appearance in public media? Poor Hermione, she would be haunted by reporters forever if she didn't do it. Remember what happened in our fourth year with Rita Skeeter? Just like that. Our dear Hermione thrives on appreciation but being publicly acknowledged always comes at a price of also being publicly scrutinized, which she's not willing to pay, and I don't blame her. I don't blame you either, Malfoy, that you try to stay away from the public, but I'm glad that you got off the sauce. It really didn't do you any good."
Hermione risked a glimpse through the eyelids because she really needed to see Malfoy's face. He was reclined, as she had assumed, on a sofa of sorts, his light features almost disappearing in the colourful cloth. Luna sat a little to the side, in a huge armchair cut into the rock. How typical of Luna to poke right where it hurt the most. And you could never be angry with her because she always did it with such a pure heart and no malice.
Malfoy certainly had been hit by Luna's remark. His face showed all emotions, from hurt to embarrassment, anger and grief, and then it changed to something softer, something that took Hermione a moment to recognize: hope. As unlikely as that sounded, she also had to admit that the weeks without alcohol and exercise through the jungle had done him good. What a little bit of fresh and regular eating could do, Hermione thought with satisfaction. Perhaps the dating idea wasn't as impossible as she had originally thought.
"She did that," he admitted gruffly, and Hermione assumed he jerked his chin in her direction because she had closed her eyes quickly again, not to be found out. She couldn't do anything against her blushing when she thought about dating Malfoy, who didn't seem to mind that idea either.
Hermione heard Luna's laugh again. "She's adorable, isn't she? I love Hermione dearly. She's quite shirty with me at times, but then I know that she didn't understand me. She's so caught in her brain, it's difficult for her to understand things emotionally. You would actually be a good companion for her, you get under her skin, Malfoy. It would make things easier for her, to access her emotions, don't you think?"
Malfoy cleared his throat and fortunately stayed quiet. Hermione would have been quite angry had he disclosed their dating agreement. Luna didn't seem to notice because she hummed a tuneless tune until she remembered that Malfoy had been in the middle of explaining something.
"Oh, yes, what was it with her blinding spell? You said I would agree."
Malfoy cleared his throat again. "Right. This spell existed before, but Granger thought she had to invent it again, to customize it to her purposes. By doing so, she used the transformational magic attributed to snakes, but Granger being Granger she went one step above. What's the higher power attributed to snakes?"
Luna took a deep breath. It took something to impress her and Hermione felt a bit disquiet at hearing her friend's reaction. "Rebirth," Luna said without hesitation.
Hermione assumed that Malfoy nodded. "Rebirth. Now, this snake cult here relies on snake magic in form of transformation, I've read that somewhere. They do Animagi style but with some lasting effects. They are no strangers to magic, but their magic is very limited to their purposes and slightly different from ours. They don't practice magic like we do. Granger's magic, therefore, is a step above – it hints not only to rebirth but to fertility. A big step above, especially when it comes to their myth of Yig being their serpent father. Because who's the mother?"
Luna confirmed. "Shub-Niggurath, the mother of thousands, Yig's family, occasionally accompanied by a goat. Believing in their divine Snake father, they were rightfully impressed and afraid to meet the divine mother. Well done, Malfoy."
"Thank you." Hermione heard the pride and satisfaction in his voice and could only concur with Luna. Very well done, indeed, Malfoy.
With a lick on her hand, Crooks let her know that he knew she was awake. She would have to move soon. There was just one more thing she needed to know: were they really safe?
"As soon as Granger wakes up and is stable, we'll go to see the Great Snake and he will send us on our way. He will not dare to touch the Great Mother and her companions," Malfoy declared self-confidently.
"Yes," Luna confirmed, but Hermione heard that there was something else on her mind. Likewise, it was on Hermione's. "But we still have to find out what happened to Harry and Ron and the rest of their expedition and how to continue our magic. I don't know exactly what it is, but I think the snakes can tell us. Before that, we cannot leave, really. It's not enough to save our own hide."
There, Luna, you said it, Hermione thought.
"What?!" Malfoy cried. "What about our magic?"
Much to his chagrin, this was exactly the time Crooks choose to make it known that his mistress was awake. He barked loudly, pulling all attention to the bed.
Luna was the first at her side. "Hermione!" After taking her hand, she inquired, "How are you feeling?"
"Good, good," Hermione replied, sitting up. "Nothing better than a good sleep to replenish your energy."
Malfoy ambled over, much more hesitant. Meeting a woman right after waking up, he was careful from experience. Perhaps she needed some time to herself first.
But Hermione was ready to go. "And don't bother filling me in. I heard you talking."
Malfoy snorted. "You mean you over heard us talking."
Hermione dismissed his comment with a wave of her hand. "Yes, yes, but keep in mind I just woke from a rather deep slumber. You cannot blame a witch for wanting to collect her mental capacities."
He laughed. "Fair enough."
Hermione swung her legs over the bedside. Good thing she was still fully dressed. "How soon can we have an audience with the Great Snake?" she inquired urgently.
There was a knock on the door. Malfoy turned his head to the noise. "I'd say rather soon. It seems our escort has arrived."
This time, the court cave wasn't quite as packed. The Great Snake sat on the throne again, but he bowed at the waist to Hermione when they came in. Hermione replied with an inclination of her head to him. Courteous rules had to be observed, no matter where. Respect got you a long way. He seemed satisfied.
His spokes-snakeman to his left took up the conversation. "We greet you, descendant of the mother of thousands, and thank you for the honour of your visit. Do forgive our previous ignorance of your divine presence, and let us atone for our grave error. How can we help you?"
Hermione exchanged a brief glance with Malfoy, wondering if she should have a spokesperson, too, but decided against it.
"I thank you for your welcome and forgive your ignorance. Now, please forgive ours. My friend here, by accidentally disclosing your secrets, told us of the magical contract. I want to renew it, for the human beings are my children and I want them well-cared for. That is to say, I want them to keep their magic."
Both snakes straightened up, exposing the dangerous beauty of a rearing snake. After a brief exchange of hisses, Snakehead turned to them again and said hesitantly, "Divine mother of thousands, a grave sacrilege has been done that is not easy to undo. Alas, we would not even consider it for anybody less than the mother of thousands, or her supreme descendant, but our laws must be obeyed. We are but the guardians of this magic you speak of, the contract having been done by our ancestors, the Serpent-men, with the ancestors of your children, as you say, creating the spring. It is not in our power to either break or renew it. By the sacrilege of entering the Sacred Cave of the Serpent-men and taking their ancient ritual tools, they severed a connection to the ultimate source, which cannot be restored. There is nothing we can do, I'm afraid."
Hermione thought quickly on her feet and tried to pledge their innocence. "But wait, the expedition committing the sacrilege had only come to undo some grave damage done by Voldemort. It was completely disrupting our magic as we know it. They didn't mean to do any harm to you. They didn't even know you were here. They thought they took things of a civilisation long gone. To us, it's very valuable to study and honour ancient civilisations. Or things violated by Voldemort, so we could undo the damage. Doesn't that count for anything?"
This time, there was no mistaking the snakes' sounds for what they were: laughter. Snakehead gathered his breath quicker than his supreme ruler. "Oh, we had so much fun with this human being. Well," he waved his hands dismissively, which looked oddly comical," almost human being. However, even if he took on serpentine features, he was not one of us. He would never be one of us, self-serving as he was. His magic was different, too. We serve and worship but one, the Great Serpent Father, not some mediocre maniacal wizard. And we receive our magical powers from the father, and only from the father. So, we interrupted the spells he had planted here."
Hermione felt her companions freeze in horror, just as she felt her chest tightening.
"But, but that means that you created the interruptions we experienced?"
Snakehead snickered. "Possible. The most important part was for us that this Riddle wizard did not receive his spells."
Hermione felt sick. The expedition had done irreversible damage due to a joke these snake people had played on Voldemort's tricks. Would his legacy never end? And if magic now disappeared, was everything too late?
But wait, …
"It is a catastrophe for us, but I understand your doing, Supreme Ruler of the Snake. However, the magic is still there, we are still using it. How can that be if the connection has been disrupted months ago?"
Snakehead bowed his head in excuse. "Our apologies to the mother of thousands. Alas, there is still a residual source of the magic, as you call it, and it will last for a little more time. At the time of the fall equinox, which will be in another half a moon turn, even this residual source will be exhausted; unless it can be re-connected, but only a supreme being can do this."
Dang! There was no hope. Hermione couldn't, no, didn't want to believe it.
"Can I see it? Am I allowed to go where the residual magic is stored?"
Snakehead bowed his head. "It is in the sacred cave of the Serpent-men, but it would be my pleasure to lead the mother of thousands to it." He hissed something short to his ruler, apparently asking leave, and the Great Snake bowed his head, bidding them farewell. Hermione replied in kind and followed the Snakehead quickly.
They had to climb thousands and thousands of steps, inside the mountain, going up where Harry and expedition had climbed the mountain on the outside. After what seemed hours and hours, frequent breaks and endless exhaustion, they arrived at a platform, from which they could dimly see some daylight at the end of a long tunnel cave.
Going halfway toward the light, they encountered the ancient Peruvian gold treasures Hermione had seen back in England, each and every one of them. They had been completely inconspicuous when examined back home, but here, in their original place, they hummed as if they were electrically charged. Hermione wondered why Harry hadn't seen or felt it.
"This is it," Snakehead said, pointing to the gold treasures. "We put them back here, where they belonged, but there is only the residual in them. The connection to above is severed."
"Above? Where above?" Malfoy said something after a long time of uncharacteristic silence.
Snakehead smiled. "Well, to the stars, of course. The Serpent-men came from the stars and brought magic with them before they populated Earth and built this home, aeons ago."
"But they still hum," Hermione observed, deep in thought.
"Only as long as magic is left in them," Snakehead confirmed with a brief nod.
"They hum? How do they hum?" Malfoy demanded curtly.
Hermione startled. "You don't feel it? They hum like electricity, like … a purring cat."
Luna had been quiet so far, but at the mention of the hum she said, "I don't feel it either, but I wonder what a cat could do."
There was complete silence in the cave. That is, until with a pop, Crooks turned himself back into his Crookshank-self, which had been Hermione's familiar for so long. Snakehead shrieked uncharacteristically and fled without another word toward the end of the cave where the stairs led down.
"Hm, I take it cats and snakes don't get along so well," Malfoy said with glee.
"I wonder if there's a reason for it. The humming feels familiar and snakes usually don't hum. Crooksie, can you purr like you always do when I rub your tummy?" Crookshanks looked up at his mistress with what could only be called exasperation. Then he lay down on his back, exposing his tummy, and started purring. Hermione obliged, and helped him along by rubbing his tummy.
"Oh, now that looks cosy," Malfoy remarked. Luna nudged him in the side. "But it works, look. They found the right frequency." She indicated the increased glow of the gold.
Hermione saw more. It could be due to her newly developed skills of channelling earth magic, however, she saw how the vibration of Crookshanks' purring reflected on the humming of the gold and expanded upwards in a shaft of energy. Very soon it reached the ceiling of the cave and who knew how much further it could go? She only hoped far enough. Perhaps she could help it along?
Anxiously, she focused her thoughts to the shaft of energy, the same way her magic had previously taken hold of her down in the snake cave She tried to nudge the beam further up, but nothing happened. She kept rubbing Crookshanks' tummy despondently, hoping against hope.
Hermione didn't pay attention to Luna and Malfoy behind her, equally helpless. Luna, however, noticed Hermione's trials and, realizing what would help Hermione's magic along, she whispered to Malfoy next to her, "Go ahead, Malfoy, enrage her." To his puzzled look, she urged again, "Insult her! You know how she reacts."
A lightbulb seemed to go on in Malfoy's brain, and with glee, he did as required. "Well, well, Mudblood, you can't do it, can you? So typical, if you really need them, they fall utterly short, the Mudbloods!" He exclaimed the last word with all the malice he could muster.
The effect was imminent. Hermione's hormones spiked, pulling a magical wave behind them, which connected with the beam of energy, extrapolating it a thousand times. With an enormous whoosh , the beam broke through the mountain, unseen to the little group in the cave, and went far out into space.
Its answer wasn't far off, another beam shot back down to earth, connecting the ancient rituals tools with its power source. However, unbeknownst to Hermione and her companions, with the power of magic, renewing the spring, came the divine force of obliviation, lest humans know too much.
When Snakehead came back, hours later, to see how they were doing, he found them apathetic, with their eyes wide open, staring into empty space and unresponsive. He conferred with his supreme ruler, and gathered a few guards to help the human beings and their kneazle – there was a courageous snake-man who stuffed Crookshanks into the sling found in Malfoy's bag - back down to ground level. They equipped them with everything necessary to camp in the jungle, including some llamas to carry their baggage, and stuffed the llamas' bags with ancient Inca treasures, to make them believe they were treasure hunting. He then sent them off with a few guides towards Aguas Caliente. Whenever they would awake from their trance, the guides would disappear as snakes in the bushes and the small group would think itself on its return trip home and continue on its way.
Then Snakehead set about to release the unlucky explorers from their Portkey induced spell. They had deserved their punishment, but with the Mother of Thousands vouching for them, and an obliviation spell making them forget everything about the snake cult, well, enough was enough. The fewer complications could be attributed to travels to Peru the better for the snake cult. He bid the Mother of Thousands farewell and closed the secret chamber of worshipping.
And while Crabbe and Goyle made their way up Quetzalcoatl's pyramid in Yucatan, Mexico, muttering, "But there was something about a Snake God," Harry woke up in sweat in his hospital bed. He'd had weird dreams about snakes and gold and jungle and he couldn't explain why he and the rest of his expedition were at St. Mungo's. So could nobody else.
Luna returned earlier than Hermione and Malfoy. She had taken the plane to get home and couldn't wait to tell Ginny about her fabulous vacation in the Peruvian jungle. She couldn't quite explain why she had decided to vacation with Hermione and Malfoy together, however, in particular, as those two were terribly occupied with each other.
Malfoy and Granger, on the other hand, had chartered a big comfortable yacht with the new-found riches from their saddlebags and took their time getting home. The weather was terrific and the yacht was very big, and being in their own respective cabin, servants would make sure they didn't miss a thing on their journey.
However, there was time for a date or two. Dinner – and perhaps a little more. After all, Malfoy had his reputation to save.
"Arrrgh, dithering Dugbogs, Granger, too tight, this is too tight. And get your hair out of my face."
The esteemed reader is free to imagine what is going on.
THE END