Chapter 3
For a moment, as they stood peering down into the dark gulf, she was gripped with fear. His fingers pressed her knuckles softly in warning as he stepped towards the chasm. Her first few steps were reluctant. Her eyes widened as they took in the darkness.
Time seemed to stand still…
They jumped.
Shadows whirled all around them and she was struck with an intense gust of sharp wind. The storm grew louder, burying them and she closed her eyes as unearthly voices shrieked in her ear, calling forth the most fearful memories of her life.
She screamed.
Her voice was drowned by the incessant whirlpool into which they were being dragged…
Her grip on his hand was failing her… She needed...
Her fingers slipped through his hand and she would have let go had he not possessed the presence of mind to catch her wrist just in time.
Darkness stabbed at her back and she spun out of control, grabbing the front of his robes to hold on to something…. It wasn't happening again… No, they couldn't die…
She whimpered in his chest and felt his hand cradle the back of her head.
Another scream left her lips as the howling wind preyed on her fears once more and she was pressed into his chest. She clung to the fabric desperately, refusing to let the agony blind her…
'The butterfly was red… It changed colour with every passing moment.
She tried to catch it in her outstretched hands but it flew away.
She giggled joyfully at the trail of sparkling colours it left behind…'
"Miss Granger." An alien voice seeped into her consciousness and she felt herself being shaken awake. "Can you hear me?"
She groaned and flailed her arms around in a wild motion. His pale face loomed above her and in her woolly mind, she tried to grab it. It moved away from her vision and she was pulled to a seating position. She narrowed her eyes a few times to focus on the images around her and pressed her hand over her head a few times.
"We d-didn't make it?" she asked stupidly, staring at the scenery around her. Everything looked the same. The trees were drenched in the same light, the shrubs, the rocks….
But something was different. There was no sign of the bridge.
Also, it was nearly twilight. They had left behind the cold darkness of night.
"We're there," he snapped at her in impatience. "I wonder if your famed intelligence has simply dissipated with your inability to hold still and not get knocked out by wind."
"It wasn't just the wind, thank you very much," she retorted as she shrugged the dust off her skirt and looked at the sky. "This doesn't look much like the underworld."
"What, did you really think it was going to be dark and ominous?" He chuckled as he motioned for her to follow him. For some reason, he looked relaxed.
More than he had in the last few weeks…
"Well, yeah." She felt for her wand in the robes. "I don't have my wand, Professor."
He glanced behind him once as they made their way through the… woods. Yes, she could call it that. There were far too many trees. No sign of life could be discerned, though, and Hermione wondered if being dead truly felt like… well, this. If so, it wasn't too bad.
"You don't need a wand here." He snapped his fingers and an overhanging creeper laden with thorns moved aside to make way for them.
Huh. Don't need a wand?
What, so she needed to rely on his wandless magic if anything… unnatural crept upon them?
She noticed a few butterflies zooming around a luscious looking flower and had to bite her lip wistfully. She was beginning to get hungry. Not that she'd tell him, no, he would only chastise her for not being… disciplined enough.
"Where are we going?" she asked after a long while when he finally stopped near a huge boulder and removed a thin book from his robes. She craned her neck to look at it but the front page held no title.
She might just die of those itchy bites, she thought as she swatted an irksome fly and waited for him to answer.
"I thought I told you already," he answered absently and covered his eyes to gaze at distance. He was searching for something and for the life of her, Hermione could not figure out what it was.
Wasn't the land of dead supposed to be… well, less like it was back home.
For one thing, she could do without those damn flies.
"No, what I meant was where are we headed to in this… realm?" She jumped up from her comfortable seat in the hollow of a tree as he began to move forward with a brisk pace. He had longer legs, he could cover larger distances with his normal pace but she still had to run to keep up.
So much for consideration.
"We're going to find the Valkyries, Miss Granger. And no, before you ask another asinine question, they cannot simply materialise before us at our wish. This… realm is no different from earth and we shall have to seek what we wish to find…" He sighed dramatically as they reached a pond. "We will need to be careful about what lurks around here at night."
She looked up. The sky was dotted with unfamiliar stars.
Also, there was no moon.
Well, that made sense.
Although, why the underworld had a sky was beyond her comprehension…
"We'll stop here for the night," he muttered and looked around purposely. Perhaps he was searching for a good shelter…
"That tree there might do," she pointed out a huge oak tree on the other side of the pond. He gazed in the same direction for a few moments, as if wondering if that were indeed a good choice, and nodded slowly.
"Fuck!" she let out without second thought as she tripped over a particularly deceptive stone.
"Mind your language, Miss Granger," he commented and snapped his fingers once more. The lower branches of tree tangled among themselves to create a small… cave for them. Well, kind of. She looked at her own hands in disgust.
No wand.
No wandless magic.
She had not signed up for utter helplessness.
"Well? What are you waiting for? Scour the place for dry leaves and twigs if you want dinner today."
She shot him a glare.
"There is no food around," she replied as she bent down to pick a few fallen branches off the ground. "I'm not sure I want to eat anything found… here," she muttered under her breath.
She did not like this place.
It was too… natural.
There were fishes in the pond. She wrinkled her nose as he roasted one in the open fire.
It smelt.
No, it reeked.
She had not enjoying watching him gut it.
And now, she had to eat it.
"It doesn't feel much different from… back home." She eyed the crackling fire ponderously. His pale face was more relaxed now. She looked around and rubbed her arms before going to sit by him. She was beginning to understand the times when it was best to approach him when she wanted answers.
This was a good time.
"Why is it… everything the same?" She played with a small stone that lay close to her foot. It was rather comical, the way he sat on haunches and held the freshly caught fish in fire. She, however, sat cross-legged and stared into the high rising flames. "In the stories, the underworld was supposed to be different… sort of like a land of nightmare where evil walks free and the conscientious people cower."
He chuckled at her words.
It was an odd sound.
It was sort of guttural and soft at the same time.
"This world is created from memories of the deceased, Miss Granger…"
"So this place is actually existent in the-the other world? On earth?"
He nodded as he placed the fish on a plate. "Yes and no. Memories… flow. They do not exist in a bubble, isolated from influences of their surroundings. What we see is not one coherent remembrance. It is a comingling of many strands of thoughts, unfulfilled dreams… and nightmares."
Hermione took the plate from him and sniffed the cooked meal. It did not appear as bad as she had suspected but nevertheless, it was no delicacy.
Better than nothing, however.
She had no fork. Snape had not bothered to transfigure another twig into cutlery and she was not going to ask him for one.
"How do you know that these are memories? I take it that this is your first … trip here as well?" she asked him as she took a bite. It tasted bad, yes, but not disgusting. It would have to do.
He smiled wistfully at the second fish being roasted in fire. "No, but I have access to second-hand account of one previous traveller." He removed a thin book from his robes and passed it to her. "Read it if you get time. I have it memorised. I hope that after this you would stop pestering me with questions."
She almost grinned at his response as she ran her fingers over the cover.
"All the mythical tales say differently… They talk about a land in the dark and one has to cross the river Styx… I guess they were wrong," she murmured to herself. "They also talked about a ferryman who would transport the souls across the river…"
Snape stared at her face in quiet contemplation for a bit. "Rest assured, Miss Granger, we will face it all. They had-"
He did not finish his sentence for just then, a loud crunching noise caught their attention. Hermione's head whipped around and she froze.
A giant three-headed dog stood a few paces away from her, snarling at her as it pawed the ground. It was ready to attack. Her scream died in her throat as she was pushed aside and she landed dangerously close to the fire. When she did manage to sit up, however, she noticed Snape duck to the side as the dog pounced at him.
He had pushed her to safety.
It growled when it missed it prey and Hermione backed away a little at the ferocity in its posture. She had no wand.
What the fuck was she going to do?
No wand, no spell, no…
Snape managed to jump away just in time but she saw him crash against a tree. He hissed and manoeuvred a spell, a stunner, but it simply bounced off the dog's thick skin.
It had three heads.
Oh.
"Play some music!" she shouted at Severus as he managed to avoid getting hit once more and tried another spell at the beast.
"What?" he roared at her and even in this besieged state of his, she could sense chiselled contempt belying his… bellow.
Really now.
"Charm a violin, a flute, whatever… It'll lull him to sleep!" she answered loudly. "I'll draw its attention to myself while you do it."
With that, she picked a burning log and flung it at the dog's head, one of its heads, with all her strength.
It worked.
The dog was distracted from his attack on Severus and it reared its ugly head towards Hermione. Her legs shook pitifully as she watched the beast's progress.
Oh she was going to die.
Without a wand.
She took a step back as the creature bent its front paws. Its spring would probably have flattened her to the ground if it was not for the fact that she was too close to the pond and lost her footing over the edge.
She fell in!
With a loud splash.
Could things get worse?
In all her struggle to swim with her mouth and eyes full of water, she missed the song playing throughout the clearing.
She coughed and caught hold of the muddy grass at the edge and pulled herself out of the water just in time to watch the dogs bend its legs in stupor and let out a sleepy growl.
Phew.
Severus was eyeing her in amusement.
Never mind thanking her for saving both their lives.
"Well?" She pointed to herself. "I could use some help here."
"With what?" he raised an eyebrow at her in question.
"I have no wand and I do not intend to sleep drenched to my bones," she snapped as she took off her shoes and poured the liquid contents onto the ground.
"I said you did not need your wand," he sneered at her. "Not that you could not perform magic."
The place was too cramped.
It was too… wooden.
She had used cushioning charms all over the floor but the tiny shelter reeked of wood and rotten leaves. Besides, it was not a comfortable position, sleeping in full view of one's teacher. She had to keep tucking her skirt every time she changed position. She would be mortified if he caught sight of her knickers.
Perish the thought…
There were no lights, just gnats.
He had sealed the entrance so that no wild animal could follow their scent and gain access to them while they slept. Sleep, however, was not to be her haven for quite some time.
The three-headed dog slept outside. Severus had place an indefinite charm on the flute and as long as nothing destroyed it, they would not have much to fear. Also, as long as they stayed inside the tiny shelter created out of tree barks and strong branches, the dog would not be able to attack them.
Or so she hoped.
She remembered how she had faced something quite similar to this dog in her first year.
With her friends.
Who were dead.
She swallowed and breathed deeply.
If only they had not died.
If only…
"Sleep, Miss Granger. We have a long journey before us in the morning."
"How did you know I was awake?"
She had her eyes closed and was pretending to be resting.
"I've been a spy for too long. I think I know when someone is pretending." He sighed. She looked at his pale face staring at the wooden ceiling.
"Why did you do it, Professor? I mean, why did you not wait until the war ended to declare your true loyalties? You would have had a place, still, in that cursed world. Unlike me."
"You forget that Dumbledore entrusted those last memories to me… I had to deliver them to Potter."
"No, I do not forget. Harry never revealed, or planned to reveal, your work as a spy for the Order. In the last battle, you stood up to them, you went ahead and sided with… us. You could have stayed back and waited to see who won. No one would have been the wiser…"
Silence followed her words.
"That would have been the Slytherin way…"
She swatted a particularly annoying fly on her hand.
"So you made a mistake…"
"No."
His response caused her to look at him intently. His face was contemplative, and she could feel a sort of… sorrow emanate from his being. He was all alone.
Just like her.
Yes, loneliness grew on one.
It grew to the extent that one began to see everyone around them as lonely people.
"How long do you think it will take us to reach them? The Valkyries?" She changed the topic.
"I don't know, Miss Granger," came his honest reply. "But if we can persuade them, they will aid us."
"I doubt it," she argued. "They like dead people. Why would they ever indulge in behaviour that would reduce death?"
She could see him roll his eyes.
"You understand too little."
She fumed silently at his reply. That was why he never shared things with her, never told her of his plans…
She knew too little. Granted, her knowledge was puny when compared to his but she still knew something.
And she could learn. She wasn't a dunderhead. But it wasn't like he cared. For him, she was… subordinate. As if they were in an army….
Yeah, an army with two soldiers, including one who prefers to be the Chief.
That left just one soldier, really.
Her private rants were getting unbearable.
She needed to sleep.
"Why did you turn you back on him? The Dark Lord?"
He stayed quiet. She knew he wasn't asleep.
But she wouldn't get an answer out of him by persisting.
Someday, though, she'd know.
Meanwhile, she had to survive in the… underworld. It was going to get perilous for them. She just hoped that she'd come of it alive. Oh well, even if she did not, she wouldn't have to travel far in the afterlife.
She was already in the land of the dead.
Hey guys, i'm so sorry for the long break in updating this fic. I hope you likes this chapter. Please tell me what you think and review. I will answer the reviews before I publish the next chapter to this.
I started another fic-a sort of experiment, it's called 'Scarring'- I know I should be working on the ongoing fics and not start new ones out of the blue but I just couldn't help it.
Read and Review!