Chapter 68
When Mag returned to Hogwarts that evening she had a headache. It turned out Areecen had some very old magic books in his cave and he was allowing her to read and categorize them. They were old enough to require translation charms to read and looking at the translated writing overlaying the original text for too long was a strain on the eyes. The books were fascinating chronicles of spell crafting, alchemy and magical creatures, though, so she was going to absorb every word if it took the next ten years. Today she'd read a third of a book on crafting weather spells, and her mind was toying with the idea of adapting them for other purposes.
When Severus entered his bedchamber, he carried a plate of food for her. "I didn't even have to have you another made today. You got mine. I ate at Durmstrang and was too full to do it again so I just pushed the food around a little and saved it for you."
"Thanks," Mag said, standing to kiss him as she eagerly took the plate. "Any food you've pushed around for half an hour is surely more tasty than if it hadn't been graced by your presence."
Severus snorted and she chuckled. She settled down at the desk to eat and he flopped into an arm chair in the corner with a sigh.
"I hate everyone," he complained.
"So nothing new today, then," she asked with another smile. So excited was she about Areecen's cash of books that her mood was ecstatic and excitable.
"Oh plenty of newness today, just nothing at all cheering," Severus said, ignoring her rare levity. "Potter appears to be skipping school. How we're going to turn him into a decent wizard practically over night without his being here is beyond me."
Mag choked on a bite of potato. "You're kidding."
Green eyes wide with shock, she lowered her fork and turned in her chair to regard Severus.
"I kid once a year, and I think that happened last month when I said I was excited to know Sekhmet was coming for Christmas," Severus snarked dryly.
Mag's lips twitched. "Really, though...for how long? How long is he going to be MIA and is he allowed to do that under Voldemort's new rule?"
"Of course he isn't, but like his father before him, he doesn't follow rules well if at all," Severus said acidly.
He didn't care that breaking Voldemort's rules could, in some cases, be wise because he was Voldemort. He cared that Harry Potter was screwing up again and as usual other people would pay for it. Did the prat care? Obviously not. He was too stupid and shallow to even conceive of what he was doing. He was selfish. He was careless, unwise, and if they were very unlucky, he would be the reason Voldemort won. "He likely won't return because of that very fact. Because he is breaking what is currently Ministry law by refusing to attend school." He sighed. "At least we have Grindelwald if he gets killed."
Mag nodded, giving a faint smile. "I was just thinking that." What are you going to do," she asked, turning back to her food with admittedly less interest in it than she'd previously shown.
"Apparently nothing," Severus said darkly. When she turned to him with raised brows, he shrugged. "I went to see Albus. That's why I dined at Durmstrang. He thinks this is only a minor setback."
Mag's brows shot even higher.
/Alright. I know Dumblefuck didn't want you knowing, but if you think it's an issue just remove this from your heads with the Pensieve,/ Nightshade said. Mag and Severus turned to regard him as one. He'd begun to eat Mag's chicken while she was ignoring it. /He left Ron FuckTard Weasley something when he fake died and he's able to use it to spy on them to see where they are and what they're doing. I think it's called a deluminator or some shit. It does something with light and when they use it it will activate something he linked it to, maybe his glasses, and he'll see what they're doing. I saw him thinking about it./
"Alright," Severus said slowly, feeling marginally better. "But how is seeing what he's doing going to make Potter functional when he has to fight Voldemort?"
/Don't know that,/ Nightshade replied, mental tone implying that he couldn't be expected to know everything.
"Do you think he'll teach Harry," Mag asked dubiously.
"Perhaps, but if so why not do that earlier instead of having me do it?"
Mag nodded. "There is that. You're probably better at the mind magics than he is."
/Or there is shit in Dumblefuck's head he doesn't want Potter to see,/ Nightshade speculated.
"Like what," Mag asked.
"Leave me some of that chicken."
/I've nearly finished it. Leave me alone,/ Nightshade said, continuing to eat. The thing about speaking telepathically was that one could do so without pausing for a second in one's eating of other people's chicken. /I'm guessing if Dumblefuck has figured out more about Voldemort or how he plans to manipulate Potter into somehow managing to kill him, he won't want Potter getting a glimpse of any of that,/ Nightshade explained.
Mag and Severus both nodded.
"Makes sense," Mag said.
"So if that is the case he won't be teaching Potter, so we're back to the question of how does Dumbledore expect Potter to do what he is supposed to without the proper training."
"Indeed," Severus agreed. He sighed. "He wouldn't tell me what it was, but he indicated he had some sort of plan. He feels I am in a closer proximity to the dark lord now more than ever and that telling me too much could put me at risk with him."
He sighed. "While that makes sense, not knowing has me on edge," he admitted.
"The thought of you being in closer proximity to Voldemort has me on edge," Mag said, the all too familiar worry for Severus tightening her stomach.
"I'll be careful," he assured, glad to focus on someone else for the moment because stressing over the upcoming year was doing nothing productive. Standing, he reached for Mag and she entirely forgot about the piece of chicken that Nightshade had made himself a pig over. An hour later, they lay in bed, both far more relaxed. "Would you do a rune reading for me," Severus asked sleepily. "I want to know if Potter is going to defeat him, and if...If I will survive it. If my chances look bad, your rune casting can tell me if I can do anything to change it, yes?" That question was harder to ask than he'd expected, and the asking made his concern grow rather than easing it as he'd hoped it would. Mag's answers would at least set him on a course of action, though, and that would help.
Mag nodded against his shoulder. "Yes. Or they will tell us if there is nothing you can do to change it." She felt the worry settling in her stomach again at the very thought. She rose from the bed. Now was as good a time as any to ask the runes for the answers that would guide Severus to safety. Because she wasn't letting him die and leave her. She just wasn't. She'd join Voldemort's ranks and do anything necessary from the inside if it came to it. She'd use her bardic gift on the dark lord, or have Regulus turn her and Severus into vampires, or...or whatever it took. The point was, her inner strength was, that she was willing to do whatever it took.
She noticed her breathing had picked up its pace as her anxiety rose. Her hands were shaking slightly as she reached for the velvet bag that held her runes. Severus sat up in bed and pensively watched as she settled down at the desk where she and Nightshade had previously eaten her dinner. She drew the red silk cloth out of the bag first that she used to cast the runes upon. Then she paused to take several deep steadying breaths. These, along with redirecting her focus, calmed and centered her mind. A reading could not be accurate, if the caster wasn't entirely focused on the question they were asking. She never looked at the runes as she drew each from the bag. Only when they were placed upon the cloth did she look to see which runes had come out and if they were upright or in reverse. "Yes," she said, glancing down at the runes that answered Severus's first question. "Potter will defeat him."
Severus gave a laugh of relief. "Well that's something. There is value in prophecy." He fell silent then so as not to disrupt her focus. Mag reached into the bag again, replacing the runes that had answered the first question, then stirring them all around with her hand before focusing on Severus's second question. The only sound in the room was of the rune stones gently clinking together as Mag mixed them all up then began to draw three out. Her breath caught as she forced her gaze down to read the cast for the answer to the question of Severus living through this. One rune was upright, one was in reverse and the one in the middle was sideways, indicating an undecided cast. "You must change something in order to survive this, but if you do, if we discover what must be changed, you will survive," she said.
"Ask if my survival has to do with when I leave the final Voldemort Potter showdown," Severus said after a moment of consideration.
Mag cast the runes and studied them for a moment. "Yes. It does have to do with when you leave." She cast again, asking a question of her own concerning the timing of the situation. Severus watched wordlessly as her head bent over the runes. "You have to leave midway through the unfolding of the Voldemort Potter situation. When Potter and Voldemort are more directly interacting, you withdraw as soon as you are able," she clarified. She cast again, expression concentrated as Severus watched. "You will have trouble leaving without being pursued, so it would be better if you could cast some sort of illusion that would make it appear that you hadn't left at all."
Severus appreciated the fact that she could come up with clarifying questions to improve his chances. This answer was going to be tricky to accomplish, though. "An illusion that the dark lord won't see through," he said, voice incredulous.
/Yeah, that one's gonna be a bitch,/ Nightshade agreed. /Kinda like my feathers after going through a god damn Portkey twice in one day! I'm still working on fixing the fuckers,/ he complained, burrowing under his right wing with his beak. With a mental snarl of frustration, he angrily yanked an errant feather into place.