Pins and Needles
Chapter 5: Vinculum Aeternum
Hermione woke with a start. She had been on the patio to enjoy what was likely to be one of the last warm summer afternoons. In that spirit she had decided to go easy on herself and bury herself in Hogwarts, A History once more instead of spending the time working through her mastery reading list.
She had been living with Minerva for almost two weeks now. Her boss at the Ministry had been kind enough not to insist on her working out her notice. Ever since leaving her office that day she had not set foot in London again. In fact, she had not set foot anywhere outside of Caithness. They had been for a few walks, Minerva happy to introduce her to the region's landmarks. They tended to be somewhat less spectacular than the more well-known highlights most people would come up with when thinking of Scotland, but Hermione rapidly felt herself falling in love with the area's understated and quiet beauty.
She had also been working on her mastery a lot already. Minerva had been teasing her at breakfast this morning, ever so gently reminding her that the general idea had been to take things slow, but even after merely skimming the contents of her study books she found herself all but intoxicated at the prospect of all there was to learn.
She had not even allowed herself the time to finish the History, which was a bit of a scandal in and by itself. Today she had been fully intent on rectifying that. However, after one of her rather common restless nights the gentle sun beams had quickly made her so drowsy, that she had given in to temptation and closed her eyes. The idea had been to just rest them for a few minutes, which, admittedly, had been somewhat naive. She had no clue for how long she had been out, but she did know for sure that she had not been covered by a blanket when she fell asleep. Somewhat embarrassed at having been caught like that, Hermione set out to search for Minerva.
She knew Minerva's habits well enough by now to check the library first and, sure enough, there she was, writing a letter. Looking up and spotting Hermione, Minerva instantly put down her quill.
Smiling sheepishly, Hermione said, "Thank you for the blanket. I am sorry for falling asleep like that."
"Nonsense. So long as your limbs forgive you, all is well." Minerva hesitated for a moment, then added, "I also took the liberty to recast that charm." She gestured vaguely at Hermione's left arm.
Hermione froze on the spot. The scar that Bellatrix had left her with had healed to the point of not being an angry, glaring red any more, but it was still clearly visible, almost appearing as a tattoo of some sort. And it still hurt - not actually a lot, but nevertheless throbbing incessantly. She had learnt to ignore it, most of the time. She had also been using a concealment charm to hide it. A charm that had to be renewed every few days. Which she had forgotten. She cursed herself for being so sloppy and said, "So you've seen."
"Glimpsed would be a more accurate term." Minerva hesitated for a moment, then added, "But I would like to take a closer look."
Hermione had relaxed a bit at the first part, but immediately felt herself tense up again. "Why?"
Minerva left her desk and motioned for Hermione to join her on the couch before continuing. "I am guessing you are not hanging on to it for old times' sake?"
Not quite sure whether to be amused or annoyed, Hermione decided to simply stick to the facts. "At least half a dozen healers have been over it. Repeatedly." She tried to make her words sound as if she did not care. "There's no way to remove it."
"I am not just another healer, am I?" Minerva said more sharply than she had intended to. Softening her tone, she continued, "If the healers are clueless, then perhaps it simply is not a healer's problem."
For several seconds Hermione was silent. Then she got up. "I am going to get myself some water. Would you like some as well?"
Minerva nodded her head. She never got up to get water, she was a witch after all. But at least the question was an indication that Hermione intended to return, so she settled for waiting. After a few minutes, Hermione entered the library and joined her on the couch again. It was with some difficulty that Minerva managed to resist the urge to point out the lack of water glasses.
Hermione continued their conversation as if there had been no interruption at all, asking, "Why did you not simply take a closer look while I was asleep?"
"Because you obviously did not want it seen. I would never violate your privacy like that. But now I am asking." Patience. Vast amounts of patience. That had been the key to getting Hermione to agree to this arrangement in the first place and, hopefully, it would be the key to this as well.
They held each other's gaze for several moments, before Hermione finally relaxed her arm and turned it over, silently removing the concealment charm in the process, so that Minerva could get a clear look at it. Her mentor's brow furrowed and she drew her wand. Looking at Hermione, she asked, "An analytic spell?"
She waited for permission, only proceeding after getting a short nod. The spell was simple enough, Hermione herself had used it more than once trying to figure out what had been done to her. Minerva performed it wordlessly with just a quick flick of her wand. The analysis itself clearly was more complex. She kept staring for a while, not saying anything, the deepening lines in her forehead being the only indication of what she was doing. Finally, she sheathed her wand, looked up again and asked, "Who?"
"Bellatrix," Hermione answered, not bothering to hide her contempt.
"I see. It fits." Judging from the look on her face, Bellatrix had to be grateful Molly had gotten to her first. Minerva continued, "The healers are right. The whole point of this spell is to not be removable."
Hermione's eyes widened. "You know the spell that did this? They didn't."
Minerva shrugged. "That does not surprise me. Vinculum Aeternum. It is a very archaic spell, not known to a lot of people and I dare say the world is a better place for it. Not exactly benevolent in nature to begin with, it has also been twisted in a very sick way, making it almost impossible to recognise. Originally, it was meant to mark someone as belonging to a certain house."
"Belonging, as in … ," Hermione ventured, not quite sure whether she really wanted to know.
"Property," Minerva clarified, her disgust palpable.
Hermione felt sick in her stomach and barely managed to answer, "I see."
"It was outlawed even before slavery–" Minerva stopped for a moment, then went on, correcting herself, "–human slavery itself was. Precisely because it cannot be removed."
"I take it this particular inscription was Bellatrix' fabulous idea?"
"Indeed. The spell produces a branding of the caster's house crest. She must have changed the coat of arms of House Lestrange itself to achieve this."
Hermione had to let that sink in for a moment, then found herself shaking her head in disbelief. "That's demented."
Minerva merely nodded and added, "I assume she would not have done it with House Black. But it gets better still."
Raising an eyebrow, Hermione said, "There's more? I can hardly wait."
The older woman went on, "Two things, actually. First – and I am quite sure Bellatrix did not know this – when the spell was banned, some people needed a bit of, shall we say, encouragement to respect that prohibition. The courts soon adopted the practice of interpreting 'belonging to a house' as 'being a member of the house' in case of brandings that had been performed after the ban. This proved to be quite an effective deterrent and the spell was very soon forgotten. However, these rulings have never been overturned and as such are still established case law."
Despite the topic and the queasy feelings it had inspired, Hermione didn't quite manage to stifle a giggle, "Bellatrix made me a part of her family?"
"Indeed."
"While I can't claim to be fond of the relation, neither would she."
There was a small smile tugging at the corners of Minerva's mouth as she said, "I had a feeling you would appreciate the irony."
Turning serious again, Hermione asked, "The second point?"
The other witch drew a deep breath before answering, "While it is impossible to remove the mark, there is a way to change it. Property had to be transferable after all. For obvious reasons that spell is at least as obscure as the branding spell itself nowadays, probably even more so. It also is quite a tricky bit of magic. Aside from that, to be able to create a valid marking, anyone wanting to perform it would themselves have to be a member of one of the old houses. In a nutshell, there is a handful of people alive able to do this. At best."
Hermione nodded slowly, her mind quickly soaking up the new information. Her eyes narrowed. "But wouldn't such a spell require someone of the owning house as well? Otherwise people could steal," she put the verb in air quotes, "simply by changing the crest, couldn't they?"
"Quite right." Minerva smiled, obviously pleased with her protégé's reasoning skills. "The tampering needed to overcome this restriction is what makes it so tricky. The basic version of the spell is actually quite simple, but I doubt there are any Lestrange family members inclined to lend a hand."
"I see." Hermione took a moment to let it all sink in, then voiced the obvious conclusion, "I take it you happen to know all of this because it's transfiguration magic?"
Her mentor nodded. "I believe I would be able to perform the spell and change the marking to that of House McGonagall. I would like to think the crest," she pointedly looked at the coat of arms hanging above the fireplace, "is more aesthetically pleasing than the current inscription. As for the other implications, only you can make that choice."
Hermione chewed on her lower lip for a while, lost in thought. Then she asked, "But if the spell is illegal, wouldn't that get you into trouble?"
Minerva shook her head. "The branding spell is illegal. The changing spell merely got obsolete. Your testimony would thus exonerate me. If someone were to recognise it and bring up charges in the first place, which seems rather unlikely."
Again, Hermione was quiet, her eyes roaming the library. They came to rest on the coat of arms for a while. It displayed a unicorn's head. Probably a thinly veiled reference to the clan's magical abilities, she pondered. The motto was in Latin. She resolved to look it up later and directed her attention back at her host.
Before she could voice her need for more time, Minerva gently touched Hermione's hand, putting emphasis on her next words. "There is no rush whatsoever. No assumption either. Consider it a standing offer." Then she got up and made her way towards the door, wanting to give the other woman a chance to absorb her words. In the door frame, she turned back. "Also, let me save you some trouble." With a flick of her wand, an old tome came flying from one of the more remote corners of her library and landed on the coffee table next to Hermione. "This is the book you were about to go looking for." They shared a grin, both amused at how easy it was to predict Hermione's next step, before Minerva turned towards the door again and left.
Author's Notes:
I believe I have picked up the basic idea of Hermione's scar being some sort of house branding (or something like that - it's been a while...) in someone else's fan fiction. I have no idea which one though. I am also not sure how much of the mechanics around that I picked up there as well. I'd be happy to give more specific credit if someone could point me to it.
Regarding clan lore, I did some cherry-picking there. It seems the name McGonagall is actually of Irish origin. Browsing information on Scottish clans, I chose to steal the unicorn from Clans Ramsay and Oliphant. The motto is that of Clan Maitland. (It will come up later and I did not want to split this note over chapters.)
The spell's name, Vinculum Aeternum, is Latin (as provided by Google Translate) meaning Eternal Bond.
Last but not least – if you got the impression that I love Caithness a lot, then that happens to be true. Miss it.
