Title: Basic Needs
Card Name: Bonfire
Square #: I
Square #: 4
Link:
Line Y/N?: (Down, Across, Diagonal) N
Blackout Y/N? N
Your team: Team Vampire
Prompt: "Magic is really very simple. All you've got to do is want something and then let yourself have it." I-4
Summary: SSHG, Magic is in what you want, but Lily Evans finds out that sometimes what you want isn't what you need.
Beta Love: Dragon and the Dreadful Sleep Hygiene, Dutchgirl01 the Busiest Bee That Ever Buzzed, Flyby Commander Shepard the Seeker of Tasty Fried Food
Warnings: violence, gore, monsters, obviously
Basic Needs
A man travels the world over in search of what he needs and returns home to find it.
George A. Moore
"I think it's a Lethifold."
"A Lethifold? Here? In Cokeworth?"
"Well, I mean—look at it," Hermione said as she held the limp piece of black "cloth" in her hands. "We can't just let the poor thing suffer," she fretted. Her face scrunched slightly as she thrust her hand out. "Bite me."
Severus stared at her.
"I don't have fangs!" Hermione said. "You do—just—bite me, okay?"
Severus grimaced, his eyes wrinkling around the edges. He took her hand and then stared at her. "You sure?"
"I'd do it myself if I had the teeth for it," Hermione said.
Severus frowned, but he brought her hand to his mouth and bit into it then released it.
At first there wasn't even a sign he'd done anything, but then blood oozed from the two points where his fangs had pierced her flesh. Blood began to pool.
Hermione grimaced. "Thanks," she said as she guided her hand down to the limp Lethifold.
The cloth slowly extended itself toward the pooled blood and dunked its tip in. The blood began to disappear. After a while, the tattered appearance of the Lethifold smoothed out and seemed to thicken, and with a soft purr, it slithered to attach to Hermione's back like a cloak.
Hermione's hand was still oozing, and Severus tched as he took it into his mouth, running his tongue across the bite marks to heal her skin.
Her skin mended and Hermione sighed with relief. "Thanks. Look, he seems much better." She patted the healed Lethifold with affection.
Severus shook his head. "Come on, we should go see my father. Otherwise you're going to be weak from the blood loss."
"I don't want to trouble him," Hermione said. "He's always so busy."
"He'll be more troubled if we don't go," Severus said. He helped her up and they walked back to the house.
Severus watched as his father drew Hermione to his neck and let her take his blood. His posture was relaxed, his gaze crimson, but he cradled her without effort or signs of annoyance. His father never showed Hermione anything but care, and Severus found that amazing considering most he knew found his father intimidating to the extreme. Hermione snuggled into him like a baby bat, slowly taking the gift of Tobias' healing blood—the blood of an elder—that would jumpstart her healing in a way lessers could not.
If he was honest with himself, though, Severus would rather heal slowly than have to take blood from his father. Even to him, his father was a presence that was undeniably strong.
"You should rest, child," Tobias said softly as he lay Hermione on the couch and pulled the Lethifold over her like a blanket. "You did well in saving the Lethifold, but you should sleep now. Would you like me to help you sleep?"
Hermione nodded. "Thank you."
Tobias smiled and pressed his lips to her forehead. "Sleep now."
Hermione was out like a light.
Tobias pricked one finger on his fang and drew a complicated rune in the air, and within seconds a pale man stepped through.
"Tobias," the man said, bowing his head slightly.
"Nikolai," his father answered. "I think there is something else going on."
The other man knelt by Hermione, his hand moving over her without touching her, a soft glow on his hand as he did so.
"It is a strange thing, old friend," Nikolai said with a frown. "Something is blocking her from her magic. Her body expects it to be there, and instead it drains her body's normal energy since it isn't there. When she takes our blood, it is rectified—temporarily, but if her body tries to pull on its magic again, she weakens."
"Is this why her fangs never emerged even in need?" Tobias asked.
"I can only presume so," Nikolai replied. "I have never seen such a significant drain that prevented our more resilient biology from taking over. It is what keeps us alive more often than not. I can only guess that it is somehow a curse or hex of some kind."
"On a child?" Tobias asked, frowning. "What purpose would cursing a child who has not even come into her power serve?"
The healer bobbed his head. "I do not know," he said grimly. "Power draining curses aren't exactly standard practice. Adults are the ones with stable power, and a child's power is a fluctuation that is not dependable if one is trying to tap into a resource. And an adult would notice if their power was being difficult."
Tobias frowned deeply, his finger steepled in a way that Severus recognised was him attempting to quell his anger with rational thought.
"The bond with the Lethifold will help, but I think she will need more bonds to help her stabilise against further drains," Nikolai said.
Tobias' brows knit together. "You wish to throw her into the pits and see what falls out?"
Nikolai grimaced. "It sounds worse when you say it like that, but there are also more formal bonds to the Council to help balance the raw instincts that would come from such an—adoption."
Severus cringed. Being bound to the Council was asking for a lot, even for a grownup. Most feared the Council like they would fear the fate of knowing your plane was doomed to crash. The eye of the Council was to never get away with anything—a lot like being the son of Tobias.
Trying to hide something from his father was an exercise in failure. Even if he managed to hide something from his mum, his father was an impassable wall.
"I don't mind," Hermione said drowsily. "I know my parents are worried about my health. They were talking about bringing me to the Council when they thought I was sleeping."
Both Nikolai's and Tobias' eyes glowed together, a sign they were conversing with others mind-to-mind.
Tobias took Hermione's hand, and her small fingers curled around his pinky and fourth finger. "Your parents may give their permission, but it is you that must decide your own fate—even though you are young."
"I trust you," Hermione said, squeezing his fingers. "You have never guided me wrong."
"Sleep, child," Tobias said. "You trust me, yes?"
Hermione nodded.
"Then trust me to watch over you as you sleep."
Hermione squeezed his hand and closed her eyes as the Lethifold snuggled around her. She was out almost immediately.
Severus envied that trust—that unshakable faith.
Lily felt utterly victorious the day her letter for Hogwarts came—finally, she would be free of Petunia and her ordinary life! She would be special. Magical.
She just wished the cats would stop following her around.
She hated moggies.
Why couldn't she get a splendid Siamese or a cute little Scottish Fold? No, instead all the local moggies followed her around like she was an open tin of salmon.
Severus waited outside the "pits" every day for Hermione to come out. He worried for his friend. She had always been there for him, and he couldn't help but want to be there for her.
The bonding process with the Council had taken over a year to cement—mostly because they took it slow and she was still a child. The rest would happen when she eventually self-Turned, but the foundation was already there—the foundation that would allow her to make multiple bonds in the pits without getting overwhelmed.
Lord Nikolai said she was a natural. If she could bond with a Lethifold at her age, everything else was a mere formality, but they wanted to be sure. They wanted no surprises.
His father, too, did not want Hermione to suffer if they could possibly help it, so few weeks she went from one elder Council member to another, assimilating their aura and drinking in their power-fueled blood to anchor herself to their Lines, so no matter where she went, she would have them to help her centre herself if something unexpected happened.
And unlike so many others who faced the Council, Hermione went in with that same unwavering trust of someone who had never been hurt by them and never expected to be.
Maybe she was right.
Severus couldn't help but see the softened expressions of care in them when they came to pick her up for her sessions.
His father rarely even raised his voice; it wasn't like he was being abused. It wasn't like he expected them to be cruel. He didn't.
It was just—
Well, they were so ruddy intimidating!
"My son," Tobias said as he stood at the gateway to the pits.
"Father."
"She'll be fine," he said, turning to look at him, his face lacking the creases of concern he often had. "She is strong, and her body will soon be as strong as she should have been with a familiar to share their spirit with her."
"What has happened to her magic?" Severus asked.
"A draining curse of some sort," Tobias answered darkly. "Like nothing we have ever seen. It syphons her magic, her essence, like a parasite. The moment she attempts to use her magic it seems to move somewhere else. With familiars, it will still move, but it will be quickly replaced with that of her familiars'. She may still be weaker, but she will not be crippled when doing normal things. Normal lessons. We hope—when she reaches maturity and self-Turns—her entire energy signature will shift so completely that it will upend the curse. She will not only have a mature magical pool but a mature bond to her familiar and to the Council. Hopefully before then, we trace it back to where it came from, but we can only hope. The drain happens so fast, there is nothing to trace."
Severus frowned. "If anyone can come out of the pits with more than a few familiars, it's her."
Tobias chuckled. "Take notes from her for when the time comes and you must wrangle a wild Lethifold for your mate, you will be prepared."
Severus baulked. "Not anytime soon, father!"
Tobias laughed. "One day. It happens to us all, eventually."
Severus jerked his head. "Not to me."
Tobias put his arm around his son, rubbing his back comfortingly. "It's okay to be worried," he said. "It does not make you less of a man. It makes you more of one."
Severus swallowed hard, jerked a nod, and leaned into his father's side, silent. He said nothing, but he relaxed a little to his father reassurance.
It was hard to know what made a man a man. All his role models were amazingly powerful Sang. He had no idea what normal was.
"I'm so proud of you," Tobias said.
Severus felt a warmth inside him at the compliment and thumped his head against his father's side more soundly.
By the time it was expected for them to go to Hogwarts, she and her familiars had learned the elder skill of obfuscation very, very well. It was a combination of mind and physical manipulation. Her familiars would sink into her body much as Walter the Lethifold became her cape, each becoming some part of her that never left but were always there in case they were needed.
Severus found it incredibly fascinating, and he loved to practise it with her. While he didn't have the same elderblood inside him, he did have his father's line, and he found it a great and worthy challenge to conceal himself from other people so he could go unnoticed.
Turned out, they were both quite good at it, and Severus enjoyed learning things with her now that she was less likely to fall over in a faint after doing the most simple of things.
Mortal magic was interesting in its own right. It wasn't like Sang magic that was so separate from Wizarding magic that people believed pure Sang to be magic-less.
Those like his father—passed as Muggle.
That was irony beyond irony.
Sang magic was innate, often silent, and usually required blood for the more powerful spells.
Mortal magic was all about intent, control, delicate movements, exacting phrases—it was powerful in its own right, but it wasn't Sang magic.
So, Hermione and he learned magic the "hard way" from teachers who couldn't share memories and lessons through the blood. There were no blood-memories that lay dormant in human magic, so they had to learn it painstakingly slowly like any human would.
But in that lay a certain patience.
They would take time to do it right the first time because they had no hurry like a shorter-lived mortal.
The "Crup" next to her wagged his tails as Hermione pet him fondly.
He was so not a Crup—not even close.
But, the world didn't have to know that.
What they didn't know—well, as long as they left Hermione alone, it wouldn't hurt them.
Probably.
Demons were fickle—bound by laws and rules that few understood but perhaps a goblin lawyer.
But this one was bound to Hermione as tightly as her Lethifold and numerous other Dark familiars—all of them happily bound to her life because it gave them the freedom the travel the world with her and experience the gift of her strange and beautiful compassion. And they all seemed okay with sharing her. And she was always okay with sharing with him. As if it was nothing.
As if it were normal.
And he loved that she was generous and thought it was normal—what anyone would do in her place.
It wasn't. It made her all the more special. He was willing to share with her as she shared with him from the smallest of potions hacks to the larger intricate casts of spells he had discovered while researching for other things.
And that smile she gave him—
It made everything worth it.
The fight in Gryffindor tower made everyone in Hogwarts tilt their head. It sounded like a cat fight of epic proportions.
When the dust settled, Minerva McGonagall was marching a red-faced Lily Evans and a visibly shaken Marlene McKinnon to the infirmary, only McKinnon was sporting a rather ghastly bite mark on her neck.
Hermione and Severus exchanged odd glances.
Evans was Sang?
How had they ever missed that?
Hermione embraced Sanguini with a beaming smile as the elder vampire drew a claw over his neck and drew her to it. "Hello, oof, I am pleased to see you again as well."
Sanguini was always the most well-dressed of the Sang. Smooth of tongue and flashy in wardrobe. They said he could convince a snake to give up its scales and a beehive to just leave all its well stored honey for him to take up just because he asked. Beneath it, there was undeniable age and power, but that never stopped Hermione.
Severus bowed politely, awkward in Hermione's enthusiasm.
Sanguini's lids were half-closed as Hermione drank from him, and his claws gently pressed against her back.
"Dear children, what troubles you?"
"Something happened last week—something odd," Severus said. "Lily Evans and Marlene McKinnon got in a heated row, but Professor McGonagall had to march them ot the clinic. We all saw it, but—McKinnon had bite marks on her neck."
"Odd," Sanguini said, frowning slightly. "A Sang leaves no trace—the saliva heals the mark instantly. Yet, it looked like the bite of a Sang?"
Hermione nodded. "Distinctly. Only—visible."
Sanguini's eyes flashed, signalling his communication with the Council. "We are not aware of any rogue vampire families outside our Nation's purview. The few that eke out a life outside the nation are often Muggle, playing up the old superstitions or movie fantasies in order to obtain blood. Usually that only lasts for a while until they realise how unwise it is. I will, of course, do some research. Perhaps there is a rogue family out there—these Evanses. If so, I will have to put on my best ambassadorial hat."
Sanguini gave the "Crup" a fond pat. "Anything else to report?"
"Potter and his stupid cronies are being—difficult. They keep trying to catch me alone—somehow they always manage to do so whenever I am not invisible. I'm not sure how. I can smell them though—faintly." Severus grimaced. "My senses are not very good yet."
"I do wonder," Sanguini said. "How any mortal could evade being seen without help. The normal spells, the Disillusionment, they are not perfect. Not like a Lethifold's camouflage or a Sang's obfuscate—and even that requires focus. The actual invisibility spell is rare. Usually a small field. An object. To conceal a body part—rarely powerful enough to conceal a full body. Let alone more than one."
The elder vampire frowned. "It would be easier, of course, to be here and see it in action, but I have a feeling—if they are being successful in this—that they would know I was here, somehow. Some way."
"I would recommend you do not, if you can help it, ever travel alone," Sanguini advised. "It would not be good if something happened that triggered a visceral, primordial response that gave rise to your Sang nature. You would not have full control, and the results would not be pretty. Work on your meditations. It is one thing to defend yourself when your life is threatened, but the body doesn't always know the difference between real danger and presumed."
"Be careful," Sanguini warned. "If things get difficult, you are to tell me at once and we will pull you out of Hogwarts before something distasteful happens. Better that than you murdering another student in a blood-hazed survival rage. Am I clear?"
Severus and Hermione nodded. "Yes."
"Good," Sanguini said. "We do not need any attention to our Nation through negative press any more than we already have from superstition and whatever else people can dream up."
With that, he kissed them both on the forehead and disappeared in a whorl of mist, silent as the grave.
Severus sighed. "I want to be able to do that."
Hermione smiled. "One day." She sighed. "Time to study for that test in potions."
"You still need help on the Wiggenweld?" Severus asked.
"I think have the three variations down, but the fourth is giving me trouble."
"I'll help you with it."
"Do you still need help with the charms we're testing on?" Hermione asked.
"I know the spells, but I need someone to spot my movements. I hate wand waving," Severus said.
Hermione smiled. "I'll help with them."
The pair smiled and headed off to study together.
Hermione stood, frozen, covered in blood in the study hall as many screamed and others laughed raucously. Severus stood rigid beside her, torn between tending to her and ripping people to shreds.
Walter dutifully sopped up the blood as the children made bukawk noises, flapping their arms in ridicule.
Until those laughs turned into screams as Lily Evans threw herself at them all with a snarl, biting everything and everyone that was in her way—
"You two, to the infirmary at once," Professor Slughorn ordered as he walked toward the other teachers and waded into the chaos.
Severus and Hermione scurried out of the Great Hall as the screams grew even louder.
"WHAT THE FUCK, LILS?!" they heard as Lily viciously sank her teeth into Sirius' arm as a clowder of angry moggies descended upon the Great Hall, hissing, biting,scratching, and attacking everything in sight.
Later, when Poppy let them both return to their dormitories, they had to pass by countless clawed and otherwise mauled students that had been sent to the infirmary. They exchanged puzzled glances as they went back to their dorms.
Things just kept getting stranger and stranger.
"I have no idea what is affecting these children, Albus!" Poppy exclaimed as the students were seemingly okay one minute and then, with the very sight or scent of blood or elevated motion—any blood—promptly became meowing, hissing, uncontrollable mobs. "It's true that Miss Evans was the first to descend into this biting madness, but it's not just her anymore. Miss McKinnon started to follow her—those injured in the great hall. It's rather like lycanthropy but feline based and without a physical transformation. Save for sharper teeth and a propensity to go for the neck—it's more mental than physical."
"Can we call in some experts from Mungos?" Albus asked. "It's bad enough the children are affected, but now Minerva is yowling during faculty meetings and shredding my robes with her claws."
Poppy grimaced. "I'll see what I can do."
"You slept with my boyfriend, you bloody strumpet!" screeched Alice as she fell upon Lily, and the potions class blew up, quite literally, from every cauldron.
Hermione and Severus sat in the rafters with the bats as the entire classroom fell upon each other in a yowling, hissing mass of fur-less rage.
Only as the cloud of potion explosion dissipated, the entire room was filled with mutant anthro-cats of all colours and sizes with the toms falling upon each other as the queens did the same to each other.
"We just might be the only ones able to take our NEWTs," Hermione whispered to Severus.
Severus looked down on the classroom with no little horror. "We may need to return to the Nation and let whatever this is—sort itself out."
Hermione nodded fervently. "I think—that's probably a good idea. We can always take our NEWTs there or at the Ministry."
The Crup sitting on the rafter with her yipped in approval as Walter shook the slime off himself from the series of potions explosions, having protected them from the "catty" effects.
Strange Cat-Plague Afflicts Hogwarts, All Classes Suspended Until Cure Can Be Found Found
Daily Prophet Under Quarantine as Staff Infected With Hogwarts' Cat-Plague—Those Who Escaped Blame Rita Skeeter
Sanguini sat in silence in the Council chambers as the rest of his comrades all adopted Tobias' steepled hands and scowl in unison.
"So, this Lily Evans was the origin of the cat-plague we heard about by stealing our Hermione's magical essence as a child, unintentionally acquiring her blood hunger and her affinity to Dark familiars as well, only to have it fixate on moggies because no Dark creature in their right mind or left would touch her?" Lord Marcus said slowly as if explaining something to a child.
"How did she become—contagious?" Lady Isolde asked.
Lord Nikolai let out his breath slowly. "Accidental unintentional-intentional magic."
"Come again?" Lord Aku asked, frowning.
"The result was accidental," Nikolai explained. "The intent was very much to become more magical like Hermione. Only the wish of a child was hardly structured. With every draining, she acquired more and more Sang instincts without our ability to control it. Later, when we bound Hermione to us and gave her familiars to stabilise her drain, she was inadvertently draining the magic of Hermione's familiars—their instincts and predatory drives—which was controllable until she saw or smelled blood."
"And the contagiousness?" Lady Antonia asked, still waiting for that bit of information.
Lord Nikolai shook his head. "I believe that it is some mutation of the Sang ability to Turn others, only without the control and ritual—it became just another plague spread by wounding contact much like lycanthropy only—not quite."
"And here I thought we left the plague behind in the 1300s," Lord Maksim muttered.
Lady Layra rubbed her temples with her fingers. "So, how do we assist the mortals with their problem without them blaming us for it?"
Sanguini grunted. "I believe the issue will solve itself the moment Hermione self-Turns—and her essence changes completely from that of a Sang child to a mature member of our race," he said. "Tobias and I have discussed it at length, and we think that between that, the mature bond to the Council, and a mating bond, her essence will be so utterly unfamiliar that the original curse will unravel on its own."
"And until then?" Lord Rada asked.
"There will be a lot of meowing in Wizarding Britain for a while."
"Glorious," Lord Gareth said. "Are the children alright?"
"I extricated them from Hogwarts," Sanguini assured him. "They are fine and well if a bit traumatised by how strange the Wizarding world seems right now. Not that I can blame them. Thankfully with the cat-plague, the Ministry is all too eager for families to "home-school" their uninfected children until the plague is remedied. They will take their NEWTs and graduate as if they were at Hogwarts given the—unusual circumstances."
Tobias shook his head. "And what shall we do with this Lily Evans witch? This originator of the plague and the one responsible for attacking one of our children with an insidious draining curse?"
"Justice may come without our hand," Lord Agvardus said, rubbing his chin with his fingers. "If her curse was to steal magic allowing her to become extraordinary, when our Hermione Turns, she may find herself anything but—and if the strange affinity to cats was, say, a natural thing before she stole Hermione's ability accept multiple familiars—well," he trailed off, a hint of fang in his smile. "Maybe that is all she will have left. The witch with a hundred cats and no other life to speak of. If the magic was, indeed, accidental, then its resolution will come as the natural order settles back in."
"While we are not a species that normally feels the strain of time; however, I feel as though we must hope that our Hermione's physical maturity catches up with her mental grasp of learning soon—for the humans' sake if nothing else."
"I'll be just a few moments," Severus said as he dipped his head to her. "I will meet you at Eyelops if you like? I know you want to get some of those treats for your spoiled familiars."
Hermione grinned at him. "I can't help it. Eyelops makes things that are exotic to them. They eat the more natural fare, normally."
"As normal as souls, bodies, blood, and excess energy sponging can be," Severus muttered.
Walter raspberried Severus, and the "Crup" at Hermione's feet attacked his boot.
"Pffft," Severus muttered, nudging the daemonic interloper off his boot.
Hermione's familiar markings shimmered slightly, a swirling of Dark and light magic flashing as they moved around and across her skin.
Severus dipped his head slowly and pressed a tender kiss against her temple. "I'll meet you there. I won't be long."
Hermione smiled at him. "I know. Don't rush on my account. I know you want to get a few things for your father."
Severus tilted his head, smiled, and then moved into the shop as Hermione continued the walk towards Eyelops. The street was dark, but they didn't notice. While their eyes were not fully shifted like an adults', they were not fully human, either. There was enough light to make the street seem clear where the lamplight was.
Walter warmed around her shoulders, and she smiled. She wanted to get a few things for the Council members that didn't get out much. They were often far too busy keeping the Sang in line to travel outside of the Nation.
And that was where she could help the ones that anchored her to life when she was but a young child. She could be their eyes and ears to the outside—and pick up small things that pleased them. There were times when she felt more tired than others, but the feel of the Council's steady presence and her familiars' constant thrum in her mind—they comforted her.
There would soon come a time when Severus would find someone he'd bleed for, and she was both happy and sad for the future. She couldn't imagine a life without him at her side, but she understood that he could no more fight biology of the Sang than she could.
She smiled at the remembered fuss he made about how he'd never fall to his biology. Maybe, that was what every Sang male went through at one point of his life—denial until it could no longer be denied.
All she could do was cherish the moments they had and carry them with her forever. It was the lot of an immortal to find and hold such things close to them even when others forgot. To forget was the luxury of those with shorter lives.
She didn't know who would be the lucky one to catch his eye, but they would be most fortunate indeed.
She found the things she wanted from Eyelops quickly, and she smiled down at her "little" demon Crup as he had a small pack secured to his back filled with her purchases, all shrunken down for him to carry with ease. She smiled at him, shaking her head. She sat down on a nearby bench to wait for Severus.
The wind was cool, just enough to blow toward her and bring the scent of the roasted chestnuts toward her instead of the strange miasma of mixed scents that came from Knockturn Alley. It was a nice night. The stars were bright and the sky was clear, even with the surrounding Muggle London lighting up the night around Diagon Alley.
Now that their NEWTs were done, Hermione felt like she and Severus could finally focus on the future. They had considered starting an apothecary together. Severus was exceptionally skilled in potions and she was good at charms. Together, they could make a good business—even if they had different life partners.
It would be enough.
A commotion was beginning near the dragonet roasting station, and Hermione frowned. There was a witchling being pushed and shoved by the crowd as the yelling and trampling ramped up.
"Help her," Hermione commanded, and her familiars left her in a rush to assist.
Hermione stood up, frowning as she looked to see if there was anyone else being threatened by the increasingly aggressive crowd. As she tried to decide on whether to approach and help or stay back lest she make things worse by adding another body to the mix, she felt fire burning her neck as the strange feel of an unstable Apparate pulled her away.
"I know you're awake, you bloody bitch," a voice startled Hermione to awareness.
The voice was barely human.
It was strangely twisted, screechy.
When her eyes focused, she saw the warped merging of feline and human features in a manner that seemed caught somewhere in transition. Half her face was wrinkled and furless, human skin stretched over a catlike skull, the other side was covered in matted ginger fur. Ropes of saliva dangled from a mouth filled with half human-half feline teeth.
Hermione grimaced as her brain tried to make sense of what she was seeing.
What was it that Lord Sanguini and Tobias had often said?
Magic is really very simple, child. All you've got to do is really want something and then allow yourself to have it.
But what in Hades was she even seeing?
What—
Gods, this was Lily Evans.
The redheaded girl that had lived near Severus' mortal home in Cokeworth.
She and her older sister had often tried to make fun of them. Called them freaks. Threw rocks and other debris—
And then, Lily had begun to show signs of magic.
They hadn't seen her again until Hogwarts.
Hermione frowned. That had been around the time she had started getting sick performing the most simple of tasks.
Lily really was the originator of her curse.
The Council had guessed it, but until that very moment, Hermione hadn't been certain. She couldn't fathom that a child's magic could be so malicious in nature—and so powerful—while still being untrained.
Lily hadn't even known them—
Not really.
Just enough to—perhaps—see something she wanted and then "let herself have it."
"What have I ever done to you?" Hermione rasped, wincing at the pain in her ribs, where Lily had apparently kicked her while she was still out cold.
"You meowade me like this! You! But I've figured outmeow why I crave blood but ameow never satisfied. You. It's always been you. If I takemeow your blood, this curse is finmeowally going to go away, and then I'meow going to be celebrated for bringing an end to thismeow stumeowpid PLAGUE!"
Lily viciously swiped at Hermione with her clawed hand causing four rows of blood to seep down her arm. Lily's eyes grew wide as her jaws parted. She drooled significantly.
"Don't do this," Hermione begged. "Please. My blood isn't going to help you. Believe me. It will definitely make whatever this is—so much worse."
Lily's rough tongue slid out between her fangs. "No, your blood is going to make everything perfect again."
She slid her tongue across the deep scratches on Hermione's arm, eagerly licking up every drop of blood.
Suddenly a clawed hand smashed through the nearby wall, dark with a loud hiss, and a set of obsidian talons clamped into Lily's half-furred neck. She let out a desperate yowling, feline hissing screech as the wall collapsed, disintegrating into a heap of debris and an enraged Severus burst through it. His eyes were black. Fully black. The whites were gone, and only two glowing crimson rings radiated a malevolent incandescence.
Severus snarled, his fangs lengthening in his rage, and he smashed Lily into the brickwork once, twice, three times. She continued to yowl and spit and hiss, her claws slashing across his face, his arms, his chest.
Blood oozed from his wounds, but he didn't let go. His wounds knit back up as his lips pulled back from his bared fangs, and Dark plasma whipped out from his body and bound Lily in a restrictive cocoon of tendril-like vines. Power swirled around him, leaking from his eyes and causing his hair to lift and crackle.
"I will use your corpse as a mop for touching her," Severus snarled.
Power seethed around him like Dark fire, and the squeeze of his growing talons matched the crimson glow of his eyes and the length of his fangs.
Lily's body thrashed, and she let out a yowling screech, and countless moggies came streaming in from all corners of the alley to descend on Severus starting with his legs and working their way upward in a flurry of clawing and biting.
Seeing Severus being swarmed by countless enraged felines caused Hermione to freeze in both horror and uncertainty. What could she do that wouldn't possibly hurt HIM as well? Yet, as wave after wave of moggies swarmed the one she cared about more than anyone else, she felt a fire growing within her body.
She couldn't just do nothing!
She surrendered to the rage, and she felt the pathways to the Council that had been paved at an early age. She felt the bonds to her familiars that were frantically trying to find their way to her despite the fact they were in place far from wherever she was.
Hermione felt where her familiars were, felt the combined wisdom of the Council flowing through the bond, and she pulled them to her in her desperate need to help the friend that had stood at her side since they were little.
There was a heated blast of power, and all her familiars fell out of a Dark vortex—along with every single member of the Sang Council.
And then everything went straight to Hades.
With a heaping basket of chips.
Lethifolds flew in all directions, the "Crup" transformed into a daemonic hell beast and began snarling, snapping, and shaking everything in range, a flock of angry Dark canaries swarmed over the teeming horde of cats, and Dementors phased through the walls as the temperature of the surrounding air dropped to freezing almost instantly.
Lord Gareth bit his hand and sketched a series of symbols in the air, drawing a bubble of silence around the area. Lord Agvardus did the same, drawing a thick, impenetrable mist over the building and that around it. Lord Aku slammed his bitten hand down to the floor, and every mortal within range immediately fell into a deep sleep. Lord Maksim gathered blood magic around him, pooling it in a bright ball in his clenched fist, and released it, causing those that were not asleep to walk obliviously around the area going about their business like nothing untoward was happening.
The eyes of the remaining, unoccupied Council members flashed together as Tobias jerked his son off of Lily with a hard yank, his arms pinning him against him as he rolled down to the ground. Rada materialised behind Lily and grabbed her in a choke hold as Sanguini bit his palm and covered her mouth and nose with his bloody hand, jerking it up and over so she was forced to swallow even as he cursed at her in ancient Dacian.
As Lily went limp, her gaze was glassy and her mind caged. Tobias bit his wrist and forced it against Severus' snarling, foaming mouth. The pull of his power beat down upon him until Severus' mindless fury switched to feeding.
Lord Nikolai drew Hermione to his body, pinning her trembling, transforming body to him as all of her desperation and need speed up her Turn. She convulsed, her body twisting, changing, and evicting her mortality in favour of the Dark predatory nature of her heritage.
As both her body and Severus' calmed, Nikolai and Tobias put Severus and Hermione together. Severus instinctively drew Hermione to him with a possessive hiss, his index claw drawing against his neck to feed her, and she promptly latched on with equal instinct. Tobias pulled a few of the swarming (somewhat plump now) Lethifolds toward him, swaddling them together in a protective cocoon.
Ladies Antonia, Camille, and Layra linked hands in a circle around them all, pulled their magic into a concentrated dome, and they all disappeared in a whorl of mist as the area they had been in slowly woke up.
Mysterious Cat Plague Finally Comes To An End!
Normality Returns to Wizarding Britain Slowly As Cat-Suspicion Has More Choosing Owls As Familiars
Hogwarts Reopens, Ministry and St Mungos Confirm Cat Plague Has Ended
Half-Kneazles Surge In Popularity Versus "Normal" Felines
Mrs Figg Reports Record Number of Half-Kneazle Adoptions
"I'm actually out of kittens!"
Severus sipped his blood sangria with his father as he watched Hermione and her entourage laser lining and shelving all of their new products. Lethifolds, Babyfolds, Fell Beasts and pups, Dementors, and even Dark Canaries zipped around decorating the new shop, organising, and putting labels in a neat hand onto each product.
"Glad to see you less primal and apt to put your fist through a wall, my son," Tobias mused.
Severus flushed, staring into his drink. "Not my finest moment."
"Maybe it was," Tobias observed. "You protected your mate, proved your devotion, and secured the next generation all in one fell swoop." He sipped his drink. "You also acquired Lord Zaidu a brand new mouser for his farm."
Severus scrunched his face. "Glad it isn't me."
"I'm most appreciative," Lord Zaidu said as he sat down beside them, sipping from a goblet of crimson juice. "My orchids are also quite appreciative to be rid of those annoying magical rodents."
Zaidu and Tobias clinked their drinks together.
A Dementor floated over and topped off their drinks.
Tobias chuckled. "You've done very well, my son."
Severus flushed at the attention, but as he caught the gaze of his beautiful mate, her vibrant smile and surge of radiant joy, he knew that his biology had made the choice he had dreaded would send him elsewhere.
His brilliant, wonderful Hermione.
Saver of Lethifolds.
Tamer of Hell Beasts.
Wrangler of Dark Canaries—
Keeper of his eternal heart.
Hermione squealed as one of the largest Dementors he had ever seen gently placed a gnarled hand on her abdomen. Hermione leapt into his arms and placed a kiss on his cheek, shooting a look of such tangible love at Severus that he felt his heart thump inside his chest.
Lord Zaidu sighed heavily. "I owe Rada a rare orchid," he muttered. "Why is he always right about children?"
"Wait until he starts teaching Hermione how he does it," Tobias mused.
"Two of them? Gods—" Zaidu muttered. He drank down his drink completely, shaken at the prospect.
Tobias laughed, and they all clinked their goblets together again.
Far away, nestled within the greenhouse of Lord Zaidu, a red tabby moggie queen with vivid green eyes lay on her side dozing as a moppy furred black kitten suckled milk from his mum's teat.
Her black-furred tom groomed himself from his perch on the highest shelf inside the farm's broom closet.
Magic had been very simple, indeed She had wanted something badly and her magic had let her have it.
Not-Crup Puppy YIPs! (parade of excited Hell puppies chases terrified moggies out of Severus' apothecary)
And they lived magically ever after…meow!
