Mask of Oblivion

MASK OF OBLIVION

Chapter 10 - The Rite of Seeking

"Are you ready?"

Simon stood up as Hermione came into the living room. She was dressed as he was in a simple white linen robe. "I don't think I ever will be. Let's just get this started, shall we?"

In the meeting room only Minerva and Sirius were waiting for them. Simon was puzzled. "Where are the others?"

"We are not performing the rite here," said Minerva. She was holding out the same grey cloak that he had worn the night he arrived. "Put this on and follow me."

As Simon passed through the doorway he felt a vague discomfort. He had not been out the door since he first entered it. He wondered if it were possible to develop agoraphobia in just two months. With Hermione and Sirius flanking him on either side he dutifully followed Minerva through the castle. It was late morning and the winter sun was casting golden fingers of light through the tall windows.

He murmured quietly to Hermione. "Why are we doing this in the middle of the day?"

"The same reason we are doing it at new moon," explained Hermione in a whisper. "At this time the magical strength of most charms is weakest. In order to reach the hidden depths of your mind we need to punch through the memory charm that you - sorry, Snape put in place."

They descended through the school. He recognized vaguely the large entrance hall before they descended into the dungeons. It seemed strange, even given that it was Christmas break, that they had seen no one on their travels. After walking for what seemed like miles they came to a stone wall. Minerva promptly walked right through it and so did the others. "It's just an illusion,' said Hermione. Simon shuddered as he passed through. A short distance further along the corridor they came to a solid wooden door. It opened easily; much to Simons' relief. Walking through walls and doors was not something that he wanted to make a habit of. The room they now passed through was a living room something like the one upstairs but smaller and more simply furnished. They did not stop there but went straight into the bedroom beyond.

A large four poster bed stood in the middle of the room. It had no hangings and was covered only in a single white sheet and two small white pillows. Next to the head of the bed on either side were two straight backed wooden chairs and there was a third chair at the foot of the bed. Next to the chairs at the head of the bed were two small round wooden tables. On each table was a single crystal goblet .On the left side table was a small stoppered crystal flask containing a green liquid. On the right side table was a similar flask containing a blue liquid. The only other furnishings in the room were a large wardrobe and dresser to one side. Anna, Ginny, Neville and Bill were standing to one side at the foot of the bed. "Welcome home!" said Bill.

"Excuse me?" said Simon.

"Anna thought it might be wise to perform the rite somewhere familiar, and since she no longer inhabits the Potion teacher's suite, we decided here is the best place," explained Bill.

"It is not familiar to me."

"No," said Anna, "but it will be familiar to Severus Snape."

"OK," said Hermione, with an odd smile on her face. "Places everybody, it is nearly noon. It's Showtime!"

She sat on the right side of the bed and Simon sat on the left. Minerva sat in the chair next to him and Bill stood beside her. Anna and Neville were next to Hermione, and Ginny and Sirius took up position at the foot of the bed.

Anna and Minerva poured the potions into the goblets and handed them over. "Drink up." said Hermione as she lifted the goblet of foaming blue liquid to her lips. Simon followed suit. The green liquid looked like oil and smelt like floral perfume. He took a deep breath and drank it. The taste was like honey infused with spices and a hint of something he could not quite recognise. It slid down his throat as cold as ice.

Immediately Simon felt as though the world around him was staring to fade. The goblet was taken out of his hand and gentle pressure forced him to lie down beside Hermione. She clasped his hand with hers and moved closer so that the clasped hands were wedged tightly between their bodies. He was acutely aware of her presence, her body touching his and her hand in his, but he could not respond as he normally would.

Then he heard voices, as if from a long way off chanting,

Seek out he who is lost,

Seek out the hidden mind,

Make whole the sundered soul.

It was pairs of voices, each pair composed of one male and one female. As each pair finished a line, the next pair chanted that line, so that the three lines were being chanted together. Simon vision was now so blurry he could not see clearly anymore so he closed his eyes and the world started to spin away.

*

Hermione found herself standing in a room. It looked like a very ordinary suburban living room. It was comfortably if simply furnished with nice modern furniture. Despite its apparent normality it did not feel familiar or right. She felt disoriented and was unsure where she really was or what she was doing here. "Hermione, what do we do now?" At the sound of the familiar voice in her ear she turned her head to see Simon standing next to her dressed in his normal clothes of polo shirt and jeans. That was odd, as she was sure they had dressed in white robes. She looked down to see that she was wearing her favorite dark blue casual robe. She tried to lift her hand to find that it was bound to Simon's with what looked like a thick golden cord the trailing end of the cord seemed to disappear into the floor.

"We need to move out of this room," she said.

"I never go out of this room," he said.

Hermione looked around and realized there was no door. She examined the windows only to find they were just flat glossy black panels. She touched one with her other hand and it was hard as glass. She turned again to Simon. "How do the dreams get in?"

"Through the mirror." He pointed towards the wall and for the first time Hermione notice a full length oval mirror suspended on the wall. They walked over and stood in front of it but could see no reflections. The image in the mirror was of a swirling mist - mostly grey, shot through with black, white, silver and green.

"Then that is where we have to go. Through the mirror."

"No. I can't."

"Simon, we have to. It is the only way to find him."

"No!"

There was a recognisable obstinate look on his face. Hermione knew that trying to talk him into it would be useless. "OK," she said, "we will just stay here." She took one step away from the mirror and could see Simon visibly relax. Immediately she rushed forward into the mirror. Simon was taken unawares and had no choice but to tumble through after her.

They were standing in the middle of a snow covered plain. There was no sign behind them of the room from which they had come and there was no mirror. There was just an endless, featureless expanse of blinding white snow in all directions. The sky was a deep blue green and as featureless as the ground. The air was bitterly cold, the sort of cold that penetrates to the bones. "What now?" said Simon sarcastically, "this looks like a real improvement."

Hermione stood still for a moment and closed her eyes. She could feel a faint murmuring in the back of her head. She opened her eyes and looked at the golden cord. The trailing end was pointing behind them. She pointed in the opposite direction. "We go that way."

They started to move and the moment they did so a chill wind started to blow, whipping up the loose surface of the snow around them. It attacked them, cold hard particles stinging their faces. The wind was blowing directly at them and it was howling, but as they continued moving and the wind got fiercer, Hermione realised she could hear voices in the wind softly at first, so she could just barely distinguish the words -

"Do not disgrace us, my son."

"I can teach you to bottle fame, brew glory, even stopper death!"

"Ugly slimy git!"

"Snivellus!"

"With you I would go anywhere, even to the gates of hell."

"You will destroy her."

"Swooping around like an overgrown bat."

"Once a Death Eater, always a Death Eater."

"Did you think, my faithless servant that you could betray me?"

- but as they continued to move the voices got louder and louder, until it was like a solid, howling gale of cold, icy sound pushing them back. She felt cold, chilled through, and tired with the effort of trying to move forward. Simon stumbled and started to fall. She pulled him back up and they leant against each other, brought to a standstill by the wind of words.

Hermione could feel a surge of power through the golden cord. She took a deep breath and stood up as straight as she could. As she shouted it sounded like several voices coming from her throat, not one, "Seek out he who is lost, seek out the hidden mind, make whole the sundered soul." The howling sound swirled around them in a wall of black and grey and then, just as suddenly, was gone.

The world around them immediately darkened, as the eerie blue-green sky was now masked by tall dark tree trunks reaching up over head and closing them in. They were old, ancient, magic trees - oak and ash, yew and holly, willow and elder. There was no sound, no sound at all, as if any sounds that were made were sucked away. Hermione stepped forward and could not even hear her own footfall. She could make out strange flickering lights through the trees and started to move towards them, practically dragging Simon behind her.

As she stepped around a massive oak, the flickering light was revealed as a vision. A slender young woman stood tall in the centre of a circle of Death Eaters, her dark hair tumbling loosely over her shoulders. Severus Snape stood beside her. From the darkness at the other side of the clearing came an unmistakable figure: pale skin stretched tautly over bone, with thin gashes for a mouth and nostrils. Voldemort! Hermione flinched, even though she knew none of it was real. The predatory look in his eyes as they scanned the woman was rather discomforting. As she watched Voldemort's wand arm rise she realised what was going to happen. A green flash shot forth from the wand and as they stood there watching, doing nothing, the light engulfed the woman and she fell to the floor, dead.

Hermione ran towards the Severus Snape standing in the centre of the circle, but as she reached the first of the other figures they all disappeared. Then she spied more flickering lights through a gap in the trees and moved cautiously towards it. In the next clearing there was a middle aged couple cowering on the ground in fright in front of a sneering Severus Snape. He pointed his wand at the woman and she fell down in pain on the floor, writhing in soundless agony. The man tried to reach her and Snape flicked his wand and the man was flung bodily across the clearing smashing into a tree to land in a broken lifeless heap at it roots.

"No! "Shouted Hermione and tried once more to reach him. Once again he vanished as smoke. Hermione noticed that Simon did not seem to be dragging as much. She was shocked when she turned to look at him to realise that she could see an outline of the trees beyond through him.

"Simon? Are you OK?"

"I don't know." The response was little more than a whisper.

She stood in the middle of the ancient trees, concentrated on the power coursing through the golden cord and drew every ounce of that power into her voice, she closed her eyes, lifted her head and shouted to the sound deadening sky, "Seek out he who is lost, seek out the hidden mind, make whole the sundered soul."

And finally there was another sound again. A hissing susurration swirling through the trees, "Why?"

Hermione opened her eyes. All around, even under their feet was a swirling violet surface, like being on the inside of a bubble. Directly in front of them stretching up as far as she could see was a tall tower, which seemed to be made of black glassy stone, obsidian. There was one window a long way up. From this angle Hermione could see light coming from the window, but could not see if there was anyone there. Then she heard the voice again, louder than before. "Why?"

"Severus Snape, we have come to bring you back," she shouted.

"Go away!" The words reverberated like thunder around them. She glanced quickly at Simon. He had faded even more. He was turning into a shadow, but his hand within the golden cord still felt very solid. She squeezed it and smiled. He managed a slight twist of the lips in reply. Once again she drew on the magic in the golden cord and seven voices echoed up to the window.

"Seek out he who is lost, seek out the hidden mind, make whole the sundered soul."

The fabric of the tower seemed to fall down on top of them, but as the wall of obsidian came towards them it curved over in a strange sort of inversion. The next moment they were at one end of a long tunnel with curving obsidian walls. There was a light a long way off at the other end. Hermione started to move towards the light. Simon seemed to be more like a Hogwarts ghost trailing along behind her than a real person.

Although the surface seemed level, every step seemed to take more and more effort, like wading through waist high mud. Yet slowly but surely the light at the end of the tunnel came closer. As they emerged, Hermione found herself in a featureless world of swirling grey mist. The only thing to be seen in front of them was a large black standing stone, glassy and solid like the tunnel. As Hermione advanced towards it for a closer look, it turned around slowly and instead of a featureless rock, she found herself looking into the dark, knowing eyes of Severus Snape the potions master.

He stood there tall and forbidding, dressed from neck to toe in his customary black robes, his dark greasy hair hanging down, framing his pale face. His eyes flicked over both of them with an expression of utmost disdain, which was tinged with a mild surprise at the sight of the golden cord.

"What are you doing here, Miss Granger? Why have you come?"

"We have come to bring you back."

"Where is Albus Dumbledore?"

"He is dead."

"And why have you taken so long?"

"We lost you. Everyone thought you were dead too."

The thin lips curled into a sneer. "Everyone was so desperate to have me back, of course."

"We did not know where to look."

"Fools, the lot of you." He stared fiercely at her. "What if I don't want to come back?"

"You must. We need you."

"Who needs me? The magical world, has managed without me for long enough. As they say, 'the graveyards are full of indispensable people'. I am sure someone else will eventually be able to take up where I left off."

"No, our world needs your knowledge and skill now, desperately." Hermione was starting to feel a little panicked. She had not realized that she would need to try this hard to convince him. "There are new threats and we don't have time to wait for a new potions genius."

He snorted in disgust, "but you still waited long enough." He indicated the wraith that was Simon at her side. "Long enough for him to have developed a form and a life all his own."

"We need you too, Simon and I. Without you he is not complete. He can never be truly himself."

"Oh, yes he can in time. Ignorance is bliss, and in this case infinitely preferable." His eyes blazed and he advanced towards her. "And you, Miss Granger, certainly do not need me. You are in love with him, not me!" He gestured dismissively towards Simon. "If I do return, then everything between the two of you will change. If you go back without me, you can continue your happy little love affair."

Hermione fought down her anger. "What I personally need is not important. But right now the survival of our world is more important than my own happiness."

"To you maybe. But not to me!" He spat out the final words, turned his back on them, and started to walk away.

Then there came a third voice, a mere whisper. "What about Bella, Severus? Doesn't she have the right to know the truth - about her family, about her heritage?"

Severus Snape turned. The expression on his face was very strange, somewhere between anger and longing. He strode towards Simon, looked very hard at him, then reached out both his hands and pushed them into Simon's chest. At that contact, all hell broke loose, the world around them dissolved into Chaos. Hermione felt her senses quickly being overloaded with a massive assault of colour, sound, touch, smell and magic power. As the assault became too much her senses shut down and she descended into darkness.