Darkly Bound

Darkly Bound

7.

Something had gone wrong. It had been nearly a week since the Binding and the infiltration of Azkaban had yet to occur. A group of what I'd been told were high ranking officials from the Ministry of Magic had arrived, and for most of the day Dumbledore, Moody and Snape had been sequestered in the Headmaster's office.

I tried to convince myself that this was a good thing, but the idea of having permanently bound myself to Snape for no reason was grating on me.

Our minds were quickly becoming accustomed to the Binding. It was to be expected, of course, but the shock upon first realizing he was able to read my thoughts as clearly as if I'd spoken them aloud, was one that took some getting used to. Worse was knowing that as the binding grew stronger the flow of thoughts would become easier and the boundaries between our minds would give way almost entirely. Where once it took effort to discern each other's thoughts, it would soon be a chore to hide them.

Snape was itching to get into Azkaban and was chafing against being prevented from doing so. His anger and frustration was all consuming, it was astonishing to me how he could be functioning as a teacher at all.

The answer to that became apparent fairly quickly. He wasn't. That fact was brought to my attention vividly when I had the misfortune to step in front of a class of 3rd year students who'd just been released from a double period in his clutches.

The sense of depression and misery was overwhelming, and not just from the poorer students. The entire class was struggling under the weight of Snape's wrath during his last potions lesson where, from what I could determine, there was a minor mishap with a misplaced vial of dragon bile. It was useless to introduce any new subject matter to the group so I spent the time letting them watch sky projections from my Astrolarium, an adapted Muggle planetarium projector I had developed with a very gifted astronomer several years earlier. It was fairly useless as far as real charting went, but it was flashy and the students loved it. Once I extinguished the lights in the classroom the tension seemed to pour out of them.

"Astrificus," I exclaimed and let the show begin.

As each one called out the dates and times of their births and saw the night sky at that time their moods lifted and by the end of the period most of them were able to resume their class day with a modicum of normalcy.

I, however was not. I was counting the minutes for the afternoon class break. When that time finally arrived, I was already in the staff room waiting when Snape showed up, scowling. His foul mood went right through me, it was a struggle to keep it from taking over my own. He looked at me with a sneer, knowing I was going to stop him. So, I did.

"Professor, I need a few moments of your time. There is something I want to discuss with you."

"This is my break time," he drawled, "and as this is the staff room I would say this is as good a time and place as any."

I stepped up to him so we were barely a foot apart, "I think you might be more comfortable somewhere we are less likely to be interrupted."

He considered that for a moment. "No, I think this will be just fine." He got himself a mug of tea and dropped into a chair.

"If you like," I said and stood before him. I wasted no time in addressing my concerns. "I have just had the joy of attempting to teach a class which had just been terrorized into submission by you."

The hint of a smile played at the corners of his mouth. "Well that must have made it easier than usual for you. You're welcome."

The door opened and someone came in behind me. I didn't turn to see who it was, nor did Snape's eyes leave my face.

"You misunderstand. I take no pleasure in teaching browbeaten zombies."

He reached over towards a side table and picked up a newspaper. "I was informed that you had an extensive background in zombies," he purred.

If there was one positive note to this debacle it was that I could feel his mood improving. He was quite enjoying this conversation.

"It seems then, Professor, we are both well acquainted with the science of the un-dead." The struggling smile disappeared abruptly. "That is not what I came here to discuss."

"No," the purr had disappeared with the smile and been replaced by a silky, dark tone. "You came here to discuss my teaching style. I certainly appreciate your opinion, Doctor, but I have been Potions Master at this school for--how long? Whereas you have been here...."

I leaned over him, despite his cool demeanor, standing above him gave me an advantage. Placing my hands on the arms of the chair he was slouched in I told him, "I don't give a damn about your teaching style. What I do give a damn about is your taking out your frustrations and your thwarted dreams of glory on the students of this school. I don't care if you've been here ten years or ten minutes, you have no right to berate a child--not one child--because you have been disappointed!"

I heard the door shut quickly behind me again. Whoever had been here had left in a great hurry. With hardly a thought, I yanked out my wand, spun and threw a lingui-confundus charm after him and heard, at the same time, the same hex coming from Snape behind me.

He won't be able to pronounce his own name for the next two weeks. I heard the thought as clearly as if he'd said it aloud to me.

I turned back to Snape to find him still sitting holding his wand lengthwise between his hands as if he were measuring it and staring at me with eyes like pits of black vipers.

"That is the most ridiculous thing I've ever heard," he spat the words like poison. "Let's take this in order, shall we?" he leaned forward in the chair. "First; I berate, if that's the term you like, students when and only when they deserve it. I assume you are talking about this morning's class of Hufflepuff and Gryffindor 3rd years. Do you have any idea what occurred during their class time with me?"

"Some, yes. I believe it involved dragon bile."

"Very good. It did indeed. Tell me Doctor, if you can, what is the most common usage of dragon bile and why is it so very, very important that it be at hand at all times?"

I racked my brains for the answer to that, then took the obvious, easy way out and read it from his mind.

"Dragon bile is an antidote, especially useful for contact poisons."

"Very good. I'll ignore the fact that I know where you found that information." His black eyes bored into me. I started to wish I was the one sitting. "If your little group was out of sorts I'd wager it had much more to do with an entire table being doused by a torrent of spilled herpatoric acid than anything I could have possibly said."

"Or the tone in which you said it? The volume at which you declared it?"

He unfolded himself from the chair and stood, not six inches from me and looked straight down at me. "Not the tone in which I said it," he said in a voice I felt more than heard then he dropped even that to barely a whisper, "nor the volume at which I declared it."

I took a deep breath.

"Now," he said, suddenly in a normal tone and volume that sounded so loud I jumped in alarm, "as for this so-called disappointment."

I had to step back, and when I did I couldn't help but catch the tiny, spark of victory in his eyes.

I was furious. With him and with myself.

"The only thing that disappoints me as to the situation involving Azkaban is in my own rash decision to go along with the Headmaster in encouraging you in your hocus-pocus. I'm not usually so easily swayed. The early hour of the morning, lack of sleep and the desperation of the situation must have colored my judgement."

"The rising sun," I heard myself mumble, "confounds the thoughts, as I understand it."

He turned away from me and went back to his chair, tea and newspaper. Sinking back into the chair he fixed me with a glare and said, "You know, you really are capable of much better."

I crossed the room with an exasperated snort and poured a large mug of very strong coffee. It had been like picking scales from a dragonfly to teach the house elves to brew it properly. I leaned against a the window frame and tried to decide just how badly this confrontation had gone. Very badly I decided--just as it got worse.

The door opened again and a small group of teachers entered, first among them Moody. I turned quickly towards the window to avoid him.

"'Afternoon, " he growled.

I couldn't see him but knew his odd eyeball was darting around the room.

I heard Snape grunt in response, "Alastor."

"Havin' a little chat, are ya?" He got himself some tea and sat down next to Snape leaning forward and resting his arms on his knees. "What about? You know I'm interested, Severus. I'm sure I'd have plenty to add to anything you two would have to talk about."

I felt Snape's anger rising, but he held it in check. "Doctor Claros was filling me in on some zombies she met this morning."

I spun around with a curse on my lips only to see Moody's enchanted eye staring right at me, even as the rest of his face calmly regarded the crossword on the back of Snape's newspaper.

"Zombies, you say!" he grinned and turned his whole face towards me. "Zombies. Well, well. It's somethin' new every day here at Hogwarts, in't it?"

I'd had more than enough. I left the windowsill and stormed out of the room, stopping only to glare at Snape over the top of the paper he was still pretending to read.

8.

I had to get out of the castle. The staff was on high alert and most of the students were aware that something was amiss. Even the heavens were uncooperative. Sunset and moon rise were to occur at the same hour today. An event like this always heightened my awareness and the added sensitivity was just what I did not need right now.

I sent word to the 7th year student that was serving as my teaching assistant that she should cover my classes for the day, picked up an old herbology text that Professor Sprout had given me and set out for a quiet spot I had discovered about a mile away. It was a cold, grey morning but there was no hint of rain and it actually looked like the skies might clear by later that afternoon.

When reached the spot I'd set out for, I settled down with the book. It was a very old text and the botanical drawings were exquisite. I spent hours studying their details. I took some notes on plants I was unfamiliar with and planned to ask Professor Sprout more about them. The skies cleared and so did my head. I watched billowing white clouds move across the sky and imagined them to be all the dark worries clouding my own psyche. The sun had moved low on the horizon. It was time. I closed the book and summoned the portkey to the henge. I wanted to witness the sun set and congruent moon rise from that ancient observatory.

In a moment I was there. The ancient stone circle. I hadn't seen it in daylight. It was quite small, and many of it's stones had toppled. But it's power was still palpable. This site had witnessed much in it's long history. Built as a calendar perhaps, drafted into use as a temple for the service of deities good and evil. How much blood had been spilled here? How many lives lost? How many saved? I reached into the pockets of my cloak and took out a box of salt. Once again I circled around the ancient structure sprinkling a protective circle of salt. Then I went to the center of the circle and sat down to wait.

*

Snape was waiting for me at the entrance to the castle when I got back from the henge. I saw him standing at the top of the steps looking like a great big vampire bat. He was in a foul mood.

"Good evening, Professor!" I said as cheerily as I could manage.

"Are you ready for a trip?" He said with no emotion.

"I was hoping for a bath, and some dinner."

"There's no time for that."

"Where are we going?"

"London. We're to meet a former associate of mine. I'd appreciate another pair of eyes, as it were, but you can't go looking like that."

"What's wrong with what I look like?"

"You'll be killed before you walk in the door, that's what's wrong," He waved his wand in my direction. I suddenly felt an icy draft. It was no wonder when I looked down at what I was now wearing. A flimsy gown in a gaudy color.

"I am not going anywhere dressed like this!"

"You are, and what's more, you'll act like it's your preferred mode of attire."

"Well that's going to be difficult. I'm not accustomed to wearing my neckline around my ankles!"

He raised one eyebrow and assessed the look. "Perhaps you should be," he replied. "Now the hair," He reached behind my head and took my wand out from the knot at my neck. "How can one spend all day out in a field and come in looking like you never left the library? There, shake that out."

I did, and tried to fluff it out a bit with my fingers. "A bit better," he said. "Try this." He took a clump of my hair, twisting and crumpling it in his hands. "That'll do," he said and stepped back apparently satisfied with the mess he'd made.

I had to protest. "I must look like an absolute tramp!"

"Just play along and do as I say. Speak as little as possible. Just keep careful watch on everyone around us. Oh, and if it's not asking too much, it wouldn't hurt to behave as if you were mildly intoxicated." He held out my wand to me. "You'll need this at hand."

I looked at him at a loss. "Just where would you suggest?" I asked. The scanty gown provided few hiding places for a witch's wand.

"Just here," he slipped the wand down my decolletage.

"Monsieur!"

"Have you a better place?"

"May I at least have a cloak? I'm freezing in this tatty thing." As soon as I spoke I was sorry. He produced a filthy cloak that reeked of cheap scent. I looked at it with utter disgust. "You have some experience in this," I sneered.

"Regrettably, yes. We'll leave now."

Exactly where we were when we re-apparated in London, I did not know, but Snape did and I sensed that this was according to plan. He immediately set of, walking so fast it took me three steps to every one of his just to keep pace.

"Do try to keep up!" He called back to me.

We were walking through the most blighted area I'd ever seen. There wasn't a building that wasn't half falling down. There were so many potholes in the street that it seemed barely paved. The sidewalks were strewn with garbage. What was worse, it seemed that people were actually living among these ruins.

"Oh this is lovely. You are a fun date, Severus," I said panting, nearly out of breath with trying to keep up with his pace.

"Shut up and keep moving. We're almost there."

We approached a group of dangerous looking men blocking our way. I felt a definite threat from them, these men meant to do harm to anyone who crossed them. I reached for Snape's arm and pulled myself up close to him.

Be careful here. They mean business.

He pulled me up closer and I noticed he already had his wand pointed in their direction. I reached for mine and found that it's new 'home' was indeed convenient. We continued toward them and watched them close ranks. They didn't move toward us, but were waiting for us. Snape never missed a step. About ten feet from the wall of men I felt a jolt of energy in my head, followed immediately by a searing heat down my arm and both wands erupted with bolts of pure energy. The gang went down like bowling pins and we walked right over their scattered bodies.

I could still get no readings off Snape other than grim determination and that everything was going exactly according to his plan. Finally we stopped outside a seedy looking tavern. There was a body, dead or drunk, lying across the threshold and a couple of female 'entrepreneurs' plying their trade under a flickering street lamp.

"Oh no," I groaned.

"Oh, yes. It's show time. Just remember what I told you." He stepped over the body and dragged me over it. I was trying to see if I could detect any energy from the poor man when Snape tugged me forward. "Drunk, remember!" I took two steps forward before he tripped me. Instinctively I reached back for him and he grabbed me around the waist and pulled me up and against him. "Do be careful there, M'lady. Perhaps another drink?" he said, quite loudly for the benefit of the others in the bar.

"Good Evening Severus, I was beginning to wonder when you'd get here." came a voice from the corner of the room.

"Lucius. I'm sorry. I was," he nodded toward me, "detained."

Lucius Malfoy? We're here to see Lucius Malfoy? I asked Snape telepathically.

Yes, Lucius Malfoy, father of Draco, Board of Directors of Hogwarts and avowed Death Eater.

"Understandable, quite understandable."

Malfoy slid his eyes over me and the thoughts I felt coming from him made me want to vomit, or at the very least reach across the table and slap that leering smile right of his smug face.

Control yourself, please!

Snape had to drag me over to the table, but didn't seem to mind, it added to his charade. He pulled out chair for me and just before I was able to sit in it, he tripped me again. As I started to fall he moved behind me, sat on the chair and pulled me down onto his lap.

If you EVER trip me again--!

Shut up! You're supposed to be working!

Malfoy had motioned to a waitress and ordered drinks for all of us.

"What was it that was so important, Severus. What's my son been up to now?"

"This isn't about Draco. We wouldn't need to meet here to discuss anything he's done, would we?"

"Certainly not!" Malfoy laughed nervously.

The waitress was back with her tray of drinks. Nothing was said while she placed them, or rather, dropped them on the table.

May I please have my own chair?

He pushed the chair next to him out from the table with his foot and gave me a push off his lap to assure that my move to the chair was as clumsy as it could be. I was grabbing onto the edge of the table to steady myself when I noticed him pull a small phial of something out of his sleeve and pour it into my drink in full view of Malfoy. I knew I was supposed to pretend not to notice.

"Er, Severus, do you think that's wise?" Malfoy looked at me nervously, "The lady seems, um, well oiled already."

"You surprise me Lucius. Can a lady ever be too well oiled?" He slid the glass over to me.

They laughed heartily and I sent a searing blast of anger right at both of them. Malfoy stopped laughing immediately and looked behind him.

I looked at Snape and smirked.

Don't do that again!

What's in that drink?

It'll help you see.

I looked him straight in the eye and downed the drink in one swallow. I was instantly sorry. It was the cheapest, foulest plonk I'd ever tasted. I felt like the back of my throat had been torn out by wild dogs. My eyes were burning and I could hardly breathe.

"Now, Lucius, what do you know about this new professor at Hogwarts?"

"Not much, Dumbledore's been hiring professors without consulting the Board."

Snape leaned across the table and changed to a conspiratorial tone, "I mean unofficially."

"Ah," Malfoy began to look uncomfortable. "Severus, I must ask; what are your intentions?"

The room began to slowly brighten. It was as if someone had finally lit all the lanterns. There were no shadows in the corners, or under the tables. I could see every person in the room with perfect clarity. And their thoughts and feelings rang out as loud as their words. These were effects of the potion he had poured into my drink. I scanned the room. Most of the patrons were just down and out drunks who needed a place to hide. They were all running from something. But over in a corner there were two dark figures who had previously been in shadow. I could see them clearly but could not feel them at all.

There! In that corner.

He nodded, almost imperceptively.

"My intentions are none of your business. I came to you for information. Can you help me or not?"

Malfoy backed away from him. "New professor. She's trouble for us, Severus, you need to keep your distance from that one. Dumbledore found her, I don't know how. But she's not afraid like the old Aurors are. I can tell you that the Master has your Doctor Claros firmly in his sites."

I had been staring at the two shadows in the corner and Malfoy's words had caught me unawares. I started to swing back around towards him but Snape had anticipated my move. He kicked the chair out from under me and grabbed me before I fell. They're watching! Through all that he never took his eyes off Malfoy.

I extracted myself from Snape's grip in an appropriately clumsy manner and sat heavily on my chair. I didn't need to look over to the corner to know that the presence of the watchers was becoming more and more malignant. I watched a drunken Muggle stagger over towards the table with the intention of collapsing there. He stopped dead in his tracks and backed up. Without a word he turned, his face ashen and left the bar. He looked uncannily like a zombie. I reached into his mind and found it completely blank. Dementors? No, they were solid. These figures were invisible to the rest of the patrons. I stood up slowly and circled behind Snape. I snaked one arm around his neck, the other across his chest and brought my lips close to his ear. His hair held the acrid smell of the potions lab, I remembered it clearly from our first encounter. In a stage whisper and hiding my accent I said, "The meter's runnin' Master, you don't want to waste it in here do you?" while passing the real message to him mind to mind. Those Watchers. They're like dementors. And there are more on the way.

Not much longer, he answered in kind then pulled me around, hard, to face him. "I'll spend it where and how I like. Go get yourself something at the bar!"

I stepped back. "Good enough, sir. It's your hour, bought and paid for. No matter how you use it, price's the same." As I turned to walk, or perhaps stagger towards the bar he sent another message, You have some experience in this.

A hit! A palpable hit! and to show my defeat, I performed a magnificent drunken stumble to the bar. I scanned the bottles behind the bar as Malfoy began his story. Not one of them contained what was listed on the label.

Malfoy was red-faced. "Severus, you should be more....selective! You are a respected man! A professor at Hogwarts, some on the Board have you tapped for Headmaster. If you were to be seen with a woman like that--"

"Exactly who, Lucius, would see me here with 'a woman like that'? Who else knows of this meeting?"

"No one!" Malfoy spit out, far too fast.

He's lying

That's quite obvious.

"Well then," Snape sat back in his seat, "what do I have to worry about? Tell me, Lucius, man to man. If I were to walk out of here right now, and leave her here for you, a respected man, a family man, what would happen?"

Don't you dare let him answer that! I shot over to Snape

"Don't answer that, Lucius."

Malfoy looked decidedly chastened. "Tell me what I came to hear. Tell me about this Doctor Claros."

"She's not a professor, she's an Auror."

"Try something I don't already know."

"Well honestly we know more about her husband but he was killed. He was a very powerful dark wizard. One we had plans for. She turned against him, turned him in."

"What are you getting at, Malfoy? Domestic quarrels don't interest me!"

"It wasn't a domestic quarrel! She testified at his trial--against him. That testimony sealed his fate. If she'd put her own husband to death..."

I signaled the barkeep and indicated that I wanted a pack of cigarettes. When he turned his back on my I quickly conjured up a bottle of Southern Comfort. He turned back toward me with the cigarettes and blinked, clearly confused as to where the bottle had come from. "Anything else?"

"A clean glass. And bill it to our host." I lit a cigarette and moved away from the bar. I began to walk toward the table where the Watchers were stationed. Snape saw me and started.

What are you doing? Are you insane?

You do your job, let me do mine.

"She sounds like just the type we should be looking for, not hiding from." Snape watched Malfoy's reaction. "Think about it. No sense of loyalty at all. There must have been some prize in it for her. What if the Dark Lord were to make her an offer?"

Malfoy looked thoughtful. "You make an interesting point, Severus. But at the moment, she's under Dumbledore's thumb."

"As am I." His voice took on a tone so dark and silky I could feel it.

Malfoy shrank at the implication. "You must be careful. She's probably there to watch you."

"Then I'm being watched on all sides, aren't I?"

Malfoy looked eager to end the interview. I continued towards the Watchers. There was a table, close by them and I sat down and poured myself a glass of the whiskey. I pulled a deep drag off the cigarette and turned towards them. Looking straight at them I blew three perfect smoke rings in the air and sent them towards the corner. Snape was watching this through my eyes with incredulity. Just watch the smoke pattern I told him. As the smoke approached the corner, the rings began to break up. As I expected they did not just dissipate into the air, but began to form a pattern. Snape was transfixed by what was happening to the smoke. The pattern now was becoming quite clear, the smoke becoming black and thick. Neither one of us was surprised when the shape of the Dark Mark became clearly depicted in the cigarette smoke. What did surprise us though, was the abrupt disappearance of the Watchers. We need to get out of here, Severus. Now!

"So is that it? That's all you have to tell me?" Snape growled at Malfoy.

"Um...Well, No...we know that as an Auror she had a reputation for being absolutely ruthless. She didn't seem to be afraid of anything. It was as if she was trying to be killed. But that was during a bad time for us, our network of spies has been a shambles as you yourself know."

"Yes," he nodded again.

I got up shakily from the table near the now empty corner and walked unsteadily towards Snape and Malfoy. We don't have time for this!

"And now she shows up at Hogwarts."

"That's all I know, Severus. That's all any of us know. You'll be careful with this information, won't you? Azkaban is ours. It would go badly in it came out--"

"That someone's been telling tales out of school, Lucius?" Snape stood up ready to leave, but leaned down from his full height to bring himself face to face with Malfoy. "Not to worry, old friend. My word is as good as yours." That did not seem to comfort Malfoy at all but Snape smiled sardonically and stepped over to me.

"Now, lady, I believe I still have some of that valuable hour left." He gave me a lascivious grin, pulled me up to him and we started out of the tavern. How long do we have? he asked.

Not long. They're very close. Can we apparate from here?

No. It's far too dangerous, come on. He took off at his usual fast pace, but this time I had no trouble keeping up with him. We were headed for a vacant building on an abandoned street. "In here." He pushed me into the crumbling building. "Anything?"

"No, nothing here, yet. But don't plan to stay long," I was breathing heavily from running to keep up with him.

"Just long enough," he grabbed me in a tight embrace and looked into my face. "Thank you"

"For what?" I was confused. Then just when I thought he would loosen his grip he smiled and kissed me. It must have been a combination of the Binding spell and the potion I had taken in the tavern but in that moment I completely lost myself. I had no sense of space or time and when it was over I could hardly remember why we'd been in such a hurry to leave. I reached my hand up and touched my lips."What was that?"

"You said it, ' It's your hour paid for no matter how you use it, price's the same.' A gentleman expects value for what he's paid for. " He reached into his pocket, pulled out a gold galleon and flipped it into the air.

I caught it as it reached it's arc and dropped it down my decolletage with my wand. "You'll never have enough gold if you live 500 years!" I laughed, "We need to get the hell out of here right now!"