Casting Shadows

Chapter 10

A Discovery

"Where can she have gone?" Snape demanded, running his hand through his hair in exasperation as he strode from the fire to the window and back again, as if the very act of looking down the path to the gate would somehow make her appear there.

"How should I know?" Ella replied fretfully, fastening the buttons on Celsus' coat as she prepared to fly him to Hogwarts to be minded by Madam Pomfrey while they searched for their errant daughter. "She could be anywhere, I can never tell what she's thinking any more!"

"Really? You surprise me!" he snapped. "I'm surprised you don't insist that we all write down our every waking thought for your examination on a daily basis, as a matter of course!"

Ella shot him a look of hurt and fury in equal measure, and drew her lips into a tight line. He knew that she would not retaliate in front of the boy, and he regretted his words. They would not help, they would simply serve to reinforce the self-made barrier they seemed bent on erecting between them.

Celsus mumbled something sulkily, his chin pressed into his chest.

"What's that, Celsus?" Ella demanded. "What did you say?"

"I said, I bet I know where she's gone!"

"Then tell us, it's very important!"

"Don't see why I should, I'm glad she's gone and I hope she never comes back!"

"Celsus! You don't mean that!"

"She said she'd take me and leave me there, she used to say it all the time! And then she started saying she'd do all sorts of things to me, just because she could!"

"Take you where, boy?" Snape knelt in front of his son and took him by the shoulders. "Tell me where you think she's gone!"

"The Forbidden Forest, of course!"

Ella looked at Snape over the top of their son's head and they came to an unspoken accord.

"You take Celsus to Poppy, and I'll fly straight to the Forest. I'll see you there," said Ella. She had grabbed her cloak and was halfway out of the door before he could do anything but concur.

***

Ella hovered over the forest, dipping as the wind ebbed and holding firm as the first falling leaves of the autumn eddied around her in the updraughts. Almost as far as the eye could see, the forest stretched east. To the north were the foothills with cloud-topped mountains beyond; to the south, Hogwarts, and to the west, Hogsmeade and their home. Looking for Persephone beneath the dense blanket of green that lay beneath her would be as exigent as searching the world for another philosopher's stone.

"Merlin, I need some help!" she muttered under her breath, anxiously scanning the treetops for the smallest sign of disturbance that might betray her daughter's presence somewhere below. She suspected that the forest would not appreciate the girl's intrusion, particularly since she would probably be bent on testing her new-found powers wherever, and on whatever, she could.

She noticed a place, deep in the forest, where the trees did not seem so thickly packed, and she thought that perhaps if she were to land and cast a Revealing spell, the Fates might smile on her and show her in which direction Persephone could be found. Sure enough there was a clearing there, a space almost circular and eerily verdant. As Ella made her descent the air became heavy and she held her breath. Fleetingly, she thought to be afraid; certainly her husband, had he been by her side, would have urged caution and pulled up on the broom in order to surge back up into the sky and safety. But Ella felt nothing but mild apprehension, and as she dismounted even that melted away as she turned to take in her surroundings.

Time slowed and became oppressive, making her movements sluggish and her head thick with heat and heady fragrances. The air was filled with magic, so much that she felt stifled by it even as she welcomed its embrace. It was pressing her into the verdant moss that lay beneath her feet, it was lifting her spirit until she wanted to sing with joy. She could smell jasmine and roses, innocence and purity and knowledge all intermingled in synaesthetic bliss. She knew of only one animal in the forest whose power could cast so beguiling a spell.

The unicorn threaded its way between the tall trees, passing in and out of sight but never hesitating despite its natural wariness. Behind it followed a creature similar in design but more than twice its size, its hooves crackling the fallen leaves beneath its feet, breaking the silence of the forest's bated breath.

Ella's voice echoed in her mind as if the words she spoke had been snatched from her throat and cast away into a distant breeze.

"Firenze? Is that you?"

The centaur raised a finger to his lips as the unicorn stopped. "Do not speak, Ella Snape. He remembers well and would do the same again, but he listens to your soul, not your words. Do you trust me, Ella Snape?"

She nodded mutely, drugged into lethargy by the magic that irradiated the clearing and yet in full control of her mental faculties. There was more than one unicorn in the forest, she knew, for she and her husband had been granted propitious sight of two of them on the night of their wedding, but she was sure that this was the one who had given freely of its blood in order to complete the potion Ella had used to perform the ritual to remove Severus' Dark Mark. If Firenze had escorted this same unicorn now, to this wondrous clearing, when Ella and her husband were so desperately in need of pure, white magic to counteract the blackness seeping into their daughter's soul, then her trust of him was not in question.

"Bring her here. It is not yet too late."

The unicorn dipped its head as if in agreement, and whinnied softly before turning away and melting back into the shadows, while Firenze entered the clearing and drew closer to Ella.

"I don't know where she is!" Ella whispered, the urgency of her remark deadened by the torpor of the slowly dissipating magic.

The centaur looked up into the sky, examining the strata that layered the blue in shades of white.

"Travel north a little way," he said. "She has taken a circuitous path in order to avoid this clearing and so does not make as much progress as she otherwise might." He turned impassive eyes back on Ella. "Return before twilight, on the cusp of day and night."

"Thank you," she said sincerely, mounting her broom as the last vestiges of soporific magic cleared from her head, and she kicked off, speeding into the sky.

***

Twenty six so far, Persephone mused. That was if she were to count the two snails whose shells she had compressed with just a glance, and the frog whose body had inflated until it was the size of a football. She looked at the heap of corpses at the foot of the oak tree. Not a bad tally for an hour or so's work, and she was becoming quite skilled in her execution of the spells. Execution. She sniggered at the inadvertent play on words. How very apt!

The smirk soon died on her face, though. She was becoming rather bored, and it was time she set her sights on a greater challenge. Determined, she got to her feet and kicked the small body of a shrew to one side as she made her way towards the sound of a babbling stream. Perhaps she would see some tracks there that she could follow. There were all sorts of creatures in the Forbidden Forest, Hagrid had spent hours talking to her about them, and she knew she would be able to find deer if she looked carefully enough.

She felt a sudden flash of remorse as she thought of the kindly groundskeeper. He would be horrified if he were to find out what she was doing. He'd probably cry, and wipe away his tears with that tablecloth-sized red and white handkerchief he kept in his pocket. Hot tears threatened to fall from her own eyes as she remembered being dandled on his knee when she was little, feeling so very small that she might as well have been her favourite doll, her long, coltish legs swinging as she sat on his strong, wide thigh, perfectly balanced and quite, quite safe. Apart from her daddy - her father - he was her favourite man in the world, and this was how she was applying the lessons he had so assiduously taught her.

From the corner of her eyes she saw a blurred black shape streaking through the sky low over the treetops. She crumpled to the ground then and sobbed, hiding her head in her hands, shuddering as the blood began once more to heat her veins.

***

Snape reached Ella eventually, having been able to monitor her fruitless search as he himself had neared the forest. He had watched as she hovered and swooped, systematically covering a sweeping area of the forest as it reached the foothills of the mountains, grimly approving of her thoroughness. As he reached her side he matched his speed and height to hers and when she was in earshot asked,

"Why this particular area?"

"Firenze," she replied. "There was a unicorn, Severus! We have to find her and take her to the clearing by dusk!"

"What clearing?"

"The one where we saw the two unicorns on the night of our wedding, remember? At least, I think it's the same clearing!"

"Then keep looking," he said. "I'll take this segment, you fan out your search that way." He indicated an area of densely packed woodland to the northeast of their position.

As Ella dropped lower and banked to the right, he held his course. The canopy was patchy in this part of the forest where a good half of the trees were deciduous, and he could get a fairly good view of the forest floor as he flew. There was nothing there but dead leaves and moss, though, and it did not take long for his frustration to mount.

This was all his fault, his and his alone. If he had never been seduced by the siren song of Lucius Malfoy all those years ago, if he had been less bookish and more approachable, if he had been a different man, a different child...

If only he had lived a different life.

No. He should know far better than most never to second-guess the Fates. Their design was woven into the fabric of Existence, and any alteration to the warp or weft of it would unravel countless lives, perhaps ruining them in the process. If he had not made the choices he had, heinous though some of them were, he might never have met his wife, never even have fathered Persephone. Such a thing was unthinkable. This was his life, their lives, and they played the game with the cards the wily Fates had dealt them. He had always played to win and he saw no reason for that to change now.

The late afternoon sun glowed orange, and he caught a flicker of it as it danced on the surface of the small brook that meandered through this part of the forest. Its banks were the perfect environment for the lythrum salicaria that thrived at this part of the year, and he could not help but search for its familiar purple foliage as he skimmed the treetops, since he had always harvested it at this time of year.

At last his diligence was rewarded, but by something far closer to his heart than potential stocks for his storeroom. He saw a heart-stoppingly familiar shape huddled on the forest floor. Quelling the urge to call to her, he set an unobtrusive Containment charm with a perimeter around ten yards of its target, just in case she should decide to continue her journey while his back was turned. One could never be too careful where children were concerned, as he well knew. Once satisfied that she would not be able to stray from the immediate area, he looked around for Ella and, seeing her in the middle distance, set his broom towards her to tell her their search was over.

They set down as quietly as they could behind Persephone and a few feet outside the containment bubble. She did not notice their presence and they heard the faint sound of sobbing. Ella moved forward but Snape held her back, taking her arm and whispering "Finite Incantatem." He glanced down at her anxious face and nodded slightly as he released her, and they both started towards their daughter.

"Seffie, sweetheart, are you alright?" Ella called gently, not knowing quite what to expect. The sobs became louder and Persephone's shoulders began to shake, and Ella's instinct took over as she ran to her daughter's side, kneeling beside her on the forest floor and taking her in her arms. "We've been so worried about you! Where are you going?"

"I don't know! I don't know, anywhere! Anywhere as long as it isn't St Mungo's!"

Ella turned to look at her husband angrily. He ought to have set a ward on the study door to prevent Persephone from eavesdropping. He was usually so vigilant! He caught the accusation in her eyes and felt a flash of indignation as, yet again, Ella assumed that she had a monopoly on concern and fear and desperation. Why could she not have set the wards herself? Why did she always abrogate her responsibility and leave it to him? Was he not allowed to be fallible?

The moment stretched and he held his breath. To back down was unthinkable; to stand his ground might have consequences he dared not contemplate. Fortunately the decision was taken out of his hands as Ella closed her eyes and bent her head to her daughter's. Persephone leaned in to her for a moment and then in a quavering voice said, "Daddy?"

He reached them in three easy strides. "Seffie, you must come with us," he said firmly. "Now."

"Daddy, will you roll your sleeve up, please?"

"What?" he breathed.

She straightened and rose to her feet, uncoiling her limbs in one fluid, serpentine motion, and he recoiled as she turned someone else's red eyes on him.

"Ella, come here," he murmured, his left arm reaching out towards his wife as he took his wand in his right hand. "Come away from her."

Sensing a change in her daughter, Ella complied at once, and once she was safely out of range Snape re-cast the Containment charm. The thing inside Persephone made her throw back her head and laugh, a shrill, high laugh that froze their blood and turned their stomachs.

"What have you done with my daughter, my Lord?" he asked.

"You dare to call me such, when this strumpet fucked you so hard that my Mark was expunged from your soul and excised from your flesh?"

"What would you rather I called you?"

"Master! I would rather you called me Master, and then I would rather you died at my feet, writing in agony! Crucio!"

The spell was weak, performed as it was without a wand and through the medium of an inexperienced child, but nevertheless Snape felt a painful tingling course through his veins, and beads of sweat broke out on his brow.

"She's cast an Unforgiveable!" Ella muttered. "The unicorn will refuse her now, surely!"

"Ssh, woman! Take your wand and be of some use to me!" he replied distractedly.

"Unicorn?" the shell of their daughter replied. "Ah, fresh unicorn blood! It has been long since I drank of such nectar! Take me to the unicorn, if that is your wish. I will be glad of its succour!"

"Restrain her, Ella. Now!"

Ella pointed her wand at her daughter and shouted, "Petrificus Totalis!"

The girl froze, and Snape stopped her fall with an almost instantaneous "Mobilicorpus!"

"What do we do now?" Ella asked. "She - he - wants to go to the clearing! What if this is all he needs to fully regain his power? We'll be playing right into his hands!"

"No," Snape said, walking around the stiff form of his daughter, her feet several inches from the ground and her eyes on a level with his own. "Look at her eyes. Look at the tears."

It was true. Persephone's eyes had lost their red cast and shone brilliant green with unshed tears. As they watched, her eyes overflowed and a small rivulet was formed on each cheek. Snape reached his hand to her face and wiped away a tear with his thumb.

"Remarkable," he said softly. "See how she fights not only the Petrificus you cast, but also his control of her?"

"She's always been strong-willed," Ella managed, her voice choked. Snape turned to his wife and put his hand on the small of her back, stroking gently as he pulled her to him and planting a kiss on her head.

"It's almost dusk," he noted. "Come."