The Dark Past: Confusing Times

Chapter 7: Swimming, Songs, and Seidr

Harry watched a giant cockroach scurry across the ground in front of them and grimaced. He didn't mind spiders but roaches? Narcissa's foot was still in their air, as she had been about to step when it hurried past. She wasn't screaming or looking horrified, just... amused?

"That thing's huge!" Evan said, pointing at the retreating insect.

"The further you get in the Dark Forest, they bigger the cockroaches get. I've seen one as big as my forearm!" Severus said, as if it was the coolest thing in the world.

Evan and Florence exchanged disgusted looks.

Harry was just glad this was a Pensieve.

They started off again and the sounds started to get scarier and closer; and the trees, if possible, looked even more menacing; and the insects, they were outsized and vicious looking. There were snakes too, and to Harry's total shock, Severus bent down next to one and started to speak with it!

"You're a Parseltongue?" Florence asked, enviously.

"Yep," Severus said, straightening up. "They keep the houses free of rats and mice in the Dark Forest so we have quite a respect for snakes and everyone has at least one pet house snake. And a pet spider to keep the insects down."

Harry narrowed his eyes slightly at Severus. Is that why he had Draco set that snake on him in his second year, because Severus could handle it? He was going to have to learn that spell and set a snake on Severus and see what he did. And did anyone know that Severus was a Parseltongue?

"I thought only descendants of Salazar Slytherin were Parseltongue's?" Evan asked.

Severus shook his head. "No. It isn't a gift you go around mentioning to anybody though. Frank Longbottom is a Parseltongue, something that not even his parents know about. His mother would have a fit if she knew! She's a dangerous woman."

Harry, having had too many surprises already to act stunned, just wondered if Neville was a Parseltongue, and he wondered how Severus knew Frank.

Florence giggled. "I miss Frank."

Evan rolled his eyes. "How could you miss that nut! Always dragging you two along in his schemes to uncover the truth that Professor Sprout was really an evil genius bent on world domination."

Severus looked behind him. "I still think she is."

Evan groaned while Florence giggled again, covering her mouth.

"Figures," Evan groused. "What's Frank doing now anyway?"

"Oh," Severus said, waving a hand. "Studying to become an Auret or Aurser..."

"Auror," Narcissa corrected.

Evan snorted. "Sounds like Frank."

A glowing sphere could be seen up ahead and Harry followed the others to it. The sun! A hole had been cut into the canopy and the sun was shining down through it. Directly on a small ramshackle house and the surrounding garden.

A young girl, wearing jeans that were blue at the top and green below the knees, was standing on the doorstep of the house, her red shirt was bleached in several places. She held a wand and was waving excitedly to the five of them. Harry waved back and then looked at his hand. He wasn't here!

Severus ran to the little girl. She jumped at him and he barely caught her before she sent them both sprawling on the rock pathway that lead up to the door of the house.

Harry ran an eye over the house's exterior and frowned. It looked bad. The wood was warped, rotted, and he could see holes from various insects in several places. There were no glass on the windows, just stretched oil cloth.

But the surrounding garden looked nice. It was well tended and the fruits and vegetables looked healthy. Harry could see several black snakes slithering through the plants. He looked away as one caught a rat that was gnawing on a plant. Too bad that wasn't Wormtail.

"Katrina?" Florence asked as she picked the excited little girl up off Severus.

Katrina nodded her head. "Yep," she said, standing up straight and looking up at Florence through her bangs, they were just barely long enough to cover her eyes. "And you must be Florence?"

Katrina looked just like Snape, but her nose was a bit smaller, not much though. Her eyes were black too.

Florence glanced at Severus, who was dusting himself off, and then down at Katrina. "What has he told you about me?"

Katrina put a hand to her mouth and giggled. "That you and him are going to get married. You kiss even!" She said, looking at Florence as if Florence was insane. "How can you kiss my brother? Gross!"

Florence walked up to Severus and kissed him lightly on the cheek. Katrina squealed and darted into the house, yelling "She kissed him!"

Harry wiped his sweaty palms on his invisibility cloak, he was going to met Severus's parents. Evan and Florence looked slightly nervous too as they followed Severus into the ramshackle wooden house.

The first thing Harry noticed was that compared to these people, the Weaselys were rich. There was only one room. One wall was taken up by a huge fireplace, it was divided up into four sections; two that were big enough to stand in, those reached the floor; and two that were smaller ones and had a hearth. A cauldron was bubbling in one of the smaller ones while a woman sat in a chair in a large section with a fire blazing beside her. She was looking angry and her face looked melted. Harry quickly turned away, glad he wasn't really here.

There was a huge table that took up the center of the room, three people were at that, and shelves and drawers lined the walls all over, being filled with Muggle soft drink bottles, Muggle aluminum cans, glass jars and other containers, there were also baskets, books, and cooking utensils. Harry couldn't see anything that was solely for decoration.

The drawers were Muggle dressers that were stacked on each other to the ceiling. Harry guessed magic kept them from toppling over.

"Welcome!" said the woman by the fire. She didn't get up and Harry realized she was sitting in a position that couldn't be comfortable and her face, she wasn't angry it was just frozen in a grimace. That had to be Severus's deformed mother.

"Hi, mom!" Severus greeted, walking over to her and kissing her on the cheek.

She put a bent arm around his shoulders and patted his back awkwardly with a grotesquely shaped hand. It looked like she only had three fingers.

Harry willed himself not to screw up his face in disgust. He may not actually be present but it was still a rude thing to do.

Florence and Evan, amazingly, showed no disgust as they walked up to her and shook her hand as best as they could. She couldn't open her hand enough to give anyone a real handshake.

"This is my dad," Severus said and signed with his hands, having gotten his father's attention by tapping his shoulder. The man looked just like Severus, down to the greasy shoulder length black hair, but his eyes were pale blue, like Narcissa's.

"Hey," Evan said, shaking Severus's father's hand.

The man signed something after he had shaken Florence's hand too.

"He says hi back," Katrina translated.

"And this is grandma and grandpa," Severus said, indicating the last two people. One of them was bigger than Evan and the other one, well, Harry wasn't able to suppress the shudder that ran through his body at seeing her.

Her skin was grayish and tightly stretched over her bony frame. It looked moist. Her blue eyes were small and mostly obscured by skin and her mouth seemed to be little more than a small hole, she didn't seem to have any lips. Her teeth were small and sharp and her nose were two tiny holes in the middle of her face.

The large half-troll got up and shook their hands fiercely, he and Evan got into a contest to see who could squeeze the other hand the hardest. Evan finally let out a yelp and the man let him go.

"Call me Tibor," the man laughed, sitting back down.

Severus was signing all of this to his father.

"And," the half-dementor said as she stood, her voice a whisper that reminded Harry of crackling dry leaves as fire consumed them, "call me Serilda."

She shook their hands and neither Evan nor Florence could control the spasm of panic that crossed their face at the touch.

Serilda made a hissing noise and sat back down, nudging Tibor. "I scare them."

Katrina laughed. "You scare everyone and you enjoy it!"

Serilda rose but Severus put a hand on her shoulder and forced her back down. "Control yourself grandma. We have guests."

Katrina stuck her tongue out at her grandmother. "I can laugh all I want with guests around. Ha, Ha, Ha."

The half-dementor scowled, at least that was what Harry guessed the expression was, at her granddaughter. "They'll get used to me soon enough," she whispered. "And then I shall be after you!"

Harry glanced at Severus. He had signed the entire conversation to his father. Harry wondered if Severus would consent to giving him sign language classes. He doubted it but he wouldn't know unless he asked. Sign language looked pretty cool.

The memories swirled once more and Harry found himself standing near a river that had tons of children and adults playing and swimming in it. How was he going to find Severus in this mess?

"This is heavy," groaned a familiar voice from behind him.

Harry turned around to see Severus trying to lift up one side of a large trunk. Evan shouldered him out of the way and lifted the entire thing up, smirking. Severus looked woefully down at his body.

"I'm a scrawny wimp," he sighed.

"You are that," Evan agreed, flexing his muscles as he held the trunk.

Harry rolled his eyes, wondering if that was how Gregory Goyle and Vincent Crabbe viewed Draco. And he wondered if Goyle and Crabbe were as cool as Evan. It was a shame they hated Harry so much, he would have liked to get to know them, if they were anything like Evan, that was.

"I like scrawny wimps," Florence said, coming up beside Severus and wrapping her arms around his waist, giving Evan an evil stare, while Severus blushed.

Evan chuckled while several Dark Forest children noticed this show of affection and let out a loud "Ewwwww," led by Katrina.

Florence winked at Katrina and she ran off, giggling, followed by other giggling children of various ages and genders.

Harry watched as they set up for what had to be a party of some kind. A stage was in a large clearing, off to the side of the river, and there were tables set up all along the perimeter with people sitting at them and arranging items on the table. Harry wandered around since Evan was busily helping finish making the stage and Severus and Florence were sorting out the candy they had brought into various baskets at a table.

One table seemed to be for toys, wooden ones that were roughly carved. They were actually quite nice. The elderly woman in charge of this table was whittling a stick to make another one, Harry guessed. Another table seemed to be for painting faces. It had small paints in tiny containers, film canisters from the looks of it, and samples of what the man could paint on rocks. His own face sported a dragon that was alternatively breathing fire and ice. Harry reasoned that he was a wizard. A little girl was sitting by his feet, a fairy, the Muggle kind, was flying around on one of her cheeks. The girl had a large lump on her back and one eye wouldn't open all the way. But judging from the affectionate way the man was smiling down at her, he couldn't see her deformities.

Harry smiled and went on to other tables. There was a table for all sorts of other cool things: mushrooms that made a person glow in the dark; potions for turning hair any shade of color the person wanted, including polka-dotted; potions for making hair grow on your person; necklaces with rune letters carved out of wood, shell, bone, rock, even crystal; a make-your-own-wand table (Harry itched to try that and he wondered if it was possible); what looked like firecrackers; and to Harry's shock there was Muggle-related items too: a table for hand wrestling, a person with troll blood in her was doing that; a table with all sort of trading cards on it (only a handful of moving ones were with them); a puppet theater; lots of tables with food laden on them, bread, rolls, meat dishes, and other real food. Severus's table was the only one with sweets at it.

Harry went back to see how Florence and Severus were doing. Each type of candy was now residing in its own separate basket. Severus had brought a lot!

"How often do you do these parties?" Florence asked, trying to snag a frog without Severus noticing.

"Twice a year. Christmas and midsummer. It's all handmade stuff and nothing costs so it's really enjoyable. The kids are pretty good about only getting two or three items so all the children get to have something. Katrina normally doesn't bring home anything since I can do most of this stuff for her myself." Severus explained, taking the frog out of Florence's hand.

Harry wanted to go to one. Did they still have them? A horrible thought occurred to Harry, did the Dark Forest even exist anymore? He had never heard of it, but that didn't mean much. He hoped it existed, he wanted to visit it in real life, despite the scary insects.

"It's ready!" Evan called as he jumped off the stage and rushed over. "When does it start!"

Severus stood up and looked around. "Everyone ready?" he asked, loudly.

"Yep!" came the chorused reply.

"Okay!" Severus took his wand out. "Serpensortia!" he called. A large black snake fell out of the end of his wand and reared up to gaze at Severus. "Go tell Melusine we are ready for her," he hissed.

The snake seemed to nod and then slithered away. Useful. Harry took his own wand out and opened his mouth to say the spell when he stopped. The snake would have no where to go in the Pensieve. But he was going to try that spell, not caring if being a Parseltongue was a bad thing. It was a gift and a useful one at that. He should have used it when Wormtail had escaped as a rat. Then Voldemort wouldn't have risen and Cedric would still be alive.

Harry closed his eyes, blinking back the tears, and opened them again, shoving those memories out of his head.

After a few minutes a woman suddenly appeared on the stage. Harry took a step back. Talk about evil! Her dark red hair fell to her feet, her face was haughty and dangerous, her cold blue eyes arrogant. Her robe was dark red, and her cloak black.

"Intimidating, eh?" she said, breaking the spell and smiling. She still wasn't attractive but no longer evil looking.

Severus laughed. "I can't wait until I can cow people like that!"

Melusine sneered dangerously and swirled her black cloak around her. "You'll never get as good as me!" she hissed and then smiled again.

Harry didn't know what to think. Was she evil, acting good, or good, acting evil? His head hurt again.

Melusine, Harry noticed, had no wand. Just a polished black staff with a purple orb on the top, held on by a silver metal claw. She lifted the staff in the air and purple lights shot out of it along with a what sounded like a whistle.

People streamed in, laughing and talking with each other as they headed to the various tables. Harry saw that everyone went barefoot and had green feet, except for Narcissa. She elegantly walked around and after picking up a necklace with a polished wood rune on it, went to sit with her brother. Katrina was everywhere, Harry lost track of her several times.

She had a frog painted on her face, a fat green one with purple dots, that hopped up and down, trying to eat a fly that she had painted on near her eye. Harry smiled as he saw a little boy of around three with a puppy dog on his face that was raising one paw to shake with and wagging its tail happily.

Going back to Severus's table, Harry smiled. His table was one of the more popular ones and children and adults alike were stuffing themselves with sweets.

"Be careful," Severus warned a man that was eating his fifth piece of fudge. "If you aren't used to sweets your mouth is going to make you pay for it. I wouldn't have anymore if I were you."

The man looked longingly at the table. "What do you mean?"

Severus grimaced. "I ate an entire bag full of sweets when I first went to Hogwarts and I had sores all over my mouth the next day. Couldn't eat right for a week. Very unpleasant."

The man nodded his head and rubbed his jaw. "Yeah, my mouth is a bit sore."

"Go get some water, it'll rinse out the sugar," Narcissa advised.

The water table was right next to them.

Evan came strolling over with a huge leg of something in his hand. He bit it and waved it at Severus. "Now this is real food! Not like the puny food we get fed at Hogwarts!"

Severus's mouth watered. "Can you get me one?"

Evan shook his head. "This is troll food, boy. You're too thin, it'd hurt you."

Harry laughed as Severus scowled, looking down at his chest. "I tried working out with weights but it didn't work. My girlfriend is bigger than me," he said morosely.

Florence lifted the sleeve of her robe, to reveal a rather muscled arm. She was more muscular than Severus!

"I'm a puny wimp!" he moaned, falling out of sight.

"I still love you, Sevvie, even if I'll have to be the one to open all your stuck jars," Florence assured him, bending over to look at him.

"Yes, I'll help you too Sev," Evan laughed.

"Humph!" was Severus' only reply as he stayed out of sight for a few seconds.

Poor Sev. Being made fun of for being so skinny. Harry could sympathize.

"Come on Snake!" said a boy as he rushed up behind Severus. The new kid looked wild! His bushy brown hair was streaked with some gray and though he looked young, he was sporting a shadow, like he was about to need to shave. He had a guitar in his hands with werewolves running along the strap around his shoulder.

Severus smiled and took off. "Watch the table for me Narcissa!" he called back.

Florence looked scandalized. "I guess he doesn't trust me with the candy," she muttered, snagging a handful of chocolate frogs.

Narcissa let her have them. "When are you and Sev going to get married?"

"After seventh year," she smiled. "I can't wait. It's going to so cool. I want to have at least four children, maybe six, and live here," she glanced around, a content smile on her face. "It's so nice here."

Narcissa looked pleased. "It is nice here. Very pleasant."

Harry glanced guiltily at Florence. She would never have those children, at least... Harry swallowed. Did Severus have children? He would find out soon enough.

The table's were soon abandoned and everyone sat in the middle of the clearing, waiting for something. Harry joined Evan and the girl from the wrestling table. From the affectionate way Evan and the girl were talking, it looked like Evan might have found his wife.

The lights went out and the stage illuminated itself in green light. The words "Wolf and Snake" appeared in silver handwriting above the stage and then rose to pulse far above it.

Smoke, black smoke, filled the stage and four outlines could be seen.

Harry grinned as the smoke cleared. Severus was wearing clothes much like Bill Weasley wore, black boots with silver chains on them, blue jeans that were torn at the knees, a huge oversized black shirt with rips and tears in it, Severus wore a green shirt underneath it so no skin was visible. His hair was green with a silver streak in it. He had to find a way to take a picture of this, no one would believe it!

The others wore clothes similar to Sev's.

The music started up and several of the younger kids were already on their feet and dancing. Severus started to sing, his voice amplified slightly, and Harry was shocked. He knew Severus could sing but this was amazing. His voice was so rich. He could easily have been a singer instead of a Potions Master.

The song wasn't one Harry was familiar with but the words were soothing and the beat was good.

After several songs, Severus and the rest of the band bowed and as red smoke filled the air, they left the stage and went to sit in the audience, not changing their clothes.

Florence leaned against Severus as he sat with her.

"Grindelwald had enveloped the nations in fear," came a disembodied voice. "No one dared to stand against him but one man, one man named Albus Dumbledore."

Several children squealed and raced to sit in laps of their parents or closest relative. Even Katrina had retreated to sit with Severus.

Harry watched as two figures appeared on the stage. They were smoke but there was enough detail to be able to see the moon and star pattern on Dumbledore's robes. Harry sat up. Was he going to see Grindelwald's and Dumbledore's fight?

Grindelwald sent a spell, a yellow light, at Dumbledore who deflected it with a green light. At first, Grindelwald looked amused but as Dumbledore kept deflecting his spells, his face changed to anger, and the spells came faster.

Harry shrieked as Dumbledore was suddenly consumed in fire. The fire went out, though Dumbledore's robes were singed, and he sent a flame at Grindelwald. Grindelwald arrogantly deflected it and the battle raged on.

Harry, even though he knew Dumbledore had won, couldn't help but sweat. It was a nasty battle and when Grindelwald finally fell, dead, Dumbledore sank to his knees, his beard short now, the rest had been consumed, his robes black and sooty instead of blue, and his body trembling.

Dumbledore disappeared and Melusine walked onto the stage, smiling and holding a box full of dead leaves. The children left their parents and clamored for the front. Katrina stayed in her brother's lap.

It was fireworks display that Harry wanted Ron and Hermione to see. It was exciting. Some she sent into the air to crack off like normal firecrackers, other she made into animals that went into the audience to quietly pop out. Some firecrackers turned into little prizes that the children played with; hats, gaudy jewelry, horrid colored robes, little cars, and the like. Some were scary. The manticore, dragon, and dementor Harry could have lived without, especially the dementor.

A humorous skit by some teenagers followed that had Harry rolling on the ground. They were acting like punk American teenagers; one had a "valley" accent, one was a southerner, one was a rich one, and the last one was a mystic type that reminded Harry of Trelawney. The entire skit was based around them pretending to be sent into the woods and having to learn out to survive. The southerner seemed to think the valley girl needed to be eaten by a bear and the valley girl told the bear, which had suddenly showed up, to "bring it on," whilst the mystic lady was crying and talking about "I feel the bear's pain. NO!" and then crumbling to the ground, gasping about the burden of the inner eye.

A wrestling contest followed that. A large trollish man got onto the stage and challenged anyone to a fight that thought they could beat him. Several rushed to the stage, including, Harry noticed, several females. Evan's girlfriend was among them and she beat the guy! Evan rushed to beat her and found himself on the ground, smiling madly, while the girl pranced around the stage, flexing her muscles.

"No one can beat Bertha!" she cried.

"Except me!" came Tibor's voice as he got onto the stage. Harry hadn't seen any of Severus's parents or grandparents before and wondered where he came from.

They tied!

"I told you no one can beat me!" Bertha cried smugly.

Tibor hit the stage, hard, with his fist and made it rattle.

Two more acts followed: a juggling one; a magic one done by Melusine again, she made a child turn into a black unicorn, and a man into a frog, Katrina had to be hauled off the stage from acquiring him. The frog hopped behind Melusine and cowered.

Harry smiled as the people got up and started to mingle. That was fun!

The memories swirled.

After the rush of the party Harry frowned at this memory. Evan was just sitting there, shelling peas, by himself in the house. No one else was around. What kind of memory was this?

The door banged opened and Harry started to smile when his blood froze. Katrina was leaning against the doorway, holding her chest, blood dripping down between her fingers.

"The Ministry," she gasped, "is attacking. Mom and dad are dead. Please help, go, by the...." blood started to trickle from her mouth and her voice sounded bubbly, "the river. They came... that way." She collapsed, and laid there.

Evan sat for a second and then jumped up, racing to Katrina. He turned the little girl over and Harry stared. She was dead!

Evan raced out the door, taking his wand and a club with him, screaming for help. Harry stared down at Katrina, unable to move. Just like Cedric. Her wide staring eyes looking at nothing. Harry tried to close her eyes but his fingers didn't seem to want to work.

He was suddenly yanked and pulled along, Harry screamed, trying to claw the ground so he wouldn't have to see what was happening where Evan was.