Chapter 28
Hermione fastened her dark brown
woolen cloak around her shoulders as she stood in front of the fireplace in her
apartments at Hogwarts. She frowned in disapproval at her over protective
husband, though she wasn’t facing him.
“You are to exercise extreme
caution.” Severus frowned at her back. The daft girl was taking things far too
lightly.
“I know, Severus.” She
sounded as if they had gone over this a million times before. Perhaps because
they had. She understood his unease, but he was starting to sound like a broken
record.
“We have no proof of what
this is.” he insisted.
“I know, Severus.” She
turned and gave him a testy look.
“This is serious, girl!”
Severus barked. “The Amazons and the Brotherhood can only be trusted so far.”
“They seem to truly want to
help us,” Hermione reasoned, her cloak swirling around her as she sharply
turned. “And what do they have to gain?”
“A bit too easy to convince
if you ask me,” Severus grumbled as he fussed over Hermione’s cloak buttons.
“And neither has asked for anything. Don’t you find that a bit strange?”
“Some people find knowledge
valuable,” Hermione said testily, brushing his hands away. “This is an item
from legend. And perhaps many think the bitterness between the Brotherhood and
the Amazons has gone on long enough. If they combine their libraries they’ll be
one of the most powerful organizations in the world. Ever think of that?”
“Perhaps.” Severus looked
thoughtfully at her.
He actually had not thought of that. Cheeky wench.
“And Pieter is in the
Brotherhood. Don’t you even trust your own cousin?” She fiddled with his
tarnished silver cloak fastenings.
“Pieter is bound to the
Brotherhood by ancient powerful magicks.” Severus frowned. “Those ties run far
deeper than any blood relation.”
Hermione looked thoughtful.
She stood back and examined Severus. “Why aren’t you in the Brotherhood if
Pieter is?”
“I decided to follow the
Dark Lord,” Severus said dryly. “Silly me.”
“Oh.” Hermione turned red.
Of course.
“It’s a wonder they’re even
letting me participate in any of this,” Severus mused.
“Don’t be ridiculous,” Hermione
snapped. She wrapped a warm beige colored scarf over head and pulled on her
matching gloves. “They would have been foolish to use anyone else.”
Severus looked amused at his
wife’s indignation. “Thank you, wife.”
Hermione sniffed imperiously
at him.
Severus tried not to laugh.
He was rubbing off on her.
He motioned to the jar of
Floo powder near the fireplace. “After you, my dear.”
She threw a handful of
powder in the fireplace and green flames roared to life. She arched an eyebrow
at him as she stepped into the flames.
He wasn’t ever really sure
if she knew why he laughed at her.
-+-+-
Hermione was surprised to be
walking through an ornate stone fireplace sitting by itself on a floating plate
of ice, much like the one she had ridden to the Amazonian tower the first time
she had visited.
Severus handed Hermione a
broom from a black iron rack that was placed nearby. There seemed to be a
glowing ice cube in the distance and they had to get to it somehow.
“You can fly, can’t you?”
“Of course I can.” Hermione
took the broom from him and glided easily upwards.
“I hear your first
experience with a broom was not a pleasant one.” Severus chuckled.
“I was eleven, Severus. I
have improved in many things since then.”
“One would hope so,” Severus
sniffed.
He really was jumping up and
down on her last nerve.
As Hermione flew to the
meeting place, she noticed small yellowish glowing lights under the water. She
knew it must be a security measure, but she shuddered to think of what it was.
She and Severus came to a
soft landing near an arched door cut out in the cube of ice. Two men dressed in
black were guarding the opening. They had no markings upon them so Hermione
could only guess what faction they represented.
One held out a small water
filled tank with a small orange fish inside. It glowed slightly.
“Good Lord.” Severus peered
at the tank. “Is that what I think it is?”
The guard smirked, but still
didn’t say a word. Severus plunged his hand in the tank and the small fish
cuddled up to him. The guard motioned for Severus to walk through the door.
“What is that?” Hermione
asked as she stuck her hand in the tank. The small fish cuddled up to her and
she gave it a gentle stroke.
“A Pethar. Very rare.
Allergic to Polyjuice Potion. So much so that if someone is under the influence
they go against their normally gentle and friendly nature and try to get away.”
Severus gave the tank a glance again. “I suppose he’s not up for sale after
negotiations?”
The guard smiled and shook
his head.
“Pity.” Severus walked
through the doorway to the meeting place and Hermione followed him.
Hermione gasped as she
entered the room.
They seemed to be in a room
made of frosted ice. It was cool, but not cold. Hermione pulled her scarf off
her brown curls, but kept it on. She hazarded a guess that they were floating
on a slab of ice somewhere in the vicinity of the Amazonian tower. The lighting
was satisfactory but dim.
Guards from both the Ministry
and the Brotherhood stood at each of the windows. Hermione was sure from the
presence of Alexandra and Nyssa there was at least one platoon from the Amazons
present nearby.
The Ministry guards seemed
to be made up of a mix of Aurors and people from the Department of Mysteries.
They wore light grey robes made of some sort of silky material as uniforms and short
circular hats of the same color with no brims. Hermione was surprised to see
each of them had two wands on their belts. It made her a little nervous.
The Brotherhood guards were
dressed in deep green velvet robes with black fur trim. Pointed shoulder pads
jutted out dramatically and curled up, making the guards look like they had
broader shoulders than normal. Gold piping embellished them. They all had
shaved heads and wore woven gold and silver circlets with a red stone set into
the forehead. Hermione spied black curly-toed boots poking out from under their
robes.
A rectangular wooden table
with a blank parchment on it lay between two benches. A white candle burned at
each corner of the table. Silver runes etched in shells were inlaid around the
edge of the table. Each end of the table had two heavy wooden chairs.
Red sealing wax slowly
bubbled in a small brass cauldron above a single white tea light. A silver
blade lay nearby.
“Hello, dear,” Nyssa greeted
Hermione as she stepped into the room. “The Brotherhood has sent their security
forces but their representatives have yet to arrive.”
A nearby Ministry guard, a
short, stout man with wiry red hair that seemed to stick out in all directions,
rolled his eyes as if he had heard much about the subject. Hermione tried not
to giggle.
“The Amazons probably had
scouts in place on our property weeks before you came to work in my laboratory,”
Severus sniffed. Nyssa looked embarrassed. “I’m sure the Brotherhood is just as
invested in their security measures.”
“Are we the first from
“Yes,” Alexandra said before
Nyssa started up again. “Your Ministry officials have yet to get here.”
“I believe Dumbledore is
also coming,” Snape said as he whisked his cloak off dramatically. He folded it
over one arm and approached the table. “Along with Arthur, of course.”
“He is such a pleasant man,”
Nyssa said warmly as they walked to the table. “Now each of you sits at
opposite ends.”
Hermione sat and was happy
to find the wooden chair had been magically warmed and was quite comfortable.
Severus sat opposite her
after placing his cloak on the back of his chair. The cauldron bubbled in front
of him and orange and gold light played off his face.
Nyssa and Alexandra sat on
one side of the table and Nyssa gave Alexandra a startled look as Alexandra
flicked a grape out of her sleeve and popped it in her mouth.
“What on earth was that?” Nyssa
demanded.
“A preservation bag sewn
into the sleeve of my robes.” Alexandra snorted. “I told you they wouldn’t be
here on time.”
Hermione let out a laugh and
a small bell rung as they saw small green flames leap up in the distance. She
turned and watched as Pieter and Nicolai made their way to the tiny island and
were checked through security. They were wearing their normal burgundy robes
along with tall black cylindrical hats.
“They’re on time enough,”
Hermione said as Pieter and Nicolai took their hats off as they approached the
table. “They’re earlier than the Ministry group.”
“Complaining already,
temptress?” Nicolai sniffed. He seemed to be in his usual grouchy mood.
Hermione stifled a laugh.
“Oh for pity’s sake,” Nyssa
grumbled.
Alexandra rolled her eyes.
Although Nicolai had been put in charge of negotiations, it was clear he was
never going to approve of the negotiations.
Pieter sat on Hermione’s
right, leaving Nicolai near Severus.
“And how are you, dear
cousin?” Pieter asked warmly as he pulled a piroshki out of his robes and
handed it to Hermione. “Yuri would like to know when you and your barbarian of
a husband plan on visiting Mageeya Topeek again.”
“Barbarian?” Severus said surprised. “What’ve I done to you?”
“Yes, barbarian!” Pieter
rumbled at Severus. “How can you take a bride and not present her during Ball Season?
It is uncivilized!”
Severus looked deeply
offended. “I refuse to unveil her like a piece of chattel.”
Pieter waved his hand
dismissively. “Ridiculous! She must meet the families we are close to! And it
would make Anna happy to have a friend at the next ball.”
Hermione couldn’t imagine
why Anna would be lonely at such an event. She looked at Severus.
“Be that as it may,” Severus
harrumphed at Pieter, “Mother is expecting us in
The bell rang again and
momentarily Arthur Weasley and Mrs. Longbottom walked through the door. Mrs.
Longbottom was carrying a large ancient looking red leather bound book with
brass fittings binding it together.
“Hello, everyone,” Arthur said
cheerfully as he undid a gold silk tie and a deep burgundy curtain fell over
the door.
Pieter and Nicolai nodded at
Mrs. Longbottom politely. Alexandra and Nyssa stared openmouthed at the stuffed
vulture perched on her hat.
Arthur introduced Neville’s
grandmother. “This is Augusta Longbottom. She possesses what we believe to be
the only written information about the shard from the time period when it was supposedly
created. I had her bring this information today.”
Nyssa breathed in.
“Incredible. Your records must be kept in impeccable order for you to find
information this quickly.”
“Not as much as you would
think.” Mrs. Longbottom walked over to the table and dropped the book with a
heavy thud onto the parchment. “I enjoyed this volume in our family library when
I was much younger and remembered the legend when the girl produced the
pendant.”
“Convenient,” Nicolai said
flatly. Pieter threw him a look.
Thankfully, Mrs. Longbottom
ignored him. “Jared also talked about various sundries made from pieces of the
bridge for sentimental reasons.”
She peered at Nicolai and
made a face as if a strong, foul odor had passed under her nose. Hermione was just
thankful he had not really been slapped. Mrs. Longbottom was not known for her
patience.
The bell rang again and Arthur
lifted up the burgundy curtain and peered out into the darkness.
“That should be Dumbledore,”
Arthur said, dropping the fabric. “He was afraid he was going to be late.
Business at the school.”
“Anything we should be
concerned about?” Severus asked.
“Not at all. Something about
a niffler loose in the Ravenclaw common room. Unauthorized pet, I’m afraid.”
Hermione chuckled. “At least
it wasn’t one of ours.”
Severus wondered if she was
talking about Slytherin or Gryffindor.
“I am terribly sorry,”
Dumbledore said as he whisked through the door. He took his pointed purple hat
off and brushed dust and ash off of it. “It looks like my lateness has been
holding things up.”
“Not at all, Professor,” Hermione
said.
“Yes, we were just getting
started,” Nyssa said warmly as Alexandra got up to give her father a kiss on
the cheek.
“I take it you have already
read the journals before us,” Nicolai said looking unsettled.
Hermione guessed he was not
the type of person that liked surprises.
“Actually, no,” Dumbledore
confessed. “I do have a school to run, Nici. Occasionally I don’t have the time
to page through the journals of Pure Blooded families.”
Hermione looked at Severus.
From the glance he gave her, he hadn’t known that Dumbledore knew Nicolai
either, let alone well enough to call him Nici.
Nicolai threw Dumbledore a
filthy look, but seemed to lose some of his pompousness.
Pieter laughed heartily, but
didn’t look surprised at all. He clapped Nicolai on the back, nearly knocking
him forward into the table. Nicolai looked distinctly annoyed.
“You have not changed much
since your second year at Durmstrang, I take it?” Pieter boomed merrily.
“Some of us find
genealogical histories interesting.” Nicolai sniffed.
“Exactly!” Mrs. Longbottom
broke in as she opened the book. Hermione winced as she heard neglected leather
binding crackle. “I spent hours reading these as a girl during my summers home
from Hogwarts. This was one of my favorite stories.”
Nicolai looked at her with a
bit more respect than he had before.
Hermione still wondered
about the ‘Durmstrang’ comment.
“A lot of the items would
simply sing a family epic. I suppose the magic would have drained from these by
now,” Mrs. Longbottom said thoughtfully. “Some held Valkyrie song, but since
none of you have gone mad or deaf, I’d suppose that one’s not applicable.”
Severus shifted uneasily in
his seat. The Jotun made him nervous. Period. Combine
the Death Eaters with Monty Python’s surrealistic sense of humor and you
have the nicest of the Jotun. There was no reason they wouldn’t find the
torturing of a descendent of a god amusing. They might even find it worthy of a
festival day.
“The patterns of flashing
lights indicate something is written in the language of Light and Dark,” Mrs.
Longbottom explained.
She looked accusingly at
Nicolai. He attempted to look innocent. He failed.
“What do you know?” Mrs.
Longbottom snapped at him.
“Whatever do you mean?”
Nicolai said lightly.
Pieter frowned at him.
“You bring me as a
representative, bring my family from two countries into this plan, put my
reputation and integrity on the line, and you have withheld information?” Pieter’s
voice steadily rose until it was a dull roar.
Hermione suddenly felt sorry
for Pieter’s children when they finally pushed their father over the edge.
Nicolai flinched in spite of being Pieter’s superior. He had obviously hit a
nerve.
Everyone at the table stared
at Nicolai.
“It’s a key. Not like you
wouldn’t have found out eventually anyway.”
“Is that what your big
secret is?” Mrs. Longbottom sniffed. “We thought you knew something
interesting.”
Nicolai looked outraged. “You
knew?”
“Key to what?” Hermione interrupted
before war broke out.
“We’ve just gotten a glance
at it; we haven’t been able to read the message yet,” Nicolai admitted. “For
all we know, the magic has decayed and the message is incomprehensible. We
don’t know the skill of the witch or wizard who made the item. And we didn’t
get to test it to prove it’s a piece of the bridge. Everything we had was
purely speculation.”
Severus tilted his head at
Pieter. “Although it may be considered unscrupulous to withhold information,
this was just a theory. A theory that panned out, but just a theory
nonetheless.”
Pieter still glared at
Nicolai, grumbling under his breath.
“So now let’s negotiate,” Dumbledore
said.
He stood by the table as the
others hammered out the details. When everything was finished and etched onto
the parchment each of them pricked themselves with the silver dagger and let
three drops of blood flow into the sealing wax.
Nyssa and Nicolai chanted a
spell over the cauldron of wax and the color turned grey.
Pieter pulled a wooden box
out of his robes. When he opened it Hermione saw there were four brass seals in
it. He handed one to Dumbledore, one to Nyssa, one to Nicolai, and one to
Arthur.
Nyssa poured four dollops of
wax at the bottom of the page.
Hermione watched as the
seals pressed into the wax:
“What is ‘EA’ for?” Hermione
asked.
“
“Did you make these?” Severus
asked, taking the
“Misha did help a bit,” Pieter
said, puffing his chest out with pride. “He has been spending a lot of time
with my first metalworking kit. It is adorable.”
Nicolai sighed at the
mention of Pieter’s children. Hermione speculated he had to hear about them all
day.
Nicolai pulled a scroll case
out of his robes and pulled out a red lacquered scroll case. When he unrolled the
parchment contained in it and laid it on the table, small bolts of lightening
ran through it, flashing the colors of the rainbow.
“Lay your hands on it,”
Nicolai said.
All who were not from the
Brotherhood, including Mrs. Longbottom, reached out and touched the page.
Hermione saw multi-colored
stars flash in front of her eyes. When the flashing stopped, she removed her
hands from the page.
She felt slightly
disoriented, and shook her head slightly.
“That was the language of
Light and Dark. The language of Fire and Stone will be a bit more difficult to
learn. We will meet next Saturday night. Then there will be a full moon. This
time at a place of our choosing.” Nicolai picked the parchment back up after
everyone had finished. He rolled it tightly and stuffed it back into its scroll
case. Then he tucked it into his robes.
“Here is a copy of the
prophecy,” Nyssa said, fishing a blue leather scroll case out from under her
robes. “Translated and a copy of the original that you may check for any
mistakes that may have been made.”
“Thank you,” Nicolai said,
taking the scroll case gently from her and tucking it under his robes. It was
the first civil thing he had said to her.
“After the Saturday exchange
we will release the spell keeping the whales away from you,” Nyssa said.
“Good!” Pieter clapped his
hands together. “Then may I suggest we have a viewing and observational
analysis of the relic on the Tuesday after. Anna can pack us a nice dinner.”
“As if that poor woman
doesn’t have enough to do!” Hermione said testily. “What are you thinking?!”
Pieter laughed a big booming
laugh. “It is her joy!”
“Anna used to prepare
banquets before she got involved with this fool,” Severus explained, throwing a
look at his cousin. “When she has the opportunity to ply her craft Pieter takes
the children away. Once her spells are going I hear she finally gets peace and
quiet.”
Hermione relaxed a little.
“I know she would like
company…” Pieter hinted at Hermione.
Hermione suddenly got the idea
Pieter was trying to get Anna to talk to her about Ball Season.
“I’ll be glad to stop in to
see her,” Hermione said, smiling.
Severus looked decidedly
grouchy about this.
“Wednesday is better for us,”
Alexandra said and she consulted a silver pocket watch she had pulled out of
her robes.
“Wednesday, then,” Nicolai said.
“We can meet at the Ministry
for that,” Arthur said. “We have the best place for that, I think.”
“Perfect,” Nyssa said
smiling.
Dumbledore rolled the large
parchment outlining the agreement of the new
They shook hands all around
and flew back to the fireplace, taking turns taking the Floo back to their
respective homes.
“See you in the morning!”
Dumbledore said cheerily to Hermione and Severus as he tossed a handful of
powder into the flames and disappeared.
“Wonderful,” Severus
grumbled as he reached for a handful of powder. Hermione chuckled.
Even with everything going
according to plan, he could find something to complain about.