Spinner's End

Chapter 13

The next few weeks seemed to fly by to Raven. She was so fascinated by the news that Severus had given her it was practically all that she could think of. She asked him questions as much as she thought that she could without him finding her annoying.

Raven worked up her nerve one day and asked if she could try to use his wand.
“Each wand really, is more specific to each witch or wizard, like dentures.” He had searched his mind for something he could think of that she would be familiar with that was very individual.

She laughed at his example, and said. “ So it’s like borrowing dentures from someone? She laughed into her hand.

“No, not exactly.” Severus laughed too. “ I think that would be slightly disgusting.”

“Slightly.” Raven burst out, laughing harder.

Laughing with her Severus extracted his wand and held it out for her.
She sobered immediately. She was certain that even though he was laughing, the loaning of his wand was something that he probably did not take lightly.

“ My wand is ebony with the feather of a griffin at its core.” He explained, his tone serious, but he still had a smile on his lips.

Raven’s eyes got large. “A griffin? Those are creatures from mythology aren’t they?” She suddenly blushed and turned her eyes downward away from Severus’ gaze. “Of course, they are not mythological, since you have the feather of one here.” She smiled looking back into his eyes. “Sorry.” She added in a hushed tone.

“It’s okay. At least you are familiar with them.” He said in an approving voice.

He handed her the wand.
She looked at it closely. It was generally smooth with a grip area carved into the thicker end. She held it in her right hand.
“Tell me something to say. “ She ventured, wondering if he were going to tell her possibly that it would be wrong or something for her to try magic.

“It is not so much the words that one says, so much as what one is thinking at the time.” He said to her. “ That is to say, the words help with the clarity of the intention. For example, if I wanted to kill a bug running across my desk. There are several things I could say to kill the bug. There are several things I could say to make the bug, for example disappear and end up outside. What in the end happens to the bug however is entirely dependant on what is within my mind.”

Severus watched Raven as he spoke. He eyes riveted to the wand, her level of intensity was almost palatable to him. In the recesses of his mind he wished that even just half of the students at the school were as intense as her. Smiling to himself, he realized on another level that students like Raven would not actually be a good idea in his case.

“I noticed that when I said to kill the bug, you did not seem to like that idea.” Severus stated rather than ask.

Raven shook her head, agreeing that she did not want to kill any bugs.

“So killing the bug would probably not work for you. Probably for you, making the bug disappear and reappear outside would be better for you.”

Raven nodded at this idea. Her eyes still intent upon the wand.

“However.” Severus reached his hand under her chin, turning her head to look at him. “You will not be able to kill a bug, with this wand or make a bug disappear and reappear with this wand. In fact, you will not be able to anything at all with this wand.” He smiled at her.

Her eyes suddenly flashed in anger. “Why not?” She demanded.

“Because, you are not a witch.” He said with a chuckle as he slid his hand over hers on the wand, preparing to take it back from her.

“Oh bullshit!” She said, pulling her hand holding the wand free from his. She stood up. “I have been called things worse than a witch.” She added angrily.

“Flames!” She shouted suddenly as she jerked the wand and aimed it towards the floor in front of her.

A vicious stream of sparks shot from the wand accompanied by loud hissing and popping sounds.

Severus jumped to his feet, his eyes round. It was his turn to be in awe of something.

“Stop!” Raven shouted and the sparks ceased.

“ Wow, that was so cool!” Raven turned and exclaimed at Severus.

Severus strode over to where she stood and pulled the wand from her hand. Raven looked at him with puzzlement.

“That shouldn’t have happened.” Severus stated. “Nothing should have happened.” His voice reflected worry.

“Is, is something wrong?” Raven asked him softly. She suddenly felt bad that she had pulled the wand from him and acted rashly. “Did I mess something up? Did I break it?”

“No.” Severus said. He turned towards her and ran his hand across her back. “No, you didn’t do anything wrong. I’ve just never seen a non-magical person do anything like that before. Don’t worry about it. I find it rather interesting though.” He wasn’t really worried about what she had done but he would find some surreptitious way to see if Dumbledore had ever heard of anything like that happening.

He wondered if he should purchase a wand for her to use for self-defense. He still worried about her being alone since in only a short while he would have to go back to the school to work. While he could now freely apparate and dis-apperate in front of her, there would still be many nights where he would be expected to stay at the castle as Dumbledore had already told him.

Raven watched his face carefully after he had taken the wand from him. She looked at him with worry as she saw a plethora of emotions cross his visage. To her it seemed as if he was becoming more and more introspective in regard to her well-being. He explained his incantation to keep anyone wishing her ill out of the house. At first she thought that it would make it so nobody could break in at all. She had immediately asked about if the building were on fire and a fireman were trying to save her and he couldn’t break in. He had promptly replied that only an ugly old fireman would be permitted in by the spell to save her. She laughed at this. She found it very sweet that he worried about a fireman coming and stealing her away from him.

He had explained to her about the being able to travel great distances at will. She had been happy to hear about this as it meant that he would be able to come to her on many nights in only the blink of an eye. She had been even happier to hear about the witches and wizards birth control methods. She had been even more excited to hear that he had actually taken it upon himself in the first place to handle that aspect. She liked that either the witch or wizard could be safe for the day. Severus spoke at length and with disgust about the havoc the Muggle birth control pills wreaked on women. He explained that he did not like living with Peter, who he referred to as “Wormtail”. He had simply said that one of his Masters had forced the cretin upon him. Raven was very uncomfortable when he spoke of the people he referred to as his “masters’. She had quickly changed the subject and asked how long spells last. Severus explained that it depended on the spell. He said that a spell would naturally end with the casters’ death and that a spell could be lifted by another person, but not usually by the recipient of the spell. At that point he offered to cast a spell on her, which caused Raven to run from the room in mock terror.