In a Lifetime

In A Lifetime
Chapter 21: The Old Ways

Disclaimer: I own nothing of what you’re about to read, with the possible exception of the plot, although I’m sure it’s been done bef Th The places, characters, etc. belong to JK Rowling. Thanks.

Halloween snuck up on the staff and students of Hogwarts. The castle was in full speed preparation for the annual Halloween Dance. Everyone, of course, but Severus. Hermione walked into Severus’ quarters on the evening before the dance, sat down on a wing chair, and sighed at him exasperatedly.

“What?” asked Severus, looking up from his book.

“Why won’t you help with the dance, Severus? You’re the only staff member not assisting.”

“Because I don’t plan to attend.”

“You NEVER plan to attend and you always do,” protested Hermione.

“Because of Albus Bloody Dumbledore.”

“His name is Albus Percival Wulfric Brian Dumbledore, Severus, not Albus Bloody Dumbledore,” stated Hermione, rolling her eyes.

“Remind me to ensure that my next fiancée has not memorized all of ‘Hogwarts: A History’ and ‘Who’s Who in the Wizarding World’,” he said dryly.

“Remind me to make sure I make your manhood fall off if we ever part, making you undesirable to any red blooded witch,” answered Hermione, burying her nose in a book.

“Touché,” he said with a small grin. Hermione hid her wider grin behind the cover of “Handfasting Throughout the Ages”.

“Why are you so against Halloween?” asked Hermione, after a few moments of companionable silence.

“I just feel like the meaning of Samhain as I see it has been somewhat corrupted.”

“What do you mean?” queried Hermione, placing her book on the small end table and looking at Severus.

“I follow a great many of the old ways. For me, Samhain is a time to reflect on things and people past. A time to commune with the dead. It is a time when the veil between the worlds is at its thinnest.”

“You can actually speak with the dead?” asked Hermione, interest peaking on her face.

“Yes, one can, if one is suitably prepared to do so.”

“Could I do this?”

“I would imagine so. Yond tnd to be able to do anything you put your mind to,” responded Severus.

“Could I even talk to my…” she began nervously.

“Parents? You could attempt it.”

“Could I do it tomorrow night?”

“Hermione, I wouldn’t put anything past you. You just need to be able to clear your mind and take it on a journey,” said Severus, standing up and grabbing a book from his mas boo bookcase, “here, read this and if you would like to attempt to walk the veil, I will go with you.”

Hermione accepted the book from Severus and commenced reading it, her eager mind soaking up all the information she could. At last, a way for some closure with her parents. A way for her to show them that she was happy and content with her life. Severus smiled as he saw the intense concentration on the face of his fiancée. He would show her the old ways, let her have more than a glimpse into his most private of worlds. He would share the roads he learned to take with her. Severus smiled a gentle smile and went back to his book, allowing Hermione to delve into world devoid of the Dark and the Light, into a world beyond the world they lived in.

They read, both ensconced In their own books, until the fire died down and the room darkened substantially. Without looking up, Hermione picked up her wand and lit the candles, while Severus stoked the fire.

“Severus?” asked Hermione after a few more moments.

“Yes, Hermione?”

“So there’s an afterworld…like heaven?”

“Yes, a bit like heaven, I suppose.”

“Is there a hell?” she asked.

“Why would we one one?”

“Where do the evil go? Where did Voldemort go?”

“It depends on what road he wished to take.”

“Well, he certainly can’t be in the Summerland.”

“Sure he can,” said Severus, looking into Hermione’s brown eyes.

“How?”

“Hermione, the Summerland is what you make it. You get what you earned. Voldemort was evile gee gets that back.”

“So there is a hell.”

“As I understand, in the Christian hell, once you’re there, that’s it. You’re there for eternity.”

“Of course you are,” said Hermione, gently placing a bookmark in her book and closing it.

“Then what do you learn?” asked Severus.

“You learn that you can’t do evil deeds.”

“And once you learn and accept that? What happens then? You’re condemned to torture even after you’ve learned. That hardly seems fair. Eternity is quite a long time, my dear.”

“Not long enough for Voldemort,” she stated, her gentle brown eyes flashing with something slightly dangerous.

“But what if he learns? What if he allows himself to feel?”

“It doesn’t matter. He killed my parents and you’re saying that he deserves paradise?”

“Eventually, love, everyone deserves paradise…AFTER all the lessons of a lifetime are learned. Hermione, were your parents good people?”

Hermione looked at Severus, tears welling up in her eyes, “They were thst ost of people.”

“And you believe they are in heaven?”

“There’s no other place they could be.”

“Then that’s where they are. They are in their version of the afterlife. Hermione, if you are successful in walking the veil, you will know exactly where they are in the afterlife.”

“Will I run into Voldemort?”

“I strongly doubt that,” stated Severus, “you seem to think there is no judgment in the old ways. There is. Voldemort cannot roam free in the Summerland. He has a lot of learning yet to do and if he chooses not to learn, he will spend his eternity being forced to learn…it will not be pretty. That I can promise you.”

Hermione nodded as she stood up and moved next to Severus on the settee. She snuggled close to him as he wrapped his arm around her.

“So there is retribution,” she stated.

“What you do in this life comes back to you. If it does not come back to you in this life, it will in the next – whether one comes back here to continue to learn or chooses to remain in the Summerland. Life and Death are a series of checks and balances, my Hermione.”

“There’s still so much I don’t know,” she admitted, stroking this thigh.

“There’s still a great deal I don’t know as well,” said Severus, softly stroking Hermione’s shoulders.

Hermione smiled up at her fiancé as she grasped the hand stroking her shoulder and moved it down towards her breast. Severus gently squeezed Hermione’s breast and bent his head to kiss her lips.

“Intellectual conversation is very…stimulating,” remarked Hermione, the hand she had on Severus’ thigh moving up and stroking him.

“Yes,” breathed Severus, “very much so.”

“Take me to bed, Severus,” she whispered.

“At your command, m’lady,” replied Severus, lifting her up and carrying her to the bedroom where they spent the remainder he ehe evening making love.

* * * * *

Halloween morning dawned clear and bright, the crisp cold air of almost November permeating the dungeon quarters of the potions master. With a protesting yawn, Severus awoke, smiling at the woman next to him, still fast asleep. Severus muttered a quick freshening charm and leaned down to kiss Hermione. The witch sighed happily and opened her eyes.

“Mmm, goorniorning my dear,” she said, performine sae same freshening charm before capturing his lips in a deeper kiss, “I enjoyed last night…both the conversation and what came after.”

“You mean this?” he asked, pulling down the heavy covers and circling her rapidly hardening nipple with a finger.

“Yes, that,” agreed Hermione, “and the thing you did with your mouth.”

“You mean this?” he asked again, capturing a nipple between his lips and pulling on it. Hermione moaned.

“Ohhhh yes!”

“And this?” he said, flicking his tongue down her slightly rounded belly.

Hermione merely moaned louder in response.

“And who could forget this?” he asked, a sardonic grin appearing on his face as he pulled the covers completely off her and dipped his tongue between her legs, lapping up some of the moisture that was beginning to flow.

“Damn it Severus, you have classes…” she said, slipping into another guttural moan as he flicked at her clit.

Severus shrugged and nuzzled her as his tongue flicked harder at the delicate nub. He looked up towards her face and what he saw made him bear down harder on her pussy, licking suc sucking until she writhed in pleasure. Hermione’s eyes were closed, her teeth worrying her lower lip as one hand moved to her own hard nipples and the other tangled in his hair as she held his head where it was, not wanting him to stop what he was doing. Severus slipped one hand up to her other nipple and he rubbed and pinched it as he continued his all out oral assault on her warm wet folds. Hermione moaned low in her throat, a primitive moan that hardened Severus on the spot. He felt her tense up as she prepared to climax and Severus sucked hard on her clit.

“Oh my gods,” moaned Hermione as she was swept up in an orgasm, “Damn it, fuck me, Severus, I want you inside me.”

Severus smiled as he swiftly moved and entered her slippery pussy, thrusting hard and fast. Hermione smiled up at him as he thrust in and out, increasing his speed.

“Harder Severus…” she panted.

He obeyed and increased the intensity of his thrusts. Harder and deeper he drove, causing Hermione to whimper with pleasure. With a warning growl, he stiffened just before he came, filling her with his essence. Hermione joined him with her climax and they collapsed wrapped around each other, their bodies slick with sweat and the byproducts of lovemaking.

“Holy shite,” whispered Hermione, “what a way to wake up.”

Severus chuckled, then looked at the clock, “And what a way to miss breakfast in the Great Hall,” he said, swiftly getting up and heading for the bathroom, “join me, love, it will save time.”

Hermione nodded and joined him for a quick morning shower. The pair dressed and made it to the Great Hall just in time for a quick cup of tea, some toast, and a knowing look from Albus.

“I take it you will both be at the dance tonight?” he asked, prepared for the traditional scowl from his deputy headmaster/potions master.

“Only because you require it, Albus. However, I will be leaving early as customary,” replied Severus, scowling.

“And I will be leaving early as well,” said Hermione, “I have the day shift in the hospital ward and have the night off.”

“Walking the veil, are you, Severus?” asked Minerva, “I really should get back into some of the old traditions. They really had meaning and merit.”

“Yes, Minerva, I will be. But tonight’s journey ire fre for Hermione than for me.”

Minerva smiled, “Hermione, it will be an experience you will not regret. Severus, do you still make that meditative potion?”

“Yes, I will be brewing some before dinner. Would you like some?”

“I would love that. It really does help block out all the extraneous stimuli,” nodded Minerva.

“Well,” said Albus, standing up, “you all have classes to attend to and Hermione, you have your shift to attend to. I shall see you all around noon?”

“I can’t wait,” replied Severus, sarcasm dripping from his words.

They all departed the Great Hall for a day of teaching and/or tending the sick and wounded. The students were abuzz about the Halloween dance and Severus had to stop his lessons several times to take points for talking in class. He could understand with the younger students, but there was no excuse with the 7th years in his advanced potions class.

“Miss Brandywine,” he said, shooting a withering look at a pretty 7th year Ravenclaw, “that will be 50 points from Ravenclaw and the next word I hear about the blasted Halloween Dance will equal detention with Filch. Tonight. Am I clear?”

The girl nodded quickly and went back to her potion, not wanting to miss any of the dance. Severus continued silently bottling his own potion while his class worked on their memory enhancing potion.

“Professor Snape?” ventured an inquisitive Slytherin.

Severus sighed, “Yes, Miss Greenstock?”

“Might I ask what that potion is that you’re bottling? It’s so pretty,” she asked.

Severus held up the Recludo potion and swirled it in the dim light of the classroom. The many strands of colors swirled within the vial, creating a prism effect on the dungeon walls.

“It’s called the Recludo potion,” said Severus, looking at the class, “well? Don’t just sit there gaping, take up your quills and take notes.”

The class jumped to attention as Severus began speaking of the Recludo potion.

“Recludo is very useful for meditative purposes. It’s a potion that can assist in opening up the mind and revealing that which is beyond,” continued Severus, “it assists in focusing one’s attention.”

“What would one use it for?” asked Lora Greenstock.

“I shall ignore the lack of correct grammar in that question,” said Severus, scowling slightly, “it is often used to help a witch or wizard walk the veil.”

“What is walking the veil?” asked the lone Hufflepuff in the room.

“I am surprised at the lack of education in the old ways that seems apparent,” stated Severus, “Walking the Veil is something one does to commune with those past. It is a walk into the afterlife.”

“Is it Dark magic, sir?” asked Dominic Yearwood, a Gryffindor.

“Of course it is not Dark Magic, Mr. Yearwood,” said Severus, “it is far older than the dark or the light. It simply is.”

“Do you walk the veil?” asked Lora Greenstock.

“Yes, I do.”

“Wow,” said Dominic Yearwood, “that must be intense.”

“For homework, you shall have a 3 foot essay on the old tradition of walking the veil and the uses of the Recludo potion in that endeavor. I shall expect it day after tomorrow,” said Severus, looking at the clock on the wall, “put your potions in stasis and clean your work surfaces. Class dismissed.”

When the last student of the day had filed out of his classroom, Severus breathed a sigh of relief and got ready for dinner, followed by the dreaded dance, then taking Hermione on the journey of a lifetime.

* * * * *

Severus leaned against the wall in the Great Hall, watching the students carefully. They were all in costume, yet Severus could tell who each and every student was. Albus had hired a band for the occasion and the students and some of the teachers danced to the noise that passed for music. Hermione approached him and smiled up at him.

“Don’t like the music?” she asked.

“No.”

“Would you rather it be big band music? Frank Sinatra? Tony Bennett?” she queried.

“I’m not THAT old, Professor Granger.”

“What kind of music do you like, then? We’ve never discussed this before.”

“The Rolling Stones, the Who, the Kinks, of course the Beatles,” was his surprising response.

“You’re kidding, right? Muggle music?”

“Mick Jagger is not a Muggle, my dear. Nor is Pete Townshend,” Severus grinned as he saw her jaw drop, “And if you think for a moment that John Lennon was a Muggle…”

“Mick Jagger is a wizard?” asked Hermione.

“Yes, although he dabbled a bit too much in the Dark Arts back in the 1970’s,” Severus spied two students sneaking out to the gardens and confronted them with the loss of points for their houses.

“You like doing that such a little too much, considering how randy you get,” commented Hermione.

Severus gave her a quick half grin and took his leave, “I’m going to sneak out and prepare the environment. Do you still want to walk the veil with me tonight?”

“Of course I do,” repliedmionmione, “I’ll see you in your quarters in an hour?”

“See you then,” he stated as he swept out of the Great Hall.

Hermione smiled at her imposing fiancé, but her smiled slipped a notch when she saw Ginny sitting alone at a table, her eyes trained on Remus and Kyla, who were dancing. Hermione sat next to her friend.

“I’m sorry Gin,” she said.

“Why does he have to be seeing her?” asked Ginny, “We work together and it’s awkward.”

“You still want him.”

“More than ever. Oh Hermione, I’m just so damned frustrated.”

“Well, Gin, like someone wise once told me long ago when I had a crush on Severus, if it was meant to be, it will be. Some things can take a long time and take a winding path, but if it’s meant to happen, it will,” said Hermione, giving Ginny a sly look.

“Yes, Herm, but when I said that 13 years ago, I never really thought you’d end up with him. I just wish if were to see someone else, it wouldn’t be someone that I work so closely with. I wish she’d never left St Mungo’s to work here,” sighed Ginny.

“Does Kyla know about your interest in Remus?”

“Well…no. But still, REMUS knows I work with her,” said Ginny, in her trademarked stubborn manner.

“Yes,” agreed Hermione, looking over at Remus and Kyla, “that was rather obtuse of him.”

“So I shall move on,” stated Ginny, “someone else will come along.”

“I’m sure once someone else does, Remus will notice that you’ve grown up,” said Hermione, shaking her head.

“I’m sure,” agreed Ginny, “men are ridiculously slow. I do suppose it makes sense what Sna…er…Severus said, though. Remus didn’t see me grow up, so he still thinks of me as a child.”

Hermione smiled sympathetically, making her apologies when she noticed the time, “Oh Gin, I’m sorry, but I have to run. Severus and I have plans tonight…”

“It’s OK, Hermione, I’ll get through the night. In fact, I think I’ll go to my quarters and curl up with a book. Have a nice night.”

“You too, Gin.”

Hermione departed the Great Hall, nodding a farewell to Albus and Minerva and she passed them. She was looking forward to experiencing what she had read about, a trip to the afterworld, to the Summerland, and the possibility of seeing her parents again. She realized that seeing them was not a given, there were many variables to the journey. Severus explained that her parents might not be aware that they could look for her, they might not be aware of the possibilities open to them. Still, Hermione held out hope that she would see them, that were open enough to all the afterworld had to offer them. The prospect of venturing to the land of the dead was frightening, but exhilarating. Hermione hurried to her quarters, where she followed the instructions that Severus had given her. She took a cleansing bath, being careful to step immediately into slippers without touching her bare feet to the floor. She slipped into a set of clean white robes, only fastened by a cord of many colors. She was nude underneath the robes. She understood that to enter the Summerland, she had to have little with her and had to be immaculately clean so as not to taint the lands beyond the living. She plaited her thick hair and hung a small pentagram pendant around her neck. Severus has explained that there were aspects of darkness on the path to the Summerland and the pentagram would protect her, as would her Gryffindor courage and stubbornness. She surveyed herself in the mirror and smiled, another learning experience awaited a few floors down in the dungeons. She padded out of her quarters and took the back corridors down to Severus’ quarters.

With a bracing exhalation of air, Hermione entered Severus’ rooms, amazed at the transformation. There were plump white pillows on the floor, a ring of chamomile, juniper, and lavender surrounding the pillows. There was a small low table containing a gold candle, a silver candle, a white candle, and some burning incense that she recognized as a combination of hyacinth, grass, and pine. Also on the table were two vials of a beautiful swirling potion. Severus stepped behind her and wrapped his arms around her. He smelled of Irish moss and grass, a beautiful woodsy green scent.

“That’s the Recludo potion, it will assist us on our journey,” he said quietly, “are you ready?”

Hermione nodded and Severus had her step into the ring and sit on a pillow. He followed suit, lit the candles, murmured some incantation, and all of the candles in the room save the ones on the table were extinguished. With a small smile, he held out one of the vials of the Recludo potion for Hermione to take and then picked up the other for himself. Following Severus’ lead, Hermione tipped the contents of the vial into her mouth and felt herself falling, her mind emptying itself of all but the desire to reach the Summerland. She felt Severus’ hand take hers and thus began their journey.