Weft of Power, Warp of Blood: A Tapestry of Desire

Chapter Two
The Darkness Around Snape

Chores finished, Jasmine ambled back to the house to clean up before her ex-husband arrived to give her a few hours of quiet working. She poured an extra cup of tea, slipped into sedate heels and again sat to read the paper. Arielle changed into a dress and pink robes to wear out with her father. The light pink complimented her coloring beautifully. Ari had inherited her black hair from Severus but her bright blue eyes were the trademark of every Dumbledore for centuries. The creamy skin was the blessing of the English.

Jasmine glanced down to the front page of the paper. As usual, the first story was a scathing article by that irritating Rita Skeeter about the Ministry of Magic not catching Sirius Black. His face stared dully from the wizard photo on the front page, the blinking of his eyes the only movement.

Remembering the handsome boy he\'d been in school, tall, with wide shoulders and laughing eyes, Jasmine sank into thought. The crush had started when she was thirteen, watching him play Quidditch. It had been easy to cheer for a fellow Gryffindor, but every time Sirius Black had hit the bludger, she screamed a little bit louder. He looked so handsome in the scarlet and gold robes, even now the thought of him made her breath catch. Once, she\'d caught him swimming in the lake with his shirt off…she spilled a drop of her tea onto the newspaper with that thought.

Gazing down at the gaunt man in the photograph, she slowly wiped the tea away, unconsciously caressing the face of the second most feared criminal of the wizard world. He looked so different, so thin and desperate. Professor Grandpa had told her not to worry about him, but Jasmine wondered why not since Black had been so dangerous and never been caught. He could be running around even now, nearby. He\'d been such a clever student, he might even be able to get past all of the defenses protecting the house. What if he slipped in, during the night and tied her to her bed…slowly stripping off his shirt, revealing strong, tan arms, muscles tight and hard from so much Quidditch, a wide chest, scattered with hair, a rippled stomach with an arrow of hair pointing down under the waistband of his trousers… he could rip open her nightgown and then reach for the buckle of his trousers, shoving them down his legs, revealing.… A sharp rap on the door made her knock over her entire cup of tea with a short scream.

Severus loomed in the open doorway wearing his usual black clothing and sweeping robes looking like an irritated raven. \"I knocked, but you were daydreaming, so I came in.\"

\"Oh, er, hi, come in!\" With a falsely nonchalant wave of her wand the spilled tea and cup vanished, leaving the newspaper dry. “Arielle is already in her room.”

\"Thank you, I already have,\" Severus drawled, looking at her oddly. \"Are you ready? I promised Arielle that I\'d take her for lunch and then to Zonkos. I\'d like to get on with it,\" he added sharply.

A raised eyebrow was her response. Severus reddened slightly and he choked out, \"Sorry, long week.\"

\"Young Potter still being himself?\" Jasmine asked mildly as she stood to collect her brazier, first making sure that Sally wasn\'t curled up inside. Snape grunted; long ago he learned that Jasmine didn\'t care to hear about the exploits and crimes of Harry Potter. A pinch of dried lavender, a sprig of sage, and a square of crystalline sugar were arranged in the brazier then she poured in a few smelly drops from each of four bottles on the shelf. Crouching to the hearth after sweeping her hair back, Jasmine whistled sweetly; out trundled a large mottled blue salamander. A lick of flame clung to her back. \"Hello Sally-love, might I have a droplet of blood, please?\" The lizard politely turned and presented her leg, allowing Jasmine to gently scratch her still flaming skin with a tiny Slicing Hex and collect a small drop of blue blood before it magically healed. \"Thank you, Sally-love. Would you care for a bit of pepper?\" The ancient salamander waited for her treat, happily given, before escaping back into the fire. The wand was dipped into a bag of phosphorous, the powder clinging to the blood and the lot was wiped onto the sage leaves.

Jasmine stood up, brushed off and walked calmly to stand before Snape. He was a foot taller than she was and it used to be a source of amusement for him. She crooked a finger. He gave her a sour look but bent over. She selected a hair that was out of place and yanked sharply. He grunted. With a sweet smile she dropped it in the brazier. Snape started to growl, but was interrupted by Ari asking when she could come out.

\"We\'ll be finished in five minutes, little bit, then you can come out,\" he called to her.

After their first year of being together, the cleansing had petered out as Severus settled into his job as a teacher and their relationship. Later in their marriage, though, and almost every visit since their divorce, Jasmine had seen her husband\'s aura grow dark after a day of teaching. She refused to let him near their child until the black had been removed. Every day for a year, they had performed the cleansing ritual that gave a few witches – and a few select wizards, guaranteed employment for life with the various Ministries or Gringott’s. Now it was only when he came to see Ari.

Jasmine – and most of the women in her family could see shadows of swirling color around magical folk, with the aid of the smoke from burning plants and potions. It was the energy of the soul that she saw and a manifestation of a wizard\'s bio-electricity. Their personality, happiness, anger, temperament, health - the essence of everything that made a soul what it was, combined with the chemical and electrical wonders of a wizard\'s biology and created a visual color whirl surrounding the body. Muggles only had a few dull colors and the aura was a static egg shape over the body rather than a dizzying whirl of every color imaginable.

Together, they strolled outside. Once he\'d removed his robes Snape stood still, arms akimbo and legs spread wide. Setting the firepot at Snape\'s feet and dipping her wand deep into the leaves she set the ingredients aflame with a thought. A wisp of smoke soon turned into a glowing billow rising over Snape\'s body. As it subsided, the whirl of color was much brighter to Jasmine; she could see individual colors swirling around the man dressed in black. Walking around him, she surveyed the colors and sighed. It was so heavy; most of the colors were dark with anger and dissatisfaction. There were too many dark reds and browns, even an oppressive blue floated through. Jasmine reached into the moving colors and felt a tingle run up her arm.

When aided by the smoke from the brazier, the seeing of colors was fairly common. Being able to manipulate or remove a single color at a time was a craft Jasmine had learned from her mother. Who had learned it from her mother…through centuries of witches and wizards. Plucking out deep black shadows from the whirl took good reflexes and eyes that could discern and appreciate the subtle differences in color. Like the talent for weaving and dressmaking, it had been another gift nurtured by generations of women. Other people had a gift for herbology, hers was for color – and she killed most plants.

Quickly plucking a strand of deepest black, Jasmine murmured, \"Severus, you really have to stop letting these children upset you; there is a lot in here.\" The shadow reached for her, trying to curl around her arm, but was quickly shaken off and wrapped around her wand. With a wave and burning glow of the beech wand, the shadow puffed into a tendril of smoke. \"There\'s more than has been here in a long time – and it’s ten times as bad as last time you were here. What is the matter with you? I\'m worried about you again.\"

\"I\'m fine, Jasmine,\" the reply was stilted. “I went out to the house last night to get a book, that’s all.”

While his father’s book-strewn hovel in Yorkshire was just as depressing as his grandfather’s manor, it wasn’t enough to create this mess, unless he’d been comparing his parent’s “his” and “hers” lives and the might-have-should-have-beens, which he rarely did anymore. More likely than not, it was something – or someone at school. She decided to test the theory. \"How is old Mad-Eye Moody taking to teaching?\" she asked innocently. Another shadow of black appeared in the whirl and she grasped and disposed of it.

\"He\'s protecting Potter again.\" Another shadow and then another were whisked into smoke. \"I had the little snot. I know he was in my office taking gillyweed, and I will catch him at it again.\"

Jasmine rolled her eyes behind Snape\'s back; she was used to his ravings about Potter. Catching another strand of black and removing it, she let him vent a bit more.

\"I think Moody went through my office again, too. That old man has lost his mind.”.

\"He\'s an old Auror, he doesn\'t know anything else. Plus your past is working against you,\" the words were mild. She felt his mood shift subtly during a few moments silence.

\"Jas, I… I think it might not be just the past.\" Jasmine looked up in alarm as he whispered the words. He slowly unbuttoned the sleeve of his left arm and pushed it up. He stood silently. A dark red mark shone on the inside of his forearm. The outline of a skull and snake marred his sallow skin. It hadn\'t been there in twelve years.

\"Oh my…\" A terrified shiver rode through her body. She couldn\'t speak for a moment.

\"Mama, Daddy, can I come out now?\" The call echoed through the house.

\"No!\" Both of them yelled back. Arielle\'s door slammed again.

\"When did this happen?\" Jasmine tried to be calm, but her voice was too tight. Remembering the hell the mark and everything that went with it had put them through… she couldn\'t think of it.

\"It came up last November. I thought it was a reaction from Longbottom spilling an itching potion on me but,\" he hesitated, \"it didn\'t go away with the antidote. It\'s been getting darker and hurting for a few months now. Karkaroff\'s has appeared as well. I\'m sure the others have it, too. It isn’t something we talk about, though. \"

Jasmine stared at it, sinuous coils of black crept from the mark. She quickly banished them. \"You didn\'t tell me. You showed Professor Grandpa?\"

\"Of course. There is nothing I can do but wait. If it turns black, then it will be the time to panic.\"

Helplessly, she looked at the Dark Mark, the symbol used by the followers of Voldemort to ready themselves to carry out his work. Snape was no longer a Death Eater, but the mark was a vivid reminder of the past. Jasmine prayed quietly that the mark was a strange coincidence and the Longbottom boy had given Severus a rash.

While Severus and Jasmine had known of each other in school, they didn\'t really know each other. He was an excellent student but, according to rumor, he hadn\'t always been very nice and had dubious friends. She was the great-granddaughter of the headmaster, very studious and had perfectly respectable friends in her own year. Their paths had never crossed. When he left school, he fell in deeply with the Dark Arts and eventually with Voldemort. Dumbledore had brought Snape to her thirteen years ago, to clean his aura. At the time, it was to cleanse his very soul. For twelve days and nights her mother took over Jasmine’s business and Jasmine worked on Snape. They had stood, sat, even lay here on the porch, taking only an hour\'s sleep here and there. For the first five days they worked together, under Dumbledore\'s supervision, to clear the shadows from his aura. Severus so desperately wanted them gone. He had been young and stupid and so angry, but had repented. He had needed to be clean again.

Through the days and nights they talked almost constantly, until their throats were raw and beyond. Even though Severus didn\'t like to talk much, he\'d opened up to her while they were forced to be together. At first, she had listened to him talk stiltedly about his life as a half-blood amid pureblood Slytherins, his family’s twisted relationships and finances, being a dark wizard, and his sorrow and feelings of failure and ambition that had led him there. Severus was very intelligent, though always a little bit strange. Many people hadn\'t understood him as a young man, so he delved into books and learning, encouraged by his mother. Much of that had been about the ancient arts. Over time, he became adept at the spells, hexes and potions that were considered to be dangerous. Feelings of isolation and the desire to better himself during and after his time at Hogwarts led him into the company of Voldemort\'s followers. They had given him a sense of belonging and acknowledged his intelligence and special skills and he taught himself to disguise his humble roots in Yorkshire and concentrate on the exclusive, wealthy pureblood culture that his mother had been raised in. With the Death Eaters, he\'d been noticed and praised, and it meant everything to him. He became immersed in the games of power. Voldemort had personally struck the Dark Mark on Severus\'s arm after a few months of service but demanded innocent lives – hundreds of them - as a gesture of loyalty and payment for joining the innermost circle. It was then that Snape realized that the Death Eaters weren\'t his family; they were soulless predators. The games stopped being fun one night, the night he went to Dumbledore. He never told Jasmine exactly what had happened, but she knew that it was something awful. He fled to Dumbledore, begging for help. Jasmine\'s great-grandfather saw the core of good in Severus and struck a devil\'s bargain. In exchange for helping Snape get away from Voldemort and smoothing the path of atonement for the damage that had been done, Severus would have to spy on the Death Eaters. He was to report everything and eventually testify against them - anonymously, in case he was ever needed as a spy again.

After a year of spying, Dumbledore brought Snape to Jasmine at the Garden, but only after assuring himself that she would be safe. Snape\'s penance had been real. His desire to get away from Voldemort and the dark arts was genuine. The information that he\'d passed along was extremely valuable - it had saved countless lives and put many criminals into Azkaban. Dumbledore had tested him and then given him a second chance. Then he gave Severus to the care of the twenty-year-old Jasmine.

Severus had been soothed by her voice, attention and caring. As the days went by and she removed the black strands of Darkness from him, he began to look younger, more handsome. The strain of being around evil left him. He had a wicked sense of humor, usually directed at her height. He also managed to make Dumbledore laugh a few times before the headmaster had to go back to the school to prepare for the next school year.

After that, they worked alone. Without company, their talk was quieter, more shy. Severus seemed taller, his eyes more penetrating. His voice was deep and smooth, - Jasmine always thought it sounded like silk and velvet, though after days of breathing the smoke it got husky. With every word, his intelligence showed and Jasmine fell in love with him. The last days and nights had blended together so sweetly. Exhaustion and emotion combined with gently hungry kisses, comfort and healing.

The twelfth day, Dumbledore returned for Severus. Together, they stood before a closed session at the Ministry of Magic and spoke of what they knew about the Death Eaters. Dumbledore was Severus\'s character witness and a year of spying was his evidence. In exchange for grudging exoneration, Severus spied on the Death Eaters for many more months, until Moody, Frank Longbottom and the other Aurors caught as many as possible. Afterward, Jasmine worked again, clearing the darkness from Severus\'s aura while he taught daily at Hogwarts.

Eventually, the cleansing rituals became an excuse to meet, an excuse for courtship between Headmaster Albus Dumbledore\'s great-granddaughter and the newly appointed Potions Master, Professor Severus Snape. They married in a private ceremony with only family present. Professor Grandpa had even made the broom they jumped over.

\"What\'s that? Did you get a dog?\" Snape\'s head jerked, his inky black hair swishing over his face. He stared out to the mountainside.

Jasmine looked up, worry still playing over her face. She muttered an inelegant, \"huh?\"

\"Did you get a dog?\"

\"No, I told her no more creatures. Why?\" Distracted momentarily, worry turned to puzzlement.

\"There was a large dog across the meadow. Keep an eye out for it and be extra careful with Arielle.\" She shot him a wry look, which he had the courtesy to look away from. \"I\'ve never seen it before and it could be dangerous. It was just to let you know.\" Smiling gently, Jasmine murmured her thanks and glanced to the scraggily trees that competed with rocks and boulders on the mountain. There was nothing there, but Jasmine knew that Severus, while temperamental, was not prone to seeing things.

Jasmine finished quickly, but quietly said, \"If you don\'t learn to calm down soon, Severus, the reds and browns I saw will turn black.\" Looking up at him, she saw that he looked calmer now, even younger.

Smiling sadly, he said evenly, \"If it gets too bad, I\'ll stay away from her for awhile again and only come over at night so you can work on it – or I’ll go to your mother’s to have her do it.\" Just before the school term ended last year, his rages had become so terrible that black shadows covered his body; only tiny strands of the other colors remained, almost hidden. Jasmine hadn\'t let him even approach the house after he’d been denied the Order of Merlin medal for capturing Sirius Black. With Ari inside, she had walked out to the lane and spoken to him from the gate. In firm but regretful tones she told him that he would not be entering the grounds until he calmed down. With the rage pouring through him, no cleansing would work effectively and they both knew it. Severus stayed away for a month and returned with a tan and an easier smile. They hadn’t discussed where he’d gone, who he’d gone with or what he’d done while there, but Jasmine was happy to have been able to welcome him back.

He picked up the brazier, returned it to the house and called for Ari to come out. She ran from her room and into his arms. Swinging the tiny girl around in circles, they both laughed.

\"Are you ready to go, little bit?\" He asked.

\"Of course, Daddy,\" she said with an air of ‘well-aren’t-you-silly-to-have-even-asked’ then graced him with a brilliant smile that was designed to melt his heart and capture his soul. It succeeded, though he ignored the batting eyelashes.