SALVATION

JK Rowling's characters and Wizarding Universe are all uniquely hers. Plot, new characters, new magical terms and abilities etc. are my intellectual property. If you want to borrow then please kindly ask.

ALTERNATE UNIVERSE. If you are looking for strict Canon or even a slight deviation from Canon you won’t find it here.

Summary: The War is finally over and Snape finds that the world he knows has nothing to offer him. He finds himself drawn to a new world; one steeped in traditions of its own not known to the wizarding world. Will he take the risks needed for his own salvation?

Rated M for Sexual Situations, Language, Some Violence.

Author’s Notes: My inspiration comes from the novel and film WHALE RIDER. This story is dedicated to Ajay, The Potions Mistress at Magical Menagerie on EZBoard.

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SALVATION

Chapter 003: Angels & Demons

Pai and Snape began the walk back to his house in silence. She felt embarrassed that the newcomer had to deal with her being so undignified. She tried not to notice how he looked at her, as though he was peeling all the layers away that separated the façade she projected from the woman inside. It was as though he knew – and she wasn’t sure that she liked that.

Her head ached slightly in a strange sort of way and Pai chalked up to getting so worked up over a situation she could never change. She could never leave well enough alone when it came to her grandfather and what she believed was her destiny. Michael would find out soon enough about her; her continued humiliation wasn’t exactly a secret.

‘Yeah… Loser Pai,’ she thought to herself.

The moment the thought finished she felt him frown. She couldn’t have said for certain that was what he was doing. But she didn’t have to look at him to know. It had always been that way with her.

‘Well, well. Lookey what itty bitty Pai’s dragged in,’ came a menacing voice from the darkness.

Snape immediately grabbed hold of Pai and moved in front of her, taking the young woman by surprise. She knew who the voice belonged to, and her instincts told her that the resident menace of the settlement was messing with the wrong bloke. Michael Stuart-Clark looked like a man who’d had a hard life – and a man who wouldn’t take any shit off of anyone.

‘Ignore him,’ she muttered. ‘He’s as thick as pig shit and does nothing but talk a load of bollocks when he’s own his own. He’s probably smoked a few tinnies…’

There was a hiss of laughter and Snape whipped toward the thicket of trees to their right, his hand in his right pocket. He and Pai both wondered at the same time just how long had he’d been spying on them.

‘I wonder what old Koro would say if he knew you were out here in the dark like some hori with this Paheka…’ the man spat as he stepped out in front of them.

Snape used his other arm to keep Pai in back of him. He was quite tall and not so whippet thin now that he was well into middle-age. The man in front of him was thickset, but he was definitely no match for a former Death Eater.

‘You watch your mouth or I’ll…’ Pai snapped.

‘Or you’ll what…O great Koro!’ Jonny said mockingly. ‘Getting your arse kicked by the Great Man so much has rotted that high-and-mighty brain of yours!’

‘Come on, let’s go!’ Pai said as she tugged at Snape’s arm.

‘Are you that hard up that you’re shagging the Pahekas now!’ her bully called after her.

‘I’d take him twenty-four seven, three-six-five over your dodgy arse!’ she blasted as she speed-walked around the bend ahead.

‘What are you are looking at!’ Jonny sneered at Snape, who was looking at him as though he were a cockroach in his bathtub.

‘Nothing,’ Snape replied evenly before he floored the man with a mean right hook and then stomped on him with his steel-toed boots.

The man was clearly taken by surprise and tried to get up only to be knocked down again. Snape gave him a hard kick to the ribs and then leaned in his face.

‘Michael?’ came Pai’s voice in the distance. ‘

‘Miss Ihimaera is not interested,’ Snape growled menacingly. You will leave her alone. You will mind your business. You will not touch her – ever! You and anyone else stupid enough to try will have me to deal with!’

There was one last kick to the man’s privates and then Snape walked away calmly. When he turned the bend, Pai was walking back towards him. He put an arm around her and they continued on their way, not realising that a few sets of eyes were watching from the relative safety of the woodlands that surrounded them.

xxxOOOxxx

‘Why did you do it?’ Pai asked Snape tentatively as they sat nursing hot coffees in his sitting room.

She was curled up on his sofa looking at him wistfully, trying to figure him out.

‘Do what?’

‘Take on Jonny like you did. Don’t try to deny it; I know damn well what you did. I guess I should be grateful even though I despise that sort of thing. He’s got a bit of a reputation – not that he doesn’t deserve it. He runs off at the mouth mostly. It’s the people he tries to run with that are a bit of a problem. Out here you’re expected to put up with people’s crap more than you should have to. I think some of them just like having people afraid of them.’

‘The time is long past where I need to fear anyone,’ Snape said firmly.

It had grown quite cold outside and he’d built a fire in the fireplace with the logs that had been stacked out back near the kitchen. He looked at the glow of the fire reflected in Pai’s brown eyes. They reminded him of warm chestnuts or perhaps very pale tea.

‘I don’t want them to be nasty to you because of me. I’m not worth it,’ she mumbled as she set her cup down on the coffee table in front of her.

There was something about the way that Pai looked as she said it. Without thinking twice about it, Snape got up and sat near her on the sofa.

‘Gossip has never worried me. Not ever. I’ve been talked about my whole life and I might as well have been a potted plant in the room. Better and worse people than him have tried to break me, Paikea, and I am still standing.’

‘Mmm, I understand that, definitely.’

‘I suspect that you will be in for a harder time because of what happened.’

The young woman sighed.

‘I can deal with it. Fortunately I have things to keep me occupied, unlike them. Like my job for a start.’ She looked over at the cracking fire in the hearth and tried not to think of this house that should have been hers. She felt his black eyes on her; but rather than shy away, Pai met his gaze. ‘I’ve caused enough trouble and it’s only your first bloody day here…’

‘Mmm, it has been quite memorable indeed.’

‘I’m sorry – I didn’t mean for any of this to happen,’ she said softly.

‘I know,’ Snape murmured as they moved closer to each other. ‘So this job – what it is that you do?’

‘I’m a Graphic Design and Marketing Specialist for a media group in Waitroa. It’s not a bad set-up actually… I even get to write quite a bit.’

‘Sounds quite impressive. Waitroa is quite cosmopolitan from what I remember of it.’

‘It’s got a lot more going for it than Gisborne, definitely. But I was lucky to get the job considering I haven’t gone to Uni or anything like that. But most people want to be in Auckland or Wellington where most of the flash jobs and lifestyles are, not down here in the boonies. I had a good portfolio though from the projects I’ve picked up, mainly in Gisborne to start, and got lucky I guess.’

They were interrupted by the old fashioned clock in the hallway striking midnight.

‘It’s late and it’s been a long day for you. Time I went,’ Pai said as she rose.

Snape swallowed and rose himself, albeit reluctantly.

‘Let me take you home. It’s much too late for you to be roaming about all alone…’

He grabbed a jacket for himself and gave Pai one of his heavy cable-knit jumpers he’d purchased while still living in England. She resisted the temptation to tell him that their little backwater was nothing like Britain. Still, after what he’d experienced earlier she supposed she should be appreciative that he was that concerned for her safety. Most of the guys she knew were rather thick when it came to that sort of thing, even on the job.

They walked to his 4x4 in silence, not wanting to break whatever it was that was stirring between them. Snape took his time driving Pai home and she pointed out some extraordinary sights along the way. The beach and the ocean were like a paradise in the moonlight. Pai told him about her favourite place, a secret place; the cove where she liked to go when life got to be a bit too much.

‘Would you like to see it,’ she asked as they neared her house on the outskirts of the village.

It didn’t occur to her to be embarrassed by the relative shabbiness of her modest abode compared to the luxuriousness that Snape enjoyed. She only had three rooms, all on the same floor. It may not be much but at least it was all hers. Things were what they were and she made the most of what she had – and what she’d been allowed to have by her grandfather. She could move to Waitroa and have something better, but that would be like conceding defeat and saying her temporary job was a long-term thing.

Snape replied that he would, and that he took it as a promise that she would show it to him.

‘This is it…’ she directed him as her small front yard came into view.

The former Potions Master didn’t comment on her house as a vision of Spinner’s End flashed in front of his eyes. He stopped the car and looked her after they’d unfastened their seat belts.

‘I should see you to your front door,’ he murmured as he unlocked his door.

He walked around to Pai’s side, opened the door and helped her out. The young woman was struck by his manners, but then again at his age she would hope that he’d be better than the blokes her age. Snape walked her to her front door and watched as she unlocked it and stepped inside. They stood for about ten minutes, just talking. Then they moved to the chairs on her veranda. Pai went inside after a bit and came back with cool drink for each of them. They sat and talked for a long time and occasionally the tinkling sound of Pai’s laughter wafted across the garden.

Her grandfather took it all in as he watched in cold silence from his sitting room across the way as he listened on to a report Pai’s activities earlier in the evening. They were sitting so close she might as well be on the man’s lap! Koro barely took in what he was being told as he watched his disgrace of a granddaughter being so intimate with a stranger. He only tore himself away when his wife insisted that he mind his own business and come to bed.

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Pai was getting ready for work and yawning like mad as she did. In the end she and Michael had sat up until almost three in the morning just talking. They talked about the valley and Gisborne and even Maori tradition. The stranger mostly seemed curious about her life here. The young woman wasn’t used to anyone being that interested in her – most people liked to talk about themselves. But not Michael Stuark-Clark. She didn’t know any more about him now than when she’d first set eyes on him yesterday afternoon.

Her front door slammed open and her grandfather barged in followed by her grandmother.

‘Oh for goodness sake old man – leave her alone!’ her grandmother snapped. ‘Haven’t you done enough already!’

‘What the hell is going on?’ Pai demanded. ‘It’s almost seven in the bloody a.m. for Christ’s sake!’

‘You filthy little….’ Koro roared. ‘It isn’t enough that you show me no respect! It isn’t enough that you don’t know your place! But this – have you no shame!’

‘What are you on about this time?’

‘You were seen with that Paheka! He was all over you! You know what his kind think of us! Do you even care that you are nothing more than a hori to him even with your fancy job!’

‘You’re mad – you are absolutely out of your mind!’ Pai said incredulously. ‘Since when do you start listening to bloody Jailbird Jonny!’

‘You see?’ Koro said to Pai’s grandmother Wendy. ‘She doesn’t even deny she was caught!’

‘I was walking back here and it was getting late. Mr. Stuart-Clark came after me and insisted on taking me home himself! Jonny and his mates were out there in the woods again – one guess what they were up to! And then Jonny popped off at me and Michael sorted him out. We went back to his and had dinner. He drove me home and that was it! He’s actually not too bad when you get to know him a bit!’

‘I saw you with my own eyes! Out there, with that Paheka for all the world to see! It’s all anyone wants to talk about around here! Do you have any idea how many phone calls I’ve had already because of you?’

‘I don’t care, Koro! People need to mind their business and sort their own lives out instead of nosing into mine! I haven’t done anything wrong! And why the hell are those lazy bastards giving at damn at this hour of the morning!’

Her grandfather started in on her again and her grandmother pulled him away.

‘I’m getting that divorce, Pai. Just you wait…’ her grandmother said exasperatedly.

Pai paid her no attention. Her Nana Wendy had been saying that for as long as anyone could remember. She loved her husband too much to ever leave him and always forgave him even though he was a cold-hearted bastard most of the time.

‘I don’t have time for this,’ Pai said as she brushed past them both and picked up the new rucksack she’d just bought that contained her laptop and her handbag.

She took another look in the mirror by her door. There were a couple of important meetings today and she was presenting. Pai was the best at securing new business and was taking the lead in both presentations. She looked very elegant with her hair pulled back into a chignon and wearing a tailored suit. Her heels were in her tote bag along with her lunch and a book to read on the bus. She had just a touch of make-up to bring out her features. She prided herself on making a good impression and today was no exception.

‘You look beautiful, Pai,’ Wendy said beaming with pride as Pai put on her trainers. She always wore trainers to and from work because of the long walk to and from the bus stop. ‘Like a proper lady. You’ll do very well with the presentations.’

Pai had practiced and used her grandmother as a sounding board. If things had been different for her Nana Wendy when she was Pai’s age, her life could have been very different indeed. As it was Maoris still had a hard time in their own country, so it was even more important for Pai to do well in her grandmother’s mind.

‘A proper lady doesn’t crack open her legs for the Pahekas and especially when she refuses her own kind!’ Koro screamed.

‘Get out! GET OUT!’ Pai screamed before breaking down in tears.

‘Now see what you’ve done!’ Wendy shouted at her husband. ‘You know they’re just jealous – the lot of ‘em! Why do you always have to take their side against your own flesh and blood! Jonny’s a shit-stirring liar and he always has been along with that Kahutia and their mates! You think that little madam isn’t plotting away how to get that Stuart-Clark bloke into bed? Open your eyes you old fool!’

‘Paikea is just like her good-for-nothing father! Ideas above her station! I’m tired of it! You hear me? I have had enough! She’s no better than anyone here! In fact she could stand to learn a thing or two from the people she sticks up her nose at!’

‘Oh – so that daggy hori Kahutia and her dodgy mates are better than me now? I have never, ever put myself above anyone!’ Pai said through her tears. ‘No matter what I do; it’s never going to be enough for you, is it? There’s nothing I can ever do that will ever make a difference to you!’

‘No – there isn’t!’

‘Well thank you for letting me know where I stand!’

xxxOOOxxx

Pai barged out of the house and began the long walk to the bus stop. She had quite a way to go and she’d already missed her regular bus thanks to her grandfather. Her eyes welled up with tears again and she knew she must look a fright. She couldn’t call the office because no one would be in yet. Hell, her colleagues wouldn’t even be out of bed since they lived in town.

She would still be in before any of them even if she was late by her standards. Pai liked to ease into her day and sort herself out after the long commute in. She was saving for a car, a proper new one and not some old broken-down rust bucket that her grandfather kept telling her she should be grateful to get. What was so wrong with not settling? He was so bloody tight-fisted even though they didn’t have to be. None of her family was on benefit; they’d always worked the land and fished. That was how they made their living and it was an honorable one. But he blocked her from even being involved in that, even though she wouldn’t have minded it.

Pai had always loved art and design, especially Maori. But her grandfather put his foot down about her practicing their crafts. Oh, there were Maori women who were starting to make an inroad here and there as traditional artists, but everything was still dominated by men. The only place Pai actually found herself to be useful was when she worked for the Pahekas or for Maori businesses that were decidedly progressive. She’d gotten lucky with her job at Evolution, but she was realistic. At the rate they were bringing in business she’d end up having to spend a lot of time going to Auckland and Wellington, possibly even Christchurch. It wasn’t a bad thing; it just wasn’t what she wanted.

xxxOOOxxx

Snape had been up and about for just over an hour when Pai passed his property. He’d been astonished when she told him how she walked to and from the stop everyday. She looked to be lost in thought as she walked by and seemed very upset, so upset that she didn’t notice his front door had been wide open.

Something must have happened for her to be crying like she was.

There was still too much to do, however; and it was only his second day in his new home. And Paikea was on her way to work. But of all days for her to have so much upset; he knew that today was particularly important.

He would sort himself out until he could catch Pai on her way home tonight and find out what was wrong.