Marriage Law
37
AN: This story has gotten so out of control I find I have a
few options:
Rewrite the whole thing and split it into 2.
Keep on going and wrap it up eventually.
Rewrite it as an original and take out JKR’s characters. I
hear my versions are so out of cannon I won’t have to change much.
Please review!!
Marriage Law Chapter 37
~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~
Hermione walked through a fireplace in the entrance hall of
the Amazons. She pulled her dark blue robes around her. She didn’t know how the
Amazons lived in togas. The air was pleasant smelling and crisp, but it was a
bit cold. She had chosen medium weight robes and carried a cloak just in case.
“Hello!” Lexi called out across the massive receiving hall,
waving at Hermione. Lexi was standing with two women Hermione didn’t know near
a pillar.
One of the women was short and tanned. She was stout and her
toga was a light green with a red belt. She had a large wide face and nose. She
smiled pleasantly at Hermione. She held a leather book and a white quill in her
hands. A large mass of dark hair was piled on her head. Hermione wondered if it
was to give the illusion she was taller.
The other woman was tall and so pale she was almost devoid
of color. Her eyes were pale blue and her hair white. She looked young, younger
than Hermione, but Hermione had never seen a being like her. There was no
telling how old the girl was, but she also carried a leather book and quill
matching the other woman’s. Her toga and belt were both white.
“Thank you for entrusting me with a portal to your floo
network,” Hermione said, smiling and clutching a brown satchel and a few books.
“Thank you for giving us the opportunity to examine such a
treasure,” the tall girl said in a monotone voice that seemed to produce a
metallic buzz behind her words. Her mouth moving didn’t seem to affect the
muscle movement of the rest of her face. It was a little unnerving.
Hermione tried not to look surprised, but knew she failed by
the way the strange girl looked at her, clearly amused.
“Asta was born after the Jotun left the last time,” Lexi
said.
Hermione didn’t know what to say, but the girl called Asta laughed
spontaneously, apparently at Hermione. The short woman glared at the younger
girl.
“Forgive me,” the Asta said, apologetically. “I will
reinforce my shields.”
Asta closed her eyes and a pink sheen seemed to wash over
her. She reached out to help Hermione with her load of books and shook her free
hand when she had one.
“Asta can naturally pick up thoughts,” the stout woman
explained. “Sometimes she forgets everyone does not practice Occlumancy.”
“I actually do, a bit,” Hermione admitted. Harry had taught
her a bit, although it probably wouldn’t hurt to ask Severus to tutor her. “I’ll
be careful to shield myself thoroughly in the future.”
“This is Nyssa,” Lexi said, motioning to the stout witch.
“She will be overseeing our experiments.”
“We hear you have quite an interesting item,” Nyssa said
excitedly.
“That’s what I hear as well,” Hermione said, thankful
someone with knowledge was willing to help her. The Amazons were more than accommodating.
“Well,” Lexi said. “We should go to the labs.”
Hermione followed the Amazons to a gold square, inlaid in
the white seamless floor. The square rose to create a railing before a platform
started to rise in the air. Hermione likened it to a freeform elevator. An
ornate carved trapdoor covered in colorless roses opened in the ceiling above
them and they ascended through it.
They rose through a brightly illuminated room with large
windows. Dozens of women sat at dark wooden desks scribbling on different
colored parchments. Rows of different colored ink bottles were lined along the
top edge of their desks. On the corner of each desk was a small golden cage
with a small dove seemingly made of ice flittering in it. No one seemed to
notice as they rose up and through the room and through a trapdoor decorated in
stone tendrils of ivy.
The next floor looked like a library, the paneling dark and
large tables lined up with volumes stacked on them; except for the spines of
all the books were a bright brilliant blue. All the amazons here seemed to have
silver belts to their togas, although the colors of the togas themselves seemed
to take on every color of the rainbow. Hermione tried to make out at least tone
title before they skipped past the room, but failed miserably.
If there was a code to the toga colors, Hermione couldn’t
figure it out yet. Sometimes, it was obvious the color of the belts meant
something, but confronted with the general population of the Bibliotheque
Hermione couldn’t differentiate any type of uniformity.
They rose through a smaller hexagonal room with six doors
leading from it in different directions. All its surfaces were dark wood and
one door had a silver crescent moon inlaid in it.
“There’s the bathroom, if you need it,” Asta announced.
Hermione tried not to laugh. Perhaps everything here didn’t
have a mystical purpose after all.
“Thank you,” Hermione said, trying to make her voice sound
steady. She suspected Asta only shielded herself when it suited her.
‘You are bright,’
a voice sounded in her head and Hermione noticed Asta’s white hair tinge blue.
Hermione had the distinct impression that it was her species’ way of blushing.
Asta opened her mind a bit and Hermione got the impression
that the girl was insatiably curious about the outside world. She meant no
harm, but the other women would disapprove of her firing off questions at
Hermione, who was considered an honored guest.
Hermione mentally promised Asta time for her questions as
the platform slowed down and halted in a square room with white walls and thick
red carpeting.
The banister facing a door with a tiny inlaid edge in bronze
slid down. Lexi stepped from the platform and drew her wand from in her folds
of fabric.
She drew a small pattern in front of the door and Hermione
heard an audible click. Lexi pushed the door open and the other women filed
through, Hermione behind them.
The lab was stark white, following a trend Hermione was
beginning to notice. The windows were large and let in a lot of daylight.
“Well then,” said Nyssa, slapping the front of her leather
book brusquely. “Time to work.”
Asta quirked a corner of her mouth at Hermione and started
walking to a table full of unfamiliar instruments.
After hours of exposure to different forms of stimuli,
Hermione, Lexi, Nyssa, and Asta were left frowning at the small pendant.
“Well, that was informative,” Asta buzzed, an unimpressed
look on her face.
Hermione found Asta was capable of slightly stiff
expressions, but it seemed like all her muscles worked independently of each
other. Interesting.
“You need to learn that a failure is just as informative as
a success,” Nyssa chastised as she picked up the shard and watched it swing on
the end of its chain.
“Well,” Asta said slowly. “It’s impervious to fire, won’t
chill in prolonged cold, and has a horrible habit of reversing an electrical
charge.”
Lexi snorted, her face bowed over a parchment full of notes.
Hermione had been further surprised to find Asta was capable
of creating an electrical charge at will. When Asta reached out to test the
shard she had been zapped back by a powerful charge that burned one of her
fingertips. It had been easily bandaged, but Asta had taken on an insulted
attitude towards the shard.
Lexi had declared it an act of karma for Asta abusing that
ability as a small child. Asta had lifted a thin white eyebrow and threatened
to charge Lexi’s chamber doorknob so powerfully it would take weeks to take the
curl out of her hair.
“It also scratches glass, but isn’t diamond,” Hermione said,
getting back to business and squinting over Lexi’s shoulder. Lexi noted this
and looked at Hermione.
“Is there anything else?” Lexi asked.
“We still need to cover acids and bases,” Nyssa said,
flipping a page in her leather book.
“That will only take forever,” Asta buzzed, lowering her
eyebrows.
“There’s always tomorrow,” Lexi said. “I believe it is time
for both of our dinners.”
Hermione nodded, for the first time noticing how fatigued
she felt.
“Excellent idea,” Hermione said. “Is tomorrow fine for you?
I wouldn’t want to intrude-“
“The intrusion is all ours,” Lexi said putting her quill
down. “We have no right to ask you to analyze the shard at all. It is a great
honor to be allowed to examine it.”
“Well, it’s a great honor for me to be allowed to study
here,” said Hermione wincing a little at her choice of words. “If that’s what
you could call it.”
“Tomorrow then,” Nyssa said firmly, slapping her book shut.
“I think we’ve all had quite enough for today.”
Lexi and Asta started buzzing around the lab cleaning up
supplies and instruments. Nyssa pulled Hermione aside.
“I hear your mate is a Potions Master,” Nyssa said, her dark
eyes gauging Hermiones reaction.
“Yes, he is,” Hermione said, wondering if this had to do
with the acid and base testing.
“We would be able to recompensate him for consulting if he
was willing to help us,” Nyssa suggested looking helpful.
“I’ll have to ask,” Hermione said, hoping her voice sounded
non-committal.
Severus was putting extra time into a student he had deemed
hopeless, but out of class and away from the other students seemed to do fine.
Hermione suggested remedial classes and Severus was astounded at how fast the
boy had picked up on things.
Nyssa seemed very grateful and went to lock up a few
cabinets, giving Hermione a moment to return the shard to its usual place
around her neck. She was starting to feel naked without it.
~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~
“What?” Severus asked sharply.
“The shard I got from the Jotun-,” Hermione started.
“I heard you,” Severus said loudly, getting to his feet from
the couch and striding to her across his receiving room in his chambers at
Hogwarts. “Why didn’t you tell me before?”
“I just thought it was a bit of jewelry,” Hermione said. She
was sitting near the window in her reading place, a steaming cup of tea on the
small table near her. “We had no proof it was anything else.”
Severus held his hand out and Hermione reluctantly slipped
the shard from its place around her neck and handed it to him. Her legs
unfolded from under her and she placed her book down after marking her page.
“Is there anything else you would like to tell me?” Severus
sneered as he undid the leather pouch.
“I’m raising a Chimera under my bed and Aragog has promised
me one of his next clutch,” Hermione snapped back sarcastically. “Hope you like
pets.”
Crookshanks meowed loudly near Hermione’s feet.
“Don’t be silly,” Hermione murmured as she picked him up and
placed him in her lap.
p>
Severus glared at her and lifted the shard up to the light.
‘I’m married to the offspring of a god,’ Severus mused to
himself. For a second he watched red lightning flash through the shard.
“Is there any pattern you can follow?” Severus asked.
“None I can follow,” Hermione said pulling a small notebook
and pen out of her robes. Forget quills for note taking. They just weren’t
practical.
“Will the Amazons mind traveling?” Severus asked.
“What do you mean?” Hermione asked, thinking instantly of
Asta.
“I accept their offer under the insistence that I observe
the testing,” Severus said returning the shard to the pouch.
“I’ll relay the message,” Hermione said.