Revenant

Disclaimer: I own nothing, I claim nothing. Sorry about the extra update. I just wanted to add that: Cindelmademade some wonderful art to go with this story, it can be found in the WIKTT files under the \'photos\' catagory. Check them out, she did a great job! Sorry again about the double update.]

Revenant

Chapter Five: Collaboration


The dark shape of the professor re-entered the room, glass of water in hand. The tendons in his arm were taunt and writhed as he mechanically placed the glass onto the table before Hermione. Close up, she could see that his eyes weren’t exactly black, and that they weren’t entirely empty either; a chill shivered down her spine as she saw her own uncertainty reflected back towards her.

Entranced, Hermione leaned closer, and the image that swam in his eyes seemed familiar: a shade of opacity that mingled with the darkness that had already saturated deep into the pupils of his eyes. Had they always been so dark a colour? Or had dark magics stained him? She wondered. Her eyes began to water, her vision blurring at the edges; the crouching evil that she had seen earlier in the library returned, his eyes glittering with malevolence as he leaned towards her.

She knew with all her heart that it was merely the echoes of the strange writings that crawled around in her head, wormy maggots that were tinting the world around her, but she wondered: if Snape was somehow reacting to her unvoiced commands -the wordless instructions that her mind was sending out- could he also be reacting to the unbidden -the unknown- commands of her subconscious? That very same subconscious that shivered and cringed beneath the unholy power of the book?

Once more Hermione found herself cringing away from Snape, her back digging into the wooden support of her chair, the copper taste of blood burning across her tongue.

“And what exactly is it that you can see then?” Draco’s voice broke into her stream of thoughts. She tore her gaze away from the gaunt man before her in statement. Snape finished setting the glass of water before her, and then retreated to the corner of the room where he had lurked earlier. Hermione realized that the strange moment -the after effect of the book- must have passed quickly; far too quickly for the young man sitting across from her to have noticed.

Shaking herself from her dreaming state, she spoke to him. “I think that the Ministry may not be all that the public has been lead to believe. The fact that you are unable to gain custody of your mother is case in point.”

Draco leaned back in his chair, a curious aura of victory in his bearing. “The Ministry has always had parts to it that the public is “unaware of.” They’ve always had… special ways of working tho those who shared their politics. Itonlyonly recently that they’ve decided that they no longer have to pay the debts that they owe.”

“What do you mean?”

Draco sighed. “And here I thought you might actually be more than just clever. Well, it does not matter anymore I suppose. They have changed the game, and I was… unprepared… for the new rules that they have set forth. No matter. I will find another way.”

Draco lapsed again into a contemplative silence, and Hermione founrselrself regarding him with, if not friendship, at least a sort of sympathy that bordered on two enemies with a common enemy. Hermione’s sigh was resigned. She could feel the book from the other room, calling to her, whispering horrors in her ears. Seeking to drown its voice with her own, she spoke. “Look. I’ll speak with Harry. He’ll have some idea of how to help you…”

Draco’s laugh was sharp and painful to hear. “Ah yes, how fitting. Harry Potter, once again setting out to save others. How he must have been waiting for me to come crawling to him.” His voice was mocking and harsh, and she was once again reminded of the young boy that had tormented them for so long.

Hermione struggled to ignore his mocking tone. “He’ll come up with something Draco. The Ministry still… sort of listens to him, or at least pretends that they do. This law is a horror and eif wif we can’t stop it right away, then we’ll find some way to make it less… painful for you.”

Draco lunged forward, leaning heavily upon the table. “’Less painful?’ Do you have any idea what that ritual does to people? Do you have any idea what the victims have to go through in when having their humanity stripped from them? It’s not pretty Granger, and neither is it quick or painless.”

Hermione narrowed her eyes, “What do you know about the ritual?”

Draco stepped back from the table and regarded her with the same thorough look that she was giving him. Weighing each word, he slowly spoke, analysing heactiactions, “I know enough to know that there’s no way to make it ‘less painful’ for myself. What is it that you think you know?”

“I know that there were Aurors whoorteorted that Malfoy Manor had the largest collection of Dark Arts books than any other Library known!”

“Ah, well. The Aurors,” He said the word derisively, “only found what we allowed them to find. They didn’t even brush the tip of the iceberg Granger.”

The boast had no sooner passed his lips before the two of them were eyeing each other wariloth oth trying to figure out how to turn such a claim to their advantage.

Finally Hermione plunged into the thoughtful silence. “Malfoy, if you have any books relating to this ritual… I’d very much like to see them.”

A small satisfied smile graced his lips. “I’m not entirely certain where they might be. The Malfoy Library is in dire need of re-organization. Perhaps in the meantime Ger –er –Hermione- you will speak to Potter about my mother. Perhaps he’ll be more ready to help… hearing your voice asking.”

His smile was dazzling as he continued, “And then when he has found out how to help me with my concerns, then perhaps I will have found something interesting for you to read at night before bed.”

A look of disbelief flashed across Hermione’s face. “Malfoy! This isn’t some bargaining chip! This is serious- I need any such book you might have!”

“Need?” Draco leaned back and stepped further away from the table. “What need do you have of such texts?”

He paced the room, before smoothly prowling back towards the motionless Potions Master. As Hermione struggled with her answer, Draco examined his former Head of House. He tilted his head and peered past Snape to examine the woman at the table; his pale eyes shadowed and glittering. “What need is more important than getting myher her off the auction block?”

Hermione hesitated for only a moment before confessing. “I need to find a way to break the ritual’s effect.”

“There isn’t one.” His voice was harsh, and he turned away from her to study the automaton before him.

“There must be. Every spell has weaknesses, every ritual has a flaw; there is always a way to-“

“Not in this Granger. Not in this.” He shook his head, and looked at her, the mask of his face stripped bare and his pain laid open before her. “This ritual eats away at the person so sacrificed. They removed his –for want of a better word- his soul Granger. You can’t just say a few magic words and have that just come back. It’s not that easy.”

He took a deep breath before continuing. “They can’t live without their souls Granger. Nothing can. You say he gets sick? Well, likely he’s going to get sicker. Likely my mother’s going to get sick and sicker as well. They’ll both just keep getting weaker until they dry up and blow away. It’ll be as if they’d never been.”

He whispered the last words, and Hermione had to strain to hear them.

“Draco, there has to be a way… and he has gotten better, I’m of of it. When I first got him, he was ill, but now…”

“Now?” Draco laughed. “Ah yes, ‘now.’ And what is he ‘now’ but your most humble of servants?”

The words echoed with the word of the text that still crawled around in Hermione’s head. She could hear them echoing and twisting, and as Draco spoke, his words sounded faded and thin, and his lips moved out of sync with the sounds that slithered and scurried in her mind with tiny feet and cold, barbed touches. Steadying herself, Hermione begged, her words stripped of couth. “Draco. I’m… I’m trying to find a way to destroy the ritual, but it’s… it’s very hard… Please. Any help you can give me.”

Draco opened his mouth with a mocking laughter poised upon his tongue. Seeing her slightly dazed expression, noting –for the first time truly noticing- her discomfort and disorientation, he shut his mouth with a snap. He swept across the room and around the table and peered closely into her eyes, closely intimate but scrupulously not touching her.

Vague shadows danced across her pupils, so faint that he’d not have seen them had he not been looking. “My, my, Granger. Had ourselves a little brush with something dark and dangerous, have we?”

She shook headhead to dismiss his mockery, but he caught her before she could move. She was surprised that he would deign to touch her, and yet she felt oddly comforted that he would do so. His hand was so warm; and here she had always thought him to be a cold and calculating bastard. “Looks like you’ve over extended yourself. Gotten into something that not even the Know It All Gryffindor could handle.”

His touch was firm but gentle on her cheek, a soft warmth that both grounded her and frightened her. The strange, book induced doubling of vision faded with his touch, but she still found herself struggling not to cringe in his grasp. He was gentle, yet the sheer strength in his hand caused her alarm; so soon after reading the book she felt claustrophobic, as if her very skin was too tight, and now to be held by another, even with the best of intentions and with such a tenuous hold, was almost unbearable.

As if sensing her thoughts, he pulled his hand away from her, and moved a few paces back to regard her with his arms crossed. She felt a moment’s pang as he pulled away; no matter that they’d always been enemies, the sheer comfort of another’s touch had been a succour to her after so many months in isolation. He continued speaking, “There was a time when that would have amused me immensely Hermione. But you’re serious now, aren’t you? You’re determined to find a way to break the ritual?”

Hermione nodded, “I know there’s a way. There has to be.”

“What is it that convinces you of this?”

Hermione hugged herself, her skin crawling as she spoke. “The Slaughman Rituals.”

Draco’s eyebrows rose in surprise. In admiration he asked, “The Book of the Unforgiven Dead?”

At her nod he looked closely into her eyes and then nodded to himself. He tapped a thoughtful finger against his lips before speaking. “I will bring you the books that I believe pertinent. However, you are simply not strong enough to read them.”

Hermione’s head rose with indignation, and her protest died on her lips as he said firmly, “I will read them for you. I ask that you refrain from reading anymore of The Slaughman Rituals until I am here and can aid you with this.”

Hermione shook her head, and seemed to collapse upon herself. “No. I cannot waste any time. I cannot wait for you.”

Draco looked at her, “I do not intend to waste any time at all Hermione. I have more than one loved one at stake in this succeedinnd snd succeeding quickly.”

Hermione was grateful for his help. “Thank you.”

Draco laughed again, and this time Hermione could detect a faint hint of madness in his voice. “Oh, don’t thank me Hermione. I fully expect you and Potter to do as much as you can to help my mother as well. No. Don’t thank me Hermione, because I’m only here to make sure you succeed.”

Hermione nodded, and showed him to the door where he threw on his coat and made his goodbyes to the silent Severus Snape. He disapparated halfway down the driveway, and Hermione shut the door, closing the outside world off from her small home.

[A/N:
-Thanks to all of you who’ve stuck with me so far. I’m learning quite a bit as I write this. I really feel that this should have been combined with the last chapter, and I’m not really sure that it stands on its own as a chapter, but… well… this is definitely a learning process.

-LittleBird totally helped me through a rough plot patch. I knew what I wanted to have happen, but was unable to figure out how to do it until she mercilessly questioned me.

-Special wave to ochame_O and LadyFlashB who made my day a while back. You two surprised the hell out of me, and completely cheered me up: Thank you two very much.

-Jesters Tears, thanks again for the challenge. I know that I’m not likely going to have it done by the due date (no matter how you extend it), but I am having fun with it, and for me, that’s what counts. Thanks again!]