The Weaver and the Herder

The air in the room was thick with tension, two pairs of eyes gleamed in the dim light, playing host to a silent battle between the two occupants. An older man, his midnight hair sprinkled with silver like the night skies, stood next to the open window, his black kimono swaying softly in the breeze. His eyes were hard, but full of love, as he gazed at the young woman seated a few feet from him.

The dark wood of his desk contrasted poetically with her pale skin, and the soft blue kimono she wore. The black obi tied around her waist accentuated her newly acquired woman’s curves; narrow shoulders, rounded chest, and wide, soft hips. She was a vision of beauty, his young goddess. The kimono she wore bore the celestial rivers of the heavens, and the two lovers who would cross the bridge to meet each other in secret. “Marishi-chan, you must understand.”

Dazzling silver-blue eyes narrowed in his direction, as she looked at him from beneath her lowered lashes. “What is there to understand, Takinata-sama?” She spat his name from between her pink lips like it was a piece of rotten fruit. She used her small hands to push her lithe body from the desk, her dark bangs curtaining her eyes from his view, and she whispered the next words with such sadness that it startled him, “I understand enough to know that you are casting me away!”

He turned his despair into anger and slammed his fist down onto the window sill, “Damare!” The volume of his voice nearly shook the room and caused Marishi to jump, so that when she looked up he caught the sparkling tears threatening to fall from her large eyes. “It is what you must do, Marishi. It is your place in life.”

Hands wrapped in his kimono and Yami’s dark eyes lowered to gaze stonily at the woma—girl that pleaded with him in her tinkering voice, “Onegai, Yami-bo, my place is here with you!” She buried her lovely face in his chest and her hands tightened, “Aishiteru.”

“Dame,” his voice was strained; his arms limp at his sides. “You do not love me, Marishi. And I cannot love you,” Yami took her chin in his large hand and brought her gaze to his, her pale cheeks stained with rivers of tears, “You were never mine to love.”

“Damn you!” She pushed him so quickly that Yami barely caught himself before he stumbled out into the night, her eyes burning with anger, tears welling even as she cursed him, “Damn you, and damn fate!” Her voice was full of fury and it only served to fuel his own anger.

“You do not understand what this means! It is not only your fate that you hold in your grasp!” He gripped her small arms and gave her a shake, “Would you damn so many innocent lives to seek your own selfish feelings!?”

Tears began to crash, unbidden, down Marishi’s cheeks. “Do I not deserve happiness!? Am I damned to be alone so that others may find hope?” She pushed away from him, and he let her go, so that she crashed into a shelf of books behind her. “It is not fair,” Marishi breathed, her hair breaking from its ribbon to flow down in front of her as she bowed her head.

A sad smile touched his face, and he resisted the urge to embrace her. “Kodomo.” Her head shot up, and her bright eyes narrowed once more. “What a childish thing to say. Life is not fair, Marishi,” He turned back to the window, and caught a petal in his hand that glided softly on the breeze; it turned to ash before her very eyes and she was reminded of just how powerful he was. “You will leave tonight,” when Marishi moved forward, ready to protest, he held up the same hand and the ashes blew in the breeze. “I have trained you well in the Magical arts, and now fate requires that you go West.” He turned to her with his eyes softened, sadness making him look beyond his years. “They will take care of you at Hogwarts, Marishi-chan. They know what is at stake.”

Marishi refused to let his grief dampen her burning anger, and she turned her back to him, making her way to the door, where she stopped, but did not turn to look at him as she spoke softly, “I was stupid to believe that I ever meant anything to you. The Dark could never love the Light.” The door closed swiftly behind her, and she missed the few tears that leaked from Yami’s eyes.

“I simply wasn’t the right one, koi. Your light belongs to another.”



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There were servants packing her things when Marishi reached her rooms, but she brushed off the young girl who tried to re-tie her hair, and walked straight to the small desk that sat in the corner of the room. Her delicate hands reached for a brush and ink, and she kneeled next to the desk and wrote down a wish on one of the small, colored strips of paper that lay there. She stood, and a servant moved to replace the ink and brush into the drawer she took it from, and followed her out into the garden.

“Ten-sama, please, your sandals!” The young woman watched her mistress step into the garden in her bare socks, ignoring the plea, and tied the piece of paper to the small bamboo tree that grew near the stream.

Marishi placed her palms together and lowered her head, praying to the heavens that her one wish be granted. “Onegai shimasu. Just this one thing.” She raised her eyes, shining with tears, in time to see a star fall across the sky. Marishi smiled sadly, and quickly wiped her tears away with her kimono sleeve. “I’m fine, Yuki-chan.” She called back, and shuffled up the steps and back into her rooms.

Yuki offered her a small smile, and began to untie her obi, “What an adventure you will have, Marishi-san!” She folded the long silk tie and placed it on the desk next to them, as Marishi walked behind a rice paper screen. “I will miss you very much.”

The silk robe was pulled from her form and she stood naked, silhouetted by the screen, as Yuki rushed to gather the plum-colored sundress Marishi would be wearing on her journey. “I will miss you very much as well, Yuki-chan, you have been like a little sister to me.” She then hugged the younger girl close to her body, ignoring her nakedness, even as Yuki blushed and tried to disengage her body from Marishi’s.

“Marishi-san, please dress. Your plane leaves soon, and you mustn’t be late!” The pale arms were raised above her head, and Yuki smiled as she pulled the soft linen dress over Marishi’s pale body. A vanity sat in the corner of the room, and Yuki guided Marishi over to it, pushing gently to indicate that she sit on the plush cushion in front of the mirror. “You are so very lovely, Marishi-san.” She breathed, sweeping her hair up into a high ponytail, allowing the short tendrils to fall to frame her face. Marishi’s eyes met Yuki’s unremarkable brown ones in the mirror.

“Do you think that I will like it there?” Marishi was worrying her puffy lower lip, hands restless in her lap. “Will they like me?”

Yuki nearly laughed, but held it in and smiled adoringly at Marishi. “Who could not like you, Marishi-san?” She was threading her fingers through Marishi’s silken locks while she spoke, “We are all going to be very sad without you here.” Marishi turned around so fast that it would’ve knocked Yuki over if Marishi’s hands hadn’t been holding the sleeves of her kimono.

“Then hide me, keep me here! Do not make me go, Yuki-chan!” She pleaded, letting Yuki see the despair that she had kept from her eyes.

Yuki looked around from help from the other servants, but she saw none and realized that all of Marishi’s belongings had already been taken to the plane. Her eyes caught a shape in the door and she breathed an audible sigh of relief when she recognized the young man who was to escort Marishi to the plane. “You must go, Marishi-san.” She lifted the woman to her feet and embraced her. “Ganbatte, Onee-san. Goodbye.”

Marishi laughed a sad, tinkering laugh and hugged her friend back, “No goodbyes, Yuki-chan. Ja mata.” She released the younger girl and held back her tears as she shrugged on the coat offered to her and followed the young man to her fate. Marishi saw Yami standing near the exit and raised her chin higher in defiance. “Sumimasen.” She said curtly, as she brushed past his form, her cool eyes narrowed, flicking up momentarily to meet his, and dropping back to stare at the sleek black car that awaited her.



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Severus Snape did not like to be kept waiting. He did not like to be kept waiting for a child; a child that would be his colleague, no less. As if being around all those dunderheads for over half of the year wasn’t bad enough, he’d have one more with him for the summer. She wasn’t even there yet and she was already getting on his last nerve. To add insult to injury, not only had he been kept waiting for over an hour, but he had been waiting in a Muggle airport. In ridiculous muggle clothing. Several muggles had eyed him, most scantily-clad young women who batted their eyelashes and smiled suggestively in his direction.

Unlike most wizards, when faced with the horrible fate of having to dress in muggle attire, Severus knew what he was doing. He dressed himself in a smart pair of charcoal colored trousers, a light grey dress shirt and a black blazer. His long, muscled legs were crossed and he sat stiffly in one of the uncomfortable faux-leather chairs.

He really didn’t know all that much about the girl he was to escort to Hogwarts. Only that she was Japanese, young enough to be his daughter, and was called Mishi, or Mashi, or some other ridiculous name like that. She had no formal training or teaching experience to be spoken of, and yet Dumbledore had hired her when the last Astronomy instructor, Professor Sinastra, got married and decided to become a stay-at-home mother. Then again, was Severus to be surprised at him, when he had hired frauds, dark wizards, and even werewolves in the past?

Damnable Albus, making him come out to cart around some child like he was a bloody nursemaid. There was work to be done; potions to refill for the infirmary, stores to be inventoried, he didn’t even have his lesson plans for the year completed.

This girl quickly replaced Hermione Granger on his list of, ‘Children that Annoy the Bleeding Hell out of Me’. Severus scowled, rubbing circles on his temples with his long pale fingers, and cursing this girl to high heaven. He was ready to walk to the pub in the airport and get a large glass of brandy when a soft female voice interrupted his train of thought. “Snape-san?”

Snape gritted his teeth and raised his head, ready to verbally throttle the misfortunate soul who happened upon him in his seething anger, when his dark eyes came upon the most startlingly beautiful woman he had ever seen. “Yes?” He steeled his voice, an elegant eyebrow jumping to his dark hairline.

Her steel blue eyes regarded him coolly, and he could swear he sensed an air of superiority around her. Well, that would most certainly have to be taken care of. “I am Marishi Ten. You are here to escort me to Hogwarts, ne?” Her accent was only slight, and it appeared she grasped the English language quite thoroughly. Severus took a moment to examine this young woman before he replied. She was very petite, even for a woman, because she surely wouldn’t reach even his shoulders. Her skin was pale, that yellow undertone that most people of Asian heritage possess strangely absent. Not curvy by Western standards, but certainly not boyish either. The swell of her chest was not terribly impressive, and he had most certainly seen larger, but the way her waist dipped in and her hips bloomed out again was nearly perfect. Her legs were long and thin and made up most of her height, but his eyes were drawn back up to Marishi’s chest, where he watched (with tightening trousers) her nipples harden under the thin purple linen. Bit cold Miss Ten? He smirked internally, raising his eyes back up to hers at the small “Ahem.” That sounded from her lush mouth.

He resisted the urge to smirk, and stood, bowing his head in respect. “Yes, Miss Ten, if you’ll just follo—”

“Ten.” She said quickly, staring up at him through her lashes. “Not ten. Ten.”

Severus cleared his throat, thoroughly displeased with being interrupted. “Yes, that’s what I said. Miss Ten, if you’ll...”

She sighed, clearly exasperated and repeated herself. “No, Mr. Snape. It is not ‘ten’ like the number.” She paused and slowed her speech as if she were speaking to a child. This only had the effect of infuriating Severus more. “Ten. Say it like ‘Tane’. E is said like long A in Japanese.”

It was taking all of Severus’ limited patience not to strangle the small woman before him, and he took in a shaky deep breath and repeated himself. “Miss Ten,” she smiled and nodded her head, and he rolled his dark eyes to the ceiling, “Please, we’re running behind schedule and I would like to get out of this ridiculous muggle clothing as soon as possible.”

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Japanese defitions:

Damare: Be quiet/Silence.

Onegai/Onegai shimasu: Please, I beg you.

Aishiteru: I love you.

Dame: No.

Kodomo: Child.

Koi: Used as an endearment.

Ganbatte: Do your best, go for it.

Onee-san: Big sister.

Ja mata: See you later.

Sumimasen: Excuse me.

Well there you go, the first chapter! I know it wasn’t very long, but I haven’t written much in quite a while and it might take some time before I’m writing tragically long chapters again.

Constructive criticism is highly appreciated. But snuff your flames. I’m made of highly flammable material and likely to explode.


Ja mata!