Adult-FanFiction.org : Harry Potter

A Better Fate COMPLETE	By : FemmeBono Category: HP Canon Characters paired with Original Characters > Het - Male/Female Views: 3299 -:- Recommendations : 0 -:- Currently Reading : 1
Disclaimer: I do not own Harry Potter, nor any of the characters from the books or movies. I do not make any money from the writing of this story.

Chapter List
- 9
- 10
- 11
Lots of action going on in this one. It really is the culmination of the story but a couple more chapters remain. Never fear! Nearly there.

　

　

Cht. 10, Anniversary Eve
On May Eve day Morgana, one of the female teachers, gave them their last lesson, this time in earth magics. This began, strangely enough, by her showing them how to germinate and grow a plant seemingly from nothing--a thing their wizarding magic said was impossible.
"But it is not 'nothing'," Ana explained, "for the world is nothing but the potential for life to grow. Every new thought you have is a creation, an idea which your wizards of old never considered when they made some of the 'laws' of magic you learned in your disciplines."
"That thought is the seed, your magic and intent are water and sunlight to it."
After many attempts, Severus succeeded in growing a venomous tentacula, which made them all laugh when it spread its spiky baby vines out and tried to latch around his ankles. With a flick of the wrist it sank back into the earth as a mere potential again. Once Hermione raised a sunflower higher than her own head, Ana declared them ready for the next step, where both students learned to make the earth itself shake and rend and afterwards they learned to seal it up again as though nothing had taken place.
Satisfied with their progress, Ana sent them down for a light noonday meal before their final combative test began.
***
Their final battle, however, was the culmination of everything they had learned. They used the discipline from their heavy tasks and chores, which had built them physically and mentally. They used instinct, reflexes sharply honed by months of intensive skirmishes and drills. More than that, they used their magical skills, which had now been greatly expanded by their learning here at this martial compound of the fae.
And so it began, as Hermione stepped into the ring of spectators to face off with Morgana. The elder faery circled, her auburn curls plaited into a thick braid at her waist, and set off by an ochre tunic and tan breaches. She looked like a Celtic warrior. Hermione dropped into a crouching defensive stance and began to circle as well. Severus and the others called encouragement to both sides and watched in tense excitement as Hermione sent a quick ball of fire at Ana, who deflected by turning it to mere smoke.
In retaliation she arced a spear of bright light straight to Hermione's feet, who was momentarily blinded by the assault. Working purely on instinct, Hermione sent a cloud of thick fog through the ring. Ana took that opportunity instead to apparate to the spears set on a rack nearby and took one. Hermione, seeing her pop back to the circle summoned one quickly and began lunging and thrusting against her attacker. She rolled back over her shoulder, came to a standing position and tapped the ground with the end of her spear, setting it quaking under Ana's feet and nearly toppling her off balance.
With a wave of her spear, Ana set the earth still again. At the same time, Hermione took the distraction as her cue to roll over the spear and come up in a leg sweep that sent Ana sprawling on her backside even as Hermione lowered the spear to her throat. Ana, who had dropped her own spear when she fell, laughed and raised a hand for Hermione to help her up.
"Well met, Hermione, well met," she smiled, and raised Hermione's hand to the cheering crowd.
***
When it was his turn, Severus faced off, as he had somehow known he would, with Ferghus. He jumped straight into attack mode by raising a devil's snare at Ferghus's feet which rose sharply up and circled him, tightening its grip. All at once, however, the plant turned brown, stopped growing, and broke apart as Ferghus raised his arms. They circled a bit, coming close and trading blows, backing out again on the defensive, both crouched low and watching the other's eyes for their next move.
Ferghus dropped quickly to the ground, spinning a leg around the axis of his body, which Severus neatly leaped over to the avoid being swept down. Ferghus rolled safely away over his shoulder, yet when he came to standing Severus raised a fist and sent a sharp spear of shale shooting up from the ground. Ferghus deftly spun on his heel and turned back facing Severus as a great grizzly bear. Not to be outdone, Severus dropped to all fours as a jaguar and stalked circles around the towering bear before snapping quickly back to himself again.
Ferghus instead changed into a tiger, whereupon Severus summoned a spear, only to set the end to light and sway it before the tiger's eyes. Ferghus backed up, his lips curled into a snarl and popped back to his own shape. The sheen of sweat Severus had noticed in the mock battle he had witnessed from the hilltop proved Severus' hypothesis that changing form more than once was draining.
Taking advantage of the fact, Severus rolled forward over his shoulder, knocking Ferghus to the ground and raising his fist above him. Flattened under the force of Severus' body, Ferghus, smiling breathlessly said simply, "yield."
Backing up to stand, Severus reached a hand out to Ferghus who used the leverage to haul himself up, then swatted Severus' backside with his other hand. "Cracking good match that was, lad!" And laughing, his chest still heaving, Ferghus reached out to clasp hands with Severus before placing a hand on either side of Severus' astonished face and smacking him soundly on the lips.
"I need a stout ale after that one, boys!" he said as he traipsed by into the hollow of the tree. Thoroughly perplexed at the good-nature of the losers in these matches, Severus barely noticed as people came up and clapped him on the back, congratulating him on the successful completion of the course.
***
Later that night, the bonfires were lit in celebration of the students' success, as well as the next day's nuptials. The men readied themselves for a hunt, donning thick tunics and deer hide pants, as the night air still held a bit of chill even in late spring. Severus and Cian both slung quivers over their shoulders and stepped out into the white light of the moon.
They tracked for what seemed like hours keeping close to the stream in case any deer made the mistake of going for a nighttime drink. They startled a young doe and her fawn under a large fern, and after another long while they came across Ferghus, who smiled and raised a finger to his lips before pointing down at the moist soil running alongside the creek bank. There they spied them, delible prints in the soft dirt. Large deer tracks. Ferghus winked at them before splitting off again, a bit deeper into the trees.
"Here's where I leave you too then," whispered Cian softly. "Best of luck mate."
Severus clasped hands with him as they separated and he shuffled on silently. He listened intently now for anything walking through the undergrowth, but only heard the swooping of an owl or rustle of the breeze in the trees, the trickle of water over rocks in the stream bed. Then, at last, he heard the unmistakable clatter and clash of antlers and the grunt of two bucks competing for dominance. He stilled, trying to make out the direction, and at the moment he deduced it, he heard another sound altogether, the clear whistle of an arrow shot from a bow.
Within seconds, a great crashing and rustling issued from the bushes not twenty paces from where he was standing. Without thinking, he slid the arrow into his quiver, notched it and let it fly, just at the moment a great stag came leaping out of the tree line. It sailed swiftly and surely, lodged into its target, and the large buck dropped to the ground.
It was Declan who joined him to help truss it up and return it to the camp, where the bonfires blazed still, ready for roasting. On making their way back, the men found Cian and another student cleaning a second stag. Both would provide the meat for their wedding dinner the following day. There would be one to stuff with fragrant herbs and roast slowly over the fire, and another to smoke and cure overnight.
***
Severus kneeled an hour or so later, washing the blood and innards from his hands, his mind on the impending events that would come with the rising of the sun not a few hours hence. Deciding to take a walk to clear his head, he found his feet taking him back up the path to the hill where he set out for his first walkabout. He ambled through the deep dark of the woods, not with any particular purpose, other than to prolong his return to the camp, his bed, and the marriage that awaited him, now nearly at hand.
When he came out of the thickest of trees along the narrow path, he spied another further ahead. Hearing him treading, though softly behind, the cloaked figure turned and seeing him, dropped her hood to stand bathed in moonlight as he approached.
"Word is you had a successful night of it, Severus," smiled Lasair when he came to stand before her.
"I have," he replied, "and Cian as well."
"Should you not be abed at this hour, surely? It's a long day you've had, and another tomorrow." She turned and despite the narrowness of the path, they walked closely together up it, to the rise of the hill and the cave beyond.
"I cannot sleep. My mind is too full of things�finishing up here, making good at it. Returning to the wizarding world, all the questions I'll surely have at that. I'm not entirely sure I won't be jailed."
"You'll be lauded a hero. That I have seen."
As they reached the mouth of the cave and stepped in, she took his hand and rubbed it. Her other hand she raised and with it, leapt flames in the fireplace.
"You're chilled overmuch, and this should warm you."
"I am warm already," he answered tenderly, his dark eyes softening at her smile.
"You are, if I am not much mistaken very worried about what's to come."
"Not worried, no. I regret leaving this place. I've felt more comfortable here, more kindness here than I may have had my whole life. People here have genuinely liked me and wanted my company, not for any purpose but to have it. Not for what good I could do them. I hate to leave it behind. More�," and at this he hesitated, "more than that, I hate the thought of never seeing you again. I never get to see or talk to you unless in my dreams, and yet I feel as though you know me better than anyone. You call to me every time I close my eyes."
"I've felt it too," she said softly, "a calling from your spirit to mine. I've seen you in my dreams these many nights."
"Then spend this night with me, here," he said, brushing his fingertips over her hair. "Stay."
With that, she untied the ribbon of her cloak and draped it over the ground. "Come to me then," she replied, and he stepped nearer. He trailed his fingertips down her cheek, traced the soft line of her neck, and dipped them back to cup her head as she tipped up for a kiss.
Their lips met, brushing tentatively at first. Severus, emboldened by her sigh of pleasure, licked lightly at her bottom lip and traced his tongue around hers, savoring the taste of her at last. His other hand glided down the contour of her body and he eased her back and down onto the cape over the floor. He stretched himself over her, their bodies molding together and neither noticed as the flames licked higher, grazing the top of the fireplace and setting shadows dancing across the walls of the cave.
They spent those final darkest hours of the night touching, tasting, savoring each other and finally joining in the oldest dance, ushering in Beltane exactly as it was meant.
- 9
- 10
- 11
You need to be logged in to leave a review for this story.You need to be logged in to leave a review for this story.
Report Story

A Better Fate *COMPLETE*

A Better Fate COMPLETE