Adult-FanFiction.org : Harry Potter

Vulpes	By : Relevant_Peach Category: Harry Potter > Slash - Male/Male Views: 8816 -:- Recommendations : 1 -:- Currently Reading : 1
Disclaimer: I don't own Harry Potter or any of the characters described here. I make no money from this work.

Chapter List
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The world outside of Hogwarts was enormous, and Severus barely knew where to start. Using his conversation with Lily, many years earlier, as a compass-point, he decided that Asia would be his first point of call. A few days spent in a room above the Leaky Cauldron allowed Severus to research, and within the week, he found himself on the island of Luzon in the Philippines. The heat was oppressive, and he soon found himself transfiguring his heavy woollen robes into lighter, Muggle-style garments. He wasn’t sure where to begin, but was surprised that the Muggle populations in Tabuk City were welcoming and eager to ensure that he settled in.

After the several hops of apparation he’d made from the International Portkey Station in Manila, Severus was exhausted, and when he’d settled into a seat at the first roadside stand he found, he was grateful that the owner expected little by way of conversation. She determined that he was English, and that he didn’t have a place to stay, and then, after bringing him a steaming bowl of rice, vegetables and pork bathed in a tangy sauce, she disappeared behind the counter. Severus ate and drank slowly, watching the group of children who watched him avidly from behind a tree. As he caught the eye of one of the littlest ones, her face was bathed in an enormous, crooked grin, and she curled her hand into a little wave. Severus found himself smiling at the child, and, just as it looked as though she were about to approach, the owner of the stand returned, with a sturdy looking man about his age.

“Severus” she said, his name sounding exotic on her accented tongue. “This is my nephew, Jun.” Severus nodded a greeting to the man, and received a beaming smile and nod back. “You will stay with him tonight. They have a room in their cottage.”

Severus replied “I couldn’t possibly impose. I’m certain there’s a hotel or hostel somewhere that I could-”

She tutted at him, her smile taking all the heat out of the impatient noise. “Of course not. Jun, take him.”

And so, Severus found himself wandering into the night with the quiet man who seemed to be taking this in stride. The arrived at a small dwelling, humble, but meticulously cared-for. “Welcome Severus” Jun said, gesturing him inside. The house contained a smiling woman, who Jun introduced as his wife, Avi, and two small children who, wreathed in smiles, examined him closely. Severus, who’d never experienced such an effortless welcome in his life, was nonplussed.

“I don’t mean to impose,” he started.

“It’s okay, Kuya, you are welcomed.” Avi didn’t seem especially surprised to find a strange white man in her living room.

“Kuya?” Severus asked.

“Yes, it’s a sign of respect. Please, be at home here.” Avi said. “Did you eat?”

After ensuring that Severus had been appropriately welcomed and fed, and establishing that the time difference had interfered with his internal clock, Severus was shown to a modest bedroom, where he was encouraged to rest, make himself comfortable, and call if he needed anything.

As Severus lay under a thin, woven blanket, listening to the insects chirping outside, he wondered how he’d ended up here, halfway across the world from Hogwarts, already feeling more welcomed than he had ever felt in his home. His thoughts drifted to Harry, but he pushed them aside, and fell blissfully into sleep.

The next morning, it was to rooster call that he awoke. It was already stiflingly hot, and the mere act of dressing had Severus bathed in perspiration. He cast a cooling charm on himself, and ventured from the room he’d spent the night in. Avi was bustling about the kitchen, looking every inch a darker-skinned version of Molly Weasley. She grinned at Severus and said “Morning, Kuya. Would you take some coffee?”

Severus nodded in thanks and sat at the tiny table in the kitchen. Soon, he was enjoying a steaming cup of the best coffee he’d ever tasted, and watching the children tussle on the floor. Avi hissed at them impatiently as they got underfoot, and they scampered outside to play. Outside, Severus could hear a man calling “Taho! Taho!” and he wondered who Taho was, and idly wished that he’d hurry and answer the man.

As Avi placed warm buns on the table that she called ‘pandesal’, Jun arrived, and sat at the table and fell onto the buns in delight. “So, Severus,” he said. “What brings you to Tabuk?”

“I was hoping to visit the Bontoc tribe that I believe live on a river near here” he said. He couldn’t tell them that he was hoping to learn their magic, so he crafted a story of being an Anthropology Professor who specialized in indigenous farming methods. His meticulous research served him well, and Jun accepted the story with good grace.

“I can take you to the Bontoc village, Severus, but they don’t often welcome outsiders. They’re private people, who protect the old ways. You might have a hard time there.”

“I understand” Severus replied. “Even if I have a chance to observe from a distance, I will be satisfied.” Severus had no intentions of doing so, but Jun seemed to have adopted a brotherly protectiveness over him. The answer seemed to satisfy Jun and Avi, however, and, after breakfast, he found himself being soundly hugged goodbye by Avi, who, for a tiny woman, had truly astounding strength. Jun had gone to borrow a car from one of his cousins and so it was to Avi that Severus said, “I’d like to pay you for my stay last night”

She hissed at him, similar to how she’d lovingly scolded her children. “No, Kuya, we enjoyed having you”

“Nevertheless,” Severus said. “I didn’t bring anything to the children. Perhaps you would be so kind as to buy them some books, if I gave you some money?”

This idea appeased her somewhat, and she accepted the bundle of pesos he extended with a warm smile. “Thank you, Kuya, the children will be happy”

The sound of a horn came from outside, and Avi said “That will be Jun. Travel safely, Kuya.”

“Thank you, Avi. I hope we will see one another again”

The ride to the Bontoc village was terrifying. Jun drove like a man possessed, and frequently, they’d turn a corner to find a Buffalo cart in their path. Jun would slam on the brakes, and then beep his horn, and dart around the cart, often in the path of an oncoming vehicle. Severus, who’d rarely travelled by car in the first place, kept a white-knuckled hand on the doorframe, causing Jun to laugh uproariously. Mercifully, the drive was over when the road they were travelling on dwindled down to a path in the grass. “This is as far as I can take you by car, Severus. Would you like me to introduce you to the Bontoc?”

“Thank you, but no” Severus replied. “I can walk from here. Jun, thank you for the welcome, and the accommodations.”

“Of course, Severus. Please come to see us again, my friend”. With an easygoing wave, Jun reversed the car until the road was wide enough to turn around, and before long, he was gone in a cloud of dust, and Severus was alone.

Severus walked for nearly three-quarters of an hour before he saw the first sign of life. A skinny, filthy dog emerged from the tall grass and began barking ferociously. Severus fingered his wand, but, as the dog seemed content to bark at him, and presented no further signs of aggression, he simply waited. It wouldn’t do to antagonize the Bontoc people by killing their pet. A small boy emerged from the same direction as the dog, gasped, then turned and sped off the way he’d come. Severus continued to wait patiently.

Before long, a wizened old woman emerged from the grasses, supported heavily by a younger man at her side. She was positively tiny, wearing a brightly striped fabric around her, tied with a belt. Something white glinted in her hair, and Severus recognized it as a snake skeleton. Instinctively, he knew that this woman was magical.
He cast a quick translation spell, so that he would understand what his welcoming party said.

“You have come” she said finally. “I thought that my vision was wrong, that I would die before you made it to me.”

“You saw that I would come to you?”

“Yes, the Anito send me visions, and when the sickness began to overtake our people, they told me that you would come to us. They said that you would save us. They told me that, in return, I would share with you our magic.”

“Then it’s good that I’ve arrived” Severus said calmly, but inwardly, he was groaning. He’d had enough of prophetic visions to last a lifetime, and the pressure of saving people wasn’t what he’d envisioned when he set out on his great adventure.

The little woman grasped his hand and closed her eyes. “You are bent, but not broken. You are strong beyond your own imaginings. But you have left a part of yourself behind.”

Severus shrugged. “Let’s go see about the sickness that’s harming your people”

Her eyes were like bright buttons, and she looked at him sharply, then broke into a toothless smile. It seemed to make her face fold in on itself, and her eyes practically disappeared within the nest of wrinkles. “I like you” she said. “You have spirit, and courage.”

They walked slowly to an encampment of huts, each topped by grasses. The roof of each hut was steep, and extended nearly to the ground. Severus felt a version of a Muggle-repelling charm as he walked closer. The old woman gestured him into the largest one, and Severus knelt with her on a woven mat. “I am Severus” he said, after she looked at him in delight for such a long time that he became uncomfortable.

“You may call me Ikit” she said. “It is good that you have come. I have been waiting to die for a long time.”

Severus must have appeared startled, because Ikit laughed. “Not today, child. You will heal my people, and teach them to make medicine, and I will teach you some of my old ways before that happens.”

Severus was shown a hut where he could sleep, and was greeted by each member of the village in turn that evening at a feast, where food and stories were shared, and music played late into the night. It was so different from the life he’d been living a week ago, he barely thought of home.

But that night, after the festivities had ended, and he lay on the ground on his woven mat, listening to the insects, he thought of Harry until the sky was growing light.

The matter of the mysterious illnesses was easily solved. The Bontoc people were suffering from Dengue Fever, he realized. He found Ikit, who was carefully placing a plate of rice and cooked chicken in a place where she felt the gods might see it. “It’s a very simple remedy” he reassured her. I can show your healers how to do it this morning.”

“Very good, child. I knew that you would help us.”

The rest of the villagers were ecstatic to see an end to the illness that had been plaguing them. While Severus had initially been viewed with distant politeness, he now was fully embraced as someone who belonged. Severus barely had a moment’s peace for several days as he was embraced and thanked, and followed about. After a week of such treatment, he was feeling completely overwhelmed.

He was reading (hiding) in his hut one afternoon when a shadow fell across the entrance and Ikit appeared. “I thought you would be hiding here.” Her voice was warm. “My family is very grateful to you.”

“Everyone is so kind” Severus admitted “but I’m a very quiet man, who is unaccustomed to being the centre of attention. It isn’t that I don’t appreciate being so welcomed. After all, I sought your village out!”

“I know” Ikit soothed. “I know just the thing”

He was taken to a more remote hut, in a cluster of just three structures. He unpacked his possessions, was polite to his host, who was introduced as simply ‘Boy’ although the man must have been at least a decade older than Severus. Boy was a farmer, Severus intuited, looking around at the penned animals and surveying the wide fields of rice surrounding them. He was a man of very few words, but was gentle, and, as is the way of those who are very quiet, peaceable and comfortable to sit in silence. It was just the two of them, although a young girl with a flashing smile brought them provisions and hot meals from the village twice a day.

For a few days, Severus was content to poke about, gathering useful potions ingredients, watching Boy as he completed his daily tasks. When boredom set in, he joined Boy as he mended a fence. After nearly an hour of work, Boy says “The goats. They like to get out and trample the plants”

Severus nodded, and held a fence board in place for Boy to lash to the structure with a length of dried vine. “You have shadows in your eyes” Boy said, as though he were continuing an earlier conversation.

“You sound like Ikit” Severus said, when it appears that Boy was awaiting an answer.

Boy chuckled. “That doesn’t make it less true”

“Perhaps.”

“Your life has not been kind to you?”

Severus shrugged. “I have not been kind in return”

“Ah” Boy seemed to understand. “You’re suffering because you carry guilt”

Another ungraceful shrug. “I didn’t say that I was suffering”

“Your eyes did. Do you think you’ll find it?”

“Find what?”

“Whatever you’re searching for that you think you can’t find at home”

“I don’t know what I’m searching for.”

“Oh, I understand, you’re not running to something. You’re running away from something”

Severus didn’t reply. Boy wouldn’t understand the ocean of regret that he carried around. He wouldn’t see that Severus drowned in this ocean each day, and that he’d never manage to keep his head long enough to find peace, if he stayed, surrounded by the symbols of his misdeeds.

“It will find you” Boy said simply, turning back to the fence.

The days passed idyllically. Ikit came most days, when she was feeling well, and when she wasn’t, Severus went to her. She told him the old legends, tried to teach him the old songs, and laughed at his furious refusal to sing them. The Bontoc didn’t use wands, Severus was surprised to learn. Their magic was purely elemental, and represented nothing so much as accidental magic.

Severus became frustrated at his inability to master the simple spells of the Bontoc. His spell to produce rain failed to produce even the slightest mist. Ikit laughed at his fury, as he muttered under his breath. “You’re too much in your mind, Severus. You feel this magic in the wrong place”

“I don’t know any other way” he said, his voice sounding petulant even to him.

“That’s why you’re here.” She soothed. “You’ll learn the magic in your heart, and then you’ll be healed”

Severus shot an annoyed glare her way. Honestly, some days it felt as though he were drinking tea with Trelawney. “I don’t have any use for this unscientific mysticism” he scoffed.

“You don’t see any use, child. That doesn’t mean you don’t have a use”.

He blew an annoyed breath out of his nose and tried to summon the rain again. His efforts were interrupted by Ikit’s sudden inhalation of breath. She was looking off into the distance at something winging its way toward them. As the enormous tawny owl came into sight, she clapped her hands in delight.

The owl seemed a little worse for wear, unused to the tropical temperatures. Severus hadn’t realize that owls could be used for international post, but, if this bird were any indication, they likely shouldn’t have been. He conjured a bowl and filled it with cool water, and the owl gulped gratefully. Severus untied the parchment from her leg. Ikit hissed, and, instantly, one of her many grandchildren appeared at her side. “Food, and a quiet place to rest for this one” she said. The young girl gently picked up the owl, and disappeared.

The parchment was rolled neatly, and Severus opened it with a strong sense of trepidation. He feared that Dumbledore was meddling again, and he sagged with relief when he recognized the handwriting. It wasn’t Dumbledore. Severus fully recognized that he was suffering from PSTD or some other trauma-related disorder, if the notion of his friend, mentor and benefactor could strike such fear. Regardless, he read the missive as his heartbeat returned to normal.

Professor Snape,

I have no idea if an owl will reach you, but I had to try. I don’t know why you left so suddenly, or whether this will make a difference, but I thought you should know:

He looks for you. All the time.

HG

The final seven words struck him like thunder, rumbling deep in his consciousness. He looks for you. With an annoyed snort, he crumpled the parchment and threw it to the ground, before stomping off into the bushes for a few minutes. Infernal, interfering little chit of a girl! How dare she! And how dare she send just enough information to tweak at Severus’ stone heart, without communicating any real information? Severus let out a furious roar, causing birds and small animals to scurry away in alarm. After some deep breaths, and furious cursing, Severus returned to the clearing where Ikit was watching him in amusement. He spied the parchment on the ground, and made to pick it up, but she snatched it before he had a chance. Severus had only a moment to notice that she was shockingly agile for an old woman.

Her eyes widened in glee as she read the note and her smile, when it reached him, was immeasurably fond. “Note from home?”

Severus’ unintelligible grunt wasn’t an answer, but Ikit hadn’t expected one. She placed a weathered hand on his cheek. “My young seeker” she said, and Severus jolted at the unexpected Quidditch term, here of all places. “Searching and searching, but unsure what he looks for”

“Knowledge” he said. “I look for knowledge”

“To what end? Knowledge is only good if you do something with it, child. It’s not a prize to place on a shelf. Will this be your great accomplishment? To have a vast collection of information that you keep to yourself? And no one to show it to?”

“I should go” he said. “Boy will need help with the rice fields”

She smiled, and said no more, and Severus walked back to Boy’s farm, his thoughts heavy.

He didn’t expect to see Ikit, flanked by a cotillion of granddaughters, appear that night as he and Boy sat drinking by the fire. She settled herself beside Severus, sat quietly for a moment, watching the fire, and looking at the stars.

“My time here is nearly over.” She finally said. “I know this, but I have an unfinished task. You, child, are my last gift to the world.”

“Why? Why is this so important?”

She smiled, but didn’t answer. Maybe it was because she doesn’t want to tell him, maybe it was because she didn’t know. It was possible that she was just a daft old lady who was taken by flights of fancy.

“You have not mastered our magic, Severus. You are blocked. Here” She thumped him in the chest, and Severus coughed a little. “We will do a ritual that will unblock your centre, and allow you to know your heart’s treasure. Then, you will have the right motivation to learn.”

Severus rolled his eyes. He thought it might be interesting to learn the spells that summon rain, and the ones that ward away illness, but he didn’t really care that much if he never learned. Not if he had to unblock his centre. It sounded far too emotional for his liking, and Severus preferred his centre to stay as neat and tidy as it had been for his entire life. Severus was certain that he didn’t have a heart’s treasure. But, Ikit had been kind, and her family had been feeding and caring for him for months without a single hesitation. If this were important to Ikit, he’d humour her.

As Ikit and her granddaughters prepared the ritual, he began to daydream. Perhaps the ritual would tell him the next place that he would travel. He was tired of being hot all the time. Maybe Canada. Weren’t there magical people in Vancouver?

“Child!” Ikit’s voice was a little sharp. “It is time. You carry such sadness in you because you have been cursed. Tell me, who has been disturbing your dreams since you’ve come to us?”

Severus stilled. His dreams were the same as they always were. Despite his real-life vanquishing, Voldemort stalked through his nightmares constantly. Most nights, Severus dreamed of being discovered as a traitor, and watching as the Dark Lord tortured and killed the members of the Order one by one, finishing by ripping Harry apart with a silver dagger. He’d never spoken of his dreams, and the habit of casting silencing charms each night was as ingrained as brushing his teeth. “I do not speak his name” he said quietly, when it became obvious that Ikit was awaiting his response.

“No matter. He goes by many names. He has gone from this plane, but he lingers where the water sinks. He curses your dreams and binds your heart.”

Severus felt tears spring to his eyes. Since the day he’d been marked, his chest had felt tight. Despite his nature to cling to logic, the truth of her words resonated deep within him. “Ikit” he said weakly.

“It is fine, my seeker. We will cast the ritual, we will unbind your spirit.”

One of the granddaughters brought forth a small crate containing three chickens. Ikit bade Severus kneel beside her. She raised a bowl filled with rice wine above her head, and chanted: “I call upon the children of Kabunian! Kabigat and Bugan, Baltok and Bangan, Gatan and Bangnan, Amduyan and Ubban, Syan and Lingan!”

The sky darkened, and thunder rumbled. Severus felt his heartbeat thundering through his veins, and sound roared in his ears. He swayed, and barely noticed as Ikit sacrificed the chickens on the stone altar that Severus hadn’t seen there before. His translation spell slipped, and as Ikit chanted, he was unable to understand what she was saying. For the first time in a long time, Severus knew childish terror (unrelated to the Dark Lord), and as the magic swirled and roared around him, he fell to the ground, and knew only darkness.

He awoke in his hut, sun streaming through the narrow doorway. Boy was crouching in the dirt near the door, keeping watch over him.

“What” said Severus “was that?”

“Topya” Boy said with a shrug. “How do you feel?”

“Grated”. Every inch of his skin ached, as though he’d been dragged forcibly against a rough surface.

“Ikit will want to see you”

“Mustn’t keep her waiting, after such a fun party last night” Severus griped, but there was no heat in his words.

When they arrived in the village, it was quiet, as though something had happened. Severus’ instincts flared, and he realized that not a single dog barked, there had been no laughter, no women gossiping in the roughly hewn open area in the centre of the huts. It was as though the village was holding its breath.

One of the many granddaughters emerged from Ikit’s hut as they arrived. “Good, you’re here. It’s not long” she said.

“Not long for what?”

“Come”

Severus squinted into the darkness as he crouched and entered Ikit’s hut. The woman herself lay still and silent on her woven mat, and Severus felt his heart clench and a low moan escaped his throat.

“Child?” Ikit’s voice was weak. “You’ve come”

“What have you done?” Severus whispered.

“What was needed, child. We have found your heart’s treasure”

“But, Ikit, I haven’t. I don’t-”

“Hush, you will now. Now you will be able to find your stillness, and in that, you’ll find your deepest desire.”

“Please, let me heal you…”

“Severus, my dearest one. You aren’t a child of my body, but one of my heart. I am old, and I have accomplished my purpose.”

“I thought you were going to teach me your magic”

Ikit’s laughter was soft, and interspersed with a coughing fit that had Severus clutching at his wand, desperate to ease her suffering. “And so I have, dearest one. Come, sit with me”

Severus hunkered down beside her, and she irritably shooed her family away. “Ikit, please, your family…”

“My family has said what they needed to say. You will sit with me, and ease my way into the next plane of existence. Don’t speak, Severus, find your stillness. Seek your heart’s desire”

Severus sat with her, listening to the cadence of her shallow breathing. His vision narrowed, and he felt dizzy. He closed his eyes to ward off a wave of nausea, and suddenly his mind’s eye was flooded with a flash of green. Green, the colour of the Scottish highlands, so rich and vibrant that it made his breath catch. Green, the colour of Harry’s eyes. As he thought of Harry, he stopped breathing entirely, and he knew. As Ikit had promised, with bolt of stunning clarity, Severus had realized his heart’s treasure.
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