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Deep Roots	By : FemmeBono Category: HP Canon Characters paired with Original Characters > Het - Male/Female Views: 3186 -:- Recommendations : 0 -:- Currently Reading : 0
Disclaimer: No I'm not making money off JK Rowling's work, this is pure (free) fanfic and I own nothing to do wif Harry Potter stuffs.

Chapter List
- 8
- 9
Looong chapter to make up for such a long absence. Like I said in A Better Fate though, I mean to finish up my fics by April, and I'm holding myself to that. Enjoy this chapter though, I am quite happy with it myself.

　

　

Cht. 9, Someone’s Always Watching

There had to be somewhere with reception, somewhere with electricity. With so many people in this culture from non-magic upbringing, surely not all of them had left it behind, Alyssa told herself. She knew the Muggle town of Dufftown was not far, so she could go there if she had to, and as her mountain lion guise she could cover more territory quickly and revert back to herself when she neared civilization again. It was risky, but since there was no way any Death Eaters should know she was a shape shifter, Alyssa considered the risk negligible.

Her mind made up, with deadlines for her articles looming closer, Alyssa stuck her laptop, phone and chargers in her pack and loosened the straps to fit her animal form. Here goes Wesa, she thought, and stepped as quietly as possible out the door of the mansion. Binky was occupied with the post-dinner washing up, and Narcissa already had begun her evening toilette. By the time they noticed she had gone, if indeed they did notice, she would be done with her writing and have zipped it off to her editor before the search even started. After all, she reminded herself, better to ask forgiveness than permission. She just hoped there would be an internet café open, or somewhere that she could hook up.

Alyssa shifted into her lion form just before she crossed the border of protection she had set up, her ears twitching to pick up any unusual sounds in the forest. Keeping just inside the tree line, she followed the road leading to town, skirted around buildings and houses, and picked up the road again to follow it out. Since it looked like no one in Hogsmeade would have a connection of any kind, she headed onward toward Dufftown hoping they were a bit more modern.

As she padded through the underbrush, however, she did not escape one pair of eyes on the edge of town. The stranger watched unnoticed from the overhanging eave of a shop front, as passersby went about their evening routines completely oblivious.

***

Barely an hour later, Severus Snape knocked on Narcissa's bedroom door. He had already questioned the elf to no avail, and the feeling of dread that had begun when he started his nighttime patrol of the property was now a fully formed ball of lead in his stomach.

"Forgive the intrusion," he bowed slightly as Narcissa opened her door a bit and clutched her robe more tightly to her, "have you perhaps seen your other houseguest since dinner?"

"No I have not," she answered, stifling a yawn with the back of her hand, "she does, however, tend to keep blessedly to herself." As this answer was delivered with a tilt of her chin, Severus surmised that the two women were not exactly joining each other's fan clubs.

"Did she say…anything…at all over dinner about going out?" he prodded, knowing all the while that it was a futile effort.

"No."

"Thank you. Again, sorry for the intrusion."

With that, he stepped to the Floo in the sitting room and notified Dumbledore, who began a discreet search of the castle in case she had come through unnoticed. Severus, meanwhile, Disillusioned himself and did a quick sweep of Hogsmeade before returning to the house intent on killing the silly chit, if someone had not already beat him to it.

***

Alyssa, meanwhile, trotted stealthily back from town, well satisfied that her mission was completed. With several drafts of articles submitted from a tiny café that served nothing but pea porridge, stale coffee, and dial-up internet, she figured Weems should be satisfied as well for a few weeks. That would buy her some time before she had to sneak out again.

Her pride in getting cleanly away with this little adventure did not last long though. A moment after she cleared the outskirts of Hogsmeade her ears perked, whiskers twitching as she sensed someone not far behind. She picked up her pace enough that a human would have to run to keep up, and transmitted a silent signal to other animals nearby, an appeal to their spirits to give her aid.

No sooner had she done so then a flurry of wings broke out some distance behind her. A team of blackbirds fluttered around a human who tried futilely to swat them away as they broke and winged their way off to gather more help. To her left she spotted her friend the fox. He lashed his tail as he transmitted back to her that she should bank left after the large boulder and circle the spring, following the stream that it fed into. She understood from the pictures he sent that the stream was the same that bordered the north end of the mayor's property.

Sending him feelings of gratitude, Alyssa turned a hard left after the big rock and kicked her paws into high gear, cantering through the brush as she heard someone swear loudly in the distance.

When she finally crossed the stream into the mayor's property, Alyssa was out of breath and clutching a stitch in her side. Too long without a good run like that, she chided herself. She did not get to congratulate herself on a speedy getaway though. As soon as she shifted back to her own body the back door slammed smartly, bringing her head up with a start, as she watched Snape striding across the lawn to her, his jaw set.

It took her right back to teenage days of skipping school and getting busted. She hazarded a glance at Severus again. Busted big time, she thought. Boy, he must be hell with the kids who were brave, or stupid, enough to cut his class.

"What in blazes do you mean, girl, by leaving the protection of this home and those who watch over it?" he stormed.

"I have a job to do," she snapped, jumping to the defense. "I have articles to write, an editor to appease, and a mother who might need to know how I am so she doesn't go stir crazy, and I have no way to do that from here. No electricity, remember?"

"Your job, you foolish girl, is not worth your life," he derided. "You have a nephew--such as he is--who now depends on you as well, and a mother who would have to bury her child--if there's enough left of you to do so--should you get caught by Death Eaters, as you are surely wont to, being that they are patrolling the town and surrounding areas. Should you be so stupid as to do that again the only thing, in fact, that your hometown paper will be printing is your obituary!"

"Thanks so much for the touching concern," she said with acid sweetness, her drawl dripping with sarcasm. "That nephew, you happened to mention will need to be supported and I can't do that, again as I said, without a job! As it was, no one spotted me when I left. Most anyone here doesn't care if I live or die anyway, except for Harry, and--"

"What do you mean when you 'left' no one spotted you? Is that to say that someone did, in fact, notice you on your return?" he questioned sharply.

Alyssa barely resisted the temptation to roll her eyes. God but he doesn't miss a trick, does he? "Yes, I picked up on someone following me on the way back, but" she stressed as he hissed and started pacing, "but, the animal spirits helped me get away so he has no idea where I got to. Only that I was there."

"In which case, he knows now that there's something amiss in the forest and they will now double their efforts to watch that much more closely. Well done, you've tipped them off that we are, in fact, hiding something or someone here. That should certainly curtail your visits abroad from now on." He had stopped pacing and turned to face her, his brow arched defiantly.

"What exactly am I supposed to do now then? That means I have no phone, no internet, and no way to contact my editor's office or my mother," she bit her lip and took up pacing where he had left off. "If I hand wrote everything and sent them to Hettie, she could relay them via email so Weems wouldn't suspect anything, but that could take eons with those blasted birds of yours!"

"Perhaps," Severus said, completely unconcerned.

"Deadlines are always crunch time anyway, but that would be nigh impossible to meet them. Why the devil does everything here have to be so antiquated anyway?"

"Because, as you should well know, electricity and magic do. not. mix," he ground out. "And it may have escaped your notice, but we do actually employ other birds for international travel who are much quicker than owls, especially now so when they are migrating for winter."

Alyssa stopped short in her pacing and gave in to the impulse to roll her eyes. "How exactly am I supposed to know that when I'm practically under house arrest? And when in the blazing hell were you going to get around to telling me this?" Severus merely gazed back at her blandly with those fathomless eyes of his. Damn him. Supremely unaffected as he seemed, she was glad for the spark of temper she had seen when he had dropped his control earlier. "What birds do you use then, and how would I get hold of one?"

She had the sense that he barely resisted shrugging a shoulder. "Terns are not unheard of completely in this area and typically fly as far south as Australia. Our post does employ a few for international deliveries. If Dumbledore were to post them there would be no questions; he has any number of foreign associations, even in the Americas. You could very well send them to your native shaman, in fact, if you do not want your mum getting any undue attention from those who may intercept them. I would warn you--as would Dumbledore--to be careful of the wording of your missives, however."

Alyssa didn't know whether to thank him or slap him. Why hadn't he told her this before? As he turned on his heel and strode away, his cloak billowing out behind him, she shook her head. He seemed so stoic and controlled on the surface. But just under that, she felt a swirl of turbulence and the smoldering flame of raw power. He may keep a leash on those emotions, but she wondered briefly as she followed him inside, only to find him already gone, what would happen if that leash snapped.

***

Days later, two of Hogwarts' prefects made their way via Floo to the mayor's mansion, sniping at each other along the way. Alyssa, waiting outside in the rear of the house, heard them as they approached, sounding much like she and Severus from the days before. Draco slammed out the door, with the curly-haired girl friend of Harry's storming silently behind, her mouth pursed into a prim line and looking daggers at the boy's retreating back. Where Severus had strode silently, the boy glided. One hand in his pocket and the other carrying a cane, he raised his chin a notch as he set eyes on Alyssa and she was all at once reminded of his mother, who was likely standing guard in the window of her chamber above.

Alyssa glanced up, and sure enough, the woman's pale form backed out of sight, a silent admonishment to take care of her son. She watched, grimly amused as Draco made a show of draping his cloak over the ground and placing the walking stick on one side of it before stretching his long legs out, settling gracefully over the rich fabric. She wondered briefly what his animal form might be, something proud and majestic, she was sure. But there was time for that later. Today's lesson would be a simple scrying.

As Hermione joined them, Alyssa noted the stark difference between the two. Where Draco was passionate and proud, Hermione was earthy and grounded. They seemed polar opposites, and would make great adversaries, sure. But in fact, Alyssa mused, on the Cherokee wheel they were in fact conjunct. If they ever combined their powers, they would actually compliment well. Action and fire pitted with knowledge and a rooted determination.

"O si yo," she greeted. "'O si yo' is Cherokee for 'hello'." Alyssa settled herself on the ground cross-legged as Hermione did.

"O si yo," said the younger girl, frowning when her counterpart only plucked a piece of grass from the ground and sighed.

"Are we to learn the language or the magic," he sneered.

"A bit of both," Alyssa said with a saucy smile, completely unaffected by his cavalier disinterest. She knew that what was to come would snag his attention and keep it.

"For now, we'll start the circle. If you'll watch, I'll open it, then cleanse and purify us to begin. If you have any questions about what I'm doing, I'll answer them when I come back to the circle center."

As she did when she arrived at the house, Alyssa rose and wafted sage around the circle, pausing at each of the four cardinal directions. She returned to the center, raised the shell and wafted the smoke above her, then wafted it downwards, and then waved the feather around herself and the two kids. Draco wrinkled his nose and leaned away from her, and Hermione sneezed softly. Alyssa laughed.

"It stinks to high heaven, but it is actually a sacred herb to the natives. And it is used to drive out any negative spirit from the land."

"We don't have to deal with s-spirits, do we," Draco asked, paling even more than he already was.

"Ha, no," Alyssa replied patting his arm. "That's quite a bit more advanced than anything we'll do for now. What we're doing today is scrying, but eventually I want to lead up to shape shifting. I'd love to see what your animal forms are."

"Do you mean to say we'll be able to change into animal form?" Hermione queried. "In transfiguration we've learned that only a few people are ever able to do that; it takes an extreme amount of concentration, and a natural aptitude, even according to some of the native American sources I've looked up."

Draco rolled his eyes at this.

"Ye gods, Granger, did you check out every book in the library that had anything remotely to do with native American magics?"

Hermione had the grace to blush, but said nothing to his leading comment. With a flash of insight, Alyssa knew that Draco had checked out a few himself.

"It's in her nature to gather knowledge, as it is in yours to jab and preen. She stores knowledge the way an animal might store food for winter. Hoarding it until it's needed. You, on the other hand, are the seemingly casual observer, quick and cunning, but with a very real tendency to pick on the weak or small. All of which is irrelevant now, and as I said, we'll get to it in time."

"Today," she said, waving her hand and causing a fire to erupt in the ring of small stones and effectively making the kids jump at the unvoiced magic, "today we are scrying into the flames. But first, as I said, if you have any questions about what I did when I began the ceremony, ask away."

And so, with the dying light of day, she slowly and patiently answered Hermione's barrage of questioning on the symbolism and purpose of everything she had done--even winkling a few comments out of Draco about the differences between her method of 'Seeing' versus Trelawney's sketchier version. He did show a bit of interest at the fact that her version was more steeped in spirituality than hazy references to the "Beyond."

Once dark was upon them and their questions died down to a somewhat comfortable silence, they draped their cloaks about them and faced the still crackling flames. When she deemed them ready, Alyssa gently prodded them into a more relaxed state.

"Quiet your minds," she said softly, sprinkling a few dried sage leaves on the smoldering edges of the fire. "Let yourself relax and watch the flames flicker and shift. They wave back and forth, with an ebb and flow like the tide. Your eyes will go soft, the chatter of your mind dies down, and you feel blissfully content and connected to all of nature. Under you, you feel the pulse of the earth, you feel her breath cool across your skin, hear the trickle of her blood flowing through her veins, the spark of her energy in and around you. Within you, above you, below you. Feel at peace, feel as one with her, and let go."

Seeing their jaws slacken, she let their minds drift where they would as they gazed into the flames. Knowing that they would see what they would see and eventually return, she settled into a solemn silence and simply felt the peace of the place steal over her.

Draco was the first to return to himself, shaking himself slightly when he realized he had "zoned" out, he flushed a bit as he regarded Alyssa's steady gaze and knowing smile. He looked away, into the flames again as if he could delve back into the visions it gave. It took some minutes for Hermione to come back, as it had taken her longer to relax and let go. She, like Severus, held a tight control over her mind and faculties--almost too grounded to let her mind take flight. When she finally did return, her brow furrowed as she surely wrestled with what was real.

"So, before you really start to question anything, throw out anything you saw whether you think you've imagined it or not," Alyssa began. "Don't analyze right now, and don't second guess yourself. Anything you saw in the flames themselves, or even in your mind's eye, as with a daydream can be counted for now. We'll sift through the images and try to gauge their meanings later, but first I want you to know that your spirits took flight fairly quickly for those new to this path. So let's hear it. Draco, you were back first, you begin."

Slowly, grudgingly, Draco unfolded his lanky limbs and adopted a bored mien. "I saw my father in his cell," he said, staring at the ground and picking at another piece of grass. He glanced up in Hermione's direction briefly, but she was staring at the fire and not his face.

"Think now in terms of senses, and movement," Alyssa urged. "Did you smell anything, hear anything? What was he doing? How did he look? Call up the whole image in your mind."

"He was…stripped to the waist," Draco began, "doing push-ups beside his bed. Just those striped trousers on, barefoot." He licked his lips, then continued, "I smelled the air, the salt in it from the sea, and heard the waves coming in on the rocks at the highest point of the ground. High tide. And the strong smell of damp and dung," he ground out. "Something else with a tang in the air, I couldn't place it, but it choked me."

Alyssa got an image too, and if hers was correct Draco's father was where he got more of the striking looks and regal bearing from. Even in squalor, the man gleamed like a tawny--and very dangerous--lion. The smell he described was that of decay, but she did not want to tell him. She had worked too many crime scenes reporting on death not to recognize that stench. Feeling that he was wrung out from the experience, she let him retreat into his shell again, once more to be the observer. Turning to Hermione, who was watching Draco intently with something akin to sorrow, Alyssa said simply, "okay girl, now you."

Hermione started to see Alyssa's eyes on her. She hugged her knees and shivered once before beginning, "I was in a garden, my gran's old garden." At this her voice wavered a bit, before she cleared her throat and continued. "She was there, watering her verbena and lavender. I could smell them on the breeze--and I felt that, the light breeze on my arms. I was a little girl again. There was a gerbera daisy there that had wilted, the bloom was drooping, and I touched it--felt that, too--and said a strengthening charm for it, like Professor Sprout taught us."

Her voice throbbed with emotion, her eyes watery with unshed tears. She dashed them away with the back of her hand, and laughed a bit. "Sorry," she said abashedly. "Gran saw me do it, and I wondered a moment what she would say or think of what I had done. She never saw me do magic before she…passed," Hermione exhaled, took a breath, and started again. "She touched the bloom too, and looked at me all astonished at what I had done. And then she smiled, and hugged me to her. And she said, 'my Ermi girl, what a blessing you have!'"

She smiled too, at the vision, almost a memory but not quite. Her face glowed in the firelight, illuminating the tracks of the tears that flowed freely now. Draco handed her a handkerchief. She blinked rapidly, as if realizing he was there, looked at the proffered cloth and then at her classmate.

"For the waterworks, Granger." His derisive reply was muted in its effrontery by the gravelly raw emotion in his voice. Draco clearly was still recovering from his own vision quest.

Alyssa cleared her throat gently. "The emotions that these visions have drudged up are themselves a clear indication that what you saw is real. You, Draco, ventured elsewhere in the here and now to visit your dad who you miss in your life. And you, Hermione, traveled to Spirit to visit someone apart from you as well. Those glimpses reinforce though, that we are still connected to them by a thread and can commune with them in trance by calling on that connection."

"Likewise, the sensory experiences are the proof. You felt and heard and smelled and saw every bit as much as you are now because you were there. Just as you feel the earth under you here, the flames warming your body, and scent of the herbs and fire in the air. Think of what else you noticed, what did you see at the beginning? What did you see at the end?"

"I heard wings at the beginning," Hermione said. "A flutter of wings just over my shoulder, and a raven cawing in the distance as it flew away at the end."

"I did too," chimed in Draco in awe. "I didn't hear it, but I saw it, perched on the window of my father's cell. My dad looked at me, too. At least it looked like it. He stopped what we was doing for just a moment and looked over his shoulder as though he knew I was there."

"People with abilities can sense someone in Spirit. The fact that you are connected father to son makes it that much easier. I'll ask you too. Keep an eye out for a sign or some sort of symbol in the next day or so that will let you know that what you saw was real. Typically it is something of nature that you come across, something that resonates with you. Or it may simply be an extremely uncanny coincidence--or several of them even."

"I will tell you this: in Cherokee medicine, Raven is a bringer of visions. Raven's medicine is that of the messenger and he connects you to Spirit. Raven's totem also shows up when you are at a crossroads in life, have a choice to make, or are about to branch off onto a new path. That could apply to both of you right now."

"That's right!" Hermione exclaimed softly. "I remember reading that. It's uncanny that we both saw or heard one then, as if to usher in the vision and then to take us out of it."

Draco merely looked pensive.

"Yes," Alyssa replied. "That is very typical." She glanced up to see Severus standing on the small portico watching silently. "And I guess that's our cue." The kids looked around to see their professor waiting nearby.

"Well," she said letting out a breath. "Just pay attention to your dreams tonight. They may be especially vivid and may even contain more images from your quests this evening. And don't forget what I said about signs," she added as they walked back to the door. Alyssa turned around and raised a palm toward the fire, then dropped it and the fire extinguished itself.

She said goodnight to the trio as they walked through the Floo, and to Narcissa as she passed the woman quietly regarding her in the doorway. Since Narcissa never spoke, she assumed there was nothing to be said. The other woman merely shook her head and returned to her room.

Back at Hogwarts, Severus led the students back to their rooms, Hermione first since she was housed furthest from his own quarters. Behind him the two walked silently side by side until they reached the portrait of the Fat Lady. When Hermione made to return his handkerchief, earning a pair of raised brows from Snape, Draco simply waved her off. "Keep it," he said. Then added a moment later, before turning and heading down the hall, "it's got your bogeys on it anyway."
- 8
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Deep Roots