sylvanawood (sylvanawood) wrote in storiesfromwood, @ 2008-03-28 14:23:00 |
|
|||
Entry tags: | a most important element in water |
AMIEW II - 11. Waging War
Disclaimer: Nothing you recognise belongs to me. Just borrowed. Will be returned. Snape is welcome to stay, though.
A big Thank You goes to my beta-reader, Maggie, and my beta-reader and brit-picker, Melusin, who both are always encouraging, helpful, and thorough.
5. Thus, though we have heard of stupid haste in war,
cleverness has never been seen associated with long delays.
7. It's only one thoroughly acquainted with the evils of war
that can thoroughly understand the profitable way of carrying it on.
19. In war, then, let your great object be victory,
not lengthy campaigns.
(Sun Tzu, The Art of War, II. Waging War)
After walking in silence down the passageway for some time, Snape and Hermione reached another underground river and walked along its shore. It had become warmer; the air was very sticky, and although her hair was still damp, Hermione was sweating. The passageway was very narrow now, and more than once, Snape alerted Hermione to a low hanging stalactite or a rock overhang where they both had to stoop not to bump their heads.
Snape was silent, and Hermione didn't ask questions because they needed their full concentration to follow the narrow and slippery path. Eventually, the path became wider, and Hermione thought that she saw a faint light in a distance. A few moments later, they reached the cave entrance.
Hermione looked around, baffled. The opening led directly into farmland; the stubble on the harvested fields was glowing in the faint, silvery light of the stars and the crescent moon. With a pang of sadness, Hermione identified Sirius, the Dog Star, and a few other constellations, which told her that they were facing South-East.
Snape watched her take in her surroundings. When she finally looked at him again, he gave her a twisted smile, bent towards her ear and whispered, "Uamh Nan Guthan!"
Wide-eyed, Hermione saw the landscape change. Where earlier empty fields had stretched out before her eyes, now a range of softly rolling hills, a harsh limestone peak and a forested valley with a meandering river seemed to nudge the fields aside and take their place instead.
"Welcome to the Appin Nan Guthan Underground refuge, Miss Granger. We're now in the realm of the ancient stone circle of Appin and its residual magic; we can do our own magic again without fear of being detected. However, the whole area is under Anti-Apparition spells, so we shall use other means of transport."
Snape cast a drying charm on their hair and took two more phials out of his pocket. As Hermione drank the Pepperup Potion he had given her and watched the steam coming out of his ears after he drank his own potion, she wondered how many more phials he could hide in those robes.
"Sir, can I have my wand back, now?" Hermione gave him a hopeful look.
"I broke it," he murmured.
"What? How could.... Why?"
"Would you have preferred it being used by a Death Eater?" he snarled. "Because that's where it would have ended up."
"No." Hermione flinched.
"You shall get another wand. But first, we must reach our destination."
Hermione swallowed and nodded.
Snape went back to the cave entrance, tapped his wand against the wall and retrieved two brooms from a hidden niche.
"They're family models—easy to fly," he told her with a smirk.
"I can fly on a broomstick," Hermione said, slightly offended. "I just don't like flying very much in general."
"It'll do. Being adept at different forms of transportation is essential for an active fighter. I presume, given your history with Potter and Weasley, that you would wish to join the active fighters?"
"Err...."
"You don't need to decide today. We should get going." But instead of taking off, he looked up into the sky and let out a bird-like whistle.
"Why did you do that?"
"You'll see." He mounted his broom and took off. Behind him, Hermione hurried to keep up.
They were flying at a comfortable height, not too fast, following the river into the valley when a large bird approached Snape and flew alongside him. Snape whistled again and descended to the ground.
When Hermione landed at his side, he was standing with a brown barn owl on his shoulder and whispering something into the bird's ear. With a soft hoot, and a nibble at his hair, the bird took flight again and disappeared into the night.
Snape was about to take off again when Hermione stopped him. "What was that all about?"
"That was my familiar. Fierce Lady Mouse Hunter—Lady Mouse for short. She will announce our arrival."
"But... you didn't give her anything—no parchment .... How?" Hermione felt confusion take hold of her again. Would the surprises of the day never end? Only a fraction of her many questions had been answered, and she was tired to the bone. Her face must have shown her perplexity because Snape gave her a resigned sigh and explained, "Lady Mouse is a true familiar. She can communicate with me directly. She will give my message to one of the familiars in the cave, and this, in turn, will alert its master or mistress. She's faster than we are; the cave will know that the intruders are friendly."
"But...."
Snape silenced her with a glare. "There will be time to discuss all this, Miss Granger. If you don't stop your questions, we will never arrive at our destination. So, be quiet and let's get going."
Back on their brooms, they followed the river again until it made a sharp south turn, and the limestone peak rose in front of them. Uphill they flew until Snape stopped at a small spring that was bubbling out of the rocks. He took his wand and waved an intricate pattern, every wave revealing silvery, shimmering lines that crisscrossed and covered the rock surface like a spider's web.
When the completed web was revealed, Snape chanted a seemingly nonsensical sequence of syllables, and the shiny web dimmed, only to reveal another cave entrance.
Snape led Hermione inside, turned, and reactivated the protective web.
While Hermione took in her surroundings, a figure emerged out of the shadows in the back of the cave. It was a young wizard she had seen at Hogwarts; he had been a few years ahead of her and her friends. However, she couldn’t remember his name.
"Nundu, good to see you. Everything went well, I see." The young man greeted Snape with a smile and gave Hermione a friendly nod. She watched Snape return the greeting and then followed him into another passageway.
"We're almost there," Snape said, but by now Hermione was so tired, she didn't really care. A seemingly endless descent down a tunnel, then more walking in a stretch of a gradually widening passage followed.
"That young wizard was Jeremiah Cadwallader, also known as Greyhound," Snape explained. "He was on duty; everybody takes their turn on watch duty at regular intervals."
Hermione sighed in relief when she saw a light ahead of her. They had finally reached their destination. Snape led her into a brightly lit, large cavern that appeared to be a sort of Great Hall or common room. A huge fireplace with sofas and armchairs looked like an area for meeting, talking and relaxing. Large tables with chairs indicated the dining area. In the back, fabric and wood panels seemed to separate private living areas from the rest of the cavern. Adjacent caves, visible through the openings, seemed to hold more of these private areas.
A stately looking witch was standing at the cavern's entrance to greet them. It was Emmeline Vance.
"Welcome to Nan Guthan, Hermione. Do you remember me?"
"Of course I do." Hermione beamed. She was too tired to be surprised by dead people showing up left and right. "It is so good to see you alive, Madam Vance!"
"Call me Emmeline, or Bee. That's my DA name. We live like a family, here." She ushered Hermione and Snape to the next table and brought them stew, bread and something to drink. Her actions reminded Hermione of Molly Weasley. However, her demeanour was completely different. Emmeline Vance was using swift, precise movements that testified her efficiency without being overbearing.
"You have wine?" Hermione asked while she wolfed down her stew. She blinked her tiredness away and looked at the food and drink. "Where does this come from? Where do you get all this food to feed your people? Don't you need a lot of money for this?"
"We'll explain it to you tomorrow," Emmeline said, while Snape leaned back with a huge yawn and smirked at Hermione. The older witch led Hermione to one of the small structures. Inside, the structure revealed a small bedroom with an adjacent bathroom. Hermione smiled; the same charm that expanded tents on the inside seemed to have been used on these structures.
"Go to bed and sleep well, girl." Emmeline Vance said. "I shall be outside. I won't sleep tonight. If you need me, call. Many people have nightmares during their first night here."
"Thank you. Goodnight," Hermione murmured tiredly. She kicked off her shoes, threw off her robes and fell onto the comfortable bed where she sank into a deep sleep before her head touched her pillow.