The Seal of the Sorcerers

Chapter Seven

It took about two hours for Harry to wrap his head around the fact that Snape was capable of talking to his parents whenever he liked. In fact, Snape was capable of talking to anyone whenever he liked, living or dead.

" So that was why you kept saying my mother's name at the platform." Harry realized. " She was talking to you."

" She wanted me to stop looking for the rogue." Severus shrugged. " Had I known we would have lost him anyway, I would have done what she asked." His expression turned a little, as if someone was talking to him. " She sends you her love, as usual."

Harry could not respond. What was he supposed to say?

This Snape was nothing like the Snape he knew. The man was a completely different man. He was more at ease with everyone, less alert, less reserved, and though he had yet to crack an actual joke, he seemed funnier somehow, more humorous. Or perhaps it was the fact that this Snape was usually in good humor, while the Old Snape pretty much never was. He seemed content, Harry had to admit. More at peace. If Rarth was any indication, other sorcerers were endeared to him. He was well-taken care of, and according to Rarth, Snape takes good care of everyone else, being as powerful as he was. Twenty years was a long time, and Snape looked healed from it all. He walked through Hogwarts with a kind of authority that surpassed even Dumbledore. He was the Sorcerer Severus. He had nothing to fear.

What struck Harry was how easy he could understand why Snape saw no reason to return. There simply did not seem to be a point, to come back to a world he had hidden in the shadows of for so long. When he died he had died a traitor, and though Harry's mother no doubt told him about how they now honor him as a war hero, Severus had no close emotional ties, no real family to come back to.

" Oh poo." Rarth commented as he tossed a crystal ball up and down. " These things are incredibly inefficient. What is it made of, glass?"

Severus scowled at him. " What are you trying to do? Find the rogue with one of those divination spheres?"

" Worth a shot." Rarth shrugged. " Too bad neither you nor the Sorceress is all that keen on stabbing the web to look for this guy."

" What's he talking about?" Harry demanded.

" Stabbing the web." Severus repeated, before realizing the young wizard did not know what that meant. " The world is a web of magic, the magical world especially. It is therefore difficult to locate an individual wizard or sorcerer if they are far away enough. To locate them magically you have to stab the web, as the saying goes, so you tear the web apart temporarily so things are not as integrated. The Point-Me spell does something similar, but I—" He frowned. " You think if I cast a Point-Me spell it would work?"

" You have a wand?" Rarth asked. " Don't you need a wand for that?"

Severus found himself thanking Ollivander for making him buy the wand. He pulled it out.

" A white one." Harry noted. " Now that I have not seen before."

" Careful." Rarth frowned. " If you're too vague you'll break the wand from stress." He headed out to the hall in an attempt to locate the rogue anyway, though the two sorcerers both knew it would be fruitless.

" What?" Ginny was the one that asked this time.

Severus took a moment to marvel at Aralyn's patience. It is a bit annoying having to explain all these things.

" For wizards, the wand acts as a way to direct magical energy, but it also amplifies magic." Severus cast a glance at Rarth and wondered if he should have let the other sorcerer do the explaining. " But wands have a limit as well. Sorcerers would normally exceed that limit. When that happens…the wand breaks."

" Are you going to get on with it already?" Rarth yelled.

" Should I just call him 'rogue'?"

" That's a bit too broad, you'll break the wand."

" Aralyn, do you have a name yet?" Severus asked out loud.

Silence. The Sorceress definitely heard him, but had nothing to tell him.

" Why do you always ask her out loud?" Rarth asked as he headed back into the room.

Severus ignored his question. " I do not want to break my wand."

" Maybe you should point it to the Blood Seal." Rarth suggested. " You might as well. Blood Seal's practically a person."

The wizards glanced at each other. Though the sorcerers had explained everything to them, they still did not quite understand just what having a 'conscience' actually meant.

" Point me Blood Seal."

Poof! The wand puffed a bit of smoke.

Rarth choked and started coughing from the smoke. " You sure you did that right, kid?" He asked, waving at the air to dispel the fumes.

Severus barely managed to avoid turning red. " I am fairly certain that is how you do the spell."

Hermione glanced at Ron. As far as she could see, Severus did everything correctly.

" It has been twenty years since you tried this spell," Rarth pointed out, " Or any wizarding spell, for that matter."

" It's a Point-Me spell. It is very straightforward."

" Try it wandless."

Severus sighed a little in exasperation, but he tucked his wand away and repeated the spell. He took a step to the right suddenly. " Whoa." He murmured, flailing his arms a little to maintain his balance.

Rarth grabbed his arm. " North, then." He started laughing, " Ah, when wandless, it points you, eh?"

Severus glared at him.

" What a poor wizard you make now," Rarth laughed as he strolled out, " Poof! Right? Alakazam?"

" Oh come off it, you." Severus sneered as he followed him out. Rarth just laughed harder.

The real wizards looked at each other after this exchange. Twenty years was plenty of time for someone to change, but for them it still felt sudden and unexpected.

" Harry, are you okay?" Ginny asked.

" I don't know." Harry said quietly. " The man I looked up to the most is back and I don't know him at all. Not that I ever did but…" But this is like a kick in the gut. Would that Snape were like this before. Were that he was able to be as comfortable as Rarth is, so long ago. But Snape was maintaining an act, and he did not know any better.

There is still time, he told himself. Snape is here. Alive, and, well, different. But he recalled the pained look on Snape's face when he had ranted at the man. Snape understood, even if he was different. And who was to say that this was not Snape all along, underneath the double-agent?

Severus suddenly peered into the room, sticking his head in a way that made him look very mischievous, even if his expression was serious. " Potter?" He called. " Do you want to come?"

" You'll have to make sure he doesn't get sealed though, Sev!"

" I think I can manage that!" Severus retorted back with a scowl. Then his expression smoothed as he looked at the wizards. " Do you guys want to come? You will have to stick close, or at least it is better for my sanity if you stick close, but I figured since Harry here is on the case."

Harry? Harry thought. Snape had first called him Potter, and then absently called him Harry. Perhaps all those conversations with his mum had changed the way Snape thought of him.

" I'll go." Harry offered.

" Me too." Ron insisted.

Hermione and Ginny, both much less adventurous now that they have children, declined the offer. The offer had not been extended to Cho, who needed to be at Hogwarts for the Welcoming Feast. Severus just inclined his head toward her in a slight apology.

" Where exactly are we going?" Harry asked.

" North. Though I do not know how far." Severus rubbed his nose. He caught up with Rarth, who was standing outside in the main hall of Hogwarts.

" Do that spell again." Rarth insisted.

Severus had a scowl on his face again. " Point Me Blood Seal."

This time the reaction was much more dramatic. Severus slipped on the polished Hogwarts floor and the spell made his body slide across until he hit the main doors with a loud thunk. " Ow!"

" Whoa!" Rarth rushed over to him. " Are you okay there?"

" I just got smacked into the freaking door!" Severus snapped as Rarth reached out a hand to help him up. " Rotten spell!"

" Well that spell is out, I guess."

" No." Severus brushed off his robes. " I am going to do a little tweaking."

" Oh dear." Rarth glanced wryly at the wizards. " He's going to do a little tweaking."

" Shut up." Severus pulled out his wand.

" What's he going to do?" Harry asked, with some concern.

" You'll see."

" They work, what are you talking about?" Severus scowled at Rarth.

" Oh, just that your famous tweaking has the effect of, well, tweaking a lot of other things."

" Come off it. Point Me Blood Seal! Whoa!" Severus grabbed on magically to his wand as it suddenly shot away from his hand. The wand, now suspended in the air, began twisting under the tension. Severus quickly canceled the earlier spell.

" What were you trying to do?" Rarth asked.

" Get the spell to point the wand instead of me." Severus scowled even deeper. " It was supposed to point the wand in the right direction, like a compass; not zip it off to the location!"

" Uh…" Harry blinked. " Should…should we try it instead? Since…you guys have…uh, power issues?"

The two sorcerers glanced at each other. Severus waved, a bit imperiously, reminiscent of how he gestured in the past, for Harry to do the spell.

" Point Me Blood Seal."

The wand spun towards the door, as the spell had directed many times before, without a fuss.

Rarth started chuckling, and Severus rolled his eyes.

oO

Harry and Ron bore witness to some very interesting aspects of sorcery, such as the fact that all sorcerers have the ability to instantly cancel out or neutralize any spell they sense forming that is not stronger than they are, including Killing Curses, transfigurations, conjurations, and in this case, the Blood Seal trying to claim something. Apparently, Snape was considered incredibly powerful, for Rarth implied that while Snape could do a long-distance neutralization on the Blood Seal's claim, he could not, though he could also sense when there is a sealing at work. And apparently Snape was stronger than the Blood Seal.

That did not mean, however, that the rogue did not have defenses against him.

" He is going to annoy me to death." Snape declared with a huff.

" I thought you were more powerful than him." Ron inquired.

" That does not mean I can do anything to him so long as he keeps running away." Snape glared at Ron. " I cannot defeat what I can't catch. And he is making the catch more difficult than I am willing to tolerate at the moment."

" Fortunately Severus here knows how to affect spells from long-distance." Rarth grinned. " This means we can all take a break and you guys can tell me all about how Short-stuff was before we got him."

" Rarth, I'm taller than you."

" You look shorter."

Snape's expression morphed into that of bemusement.

Harry and Ron, now adults themselves, found it rather difficult to admit that before the sorcerers got Snape, Snape had been a 'greasy git'. They kept their silence. Snape, for his part, did not appear to wish to hear about his past.

" Would you give it a rest, Rarth?" He asked, for the first time sounding truly annoyed.

Rarth glanced at him, his smile leaving his face. " Don't wish to talk about it?"

Snape swept past him. Rarth sighed. The wizards started as Snape disappeared.

" Touchy." Rarth glanced at the wizards. " Well, since he went home, I will too."

" Home?" Harry echoed.

" His hut. Sorcerer hut." Rarth waved. " We will be back soon. Think this fiasco ruined his mood. Ah well. Have a good day!" And he disappeared as well.

Harry and Ron stared at each other.

oO

" He keeps disappearing." Severus poured the tea, later that evening, trying not to spill it in his frustration. " He keeps slipping from under our noses. As soon as we arrive he has disappeared somewhere."

" Welcome to the world of sorcery." The Sorceress deadpanned. She had come over to his hut, sensing his distress.

Severus snorted. " I don't want him killing more people. This is incredibly infuriating."

" Ah, what did I say before?" The Sorceress took her cup and sipped. " If you are really so anxious to leave the Wizarding world, my friend, I can take care of the rogue for you."

Severus paused in mid-sip. " You did not send out a rogue just to prolong my stay, I hope."

" I am not so devious." The Sorceress set down her cup. " Clearly, your visit to the Wizarding World has undone all the sense you have acquired in the last twenty years. Your wizarding friends may choose to put such an asinine plot into action, but I am not so insipid."

" I did not—" Severus paused. " Alright, I did mean it. But you are taking advantage of the situation."

" Quite." The Sorceress sipped again.

Severus set his cup down. " Why do I have to go back?" He suddenly asked. " I could spend the rest of my life here. It's not like they really miss me."

" You know that is not true."

No, it was not. Harry's voice still resonated in his mind. I mourned for you! " But they were moving on. So was I. Not to mention, I could always talk to them after they die, if there are still any unresolved issues."

" Severus," The Sorceress set her cup down, " You were moving on despite it all. You are going to live for a long time. You may think that your freedom to speak to the dead can take care of any issues and there is no such thing as 'too late' for you, but there is. Spirits change when they die. The mere fact that they are not alive changes a great many of their perspectives. James Potter, Albus Dumbledore, Sirius Black—these people are not the people you know. They have gone. They linger for you, because you needed them. But they are still gone in all other aspects of the word. You pledged over a decade of your life to the Wizarding World. That has its consequences. That leaves its scars. And come time, you cannot keep ignoring them. Death is a static state of existence. It never changes. There is no sense of Time. Life, however, is dynamic. The choices involved are crucial. By avoiding the wizards you hinder them from making the choices they would otherwise have made, from following the path they would otherwise follow. What is more, by avoiding the wizards, you, too, hinder yourself from making the choices and following paths you would have chosen and followed. And you cannot say that you can make it all up again after those important to you have passed away. That is not how it works."

" Hmph." Severus knew she was right. " At least I have you and Rarth."

" And others, once they finish their respective tasks." The Sorceress leaned back. " Do not be too discouraged, Severus. It is the weak ones that are the hardest to catch. They are the least straightforward."

" Indeed." Severus gulped down his tea this time.

Severus?

The Sorceress looked up. Eileen Prince was the only spirit who did not flee the Sorceress. It was a comfort, actually, that his mother could talk to her son whether or not his mentor was present.

" Hi Mum." Severus acknowledged, wondering if Potter and the Weasleys would have a heart attack if they heard him say that. " It has been a long time. Where were you?"

In the gardens. We were wondering why you would not go home.

Severus resisted the urge to growl. " Why is everyone pushing me towards Spinner's End?"

" I am not." The Sorceress grinned at him.

" Except you." Severus corrected. " Mum, I'll go there. I promise. I just want to see everything else first." He grumbled. " I have never run away from anything before. Even if I really really wanted to." He sounded like a spoiled child, but he was seriously peeved now.

" I will endeavor to make things easy for you, Severus." The Sorceress laughed. " Rarth, bless his heart, merely wanted to see what your house looked like out of curiosity; nothing more. You need not feel pressured. We love you dearly."

Severus bit his lip and poured himself some hot tea again. He chugged it, despite the burn. The Sorceress just watched him, amused.

" Whatever happens, you still have us." She reminded him.

Severus sighed.