Moon Magic 10
Nov. 2nd, 2007 05:12 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
lit_galMoon Magic 10
Faith/Snape --
Previous Chapters
Riley is pulled into a new world as the result of a vague spell, and now it's Faith to the rescue. But in the Harry Potter universe, rescues are never that easy.Rated: Teen
Faith/Snape --
Previous Chapters
Riley was giving himself fodder for a million nightmares reading about boggarts and red caps and kappas and dementors along with the more familiar banshees and vampires. He just had to send up a quick prayer of thanks that this wasn't his world and he didn't have to fight these creatures.
The fireplace flared again, and Riley stood, expecting Snape and Faith to come through the fireplace together this time. Instead, an old man with glasses popped through and looked around curiously.
"Ah, my boy. There you are. It's nice to see you back on your feet again," he said cheerfully, and Riley felt a cold creeping up his back as he recognized him. Snape with that wand of his made Riley's skin crawl, but this was the man who gave Snape orders in that big office. Despite the cheerful and quite frankly slightly senile image the man projected, Riley didn't feel comfortable. He wanted to poke around the edges of this act and find whatever power would make Snape back off.
"Riley Finn, U.S. Army," Riley introduced himself.
"Yes, yes. I am sorry about Miss Granger's ill-advised spell. I'm sure it has inconvenienced you tremendously. I don't know if you remember me, but I am Professor Dumbledore."
Riley blinked as he tried to ignore a threat assessment nerve that jangled as Dumbledore wandered the room poking at the fallen books with his foot before sweeping around to pin Riley with a stare.
"I remember," Riley said slowly. "We met right after the spell."
"Moon magic," Dumbledore nodded. "Moon magic is something most witches and wizards would never attempt. Notta Bellaificus was a unique witch."
Riley watched impassively, even when Dumbledore looked over, that watery gaze inviting him to ask a question or demand some answer. Riley might have asked one of the dozen questions rattling around in his head if he had any idea how to categorize this man, but he'd run into Dumbledore's name twice in Snape's book, and both times, he had been described as the powerful wizard who had destroyed some dark beast. So Riley wasn't buying the harmless act Dumbledore wore like that cloak.
"She was muggle born. I vaguely remember her from when I was a boy, fascinating woman. She had a very strong belief in faith and God, and much of her magic incorporates that fascination for a higher power. Do you share that belief Mr. Finn?" Dumbledore looked at him as if the answer were no more important than the temperature outside, but if he were just looking for casual conversation, this was a strange place to start.
"Yes," Riley agreed carefully. Dumbledore nodded.
"I had thought you might." The toothed book on the floor snapped at Dumbledore's robes as he walked by, and the man made a little clucking sound before he bent over and carefully stroked the spine of the book. With a soft purr, the book fell silent, the teeth disappearing into simple pages before Dumbledore picked the book up and replaced it on the shelf.
"Forgive the question, but being raised in the wizarding world, I fear I am unversed in some of the less studied muggle customs. What does having this faith entail?"
"Excuse me?" Riley moved toward the living room, but Dumbledore had his back turned as he studied the books on the shelf.
"Faith in god, it's a concept one does not often encounter in the wizarding world."
"I don't plan on discussing my faith in God with you. That's rather personal," Riley said firmly. He thought Dumbledore might be angry, but he just turned around and nodded calmly as though he liked Riley's answer.
"Of course, forgive the curiosity of an old man. I imagine you are quite sick of being in here with all of Snape's dusty tomes." Dumbledore turned and gave him a smile. "Would you like a tour of the school?"
"A tour?" Riley repeated suspiciously.
"My boy, you are simply too suspicious," Dumbledore tisked mildly as he pulled out his wand. Riley froze, but all Dumbledore did was head for the door and tap it, making it swing open so Riley could see the corridor outside. Riley had no doubt that the tour had a purpose other than entertaining him, but information was information.
"It is a little stuffy in here," he agreed as he headed for the door.
"Quite so. Severus truly should consider windows." Dumbledore followed Riley out into the corridor where torches set into the wall illuminated the darkness. At the far end of the hall, Riley could see an arched window that showed nothing other than stars and the blue-black of night. "Severus is an amazing man in whom I have every confidence, but his taste in decorating is rather dismal."
Riley really couldn't disagree, but he didn't say that as they walked through various hallways where some of the portraits held pictures of sleeping people and others watched. After the pictures in the books he'd studied, Riley had a pretty good idea of how the magic worked, but he still had to pinch himself to quite believe in such an obvious and casual use of magic. "Faith and Snape have been gone a long time," Riley eventually offered once he realized that Dumbledore's idea of a tour was to silently walk the halls.
"Severus can certainly handle himself and based on his description of your friend, I suspect Faith is equally competent."
"But aren't you a little worried."
"Assuredly not. They shall be fine," Dumbledore announced, and Riley understood an order to drop a subject when he heard one. "I have spoken to Miss Granger about the thoughtlessness she has shown toward you, and she is sincerely apologetic. She had only hoped to help a friend."
"Help a friend? If she wanted answers for her calculus exam, I'm afraid it's been a few years since I've been in high school."
"Ah," Dumbledore said ambiguously. "Yes, well unfortunately the times are rather more desperate than that. And in desperate times, we all have our parts to play, do we not?"
Up to this point, Riley had concentrated on learning the route from Snape's quarters out into the castle. He'd been estimating distances and mentally mapping the various landmarks along the way like the stone gargoyle and the painting of the thin-faced man who had stuck his tongue out at them as they passed. But now Riley concentrated on just the old man.
"In desperate times, I think we all do things we wouldn't normally consider," he agreed, not really sure what he was agreeing to, but it was the truth.
Dumbledore nodded. "Yes, even when it is children who must play their parts. I find that quite the most disagreeable part."
Riley thought about how he'd felt when he found out that Buffy had been called at fifteen, that the world had stolen her childhood and expected her to make the most unthinkable of sacrifices when she wasn't even old enough to understand what death really meant. She'd learned, but the price she had paid had made Riley want to pull her into his arms and hold her and give her back a moment where she didn't have to be the slayer. Of course, in the end he had lost her because she couldn't ever forget who she was or the burden she carried. And Riley had been left feeling like he never had Buffy at all.
"I wish children weren't a part of the fight," Riley admitted, "but--"
"But sometimes they must be. Sometimes we shall lose the fight without them," Dumbledore nodded. "And knowing that, it does behoove us to forgive them and perhaps make a few sacrifices for them." Dumbledore fell silent, but he had successfully made Riley wonder what was going on that the girl had summoned him. "Oh my. I have something which needs attending. I am sorry, but I don't have time to escort you back, but you'll be fine here, won't you?" Dumbledore rattled the words off as he backed away, his eyes already focusing somewhere else.
Riley opened his mouth to agree, but Dumbledore vanished. One moment he was in the hall backing up toward the coat of arms and the next he was simply gone. "Damn," Riley whispered as he realized he was effectively stranded unless he wanted to wander around the dim halls of a magical castle alone. Maybe it was years of growing up on horror films, or maybe it was reading that book of Snape's, but Riley really didn't feel like getting lost in some basement.
With a sigh, he headed for the railing that overlooked the giant maze of staircases. They had started in the dungeon, but he and Dumbledore had somehow ended up on a hall half-way up the tangled mass of stairwells, seemingly without climbing any stairs. Obviously Riley's mental map of the place had developed a few flaws because he had assumed they were still on the lower levels.
"Hello," a child's voice said from behind. Riley turned and nearly snorted in laughter at the girl with a hat that closely resembled a soggy pancake.
"Hi," he answered.
"We shouldn't be out here. Are you hunting the banded ceryneian frofentor too?" She looked at him with a wide-eyed wondering surprise that made Riley feel faintly guilty for not hunting them.
"No, I was just waiting for someone."
She nodded. "I find that if someone has asked me to wait and they don't show up for an hour, that often means they don't plan to come back for me," she suggested. Her hat rippled, the rim dipping down to nearly cover her eyes and she shoved at it until it curled back up again. Riley couldn't quite figure out what to say to that. "Would you like to hunt banded ceryneian frofentor with me?"
"Are you sure you should be hunting them alone?" Riley asked. He hadn't run into that particular species in Snape's book, but she didn't look substantial enough to take out a mosquito, wand or no wand. She just giggled though.
"If you can touch their tails, you get good luck. The house elves bring them in, but you can only catch them on nights with a quarter moon in years ruled by Sagittarius. My father wrote all about them in his paper, so I'm surprised more students aren't trying to find one tonight. But then again, it is against the rules to be out of the tower so late. You don't look like a student though, so if you want to come with me, I'm sure that's not against the rules."
"I think I better wait here," Riley said. "But if it's against the rules to be out, don't you think you should head back to your tower?"
The girl nodded. "I wonder if it would count if I brought back a banded ceryneian frofentor for you to touch. I know it's not the same as hunting one for yourself, but you've been so nice. I'm Luna," she said brightly, still nodding even thought she was completely rejecting Riley's suggestion.
"Nice to meet you, Luna. I'm Riley, and while that would be nice of you, I'm sure Professor Dumbledore will be back by then," Riley said as he started to wonder if the child has some problem a little more serious than the hat which had started to squirm again.
"Okay. Well, I'd better go before all the frofentor are gone." The girl went tripping down the stairs, her hat so large that once she reached the next landing, he could only see it as it bounced on her head. Riley blamed his amusement for the fact that he didn't hear anyone coming up behind him.
"Well, if it isn't a muggle," a nasally voice said. Riley turned to find the Malfoy boy looking at him, a wand already drawn and a couple of kids who looked like escapees from a juvenile correction facility flanking him on either side.
"Malfoy," Riley answered. Well, shit. This probably wasn't good.
The fireplace flared again, and Riley stood, expecting Snape and Faith to come through the fireplace together this time. Instead, an old man with glasses popped through and looked around curiously.
"Ah, my boy. There you are. It's nice to see you back on your feet again," he said cheerfully, and Riley felt a cold creeping up his back as he recognized him. Snape with that wand of his made Riley's skin crawl, but this was the man who gave Snape orders in that big office. Despite the cheerful and quite frankly slightly senile image the man projected, Riley didn't feel comfortable. He wanted to poke around the edges of this act and find whatever power would make Snape back off.
"Riley Finn, U.S. Army," Riley introduced himself.
"Yes, yes. I am sorry about Miss Granger's ill-advised spell. I'm sure it has inconvenienced you tremendously. I don't know if you remember me, but I am Professor Dumbledore."
Riley blinked as he tried to ignore a threat assessment nerve that jangled as Dumbledore wandered the room poking at the fallen books with his foot before sweeping around to pin Riley with a stare.
"I remember," Riley said slowly. "We met right after the spell."
"Moon magic," Dumbledore nodded. "Moon magic is something most witches and wizards would never attempt. Notta Bellaificus was a unique witch."
Riley watched impassively, even when Dumbledore looked over, that watery gaze inviting him to ask a question or demand some answer. Riley might have asked one of the dozen questions rattling around in his head if he had any idea how to categorize this man, but he'd run into Dumbledore's name twice in Snape's book, and both times, he had been described as the powerful wizard who had destroyed some dark beast. So Riley wasn't buying the harmless act Dumbledore wore like that cloak.
"She was muggle born. I vaguely remember her from when I was a boy, fascinating woman. She had a very strong belief in faith and God, and much of her magic incorporates that fascination for a higher power. Do you share that belief Mr. Finn?" Dumbledore looked at him as if the answer were no more important than the temperature outside, but if he were just looking for casual conversation, this was a strange place to start.
"Yes," Riley agreed carefully. Dumbledore nodded.
"I had thought you might." The toothed book on the floor snapped at Dumbledore's robes as he walked by, and the man made a little clucking sound before he bent over and carefully stroked the spine of the book. With a soft purr, the book fell silent, the teeth disappearing into simple pages before Dumbledore picked the book up and replaced it on the shelf.
"Forgive the question, but being raised in the wizarding world, I fear I am unversed in some of the less studied muggle customs. What does having this faith entail?"
"Excuse me?" Riley moved toward the living room, but Dumbledore had his back turned as he studied the books on the shelf.
"Faith in god, it's a concept one does not often encounter in the wizarding world."
"I don't plan on discussing my faith in God with you. That's rather personal," Riley said firmly. He thought Dumbledore might be angry, but he just turned around and nodded calmly as though he liked Riley's answer.
"Of course, forgive the curiosity of an old man. I imagine you are quite sick of being in here with all of Snape's dusty tomes." Dumbledore turned and gave him a smile. "Would you like a tour of the school?"
"A tour?" Riley repeated suspiciously.
"My boy, you are simply too suspicious," Dumbledore tisked mildly as he pulled out his wand. Riley froze, but all Dumbledore did was head for the door and tap it, making it swing open so Riley could see the corridor outside. Riley had no doubt that the tour had a purpose other than entertaining him, but information was information.
"It is a little stuffy in here," he agreed as he headed for the door.
"Quite so. Severus truly should consider windows." Dumbledore followed Riley out into the corridor where torches set into the wall illuminated the darkness. At the far end of the hall, Riley could see an arched window that showed nothing other than stars and the blue-black of night. "Severus is an amazing man in whom I have every confidence, but his taste in decorating is rather dismal."
Riley really couldn't disagree, but he didn't say that as they walked through various hallways where some of the portraits held pictures of sleeping people and others watched. After the pictures in the books he'd studied, Riley had a pretty good idea of how the magic worked, but he still had to pinch himself to quite believe in such an obvious and casual use of magic. "Faith and Snape have been gone a long time," Riley eventually offered once he realized that Dumbledore's idea of a tour was to silently walk the halls.
"Severus can certainly handle himself and based on his description of your friend, I suspect Faith is equally competent."
"But aren't you a little worried."
"Assuredly not. They shall be fine," Dumbledore announced, and Riley understood an order to drop a subject when he heard one. "I have spoken to Miss Granger about the thoughtlessness she has shown toward you, and she is sincerely apologetic. She had only hoped to help a friend."
"Help a friend? If she wanted answers for her calculus exam, I'm afraid it's been a few years since I've been in high school."
"Ah," Dumbledore said ambiguously. "Yes, well unfortunately the times are rather more desperate than that. And in desperate times, we all have our parts to play, do we not?"
Up to this point, Riley had concentrated on learning the route from Snape's quarters out into the castle. He'd been estimating distances and mentally mapping the various landmarks along the way like the stone gargoyle and the painting of the thin-faced man who had stuck his tongue out at them as they passed. But now Riley concentrated on just the old man.
"In desperate times, I think we all do things we wouldn't normally consider," he agreed, not really sure what he was agreeing to, but it was the truth.
Dumbledore nodded. "Yes, even when it is children who must play their parts. I find that quite the most disagreeable part."
Riley thought about how he'd felt when he found out that Buffy had been called at fifteen, that the world had stolen her childhood and expected her to make the most unthinkable of sacrifices when she wasn't even old enough to understand what death really meant. She'd learned, but the price she had paid had made Riley want to pull her into his arms and hold her and give her back a moment where she didn't have to be the slayer. Of course, in the end he had lost her because she couldn't ever forget who she was or the burden she carried. And Riley had been left feeling like he never had Buffy at all.
"I wish children weren't a part of the fight," Riley admitted, "but--"
"But sometimes they must be. Sometimes we shall lose the fight without them," Dumbledore nodded. "And knowing that, it does behoove us to forgive them and perhaps make a few sacrifices for them." Dumbledore fell silent, but he had successfully made Riley wonder what was going on that the girl had summoned him. "Oh my. I have something which needs attending. I am sorry, but I don't have time to escort you back, but you'll be fine here, won't you?" Dumbledore rattled the words off as he backed away, his eyes already focusing somewhere else.
Riley opened his mouth to agree, but Dumbledore vanished. One moment he was in the hall backing up toward the coat of arms and the next he was simply gone. "Damn," Riley whispered as he realized he was effectively stranded unless he wanted to wander around the dim halls of a magical castle alone. Maybe it was years of growing up on horror films, or maybe it was reading that book of Snape's, but Riley really didn't feel like getting lost in some basement.
With a sigh, he headed for the railing that overlooked the giant maze of staircases. They had started in the dungeon, but he and Dumbledore had somehow ended up on a hall half-way up the tangled mass of stairwells, seemingly without climbing any stairs. Obviously Riley's mental map of the place had developed a few flaws because he had assumed they were still on the lower levels.
"Hello," a child's voice said from behind. Riley turned and nearly snorted in laughter at the girl with a hat that closely resembled a soggy pancake.
"Hi," he answered.
"We shouldn't be out here. Are you hunting the banded ceryneian frofentor too?" She looked at him with a wide-eyed wondering surprise that made Riley feel faintly guilty for not hunting them.
"No, I was just waiting for someone."
She nodded. "I find that if someone has asked me to wait and they don't show up for an hour, that often means they don't plan to come back for me," she suggested. Her hat rippled, the rim dipping down to nearly cover her eyes and she shoved at it until it curled back up again. Riley couldn't quite figure out what to say to that. "Would you like to hunt banded ceryneian frofentor with me?"
"Are you sure you should be hunting them alone?" Riley asked. He hadn't run into that particular species in Snape's book, but she didn't look substantial enough to take out a mosquito, wand or no wand. She just giggled though.
"If you can touch their tails, you get good luck. The house elves bring them in, but you can only catch them on nights with a quarter moon in years ruled by Sagittarius. My father wrote all about them in his paper, so I'm surprised more students aren't trying to find one tonight. But then again, it is against the rules to be out of the tower so late. You don't look like a student though, so if you want to come with me, I'm sure that's not against the rules."
"I think I better wait here," Riley said. "But if it's against the rules to be out, don't you think you should head back to your tower?"
The girl nodded. "I wonder if it would count if I brought back a banded ceryneian frofentor for you to touch. I know it's not the same as hunting one for yourself, but you've been so nice. I'm Luna," she said brightly, still nodding even thought she was completely rejecting Riley's suggestion.
"Nice to meet you, Luna. I'm Riley, and while that would be nice of you, I'm sure Professor Dumbledore will be back by then," Riley said as he started to wonder if the child has some problem a little more serious than the hat which had started to squirm again.
"Okay. Well, I'd better go before all the frofentor are gone." The girl went tripping down the stairs, her hat so large that once she reached the next landing, he could only see it as it bounced on her head. Riley blamed his amusement for the fact that he didn't hear anyone coming up behind him.
"Well, if it isn't a muggle," a nasally voice said. Riley turned to find the Malfoy boy looking at him, a wand already drawn and a couple of kids who looked like escapees from a juvenile correction facility flanking him on either side.
"Malfoy," Riley answered. Well, shit. This probably wasn't good.
![[identity profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/openid.png){kind=small}
no subject
Date: 2007-11-03 12:36 am (UTC)The next to last paragraph could use some editing, unless you mean Riley's seen Malfoy's companions before and knows they really are escapees, not just that they Look like them.
Riley's voice is good, too. But no Snape. No Faith. Hob is sad.
Luna rocks, though.
no subject
Date: 2007-11-03 12:41 am (UTC)I know you want Snape and Faith, but I have to complicate their lives a little or they'll just find Willow and then Faith will go home, and that will be even more sad. And I'm glad you liked Luna. The FFA pairing requests at Taming the Muse are sort of guiding this fic, so I wasn't sure how to fit her in, but that felt pretty natural to me.
no subject
Date: 2007-11-03 03:06 am (UTC)I fear for Riley.
no subject
Date: 2007-11-03 03:07 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2007-12-31 07:26 am (UTC)It would be easy to turn Riley into a damsel in distress but take into account that not all wizards/witches are equally gifted, that these are kids with a more limited repetoire (I'm sure few Slytherins were in the DA and they can't ALL have been taking special dark lessons at home during the breaks); and they're in Hogwarts and will get in trouble for doing too much damage.
On the other hand, teenagers-how much forethought are we talking here? Eh.
no subject
Date: 2007-12-31 05:05 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2008-01-08 07:01 pm (UTC)However, waiting is probably the best thing, though I do hate that he got captured. I hope Draco at least turns him back and tries to talk to him, not hand him over!
no subject
Date: 2007-11-03 07:10 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2007-11-03 04:37 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2007-11-03 08:01 am (UTC)Whether I'm right, or not, I think things just got more complex.
I'm really enjoying this, it's fun. Thanks.
no subject
Date: 2007-11-03 04:38 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2007-11-04 01:20 am (UTC)I hope Riley gets to beat up those kids.
I mean, they're probably slower on the draw than Snape and would greatly underestimate Riley.
I heart Luna.
~Alice~
no subject
Date: 2007-11-04 01:33 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2007-12-07 09:48 am (UTC)A crossover between HP and BtVS is so hard to pull off well, but you managed to overcome the major hurdle with having them set in different universes. Clever. I would never have thought of Snape and Faith being compatible, however, you've set up their dialogue so well, along with Faith's inner thoughts, that the parallels between them, how much they have in common, it's all apparent and it makes perfect sense. You've managed to show a slight vulnerability to Snape without ever taking away the snarky nastiness that makes him the bitter man we all know and love, and you've shown Faith's every fault clearly without turning her into a martyr or anything else OOC. You're handling all the characterizations so well and the plot has me on the edge of my seat.
I'm hooked on most of your WIPs now and I don't know which to beg that you continue first, but this one is high up, if not the first on the list. I'm really looking forward to seeing how you handle whatever sort of relationship crops up between Faith and Snape. They already respect each other and are pretty close to really understanding each other. I could see a deep friendship or something more. Very interesting.
Faith's sexuality is both armor and a weapon for her and she wields it every time she feels threatened, the same as Snape does with his insults and dark humor. Both are ways to put people off their guard, or to just plain put them off. But Faith and Snape are seeing through each other's defenses now, and it's really getting interesting.
This is a truly awesome and compelling story. I'm hoping that, although you're obviously carrying a whole load of WIPs, you'll add to this one soon.
no subject
Date: 2007-12-08 09:19 pm (UTC)I definitely plan on writing more on this. This and Experience Curve are my only active WIPs at this point. The other stories may get sequels, depending my mood, but this is unfinished, so when Experience Curve is over, this will be the first priority. I just hit a place where I had to stop and let it stew a little (well that and the requests over at Twisting the Hellmouth I was using for prompts got answered by other people, so that took the pressure off). But I do plan on bringing Snape and Faith out of exile soon. They just understand each other--the prickliness, the mistakes, the guilt. I can't resist playing with them.