Love And Revolution

IX

At the sound of the midnight hour the next day, Hermione and Snape started from the inn to go to the pawnshop again, as they had previously discussed. He had taken a long time tinkering with his bags and his potions, like an old man- as pointed out by Hermione- and she was making her frustration known by stomping down the stairs and tossing her now blonde hair behind her.

When she had gone down for lunch that day, Madam Hestia had teased her by asking why she and Snape needed to sneak out at night since she had given them the best room to do their business *wink-wink*, but she guessed they were still just shy. And Hermione had no answer for her. So now, she didn't even bother being stealthy about it as they went out, since she figured the surprisingly perceptive elderly inn-keeper would be privy of it anyway.

Snape and Hermione retraced their steps back to the dingy old shop, without any issue on the way and were greeted by the same little goblin. But he was expecting them this time, so he looked a little less sour. They had dropped their cover right before entry and marched up to the high chair, expecting good news. The other goblin looked up from his paperwork, "Ah, yes," he grunted as he got up and proceeded to climb down from his seat. "The Dominus is waiting for you." He looked like he was reluctant to go about it but since he had taken the payment, he was obligated to do his part, as he said, "Through here," and he put up his palm on an ordinary patch of wall behind the counter, which slowly started to transform. Right before their eyes, the curved wood spread on the concrete to reveal a passageway that leads to the back room.

As soon as the door was opened, the tenuous chords of Beethoven floated in and they followed the music to take tentative steps towards another door. As they went past that door, suddenly they were thrown into the midst of blackness, permeated by nothing but glittering stars. It was like they had traveled outside the earth and were now standing in open space. The walls of the room had been enchanted to look like the night sky decorated with tiny specks of shimmering dust and Hermione's eyes took a minute to adjust to the sudden lack of light.

The faint music playing from somewhere was encompassing them from all directions and the ambiance that had been created was one of eternal peace and quiet- it was almost hypnotic.

"Dominus," Snape had spotted his friend seated there somewhere in the dark, "It was good of you to come."

But she felt him halt beside her, as the man slowly turned his head in their general direction. The enchanting glow was making the mysterious man somewhat visible and Hermione gasped inaudibly as he raised his eyes and she saw his sightless, muddied irises staring blankly at them.

"S-severus...is that you?" His voice and manner seemed like they belonged to a man a hundred years older than him as he beckoned them closer, gesturing vaguely through the emptiness.

"Dom...your eyes...!" Snape exclaimed.

"Ah, yes... I wish that was the only thing they took...so much for me being the eyes and ears of the wizarding world..."

As they approached nearer, they noticed the flaps of his ears were also non-existent, a festering and grotesque scar present where his ears should have been, the skin pulled back and darkened like it had been burnt- no doubt with dark magic. He could see nothing and could hear very little, and his voice was broken, cracked, like it was coming out with some difficulty and they wondered where else he was hurt. He sat there hunch-backed, crippled, and looked like he had no connections with the outside world.

"Who did this to you?" Snape inquired, a slight note of anger and astonishment in his voice, since he didn't think that he could be attacked like this. It was illicit to cause any harm to the king's messenger- the same unspoken rule applied to the Dominus. His dominion was on no man's land.