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"Who are you exactly?" A snide voice asked from behind her.
Gabrielle turned about quickly. She was in England, in a small place called Spinners End, and she was renting a flat for the summer. Then she was off to Scotland, to a teaching spot that had opened at prestigeous Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry. She was awaiting the owner of Evans House, the small cottage that was to be hers for the remainder of the summer.
"I am Gabrielle Daratranzanoff. I am also awaiting the owner." She told the man brightly, taking him in at the same time. He was handsome, very dark though, and in wizard dress. "I take you to be him?"
A curt nod was all she got in return. "I will show you the house." He told her without preamble and walked the short bricked path to the front door.
It was very girlie, floral and gingham and everything she'd expect in a home, but not this man's home.
"Kitchen, Den, Office, Loo." He pointed out each room from the vantage point in the hallway. "Upstairs are three bedrooms, I need not show those to you. I trust the 50 Galleons per month is not too steep for you?"
Gabi shook her head negatively and went about looking on the house.
Gabi was looking at the house, it was eerie, almost shrine like. "Have you owned this place long Mr. Snape?" She asked, trying to break the silence that this imposing man was smothering her with.
"I have owned this home for almost 12 years. Since the owners died. And it is Severus. Or Snape. No need to for silly muggle suffixes." Gabi smiled to herself, this man was trying to hard to be scary. Her father was scary, this man...was interesting, sexy...whoa, did she just think he was sexy?
"Okay, no silly ehm...muggle? Suffixes." That was a strange word. She smiled, wondering what he was talking about.
"Surely that is not a new word for you. We wizards use it all the time to label the non-magic people." He told her abruptly.
Gabi turned half around to look at him, standing there, glowering.
"Oh. I had wondered what you were referring to. I've not heard the term before. It's never been a class distinction where I come from. You either are, or aren't what we are." She shrugged. "Britian hasn't changed much then, since the feudal times, if class and rank are still in precedence."
For some reason, her cavalier attitude bothered Severus. It was not as though he were openly racist, or whatever against muggles. It's just what they were.
"And where, Miss Daratranzanoff, is this Utopia you are from?" He really was having a hard time keeping the sarcasm from his voice, something about this witch irritated him. Why had Albus suggested her for the position? Surely there were better English wizards, who understood their ways, who could fill the role of Hogwarts Librarian. She swung her long honey colored hair over her shoulder as she casually glanced at him again.
"The Carpathian Mountains. Near Bucharest. My mother was an English witch. My father was a Romanian. I was adopted when I was 6. Educated in Russia at the Sisters of Casting Witchcraft Academy."
He'd heard of SCWA, but had never met a Russian trained witch. They tended to concentrate of Dark Arts there. This witch seemed purely good, virginal even. Surely she'd not have the innards to withstand living in The Dark Lord's England. She was lucky she was hidden away in a little mountain community.
"I've heard of this school. It's an odd choice for the daughter of an English witch to go to school so far away. Surely you were accepted at Hogwarts?" He was curious now. He wanted to use Legillimens on her to find her story, but he knew he couldn't. He'd already tried to read her before he'd come out to meet her. Her mind was shut tight.
"Camillia Servico." Gabi pointed her hand to the small table in the sitting room and a tea service appeared. "Come, sit, since you are so intensely curious. Curious enough to try and see into my thoughts." She smiled at him. "Which pastry would you prefer?"
Severus just stood there. She had just cast...without her wand. "It matters little to me." He told her, inspecting the tea, and the set. And just as quickly jumped back when she muttered "Soushi puff." And a plate of some odd looking pastries appeared. He was intrigued now. "How do you cast?"
Gabi smiled at him. "Which would you like to know? All of it? Are you a spy for Dumbledore or something, did he send me here to be checked out?"
Severus was hit with a jolt of awareness. If only she knew what she'd just said. He was Dumbledore's spy, had been for years, but she couldn't know that. As for "being checked out" he was checking her out, and she looked quite a dish. She had hair that was long and curly, but not unruly, the color of honey, eyes of misty silver, and skin that was the epitome of English Rose. She looked like the perfect English woman in his eyes. She wouldn't have been out of place in Charles II's court. "Are you comfortable? Mine is an involved tale." Her voice floated over him, like warm chocolate, her slightly accented English played havoc with his sexual nerves.
"My mother's name was Amanda Longbottom. She was a Hogwarts graduate, wandering the wilds of Romania, looking for rare plants to bring home to England, she wanted the best garden, I'm told she could brew a potion to cure anything." Gabi paused her, and served herself some of the nice Oolang. "She was deep in the mountains, where no locals would go. They called that territory Vale de A umbri. The Valley of Shadow, it is said to be the only growing place of Dragon's Bane Flora." That got Severus' attention. He'd heard stories of Dragon's Bane Flora, one of the only known plants to reverse a coma, regrow burnt flesh or protect one against Dragons. "Whether or not she found the weed, something found her instead. His name was Razvan. A Carpathian Mage. He was under the control of his grandfather, a Vampire Mage named Xavier. He raped Amanda, for the sole purpose of getting her pregnant. Xavier wanted an Army of Children, a personal supply of blood."
Gabi got off the chintz chair and walked towards the window, the sun was setting now.
"Carpathians can only mate with Humans who have special abilities. Psychics, Witches mostly. But shifters too, to a lesser extent. It was kind of ironic though, that my birth mother was looking for a plant called Dragon's Bane, and instead found the heir to the Dragonseekers instead. She bore me, and raised me in a small village at the base of a mountain. Making potions to ease my childhood discomforts. It is very rare for Carpathian children to survive infancy."
Severus had to interrupt here. "You say Carpathian, like it is something. A nationality?" She shook her head. "It is an old and powerful race of people. Hunted to the brink of extinction by those you would call Muggles. They are skilled weavers of magic. They also have a unique diet, which makes them targets for Vampire Hunting fanatics. Any other interuptions?" She shot him a small sarcastic grin. "Amanda made potions for me, determined that I survive, though why i don't know, I was always shunned, the rape child. No mothers wanted their children around me. It was three days after my 5th birthday that the Prince of the Carpathians discovered me. A female child, with Carpathian blood, playing alone in a garden. He told my mother it was not safe for me to be unprotected. Carpathians have only one true mate Severus, and it is up to the male to find his mate. If he doesn't, he can lose his soul and become the vampire, like my great grandfather Xavier is. Though he is not a true vampire, but a vile perversion of human that needs magical blood to survive."
Severus made a rude noise though his nose. "You are trying to tell me that vampire exist?" Gabi looked at him, with patience. "Of course, you believe in unicorns, dragons, centaurs, and yet you have a problem with a vampire? They exist, Severus. Vampires are how I came to be Gabrielle Daratranzanoff, before I was Gabrielle Daratranzanoff, I was called Sarah Longbottom."
Severus must have looked confused. "Your name was changed?" Gabi nodded, "Yes, sometimes when I hear people say Sarah I am still tempted to answer, but Gregori and Savannah found my name to be too English, and it wouldn't do if vampires were hunting for me. So they adopted me, they are my Mom and Dad. Gregori is one of the most powerful Carpathians there are. Many of our kind are afraid of him, they call him The Dark One."
"If you are under the protection of this Dark One, why accept a teaching job/librarian job in Scotland? Why not stay in your Carpathian Mountains?" Severus sat with his tea, his curiosity peaked. "When I received the letter from Mr. Dumbledore, it sounded like something of an adventure. As a Carpathian ward, I was not allowed much freedom. Females are kept under strict surveillance as there are so few. So to be a little dramatic, I left my Father a note, and for all purposes, ran away." She grinned. Severus could see a hint of rebellion in her eyes. "Such a teenage thing to do, how old are you Miss Longbottom?"
Gabi flinched, she'd never been addressed as such before, and found she didn't like it. "It's Daratranzanoff, if you don't mind. I'll have you know I am 26. So far I've made it past the age of claiming without having been shackled to some new Carpathian, and in Scotland, it is less likely that I will be." Severus looked at her blankly..."The Age of Claiming?" He was met with a nod.
"Would you like something more than Oolong and Pastries?" Gabi asked him suddenly. Severus accepted more tea and sampled some of the cream filled pastry puffs she had conjured. "What do you mean with The Age of Claiming?" He was determined to ferret out the truth of this strange creature, for surely she wasn't exactly human. "How are Carpathians different from Muggles...erm...humans?" He asked.
The sun was setting and she was feeling more refreshed with its lowering. One nasty habit she would need to break if she were to be a teacher...sleeping past noon, waking when the sun was going down. Gabi turned her attention back to the brooding black bat sitting on poufy sofa of her rented cottage. "Carpathians are ancient, as I've said. They are born connected to the earth and draw their powers from her. Not like witches or wizards, who are human with a dominant gene, most likely they are descended from true Carpathians, but now need an enchanted stick to do what natural Carpathians can do with their mind." Gabi looked at him some more, he was a delicious sight, she wanted to eat him up.
"So you're not human?" Severus asked. "Not entirely no. I'm half human from my mother. I can be made full Carpathian by my lifemate through..." Gabi was a little uneasy here, not many people accepted blood exchanges easily. She remembered her mother making potions from her own blood to feed her sickly child. Severus made an impatient gesture to her to hurry along her story. "Blood exchanges. Three is usually the magic number. There is a lot of mysticism involved in the Carpathian lineage, I won't go into that. As I've said, I have made it past the age of claiming, which is eighteen." Gabi sat and waited, waited for him to do something, say something, run screaming like a banshee. Severus sat calmly.
In his younger years, he would have been slightly prejudiced against her as a mixed blood creature. A slight he even had against himself and his half muggle blood. But now, he was only intrigued, he'd have to compose an owl to Dumbledore soon about this woman and what he'd learned of her. He also would need to search for the name Amanda Longbottom. For that was a name he'd never heard, he knew the Longbottoms, there weren't that many left.
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