HP : The Chronicles

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When the sun started falling to the west, they left the hotel once more, as discreetly as possible, and led their horses over the river before Severus unfolded the map. They made a quick assessment of their location -the parchment was after all more than two hundred years old, so accuracy wasn't its strong point- and rode southbound, parallel to the river. This was going to be the first of at least a fortnight worth of long nights, Severus realized as the evening star rose in the horizon. The search for the flower known simply as Eloḯsa had begun.

Six nights, Severus thought sullenly. It had been exactly six nights since they had started looking for the flower and he could feel they were getting closer every time. It wasn't that he was impatient, no; he would keep coming night after night for months on end if it was just up to him. Even Harry, at his young age, didn't complain on the nights he spent on horseback when he could be sleeping on a soft bed back at the Kasbah, fully understanding why finding the flower was important.

No, it was the time that was ticking against them that made their search all the more urgent. Eloḯsa, the flower they were after, only bloomed in the last summer month and even then, only when the moon was in the sky. Severus knew that only left them a window of opportunity for a few hours every night. And they still only had twenty nights in total before the elusive desert flower buried itself under the sands for another year. They were riding towards an assortment of rocky cliffs in the west, having left the river behind them after the second night; they should be getting close. If those were the cliffs depicted in the map, then the flowers should be somewhere amongst them. It truly wasn't that far from the town they were staying in; if they knew the road, Severus believed it would only require three hours of continuous riding to reach the cliffs. The problem was, this was the desert; and if you didn't know the road, you couldn't just ride in blindly, wizard or not.

So the routine had been the same every night; they rode with stops every fifteen minutes, they checked the surrounding area and compared it with the map, marked their progress and returned to the hotel just before the sunrise. The first night had been a shock; Severus had travelled quite a lot for his mastery in potions but his path had never led him to a desert and especially not at night. And while he knew the temperature dropped during nighttime, he hadn't expected such a great difference. Having learned their lesson the first time, they were now equipped with thick cloaks which they wore every night since.

Harry had joked they looked like desert bandits. Severus laughed at how close the green eyed wizard was to the truth; since Eloḯsa was a protected type of flora, as he explained to the boy, them taking it out of the country wasn't exactly legal. Thankfully, the pedals weren't used as they were but had to undergo processing and be turned into oil that could easily be smuggled out of the country. Harry had unexpectedly smirked at the prospect and something glowed in his eyes, a light that Severus simply called The Glint. He had a feeling it was a look that would return to Harry's eyes in the future. The boy's only question after that had been whether there was any type of customs control when they left the country. Sure there was, the potions master had replied; if you flew by broom or used a legal portkey, you had to declare everything. Harry had just rolled his eyes and turned his attention back to the map, deciding an improved Wolfsbane potion was worth a bit of smuggling.

"Hey, Sev." The boy turned to the potions master smiling. Both of them had acquired a soft tan, something a few girls back at the hotel had commended, much to Severus' amusement. It had been many years since the last time he was enjoying drawing some attention and the first time that attention had been solely female. Harry made fun of him at the beginning until a blond girl about his age had grabbed him by the arm and introduced him to her parents as her boyfriend. The terrified boy was saved by Severus and had sulked for the whole day, adding to the potions master's entertainment.

"Yes Harry?" Severus asked, their voices the only sounds that broke the silence except for the whooshing of the wind over the sand dunes.

"Maybe I should have asked before, but why is this flower so special?" Harry inquired. "I know it's supposed to stabilize the Wolfsbane and keep its effects from dissolving, but why that flower especially? And what kind of a name is Eloḯsa anyway? It's not local, that's for sure."

"It's a bit of a sad story, should would like to hear it." Severus warned the boy.

"Do you have better plans for tonight?" Harry asked amused as he brought his horse closer to Severus's so they wouldn't have to speak that loud. After getting used to the calm of the desert, any type of excess sound was too much.

"Cheeky brat." Severus muttered, noting he used the term more and more while they were abroad; it was nice to see Harry acting like the young boy he was for once and not continuously carrying the burden of being the boy who lived in secret and his brother's hidden protector. Sure, the boy tried not to show it, but sometimes it was as clear as day in his eyes.

"Will I get the story tonight or you'll play Scheherazade and tell me tomorrow night instead?" Harry asked cocking his eyebrow. The movement reminded Severus himself too much to keep the good-humored banter going. For too long.

"I will tell you if you remind why did I ever give you any works of literature on the first place."

"Because, and I quote you here, a well rounded education is always better than mindless training." Harry quipped.

"I was right too." Severus said nodding once, making Harry laugh. "The story of the flower goes like this; back at the late fourteenth century, the German Ministry of Magic sent a search team in what today is the country of Morocco; they were ordered to find help for a wizard war that had started in middle Europe. And by help I don't mean reinforcements or new forms of magic, no. The main cause of trouble at the time was poison; a new type of poison had been created for the battlefield and had the potency to kill massively; it was charmed into the water and the food and killed indiscriminately. The search party was sent here after a small plant that was famed for its magical ability by the locals."

"The Eloḯsa?" Harry asked intrigued.

"Exactly." Severus confirmed. "Only that the flower was unnamed back then. The one that bore the nameEloḯsa at the time was the twelve year old daughter of the party's leader. He mother had died of the poison earlier that year and her father, a famous for his magical prowess wizard of the time, had volunteered to lead the expedition. He had taken his only daughter with him, not having any surviving relatives to leave her with. They lived in this desert for over a month and remember, back then the town we're staying at was abandoned still.

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