The toys belong to J.K. Rowling and Notwolf, and I am grateful to be able to play with them. I hope you will like what you read!
The Duel Master
There had to be a solution somewhere. Aline was still not in her best form after the children, Macnair was too dangerous to start with, Lucius had never been much as a duel partner. Severus felt that somewhere very soon he would be facing a formidable rival and needed to be prepared. He looked around the sleeping portraits of former Headmasters. None of them had been a known warrior, their dueling abilities more a result of a brain rather than muscle skills.
The half-moon spectacles glinted and Albus popped another cherry licorice in his beard.
"Can I help you Severus?"
"Unless you can come down and duel with me… I need the best duelist I can find and I can't find a bloody decent one even!"
"There are few good ones around. I mean around you. You can always practice with Molly. No matter what you think of the housewife she had become, she is still a fearsome opponent. Look what she did the best one ever."
"And who was your all time favourite?"
"Bellatrix Black, of course! Ah, my boy, we may have been on the opposite sides with her, but I have to acknowledge – I would rather face two Voldemorts than one BB. Granted, she was unhinged at the end, but I knew her in her younger years as well. In fact, all the Blacks are born to duel, but none had ever reached her stage of perfection, of complete and utter disengagement with the reality to reach such a fierce concentration. She could be killed and not see it in the heat of a battle!"
"She never toppled Voldemort…"
"Phew, he was a piece of cake for her if she ever wanted to best him. But she was too much besotted to see who he was. Bellatrix was a great mind, don't let yourself be fooled by her appearance. Of the three Black sisters she was the most intelligent one. Unfortunately the most unstable one as well. I had high hopes that the married life would tone this down, but then she and her husband ended up in Azkaban…"
"But she is dead now!"
"So am I, my boy, so am I. But in these walls death is not much of a problem. She died in the Grand Hall, didn't she?"
"This is correct but I still don't see the link. I can visit the place Molly killed her and try to recreate the last battle, but it will not help much. Training requires more than that."
"You said the word Severus!"
"Training?"
"Requires!" There was impatience in the old man's voice.
"The Room of Requirements?"
"Yes, finally! Do you realize what it is Severus? It is a giant Pensieve but with a twist. The ordinary Pensive allows you to see a memory – the Room of Requirements allows you to live it. If your memory is strong enough, you can almost restore the person to life, for a short period, of course, as long as you concentrate on the memory. The Room may help, may construct an ambiance to your liking to facilitate the interaction, but it will be extinguished the moment you close your mind."
"Like a three dimensional Mirror of Erised?"
"The Mirror is unique, I am still proud of it, but the Room is different, much more powerful tool. It was put by the Grand Four and was set in motion as a hideout I think, or may be a kind of a horcrurx but I cannot be sure."
'Fine, I go there and I think of Bella and she comes out. But I need her to be in her best form, to teach me what I don't know. I can think of her only up to what I know. She was a master of the non-verbal spells, she is as silent as Death herself, it all died with her, I am afraid."
Albus laughed loud enough to startle few of the sleeping headmasters' images. His blue eyes were merry behind the half-moons on his nose.
"You are young Severus and have not died yet. When you are alive a lot of questions have very straight-forward answers. After death these answers start blurring… Ask the Nearly Headless Nick about it. Bellatrix was made what she was mostly within these walls, she was trained here, she kissed here, she fell in love here, she fought for the man she loved here and died for him. It could have been a happy fairytale; they living long and happy and dying in the same day, if they both were not that much unhappy with their status in life. Tom was her one and only love, but he did not understand the word and was unable to reciprocate. Bellatrix made whatever was in her powers to impress him, she studied as voraciously as him, she studied under him and took his willingness to teach her as a sign of tenderness. Bellatrix came too late for him, just like Merope left him too early. Between the departure of one and the arrival of the other the incredibly handsome and clever boy turned into the incredible monster Harry killed." Albus made a pause and wiped his eyeglasses.
"When Molly killed Bellatrix, she killed a part of Tom, even if he would never acknowledge it. Bellatrix betrayed him, by dying she showed him that the immortality had no value; that if the most loyal would go, the life as he knew it would end, one way or another . But I am straying from our topic. The very walls of this building remember them and will remember them forever. They are like books but only the person who knows how to read could get the information from them. It will not kill to try and find it."
"Sure about that "not kill" part?" Severus was skeptical – some answers may be blurry for the dead people but were razor sharp for the living.
"How would I know, I am dead, am I not? But you are an Occlumence my boy, the Room should not be able to read you so easily…" The smile at the portrait was coy. Severus swallowed an expletive and jumped from the Headmaster's chair. Time was the other thing he should find. As well as the explanation for Aline as to the duel bruises. He was more than sure that Death would be glad to get rid of Bella for a while. Finally, Death also needed breaks…