1991, Hogsmeade
Dear Ms. Craft,
I have sent this letter in hopes that you would consider in helping. Strange incidents have been occurring involving disappearances and I fear that they're getting closer to Hogwarts. We need someone of your talents to investigate on this matter. Someone will also be accompanying you to meet with your informant. The meeting will take place at the Three Broomsticks at midnight.
P.S. You still have not responded on my other offer. Hogwarts is looking for a staff for the Defense Against the Dark Arts. Please reconsider it. I will awaiting your owl for your response.
Sincerely,
Headmaster Albus Percival Wulfric Brian Dumbledore
In the pub, a woman no younger then 18 sat in a chair away from everyone else. Fae took a sip of her fire whiskey and slammed the glass down on the counter. She glanced over the letter again before crumbling it up. She casted windgardium leviosa on it making the crumpled ball float.
"Incendio." Fae mutters as she downed another drink from her glass.
The letter began to catch ablaze and disintegrated into ash. She shakes her head and snorted. He just doesn't give up. This was the fifteenth letter this week that she received from Dumbledore. Then her thoughts began to drift of her memories from Hogwarts. Becoming a prefect, hanging out with her friends in the grand hall, playing gobstones with them, kicking Merula's butt in wizard duels.
Fae's lips curled into a smile and she snickers. She sighs, downing another drink. Merula...I wonder what's she's doing now... She swirled her drink in her glass, still lost deep in her thoughts. Her vision began to get blurry, slightly spinning and the noise from the other customers in the pub began to fade in and out as she was starting to get drunker.
She heard someone clear their throat from behind her and turned around, nearly falling out of seat as she did, to see who it was.
Green eyes met with black as they stared back into hers, drawing her into them as if they were staring into her soul. A tall man with a crooked nose, long greasy black hair, dressed in black, and a long cloak which gave him the appearance of a bat, stared down at her in slightly annoyed as if he had began calling out to her for awhile. She felt her heart skipped a beat.
She first laid eyes on him sitting with the teachers during her first year at Hogwarts at the sorting ceremony "Severus." Fae slurred. She felt her cheeks grew got as she blushed.
Severus sneered "Oh, nice to see that your ears do work for a change, Miss Craft. Not that you ever listened to begin with." He said, agitated.
"And you're still the sour and bitter professor who still teaches potions class." Fae said, sarcastically as she smirked.
Severus frowned "I see you're still the same mouthy little brat." He said.
Fae glared up at him "I'm not a brat anymore, Sev." She tells him.
Severus eyes widen in shock. There was only one person who would ever call him that. He was furious. How dare she?!
"Don't call me that. Ever." He said, coldly
Fae raises an eyebrow taken back by his sudden attitude "What? Did I struck a nerve?" She retorts
Severus scoffs and huffs "So, this is what Hogwarts finest student reduced to? Sitting in a bar getting drunk."
"I'm not drunk, *Hic, you greasy git." Fae said as she stumbles, trying get out of her seat. She falls to the floor as she did, losing her balance.
"Pathetic." Severus said. He looks at the fire whiskey sitting on the counter and turns to Madame Rosemerta "How many did she have?" He asks.
"Just one. She only taken a few sips." Rosemerta answered. "If I'd had known that she couldn't handle alcohol, I wouldn't have given it to her."
Severus pinched the bridge of his nose and sighs. He looks down at the witch on the floor who was still trying to stand up but was failing miserably. He bent down and grabbed Fae by her arm pulling her up. She stumbled into his chest. Severus pushed her back off of him, but hold her arms supporting her until she was able to stand on her own.
"Are you going to be able to do this or not?" Severus asked, irritated.
"I can do it, *hic,-" Suddenly, Fae felt something coming up her throat as an unpleasant feeling hit her and she quickly ran towards the trash can and hurled up the rest of her dinner.
Severus looks away in disgust, as well as some unfortunate customer who witnessed it, and shakes his head "Let's just get this over with. The sooner the better. We're supposed to be meeting him here at the three broomsticks, correct?" He lets out an annoyed sigh "He's late."
"Well, It is a full moon out." Fae explained, feeling a little better.
"How very observant of you?" Severus retorts.
Fae wipes her mouth then walked over to him "Why are you always like this? So distant. So cold?" She asks.
Severus looks at her as he narrows his eyes "I believe that's none of your business, ." He said.
"What? Did someone break your heart or something?" Fae questions. Severus glares at her, staring in silence saying nothing.
"We're in the same house. I don't see why we can't share secrets. You know, get to know one another. We're both adults here." Fae replied.
"The sorting hat made a mistake. Ever since you were in slytherin, you've been a walking catastrophe. Always, sneaking off in the middle of the night." Severus said.
Fae interrupted "To help Hogwarts. And it's a good thing that I did! If my friends and I, hadn't the cursed ice would have spread throughout the entire school."
"Costing Slytherin house points." Severus adds.
"We still won the house cup. Six years straight, I might add." Fae interjected.
"Would have been seven if you've hadn't just quit. The other professors were disappointed, such as Mcgonagall and Flitwick. They claimed that you've had so much potential, of being an professor at Hogwarts. Although, I've never seen it. " Severus said.
Fae shrugged, ignoring his comment, not looking at him, and said "I've taken advanced classes and learned hard spells that most students wouldn't be able to do. I learned all that I needed to know. So what's the point of staying another year? I'm perfectly happy with just being an auror."
"There's more to life than just simply casting spells, Craft. Clearly, what you're lacking in, is judgment."
Fae shrugged her shoulders " Meh. "
"You're just as arrogant and naive as your brother. Another Slytherin, also a rule breaker. He went looking for the cursed vaults and look at where it got him. Expelled. "
Fae steps towards him narrowing her eyes up at his, glaring "Don't talk you ever talk about my brother that way." She growls "My parents and I are worried sick! We don't even know if he's alive or dead! We've hadn't heard from him in years!"
"Am I interrupting something?" A voice interrupted them. Fae and Severus turned to see a brown shaggy haired man, with yellow-green eyes, and a scar of a slash mark running over his nose and half of his face.
"Remus!" Fae exclaimed as she ran over to hug him.
" Lupin. " Severus said, bitterly.
Remus chuckles and returns Fae's hug and looked at the two of them "I heard from Dumbledore that you two were close, but I didn't expect that close. "
"We're not." Severus replied emotionless.
"Dumbledore told me that there's been strange incidents that's been occurring. People disappearing in the night as if they vanished. No trace of evidence left. And what's more troubling is that it's growing closer towards Hogwarts. I fear that who ever is behind this may attack the school."
"Could it be Voldemort?" Fae asked.
The entire pub went quiet and a few customers shot a few glances at the witch, before going back to their conversation. "Shh!" Rosemerta scolds "Don't say his name out loud!"
"I'm not scared." Fae said as she shrugs her shoulders "It's just a name."
"You should be." Severus replied "You wouldn't be so confident it you knew what you were facing."
"What? Did you know him or something?" Fae prodded. Severus stared back at her in silence.
He ignored her then turned to Remus "Getting back to the question at hand, Is there anything else that you heard about the disappearances?" He asked
Remus was about to answer him until a blood curdling shriek screamed outside. A window broke as a stray spell shattered it into a billion pieces. Suddenly, dark cloaked figures apperated into the pub. They began to shoot off spells casting at everyone in the room. Rosemerta took cover behind the counter. Patrons shrieked as they tried to move out of the way, while some disapperated out in a panic.
Then, Fae was on the floor as she was pushed down by Severus as he knocked her out of the way from the bombardment of spells. She didn't know if it was still the alcohol in her system but she blushed as she saw that Severus was still on top of her. Remus casted a protego charm to block some of them, defending the two of them.
"Are you going to sit there and stare, or are you going to make yourself useful and help?" Severus retorts as he blocks some of the spells then casting back a few, attacking back trying to disarm the intruders.
Fae pulls out her wand and joined in. Remus, Severus, and Fae were being pushed back as the intruders started to surround them. She casted a protego charm blocking spells as they bounced off.
"We need to get out of here!" Remus exclaimed.
"Protego maxima!" Fae screamed out loud. A bright light erupted from her wand engulfing the whole room and blasted the intruders sending them flying out of the Three Broomsticks. Outside, they landed on the ground roughly as some were knocked out by the blast. As the light dimmed, Fae looked at her wand to see that it was starting to crack and split apart. Her wand can't take much more.
Severus and Remus looked at the witch, stunned to see such powerful magic that she had casted. Rosemerta peeked out from behind the counter "Is it over?" She asked, nervously.
As Fae looks back at the intruders, she noticed one of the them starting to flee and chased after him, leaving Severus and Remus to fight off the remaining attackers.
"Fae!" Remus shouted.
" Craft, get back here! " Severus calls out to her.
Fae continued to chase after them. They shot out spells but she deflected them. As she managed to get closer she shot her hand out and grabbed the good of the intruder's cloak, pulling it back. She pointed her wand at their face.
Fae's eyes widen in shock and she steps back from them. Her mouth drops and her arms fall to her side, lowering her wand. Red eyes stared back into hers.
"B-Brother?!" Fae stuttered in disbelief.