Poison Fairytales
Chapter 3: The Shadow of My Past
By: Jondy Macmillan
A/N: Ahhh, so the name of this chapter is from the song Starless Night, which is technically a Trapnest song. It's by Olivia, who is the singer for Reira in Nana. I'm in a Nana phase, and I LOVE Olivia's voice.
Days passed, and Casey did absolutely nothing interesting. All they discovered was his utterly filthy penchant for smoking when he was upset and his strange affinity for muggle movies at the cinema.
Downcast, Harper crashed on to Conrad's bed, "I really thought we'd turn up something by now."
"Come on, Harpy. It's only been three days."
"I know, but if she was his one true love or whatever that year book said…"
"It's been a long time. I bet he doesn't feel the same way," Conrad said thoughtfully.
"Still, if he loved her once, doesn't he like owe it to her memory, or something along those lines?" Harper bit her lip. She wondered if she had too many old fashioned romantic notions.
"I bet he will. Big bro's kinda noble."
"So tonight?"
Conrad nodded grimly, "Tonight. I don't know if I can keep this up though. Seven in the morning class, and we're up till three following my brother. I'm kinda…sleepy."
He yawned, and Harper pinched his arm, "Don't do that, you're going to make me…"
Harper stopped and yawned. Accusingly she said, "See?"
Conrad collapsed on the bed next to her, and suggested, "We could take a nap."
"Mm," Harper said, snuggling up next to him. It didn't occur to either that perhaps friends didn't normally do such things. The thought never even crossed their mind. As they fell into a deep sleep, neither thought about who might see.
Barely ten minutes later, Chauncey and Benvolio walked in. It was their room, after all. Also it was four in the afternoon. They were loudly discussing the virtues of Professor Dusserre's tight pant suits when their eyes fell on the two intertwined bodies in Conrad's bed.
"Oh," Benvolio said quietly.
"Sweet," Chauncey cheered, then realized this might not be the right thing to say.
Both quietly observed Conrad's soft snoring and the way his red hair was curling into Harper's black halo.
"I thought he said they weren't dating anymore?" Benvolio asked softly.
"They aren't, mate. They're just…very close," Chauncey shook his head, "Lucky bastard."
Harper and Conrad woke up just short of ten o clock. The room was dark and empty. Frowning, Harper wiped her mouth with the back of her hand and tried to smell her breath.
"I've got toothpaste," Conrad volunteered.
"Oh thanks. So I reek now?"
"Uh, no…" meekly Conrad slunk out of bed. They both brushed their teeth and decided there wasn't time for dinner. They normally started following Casey near nine, and neither liked running an hour late. Just in case, Conrad grabbed two soft sweatshirts to bring along.
The halls were mostly quiet and dark. It was a Friday, and luckily there was no class tomorrow. The time to try their animagus transformations was quickly approaching, and following Casey hadn't been helping their study habits. Sneakily they approached his office. The door was slightly ajar, a thin beam of light cutting through the darkness. Crouching down outside the door, both eagerly peeked in.
Casey was sitting, feet on the surface of his desk. Light instrumental music was filtering through the air. Professor Weslen was leaning against the desk, tapping his fingers in time to the music.
"Tonight, right? They said it would happen tonight?" Noah asked nervously.
"Yes," Casey snapped, "That's the third time you've asked you git."
"Mate, you should calm down," Noah raised an eyebrow.
Casey groaned loudly, "I am calm. What time is it?"
"Ten after," Noah said, "Reckon we should head out."
"Probably. Three Broomsticks, right?" Casey asked.
Noah nodded. Seconds later, the two apparated away.
"We should follow," Harper snapped.
"Uh. Right. But won't they see us?"
"Shoot, you're right."
"We could use glamours," Conrad suggested.
Harper snapped her fingers, "Good idea. Hurry, hurry."
"What? I thought you remembered the spell."
"…vaguely," Harper pouted.
"I don't…well, I guess I can try," Conrad screwed up his face in concentration. He barely recalled the charm that they'd learned only yesterday. Even though Professor Dusserre had chanted it at least fifty times, the Latin incantation had slipped from his mind.
He tried out a few nonverbal spells, but only succeeded in changing the color of Harper's eyebrows to a stark white. Mixing the words up a bit, Conrad envisioned the way he wanted Harper to look clearly in his mind. This time, he got the spell right.
"Um," Harper scowled, "No."
Grinning, Conrad examined his handy work, "You look fine."
"I look like a slut," Harper exclaimed indignantly.
Conrad ignored her and tried out his own transformation. Except for a slight snicker from Harper and an assurance that he looked fine, he couldn't tell if it had worked. They apparated to just outside the Three Broomsticks. The place wasn't nearly as full as either remembered from their Hogwarts days. It wasn't empty either.
As they walked in, Conrad caught sight of himself in one of the mirrors that adorned the wall. Boy, had he messed up. His hair was thinning and white and his skin had browned and wrinkled. Big bushy eyebrows framed his now dark eyes, and he had quite the pot belly. The dark brown cardigan he appeared to be wearing looked dirty and crumpled. He'd imagined himself young and dashing, not old and disgusting. Harper looked fine, despite her protests. He'd imagined her as a particularly buxom redhead, with softly curling hair, pouty lips, and dangerous curves. He'd even thrown in a sexy, albeit revealing red dress in his mind. Never mind that it was freezing outside. He reluctantly handed her one of the sweaters he'd brought and put on his own.
The dark green sweatshirt looked a little too young for his glamoured self, but it would have to do. The frigid air was seeping into his bones.
Casey, Noah, and six other people were seated in one of the large booths near the entrance. They were hard to miss. Harper and Conrad discretely slid into a booth across from them and ordered firewhiskeys from one of the pretty barmaids. Then they set out to observe.
Casey and Noah sat pensively next to Orpheus and Cerulean. Bobby, Serendipity, and Dirk and Dana Drake sat across from them. Dana's hair had grown long and wavy, and her ruby highlights caught the light. She wore a professional looking navy suit and a serious look that she hadn't had in her Hogwarts days. Dirk had lost his lime green hair in favor of much tamer pitch black locks. His green eyes were friendly and open. It was rather disconcerting for Casey. He was still used to thinking of the man as a malicious Slytherin boy.
"So," Bobby said lightly, "What have you got for us, Drake?"
"And which one of us are you addressing?" Dana asked coldly.
"Uh…Dirk," Bobby said uncertainly. He'd been on the Ravenclaw Quidditch team with Dana and he was certain she'd never been this mean before.
Dirk shrugged with an apologetic smile. Married life had definitely softened him up. He pulled out a manila envelope that appeared to be stuffed full of files. He pulled them all out and laid them on the table.
In a very professional tone Dirk said, "We've been following Prue, Elanore, Frank, and Jasminder for three months. We first got on their trail five months ago, when Bobby informed us that they were still alive. However, it took two months just to track them down. I'm surprised it didn't take longer, actually. We only caught on to them by a stroke of pure luck."
"What happened?" Cerulean asked.
"Well, about a month into the investigation we started getting reports of…incidents. People in America who were getting tortured into insanity by the Cruciatus curse. None of them were higher officials- they all worked for the government, but none had positions of any real importance."
Dana interrupted, "Postal workers and the like."
To make his point, Dirk pulled a couple of glossy photos to the forefront of his pile. They depicted individuals with glazed, pained looks in their eyes. Some were crime scene pictures.
"Occasionally, they would be tortured into death. We didn't think it had anything to do with Prue's crew, but we decided to follow up just in case. It was the only lead we had."
Casey felt his stomach turn, but continued to listen. Dirk went on, "Then we ran into two young men. Truebloods. That's a predominantly American gang, I'm not sure if you've…"
"We have," Noah said shortly, "We are aurors, you know."
"Just checking," Dirk said placidly, "Well, these two men knew of our targets. We had to run the description Bobby gave us, having never seen them ourselves."
"They said a girl called Precious had recruited them over a year ago. They had been in Romania with her. They said that the string of torture cases was to get bits of key information without ever informing the real authorities. They'd done the same in Romania."
Dana's eyes narrowed, "Apparently we'd missed something. They needed names, schedules, things that one wouldn't normally find important. We thought they were trying to get secrets of the government."
"We never imagined they'd be trying to get into the government themselves. Without ever raising any suspicion they tracked the lives of several high ranking officials not just in America, but here in Britain, in Romania, France, and several other countries."
"I don't get it. I thought that time in the woods that the wicked sisters only wanted to kill all the half-bloods and muggle-borns," Serendipity asked.
"...This might be difficult to explain. Our sources never mentioned the three sisters. They said the main arm of this operation consists of three men named Puck, Arawn, and Robin, who report to a higher authority. They didn't know the name of this person, but Dirk and I have since found out he is called Gradaver Moerte. All our sources knew was the three men, Precious, a girl named Ellie- who is obviously Elanore, and a boy named Henry- Frank. They also spent time with a girl called Durga, who we know to be Jasminder Shah. The boys were only able to give us one other piece of information."
Dirk took up the story from Dana, "They want power. They still want to eliminate their enemies, but they're being incredibly strategic about it. Once they get news of all the different ministries resources and have access to the people in power they plan to start an all out war. Guys, they're recruiting."
"We sort of have a grasp on their patterns. We think," Dana took a deep breath, "We think we know who they're going after next. Britain is their final target. They've already planted people everywhere else. They want to get to the minister before attacking- they practically have an army now."
To stress her point, Dana sorted through the glossies to reveal several pictures of their once friends.
The first made Casey gasp. He had no clue what Prue would look like after all these years. But there she was, captured on film in front of a group of eager looking youngsters costumed similarly to deatheaters. Prue was wearing a red collared shirt with black pinstripes, unbuttoned way too low beneath a form fitting black vest. Her hair was long and light brown, and choppy bangs fell into her mossy green eyes, but Casey would recognize her anywhere.
"She really is alive," he said wondrously.
"What, you doubted us?" Bobby snorted.
"Well, you have to admit. It is slightly improbable."
Bobby relented. The next picture was also of Prue, with a veritable regimen of young people, this time normally dressed. This time her hair was piled in a very sloppy bun and she wore a black and red patterned dress. There were more pictures of Prue, and others. Some showed Elanore, a tiny woman with short, sharply angled dark hair and almond shaped eyes. She was almost always wearing variations of blue, purple, and black. She also had small gangs of kids with her. Others had Frank, a handsome man with blonde scruff on both his chin and his head. He wore combinations of orange, green, and black, and looked very laid back in his role of mentor to his groups of kids. Actually, in all the pictures, the three looked similar to camp counselors. The only creepy part was their completely expressionless faces.
It was when Dirk and Dana showed their pictures of 'Durga' and the man called Gradaver, as well as their lackeys that Casey's skin started to crawl. Little Jasminder Shah had become a strikingly beautiful woman. She had long dark hair and wore dresses of sunlight and shadow woven together. Gradaver was a tall, androgynous looking man with silver hair secured in a slick ponytail. There wasn't a single picture of them that wasn't mostly obscured in shadow. Casey shivered even more at the pictures of Puck, Arawn, and Robin. These were the men that killed his friends. He couldn't help but feel revolted. Fairy scum.
"So…what do we do?" Serendipity asked finally, her eyes never leaving a picture that had 'Precious', 'Henry', and 'Ellie' standing tall with their wands ready, army behind them. Her finger traced their faces.
"We stop them, I suppose. And we get our friends back," Orpheus said.
Casey was surprised. In school, Orpheus had barely any contact with all of them. It was touching to see him want to get involved. Moved, he watched as Cerulean took his boyfriend's hand.
"I meant how do we do that?" Serendipity growled.
"The information on who their next target is can be found in this folder," Dana waved the manila envelope in the air, "Along with anything else that we found to be relevant. You can keep the pictures."
"Thank you," Casey breathed.
For the first time all night, Dana smiled sweetly and said, "Your welcome."
They discussed old times for a little while longer over warm butter beer and pumpkin pasties. Soon enough Dirk and Dana had to get back home; apparently they had to care for Dana's new niece. Bobby also pleaded to leave. Tisiphone was waiting for him. Soon enough, Cerulean and Orpheus also grew tired and apparated back to their bookstore, even though it was within walking distance. Serendipity, Casey, and Noah were left alone in their booth.
"You'll tell me if you find anything else?" Serendipity asked. Casey noticed how pale she looked. This whole ordeal probably wasn't good for her.
"Of course we will," he replied kindly, "Get back to Polaris. I'll owl you the second anything happens."
Gratefully, the redhead hugged them both, then apparated away. Exhausted, Noah said, "See you back at school."
When he was gone, Casey took a deep gulp of his remaining butter beer. He was a pretty good auror. He was used to following people, and used to being followed. It hadn't escaped his notice when a buxom red head and a weary old man had slid into the booth across from them. Nor had he ignored how they hung on every word the group had said. They were still there now, but they looked ready to make their escape. Striding up to their table Casey asked, "So…I hope you know you two make the most unbelievable couple ever?"
"Excuse me?" the red head squeaked.
"Girls who look like you don't spend their time with old men unless they're filthy rich. And you, my boy, look…homeless. Plus, those jumpers used to belong to me when I was younger. Mum give them to you?" he asked the old man ironically.
"Er- yeah," guiltily, Conrad slid the glamours off of him and Harper.
"What are you two doing here?" Casey demanded, enjoying the opportunity to be stern with his brother.
"We were hungry," Conrad covered quickly, "Very hungry."
"And nostalgic," Harper piped in bravely.
"Oh, definitely nostalgic," Conrad agreed.
"And now the truth," Casey goaded.
When Conrad only studied his shoes, Harper took a step forward, "Professor Hargrove, we're sorry. But the curiosity was killing us. We know it was none of our business, don't we?"
Conrad didn't answer, so Harper kicked him in the shin, "Oh! Yes, yes, we know it was horribly wrong of us to eavesdrop."
"But…it wasn't really fair of Professor Weslen to leave us hanging like that," Harper scowled.
"It was none of your business," Casey reminded her.
"Well, yes," Harper decided to also be terribly interested in Conrad's shoes.
Studying the two guilty parties, he decided they looked ashamed enough and took pity. Groaning, he said, "Take a seat."
"What?" Conrad asked, surprised.
"You wanted to know, right?" Casey rolled his eyes, gesturing to the booth.
Once they were settled, Casey ordered up another round of butter beer. Even though he'd seen them both previously nursing firewhiskeys, his mother was terribly against liquor. She'd have his head if she found out he'd given his little brother some, of age or no.
"Once upon a time, I went to Hogwarts," he grinned, not knowing any other way to start the story, "I was in Ravenclaw. My first day there, I met a little girl with long brown hair and a big smile. We became instant friends."
"Over the years, I grew to develop a huge crush on this girl, but she ignored me."
Here, Conrad snickered. Casey glared at him, but continued, "Actually, it was more than a crush. I loved her. We'd been together for years, playing pranks on each other and laughing together, and I couldn't help myself. We went through a lot of drama to be together. She dated my older brother, which pissed me off majorly."
"Is Cerulean really gay?" Conrad interrupted. He'd meant to ask earlier, having been traumatized at the sight of his brother and Uncle Orpheus engaged in a short make out session when they first sat down. Although he supposed there was a reason they called him Uncle Orpheus.
"Yes," Casey said shortly, "Is that problematic?"
Cornad gulped and realized he should let his brother finish his story, "Oh, not at all."
"Her name was-"
"Prue Gelliston. We know," Harper burst, then blushed.
"You've done some research," Casey nodded to show he approved, "Well, while Prue and my relationship was advancing, we failed to see the strange stuff that was happening. We found a passageway in the Ravenclaw common room that lead to the middle of the forbidden forest."
"Aw man, why didn't I ever find that?" Conrad demanded.
"I think they sealed it," Casey informed him, "Then a transfer student imperiused my best friend and Prue into cheating on me so that she could be with me. She enchanted me, and I ended up hurting my friends. Still, we didn't understand. My other friends ran into a strange pureblood activist in the forest. Finally, a younger girl disappeared. On the way to our friend Serendipity's birthday party, we were stopped by the strange man. His name was Puck."
At the mention of Puck's name, Casey's face transformed. He had nothing but hatred for this man, and both could tell, "They played a game with us. All year, they'd used us as guinea pigs to test their power. That's why Steffie had spelled me, and that's why Jasminder had disappeared. I found out later a million other strange things had happened, but I'd been too involved with myself and Prue to notice. I was never all that observant. Anyway, we lost the game. Elanore died. They had captured Frank, and when she died, they killed him. Last but not least, they killed Prue. The rest of us escaped. I thought that was then end of it."
"Did you miss her?" Harper asked.
"Like crazy," Casey replied without missing a beat.
"But she's alive now," Conrad exclaimed.
"Yes, she is," Casey smiled warily, "But we don't know why. And she's been killing people."
"Well, that can't be healthy for your relationship," his little brother answered.
"I suppose not. You two want to be a part of this now?" he questioned.
Harper beamed, "Sure!"
"Too bad."
"Come on!" Conrad whined, "That's not fair."
"Life isn't all that fair," Casey mused.
"Please?" Harper begged.
Amused, Casey responded, "I'll consider your proposal and get back to you. Now go back to school!"
Serendipity Watson had worked hard to get where she was in the ministry. As the head of the international alliance for predisposed wizardry and muggle interrelation, also known as IAPWAMI, Serendipity was in charge of practically every muggle related event from Britain to Japan. That included assisting the sporting department set up Quidditch World Cups, running large concerts, and even helping the aurors make their arrests. Serendipity was right at the center of things. But she had a secret.
The tawny owl landed softly on her desk. She untied the letter from it's leg and waved it over to the cage stocked with water and food she kept just for him. Softly she cooed, "Good owl, Mnemosyne."
Hooting once, the owl flew into the gilded cage. Serendipity unfurled the letter and smiled. Things were going according to plan. They'd enter the Ministry in two days. Oh, it would be nice to see Prue and Ellie again. It had been almost a year since the last time they'd visited…
Even though the skies were dark, Avarick had gone for a walk. The skies were always dark in this place, so she figured getting wet wouldn't be much of a change. She'd strolled for almost an hour through the boggy marsh. Her white boots were black with mud, and the rain had started steadily about ten minutes ago. Still, she wasn't in any hurry to get back to Willowcrest. It wasn't like anyone would see her out here, with her blonde hair plastered to her forehead and rain dripping down the tip of her nose.
Avarick liked the rain. It was peaceful. Plus, it was nice to drop the goody-goody act for a while. It wasn't that she didn't enjoy gushing about boys and clothes and getting good grades. She liked being the perfect Gryffindor. She wasn't secretly in some sort of Neo-Death eater sect, and she thought name calling was abhorrent. To be honest, Avarick just liked to be alone sometimes. She hadn't had many friends back at Hogwarts. Every time she'd made a good friend, they ended up staying too close for too long, and she would snap. Every time, she drove them around. So Avarick was very happy to have Harper as a friend. She was happy to make jokes with Conrad, Chauncey, and Ben. And when she felt like it was too much, she could do this. She could cool her head in the downpour. Willowcrest was a much freer place than Hogwarts.
Naturally, she didn't expect to bump into anyone out here. She was at least a mile from both the academy and from town. So, unseeing, Avarick started when her body his something solid and warm.
"Whoa there," a masculine voice chuckled.
Avarick stumbled back. It took a minute for her to realize that Merlin Pembroke was staring back at her. Rudely she blurted out, "What are you doing out here?"
"I could ask the same of you," he retorted, "You're rather…wet."
"So are you," she answered defensively, "And I like it out here."
"So do I," he raised an eyebrow challengingly.
"Well, can you like it out here somewhere else? This is my marsh."
"When did you buy it?"
"Ages ago," she remarked before her mind caught up to what she was saying, "I mean, I didn't buy it. But I was here first."
"You sound like you're three."
"And you're being very stubborn. I'm asking you nicely to leave me alone," she didn't care much that she was being nasty to the cutest guy at Willowcrest. This was her precious alone time. He had no right to interrupt her.
"If I'm being stubborn, you're being unsociable," he smirked.
"Well…your accent is stupid!" Avarick crossed her arms.
"I don't have an accent," he said imperiously.
"Yes you do."
"No I don't."
"Sure, whatever you need to tell yourself," Avarick drawled.
Merlin was looking at her rather strangely, "You are Avarick Tyler, right?"
She was semi-insulted. How could he not know who she was at this juncture? With a scowl she replied, "Who else would I be?"
"Her evil twin from another dimension?" he suggested.
"Sorry, no such luck," she shook her head as a rogue rain drop fell into her eye.
Completely out of the blue, Merlin broke into a wide smile, "Hmm. I think I like you. Wanna go out some time?"
Shocked, Avarick exclaimed, "What did you just say?"
"I asked you out," he grinned.
"Why? I've been so foul."
"I like feisty girls."
"Y-you're sick!"
Merlin pondered this, "That may be true. Consider it though. You, me, romantic candle light. It would be stellar."
"Uh…" Avarick replied incoherently. Not caring that her face was slick with rainwater, Merlin leaned in close and pecker her cheek. Then, just as suddenly as he'd appeared, he wandered away.
For her part, Avarick couldn't figure out whether to be ecstatic or furious. One thing she did know was, she couldn't wait to tell her friends. She practically jogged back to the manor.
Conrad, Chauncey, and Benvolio were all sprawled out on their respective beds. Because of the rain, they had nothing really exciting to do with their weekends. Studying was out. None of them could stand the sight of another text book. They had considered apparating to some far off location, but it was too much work. Boys could be very lazy sometimes.
Chauncey, as always, had one thing on his mind, "What kind of girls do you like?"
Unaware whether he was asking them or the thin air, Conrad and Benvolio ignored him.
"I was asking a question," the redhead repeated irately.
"Oh. Well, what kind of girls do you like?" Conrad countered, even though he was confident he knew the answer.
"I like them curvy, with long hair and big eyes," Chauncey said dreamily, "Sweet girls are my thing."
Sadly, Chauncey had yet to find a sweet girl with such features that wasn't terrified of him. Instead he attracted violent sadists who were particularly fond of teaching him lessons. Too bad.
"I like sweet girls as well," Benvolio offered.
"And yet you like Valente," Chauncey replied scathingly.
Defensively, Benvolio said, "Harper is sweet."
"Unh hunh," Conrad rolled his eyes.
"Also, she's pretty."
Conrad smiled, "Can't argue with that."
"Are you involved with her?" Benvolio asked timidly.
"What? No!" Conrad was suddenly flustered, "Where did you get that idea? I told you were way, way over."
"Oh. Good," the brunette looked relieved.
"I think I like Avarick," Chauncey said suddenly.
"We know," the two other boys chorused.
"What about you, Conrad?" Benvolio asked.
"I like a girl who can keep me on my toes. Someone who makes me laugh…" he trailed off.
It was in a dark alley after midnight that Dirk found himself cornered. The sprite-like brunette had the tip of her wand pressed against his throat. His was lost somewhere in the gutters of London. Dirk knew that he had agreed to pass the investigation on to Casey and Noah. Still, Gelliston had once been his friend too. And, not that he'd tell his blushing bride, but Bobby Stone wasn't the only one who'd hired him. He still had some Slytherin pride, after all.
Dana would kill him when she found out; if Gelliston didn't Avada Kedavra him first.
With a pretty smile, she purred, "Dirk, it's been such a long time."
"Too long, Prue," his voice came out muffled. Her wand was making an indent in his jugular.
"You didn't think I haven't been watching you, did you? I saw you following us. I'm good at seeing things," she informed him.
"I bet you are."
"See, I didn't mind you taking your little pictures. After all, I'm highly photogenic," she batted her eyes at him.
"I'm married, Prue," he told her.
"Phooey, that's no fun," she shrugged and said, "Oh well. Anyway, I didn't mind that. But I hear that you've shown Casey some pictures. I didn't give you permission to do that."
Dirk couldn't help himself. He snorted, "I thought you would want Hargrove to come after you, all knight in shining armor like."
"I don't need a knight Dirk. I can save myself," she grinned. Seconds later, he dropped to the cement. All his limbs were at odd angles, and Prue couldn't help but smile at her handy work.
"Dana's going to hate you. I've heard she's gotten pretty vicious," a clear voice said from the shadows. The redhead had been leaning against the brick wall, watching her friend.
Prue pouted, "What can she do to me, Sere?"
"I don't know," Serendipity replied, placing a hand on Prue's shoulder, "But you know the saying. Hell hath no fury…"
"Ah well. When the time comes to it, I can deal with her too."
The two women strolled out of the alley, Serendipity replying, "Yeah. Wanna get Chinese? I found this great restaurant near Diagon Alley. Is that cutting it too close?"
Prue narrowed her eyes, considering, "No. Not too close at all."
A/N: Short chapter, I know. Next Chapter- Prue and Casey meet up again, Ben and Harper talk, and Merlin and Avarick get a little closer. Plus, animagus transformation day has arrived!