Dear Caelian,

It has been a while since we heard from each other, but I trust you will appreciate my effort of sending you a letter by owl before asking to speak to you in person. I am told you have grown accustomed to a certain seclusion and wish to remain in Africa despite recent political events. This kind of inflexible behaviour appears to result from a set of personality traits which you share with your dear father, of course, but I believe nothing to be insurmountable in the face of good news the like of which I am about to present to you.

First of all, I wish to convey my utmost gladness to find you in such good health. You will be delighted to hear that your return from societal death holds great opportunities of social advancement for you. As a matter of fact, I am happy to say that this advancement involves my daughter Minerva, whom you have met a few times in recent weeks, of course, and with whom you share a singular history of mutual affection.

In order to make my proposition and to see if you are indeed still the man you always were (as my daughter emphasises), I seek to speak with you in person next Saturday evening. As you are aware, there is an exit to the army floo network in this house. Arrive at your convenience, but no later than 10pm.

Regards,

Vesta McGillivray.


Toke's Ambitions

Sometimes, life was worth living just for its own sake. At certain points in Severus's everyday monotony, it was easy to just sit back and take pleasure in the joys offered to a man with little magic and a great deal of imagination.

"Can you please let me down now? There is a draught up here."

Spring had come and Livius Toke, boyfriend to Morgana and, as it happened, personal attendant to Severus for his current ailment, was hanging upside down from the chandelier in the West Wing library. Strands of dirty, blonde hair were dangling just inches above the desk below, and the boy was struggling to keep his robes up where they belonged so that they would cover his hairless legs and other socially unacceptable parts. The view was considerably more entertaining than Severus had anticipated.

"I shall see if I can remember the counter spell," he said, moving his wand as though unintentionally, which made Toke's body bob up and down without quite hitting the ceiling, of course. Sometimes, you had to be nice.

The nurse's round face turned the same colour as his robes.

"There is no bloody counter spell! Just point your wand down and let gravity do the rest!" he shouted, pedalling helplessly, and Severus looked up again, this time permitting a small smile to betray his state of mind.

"Ah, yes. Of course. My mistake."

"Don't think I don't know what you're doing," said Toke angrily when the former Potions master had done him the favour of releasing Levicorpus's grip, scrambling to his feet and brushing some dust off his clothes. "You are angry that my predictions of how far you will come each session turn out right and you want to punish me for it!"

"Why would I punish you for a correct assessment? May I remind you that, as a teacher, it is my job to make you think."

"It used to be your job," said Toke pertly. "I am now in my second half of my medical education and I quite enjoy the lack of constant pressure to win points for my house at all given opportunities."

"Always remember," said Severus lazily, "the house point system was introduced for our students' benefit at the time."

"And you still remember that? Were you even born when that happened?" Toke sounded doubtful. Severus had to hand it to him, he knew his history.

"I do, in fact," he therefore said, rather more honestly than intended. "I was actually in my third year when Dumbledore let the thrashing vault be replaced by a more, ah, student-friendly structure."

Toke blinked and shut up. There just was no pleasing him. Severus pointed at the chandelier with his wand and attempted a wordless incineration. As so many times before, the attempt failed.

"I've been thinking," began Toke, watching the process with a look of fascination and expectancy, followed by one of disappointment – as so many times before.

"And about time, too," replied Severus darkly, his gaze continuing to point upwards. "But don't worry, she looks so young that there will barely be any talk."

"Beg your pardon?"

"Listen to you sounding almost like an adult," Severus noticed. "I am referring to Morgana, of course. The only thing you appear to be thinking about these days."

Toke blushed. "I do not! … Hey! She- she's not old."

"Older than you," Severus remarked. "Pureblood society tends to disfavour bonds between older witches and younger wizards – spoils the offspring, they say. Though given Morgana's status, you might just be lucky."

"What are you talking about?" replied Toke angrily. "Apart from the fact that this is none of your business…" he paused for a moment, actually seeming to consider whether he wanted to continue this conversation, but then deciding for it – of course, "Morgana and I have no intention of marrying."

"How fortunate," Severus said coldly. "Or unfortunate, depending on your point of view. I am sure Lady McGillivray would have appreciated a link with the Toke family."

"Don't be ridiculous," said the younger man, suddenly awkward. "Lady McGillivray disapproves of the matrilineality of my family branch."

"That a fact?" said Severus, trying to voicelessly levitate the chair on which the younger man had nervously settled. "She is known for her harsh criteria concerning blood bonds with her own line, of course…"

"Unrivalled," Toke agreed. "There are few lines left that are still pure enough for Vesta McGillivray – or Diana Warrington-Selwyn, as a matter of fact. The two seem to have roughly the same standards."

"Yes, well, I am sure you wouldn't want to be Lady Warrington-Selwyn's next husband," said Severus pensively, his eyes on his wand. "She is well-known for going through husbands like a Gryffindor student goes through Zonko's lollipops. Kills them off one after the other, they say."

Toke face pulled into something that looked a bit like a Death Eater's expression, who had just been proposed to join in a conspiracy against the Dark Lord. Severus knew his look. Lucius had had it on his face when Murray had proposed the uprising back in the seventies. It also reminded the former potions master of his own mirror reflection, back at Spinner's End, that one night when the Dark Lord had killed all that was precious to Severus, back then, when he had realised that he would have to readjust his priorities…

"I would appreciate if you didn't speak of the lady in such unfavourable tones," said Toke slowly after a little pause. "These are just rumours, designed to damage her reputation…"

"That may be," said Severus sharply, "or it may not. We cannot know."

"If you must know," said Toke now, crossing his arms, "Morgana is disinclined to marry at all, since that would catapult her right into society's midst, where she doesn't feel she belongs."

Severus nodded. "But you think she does?"

"I think I do," said Toke angrily. "So there you see. That is our dilemma."

"Interesting," muttered Severus. "It never occurred to me that some people might avoid marriage simply to avoid contact with pureblood society. Surely such contact is usually to be desired?"

"Not if you are Vesta McGillivray's granddaughter, perhaps," shrugged the nurse. He looked somewhat dejected now, a little like he had when Severus had denied him access to the temporarily instated duelling club, on the grounds of his appalling Defence mark, in the year of the infamous Gilderoy Lockhart's presence at Hogwarts. His lips curled slightly. Watching young ambitions being squashed was just unhealthily entertaining. Minerva kept warning him about it.

"There there," he therefore said, "I am sure she will change her mind as soon as you taken on a proper profession."

This hit home. Toke's gaze darkened instantly, he made to say something, but Severus' face appeared to give him away, for the nurse just slumped together once more, heaving a sigh of hopelessness.

"Merlin, you really know how to make people miserable."

"It is a talent," said a voice from the door and the two men turned with a start. "And one of the reasons why most people used to shun your former professor's presence, even before his exile in this house."

"Minerva!" exclaimed Severus while Toke hurried to get up and shake his former Transfiguration teacher's hand. "To what do we owe the unexpected pleasure of your return?"

Inside, a feeling that had been keeping him awake at night and made him irritable and restless during the day returned within seconds of seeing her again. She was back. She was back! And they were talking!

"I bring rather unpleasant news, I'm afraid," replied the witch earnestly while Toke was returning to his chair. "I am sorry to have to tell you, Severus, but word is out that you are not as dead as you appeared to be. People have begun to talk – and to ask questions."

Severus felt all blood drain from his face. It was all he could do not to recoil instinctively and start practising damaging curses at once. This was the moment he had been dreading ever since his encounter with Lucius Malfoy on the evening of the dinner, shortly before Minerva's last departure. It had, really, only been a matter of time. For all intents and purposes, Lucius was not as much of a fool as everyone seemed to think. He could add two and two together, as this situation made very apparent. What a fool he had been not to trust his own instincts. Why had he not refused Vesta McGillivray in her endeavour to destroy him?

"How is this possible?" asked Toke timidly. "We took the greatest care to keep all this a secret…"

"And it shouldn't have got out," agreed Minerva. "This is ridiculous. This building is so very much outside of time that I sometimes think nothing that goes on within these walls could ever leak through to the outside world."

"Was it Malfoy?" Severus enquired, more to the point than his quirky attendant.

"That is likely," said Minerva, her voice barely more than a whisper. "I have not been able to find out what exactly happened. Apparently, a number of people are out looking for your body as we speak. All under the cover of paying respect to the deceased, of course. Why on earth they don't realise that showing up to bury someone months after he deceased is not showing much respect in the first place is completely beyond me. But we have no time to lose. I wanted to inform you first, then go downstairs to talk to my mother. There is one way to undo all this, but we must act quickly."

"I shall accompany you," said Severus promptly, getting up. "I assume that she has the means to silence the people involved in this?"

"You have no idea," mumbled the former deputy headmistress, disappearing through the library door and in the direction of the basement again. Severus turned absently to Toke, his wand still loosely in his hand, his mind suddenly turning to the question of magic again… and with a crash, the chair underneath the nurse's backside exploded.

Seconds later, Severus found himself helping a very perplexed Livius Toke back to his feet and returning the nurse's chair to its previous state, a heap of highly contradictory emotions developing all at once underneath a surface of general excitation.

"What was that?" asked Toke with a now thoroughly shaky voice.

"That," said Severus, his eyes glittering, "was one vital piece of my magic returning to me the moment I may just need it most."