The corridors felt colder, darker. Ariana was shivering as she ran, the knowledge that she had narrowly escaped goodness knows what still churning in her stomach. She blew around a corner and ran smack into another body.
"Wotcher, kid. In a bit of a hurry there, huh?"
Ariana looked up into a smiling face and a head of bubblegum pink hair.
"Um, I need to find Professor Dumbledore," she said, breathless from her sprint through Hogwarts.
"Well, come on, I'll walk with you. I've been to his office loads of times. Always seem to be getting into trouble, ya know?" The pink-haired girl winked and started off in the direction Ari had been running. "I'm Tonks, by the way."
"Ariana."
Ari was feeling better, safer. Something about this girl was comforting.
"Are you a first year?" Tonks asked. "I'm a sixth year, Hufflepuff."
"Yeah, I'm in Gryffindor. You've probably run into my friends, Fred and George Weasley. I'm pretty sure they've pranked everyone in the whole school."
Tonks chuckled. "Yeah, they got my Charms class by magicking the chalkboard to erase as soon as a word was written. Flitwick couldn't believe that when he finished writing out a set of instructions he had only an empty board."
Ariana remembered hearing about that one. She laughed too.
"So what's got you heading to the Headmaster's in such a rush? Shouldn't you be heading back to the dormitories?"
Ariana had almost forgotten her earlier mishap, so safe had she felt with Tonks by her side. She fell into a stream of words. "I went to see my mum, but she wasn't there. No one was. And then there was this man –"
"All right, slow down. Maybe this oughtta wait for Dumbledore after all. We're almost there." They walked in silence until Tonks let out a loud Ouch! She had almost tripped over the ugly gargoyle statue that concealed the entrance to Dumbledore's office. "It's okay, Ari, just stubbed my toe. Now let me see, I was here last week and the password was Butterbeer. I wonder if it still is…"
It hadn't seemed to work, but lucky for Ariana her father came striding around a corner, his dark robes catching the air as he walked.
"Dad!" she exclaimed, happy to see that he was okay. His expression was clouded and she immediately sensed Tonks' confusion. She had failed to mention her last name to the friendly girl…
"Ariana, good. Well, let's go up then." He seemed not to have noticed Tonks. Normally he would have scolded them both for not being in their dormitories this late, but he merely looked at the gargoyle and said, "Skittles."
Before Ariana had a chance to wonder what skittles were, she and Tonks were following her father up a winding staircase. Something was definitely wrong.
Severus had frightened an entire kitchen of house elves by bursting violently out of the cupboard, but it didn't matter. As he walked to find Dumbledore, his mind had locked away every fear, every ounce of feeling that he had for Raleigh. He focused only on finding out exactly what was going on. He was grateful for Occlumency, grateful for the peace it afforded him when he could cordon off parts of his mind. He couldn't be missing her now.
Dumbledore. Maybe Dumbledore would have the answers. Severus eventually took notice of the two girls following him up the stairs. One was Ariana, the other he recognized as one of the Black family, Andromeda's half-blood daughter. The metamorphmagus. He had taught her in countless Potions classes but had never fully appreciated her until now. She was with Ariana, that meant Ari was safe. She had been with the Black girl. That was good.
Dumbledore was waiting for him, a letter in his hand. An owl was on the desk, pattering around looking for something to nibble on.
"Cornelius wrote back," the silver-haired wizard said softly.
"And?" Severus' voice was clipped, insistent. He wished the damn owl would stop clicking her talons around on the desk.
"He wrote that no one by the name of Wendall Scrood works for the Ministry."
Severus heard a small gasp from behind him, but he tried to keep his focus on the words.
"Then who was he? Why did he lie?" He wished he had used Legilimency on the man when he had had the chance.
"I'm afraid I don't have the answers, Severus."
Severus remained very still, his face a mask. He tried to think of a next move, tried to debate if it was okay to let Raleigh continue on her own.
"Professor Dumbledore, that man, Mr. Scrood. He was in my parents' apartment."
Both he and Dumbledore fixed their attention on Ariana. Severus rarely saw the old wizard's face grow so dismayed.
"Tell us everything, Ariana."
Severus listened as she recounted her recent escape, closing off feelings as they came, erecting walls that would keep him from the fear, protect him from the animal instinct to hunt the man down and rip him to shreds for coming near his daughter.
Dumbledore spoke first. "We'll conduct a search of the school. We'll make sure every student is in their dormitories. Nymphadora, will you please escort Ariana to the Gryffindor tower?"
The pink-haired girl looked a bit shocked by the news she had just heard, but she nodded and turned to leave.
"Dad, everything's going to be okay, right?"
Severus heard his daughter's voice like it was coming through a vacuum.
"Everything will be fine." His words were terse, not at all the tone he normally took with her. She didn't seem comforted, but she went nevertheless.
"Raleigh's gone to look for answers," he told Dumbledore as soon as the door closed behind her. "She'll not rest until this has been solved, but she refuses to endanger us here. She's gone from Hogwarts."
"For now," Dumbledore added softly, patting Severus on the hand. "Go and assemble the other staff. Perhaps this Mr. Scrood is still on the premises."
The next few weeks were a blur for the two Snapes who remained at Hogwarts. The Hogwarts search had turned up nothing unusual. Mr. Scrood had not been found, even when Ariana and the Weasleys had tried to locate him on the Marauder's map. Her father had told her in a few short words that her mother had left for a while, and a subsequent visit to Dumbledore had further cleared up as much of the mystery as possible. Ariana thought she understood, but she remained worried. It was hard to keep her mother's secret when her friends prodded her with questions about that night, but eventually the excitement died down and talk had turned to other more mundane Hogwarts sorts of things.
Her circle of friends had grown to include not only the Weasley twins but Lee Jordan, Angelina Johnson, Oliver Wood, and occasionally Charlie Weasley and Tonks. She liked spending time with them, and they were all excellent Quidditch players. She was learning a lot. It kept her mind off wondering where her mum might be.
Ariana wished she was still around to ask her about Quidditch. She and the twins had looked her up in the Hogwarts records and found that she had been Gryffindor's highest scorer during the two years she was on the team. She had played alongside the famous James Potter and the more infamous Sirius Black.
Between Quidditch, classes, friends and worrying about where her mum was, Ariana only had a few hours a week to do the research Dumbledore had asked of her. She normally spent it in the library, reading books about the Wizarding War, He-Who-Shall-Not-Be-Named, and the various dark deeds he had done. Usually the histories ended with a celebratory chapter on Harry Potter's mysterious vanquishing of the Dark Lord and a lament over the death of his beloved parents. Occasionally Ariana wondered where Harry might be now, what he might be doing and if he ever thought about You-Know-Who.
Severus hadn't quite been able to stop thinking about Voldemort since Raleigh had left. Somewhere in the back of his mind was a niggling feeling that somehow he was involved in all of this. Perhaps not directly, but somehow. He had taken the topic up with Dumbledore, who had tossed about a few ideas with Severus, but not enough to really go on. They had heard no more from Mr. Scrood, and Dumbledore was in the process of finding out any information about a man of that name.
Keeping Ariana safe had become his main objective, at least until he received news from Raleigh, so Severus spent a great deal of time adding to the protective spells that surrounded Hogwarts. They really should have been quite safe as it was, and he remained puzzled by how Mr. Scrood had been able to get inside the castle.
The only real explanation he could come up with was that the man had had inside help. That was terrifying enough in and of itself, and there were days when Severus had to fight with all his strength to keep from slipping Veritaserum into a few staff members drinks and questioning them. Dumbledore would never have allowed it. But still, he thought about it.
Three weeks. Raleigh had been gone – missing – absent – vanished for three weeks. He kept hoping for news, hoping for an owl. But one had not yet come.
It was quiet on Buckle Street. She thought it was probably because it was still winter. When the temperature warmed up people would be outside, mowing lawns, chatting over fences, gardening, playing. Today, it was quiet. The skies were a sort of dingy gray that spelled rain, not snow. The ground was frozen, the blades of grass crunchy beneath her boots. The sound of a car starting reached her ears just as she found herself at the end of a long sidewalk leading to a large front door. 17 Buckle St.
The heart of Muggle suburbia.
She swallowed and glanced around her for good measure. Her mother's hand-painted watering can sat at the foot of the front steps, peeling. Her father's car was parked in the driveway, a layer of frost on the hood. The front porch light was still on, even in the early morning. She thought perhaps someone had forgotten to turn it off last night.
It was quiet.
She hugged herself inside the Muggle coat she was wearing. She had been hiding out for three weeks, waiting a while. If anyone was watching her house, perhaps they would have grown impatient and left.
Her breath fogged in the air and she started the long trek up the sidewalk to the front door. The cold breeze blew against her scalp, and she wished she still had a full head of hair to shield her, instead of the short black prickles that remained.
Her hand reached out towards the door knocker, her fingers thin and pale. She had forgotten to buy gloves when she had bought the coat.
She knocked.
The door flew open instantly, and a familiar face grinned at her from inside. His eyes were bright, greedy, and his silvery, nearly white-blond hair had grown long since she had last seen him. Her blood ran cold. He shouldn't have been here. He never came here. He should not have been answering the door. No. This was not what she had expected.
"Hello, little half-blood sister. I was wondering if you might stand at the end of the walk all morning. Do come in."
His silky voice was practically purring, but it was the light in his eyes that scared her. He was hungry for something. She could barely find her voice and she realized she was caught. She could apparate away the wizard way and then he wouldn't have confirmation about her phoenix powers. But if she left she might not get the answers she wanted. And she desperately wanted answers. She should have thought of this…
She stood a little straighter and met his eyes. "Hello, Lucius. How utterly delightful to find you here."
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