Chapter Fourteen
Rain Check
A heavy thunderstorm came in that evening, just as Llewellyn was putting the finishing touches on his homework and was changing for bed. Rain had always made him feel particularly sleepy, especially when hearing it from the safety of a comfortable room with a crackling fire. The plush bed with the cool sheets but warm water bottle made him fall into a deep slumber, the lights dimming on their own.
But suddenly felt a shiver running through him that jolted him abruptly awake out of his deep sleep and he saw a ghostly figure standing above him.
"Stop! Stop! Stop!" Noah shouted when Leu started howling and hiding under the covers. "It's just me, Leu! It's Noah!"
Leu became still under the covers a moment then peeked out cautiously. Finally, he sat up.
"What did you do that for? I don't see how I deserved that sort of treatment, scaring me like that!" Leu scolded him. "What are you doing here?"
"I'm sorry," Noah said sullenly. "It's… well, the roof, you see. They keep patching it, you know, but it's more charms and tar than anything else these days. The rain is coming in… probably enough to fill buckets and I hate buckets. They're so deep… someone's head could get stuck in one, you know."
"I suppose. I've never thought of it," Leu admitted.
"Can I sleep up here with you tonight?" Noah asked.
"Do ghosts sleep?" Leu wondered.
"Oh, well, not in the same way as mortals, exactly, although… it's rather nice to pretend to sleep sometimes," Noah said. "Can I stay?"
"I suppose it'd be all right," Leu decided and soon found the ghost climbing in next to him, pulling up the covers.
"Good night," Noah said.
"Good night," Leu said with a yawn, the two of them tugging covetously at the blankets for a moment before settling somewhere in the middle.
When Severus peered in a few minutes later, he couldn't help but stare at the two sleeping boys… or one rather, he mused to himself… despite the fact that Noah was acting almost human lately and presently seemed quite solid, he was still only a phantom. Severus sighed softly. Well, at least the ghost seemed to have gotten Leu out of his shell a bit. Perhaps it wasn't as bad as all of that. He heard a challenging croak and looked up to see Copper sitting on the nightstand, staring at him.
"No, nothing is wrong, but it is good to see you on guard, nonetheless," Severus said quietly. Apparently pleased with that response, Copper turned her attention back towards Leu. Severus silently closed the door and slipped out of the Ravenclaw rooms, cutting through the secret passages towards Gryffindor to ease his restless mind.
The common room was quiet, as it should have been at that hour; the only sounds came from the fire, a few snoring paintings, and the rumble of thunder in the distance. He slipped up the stairs, counting the doors carefully before finally opening one and peering inside, frowning when he noticed one of the beds unoccupied. He stepped inside and noticed a figure sitting near the window and took out his wand, putting a quick muffling barrier around the other two sleeping girls.
"What are you still doing awake?" Severus asked, Lucky immediately jumping to a defensive stance and then relaxing when she saw who it was.
"How did you get in here?" she asked, irritated that she had gotten startled.
"The door, how else?" Severus said evenly.
"With you I never know," Lucky said shaking her head.
"I still haven't gotten an answer," Severus pointed out, inspecting a set of magazines piled up on the desk. Grimacing at the content in the teen magazines, he rubbed his fingers together as if attempting to wipe away where they had been. "From the state of this table, I gather you haven't been up late studying for entrance exams."
"Eh, I haven't gotten a letter from Dale today and I was kind of worried that Jagger got delayed by the storm," Lucky said, sitting down on the ledge and looking out the window somberly.
"Do you often send letters to each other in the middle of the night?" Severus asked flatly.
"No, not really. I usually send him letters at mealtimes, and then another one when I'm in the library," Lucky admitted.
"You write him four times a day? What could you possibly be doing between taking classes and studying that would fill up four letters a day?" Severus asked with a baffled expression on his face.
"I don't know, just thinking about things, I guess. I always think of something," Lucky shrugged.
"You'd be better off putting that 'thinking' into your studies considering it's your last year, and I'm sure Irwindale would be better off spending his time elsewhere as well."
"Yeah, he does," Lucky sighed.
"Does what?"
"Spend most of his time elsewhere. He doesn't write me like I thought he would, even when I write him there's days he doesn't write me at all, and when I comment about it he just says stuff like he was tired and he forgot," she complained. Severus rubbed his eyes briefly.
"Fortuna, don't you think you might be expecting a bit much from him right now? College or not, he his out on his own for the first time and trying to figure out how to make his way in the world as an adult. And while I can't imagine what that might be like on his end, I can plainly see that you are behaving exactly like a teenager over his absence. He may not have that sort of luxury anymore."
"You just don't get it, and I guess I shouldn't have expected that you would. You were never away from Jackie when the two of you were dating…"
"As a matter of fact, we were apart, actually, not long after we discovered we were fated for each other," Severus said, quickly getting her attention. "Dumbledore believed it would be best if she were out of sight for a while so he sent her to America for the summer to get some training in Truth-seeking. In the meantime, I was stuck chasing rats and other Death Eaters with Sirius, and I can say without question she probably got the better end of the deal."
"Did you worry about her?" Lucky pressed, impatient to make a point.
"Of course, although in some ways I believe she was more concerned about me," Severus admitted.
"So then how often did you write her?" Lucky asked.
"I believe I wrote her twice that summer, if I recall correctly," Severus mused. Lucky stared at him.
"You only wrote her twice? Get real! Nobody'd do that to a person they were interested in, you gotta be kidding me!" Lucky scowled at him.
"Fortuna, you have absolutely no idea just how much danger we were in at that point. If anyone had found out that I had saved her from Voldemort, it would have cost us both of our lives. I couldn't risk it," Severus explained quietly. "Besides, considering your mother would write me several times a week, usually to express her distaste in Auror Belle's cooking, I really didn't feel the need. I already knew she was doing well, and I was much too busy to express trivialities."
"What? Wait… are you trying to tell me I'm writing too much?" Lucky frowned, thinking it over.
"I am trying to tell you that it's time you stop thinking through your worries and fears and start using your head. You are the one who has him at an advantage in this situation, after all; he has only your letters to find out what is going on with you and the school, while you have plenty of other sources to find out what he's up to," he pointed out, glancing back at the stack of magazines knowingly.
"He's not in any of those. Now that he's retired, they only care about reporting him if he screws up," Lucky snorted.
"If he isn't 'screwing up' as you say, why worry? Don't you think they would report it if he stepped a toe out of line?"
"Well, yeah, but it'd take me a couple weeks to hear about it," Lucky brooded.
"Perhaps, although considering that two of his 'biggest fans' just joined the Owls, you may hear about it before it even reaches print. Either way, might I suggest a bit of a psychology experiment? Stop writing for a while, and see how long it takes to wonder about what is going on with you for a change…and don't write him again until he writes you," Severus suggested.
"But that could just result in gradually writing less and less 'till we stop writing altogether! I don't wanna grow apart!" Lucky said, aggrieved.
"I highly doubt that would happen, but if it did, it simply means it wasn't supposed to be. In any case, it isn't like you to suddenly be dithering like this. Whatever happened to the independent girl who doesn't need anyone or anything who plans to take Manhattan by force if necessary?" Severus challenged her.
"Actually, I've been trying to figure that out myself," Lucky admitted somberly.
"Yes, well, considering it's your last year, now is the time… but don't sacrifice studying for soul searching. You have your hands full this year trying to make decent NEWTs and passing college exams," Severus reminded her. "Both of which would probably be easier on a good night's sleep."
"Yeah, yeah, I get the hint," Lucky said, closing the window and heading back to bed. "You could probably use some rest too, you know, chasing students around all day."
"Isn't that a visual," Severus scowled, but got a grin in return before he took off his muffling spell and slipped back out of the room.
Severus only needed to take a few steps before he arrived at his study, walking straight through and into his sitting room, which had been going through, some dramatic changes that year. His Holmes corner had completely disappeared and all its contents cramped onto an extra bookshelf near his desk. In its place were Quintin's crib, dressing table and bureau, as well as all the toys, bottles, lotions, potions, and nappies that went along with him. He peered inside to see the boy was fast asleep, apparently lulled into a deep slumber from the sound of the pouring rain. But as he went to close the window, he noticed that the candles were lit in the other room, and stepped into the bedroom to find Jennifer sitting up in bed, reading.
"What are you doing awake? I thought you had an early class tomorrow," Severus said, closing the windows closest to the bed.
"I did sleep for a while, but my mind was refusing to shut down," Jennifer admitted. "Then when I woke up enough to notice you were gone, I decided to just give it up and wait for you to get back."
"Oh? What is troubling you?" Severus asked with a frown. "The business with the paper?"
"No, it isn't that… well, I am still burning over it, but that's not what I was thinking about. Severus, do you think that we're being selfish keeping Quintin here?" Jennifer asked. Severus blinked and then stared at her. He then took two steps over and stared at what was left of his sitting room.
"No," Severus said flatly.
"Oh, well, I didn't mean the bit of personal space, Severus…"
"How about the part where our personal time outside of work is nonexistent?" Severus pointed out.
"Well, yes, but we chose that," Jennifer said. Severus squinted at her as if considering whether or not to debate the point. "I mean, well, I have been wondering if my reasons for wanting to keep him here are the right ones."
"Does it really matter now that it has all been said and done?" Severus asked out of exasperation.
"I suppose it doesn't," Jennifer admitted, looking for her bookmark.
"If I didn't know better, I'd wonder if you somehow didn't feel guilty for some reason," Severus said, getting it off his own nightstand and handing it to her.
"In a way I am," Jennifer admitted. "If anything, I rather feel badly that we weren't ever able to do this before."
"I seriously doubt we could have done any differently when we had the first four, Jennifer. Not only because of how much danger it would have put them in, but the attitude of the board was quite different as well. It wasn't so long before we got married that teachers having anything other than a professional relationship was frowned upon, you know," Severus pointed out.
"So I recall, but Dumbledore was always so supportive," Jennifer remembered with a smile.
"And it laid the foundations for how open our faculty is about their marriages and families are now. I suppose a great many former Headmasters are turning in their graves at the thought of it," Severus mused. Jennifer chuckled at that. "But the point is, just as you and I have come a long way since we met, this school and its staff have also come a long way. Despite the changes, there is one thing I am certain of, and that you especially have always done everything in your power to do whatever was best for your family at the time."
"Of course I have. I'm a Craw," Jennifer said defensively.
"And since you have always done your best, you have nothing to feel guilty about, no matter how elated you are about Quintin's first word," Severus said, Jennifer smiling beatifically at him. "Now, we really ought to get some sleep."
"Oh, very well! I suppose if we must, we must," Jennifer said in such an exaggerated tone that he eyed her thoughtfully.
"Are you attempting to be difficult?" he asked, squinting at her.
"Yes," Jennifer said with an enigmatic smile.
"You really shouldn't be so willing to lose sleep when you're obviously suffering from sleep deprivation," he scolded her.
"There are other kinds of deprivation, and honestly, we've been suffering from sleep deprivation for months now," Jennifer teased.
"A valid point," Severus murmured, leaning over her and kissing her. But he hadn't gotten very far when he began to hear a constant "muhmuhmuhmuh" coming from the other room.
"He's brilliant, isn't he, Severus, isn't he brilliant?" Jennifer purred happily.
"Perhaps, but he needs to work on his timing," Severus said grumpily, reluctantly letting her up to check on him.
Standing out in the drizzling rain at the edge of the forest, a lone figure watched the castle, carefully studying the windows and watching the ones that were still lit. He stood there patiently; time had little meaning to him, any more than the cold beating rain had. Finally the last light went out for the evening, and the figure took the shape of a black wolf and padded off into the darkness.
While far to the north, two wizards on horses worked their way through a cold dense fog coming out of the swamp, their silent hooves leaving no snowy footsteps behind to mark their passing.
"It would be in one of these houses on the village outskirts," murmured Nelson.
"I haven't gotten anything from the indicator yet," Amadeus said, watching the bracelet wrapped around the middle part of his hand. Just then there was a flash and he pulled up, taking a quick look around. "He's in there, I think."
"Lead the way in. I don't think we need worry too much, however. As sloppy as he has been covering his tracks, he has no more magic than what his vampiric condition has given him," Nelson said, taking out his wand.
It took very little time to break into the house. The door became unlocked with the most basic of opening spells, and in no time they had charged in the house. Casting a spell on himself so that he could see better in the dark, Amadeus quickly looked around.
"Over there, look… a break in the wall, almost like a secret door becoming ajar," Amadeus said.
But as he went over to open it, the vampire came out baring his fangs and making a motion with his hand that made him grow taller and more menacing. Nelson, however, had been expecting an attack and sideswiped him with a blinding spell, giving Amadeus time to recover and cast a strong stun on him. It was then that Nelson came up behind him, driving a stake into his back and straight through his heart. Amadeus grimaced as the vampire crumpled to the floor, the figure turning strangely black and shriveled.
"Grueling, isn't it? I don't think I'd want to be a vampire hunter for a living," Amadeus said.
"Certainly not. There's no money in it," Nelson said and then paused when he heard moaning coming from below. "Wait, he might have a servant."
"Why don't you go first this time?" Amadeus suggested.
"Because it's your job to go first," Nelson said, gesturing with his wand for him to go down there. Readying his wand again, Amadeus reluctantly went down, but then relaxed slightly when he saw there were no servants but a series of three jail cells; one empty, one containing an unkempt blonde woman in her mid-thirties, the last one a teenage boy.
"Look, it's not him! They've finally found us!" the boy said.
"Thank god! Where is he? Please help us out of here!" the woman pleaded.
"Absolutely not," Nelson said, stepping up behind Amadeus. "The two of you got yourselves into this mess, it's your own fault that you're doomed to this fate. I refuse to take part in any action that might label us as vigilantes… I had enough of that sickening sentiment when my daughter turned out to be one. We'll give them to Famine to play with. He can use them to mark his new territory," he explained to Amadeus.
"But he might kill them," Amadeus murmured back.
"I doubt that he would if he wants to use them as territorial markers, but does it matter either way?" Nelson asked in return.
"Killing a vampire whose already dead is one thing, but these are actual people," Amadeus hissed.
"Enough, we'll discuss it later. Besides, it isn't as if we'd be the ones killing them, is it?" Nelson said, and then pointed him towards the stairs. With one glance over his shoulder, Amadeus walked back up the stairs with Nelson right behind him, closing the door on the begging pleas of the two victims.
"I don't like this whole idea of helping any vampire wage a war over the others…seems like it's dangerous to pick Foncé as one of the four…"
"It was dangerous of Bagman to pick any one of us. Any of us would turn on the others if we had a good reason," Nelson said unconcernedly. "Sooner or later, I am certain that one of us shall do exactly that… but hopefully not until each of us have reaped the rewards or working together," Nelson said with a grim smile. "Come, let us report in and see what is next on Bagman's list."
"I think I already know," Amadeus admitted before he Disapparated.