Listening to: Renaissance Faire-Blackmore's Night
My fellow authors and readers, I am under a lot of stress right now. My doc says that to regain a sense of "normal" I must put aside my late-night activities when not working and sleep. My teachers also say that I should hand in my homework the night before the class, but that's another issue I'm trying to work out.
Well, I still keep up with fan fiction, that's for sure. It is my only outlet in this dark time.
In happier news, I have finally gotten this story on track and am pleased to say it will most likely be my longest to date.
Happy reading!
Chapter 21
I refuse to be a pawn in someone else's game. The sheer depravity that my mother has sunk to disgusts me. She claims we are better than the so-called "pureblood" families, but this…This shows we're no better.
-from the journal of Aster Jean Keeney, 2 May 1973
Draco yawned as he sat down at the Gryffindor table. He was going to go mad, just sitting here. Abigail was still on Avalon with Neville, so it wasn't like she was completely alone, but the whole point of the matter was that he was going to murder the next insensitive moron to bring up the fact that she was still officially "missing".
Speak of the devil, Nott looked like the cat that had caught the canary. Involuntarily, he wondered exactly who would blame him for just walking right up to him and breaking his nose. Professor Snape, probably. Dumbledore would be disappointed. His mum would be disappointed, as would his dad.
Speaking of parents, he watched the owls deliver the morning post. More and more empty spaces were popping up here and there. Students' parents were determined to not let their children out of their sight. He saw that Hannah Abbot had disappeared overnight from Hufflepuff. Terry Boot and Roger Davis hadn't returned from the holidays. Oddly, none of the Slytherins' parents (besides the Greengrass' and maybe Zabini's mother) had sent note after note of concern during last term.
"Long night?" Ron asked, taking the seat opposite him
"Yeah," Unlike Ron, Draco made no motion of filling his plate. "Couldn't sleep."
"Well, I'm not surprised. You share a dormitory with those morons." Ron scoffed as Crabbe and Goyle laughed stupidly at Parkinson's drawl.
"Uh-huh," Was it just him or did Ron seem more peppy than usual?
He broke off a piece of toast and swallowed. It stuck. Times like this he wished he could speak to Professor Snape outside of class. Between acting as a spy for the Order, and double-crossing Riddle, he hardly saw him outside of class these days. Finally giving it up as a loss, he got up and muttered a, "See you later," to Ron who hardly seemed to notice.
As he headed towards the library, he spotted Blaise Zabini emerging from a closet. "Hullo," Zabini muttered, stumbling into the wall.
"Hi," Draco said, grateful for the distraction. Was it just him or was that an Avalon crest on the parchment he was shoving in his pocket. "What's that?"
"Oh, nothing." Zabini said. "School stuff." Draco raised an eyebrow. "Are you an Avi now?" Draco asked. Zabini looked uncomfortable. "Maybe. You going to rat me out to your friends?"
"Maybe," Draco replied stiffly. "Who's it from?" Zabini stepped away. "Er, I have to see Professor McGonagall before class. Draco took a step forward. "Who is it from?"
Zabini turned and bolted down the hallway. Cursing, Draco followed, drawing his wand. "Oppungo!" In the dust, Zabini tripped over himself and went sprawling, the letter flying from his pocket. Draco picked it up and unfolded the letter.
He saw familiar handwriting and code. "What the hell is this?" he demanded, waving it at Zabini who was blubbering soundlessly like a fish out of water.
"Er…I can explain." he said hurriedly as Draco turned his wand on him again, raising an eyebrow. "My mum…old connections…thought it would be a good idea."
"You really have no story, do you?" he drawled. "First rule, Zabini: never get caught with something that doesn't make sense. For all I know Parkinson could've stolen this from Abigail and given it to you to look over before giving it to Riddle."
"It's not like that!" Zabini protested. "I went to the Avalon Ministry over break and signed up! I'm part of the Guard now!"
"Part of the group that's looking for Abigail?" Draco said, knowing there was only one explanation to why they were resurrecting the program that had floundered and died with the number of injuries Aster Jean Keeney, Harry's dad, and others had racked up simply during one month of school.
"Yeah. No one would expect one of us to be collecting information. If anyone knows anything, I give a message to the barman at the Hog's Head when there's a visit, or pass it along to one of the house elves in the kitchens." He grinned slightly. "Bit annoying really, since I don't know where the kitchens are."
"And I take it that you've got no leads." He said matter-of-factly. Zabini nodded. "They're searching everywhere. Half of us think that she's made it to Avalon by now and taken Longbottom with her."
Draco's mind was working on overdrive. Abigail wouldn't risk coming out if it meant that she'd be stuck in London-he doubted Professor Snape would allow her far from such a densely populated area without sending thirty or forty others with her. And that would mean she'd be stuck one of two places-with Sirius or with Ted and Andromeda-as he doubted that it'd be long before Malfoy Manor was ransacked by Death Eaters.
And his least favorite relatives, but that was beside the point. The main point being that Abigail would fight tooth and nail to stay on Avalon, thusly ensuring their children would be Avi-born.
In short, he'd have to watch his step for the next year or so otherwise he'd be screwed.
{PAGEBREAK}
Sirius yawned. When he factored in Remus's late night calls asking if he had any pickles or cherry flavored ice cream, Narcissa's somewhat smug expression that she knew something the others didn't (if he really thought about it, Snape was wearing one as well), and the ever-longer days at the office, there wasn't much time left for sleep. He could tell that he wasn't the only one losing even more sleep worrying that the Death Eaters might want to break into Hogwarts (the destruction of the Whomping Willow passage had still not been mourned properly in his opinion) when Molly Weasley almost set the kitchen at Grimmauld Place on fire when she'd fallen asleep in the middle of baking pies.
Not that he'd have minded, his only regret about the place was he wasn't there to see his picture-perfect brother and asinine parents argue. Kreacher annoyed everyone by muttering nonsense as he went about soothing the portrait of Sirius' mother (he was going to use turpentine one of these days) and generally making himself more of a menace than he'd been when this had been his place of residence (he refused to call it "home" as it was more of a "hell house" than such). For now, it was getting cluttered with the records of Order meetings, and random odds and ends that they kept bringing over and forgetting about bringing with them when they left.
Tonks was now five months along, and even more unbalanced than she'd been before which had led to the suggestion (by Mrs. Weasley) that she go on bed rest until the child was born.
He'd seen Bellatrix angry plenty of times. This was one of the times when he could honestly say Tonks had any relation to her.
{PAGEBREAK}
Neville sighed as he finished the work in his Charms book. He'd send it off tomorrow. Just because he wouldn't be taking his NEWTs was no reason to slack off. He'd take them at the Ministry over summer if he had to.
He climbed the stairs. Abigail slept a lot these days and at the same time did not. Half the time he woke up to her muttering, tossing and turning, unable to really sleep.
He glanced out the window. Half-moon tonight and sighed in relief. Abigail slept better when the moon was out than the new moon. During the moon-dark part of the cycle, she more often woke up, saying she saw Hogwarts on fire, places destroyed.
Going to his own room, he could hear the wind rattle the shutters and made a mental note to bring his plants-at least the ones who couldn't tolerate the cold-in the next night. He glanced at the crystal he'd found in the school garden one time sitting on his bedside table. Feeling it drawing him in, he focused on it.
People running, lights of color as spells were cast, and himself, grabbing the Sorting Hat and running into the fray. Someone was talking as they pulled him aside.
"The snake, Neville, you've got to kill the snake."
Harry?
Where was everyone else? Hermione? Ron? Ginny? Where were they?
"Promise me you'll kill the snake if anything happens."
He could hear himself say, "I promise, what for?" and Harry's cryptic smile-the one that usually preceded some kind of prank before he disappeared.
He came back to himself with a sudden jolt, panting. What had happened? He felt sick, lay on the bed, trying to shake of the vertigo he felt.
What was he thinking about? Who was there?
Hearing a scream from the next room, he jumped up and ran into Abigail's room.
"What is it?" he asked, before realizing she was asleep. He leaned over and pinched her nose. Abigail shot up, gasping for air.
"I hate it when you do that." she said, one hand on her belly.
"Well, I've been doing it a lot," he said. "Care to tell me what's going on?"
"Riddle…"she swallowed hard. "He…he told…" she kept shaking her head like she was trying to shake water out of her ears. "He told Dad to kill Dumbledore." She took a deep breath. "It's going to happen," she said. "End of term." Her head was nodding side to side like she couldn't control it.
"Well that's bad," he said, "Does anyone at school know?"
"School, right." Abigail said, sitting up. "Well, they'll know soon enough. I'll just send them a memo tomorrow then. Tell them sorry, but first off, I'm not telling you where I am, I'm doing fine. By the way, the greatest dark tosser since Grindlewald just told my dad to kill Dumbledore."
"So what are we going to do?" Neville asked.
Abigail shook her head. "I don't know."
{PAGEBREAK}
Hog's Head Inn
Hogsmeade, Scotland
28 October 1976
It honestly hadn't been easy-pretending he'd forgotten something and sneaking out without being caught. A part of him felt bad for ditching his friends, but he'd sworn to himself long ago that his life at Hogwarts and his life on Avalon would never meet. That had changed over the summer, with Lily finding out about everything and demanding answers. Answers, he reluctantly gave her. Granted, he'd help save about the most important friendship in her life (and his if he allowed himself to admit it), but swore that those two lives would not merge.
"Hey," He said, sitting down across from Aster in the dingy pub. She held a glass of some unidentifiable liquid, and seemed preoccupied.
"Hullo," she said, her accent coming through stronger than usual. He took in her appearance. Her hair was unkempt, and she looked like she'd slept badly the night before.
"How's school?" she asked, raising tired gold eyes to meet his. He shrugged. "Same as usual." he replied. "I hear you're living in Snape's house now."
"Better than being at home." she said. "Mum's gone round the bend and everyone keeps looking at me like a heifer." James winced. He'd known things were bad, but didn't know they were that bad.
She sighed, blowing a strand of hair out of her face. "Sometimes I wish this never happened." she said, taking a sip of her drink and making a face.
"What never happened?" he asked, having a feeling he wasn't going to like this conversation.
"Me. Everyone says it was by luck that Mum had me. Well, my life's been hell since Arthur died. Did y'know that I had to beg her for months just to go to school with everyone else?" James shook his head. "It happened. And it only got worse after I turned thirteen. First she drugs me into sleeping with you-no offense-" "None taken." James interjected. "But I fail to see what that has to do with this present situation."
"Namely, everyone's already decided my future for me and I'm sick and tired of being tossed around like their toy. I'm not going to play with them any longer. It's my life, not theirs that they're debating each and every time I enter a room."
"Aster they're not debating your life. If anything, they're trying to preserve it." Aster snorted. "Don't give me that hogwash. I know that each and every one of them has an interest in me breaking up with Severus, getting pregnant by you and giving them another Baby Keeney to raise as their own."
"As much as I'm flattered by their opinion of me, don't they get we're well…" he gestured wildly with his hands. "You know."
"I get it." she said. "Which is why I'd advise you to hurry up and get married to Lily before they can come after you."
"Yeah, not much progress on that front." James leaned back in his chair. "She's still mad at me -and Snape for that matter-about not sharing a large part of our lives with her."
"So in other words, we're basically still in a race to the altar?" she said as the bartender-Aberforth-James remembered, Dumbledore's brother, passed him a butterbeer.
"Good luck getting there," he said. "Especially since Dumbeldore's taking an interest in keeping students on school grounds."
"Well, then I guess we've got ourselves a little predicament." she raised her mug. "Here's to giving all them arseholes back on Avalon a nasty wake-up call."
James clinked his tankard against hers. "And to keeping my mates oblivious in the process." he added. They both drank.
"So," James said. "How are things otherwise?"
Ah, of course, stress. Everyone is familiar with it. Here's to another week of happy reviewers.
Mischief Managed,
Sparky
Listening to: Spirit of the Sea-Blackmore's Night