Chapter Thirty-Seven
Scrutinizing Samira
Jennifer sighed and hopped in the bank cart, wondering ruefully if there would even be anything in her personal vault when she got there. She had forgotten to change her vault deposit that first month; she had been reeling too much to think of such details, and Hermione mentioned to her after the fact that perhaps she should get her pay set up to go into her personal vault instead of the Snape one. She did remember signing off on that for Hermione to get it done, Jennifer mused, so she should at least have last's month's pay.
It was a fast trip; her personal vault was one of the higher vaults, the same one she had set up when she had first moved to Britain from France, and it was quite small; not that it had ever needed to be big. So it came to her as a complete shock when the goblin opened the door and the vault was so full of coins that they were stacked to the ceiling, and several galleons rolled out just from having the door open.
"Please someone tell me that Hermione didn't mess up the payroll," Jennifer said, staring at in disbelief. She then backed up to double check the vault number. The goblin finally got curious and peered in casually.
"Time to get a bigger vault," he sneered.
"This isn't my coin! Somewhere someone made a mistake. I'm not sure if it's on our end or your end…"
"Goblins do not make mistakes with figures," the goblin said indignantly. "You, however, are legendary for them. In fact, there was a running joke about the last books you did for the school at my bachelor party last year…" the goblin suddenly coughed and looked the other way when she gave him a freezing look.
"Fine, let's go back up and check the books upstairs," Jennifer sighed, carefully counting out twenty galleons before getting back in the cart, glad for the quick ride to the surface. She tapped her fingers impatiently as she waited in line finally getting up to the counter.
"Oh, it's you again. Didn't you already go to your vault?" the teller asked.
"Yes, but there's something wrong. There's too much money in my vault," Jennifer said. The goblin stared at her.
"I'm sorry, but am I understand you are complaining about there being too much money in your vault?" she asked. Jennifer sighed.
"Can I just see my vault ledger?" Jennifer asked. The goblin woman gazed at her dubiously. "How about just the last ten transactions, then?"
"Hm," the teller said, and then reluctantly went to look it up, while she felt eyes on her back when the others in line realized what was going on.
"I say, couldn't it have waited for a weekday? Everyone knows there's only one teller on the weekends," one of them complained.
"Sorry," Jennifer said sincerely, pushing up her spectacles and wishing she were somewhere else. But finally the teller came back with a sigh, rolling up a thin narrow paper.
"Here you are, Professor, I'm sure you'll find everything in order," the teller said.
"Um, thanks," Jennifer said unsurely, but certainly wasn't going to hold up the line anymore, walking away from the counter. She had no more unrolled it out that she stopped short and sighed, everything immediately making sense when she saw the transfer from the Snape vault, a little surprised when she saw it had been just after Christmas. Smiling softly and shaking her head, Jennifer rolled the paper back up. After all, it was hardly the only mystery she had to unravel that day.
Cedric glanced up and then stood, leaning on the counter and looking at her with a smile.
"Wow, Professor, it looks like being a headmaster has been good for you," Cedric said.
"It's only temporary," Jennifer insisted, walking over. "I'm all right with you looking at my ring for a day or two, Cedric, but I'd really like to buy something to replace it in the meantime. It'd feel quite wrong without it…something modest."
"Let's see what I have then," Cedric said, pulling out a couple trays. "I've had Mary working on some other projects lately, so my selection on rings isn't the greatest at the moment," he admitted. "I went rock hounding in the Alps over the summer and ran into some really nice wulfenite specimens, so I'm working on a few different protection pendants."
"If you're going to do a vampire protection amulet, let me know. Alicia has one but Francis doesn't and sooner or later Sunset Dawn is bound to start causing trouble," Jennifer said, reading the charm labels on each ring.
"What about that wine specialist fellow who I heard moved into Hogsmeade?"
"So far, he's been too busy setting up his business to trouble anyone, but we've been keeping an eye on him," Jennifer reassured him, gazing at a plain gold one thoughtfully. "He's not in Hogsmeade proper anyhow, he's up in the mountains. But anyway, you say that you've been testing Severus' ring?"
"Yes, it seems that his ring is the worst out of all the samples I've had so far of the Dragonheart diamonds. It's almost as if the magic is being sucked right out of them," Cedric said.
"How very strange," Jennifer said, frowning at her ring thoughtfully, slowly working it off. "Also, I'll take this one."
"I can just let you borrow it, Professor."
"Oh, nonsense, business is business. Besides…do you realize just how long it's been since I bought a piece of jewelry for myself?" Jennifer said in such a tone that Cedric knew she was realizing it even as she stated it. He chuckled, accepting the coins with a thank you. "Mind if I stick around while you compare it? I admit I'm rather curious as to what might be happening to them. To be honest, when mine started going, I thought it was for personal reasons."
"Apparently so did Severus," Cedric nodded, casting several spells on it thoughtfully before looking at it through a complicated glass eyepiece that had metal rings with several different lenses that popped in front of it to give it different magnifications. "Hm, well yours is at least as bad as his ring is," he murmured at last, Jennifer leaning over the counter eagerly. "There is a difference though. Yours has a crack in it."
"Crack?" Jennifer said with surprise.
"Damaged," Cedric agreed. "It's too small to notice without magnification, really, but it's there. Any guesses when it could have happened?"
"Well it did crack the day Severus destroyed Ciardoth," Jennifer murmured. "But it seemed to repair itself after that. Could this have been left over from that?"
"Surely you've had it cleaned since then? Tassels and Panning would have noticed it."
"Then I have no idea," Jennifer admitted. "Is it repairable?"
"Doubt it, it's not on the surface. Trying to recut it would probably ruin it entirely," Cedric admitted. "You know what fascinates me, though, is how all the different pieces of the diamond all seem to be reacting to something, but they're all in different stages of fading…spreading out like…well a sort of ripple effect…a droplet in the water spreading out and slowly affecting all of them."
"Wait a minute…is there any possibility that crack in mine might have something to do with all this?" Jennifer asked with alarm.
"I wouldn't rule it out," Cedric admitted. "So far out of all the rings I've seen, yours are the farthest gone, and yours is the only one I've seen cracked that way."
"How bizarre!" Jennifer said. "I'll talk to Francis and Alicia about theirs as well. Borrow the ring as long as you like…especially if it does anything to fix them."
"Well, I don't know if that's possible or not, but I'll do what I can, Professor," Cedric sighed. "Thanks, by the way."
"Sure, Cedric," Jennifer smiled.
It was hard not to think about it as she went to the castle. What if her ring was the source of the problem? What did that mean? She paused halfway around the lake and pulled out the chain with the box protecting the Mallus Craw ring in it, staring at it speculatively. Could it possibly have caused it somehow, she wondered? The diamond did seem to fade about the time the Mallus Ring had been set off, after all. And if the Dragonheart pieces were still fading, did that mean it was still affecting it? Jennifer frowned, putting the ring away. More than likely, this was all coincidence, she thought, but then again, what if it wasn't? Deciding it was not worth taking the chance, Jennifer hurried down to the lab to make a few tests of her own.
Aurelius walked into the Artifacts office with several paper bags in his hands, walking to the far back of the room behind the counter where Alex was sitting near a 'borrowed' desk.
"Lunch," Aurelius said, handing a bag to Otto who thanked him gratefully and set it to the side while he finished what he was working on. Aurelius then walked over to his sister and pulled up a chair. "Here's your pumpkin shake, and here's the vilest sandwich I have ever witnessed in my entire life, and that's after having had lunch with both Andrew and Lucky before. Fried eels, pumpkin butter, bean sprouts and hot mustard should not go together."
"Well, I've craved each one of those in the last twenty-four hours, so I thought I'd just save time and get them all together," Alex said, taking a bite thoughtfully while Aurelius simply grimaced and sat down at the farthest end of the desk.
"Not only are you disgusting, but if your baby comes out with green hair, webbed feet, and breathing fire, you have only yourself to blame," Aurelius said, Alex simply laughing at him as he got out his own food. "So how's the research going?" Alex glanced over at Otto and then over at the nearest wall before leaning over.
"Dead ended over a week ago," Alex murmured. "Every time I think I'm onto something, it ends up continuing in a file Samira's pulled. But even after corresponding to Dad, I feel like something is missing. I'm starting to get the feeling that he doesn't have it either."
"Why am I not surprised? She's hiding something, and not just from us," Aurelius said. "We need to take a peek at what she's got when she's not around."
"Well, wherever she's staying, it's somewhere far from paintings," Alex whispered back.
"Is that really that surprising under the circumstances?" Aurelius snorted. "What's the nearest one?"
"That's just the thing, we didn't even get that far…only over to the next frame," Alex murmured. "She must have something blocking it." Aurelius squinted.
"Samira knows about Alicia?" he asked.
"What else makes sense?" Alex shrugged. Aurelius thought about it than shook his head.
"You know, as rotten as Dad has been lately, I have a hard time believing for a second he'd entrust her with our abilities like that," Aurelius said. Alex looked thoughtful.
"You know…maybe you're right?" Alex said unsurely. "When I first met her, she seemed quite surprised to find out I was his daughter. She knew there was an Omnivox at the Ministry, but not who it was. Still, what with what Alicia told us about him trying to bar the paintings, don't you think she would have questioned it?"
"Not if she thought he was doing it because of you-know-who," Aurelius said, glancing back up at the wall to see a young Doug Brim sitting on a magic carpet in front of a mosque, looking quite bored. "We need to find out for sure. We need to know for certain if there's something intentionally there to thwart Alicia from finding her, or if there's some other reason the paintings aren't working around her." Suddenly Alex grinned.
"I think I got an idea, although I am not completely certain it'll work," Alex said. But before she could get into it, they heard the sound of heels.
The moment she hit the doorway, a looked of intense disgust hit her otherwise lovely features and her hand went to her nose. But Aurelius had already gotten a good look at her, blinking and growing immediately alarmed.
"What in the hell…"
"What is that horrible, horrible, smell?" Samira said, cutting off whatever it was Aurelius was going to say. "It's like that vile scent from the office down the hall!"
"I don't smell anything at all, Samira…well, except for Alex's sandwich," Otto chuckled, thumbing back to the corner where Aurelius quickly stood with a fierce expression on his face.
"Miss Lamya, meet my brother, Aurelius Snape," Alex said cordially. But when Aurelius took a few steps closer, she backed away.
"Oh, ugh! That smell is you!" Samira said. "Stay away from me, you repulsive creature!"
"Look who's talking," Aurelius retorted, while Otto stared between them, completely baffled.
"How your father could spawn anything as disgusting as you boggles the mind! Please, get out of here! Your office is down the hall!" she said, risking a flourishing gesture towards the exit with her off hand but then instantly used it to cover her nose again. "Get out, and don't come in here again!"
"Fine, I'll leave," Aurelius said, Alex gazing at him questioningly. "Come on, Alex, bag your lunch and let's go find a table in the cafeteria or something."
"You might want to take a shower before coming back in here," Samira advised Alex, backing as far away from them as she could get as they left.
"Well, that was very illuminating, wasn't it?" Aurelius murmured as they walked down the hall.
"I don't know! What did you see, and what was that whole smell thing about?" Alex asked. "Did you read anything about her?"
"I got only a glimpse, but what I did see scares the hell out of me," Aurelius murmured, hurrying her to the door lift.
"Why? What did you get?" Alex asked. Aurelius waited until they had entered the small lunchroom and found a secluded table.
"You know how with like animagi and stuff we get a sense of who a person is because they're not true to their nature and all that?" Aurelius murmured.
"Right. Why, is she in disguise?" Alex asked curiously.
"No…no, not exactly, although I think she is changing her appearance to look more human," he whispered. "I'm pretty sure she's only part human."
"What? What else is she?" Alex hissed.
"Not sure yet. Perhaps a Veela or something," Aurelius said. "Although I think Grandfather would have mentioned it if she were. But that's not the scary part," Aurelius said, Alex leaning over intently. "For a split second, when I saw her face for the first time, I thought she was Mum."
"What?" Alex said in horror, loud enough to attract way too much attention for Aurelius' liking. Aurelius pulled her back in her seat. "This has something to do with why Dad's attracted to her, doesn't it?"
"I'm positive it does," Aurelius said, nodding firmly. "I don't know how or why she's doing it or even how she's keeping him from realizing that things aren't right, but what is obvious now is that Father is in serious danger."
"But what can we do? We promised Mum we'd let him figure it out for himself."
"Yes, but she didn't say we couldn't help him figure it out for himself," Aurelius murmured. "I suppose I could always walk in somewhere I know they're both going to be since she seems to think I stink for some reason."
"Well, you do," Alex said mischievously, Aurelius giving her a dirty look at trying to make light of it. "I don't know, Rel. If she is part Veela or siren or something like that, maybe she's allergic to virgins," she joked. Aurelius thought about it for a moment, and then snapped his fingers.
"Not virgins. Unicorns!" Aurelius said. "Unicorns can't stand creatures of that nature! Don't you remember, Fleur has always gone out of her way to avoid Keki's Grove, because Unicorns hate Veela and harpies."
"Harpy, now there's an idea…"
"No, that's not quite right either…don't forget, a classic harpy does have a scent that they can't completely cover up. They rely on charms alone to entice humans to do their bidding," Aurelius pointed out. "And they don't disguise their nature like Veelas do."
"But I've never heard Fleur say anything about you smelling…or any of us, for that matter, considering we were still all riders when we met her," Alex said. "Even as polite as she is, considering how Samira reacted, I'm sure it should have at least crossed her face, but there was none of that."
"Well, at least this Achilles Heal of Samira's gives us an easy course of action as far as Father is concerned," Aurelius said. "All we need to do is suggest he take her to Keki's Grove. If she gets anywhere near the place, it'll be obvious that something is up, because considering her reaction, I doubt the Grove will let her get anywhere near it."
"Brilliant! But how do we bring it up, or at least get him thinking about taking her?" Alex said.
"I don't know, but if I were you, I'd find out whatever it is you're missing as soon as possible," Aurelius murmured. "She already knows the paintings are against her, but once she realizes we're working against her as well, she is bound to change her tactics. Do it now while she still sees us as a nuisance and not a threat, because once we hit that point, things are going to get nasty."
"And I have an idea just how to do it," Alex said with a smile.
Even before her encounter with Aurelius, Samira had already been in a foul mood. For although Severus was very intent with the work and responded to her random flirtations, she knew that when she wasn't around his mind wasn't on her anymore. Instead, it was on the paper…gleaning every tidbit about the school that he could, even subscribing to the Oracle just to keep up with the latest rumors about not only their marriage but any other mentions of any of the family. He soaked in every letter that Alex, Alicia, and Lucky sent, trying to glean out what they weren't saying as well as what they were saying.
Out of his six children, his thoughts lingered most on Lucky; especially after the note he had gotten from her about what to call him. It had weighed heavy on him ever since he had gotten it; he had been so used to her calling him Professor that he had thought nothing of it, and realized after his lunch with her that she had intentionally avoided calling him anything at all during the time they had spent together. He had replied that same night with; I suppose just simply calling me Dad would be out of the question? To which she had replied; I'll think about it. He hadn't heard from her since.
"Well! I believe we've done about all we can here, at least for now," Samira said, glancing at her report. "I can't wait to finally get away from here so we can have some quality time together," she added with an enigmatic smile.
"Yes," Severus said thoughtfully. "I don't suppose we could delay our trip a couple of weeks?"
"Delay it?" Samira said, not liking the sound of that at all, despite the fact he took her hand.
"Fortuna's birthday is coming up, and since it falls on a weekend this year, I would like to take her out for the day. She is not taking the divorce well and I simply want a chance to talk to her again away from the school and make sure she understands that it had nothing to do with her and I am no less her father," Severus said, Samira pouting disappointedly. "Allow me this one last delay, and I promise you that you will have my complete and undivided attention on the trip." Samira gazed at him thoughtfully for a moment before a crooked smile began to appear.
"Might I request one small condition?" she asked, a mischievous lilt in her voice.
"Such as?" Severus asked.
"Perhaps we can spend the first few days of the trip at this little resort I've heard of in that area…with a very renowned reputation for discretion," she said with a wicked smile.
"You mean Villahexa then," Severus said slowly, Samira pursing her lips again. "We've been."
"Oh, no, please tell me that's not going to put you off," Samira said with exasperation. "I can understand how living under the shadow of the castle might be putting you off here, but you're going to have to let go sometime, Severus, it's over! And I did try to come up with someplace you might feel comfortable without risking anyone knowing that we might have taken off together for something other than business. I guarantee you that you won't regret it," she added in a murmur.
"Deal," Severus said after a moment, her smile widening and turning quite smug. "But in your name, if you don't mind, and avoid room eight."
"Don't worry, Severus, I'll make sure everything is perfect," Samira purred. "I just hope they don't look at me funny when I request they move all the paintings out of the room," she added with amusement, Severus smirking in response.
"Where are we?"
"I don't know, it's too dark."
"Well then climb out and cast a wisplight, silly!"
The light illuminated Alicia's face and she looked into a room packed with bags and boxes with larger items pushed against the wall. The air seemed a bit stale, so Alicia murmured another spell to freshen it.
"I seem to be in a vault of some sort," Alicia said, raising her light.
"She keeps her folder in a vault?" Alex said dubiously. "Here give me a hand, please!"
Alicia pulled Alex out as well and they stood there looking at it.
"This doesn't look like a Gringotts vault, at least," Alicia said.
"No, it's a Ministry vault," Alex said, pulling out a lantern from her pocket and carefully lighting it. "In fact, we're probably in the Artifacts vault, so be careful and don't touch anything."
"That's going to be a problem then, Alex," Alicia sighed, glancing around. "Because I seriously think that if she's stashed it in here for some reason, she wouldn't have it just left it on top of a box or anything, she'd have hidden it somewhere."
"Well, what about that painting we just came out of? Maybe we should check the spy network and see if they noticed anything?" Alex suggested.
"They didn't know it was in here, remember?" Alicia said.
"Yes, but they may have noticed her hanging around somewhere in particular in here," Alex said. "Who's on duty at the moment?"
"This late at night, it's probably the rogue painting himself," Alicia said, taking something out of her pocket. "Get the professor, we're in the Artifacts vault," she said, putting it away again. "Watch for him, Alex, and I'll have a look around." As Alicia carefully picked her way around the vault, Alex boredly watched the painting until the portrait of Snape came into the painting and made a hand signal.
"The sketch I did of the folder led us here," Alex explained, the portrait squinting then making another set of hand gestures. "I don't know, it doesn't make sense to me either, but wherever she is staying, she's not taking it with her. She's been telling everyone she's been staying with a Ministry family, but if so I can't find out who."
"I think it's highly unlikely," Alicia said, still walking around, and Snape nodded in agreement.
"We were wondering if any of your spies happened to notice her hanging around any particular area in here," Alex said. "It might give us a clue to where she's stashing it." The portrait held up a finger and stepped out for a moment, coming back in with a young Corey, making a gesture to him.
"Over there, in the far corner beyond those boxes," the Corey painting said. "I couldn't tell what she was doing. There aren't any paintings over there, but since she's been onto us, she's been a lot more cautious about where we are."
"Well from what the professor has told us, that's helped us a lot more than hurt us," Alex said, Snape nodding in agreement.
"I think I found it, there's a little cabinet here. It has a basic nonmagical lock on it…ugh…one second, I'm fizzling at the moment," Alicia said.
"Don't you have that acid stuff that eats through locks?"
"Then she'd know we were here," Alicia pointed out.
"Oh, right, probably a bad idea then," Alex agreed.
"Wait, I've got it!" Alicia said, pulling out the folder. "I think this is it."
"Bring it over here, let me see," Alex said.
"What's in it? What is she trying to hide?" Corey asked with interest. The portrait of Snape poked him in the side, and then made a shooing movement when Corey looked up at him. "Well, that's gratitude for ya. Well, you better tell me about it later!" Corey grumbled, only earning a scowl and another shoo before he finally sulked out of the painting. Snape then moved around a bit until he could see what they were looking at over their shoulders.
"Well?" Alicia asked after Alex had been thumbing through it long enough to make her nervous.
"Most of this is stuff on that stringed instrument she was looking for, although it really doesn't seem to be anything spectacular," Alex shrugged, flipping through them. But then she paused, taking a look at an old loose piece of parchment stuffed inside. "Wait a minute! This doesn't make sense!"
"What?" Alicia said impatiently.
"It's a statement by one of the old ministers of Artifacts, who apparently had researched this very instrument over a hundred years ago," Alex said. "But he said he since found evidence it was destroyed and closed the file on it."
"That doesn't make sense, unless for some reason she doesn't believe him," Alicia said.
"Then why hide it?" Alex said, still staring at it. "Don't you see? It's in here because she was trying to keep father and us from finding out about it. The hurdy gurdy isn't what she's after! She's looking for the flute! The hurdy was simply a good excuse since it was on the same Minnesinger that the flute was on, so she could look for it without looking like she was looking for it!"
"But why go to all that trouble?" Alicia asked.
"Because she wants that flute for herself, of course. She doesn't want us to find it first…the flute and the ring…it's all tied together, you know that. Don't you see? She's intentionally trying to make sure that those who have the ring…namely the Craw family…don't get the flute as well, and she's using Dad to help her do it," Alex said. "See if you can make a copy of this, Alicia."
"You don't think he's doing this willingly, right?" Alicia said carefully, attempting to get her magic to work.
"Very doubtful," Alex said. "Still, I am starting to wonder if the other stories she's been telling people about being with the International Council and all that really pan out or not. I think it's time we get a background check done on that witch." Just then there was the sound of two quick high notes. "Caution?" Alex asked, looking over at the painting and watched him gesturing a moment. "He's afraid that if we aren't careful and this all comes out at a bad time, father may be put in even more danger."
"Let him be!" Alicia snorted. "After what he's put us through, let alone Mum, he deserves to get put through the ringer."
"He says he thinks Mum would disagree," Alex sighed. "And that we should go with the original plan of getting Father to see things aren't right so we're not having to work against him. I don't like the idea of trying to work against Father, either…even putting aside…well, relation. The man's brilliant."
"Right now I'd say that was questionable," Alicia snapped. "And besides, there are six of us plus the rogue painting and his team, what chance do they have of finding it first, really?"
"Until we have it in our hands, I wouldn't want to bet on it," Alex said. "Haven't you gotten that thing copied yet? We've been in here for ages."
"Tell me something I don't already know! I can't get the spell to work. I'd have been better just copying out on paper, I guess," Alicia sighed.
"No, we need to get this to Dad somehow so he can see things aren't right, he's not going to believe it if we just tell him," Alex said.
"Well, what other ideas do you have? I guess I could always take this out of the vault and have Francis copy it," Alicia mused.
"Someone might notice it missing," Alex said, shaking her head.
"Oh come on now, it's the middle of the night, and we can be back here in ten minutes. Considering we've been in here almost an hour without anyone noticing, I doubt it's going to matter, don't you?" Alicia asked.
Just then, the door of the vault swung open and the two girls whirled around to see a figure in the doorway with his wand out. As he stepped out of the backlight of the room behind him, the two women groaned, realizing just how much trouble they were going to be in.