"Shit." Virgil cursed under his breath as he assessed the situation, hidden behind the outer corner of the fence. He had an unidentified witch approaching Evelyn Black´s niece, and now Evelyn herself was coming up to check on the child. The suspect matched Claire Rott´s physical description, and he had been warned that she was unaccounted for in France, but he couldn´t say for sure it was her unless he could approach. Regardless, her identity was was a secondary concern, at the moment. He´d worry about that later.
He quickly weighed the possible scenarios. If he engaged her there was the possibility of a duel, which would put the girl and every muggle in the area in danger. If he didn´t, there was no way of predicting what she would do when Evelyn finally approached. She could simply snatch the child and take her away...or worse. Whoever this woman was, she wasn´t here to give Alice a birthday present.
Shafiq soon realized his only option was to wait for her next move to adapt his reaction accordingly. Making the first move and give away his location could be a disaster. As he expected she didn´t wait long to react. The yellow-green light coming from her wand was not a good sign. "Salvio hexia" he whispered drawing his wand. As he predicted, his protective spell caused a reaction and the tip of her wand lost its glow, the curse she has about to cast aborted before it was fully summoned. She immediately bolted to her feet, roughly grabbing Alice with one hand and pointing her wand in his direction with the other. The girl seemed too stunned to react at first, but as soon as she felt the woman´s grip on her she let out a blood curdling screech.
"Great" Shafiq grumbled, coming out from his hideaway. The witch stared at him, surprise quickly turning into fury at the sight of a potential obstacle to whatever plans she had. Shafiq approached cautiously, wand drawn. Alice´s screams had alerted her aunt, and he could hear Evelyn´s voice calling out to her from inside the yard. The area had to be secured before he proceeded any first. Evelyn could not get anywhere near, or he´d have two muggles in danger.
"Repello Muggletum!" he turned his wand to the house and yard, creating a pale hazy film around it, then pointed it back at Alice´s captor. "This is just between us two, no need to involve any more muggles."
"An auror." she stated flatly.
"Alice, darling, are you ok?"
Alice, pressed against the woman´s body, unable to wiggle out and utterly terrified, simply nodded.
"I´ll take you back to you aunt in a minute, don´t be scared, love."
"No, you won´t." The woman taunted.
"Her aunt is coming. This is going to turn into a full blown mess in about a second if you try anything funny. Just let the girl go."
The woman simply gave him a demented smile before a flash of light blinded him.
…
"ALICE!" Evelyn was screaming now.
She wasn´t anywhere in the backyard. Evelyn went to the back where Liz said she´d been building the fairy doors. Then she heart it. That scream. It was Alice´s voice. For a second Evelyn could swear she´d heard other voices as well.
No, she was imagining things.
There was a hole in the fence, hidden behind some tools, rusty buckets and a wheelbarrow. A hole big enough to fit a child of Alice´s age. Forcing herself to stay calm, Evelyn calculated that it was too small for an adult.
Adrenaline rushing through her veins, Evelyn ran back into the house, then through the house, knocking furniture and objects down, leaving shattered glass and fallen cutlery on her wake. Slipping on the fresh snow outside, she went around the house, following the fence into the empty lot behind.
A strange mist seemed to be surrounding the house, very thin and nearly invisible to the eye. Evelyn walked through it, wondering if it wasn´t smoke, then pushing the idea from her already panicked brain. As she reached the end of the fence and the empty lot in the back a bright flash of light exploded in front of her.
…
Alice couldn´t see anything for a moment and then she fell. Sand got into her eyes and mouth, and she could feel her elbows and knees sting.
When she opened her eyes, Alice saw she was on the beach, wind blowing sand and sea water on her face. Then she heard somebody grunt and turned towards the sound. That evil woman with red-hair had fallen a few feet away from her and was getting back on her feet.
...
Virgil got back to his feet and struggled to get his bearings. He saw Alice a few meters away, free from her captor´s grip. He didn´t know how it worked, but he had, somehow, managed to thwart his opponent´s escape, landing them in a beach outside of the village.
Now he had to ensure Alice´s safety before he could neutralize the threat.
"PROTEGO!" The shield knocked the would-be kidnapper back the moment she reached for the girl again.
Angered, she let out a nearly inhuman shriek and pointed her wand in his direction. An orange, fire-like ball of energy came straight at him. Shafiq steadied his feet, trying to shove them into the sand for balance, and raised his wand, deflecting the blast and sending it into the waves, where the flames imploded into themselves at the contact with water, shock waves almost knocking both of them off their feet. She recovered quickly enough to send another spell in his direction, which he deflected once again, this time directly, tossing her into the water, momentarily stunned.
"ALICE! " He shouted at the terrified child, snapping her out of her shock. As if feeling her safety depended on him, Alice rushed to his side.
"Listen to me, love." he fell on his knees in front of her, nervously looking over his shoulder to make sure no new attack was launched and tried to keep his voice as calm as possible "You have to run and don´t stop running till you see somebody from your family. They must be looking for you. You understand me?"
Alice nodded.
"Smart girl. Now, go!"
As soon as Alice was far behind him, he turned back to the red-haired woman. He face was a snarling mask of frustration and raw anger, blood coming out of the corner of her crimson lips, hair wild, tangled with sand and salt water.
"Now it´s between us grown-ups." he smirked. "EXPULSO!"
…
She wasn´t anywhere.
Anywhere.
Vanished into thin air.
This could´t be happening.
Evelyn rushed back in and told her grandmother to call everybody. Uncle Collin, Uncle Aidan, Cillian, Gabriel, Irene, Catherine, all the neighbours, everybody. She thought of calling the police, but they wouldn´t come for a child that had been gone for only half an hour, no mater how much of a gut feeling that something was disastrously wrong Evelyn had. She had to wait before calling them. And they certainly couldn´t tell them there had been an explosion that left no trace behind, not as much as a burned blade of grass.
They wouldn´t believe her.
Just like nobody believed them when she told them her brother had accidentally created a fire balls with his bare hands when they were children. That he had died because he could make fire out of nothing. They thought she was going crazy.
Evelyn needed to get people to help. She had to find her.
"Fin?" she almost screamed into her mobile.
"Evelyn, what happened?"
"Alice! Alice disappeared."
"What?!How?!"
"Get Doug, get Edith and her husband, get whoever you can find along the way and come to my grandmother´s house. NOW. We have to find her."
"Ok, we´re coming."
…
Ennis general hospital.
Caitlin had just sat down for lunch when Anika popped in.
"Your sister is on the phone. She said it´s an emergency."
…
"You know, if we´re gonna keep on trying to kill each other we should at least be on a first name basis don´t you think?" Virgil taunted as she got up once again. "No? Ok, fine."
Her body slammed against the rocks under the force of his repeated attacks, but she was relentless. Whenever Shafiq was confident he had at least incapacitated her, she got right back up, seemingly feeding off her own fury to keep going. This wasn´t good. He couldn´t afford to have this duel go on any further. They were on an open area, close to a muggle village. He had managed to bring them to a stretch of beach within a safe distance from Doolin, but it was still close enough that sooner or later somebody would notice the firework display going on at the beach and come see what it was. He needed to wrap this up before it got out of hand.
Incapacitate her and make an arrest, he thought. We need information, we need her interrogated. But how if she kept fighting back? Making her stop moving first might help.
"PETRIFICUS TOTALUS!"
The white light of the binding curse hit something...something semitransparent like a fogged up glass wall. All Shafiq heard was a low, resonating thud, like a muffled explosion, before seeing his own curse shatter like a water balloon prickled with a needle.
Then the shock waves came.
…
They had been looking for well over an hour now. Family, neighbours, acquaintances, everybody they could find was out searching the fields. Cillian and Gabriel had decided to drive out of town, search the country, the farms, the Burren. Sophia called the police and threatened them with every circle of hell till they finally sent somebody. Caitlin had arrived in less than half an hour after Evelyn called her, after driving down N85 at full speed like a lunatic.
"How did this happen?" she immediately shrieked at Evelyn the moment her eyes found her at Sophia´s house, talking to a police officer.
"I don´t know! I´m sorry! She was playing in gran´s backyard and then she was gone. There was hole in the fence she must have got out."
"Or somebody got in! It was Sean, it has to be Sean! I swear to God, I´ll kill him with my own hands. Did you call the police?"
"Mam did."
"Perfect." She hissed, marching past her and towards the police officer ready to give him a full description of her ex-husband.
Evelyn was dizzy. Terrified. Deep down she knew Sean had nothing to do with this. It was something else. Something else entirely.
Evelyn knew it was her fault.
Again.
…
Alice had no idea where she was going. She knew they were close to the Burren. She had been there many times but always with an adult. But she kept running. That man must have been a wizard. A good wizard, because he had saved her. And he told her to run, that her family would find her. So she did what he told her to do, even though she was tired and her feet hurt.
Alice reached the road and saw a car coming. It was a blue truck, like the one cousin Cillian drove. The car approached and pulled over, and a large man with red hair and a red beard got out.
Even in the distance Alice knew who that was. She could stop running now.
Cousin Cilian ran across the road and picked her up, giving her a bear hug.
"Your mam is waiting for you back home."
…
Caitlin immediately took Alice to the hospital without as much as allowing anyone near her. A police officer had gone with them to get a statement from both.
Evelyn was exhausted, but she gathered whatever last bit of energy she still had in her aching body and went to Caitlin´s house to stay with Lizzie, who was still confused and scared. Explaining everything to her in a way that wouldn´t twist her three-year old mind and scare her even more had been a delicate task, but eventually Lizzie settled down, ate dinner and watched 'Home Alone' till she fell asleep on the couch. Evelyn had just put her to bed when she heard Caitlin come in with Alice.
She went to the kitchen to do the dishes and set the table again in case they wanted to eat, while Caitlin went upstairs with Alice, to get her to shower and get her to change.
"How is she doing?" she asked when her sister finally got downstairs.
"Fine. She´s got scratched knees and a bruised elbow, but nothing else. They took her statement."
"What happened then?"
"She told them a red-haired witch tried to kidnap her, but she was saved by a wizard. They asked her to describe them, just to get her to calm down, and filed a report but of course they won´t do much about it. They said she probably wandered off and got lost, and now she´s is making up a story so I won´t be mad at her. Worst case scenario it was her father and she´s making it up to protect him, so they´re going to check to see if he has an alibi."
"That´s is not like Alice. She never lies."
"I know. But she had a rough year. Maybe she does believe what she said. Maybe somebody really did try to kidnap her and somebody else really did help, and she just convinced herself they were magical creatures...You know how children are, it´s hard for them to separate reality and imagination sometimes."
"That´s was my problem at her age..."
"Speaking of which...Lyn, we need to talk." her sister crossed her arms, leaning back on the kitchen counter, looking like she hadn´t slept in days. Evelyn felt like a child about to be scolded. And she deserved it.
"I´m sorry." Evelyn said, earnestly "You have no idea how much this is killing me, I should be watching her, I should..."
"It´s ok, Linnie. It´s not your fault. I´ve let her play in the backyard by herself a million times, it could have happened when I was with her. Is not about that I want to talk."
"What, then?"
"Lyn, you need to stop telling her those stories. Reading her those books." Evelyn immediately knew what she was talking about. They had had this conversation before, but she had the feeling it would be much more serious now.
"They´re just fairy tales, Cat."
"No, not when they come from you. She believes everything you tell her. She adores you. Feck, she wants to BE you. You know why she got out? She thought she´d found a fairy tree, and you told her about fairy trees."
"Those are stories our father told us when we were her age, stories grandpa and grandma told him. They´re just that...stories."
"Yes, but now my daughter is sitting upstairs convinced that an evil witch and a good wizard just battled in front of her eyes, and frustrated that nobody believes her. She told me wizards and witches are real because you write books about them."
"But I do write books about them. She´s just too young to understand my books are not about actual witches, but historical witch-trials. How do you expect me to explain the difference to her? She´s about to turn seven."
"Evelyn, on the way back from the hospital she told me she saw a letter from a witchcraft school in your stuff! With Paul´s name on it. Did you show that thing to her?"
"NO! Of course I didn´t. I´m not crazy. She must have found it in my room when I still lived here..."
"So you still have it? Evelyn, one thing is keeping Paul´s pictures, his drawings, his things...But that? That damned piece of paper is not a memory of our brother! It´s a stupid, cruel prank somebody pulled on us to mock his death. Dad almost went mad with grief and humiliation when we got that thing in the mail! And you kept it? Why?"
"I don´t know."
"But you did. You did, and Alice saw it. And now she thinks wizards and witches are real, and there´s a real School of Wizardry and Witchcraft in Great Britain, and that Paul would be a wizard if he was alive..."
"I promise you it was never my intention to..."
"Evelyn you need to let go. Paul is dead. He´s gone. Holding on to everything that can be remotely connected to him won´t bring him back."
"Caitlin, I know you´re upset but it doesn´t give you the right..."
"Yes, it does give me the right! Because your issues are affecting my daughter. You need to get this sorted out."
"You don´t understand..."
"He was my brother too, Evelyn..."
"You don´t even remember him!"
"I was four!"
"Exactly. You were four. You don´t remember him. You don´t remember the days he spent in the hospital with most of his body bandaged, getting skin grafts that hurt as much as the burns. You don´t remember that mam was bedridden for weeks when he died, and we all thought she´d die of sorrow. You don´t remember dad hiding in his office to cry so we wouldn´t see him be anything less than strong for us all. You don´t remember how people looked at me like I was crazy, gossiping behind our parents backs, because I was making up stories to cope. You don´t remember that they sent me to a therapist who gave me anti-depressants at age 10. He was your brother too, but you don´t remember."
"So you can´t let go of the things that were going on in your head back then, and you feel like it´s ok for Alice to do the same? To make up stories to cope? She just put herself in danger..."
"...and it´s my fault."
"I didn´t say that...Evelyn, look...This is difficult for me. I´m trying to raise two little girls on my own with no help from their father. Our father is dead. Our grandfather is dead. Our mother and our grandmother are keeping it together I don´t even know how. And you´re off in England, obssessing about this fantasy you have with grandpa´s mysterious past and running away from your present. Like you always do. But I´m here. And I have to deal with all of this, everyday. I´m not asking you to give up your life, your goals or the things that are important for you, I just want you to please try not to make everything harder on me. Can you just be on my side on this?"
"I see..." Evelyn swalloed hard, trying not cry and to ignore her sister´s tears. "Can I see my niece now? Or you´d rather I..."
"Of course you can see her. Just, please.."
"Don´t fill her head with any of my nonsense. I got it, Cat."
...
Shafiq stared at his own bruised face in the bathroom mirror and groaned in pain and frustration. As he finished writing his latest report, the true dimension of his failure finally hit him. On the one hand Alice was safe back with her family. On the other, Virgil had lost the suspect, and worse, he had no idea how it happened.
All he remembered was that his curse had been blocked by an obstacle then burst back at him. He felt his body be thrown back and lost consciousness almost immediately afterwards. When he finally came to, Shafiq found himself half submerged by the rising tide and the sun was already low in the horizon, deep purples and blues washing away the orange of the sunset.
She was gone.
He didn´t understand. He wasn´t supposed to even be alive. He had a more than passing suspicion that the mysterious witch was none other than Claire Rott herself, and according to Professor Snape she was known among Death Eaters and other underworld Dark Wizards for being an exceedingly aggressive duellist with a manic taste for blood and death. During their confrontation she certainly seemed out of control enough to go for the kill. She would definitely take the chance and finish him while he lay unconscious.
Why didn´t she, then?
How come he was still alive?
….
Evelyn found Alice sitting on the window bench, gaze lost in the night sky outside. Lizzie was fast asleep on the top bunk, and all lights were out except for a little cow-shaped night-light by the door.
"You think I´m lying too." she said quietly, without turning around. Evelyn´s could see the sadness on her little face through the reflection on the darkness of the glass.
"No, I don´t." she sat on the floor facing her niece. The girl turned to her slowly. Her eyes were red, like she had been crying. "I know you never lie."
"Mam thinks I´m lying"
"She doesn´t. She was scared and worried about you. Your mother would never think you´re lying."
"Aunt Lyn, I saw it. It was a witch."
"Alie, listen to me. You need to do something for me, ok? If you ever see anything strange, anything you don´t think people will believe... Tell me."
"I can´t tell mam?"
"We´ll decide together how we tell her."
"That´s lying."
"No, it´s not. Look, Alice, your mother´s been working a lot, and she has a lot to worry about. So we shouldn´t give her more reasons to worry if we don´t have to. From now on, if you see something strange, don´t go after it, if you see someone strange don´t talk to them. Go straight back home and call me. Then I´ll find a way to tell your mam, so she´s not scared anymore. Deal?"
"Deal." Alice went quiet for a moment, before asking, unsure "You really believe me?"
"Of course I do." Evelyn pulled her into her lap, kissing the top of her head "I will always believe you. Always."
…
"I didn´t expect to see you here so soon." Severus grimaced, eyeing the mantel to make sure Lily´s photo was well hidden under the other picture frames. Luckily a few days ago, for some reason, he´d felt compelled to move it to a less prominent position. Maybe for fear of upsetting Evelyn, but he wasn´t truly sure. Now he was thankful he had done that.
Never in his life would he have imagined he´d one day open the door of his Spinner´s End home to Lily´s son. That the Chosen One would be sitting in his living room, out of his own volition. That he´d welcome the son of James Potter into his home and have a cordial chat with him. But nearly one year into this strange new life he had accidentally made for himself following his accidental 'rebirth', Severus had learned that the most unexpected outcome would often turn out to be the most likely one.
"I know it´s soon, but I had to come." Harry offered, less as an explanation and more as an apology.
"Doesn´t surprise me. Our meeting with Shacklebolt left you with more questions than answers, am I right?"
"Yes."
"You want to know about the dagger. Funny how it´s supposed to be a secret and yet we keep adding names to the list of people who know about it."
"Who else?"
"Thus far, the both of us, at least four members of the aurors´ office, the minister and his cabinet, and Draco Malfoy."
"Draco Malfoy?"
"He´s a spy for the Ministry now. In fact not two weeks ago he was sitting exactly where you´re sitting now, while I briefed him on the dagger"
"...why?"
"Why not? Come on, Potter. You were there, you know the Malfoys have amends to make... Let me guess, you don´t trust him."
"I don´t. But there was a time I didn´t trust you and I was wrong. So, maybe I´ll be wrong this time as well."
"Draco is trying to prove himself worthy of the mission the Ministry has given him. He´s trying to rise from the ruin of his family. He´s been successful thus far. He has uncovered very useful information, at the risk of his own life."
"You don´t really care whether I believe Draco´s good intentions or not, though."
"I don´t. But if we´re all on the same side, we should keep each other informed. I don´t wish to pull any last minute surprises on you. I´m not Dumbledore."
"He had his own style of doing things I guess."
"That he did. So, the dagger. Where should I begin..."
…
When Snape was done telling him everything, Harry was almost dizzy. It was worst than he thought. Death Eater´s escaping with foreign help and funds, a possible traitor in the ministry, a hidden dagger that could potentially unleash powerful dark magic being hunted not by one, but many dark wizards...How did it get to that?"
"I know it seems like a lot, but Shacklebolt wants us to focus on the dagger. You must be thinking that the prisoners escapes and leaks are what we should be focusing on, but trust me the dagger not a simple diversion. It´s the axis upon which everything else will converge eventually"
"Because they all want it."
"Exactly."
"Do you think they know where it is?"
"I have no way of knowing that. But whether they do or not, we need to get to it first."
"But we don´t know where it is."
"Not for sure we don´t. But I´ve looked into Salazar Slytherin´s writings. Some of them are still in Hogwarts, sealed away from the general public. After reading some of his studies and journals, I have reason to believe he may have travelled to the Caliphate of Cordoba."
"The what?"
"Ugh, I forget you brats don´t study proper muggle history at school, or proper Wizarding foreign history for that matter. Here´s to hoping Minerva reviews that bloody outdated curriculum."
"While she doesn´t, would you kindly enlighten me?"
"You should have brought Miss Granger along for this, but let´s give it a try. In the VIIIth century the Muslim Dynasty of the Hummayads conquered what´s now Spain and Portugal, or rather most of their territories. The north of the Peninsula remained under Christian and European control. The Hummayads founded the Emirate of Córdoba, which later became the Caliphate of Córdoba under their rule and then passed the rule of several other dynasties that followed through the six-century long Muslim control of Peninsula. It was a complex period of History which I don´t feel particularly compelled to summarise for your benefit, but suffice to say the Caliphate was powerful, rich and many arts and sciences flourished under their political influence. And that wasn´t only for muggles. Wizards had considerable influence in the politics of the Caliphate. Many worked in the court of Granada as astrologers, alchemists and in various other academic areas. Salazar Slytherin maintained correspondence with a number of them, and has cited numerous studies and works by these authors as sources in his own studies of alchemy and dark magic. It´s an educated guess, but I´d start our mission there."
"Ok. So Spain or Portugal. That´s a start but where exactly?"
The incongruous sound of a telephone ringing interrupted him, and Harry wondered why would Snape own such a gadget. It was silly of him of course. This was a muggle house, in a muggle street of a muggle town. A telephone wasn´t at all out of place. As Snape excused himself to pick it up Harry´s eyes wandered curiously about the room idly, looking for something to distract himself.
That was when something sparkly at the foot of the sofa caught his eye. Harry squinted, trying to identofy to the tiny object on the floor. It was a small golden tube. It could be a vial or some other small container, Harry thought, picking it up.
Once he had it in his hand however, Harry realised it wasn´t a potion container. Letting curiosity get the best of him, he opened it.
It was...lipstick?
….
"Sev?" her voice was trembling. Severus glanced over his shoulder to make sure Potter wasn´t paying attention and lowered his voice.
"What happened?"
"I just...I just needed to hear your voice." she was crying? "I just needed to hear you tell me everything is going to be ok."
"Give me a moment."
Severus covered the speaker with his hand and turned to Harry.
"Potter, I need to get this call. Will you kindly show yourself out?"
Severus waited till Potter had collected his surprise and outrage, his faint attempt at a protest effectively killed with a simple stare down from the former potions master. Once his guest was out the door he returned to the phone.
"Tell me what happened, Lyn."
…
When Sophia approached the door to Evelyn´s room, she caught her voice. As much as she disliked listening in, she couldn´t help but catch the end of the conversation.
"...Alice´s birthday is tomorrow, so I´ll leave the day after...Yes, I´m sure... I know, but I don´t think I´m helping any of them...No, my sister is right, I need to sort this out on my own... I will. Love you, too. Good night."
"What is this I hear about you leaving right after Alice´s birthday?" Sophia asked, going in without knocking. Evelyn sighed, seemingly not surprised by the intrusion, or simply too tired to complain about it.
"I need to go home, mam."
"You ARE home."
"I know...I just think it´s probably time I find a home of my own somewhere else."
"Nonsense."
"I can´t keep looking at my past and ignore my future, mam."
"And you´re telling me your future is away from your family?"
"Maybe. I don´t know. I do know that I have to figure it out on my own."
…
January 3rd
Liverpool
Evelyn had left Doolin first thing in the morning, hoping to get to Cokeworth before nightfall.
Angela offered to meet her, but she declined. Spring term was at the door and Evelyn knew her friend had family matters to tend do while she still had some free time. In any case, the drive from Liverpool to Cokeworth would help her relax after over three hours stuck in a ferry.
Just the thought of everything she had to do when she got to Angela´s had her tired before she even drove out of Canana Boulevard. Packing whatever she had left was the first task in the list. She wanted to be back at her Spinner´s End as soon as possible. She had abused her friend´s hospitality enough. Then contact James. She needed to make sure he hadn´t had any issues enrolling in his music lessons. Then came all the school work for the new term. Returning a few days earlier than originally planned at least gave her more time to get to it all. Evelyn was so distracted worrying in advance about everything she almost missed the man in black waving her car down.
"Sev?" she pulled over and opened the window as he leaned by the car door
"I thought you´d enjoy having a welcome committee." he smiled. "So, shall we go home?"
Evelyn didn´t answer. She just reached out of the car to grab his jacket and pulled him down for a kiss.
She was home.
…
